This is the iPhone 16 Plus. It now has similar features from last year’s Pro model and is better than the previous iPhone 15 Plus, like having the Action Button, a better 3mm A18 Bionic chipset, a bigger battery, new Audio Mix modes, and a new Camera Control is here too, similar to the 16 Pro models.

But there’s one feature that NOBODY is talking about that this phone has: it plays Genshin Impact at 120 FPS on a phone that supposedly has only a 60 Hz screen!

So, does this mean Cheap iPhone = Best iPhone?

Well, I’ll tell you after using this phone every day for 2 weeks and answer your question of whether this Camera Control is great to use daily or not, and if it’s worth it to get this phone now.

Hardware

From a hardware perspective, I’ve never been a huge fan of bright and saturated colors because I’ve always loved the “boring” white. Yep, don’t judge me. But this time around, these new striking options compared to last year’s pastel colors really grew on me. Now, my two top favorites are the Ultramarine and this Teal, a.k.a. the Dave2D color.

And for the first time, I’ve never used a phone case when I use this phone every single day. Firstly, because of how the phone feels on my hands, the slightly curved edges at the sides were really nice and it feels even better and very close to Nothing Phone’s pillow glass back. And because the phone did not attract any fingerprints at all, that was something that I really appreciated more.

Secondly, I also appreciated the color to the point that I would simply just take out the phone in between my work just to see and feel how gorgeous the teal finish is. 

And if you’re someone who likes to tell the whole world that you’re using a new iPhone, well, the good news is that people have noticed that I was using the new iPhone 16 compared to when I was using the iPhone 16 Pro Max Desert color.

However, if there’s one thing that I really have to nitpick about is the fact that if you do not use the case, if you type the phone on a surface or on a table, good luck because the phone wobbles a lot, making it almost impossible to type on due to the camera bump’s location and the overall design.

Action Button

So, last year’s Action Button was exclusive to the iPhone 15 Pro Series; it is now being brought down to the regular non-Pro variants.

Now, this was somewhat of a mixed reaction for some people who claim that the Action Button was useless, but for me, I remapped it to open Todoist. And, of course, right now you can remap to anything else you want, especially using the Shortcuts app.

So, is this Action Button really a “useless” button? Well, I used the iPhone 15 Pro last year, and I feel that it is totally not useless because if you’re more mindful of the frequently used tasks or frequently used apps on the phone, I guarantee that you’ll be using the Action Button before you know it.

Camera Control

Next is the Camera Control. Now, what’s interesting is that Apple has decided to bring this over to the non-Pro version this year, instead of skipping a generation like they did for the Action Button. 

This Camera Control also had many complaints about the usability and the physical reach, and, of course, how it takes time to get used to.

With that, first, let me talk about the use cases in which I use the phone daily. Now, I use this press-and-hold feature when I record vertical videos like this because I love the idea of having physical control to start and stop recording. 

And while it does not work natively on the Instagram app, I’m someone who takes videos first and then uploads it on Instagram or any other platforms, and usually, I would just edit the video before posting it anyway. So that feature of not having it on the Instagram app, it’s totally fine by me.

Another frequent time that I use the Camera Control a lot is when I’m taking photos up high, like you go on top and take a photo. So instead of resting the phone on my fingers, I just use my thumb to touch the shutter where I can just grip the phone better using my thumb on the Camera Control.

But Adam, this is for vertical video, how about landscape? Well, to be honest, if I’m in a landscape orientation for video, I don’t use the Camera Control at all, but I use it more for photos, mainly to quickly switch lenses using my index finger. So does this take time to get used to? Well, of course, it does because, for me, it took me about a day or two max, where I was good to go.

What’s even better is the fact that there is a dedicated menu for the Camera Control under the camera settings where you can toggle the Clean Preview. 

So, what is Clean Preview? It’s that if you use the Camera Control, the camera app will give you a clean feed without showing the lens options, for example, where I left it to toggle off for me to still be able to see the options in the camera app.

Then there’s also the option to launch the camera with double click over there in the settings too, in case you’re one of those people who accidentally presses this button frequently. 

You can even open other apps besides the camera, like the Code Scanner, open Instagram’s camera app and share a photo and video immediately, open the Magnifier, or just do nothing.

As of the timing of this review, there are other apps like the Halide camera app and LookUp, which you can use the Camera Control to launch too. So hopefully more app developers will allow this. 

Speaking of getting used to the Camera Control, you can also adjust the sensitivity on the presses under the accessibility settings, so you can adjust it over there.

So, all in all, I would say that this Camera Control was indeed very useful for me about 60% of the time. Could I live without it? Yes, I could. But it is indeed a great addition.

And yes, as predicted, other smartphone companies have decided to follow similar haptic control features like Realme and Nubia. 

And before anyone starts saying, “Oh, the Sony Xperia version 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 had the shutter button too and they had it first.” Well, yes, they did it first, but the experience is totally different, especially with the onscreen control. And this is also like saying, “Oh, the Siemens S10 had a color screen first!”

Cameras

As for the camera samples, you can tweak the photo to the different photographic styles and tones based on your liking. But for the sake of this review, I left everything at Default or Standard with a Tone of 0.

Ultrawide

As usual, I’ve used the cameras extensively since the ultrawide camera was the only minor change to accommodate the Spatial video, which you can expect the same great results for the ultrawide lenses with great dynamic range with no distortion at the edges during the day.

Main

As for the main lens, it also was really great, as seen in these photos, where it can go up to 10x of the maximum zoom digitally, but the image quality looked the best at 5x zoom, where the photos still look nice even without a dedicated telephoto lens. So I wouldn’t use the 10x zoom image unless you have lots of light.

Portrait

Then, portrait mode was flawless for humans, my cat Luna, and objects as well, where there is a 2x mode option over here as well.

Macro

Then, macro mode is still one of the best macro mode photos on a smartphone without typically having a dedicated macro lens, as seen in these photos. The quality was really great.

Selfie

Then as for selfie photos, the natural look for the skin tones is very superior to any other smartphones that I have tested this year. The dynamic range was also one of the best in the industry. 

Night Time

Then the nighttime photos were still great, and while at night the lens flare is still present before taking a shot, the good news is that the image processing removes it, so you won’t get that anymore.

Other than that, the ultrawide lens did have a little distortion at the edges, but only when zooming in close.

The main lenses also looked great with a perfect balance of the highlights and shadows, even up to 2x zoom.

However, I wouldn’t recommend using the 5x zoom onwards in this particular nighttime or low-light situation.

As for selfie photos at night, they also looked really nice, especially in the portrait selfie mode. 

Video

[Sample video clips are available in my YouTube review video]

Speaking of being the best, the video quality on the iPhone 16 was also amazing. The video quality for the ultrawide lens was really good, and of course, the main lenses did an amazing job too. 

The 2x video quality looked amazing even without a telephoto lens, as mentioned earlier. The 5x video quality was decent, where it can only go up to a maximum zoom of 6x on video mode.

Now, image stabilization-wise, as expected, the ultrawide video and the main video footage looked really good too, but I was surprised at how stable the video was on 2x and even up to 6x zoom if you’re not looking from a quality perspective. Just like the photos, the video quality for the front camera is one of the best in the smartphone industry as well, with superb image stabilization.

At night, the ultrawide lenses had great quality, as expected, and so did the main lenses. However, keep in mind, as mentioned earlier, that the lens flare you see within the viewfinder will only disappear after taking a video. 

Image stabilization at night was equally as good as the video during the day. The front video quality was great at night, as seen in this video footage, and so was the image stabilization too.

Then there’s one feature that Apple introduced, which is the Audio Mix feature, unique to the iPhone, which no other smartphone out right now can beat. 

[Sound Tests for all the Audio Mix modes are available in my YouTube video]

There are three modes in total: First is the In-frame mode, where the audio focuses on people within the frame in the viewfinder, even if someone holding the camera is talking behind it. 

Then there’s the Studio mode, which converts the audio into more of a studio-like sound, making it seem as if it was very close to the microphone. 

Finally, there’s the Cinematic mode that combines all the voices around when you’re taking a shot in front of the screen. 

Battery

Battery life on the phone was about the same as last year’s model, where I was averaging about 8 hours plus of screen-on time, which was the best battery life on any iPhones out right now. The wired charging is about the same, at about 26 to 27W.

The wireless charging speed has increased to 25W instead of 15W last year. Keep in mind that you’ll need to use the Qi2-certified chargers, besides the official Apple ones, I would recommend the Qi2 charger from Belkin.

So yes, if you want a very good battery life iPhone, the Plus is the way to go, but of course, with a 60 Hz screen, which brings me to the next topic, the display. 

Display

As you probably know by now, the iPhone 16 and the 16 Plus are still using a 60 Hz screen. Let’s hope and pray for a higher refresh rate next year.

How is it using it daily, then? Well, if you’re switching from a Pro model or any phone that has an adaptive 120 Hz display, you will definitely notice the difference. But if you talk to someone who uses a baseline iPhone, they just don’t care. 

If you’re coming from a 90 Hz Android smartphone, the transition to this 60 Hz screen might feel less drastic—it’s like stepping down almost half a stair instead of a whole flight of stairs.

This is partly due to the phone’s chip and the software’s overall smooth performance, so whether you’re doing daily tasks or gaming, you will still have a very good experience.

Gaming

Speaking of gaming, let’s dive into the phone’s shocking overall gaming performance. This year saw an upgrade to the non-Pro iPhone chip and its overall performance, which comes with a new A18 Bionic chipset, a super-fast 3nm chip with 8GB of RAM. 

There is a new Game Mode when you load a game, which you cannot turn on or off manually, so keep that in mind, as it will automatically activate when you load a game.

As mentioned earlier, part of my usual gaming test routine involved playing Genshin Impact on the phone. Not only did it perform exceptionally well at high graphics with motion blur at high (instead of the low settings on last year’s iPhone 15 Plus).

But this time around I was shocked that 120 FPS was available! Yes, it felt like I was gaming on a 120 Hz screen, something that was only available on the iPad when I was reviewing that. This was very shocking and very good news indeed!

This bigger screen on the Plus variant was definitely a huge plus (pun intended), making this a very good phone for gaming, just like the big screen on the Pro Max variant, which I’ll be reviewing next, so stay tuned for that!

The gaming performance on COD Mobile was also amazing with max graphic settings and frame rate set to max as well.

Software

As of the timing of this review, the public version of iOS is version 18.01, which means that Apple Intelligence is still not available yet, so I’ll do a dedicated video review on that when it’s out. I also did some best tips and tricks for iOS 18 during my unboxing video, so if you haven’t, do check it out: https://youtu.be/fuaiWc5lhvw 

All in all, I’ll go through the best features that I really liked and found useful when using this phone daily.

The most obvious one would be the Home Screen changes. Yes, using the bluish-teal tint on every app was really nice to streamline the look and theme of my whole phone setup.

The option of removing the icon text labels was nice too, but I do wish I could do that without making the icons as big as they are. The fact that we can finally place the icons wherever we want meant that I could arrange them where I could reach them at the bottom of the screen.

Then, the new Control Center customization was also a great use case for me. Since I’ve been using the double-tap in the accessibility settings to get to my control center, it made it easier to access, and the new option made it even easier to access frequently used features like changing my focus mode, the Apple TV remote, and turning on screen recording.

The new Calculator app, with the scientific calculator and all the conversion options, was such an underrated app that I found more useful than I initially thought, and so was the Passwords app. 

The Photos app also took some getting used to, but I adjusted quickly, especially since you can now customize and order it accordingly.

However, my favorite feature, and one I feel like isn’t getting enough credit, is the Reduce Motion. I’m the kind of person who cannot use a phone when I’m on a bus or even as a passenger in a car because I get motion sickness quickly.

Turning on the Reduce Motion option in the accessibility settings made motion sickness a thing of the past! It creates some little moving dots when the vehicle is moving, making it my favorite iOS 18 feature.

Conclusion

In conclusion, is the iPhone 16 Plus a phone to get, and is it worth upgrading to? Well, if you’re coming from a much older iPhone, like the iPhone 14 or older, I’d say this is a solid upgrade. 

But if you’re already on an iPhone 15 and feel it’s time to jump to a 120 Hz refresh rate screen, it comes down to how much you value the new features mentioned in this review.