iPhone 16 vs iPhone 14: All rumored upgrades explained

Camera

Spatial Video, baby

The iPhone 16 will have a new vertical styling for the camera, but it remains the familiar dual camera system with a main and an ultrawide lens.

Compared to the iPhone 14, the iPhone 16 will be a big jump because of the more capable 48MP main camera vs the 12MP snapper on the older model. This new sensor provides more detail and better low light performance, plus many of the overprocessing issues from the iPhone 14 should be gone. It also delivers a 2X lossless zoom quality, an improvement over the digital zoom on the iPhone 14.

The changes to the ultra-wide camera should be more subtle as both phones share a similar 12MP sensor, with the same 13mm field of view and f/2.2 aperture.

The big change will be the new physical Capture Button, placed below the power key.

First, this will be a capacitive button, so it will only register a press when you push it with your finger and it won’t get accidentally triggered in your pocket. You will be able to use it various camera apps, including third-party ones, but only camera apps.

In an app, a half press would allow you to lock exposure or focus, while a full press would capture an image or start recording a video. 

And finally, since this is a capacitive button, it will also double as a trackpad of sorts. One possible feature is you could slide your finger to zoom in and out, or you could quickly adjust the amount of background blur for portraits, or quickly cycle through filters.

We love all of this! The Capture button makes it faster and easier to seize those precious moments.

Leaks also mention a new JPEG-XL format on the iPhone 16 that could be added to the current HEIF and JPEG formats, but we don’t yet have more color on this.

And of course, expect a bunch of AI editing features on the iPhone 16, such as the new “Clean Up” tool in Photos, as well as smart resize and smart move of objects.

As for video, we don’t expect major changes, so 4K60 remains the maximum available quality.

Audio Quality and Haptics

Apple tweaks and improves the audio quality from iPhones every year, but we don’t anticipate any ground-breaking changes in the iPhone 16.

And as for haptics, they have been top-notch ever since the Taptic Engine on the iPhone 6s! Don’t look for significant changes in this area either.

Battery Life and Charging

Slightly bigger battery and even faster charging (possibly, maybe)

The iPhone 16 has roughly the same size as the iPhone 14, so don’t anticipate dramatic changes in battery size or battery life.

Still, leaks say the iPhone 16 will get a 3,561mAh battery, a 9% increase over the 3,279mAh battery on the iPhone 14.

Apple rates the iPhone 14 for 20 hours of video playback and 80 hours of audio playback, and in a couple of weeks we will see if the estimate improves with the iPhone 16.