If, like us, you're disheartened by Apple not announcing any new picture or sound features for the iPhone 16 or iPhone 16 Pro, then this might help to soothe the pain. While the iPhone 16 appears to be a rehash of the 15 in many ways, we still think that deep down there could be some upgrades under the hood.
Why do we believe this to be the case? Simple, Apple never talks about picture and sound upgrades at these events. If we're being totally honest, very few smartphone manufacturers go into great depth at these keynotes, so seeing Apple dodge how the new iPhones handle picture and sound is no great surprise. Instead, camera quality and new processors tend to hog the limelight as that's what Apple (and its comrades in the smartphone field) deem to be the most exciting features nowadays.
That being said, we often find that Apple smartphones and tablets tend to improve year-on-year in the areas we're interested in, even if Apple doesn't make that particularly clear. Read our iPhone 15 Pro Max review and you'll see that we clearly state "each new iPhone generally does include undocumented audio-visual improvements and has clearly been tuned to deliver the best picture and sound possible".
This was also the case with the iPhone 14 Pro Max before it, which was a minimal upgrade from its predecessor (Dynamic Island aside) on paper, but a boost in brightness meant that the 14 Pro Max trumped the 13 Pro Max in both picture and sound.
We could go on, but it's clear that a trend has been established, which leads us to believe that the iPhone 16 series could be another unsung upgrade. Apple didn't make a song or dance about the iPhone 16's display during the "It's Glowtime" event, instead, it just quoted a 2000 nit brightness figure and briskly moved on; but we're eager to see it in hand to judge whether it's more of an upgrade than Apple is willing to let on.
MORE:
iPhone 16: everything you need to know
Read our iPhone 15 Pro Max review
And check out our picks for the best iPhones