iPhone 16 Pro upgrade: If you have a 3 year-old iPhone, here are all the new features you’ll get

In my iPhone reviews, I attempt to remember that most iPhone upgraders are coming from a telephone that is not less than three years outdated. With that in thoughts, I’ve put collectively an inventory of an important upgrades you will discover in your new iPhone 16 Pro (or Max) in the event you’re coming from the 2021 iPhone Professional or earlier. 

Spoiler: You are in all probability going to be fairly glad.

Additionally: We’ve used every iPhone 16 model and here’s our best buying advice for 2024

What’s it like upgrading from iPhone 13 Professional?

In case you’re coming from an iPhone 13 Professional or earlier then you’re in for lots of serious new capabilities whenever you swap to an iPhone 16 Professional or Professional Max. Here’s a listing of a number of the finest options you may count on in the event you improve.

• Longer battery life for 5 hours hours of further utilization time — in comparison with the iPhone 13 Professional fashions
• Apple Intelligence options will run on this telephone when launched in iOS 18.1 and past 
• Digicam Management for fast digital camera entry and shortly altering settings for photographs and movies
• 5x tetraprism telephoto to get crisp photographs and movies of issues farther away
• 48 megapixel photographs for extra detailed pictures and the power to crop in farther 
• 4K120 video means that you can shoot Hollywood-like cinematic sluggish movement video clips
• USB-C charging with a extra common cable that connects to many different kinds of gadgets
• Wi-Fi 7 connectivity gives you a lot quicker add and obtain speeds when you have a gigabit connection at house and a Wi-Fi 7 router 
• At all times-on show for getting the time and primary data whenever you’re not utilizing the telephone
• Brighter show for higher use outside (2000 nits peak brightness on iPhone 16 Professional versus 1200 nits peak brightness on iPhone 13 Professional)
• Dynamic Island brings a helpful new notification system
• Standby Mode to see helpful widgets when your telephone is docked
• Motion button to get quick entry to your common favourite apps for options
• Motion mode movies for taking pictures clean movies that appear to be drone pictures
• Emergency SOS through satellite tv for pc to contact emergency providers when you do not have a mobile sign
• Crash Detection for alerting emergency providers and your contacts in the event you’re in an accident

View at Apple

My 3 favourite iPhone 16 Professional options

I spent a number of hours with Apple’s new flagship iPhone 16 Professional and iPhone 16 Professional Max on September 9 within the Steve Jobs Theater and shortly fashioned some first impressions. I am additionally now doing extension testing on each the iPhone 16 Professional and iPhone 16 Professional Max for extra in-depth protection on ZDNET.

Additionally: iPhone 16 hands-on: So packed with features, I didn’t envy the Pro models

And whereas the very first thing numerous patrons could discover is the 12 months’s new telephone colour — it is Desert Titanium this 12 months, which is definitely only a shade of gold — the factor that almost all of us barely take note of is the newest advances within the mind that powers the iPhone. It is all the time the case that it unlocks new capabilities, however this 12 months, that feels more true than ever with the brand new A18 Pro. Or not less than it powers my favourite new function — and a bunch of others that show how ridiculously highly effective this system is.

And sure, I am going to give up speaking about chips and get to my three favourite options.

1. Digicam Management 

The brand new Digicam Management permits customers to do extra with the iPhone digital camera and do it shortly. This new key sits on the precise aspect of the telephone beneath the ability button, however it’s made from darker metallic and sits extra flush to the aspect of the telephone. 

It is also touch-sensitive, which is a feat of engineering. One press opens the digital camera app. A second press takes a photograph. Press and maintain and it begins recording video. A light-weight press and a swipe to 1 aspect or the opposite permits you to zoom out and in. A double mild press and a swipe to both aspect lets you choose totally different settings from zoom to depth of discipline to the brand new picture kinds to a number of different choices.

Additionally: iPhone 16 Pro vs. iPhone 15 Pro: Should you upgrade?

If it sounds a bit difficult, it’s not. You may shortly get the grasp of it. I attempted it and it is goes to be tremendous useful for individuals who take a ton of photographs with the iPhone — and let’s be sincere, there are a variety of us as a result of the iPhone is the most used camera in the world. The Digicam Management button provides the iPhone a function no different telephone on the earth has proper now. The Sony Xperia 1 V comes the closest with its devoted shutter button, however it does not do practically as a lot.

Persons are going to like this function.

2. Dimension and end

Each of the professional iPhones received greater screens and thinner bezels this 12 months, which makes them a bit taller than final 12 months’s professional fashions. The Professional expands from 6.1 inches to six.3 and the Max grows from 6.7 inches to six.9. Each ZDNET opinions editor Kerry Wan and I seen it instantly within the iPhone 16 demo space — and we felt glad about it as a result of we each are likely to favor the marginally taller and thinner kind components of most Android devices because it makes them a bit simpler to function with one hand.

Additionally: Apple just gave me a compelling reason to buy the smaller iPhone 16 Pro over the Max this year

Nevertheless, there was one other new bodily attribute of the iPhone 16 Professional fashions that received me simply as excited. The titanium sides have a brand new end that feels far more grippy. In actual fact, it is so grippy that I am tempted to do the unthinkable and take a look at utilizing it and not using a case. I am additionally tempted to make the smaller 6.3-inch iPhone 16 Professional, slightly than the Max, my every day driver — particularly for the reason that smaller professional mannequin now has the identical digital camera system because the bigger one.

3. Upgrades to video and audio recording

The opposite space the place the brand new A18 Professional chip actually exhibits its energy is within the new video and audio recording choices out there within the iPhone 16 Professional. First, now you can report in 4K at 120 frames per second, which supplies you the ability to do the form of tremendous sluggish movement you solely see in large cinematic movies. Even simply a few years in the past, you’ll have wanted an costly pro-level digital camera and a desktop pc with a robust video card to shoot and edit pro-level 4K120 video. Now you are able to do it on an iPhone — and the footage Apple has proven to this point seems just about indistinguishable from professional tools. 

Additionally: Every iPhone model that will be updated to Apple’s iOS 18 (and which ones won’t)

Subsequent, Apple additionally upgraded the audio within the iPhone 16 Professional with what it calls “4 studio-quality mics” which might be paired with software program and AI to do some loopy issues I have never seen on a smartphone earlier than. With the brand new Audio Mix software, now you can edit audio straight on the iPhone 16 Professional, which separates foreground and background sounds and allows you to decide from a number of sound profiles, together with a Studio profile that robotically dampens background sounds and a Cinematic profile that makes it sound like a film edit. 

It might additionally now seize Spatial Audio encompass sound throughout video recording (which you may as well edit in Audio Combine). And the Voice Memos app goes to make use of these upgrades for an replace later this 12 months that may allow you to layer two totally different tracks. These audio options are an important instance of the place Apple is placing AI to make use of in sensible, behind-the-scenes methods which might be going to be much more approachable than typing in a chatbot. 

Extra to come back

Apple known as the brand new A18 Professional chip as highly effective as high-end desktop PCs, which feels like hyperbole, however the above options are convincing sufficient to make me suppose it might be not less than as highly effective as high-end desktops from a few years in the past. We’re working the iPhone 16 fashions by means of benchmarks and placing the telephones by means of some real-world situations to measure and examine the efficiency.

Additionally: Every iPhone 16 model compared: Which new iPhone should you buy?

Apple additionally claims the brand new A18 Professional chip is rather more energy environment friendly and can outcome within the iPhone 16 Pro Max having the longest battery lifetime of any iPhone but. We’ll additionally problem that declare with our personal battery assessments.

The digital camera system upgrades to a 48 megapixel sensor for the ultrawide digital camera, which ought to lead to higher macro photographs and plenty of different enhancements. We’ll be testing that as properly in a brand new set of ZDNET smartphone digital camera assessments. 

The AI options that Apple talked about this summer season at WWDC, together with the newly upgraded Siri, won’t arrive until the iOS 18.1 update — and even then, they’re going to nonetheless be in beta and a number of the options will not come till iOS 18.2 or later. However when the AI options do lastly arrive, Apple’s new flagship supercomputer in your pocket seems like it will have the oomph to run them with out breaking a sweat.