Apple’s annual iPhone launch event brought us the new lineup of iPhone 16 models – including the iPhone 16 Pro, Pro Max, and Plus – along with a number of complementary products: the Apple Watch Series 10 and AirPods updates.
As with most phones, many of the new features are being introduced with iOS 18, which has been available in beta for some time now, so there aren’t many surprises here. The same goes for the new features being introduced in the watches by WatchOSalso introduced at The WWDC in June.
Want to pre-order the latest Apple devices? We summarize the best launch deals for the iPhone 16, Apple Watch Series 10 and AirPods 4.
Check this out: Check out everything announced at Apple’s iPhone 16 event
While battery life is the most important thing on both the Apple Watch and the iPhone, we haven’t heard much about it. The iPhone is getting some eye-catching new colors, though, including bright pink, bright blue, and bright pastel green (ultramarine). And a big hit seems to be the Apple Watch’s sleep apnea monitoring and notifications.
The big new software features driven by Apple’s new Apple Intelligence won’t all be available at once, nor will they be available when the hardware launches.
For more minute-by-minute details, check out our archive of CNET’s iPhone 16 event live blogs.
iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus come in bright new colors
The first iPhones were “designed from the ground up for Apple Intelligence,” which was summarized at length. (Despite people’s relatively low interest in AI features.) And all that was said about the battery was that it was bigger and there were optimizations.
Check this out: Apple’s iPhone 16 gets a camera control button
New colors: ultramarine, teal, and pink. It’s water and dust resistant and overall more durable. Screen brightness goes up to 2,000 nits and down to 1 nit. You now have the customizable action button as well as a dedicated camera control button for touch control. Camera control will allow you to do a Google Lens-like click to get information about what the camera is looking at later this year with the branded Visual Intelligence.
There’s now a 48-megapixel main camera that can take a 24-megapixel photo after pixel binning and a 2x telephoto lens via sensor crop. A new 12-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera with 13mm focal length has autofocus and better light sensitivity, as well as macro support. The new side-by-side camera design now lets you take spatial photos and videos.
Inside is the A18 chip with the 16-core Neural Engine, two P-cores and four E-cores in the CPU and a 5-core GPU, plus more memory bandwidth; to accommodate all of that, it uses second-generation 3-nanometer technology. Apple says the device uses less power overall. AI features will roll out in beta next month. For gaming, there’s a new thermal design and support for ray tracing – plus a new mobile game, Honor of Kings World, is coming next year.
They start at $799 (£799, AU$1,399) and $899 (£899, AU$1,599) and are available for pre-order now.
iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max expand Pro video
At 6.3 inches for the Pro and 6.9 inches for the Pro Max, the new flagship iPhones are sturdier than the aluminum iPhone 16 (they’re made of titanium) and feature a new texture. There are also new colors: darker black, lighter silver, rose gold pink, and silver. It dissipates heat better, has a larger battery, and better performance optimization.
Building on the features of the lower-end models, these run on a new A18 Pro chip that enables features only those iPhones have. In addition to the technology of the A18, it has larger caches and the new advanced display engine for faster encoding/decoding and more. The camera controls for these models have a two-stage shutter for things like exposure lock.
Check this out: Apple iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max get 4K 120 FPS video
They feature a new 48-megapixel camera with faster sensor readout. They also include a 12-megapixel 5x telephoto lens with pixel-precise focusing. For video, there’s now 4K slow motion at 120 frames per second, more professional color correction controls and HDR editing, selectable speed preview playback, grid frames with camera control button, and more.
The new quad microphones offer better recording quality and feature spatial audio recording. Audio Mix separates the vocals from all other voices and allows separate overlay.
Apple’s own MagSafe cases support Qi 2 and of course the camera control button. Wireless charging is faster.
The iPhone 16 Pro starts at $999 (£999, AU$1,799) and the iPhone 16 Pro Max starts at $1,199 (£1,199, AU$2,149). Pre-orders start Friday.
Apple Watch Series 10 and Watch Ultra 2: Only one gets a redesign
The watch has been completely redesigned, with a larger display and a thinner profile (7mm). It’s taller than the Ultra, with room for an extra line of text. A wider aspect ratio and rounded corners, and a wider-angle OLED display; it’s brighter when viewed from a different angle and more power efficient, but can still update a second hand once per second. Flux is the new watch face designed for a larger display. New colors include jet black, rose gold, and silver.
The speaker system is smaller. It is more water resistant and charges faster (80% battery charge in 30 minutes).
Titanium is being added to the product range as a new CO2-neutral variant, replacing stainless steel, making it lighter and available in natural, gold and slate grey with a matching strap and dial.
Check this out: Apple introduces Apple Watch Series 10
Inside is a new S10 chip with a quad-core neural chiplet to accelerate all the AI-driven features such as sound enhancement and fall detection, real-time translation and health features. The latter include Sleep apnea Tracking; a new sensor that monitors sleep disturbances and provides notifications. It is pending approval from the US Food and Drug Administration – “very soon”. Notifications will also be available on the Series 9 and Ultra 2. There are also new snorkel updates and new straps from Nike and Hermes.
Check this out: New black Apple Watch Ultra 2 introduced
Starting price is $399 (£399, AU$649) or $499 with cellular, with pre-orders starting today and shipping on September 20.
The Ultra mainly gets the WatchOS updates, but there’s also a new color: Satin Black with matching straps made of corrosion-resistant titanium. The watch is more durable and scratch-resistant. Pre-orders are available starting today and the watch will ship on September 20th.
Apple AirPods 4, Max and Pro 2: Better sound and more
The design has been refined to include a new acoustic architecture and spatial audio support. It also introduces the H2 chip and supports head gestures. The new charging case has a USB-C port. Improved microphones, computer audio and more also provide active noise cancellation, and the case has wireless charging capability.
Check this out: Apple announces AirPods 4 and new AirPods Max
They start at $129 (£129, AU$219) for the base model and $179 (£179, AU$299) for the noise-cancelling models.
AirPods Max come in new colors and get USB-C support, but the price remains the same at $549 (£549, AU$899).
The AirPods Pro 2 get new earplugs and Hearing protection, tests and help functions. The latter is a “professional level” hearing aid function. The hearing aid and hearing test will be available later this year. Pre-orders start today.
