Apple iPhone 16 review

Display

The iPhone 16 has the same 6.1-inch Super Retina XDR OLED screen found on the iPhone 15. The reslolution is 2556 x 1179 pixels (or 460ppi, which is the new density for Retina quality according to Apple) and a standard refresh rate of 60Hz. The screen supports HDR10 and Dolby Vision standards.

The iPhone 16 display panel has a pill-shaped cutout called Dynamic Island. It is protected with a second-generation Ceramic Shield.

The display supports various niceties like True Tone adjustments. It is advertised for up to 1,000 nits of maximum brightness and up to 2,000 nits of peak brightness.

We have completed our display measurements, and the numbers are as promised. The display offers 857 nits of maximum manual brightness and 1,708 nits of maximum automatic brightness, which is quite good but about the same as last year's iPhone 15.

The minimum brightness at point white was just 1 nit!

The screen on the iPhone 16 has a standard refresh rate of 60Hz. It is not an LTPO panel and does not support always-on display like the Pro models.

It does support HDR10 and Dolby Vision. Apple does its HDR video playback in a very flexible way since it's not necessary for the content to be displayed fullscreen for HDR to work. It can just work on the portion of the display that has the video playing.

Battery life

The iPhone 16 has a 3,500 mAh battery. Specifically, it is rated at exactly 3,561 mAh. The battery is slightly bigger than last year's iPhone 15. It's a slight increase, but we'll take it.

In typical Apple fashion, the iPhone 16 managed a great Active Use Score. Considering its size, that is. You won't be disappointed.

Charging speed

The iPhone 16 supports fast wired charging, though Apple never reveals the maximum power rating. The company quotes 50% charge in 30 mins with a compatible 20W charger.

Some initial rumors suggested the iPhone 16 series would support 45W wired charging, but that came out false. In our testing, the iPhone 16 maxes out at around 30W.

There is also support for fast wireless charging for up to 25W via the new MagSafe charger when plugged into a 30W+ power adapter. If you have a compatible Qi2 charger, then the iPhone 16 will max out at 15W.

We carried out our test with a 45W PD charger just in case. We clocked 33% of charge in 15 mins and 59% of charge in 30 mins. An hour on that charger refilled 85% of the battery.

In typical Apple fashion, the last 15% take forever to recharge, even with the Optimized Battery Charging turned off. The last 15% took about 42mins, and the iPhone 16 reached 100% charge for 1 hour and 42 minutes.

Apple iOS 18 supports the Battery Health option, which should prolong its lifespan even more - you can set the charge limit between 80% and 100%. You can also see the cycle count and battery health in the battery settings.

Reverse wired charging is available on the iPhone 16. It usually maxes out at about 5W.

Speakers

The Apple iPhone 16 has a hybrid stereo speaker setup, with the earpiece being one of the speakers. The other speaker is at the bottom of the phone, next to the USB-C port.

Both speakers sound incredibly well in real life with deep and balanced audio.

The iPhone 16 scored a Very Good mark on our speaker loudness test, and it offered excellent quality with balanced audio and rich output across the board.

Use the Playback controls to listen to the phone sample recordings (best use headphones). We measure the average loudness of the speakers in LUFS. A lower absolute value means a louder sound. A look at the frequency response chart will tell you how far off the ideal "0db" flat line is the reproduction of the bass, treble, and mid frequencies. You can add more phones to compare how they differ. The scores and ratings are not comparable with our older loudspeaker test. Learn more about how we test here.