iPhone 16 and 16 Pro review: A worthy upgrade after three years

Enlarge / From left to right: iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max. (credit: Samuel Axon)

With the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro, it has never been clearer that the cycle of radical invention has given way to iterative updates—not just on an annual basis, but a monthly one, due to delayed features coming in later software updates during the iOS 18 cycle.

The final form of the smartphone as we know it has been reached and nearly perfected. Nothing fundamental is changing anymore. But if you take the long view of just a few years, you can still see some impressive progress.

Year after year, the iPhone 16 is Apple’s most lightly iterative flagship phone release ever. But if you’re upgrading from an iPhone 13 or earlier, you’ll still feel like you’re graduating to a whole new experience.