The 2024 generation of Pro iPhones brings mostly minor changes – refinement and fine-tuning. That includes an even wider range of camera capabilities, a new button (possibly in the camera category, but also kind of its own thing), design tweaks, a tiny bit larger display, a small battery capacity increase. But the 16 Pro in particular can almost claim to have introduced a more principal hardware upgrade – the 5x telephoto camera of the Maxes replaces the 3x unit of the 15 Pro.
So if you had to choose now, should you be getting the new 16 Pro, or maybe save a buck and track down the last stock of the iPhone 15 Pro? Let’s find out how they stack up.
Table of Contents:
For starters, you can compare the complete specs sheets or directly continue with our editor’s assessment in the following text.
Size comparison
Both sizes of Pros have gotten a little larger this year, and the 16 Pro has grown by about 3mm in height and a millimeter in width. It’s always been questionable calling the non-Max ‘compact’, and with this year’s size increase, small as it may be, the phone isn’t exactly setting the standard for pocketability. The nearly 200-gram weight isn’t helping either.
The point we’re trying to make is that the lineup is deviating from the concept of compactness and if that’s what you’re after, perhaps the 15 Pro remains a better choice. Not that it’s ‘small’, strictly speaking, it’s just that the 16 Pro is even larger and heavier. Of course, the whole thing about iPhones’ heft leaving a feeling of premium density is still arguably true, but feelings are subjective and weight and dimensions are absolute.
The two phones share more or less the same build, with titanium replacing aluminum for the frame last year and the new 16 Pro adopting it too.
The new model does feature a next generation Ceramic Shield display glass, so it just might be that extra bit more durable against scratches and shattering.
Either way, you’ll be getting Apple’s overachieving take on the IP68 rating – up to 30 minutes down to as deep as 6m underwater (the standard requires 1.5m).
The two models share 3 of the 4 colorways and you might be saddened to not be able to get a Blue Titanium 16 Pro – you’ll have to look back to the 15 Pro for that, the new generation having substituted it with ‘Desert’ Titanium.
Display comparison
One of the more obvious specs changes on the 16 Pro is the display size – 6.3 inches in diagonal vs. the 15 Pro’s 6.1 inches. It’s a small 5-ish percent increase in area (depending on if and how you account for the rounded corners and the front camera pill) so it’s not a dramatic change, and it’s probably a bit more noticeable how the bezels have been slimmed down.
Other than that, the display experience remains largely unchanged. Brightness maxes out at around 1,800nits in auto, while the 900nits vs. 845nits (16 Pro vs. 15 Pro) we’ve measured in manual mode is not a difference you’ll notice. The Super Retina 460ppi density is maintained, the 120Hz ProMotion feels nice and smooth, the HDR implementation is also among the best ones.
Battery life
The iPhone 16 Pro is powered by a 3,582mAh battery – the almost 10% increase over the 15 Pro’s capacity being the biggest year on year upgrade among the iPhone 16s. In our testing, it did not result in battery life improvements across the board – video playback and gaming test results were essentially the same. That said, we did get notable increases in web browsing and call times – perhaps not big enough to make a big deal out of it, but a welcome development nonetheless.
Charging speed
We’re not exactly fans of Apple’s approach to charging and if speedy last-minute top-ups are your thing, perhaps that’s the wrong brand to be looking at. Both phones are ‘specced’ to be able to get from flat to 50% in 30 minutes with a 20W charger, which is at the same time vague and not anywhere close to impressive.
That said, the small Pros do tend to be among the faster-charging iPhones and we did get reasonable results from both for the first half hour of being plugged in. It still takes too long to get to 100%, but that’s just Apple’s ways.
The iPhone 16 Pro and 15 Pro both support wireless charging, maxing out at 15W with generic Qi2 pads. If you’re using a MagSafe charger, you’ll be able to get up to 25W on the 16 Pro (if the MagSafe thingie is plugged into a 30W+ adapter) and only 15W on the 15 Pro so that’s something of a difference.
Speaker test
The speaker setups of the two phones are the same – Apple’s typical hybrid stereo arrangement has the earpiece doubling as a speaker, and the other speaker is at the bottom of the phone.
In our testing, both phones earned the same ‘Good’ mark for loudness and they also sound identical – both are pretty great.
Performance
The iPhone 16 Pro employs the most powerful Apple chipset in a phone to this day – the A18 Pro. It has a six-core CPU, and a six-core GPU – the same configuration, in principle, as the A17 Pro in the iPhone 15 Pro, though the clock speeds are higher on the new chip. Both phones have 8GB of RAM in all versions, and storage tiers start at 128GB and max out at 1TB.
Benchmark performance
In benchmarks, the 16 Pro does deliver a meaningful improvement in scores – 15-ish percent higher CPU results, 20% higher GPU numbers. So in essence, the 15 Pro will be easily quick enough for years to come, but the 16 Pro is faster now, and will be fast for a little longer.
Camera comparison
As generational developments go in this comparison, perhaps it’s the camera section that sees the most changes. The 16 Pro gets a 5x zoom in place of the 3x unit of the previous model and the ultrawide substitutes the conventional 12MP sensor for a Quad Bayer-type 48MP (of the same overall size, though). Then there’s also the new Camera Control key for tweaking settings though its most significant advantage, we reckon, is relieving the Action key from camera shortcut duty and freeing it for other stuff.
Then there are some less visible improvements, but if you’ve been waiting for them, you’ll know and appreciate they’re there. Those include the 4K120 video recording mode (and 4K100 if you abide by the PAL rules), the quad-mic spatial audio recording, and the JPEG XL option for still (for those that like to be on the forefront of file formats). Some folks may also appreciate the added ‘Tone’ setting for tweaking the HDR behavior that the old model doesn’t seem to get.
Image quality
The differences between shots taken on the main cameras are somewhere between non-existent and minimal. And then if you do happen to see some, they could just as well come down to shot-to-shot variation, rather than true changes in processing. The 2x results are similarly unchanged.
iPhone 16 Pro daylight photo samples, 1x
iPhone 15 Pro daylight photo samples, 1x
iPhone 16 Pro daylight photo samples, 2x
iPhone 15 Pro daylight photo samples, 2x
If you happen to like the 70-ish millimeter equivalent focal length, then the iPhone 15 Pro will serve you a lot better thanks to having a camera that sits optically at that 3x mark – a rather obvious observation that’s still worth pointing out, we think.
iPhone 16 Pro daylight photo samples, 3x digital
iPhone 15 Pro daylight photo samples, 3x optical
On the other hand, at the 5x zoom level, where the 16 Pro should probably fare a lot better, the difference isn’t anywhere as pronounced. In fact, we’d be perfectly happy with the 15 Pro’s 5x shots, and wouldn’t necessarily call the 16 Pro’s results universally better. The one minor problem is the fact that you don’t get a 5x shortcut in the viewfinder – a similar tap-to-change option like the one on the main camera for cycling between 24-28-35mm would be nice, but we somehow don’t see that happening.
iPhone 16 Pro daylight photo samples, 5x optical
iPhone 15 Pro daylight photo samples, 5x digital
Moving on to the ultrawide cameras, you’d be forgiven to doubt there’s been a change in hardware – the images are more or less identical between the two phones.
iPhone 16 Pro daylight photo samples, 0.5x
iPhone 15 Pro daylight photo samples, 0.5x
The selfie camera hardware hasn’t changed, but there do appear to be small differences in rendition between the two phones.
Selfie samples: iPhone 16 Pro • iPhone 15 Pro
In the dark, both iPhones take excellent photos with their main cameras. Again, there’s not a lot to separate the two, though – the shots can just as well have been taken on the same phone. Same thing at at 2x.
iPhone 16 Pro low-light photo samples, 1x
iPhone 15 Pro low-light photo samples, 1x
iPhone 16 Pro low-light photo samples, 2x
iPhone 15 Pro low-light photo samples, 2x
At 3x zoom at night, the 15 Pro retains the advantage it had in the day and you’d be getting sharper and better detailed shots from it. At 5x, the 16 Pro has a bit of an edge, but it’s not a dramatic difference.
iPhone 16 Pro low-light photo samples, 3x
iPhone 15 Pro low-light photo samples, 3x
iPhone 16 Pro low-light photo samples, 5x
iPhone 15 Pro low-light photo samples, 5x
Comparing the ultrawides, there’s not a clear winner either. Perhaps the new one just might have a minor advantage in dynamic range here or there, and its color rendition is maybe a touch more accurate, but it’s really a toss-up between the two.
iPhone 16 Pro low-light photo samples, 0.5x
iPhone 15 Pro low-light photo samples, 0.5x
Video quality
When it comes to video quality, we’re noticing a minor change in the color rendition of the sky, the new model being a little bit more conservative – as in, a touch more accurate, perhaps. The 15 Pro can’t quite compete at 5x in video the way it did in stills, so if zoomed in footage is your thing, that’s where the 2024 iPhone has an advantage. That said, the 15 Pro remains strong at 3x. Decisions.
Below, we have a few framegrabs from the videos taken by the two phones at each focal length so it’s easier to compare to one another.
iPhone 16 Pro daylight video framegrabs: 0.5x • 1x • 2x • 3x • 5x
iPhone 15 Pro daylight video framegrabs: 0.5x • 1x • 2x • 3x • 5x
In low light, the ultrawides look about the same. On the main cameras, we’re seeing a bit of a sharpness advantage at 1x for the 15 Pro, while at 2x it’s the 16 Pro that has a minor edge. Zooming in further, it’s the 16 Pro that has the upper hand.
iPhone 16 Pro low-light video framegrabs: 0.5x • 1x • 2x • 3x • 5x
iPhone 15 Pro low-light video framegrabs: 0.5x • 1x • 2x • 3x • 5x
Verdict
The iPhone 16 Pro takes the Pro experience up a notch in 2024. As it turns out, it’s not really because of the 5x zoom camera, which only has a meaningful advantage in video recording at 5x – otherwise the 3x on the 15 Pro does just as good of a job at 5x and, well, better at 3x.
What the 16 Pro does bring is the Camera Control key – whether for actually changing camera settings, or just as an extra shortcut button. Also a welcome development is the addition of 4K120 recording, and some other, less prominent expansions to the Pro feature-set.
On top of that, the 16 Pro is somewhat better in a few aspects of its battery life, and we also do like the slimmed down bezels.
The 15 Pro, on the other hand, remains a strong option for photography, its 3x zoom unit actually making it a bit more versatile, particularly for stills. With the increased size of the 16 Pro, last year’s model will probalby be a little more appealing to those who don’t want to carry unnecessary weight in their pockets all the time. There will also be some savings to be made if you’d go for the 15 Pro.
Get the Apple iPhone 16 Pro for:
Its improved build, materials, and bezels.
The Camera Control key.
The slightly better endurance.
The higher chipset performance.
Having 4K120 video recording.
The better 5x videos.
Get the Apple iPhone 15 Pro for:
The slightly better pocketability.
The superior 3x photos.
The money savings for essentially the same user experience.