iPhone 16, 16 Pro With Apple Intelligence Launched: India Prices, Specs

Apple has officially unveiled the iPhone 16 series, and nearly all rumours and leaks leading up to the big event have been proven accurate. The new iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max replace their predecessors from last year, with some design refinements, new processors optimised for AI, and improved cameras. The new iPhones can be pre-ordered starting at 5:30pm IST on September 13, and will go on sale on September 20. Apple also announced the Apple Watch Series 10 and new AirPods models at the "It's Glowtime" event.

iPhone 16 price in India

The new iPhone 16 starts at ₹79,900 for 128GB of storage. The 256GB variant costs ₹89,900 and the 512GB variant costs ₹1,09,900. The larger iPhone 16 Plus is priced at ₹89,900, ₹99,900 and ₹1,19,900 for the 128GB, 256GB and 512GB options respectively.

The iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus continue to be available, priced starting at ₹69,900 and ₹79,900 respectively for 128GB. Similarly, the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus have fallen by the same amounts and will now start at ₹59,00 and ₹69,900 respectively for 128GB. The iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini have officially been discontinued.

iPhone 16 Pro price in India

The iPhone 16 Pro starts with 128GB of storage, for ₹1,19,900, while the 256GB version costs 1,29,900. There are also options with 512GB for ₹1,49,900 and 1TB for ₹1,69,900. The iPhone 16 Pro Max starts with 256GB of storage priced at ₹1,44,900 and that goes up to ₹1,64,900 for 512GB and ₹1,84,900 for 1TB. There are no 2TB variants, as some early reports had expected. All previous Pro models have been discontinued.

Apple has gone with bolder, more saturated colours for the iPhone 16 series

iPhone 16 specifications and features

The iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus have the same 6.1-inch and 6.7-inch displays as their predecessors, although there’s nothing new about the display types or technology. They are available in five colours: Black, White, Pink, Teal, and Ultramarine. They are rated IP68 for water and dust resistance. A new Action Button on the left replaces the mute switch from previous models, and a new touch-sensitive Camera Control button allows users to tap and swipe to launch the camera app, adjust settings, and capture stills and videos.

Apple’s new A18 SoC has a 6-core CPU, 5-core GPU and 16-core neural engine promises 2X faster machine learning and AI processing. It’s more powerful and power-efficient than the previous-gen A16 Bionic. Hardware-accelerated ray tracing will allow the iPhone 16 models to run AAA games that were restricted to Pro iPhones till now.

A 48-megapixel primary camera allows for 2X optical zoom by cropping the centre of the sensor. Users can also choose to capture 12-megapixel binned photos for increased sharpness, or hybrid 24-megapixel photos that take less storage space. Spatial video and photo capture is supported for the first time. The new 12-megapixel ultra-wide camera gets autofocus and can capture macro shots.  

iPhone 16 Pro specifications and features

The new iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max have both been enlarged compared to their predecessors, with 6.3-inch and 6.9-inch screens respectively. Apple continues to use titanium for these models, but now with a Desert Titanium finish along with Black, White, and Natural Titanium. They use Apple’s new A18 Pro SoC, with a 6-core GPU and dedicated media encoding and image processing hardware, as well as a 16-core neural engine for on-device Apple Intelligence.

These models also feature the new Camera Control button. An upgraded 48-megapixel primary camera is capable of 4K 120fps Dolby Vision HDR video recording for crisp slow-motion video. 48-megapixel ProRAW photos can be captured with zero shutter lag. The ultra-wide camera has also been updated to 48 megapixels, promising superior low-light performance. Both the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max get 5X telephoto cameras, and both can record spatial videos.

The iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max get four studio-quality microphones and spatial audio capture. Larger batteries result in longer runtime, with the iPhone 16 Pro Max claiming the best-ever battery life on an iPhone, at 33 hours of video playback.

iOS 18 and Apple Intelligence

Apple will release iOS 18 as a free update to eligible devices on September 16. Apple Intelligence features will roll out in beta in phases, starting in October with US English and expanding to other languages and localisations after that. Users will be able to record, transcribe and summarise audio recordings and calls, proofread and rewrite text, see summarised emails and notifications, and use Siri with better conversational flow. Apple Intelligence can generate images based on prompts, and can combine emojis to help make conversations more expressive. Visual intelligence features will allow users to capture anything with their cameras and look up information, and Siri will also be able to take action based on what a user has on their screen at any point.