Apple’s regular-sized iPhone “Pro” model got a pretty nice upgrade this year. Both of the Pro models are now larger, sporting 6.3- and 6.9-inch displays. This is partly due to the thinner bezels, but also due to the fact that the phones are about 1mm wider in every measurement. It’s larger this year, but enough to really complain about. Hopefully this doesn’t become a yearly thing with Apple. As many people prefer these smaller phones, while still having flagship features.

The one thing that really got me excited for the iPhone 16 Pro this year was, adding the 5x telephoto camera to the smaller Pro. Last year, that new sensor was only available on the iPhone 15 Pro Max, forcing me to use a giant phone just to have a 5x telephoto camera.

The iPhone 16 Pro series looks more like its predecessor than the iPhone 16 series does, and that’s okay. I don’t think smartphone makers need to do major redesigns every year. Most people are not upgrading their phones every year, every two years, hell not even every three years. Not to mention the fact that these designs are iconic for these companies. That’s why you’ll likely never see a huge redesign from Samsung, Google or Apple with their phones. These design elements are what makes their phones stand out.

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Review: Design

Compared to last year’s iPhone 15 Pro design, the iPhone 16 Pro does make a few changes. The sides are not a bit more shiny then last year, despite still being titanium. And that’s perfectly fine. They still don’t show fingerprints at all, which was a major complaint with the stainless steel on the iPhone 14 Pro and earlier.

As mentioned already, perhaps the biggest design change you’ll notice is the size. The iPhone 16 Pro now measures in at 149.6 x 71.5 x 8.3mm, compared to 146.6 x 70.6 x 8.3mm on the iPhone 15 Pro last year. It also gained back most of the weight it lost by adding titanium – now 199g. The iPhone 15 Pro was 187g and the iPhone 14 Pro was 206g.

Despite gaining a few millimeters in width and height, the iPhone 16 Pro is still pretty comfortable to hold. For those of us who want a smaller phone, this is a pretty big deal. If I wanted a bigger phone, I’d use a foldable like the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold or the OnePlus Open.

The design is familiar, and that’s not a bad thing. As the saying goes, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Review: Display

This year, the iPhone 16 Pro models did get larger displays, going from 6.1 to 6.3-inches on the iPhone 16 Pro. And 6.7 to 6.9-inches on the iPhone 16 Pro Max. Making these the largest displays ever used by Apple. Part of this was done by enlarging the phone physically, and also by slimming down the bezels. Part of the reason for enlarging both phones this year, was to add in larger camera sensors into the phone. Part of the reason why the iPhone 15 Pro did not get the 5x telephoto last year, was due to the size of the actual phone. There just wasn’t room for the tetraprism sensor. Now, there is.

Both displays still sport 460 pixels per inch, as does the non-Pro iPhone 16 models. However, the Pro’s still are the only ones to use ProMotion – Apple’s marketing term for 120Hz. It’s adaptive 120Hz, so it does go all the way down to 1Hz. But let’s talk about this for a minute. Apple is still selling the iPhone 16 with a 60Hz display, which yes is bad, but we don’t hear complaints about this on other non-Pro Apple products. The non-Pro Macs are all 60Hz, the non-Pro iPads are also all 60Hz. Apple has designated 120Hz as a “Pro” feature by calling it “ProMotion”, and therefore we likely won’t see that come to other models that aren’t “Pro”. Though there are rumors of the iPhone 17 getting a 90Hz display, so it’ll be interesting to see how Apple markets that.

The display on the iPhone 16 Pro is simply incredible. It’s bright, the colors are insanely accurate, and it’s also pretty fast, thanks to ProMotion. Some users have complained about the touchscreen not registering touches. However, that only happened to me when I had a screen protector on. So it is a problem, but I do believe Apple can fix this with a software update – and iOS 18.1 is coming very soon.

Apple claims 1,000 nits of typical brightness here and up to 2,000 nits of peak brightness. That is actually about the same as the iPhone 15 Pro from last year, which I had no complaints about brightness with. And so far, the brightness on iPhone 16 Pro has been as advertised. Shortly after picking up my unit from the Apple Store, I had to head to New York City for a Samsung event (where they announced the Galaxy S24 FE) and was using the phone outdoors quite a bit. I had no issues seeing the display, and it wasn’t even at max brightness.

Additionally, this year, the iPhone 16 Pro can get darker than ever, down to just 1nit. That’s really good news for those that like to use their phones at night in bed, and don’t want to wake their partner.

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Review: Performance

Inside the iPhone 16 Pro is the new A18 Pro chipset. This is another 3nm chipset with clock speeds that go up to 4.05GHz – which is insane on a smartphone, but the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 is set to be even faster. It also includes 8GB of RAM across all storage models with NVMe storage.

In everyday usage, the A18 Pro seemed to be fast enough. It never really lagged behind on whatever I was doing. From checking Twitter and email to playing games and even using GPS while doing Facetime. Perhaps more important is the fact that it did stay nice and cool. Something that we couldn’t say about the iPhone 15 Pro (Max) last year, unfortunately. Apple did spend a good amount of time talking about the larger vapor chamber in the iPhone 16 Pro series this year, so this should come as no surprise.

Benchmarks

As we do with every smartphone and tablet that comes across our desk to review, we ran a few benchmarks on the iPhone 16 Pro to see how it compares to the competition. This includes Geekbench 6, 3D Mark Wildlife Extreme Stress Test and a video export test.

With Geekbench 6, it tests the raw performance of the CPU and GPU on the phone. This is a good way to see just how powerful the processor and GPU actually are. For the iPhone 16 Pro, it hit a 2,981 single-core score, 7,939 multi-core score, and 32,846 in the GPU test. That’s only marginally better than the A17 Pro in the iPhone 15 Pro series from last year. However, when we compared this to the Google Pixel 9 Pro XL and the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, it’s significantly faster, especially in the GPU test. The iPhone 16 Pro is nearly 3x higher than the Galaxy S24 Ultra in graphics.

Next up, we ran the 3D Mark Wildlife Extreme Stress Test. This benchmark is set to push the phone to its absolute limit. Typically, this will also be the highest temperature the phone ever gets too, but on thermals in a bit. This benchmark will run a loop of a 60-second benchmark about 20x, provide us with the best loop score, the lowest loop score and from there a stability score.

So with this test, the iPhone 16 Pro scored pretty well, with the highest “Lowest Loop” score, though its “Best Loop was a bit lower (about 10% lower) than what the Galaxy S24 Ultra put out. However, its stability was higher at 67.7%, whereas the Galaxy S24 Ultra’s stability was around 51%.

Finally, we do a video export test using Capcut. This is a pretty popular video editing app that is also very robust. What we do is import the same 60-second video on every phone, and then record how long it takes to export. The iPhone 16 Pro had a time of 5.11 seconds, which is actually the fastest we’ve ever tested. Even edging out the RedMagic 9 Pro at 5.2 seconds. Comparing it to its predecessor, the iPhone 15 Pro Max, the time is a little more than twice as fast, which is a good change year-over-year.

Thermals

Moving onto thermals, there are three tests that we perform here. That’s 3D Mark Wildlife Extreme Stress Test, an hour of Genshin Impact at max settings, and then recording 4K60 video for 5 minutes and 10 minutes.

First up is the 3D Mark Wildlife Extreme Stress Test, which is typically the highest temperature we will ever see. The iPhone 16 Pro hit a temperature of 108 degrees Fahrenheit. That is higher than the Galaxy S24 Ultra by about 3.5 degrees, it is lower than the iPhone 15 Pro Max which shows that the vapor chamber is doing its job this year. It’s also much lower than the Google Pixel 9 Pro XL.

Next up is Genshin Impact. We play this for an hour at max settings and max brightness, to try and get it as hot as possible. On this test, it measured in at 95.8 degrees Fahrenheit, which is actually very low. Again, showing off that vapor chamber.

Finally, we record video at 4K60 for 10 minutes, measuring the temperature at 5 minutes and again at 10 minutes. We don’t test at 4K120 because not every phone is able to record at that setting, and we want these to be as similar as possible. At 5 minutes, the iPhone 16 Pro was at 89 degrees Fahrenheit, and 93.7 degrees at 10 minutes. That is lower than the Galaxy S24 Ultra, by quite a bit, but it is higher than the iPhone 15 Pro Max. I’d be willing to bet that the larger area of the iPhone 15 Pro Max allowed it to dissipate heat easier.

All in all, I’d say thermals are pretty good on this phone. Much improved over the iPhone 15 Pro series from last year, and right up there with some of the best in the Android space.

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Review: Battery Life and Charging

One of the biggest reasons to upgrade your iPhone is going to be the battery life. And I can say that battery life has improved this year, compared to the iPhone 15 Pro series. Over the last 10 days, I’ve been averaging over 7 hours of screen time, though that is not the end all be all for battery life. Since I’ve been traveling over the past week, some days show more than 100% of the battery being used. Typically on days that I used less than 100%, it was over 6 hours of screen on time.

That might not sound all that impressive, but it is similar to what my iPhone 15 Pro Max was getting last year. So to get the same battery life on the iPhone 16 Pro this year is pretty impressive. It has also started to get better and better, so I could see this lasting 7-8 hours of screen time per day in a couple of weeks.

When it comes to charging, it does charge faster this year. This is thanks to the iPhone 16 series supporting up to 45W charging speeds, but it’s important to note that it rarely ever hits 45W. Typically only when its low on charge and you’re using it at the same time. Apple did also up the wireless charging speed to 25W with a new MagSafe wireless charger – which we do not have, so we could not test that.

For me, I mostly charge at night, or stick it on a MagSafe charger in the car while I’m driving and using wireless CarPlay. So the charging speeds aren’t that big of a deal for me. But faster is always nice to see.

Benchmarks

Like we do with performance, we also do benchmarks for battery life and charging. For battery life, we charge up to 100% and let it sit plugged in for at least an hour after it hits 100% to ensure it is fully at 100% charge. Then start up a YouTube video that is about 24 hours long and play it at max brightness until the battery dies. We’ve only had one phone last longer than that video.

In this test, the iPhone 16 Pro lasted for 20 hours and 48 minutes. That’s 45 minutes less than the iPhone 15 Pro Max, which is impressive. Considering Apple touts that the difference between the pro and pro max are about 4 hours on video. So the iPhone 16 Pro Max should have really great battery life.

On the charging side, we plug it in right after this battery life test is done, using the included charging brick or one that will give us the max charging speed to make things fair. For the iPhone 16 Pro, we got a time of 1 hour and 34 minutes (technically 1:33:57 but we’re rounding up, here). That’s 12 minutes faster than the iPhone 15 Pro Max from last year. So it doesn’t sound as impressive since we’re comparing the Pro Max to the Pro here. That’s still pretty slow, and one of the slowest we’ve ever tested – the Sony Xperia 1V Is still the slowest at just under 2 hours!

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Review: Software

Here’s where the problems with the iPhone 16 Pro come into play, software. Typically a strong suite for Apple, not to so much in letting you do whatever you want, but providing you with a stable experience usually. But this year, many of the features that Apple are advertising, are not available until at least October. Yes, we’re talking Apple Intelligence.

At WWDC this past Summer, where Apple introduces the new version of each platform, they spent a good amount of time talking about Apple Intelligence, which is their suite of AI features. However, they are not available until iOS 18.1 which will launch in October at some point. But not all of them will come in iOS 18.1 and if you’re in Europe, forget about it. And this makes many of the iPhone 16 ads, false advertising to a lot of people.

Obviously, we can’t comment on the Apple Intelligence features just yet, since we don’t review betas – like most publications. We will update this review once Apple Intelligence is out, however.

That said, iOS 18 did bring quite a few changes, of course, the bigger ones being the changes to the home screen. Now you can move your icons anywhere you want on the screen, you know like Android has been able to do for well over a decade. Apple also added the ability to adapt your icons to dark mode and work with your phone when it’s in dark mode versus light mode. Finally, there’s app tinting, which is probably the feature everyone hates, including myself. It just doesn’t look great for most icons.

iOS 18 is a pretty good update, especially since it does bring RCS to the iPhone, as well as a few more features for iMessage. And we can’t forget the changes to control center. Now with Control Center, you are able to create multiple pages (seemingly unlimited pages) for your controls. Moving them around as much as you want, making them larger and smaller, and so much more. It’s a welcome change, but perhaps it went a little too far. Having a page for controls, another for home controls and then media controls is likely enough for most people, and even too much for some.

As I said, there’s much more coming to the iPhone 16 series in terms of software, but it’s also important to remember that you should never buy a product based on the promise of what’s coming. You should buy it based on what it is today.

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Review: Camera

The iPhone camera has always been pretty impressive, and this year, the iPhone 16 Pro camera gets even better. Now that the new tetraprism 5x telephoto camera is available on the smaller pro model. Apple also upgraded the ultrawide to a 48-megapixel sensor, making it better for macro shots, versus the old 12MP camera.

Apple has also added 4K120 video recording. Yes, it’s not new to smartphones, but it is new to iPhone. And when you record at 4K120, you can later go in and slow it down after the fact, to get slow-motion in your video. Having said that, 4K120 does chew up a lot of storage, we’re looking at 800MB per minute of video. Whereas 4K60 is 440MB for a minute, and 1080p120 is 190MB per minute. So if you are looking to do a lot of 4K120 video, it’s a good idea to get a higher storage capacity, or invest in a good portable SSD, as you can still record to an external SSD.

Lets start off with Macro. The change to a 48-megapixel ultrawide sensor really helped the macro portion of this phone, and it’s a big deal. The macro shots I’ve taken with the iPhone 16 Pro are vastly improved over the iPhone 15 Pro Max. This is because of the added resolution. Remember with macro, you’re also much closer to the object and blocking out a lot of light. Below, you can see some macro shots I’ve taken over the past week and a half.

Moving onto to night photography, it also does a great job here. In New York City, there’s currently an art installation of elephants made of bamboo, which made for a great night photography test for the new iPhone. Despite there being some light around the elephants, the iPhone 16 Pro was able to produce some great pictures while also making it look like it was at night (because it was). Compared to the Pixel 9 series, which makes night look like day time.

Then there’s 5x telephoto. The images from the 5x telephoto look great, though I would really like to see this camera get moved to a 48-megapixel sensor too. Because in some lighting conditions, the 5x optical zoom does really start to fall apart.

Finally, here are some photos taken with the regular main sensor on the iPhone 16 Pro.

The cameras on the iPhone 16 Pro are exactly what you expect, great. Especially when it comes to video. And that’s why the iPhone is such a popular camera these days, as it’s much easier to carry an iPhone versus and entire DSLR or mirrorless camera.

Should you buy the Apple iPhone 16 Pro?

Now, for the verdict. Should you buy the iPhone 16 Pro (Max)? That really depends on what you’re looking for out of a phone and what phone you are currently using. If you’re on an iPhone 14 Pro or older, I’d say it’s a good upgrade. But if you’re on an iPhone 15 Pro, then it’s not really worth upgrading to the iPhone 16 Pro (even though I did).

If you’re an Android user thinking about switching to the iPhone to see what the hype is about, the iPhone 16 Pro is a really great option to check out iPhone for the first time. It’s their best iPhone they’ve ever made, because of course it is. It’s very solid for the price. And in some cases, cheaper than some Android flagships these days.

You should buy the Apple iPhone 16 Pro if:

• You want a smaller, flagship phone.
• You want a 5x telephoto on a smaller phone.
• You want good battery life.

You should not buy the Apple iPhone 16 Pro if:

• You want a larger screen.
• You want the best battery life in an iPhone.

The first of two Sea of Stars content updates for the next year has an official release date. The free Dawn of Equinox, which adds a co-op mode, new combat and other features, arrives on November 12 on all platforms.

Announced in March, Dawn of Equinox adds new game modes and mechanics for our favorite lunar-solar heroes, Valere and Zale. It includes a new local co-op mode that lets you and up to two friends play the entire game together. Each player has independent movement when traversing the world (as long as you stay within the screen’s confines), and there’s a new co-op Timed Hits feature that turns one of the core game’s mechanics into a group effort.

The update also includes Combat 2.0, which adds some fun wrinkles to Sea of Stars’ battles. Mystery Locks adds a new challenge to unlock enemies’ spells the first time you face them. (A corresponding “Reveal” action will appear in some of your party’s special skills.) Combo points also remain after battles, which should open the door to some epic beat-downs on your opening moves in subsequent standoffs. In addition, developer Sabotage Studio says it’s put effort into rebalancing the entire game to reflect the new mechanics and incorporate player feedback.

Other changes include a more action-oriented prologue that ditches the old flashback structure, a bonus cinematic and a relic (game mode) designed for speedrunners. There will also be three difficulty options when starting the game. Finally, it enhances the game’s secret-tracking parrot and adds a French Canadian translation, “for Quebec’s finest Solstice Warriors.”

The new features in Dawn of Equinox will also apply in the upcoming Throes of the Watchmaker DLC. That content will add an all-new storyline next spring in what Sabotage Studio describes as “an encore to Sea of Stars’ original adventure” (perhaps before a full-fledged sequel?). The DLC will send Valere and Zale into a “magical miniature clockwork world threatened by a cursed carnival,” forcing the heroes to adapt their sun and moon magic to the mysterious environment.

Sea of Stars was one of 2023’s biggest surprises, garnering grassroots praise and taking home the hardware for Best Indie Game at last year’s Game Awards. Engadget’s Lawrence Bonk praised the game’s Chrono Trigger vibes earlier this year, calling out its gorgeous pixel art and an overworld map that pays proper tribute to its ’90s RPG inspirations.

Sea of Stars is available now on all major platforms: PC, Switch, PS5/4, Xbox One Series X/S and Xbox One (including on Game Pass). The full game costs $35, and both big upcoming content updates will be added for free.

This article contains affiliate links; if you click such a link and make a purchase, we may earn a commission.

It’s been quite the year for gaming industry exec Pany Haritatos. 

Last month, he quietly closed an oversubscribed $28 million Series A for his new game studio startup Series Entertainment, according to an SEC document and confirmation from the company. Investors include Netflix, Dell Technologies Capital, with follow-on investments from seed investors Andreessen Horowitz, BITKRAFT, and F4 Fund. This comes after launching the company only a year ago with a healthy $7.9 million seed led by a16z. 

In between, he’s already made an acquisition. Series bought mobile game studio Pixelberry in July, best known for its interactive fiction game Choices: Stories You Play.

Series, also known in the industry as Series AI, is on a mission to create video games using LLMs and GenAI. But more than that, it’s gunning to be the new Unity, powering legions of game developers. Haritatos and team have created the Rho Engine, which uses GenAI to help game developers build games speedily.

One can be skeptical that LLMs will really be the panacea to humanity that its loudest proponents claim. But gaming is definitely one of the areas that AI is glowing up. 

Instead of designing everything from characters to elixir bottles, game developers can have AI step in to do that work and to make games more interactive than ever. NPCs can turn into rich, fully developed characters that, for instance, haggle with the gamer. Players can be given vast, perhaps unlimited, capacities for customization. And so on.

But to do all that, developers need AI-enhanced game engines. Series bills Rho as the first AI-native, multimodal full-stack game creation platform – meaning it handles visuals and audio. To be fair, there are other AI gaming engine competitors out there including, for instance, Modi.ai Engine, and Unity’s Muse Chat. But Rho says it sits in a different spot. Modi.ai performs tasks like bug catching, or identifying reasons why the games are crashing. Series views Muse Chat as more of an AI assistant. Rho, the company says, is intended for full-stack game development.  

A16z investors Joshua Lu and Andrew Chen were so excited to land the seed deal a year ago with Haritatos that they penned a blog post calling Series, “a game studio and technology company that is reinventing the future of game development with generative AI.” 

Part of what excited these investors was Haritatos himself. He has decades in game development and a knack of being on the cutting edge at just the right time. When Adobe’s Flash player emerged in the late 1990’s as a multimedia tech, he built his first studio making browser games and sold it to Zynga. Then he built a mobile game studio and sold it to Kongregate – a site that rose during the Flash games era. Haritatos later became CEO of Kongregate (eventually selling the company to Swedish gaming studio MTG). In 2020, he was hired to lead Snap’s games group, developing augmented reality and embedded games.

Those chops are why his investors are all big names in gaming. In addition to nabbing backing from a16z’s game-specific fund, Series landed BITKRAFT. This is a firm founded by eSports pioneer Jens Hilgers who cofounded ESL and G2 Esports, and is one of the most active game investors. Ditto for F4 Fund, a firm run by David Kaye and Joakim Achrén, two game makers who have built and sold multiple studios apiece and now invest.

Series has grown from 17 employees at the start of 2024 to over 100 now, the company says, with the team coming from companies like Zynga, Machine Zone, Google, and Snap. 

While Haritatos declined an interview after TechCrunch discovered the Series A raise, his people sent an emailed statement from him that praised his investors and said, “We are thrilled that we raised a very successful $28 million Series A during a tough year for funding.”

Pitchbook estimates the Series A was for about 15% of the company, giving Series a $190 million post-money valuation. The company declined comment on the accuracy of that number.