Apple iPhone 16 Plus vs. iPhone 15 Plus

The iPhone Plus is the least favourite iPhone on the market for being too near the Professional price-wise, however with much less options and the notoriously crippled OLED at 60Hz refresh charge. Nonetheless, its skinny and light-weight design and wonderful battery life has made sense to some patrons and they’d in all probability wish to know the way the brand new Apple iPhone 16 Plus compares to the earlier iPhone 15 Plus.

Desk of Contents:

For starters, you’ll be able to examine the whole specs sheets or instantly proceed with our editor’s evaluation within the following textual content.

To sum issues up, the iPhone 16 Plus arrives with a brand new chip with the promise of AI capabilities down the road, an improved display glass, expanded digicam capabilities, and sooner wi-fi charging. There may be additionally the added Motion key and the brand new Digital camera management. However all this suits on a specs web page – let’s examine how totally different the 2 gadgets actually are in real-world use.

Measurement comparability

The iPhone 16 Plus has an an identical footprint to the iPhone 15 Plus, which has hardly stunning. Each telephones measure 160.9 x 77.8 x 7.8 mm. The iPhone 16 Plus is 2g lighter than the iPhone 15 Plus at 199g.

One distinction is that the brand new iPhone 16 Plus ought to have improved sturdiness in line with Apple. It contains a new era of Ceramic Protect entrance, which is meant to be 50% more durable than the earlier one on the iPhone 15 Plus.

There are additionally two new buttons on the iPhone 16 Plus that are lacking on the iPhone 15 – the Motion key was an unique to iPhone Professional’s and there’s additionally the brand new Digital camera Management right here.

Show comparability

The iPhone 16 Plus has the identical show as on the iPhone 15 Plus – a 6.7-inch Tremendous Retina XDR OLED with glorious HDR capabilities and excessive decision, however a normal refresh charge of 60Hz. Each panels are marketed as able to 1,000 nits of typical and as much as 2,000 nits of most brightness.

Properly, as per our show measurements, the iPhone 16 Plus display is brighter than the iPhone 15 Plus – it presents 180nits extra in Auto Brightness (1823 vs 1642), and 70nits extra in handbook mode (891 vs 820). Not that large of a distinction, however nonetheless.

Battery life

The iPhone 16 Plus boasts an even bigger battery than its predecessor – 4,674 mAh from 4.383 mAh. It is a moderately modest improve of round 7%, however we’ll take it.

The extra important change, nonetheless, comes from the improved effectivity of the brand new Apple A18 chipset and doubtless some under-the-hood enhancements in iOS 18.

Because of this, the brand new iPhone 16 Plus achieved a record-breaking Energetic Use Rating of 18:49h. It is a chart-topping battery endurance and it reveals the brand new Plus mannequin presents 10 extra hours on voice calls, 2.5h extra net time, and 1 extra hour of video streaming when in comparison with the iPhone 15 Plus. It is in all probability secure to say that it is the iPhone with one of the best battery life so far.

Charging pace

The iPhone 16 Plus helps quick wired charging, although Apple by no means reveals the utmost energy ranking. The corporate quotes a 50% cost in 30 min when utilizing a 20W USB-PD charger.

There may be additionally help for quick wi-fi charging for as much as 25W by way of the brand new MagSafe charger when plugged right into a 30W+ energy adapter. When you have a suitable Qi2 charger, then the iPhone 16 Plus will max out at 15W. In the meantime, the iPhone 15 Plus MagSafe wi-fi charging maxes out at 15W.

We carried out our charging exams with a 45W PD charger to provide the iPhones one of the best probability. Each telephones took about the identical time to cost. An hour on that charger refilled 85% of the iPhones batteries’ and the final 15% took over half-hour.

Speaker take a look at

The iPhone 16 Plus and iPhone 15 Plus function an identical stereo audio system. They’re of the hybrid selection the place the earpiece is likely one of the audio system. The opposite speaker is on the backside of the telephones, subsequent to the USB-C port.

The iPhone 16 Plus scored a Very Good mark on our loudness take a look at, whereas the iPhone 15 – a Good mark. The distinction will be heard by way of our audio playback software, although you should have laborious time doing so in actual life.

Efficiency

This 12 months’s large improve for the iPhone 16 Plus is the Apple A18 chipset, which is 2 generations forward of what the iPhone 15 Plus had – the A16. It is a second-gen 3nm chip that’s each extra highly effective and extra environment friendly.

The Apple A18 has a sooner six-core processor, higher 5-core GPU with help for improved {hardware} raytracing. It additionally comes with extra RAM, now 8GB.

The A18 CPU is marketed to be 30% sooner than the iPhone 15 Plus CPU and 60% sooner than the iPhone 12 CPU. The GPU needs to be 40% sooner than the iPhone 15 Plus and twice as quick because the iPhone 12.

Benchmark efficiency

In our exams the brand new Apple A18 CPU contained in the iPhone 16 Plus does rating about 20% greater than the A16 contained in the iPhone 15 Plus. There may be additionally between 30% and 60% soar in GPU efficiency relying on the 3D take a look at.

The A18 chip has a brand new NPU, which scores about twice as excessive the NPU contained in the iPhone 15 Plus.

The brand new iPhone chip permits all these high-end video games that have been incompatible with the iPhone 15 Plus to run fairly nicely on the iPhone 16 Plus and that’s in all probability probably the most notable improve, in case you are a gamer that’s.

Because of the brand new chipset, you’d additionally get entry to the Apple Intelligence function as soon as they’re launched – so long as you reside in a supported area (outdoors the European Union and China).

Digital camera comparability

The iPhone 16 Plus virtually borrows its predominant digicam setup from the iPhone 15 Plus. It’s fairly potent – a 48MP sensor with 1/1.56″ measurement, 1.0µm particular person pixels and sensor-shift OIS. There’s a brilliant f/1.6 lens in entrance of it. The identical goes for the selfie digicam – the 12MP shooter has already confirmed its salt and is provided with part detection autofocus as nicely.

The one improve is the brand new ultrawide digicam. It’s nonetheless a 12MP unit. Nonetheless, this 12 months, there’s a brighter lens with an f/2.2 aperture. Plus, in all probability better of all, it now has autofocus, which permits it to double as a macro digicam for close-ups.

After all, there’s additionally the brand new Digital camera Management. It’s an precise bodily button with actual journey when pressed. It additionally integrates a capacitive sensor that enables for contact and swipe interactions in addition to a high-precision pressure sensor that detects mild presses.

Picture high quality

There may be hardly any enchancment within the daylight picture high quality, regardless what Apple could attempt to persuade you. The iPhone 16 Plus captures the identical photographs because the iPhone 15 Plus. They’re detailed, with pure colours, low noise, and nice dynamic vary. The foliage rendition shouldn’t be our favourite – particularly for those who shoot within the default 12MP.

The samples under have been taken on the identical areas however at totally different occasions.

iPhone 16 Plus: 0.5x • 1x • 2x • selfie

iPhone 15 Plus: 0.5x • 1x • 2x • selfie

The iPhone 16 Plus can now additionally take macro photographs with its new ultrawide digicam.

iPhone 16 Plus – macro with UW digicam

The photographs from the principle cameras we took in low-light circumstances, each in 1x and 2x modes, are largely an identical. The digicam app didn’t go for Evening Mode on the iPhone 15 Plus, however nonetheless, the standard stays related.

The brighter aperture on the ultrawide digicam does have an impact at evening and the ultrawide photographs from the iPhone 16 Plus are brighter, with extra element and fewer noise.

iPhone 16: 0.5x • 1x • 2x

iPhone 15: 0.5x • 1x • 2x

Video high quality

New video choices have been added to the iPhone 16 Plus – studio-grade microphones for higher audio high quality, plus capabilities for spatial video and audio recording.

Apart from that, the video high quality stays the identical throughout all cameras.

The daylight movies from all three cameras are glorious throughout the board, together with stabilization.

Beneath we’ve just a few framegrabs from the movies taken by the 2 telephones at every focal size so it is simpler to check them.

iPhone 16 Plus: 0.5x • 1x • 2x • selfie

iPhone 15 Plus: 0.5x • 1x • 2x • selfie

The low-light movies from the ultrawide digicam are actually higher – they’re higher uncovered, with extra element and fewer noise.

iPhone 16 Plus: 0.5x • 1x

iPhone 15 Plus: 0.5x • 1x

Verdict

The iPhone 16 Plus is a superb premium smartphone with flagship-grade options and it delivers in all areas that matter – design, display, battery life, audio system, efficiency, and digicam.

The iPhone 16 Plus is the sooner telephone of the 2 with a greater ultrawide digicam and sooner wi-fi charging. The battery life has gotten higher, too, and the sturdiness has been improved if we consider Apple. You now additionally get the Motion key and the Digital camera management.

Although it offers roughly the identical person expertise, the iPhone 16 Plus is objectively the higher telephone in comparison with the iPhone 15 Plus.

Nonetheless, the iPhone 15 Plus is about €250 cheaper than the 16 Plus nnow and it carries a lot of the identical qualities. Selecting between the 2 would rely in your funds and whether or not you worth the additional options that the iPhone 16 Plus can present.