If you have resisted the temptation to upgrade to the iPhone 15 and are eagerly awaiting the new iPhone 16, you may be wondering if your patience will be rewarded

While it's no surprise that each year's iPhone is an improvement over the last, some new generations are considerably more incremental upgrades than others Will this year be one of those years? At first glance, it would seem not, but the iPhone 16 will have more RAM, an additional action button and camera control button, plus access to Apple Intelligence at launch

You can read all over what the new phone has to offer in our iPhone 16 review But if you just need the highlights, here's everything you need to know about the iPhone 16 versus the iPhone 15, including all the biggest upgrades offered this year

The standard iPhone price has remained unchanged at $799 since the iPhone 12 in 2020 (albeit the less expensive $699 54-inch iPhone mini has been phased out in favor of the $899 67-inch Plus) That will remain the case this year, with the 128GB iPhone 16 priced the same as before at $799, while the 256GB and 512GB storage options will increase in price

All iPhone 16s will be available on September 20, while the iPhone 15 is already available In addition, the iPhone 15 has seen a slight price cut iPhone 15 started at $799 when it first launched, but after the iPhone 16 landed, the price dropped to $699 for the 128GB model

There are no major changes to the iPhone 16 display It has the same 61” OLED display and, unfortunately, the refresh rate is fixed at 60 Hz Both models also have the same brightness level, with a peak brightness of 1,600 nits and 2,000 nits outdoors, along with a dynamic island cutout

However, several changes have been made to the design of the phone itself Most notably, an action button has replaced the physical mute switch on the upper left side of the phone This programmable switch can be used to turn the ringtone on and off, but can also be set to do other things, such as activate shortcuts or turn on the flashlight

Also on the back is a new vertical camera layout designed to facilitate spatial audio recording and a camera control button in the lower right corner of the phone This button not only opens the camera and activates the shutter, but also controls various on-screen functions and menus Apple promises that when Visual Intelligence is released, this button will also lead to Visual Intelligence

Both models use a USB-C port for data and charging, but the technical details have not changed from last year

Colors have also changed significantly with the iPhone 16, with more vibrant options Black, white, ultramarine (blue), teal, and pink The iPhone 15, on the other hand, has blue, pink, yellow, green, and black With the exception of the same black, all of these colors look a bit washed out compared to the current model

Since the iPhone 14, Apple has put faster processors in the pro models, while the entry-level iPhones have chips that are a year old They are still some of the fastest phones around, just not as fast as the Pro models

That hasn't changed with the iPhone 16 But instead of using last year's A17 Pro in the iPhone, Apple used the A18 chipset, which is not as powerful as the A18 Pro in the iPhone 16 Pro, but is significantly faster than the A16 Bionic in the iPhone 15

As you can see, the A18 chip completely destroys the A16 Bionic in both single-core and multi-core tests, with scores of 3,301 and 8,033, respectively This is not surprising given that the A16 Bionic is two years older and manufactured on a larger 4nm process; the A18 is newer, at 3nm, with a smaller chip and improved performance and energy efficiency

Apple claims that the A18 CPU is 30% faster than the A16, which seems to be in line with Geekbench figures This gives us confidence in Apple's claim that the GPU is 40% faster and 35% more efficient

All of this means that AAA games previously only playable on the iPhone 15 Pro can now be played on the iPhone 16 This includes hardware-accelerated ray tracking

The iPhone 16 will also enable Apple Intelligence (at launch) by adding 2GB of RAM, bringing the total to 8GB It also supports Wi-Fi 7 for those with access to next-generation wireless routers

As for the cameras, there are no significant hardware changes Both models have a 48 MP main camera lens, a 12 MP ultra-wide camera, and a 12 MP selfie camera on the front

Apple has made some changes to the main camera, renaming it the 48MP “Fusion Camera” However, the main feature allegedly made possible by the Fusion camera is a 2x telephoto zoom effect, also available on the iPhone 15

Of course, if the software changes the end result, it matters little Therefore, it would be necessary to compare iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 photos before making a solid decision on whether the new model is an upgrade or not

It is no secret that the iPhone 16 will come with iOS 18, which is now officially available While the majority of the software is exactly the same, the iPhone 16 will have access to the full suite of Apple Intelligence features, including Visual Intelligence AI vision

While there are many great new features in Apple Intelligence, the AI on the device requires 8GB of RAM to operate properly This means that the iPhone 15 cannot run Apple Intelligence features These include a smarter version of Siri, AI summarization of various apps, AI image generation, and native support for ChatGPT

When iOS 181 actually launches, the iPhone 16 will have a clear advantage No word on when that will be, but a public beta is expected to appear sometime in October

Apple is making grand promises about the iPhone 16's battery life The idea is that the larger and more energy-efficient battery will allow the user to stay away from the charger for much longer But will it succeed on that front? Absolutely

We don't yet know how big the iPhone 16's battery is in milliamp-hours But according to our tests, overall battery life is considerably improved regardless

The iPhone 16 was able to last 12 hours and 43 minutes in tests involving continuous web browsing and screen brightness of 150 nits with a mobile connection Under the same conditions, the iPhone 15 lasted only 11 hours and 5 minutes, better than average but still well behind its successor

Our tests also showed that rumors of a 45W charge for the iPhone 16 may have been exaggerated In fact, we did not measure speeds above 20W, which is the iPhone 15's capability In other words, there was only a slight difference in charging times, with the iPhone 16 recovering 57% of its power in 30 minutes, compared to 53% for the iPhone 15

While the changes coming to the iPhone 16 are not revolutionary (with the possible exception of AI integration), the iPhone 16 upgrades are likely to be solid Especially if you don't like using the touchscreen to control the phone's camera,

the fact that Apple has kept the price unchanged for four years in a row means that the iPhone 16 is in a very strong position Reports indicate that demand for this phone is softer than in previous years, but that may change in the coming months and weeks, especially once Apple Intelligence becomes available to the public