Apple iPhone 16 review

A familiar primary camera with an upgraded ultrawide

The iPhone 16 practically borrows its main camera setup from its iPhone 15 predecessor. It is quite potent - a 48MP sensor with 1/1.56" size, 1.0µm individual pixels and sensor-shift OIS. There is a bright f/1.6 lens in front of it.

The iPhone 16 borrows its selfie from last year's iPhone 15. The 12MP shooter has already proven its salt and is equipped with phase detection autofocus as well.

The real upgrade is with the new ultrawide camera. It is still a 12MP unit. However, this year, there is a brighter lens with an f/2.2 aperture. Plus, probably best of all, there is now phase detection autofocus on the ultrawide, which allows it to double as a macro camera for close-ups.

• Wide (main): 48MP (1/1.56", 1.0µm), f/1.6, 26mm, dual pixel PDAF, sensor-shift OIS; 4K@30fps
• Ultrawide: 12MP, f/2.2, 13mm, 120-degree, dual pixel PDAF; 4K@30fps
• Front camera: 12MP (1/3.6"), f/1.9, 23mm, PDAF; 4K@30fps

A few words on the new Camera Control button. It's an actual physical button with travel, but also integrates a high-precision force sensor that enables the light press gesture, and a capacitive sensor that allows for touch and slide interactions.

When using the Camera control to start the camera, it opens up in the so-called Clean Preview (seen below) where there are no controls on the screen whatsoever. This can be disabled from the Camera settings.

When the iPhone is unlocked, a single click opens the camera, and another press takes a photo. You can press and hold it to record a video for as long as you keep it pressed. You can set it so that a double click opens the camera instead to avoid accidental activations.

When you have the camera app opened, a double light press opens a camera control menu with options, which you can swipe through using the touch sensitive surface on the button. These include Exposure, Depth, Zoom, Cameras, Styles, and Tone.

A single light press would open one of the camera settings of your choice, which, again, you control by swiping left and right on the Camera control.

The button can also be set to open third-party camera apps, which support it.

Camera Control options

You can also set the general Camera control press sensitivity from Lighter to Firmer in the iPhone's accessibility menu. Or while you are there, you can disable the Light press functionality and the entire Camera Control interface.

One new addition to the iPhone 16 camera experience is the setting for Tone - a new angle on the previously present Photographic Styles. This one in particular aims to give you more control over the HDR processing intensity - something that's apparently been causing a stir on the internet.

There are two sets of Photographic styles, labeled Mood and Undertones, and for each style you can tweak the Tone (think of it as contrast or tone curve), Color (saturation), and Palette (sort of like a color filter). The Mood styles have pre-set values for all three parameters (Palette is always at 100), while the Undertone styles only alter Palette.

We appreciate the added layer of customizability in the way an iPhone will render the world around it so that you can personalize the photos you get out of your phone to your own taste. We'd almost be inclined to praise Apple for giving you all those options, though we're also of the opinion that the phone that 'just works' maybe shouldn't have to resort to glorified filters to try and please everyone. Or maybe that's too harsh, and Apple's approach is precisely the correct one.

Daylight photo quality

Main camera

The iPhone 16 captures excellent 12MP stills. There is no question about it. There is plenty of detail in the frame, and everything is clean and sharp. Dynamic range is excellent, and shadows, in particular, are nicely boosted and developed. Foliage and grass look very convincing.

iPhone 16: 12MP main camera samples

On a slightly more subjective note, Apple still prefers to keep things as "natural" as possible, primarily the colors. While we wouldn't go as far as calling them lifeless, the colors are noticeably muted and lack any "pop". On a more positive note, they are quite natural-looking.

As we said, just like last year's models, the iPhone 16 has a 24MP mode for the main camera. It is a bit buried in the main camera app settings menu under formats, and we still wish there was an easy toggle for it in the camera UI. The 24MP mode is quite nice, and it could serve as the default photo setting for many people. It offers noticeably more detail in the shots, and we believe there is at least some value to using it.

iPhone 16: 24MP main camera samples

Apple also has a full-resolution 48MP mode. This one is accessible from the camera UI by pressing the "JPEG Max" toggle. While we wouldn't go out of our way to use the 48MP mode, we were still pleasantly surprised by the results. They are sharp and really detailed.

iPhone 16: 48MP main camera samples

Here are some portrait samples, too. We noticed a slight decrease in sharpness when shooting in the dedicated Portrait mode.

iPhone 16: 12MP main camera portrait samples

2x crop zoom

At 2x digital zoom, photos come out looking very solid, but we wouldn't call them "excellent". There is plenty of detail and practically no noise, even in challenging conditions. The overall rendition is a nearly perfect match to 1x photos, as you would expect.

iPhone 16: 12MP main camera 2x zoom samples

However, there is a noticeable drop in quality compared to 1x shots. Nothing that would render the photos unusable or anything like that, but a bit more than we would have liked to see.

The same goes for 2x Portrait mode shots. These tend to be softer still in the dedicated Portrait mode.

iPhone 16: 12MP main camera 2x zoom portrait samples

Ultrawide camera

Overall, the ultrawide photo quality is solid, and we like the level of captured detail in the frame. There is low noise, and the overall rendition, including colors, contrast and exposure, is well-matched with the main camera.

iPhone 16: 12MP ultrawide camera samples

As for things we find a bit less likable, there is sharpness, which isn't ideal and dynamic range, which is noticeably more limited than the main camera. That being said, both of these deficiencies are expected on an ultrawide and ultrawides are usually the weakest link in the camera setup of a phone, regardless of price. So, we can't complain too much.

This year's new and exciting development is the ultrawide's ability to autofocus and thus double as a macro shooter. It does that job surprisingly well with very clean and detailed close-up shots.

iPhone 16: 12MP ultrawide camera macro samples

Selfie camera

As we have already mentioned, the iPhone 16 borrows its selfie camera from the iPhone 15, and we already know that it is a potent shooter. The level of detail in selfies is excellent, and Apple always exposes the subject's face, even in more challenging conditions, as it should be. The inclusion of autofocus helps keep things sharp and clear.

iPhone 16: 12MP selfie camera samples

Sharpness does suffer a bit when indoors, but that is expected. Colors are also a bit muted, particularly indoors, but that is pretty much in line with expectations.

Low-light camera quality

The iPhone 16 doesn't have a dedicated Night mode that you can select yourself. Apple makes all the decisions automatically through the default photo mode. You will notice that in some particularly challenging lighting scenarios, the phone will take a bit longer to capture a photo. That's how you know that Night mode has kicked in. There is an indication in the camera UI as well.

We noticed that most of the time while shooting with the main camera, the iPhone 16 prefers not to trigger Night mode processing. It kicks in a lot more frequently with the ultrawide camera or while shooting in 2x zoomed mode.

Main camera

Low-light shots from the main camera are very impressive. They are clean, sharp and detailed. Noise is very minimal and yet the pictures don't look overprocessed. Contrast is nice, and darker areas are very well developed without sacrificing detail. Highlights are generally well-handled as well.

iPhone 16: 12MP main camera low-light samples

2x crop zoom

2x zoom shots from the main camera in low light are solid. To our surprise, the overall quality is comparable to the daylight 2x zoom shots. Performance seems to be consistent regardless of the lighting conditions.

iPhone 16: 12MP main camera low-light 2x zoom samples

Ultrawide camera

Ultrawide shots are once again okay but not spectacular. There is plenty of detail in the frame, and the contrast is solid. However, these photos can look a bit grainy at times. We've seen better ultrawide implementations at this price point.

iPhone 16: 12MP ultrawide camera low-light samples

Video capture quality

You can check out the playlist below, which includes multiple video samples.

The iPhone 16 can record 2160p video across all of its cameras. This includes the selfie. Stabilization is also included in all modes. It is always on and can not be turned off. If you want to capture 4K@60fps videos, you must do so in the "high-efficiency" HEVC/h.265 format, which is not supported everywhere for playback. Otherwise, videos get captured in a standard AVC/h.264 video stream at around 45 Mbps. There are two audio tracks recorded - stereo AAC and four-channel APAC. All of this is stored inside a MOV container.

Starting with the main camera, its 4K footage is excellent and pretty fault-free. Detail is great, and so is sharpness, dynamic range is good and wide with good contrast. Color rendition is very accurate. All in all, the iPhone 16 lives up to Apple's reputation for industry-leading video capture.

At 2x zoom, videos still look great. There is a drop in sharpness, as expected, but nothing severe. Noise starts to creep in, but it is perfectly within reason.

4K footage from the ultrawide camera is very likable. Detail is great, and everything looks nice and sharp. Dynamic range is surprisingly wide. Colors are actually a bit more lively than on the main camera, which is kind of surprising.

Selfie camera video is excellent all around. It is very detailed and clean. Skin texture and tones come through nicely.

The low-light footage from both cameras is good, impressive even. The main camera outputs clean, sharp videos with a wide dynamic range and plenty of details, even in the shadows. The ultrawide camera tones down the contrast and introduces some noise, but it's still pretty good. After all, it's an ultrawide camera, so we can't expect much from a low-light video.

Stabilization works great across all cameras. We have no complaints.