Apple Inc. rolled out its new iPhone 16 lineup today with a focus on artificial intelligence during the company’s “It’s Glowtime” event alongside new custom silicon that will power its phones and the company’s Apple Intelligence machine learning capabilities.
In addition to the new phones and chips, Apple also announced the next generation of Apple Watch Series 10 and the new AirPods 4, both with advanced health features.
IPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus featuring new custom silicon
The new iPhone 16 and the Plus follow Apple’s usual sleek and curved design features with burnished casing surrounding 6.1-inch and 6.7-inch display sizes, respectively. Just like previous generations, the iPhone 16 maintains a Super Retina XDR display with OLED technology and a Dynamic Island for displaying information at the top of the screen.
What’s new in this generation is Apple brought an “Action” button near the top of the phone that allows users to quickly open the camera, flashlight or other controls. The company also added a specialized Camera Control button that can recognize the difference between a hard press or a soft button press.
As a result, it can bring up the camera, and provide haptic feedback with a sensitive “click,” similar to hitting a shutter button on a camera. Users can also scrub their finger over the button to zoom or scroll through options such as selecting flash, exposure or depth of field.
All of this year, Apple has leaned heavily into its AI strategy with Apple Intelligence capabilities. It provides generative AI support across the entire device, including in messaging, apps and integration with Siri. The iPhone 16 has proved to be no exception and, to support that, the company unveiled a new custom chip, the A18, a direct upgrade over the A16 Bionic that powered the iPhone 15.
Apple said the chip was built using a three-nanometer process and contains a neural engine designed to execute machine learning models, such as Apple Intelligence. The company said it has 17% more system memory bandwidth for generative AI models than the A16 Bionic. The chip features a six-core central processing unit that uses 30% less power than its predecessor and a five-core graphical processing unit that’s 40% faster.
“iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus mark the beginning of a new era for iPhone with Apple Intelligence delivering powerful, personal and private experiences to our users,” said Kaiann Drance, Apple’s vice president of worldwide iPhone product marketing.
Apple has built its generative AI writing features into iOS to help people write and prepare messages and emails and rewrite their work on their phones. Apple is also using AI to allow people to generate images such as emojis or create fanciful virtual cards. Using the same technology, they can also discover photos easily by typing in what they want to find.
Apple Intelligence integrates deeply with Siri, Apple’s voice-activated agent, making it more personal and conversational than before. That means users can talk to Siri like another person rather than using the stilted keyword speech they had to use before where Siri couldn’t understand them unless they carefully worded messages. They can ask questions that backtrack, such as, “Siri can you tell me about the restaurant near the – no wait, I mean the shop with the cactus logo near the lake at the end of Jacinda Street?”
The new iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus start at $799 and $899 respectively and are available for pre-order on Friday, with the phones arriving on store shelves on Sept. 20.
IPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max get an upgraded chip
Continuing the iPhone 16 lineup, Apple also introduced the iPhone 16 Pro and the larger 16 Pro Max and with them introduced new custom silicon to power their advanced camera and audio features with the A18 Pro chip.
The iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max are larger, beefier versions of the iPhone 16 and feature bigger display sizes at 6.3 inches and 6.9 inches, respectively. According to Apple, the phone includes the same features as its smaller siblings, including AI capabilities and the Camera Control button. It also focuses more heavily on creative camera features for creative control.
Improvements to the model include a 48-megapixel ultra-wide camera capable of high-resolution photography, including close-up macro photos; a 5x telephoto lens on both Pro models; and studio-quality microphones that can record high-fidelity audio.
With the new cameras and custom silicon, users will be able to capture video in 4K at 120 frames per second. Onboard processing will allow them to deliver it in slow-motion or natural video, and adjust playback for studio quality or edit it on the fly using the phone within the Photos app using the A18 Pro processor just like a professional video editor.
Users can also capture the same high-quality video and offload it directly to external storage for professional work, Apple said. That makes the iPhone 16 Pro a workhorse for cinema-quality creative and developmental workflows.
The iPhone 16 Pro starts at $999 and the iPhone Pro Max at $1,199 with pre-orders beginning this Friday and the phones hitting shelves on Sept. 20.
Thin Apple Watch 10 with new health options
Apple introduced the Apple Watch Series 10 today as the thinnest wearable watch it has ever produced, making it 10% thinner than the previous generations while still offering powerful upgrades and an all-day battery life.
The company said that to make the watch as thin as it is, 42- and 46-millimeter sizes, which Apple said is “radically thinner” than ever before, the speaker system had to be completely reengineered. The antenna was also completely integrated into the housing of the device itself, combining two layers into one. Even with the new speaker system, the company said, it has not suffered any loss of sound quality.
The new metal backing also allows for faster charging with a new more efficient metal coil, making for a more efficient charging experience. Fifteen minutes of charging can produce for up to eight hours of normal daily use, or eight minutes of charge powers eight hours of sleep tracking. With the quick charge capability users can charge up to 80% of the battery in about 30 minutes. The watch sports an 18-hour battery life.
Users will also find a larger, brighter display with 9% more active screen area than the Apple Series 9. The new screen offers a wide-angle OLED display that allows the pixels to emit more light for easier viewing from tilted angles, as a result looking at it from an off angle will be up to 40% brighter than the previous generation, making it easier to read.
Apple also made the screen more efficient, allowing it to refresh faster when idle and use less energy. Now it can refresh every second rather than once every minute, as a result, it can run in always-on mode and show the ticking second hands of a clock without draining the battery.
Additional health features have been added to sleep tracking including sleep apnea detection. Sleep apnea is a serious medical condition where a person’s breathing stops and starts while asleep. Symptoms may include snoring loudly or feeling tired or lethargic during the day, even after a full night’s sleep. It can lead to several risk factors including increased headaches and potential heart issues. It’s estimated that 30 million people in the United States suffer from sleep apnea, although only roughly 6 million have been diagnosed.
AirPods 4 brings active noise cancellation and hearing health focus
Apple announced an all-new design with the next-gen AirPods 4 that now also comes with a model featuring advanced active noise cancellation and conversational features in an open-ear design alongside AirPods Max.
The new AirPods 4 come with an all-new charging case that provides them a 24-hour battery life. Apple said the new design came from a dataset of 50 million different ear shapes to develop more comfortable AirPods that fit nicely in the average ear for long-term wear.
They also feature an H2 custom silicon chip that is designed to help deliver high-quality audio in all situations. This includes active noise cancellation in situations where there are noisy environments allowing music and audio to come through without having loud sounds break through. AirPods 4 with ANC also have a transparency mode that will enable users to remain aware of their environment when wearing them as well as a “Conversation mode.”
In conversation mode, when a user begins talking, any media playing will reduce in volume so that they can speak freely. When the conversation ends, the media volume will rise again to its previous volume so that they can enjoy their listening experience.
AirPods Pro 2 is getting a new health feature involving hearing health including hearing loss prevention, awareness and assistance. To help prevent hearing loss, the AirPods Pro H2 chip will help reduce loud ambient noises to help protect the wearer’s hearing across all listening modes. According to the World Health Organization, around 1.5 billion people globally live with some form of hearing loss.
Because so many people are exposed to loud noises in their environments and so few get tested for hearing loss throughout their lives, Apple has included a hearing loss test in their software. Pairing the AirPods with an iPhone or iPad they can test their hearing and store the results privately and locally on their devices so that the data can be shared with their health provider.
“Hearing health is an essential part of our overall well-being, yet it can often be overlooked — in fact, according to the Apple Hearing Study, a staggering 75% of people diagnosed with hearing loss go untreated,” said Sumbul Desai, M.D., Apple’s vice president of health. “We’re thrilled to provide breakthrough software features with AirPods Pro that put users’ hearing health front and center, bringing new ways to help test for and receive assistance for hearing loss.”
Finally, Apple unveiled an over-the-counter hearing aid capability for users with mild to moderate hearing loss who can use the profile generated from their hearing test. This new feature can transform their AirPods Pro into a clinical-grade OTC hearing aid that enables personalized dynamic adjustments that can be changed in real-time, the company said.
The hearing test and hearing aid features are expected to be available this fall in more than 100 countries, including the U.S., Germany and Japan.
AirPods 4 are available for pre-order now and will ship on Sept. 20. They start with a price tag of $129 for the standard version and AirPods 4 with ANC cost $179.