Apple has finally revealed the iPhone 16 Plus, alongside the iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max, at its latest Apple event.
We’re expecting these new phones to make our list of the best iPhones, with upgraded specs, new buttons, design changes, and new AI features in the form of Apple Intelligence.
This guide covers everything you need to know about the iPhone 16 Plus, specifically, with the latest information on price, preorder and shipping dates, specs, and features. We’ll keep this article updated with the latest iPhone 16 Plus news as we hear it. For more on the Apple Event as it continues, head over to our Apple Event live blog.
iPhone 16 Plus: what you need to know
- The iPhone 16 Plus was announced on September 9
- The iPhone 16 Plus starts at $899
- We’re expecting 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB storage options
- The camera app now has a dedicated Capture Control button
- It inherits the Action button from the iPhone 15 Pro
- The iPhone 16 Plus uses the new A18 chipset
- The iPhone 16 Plus gets a ChatGPT-powered Siri and other Apple Intelligence features
- Its cameras are aligned vertically, for Spatial Capture of photos and videos
- The iPhone 16 Plus ships with iOS 18
- It comes in ultramarine, teal, pink, white and black
Price, release date and preorders
- The iPhone 16 Plus starts at $899
- We expect pre-orders open on September 13, with shipping from September 20
The iPhone 16 Plus was announced at Apple’s annual September event on Monday, September 9. It will be available for pre-order from Friday, September 13, and the first units will ship on Friday, September 20.
The iPhone 16 Plus starts at $899 for the model with 128GB of storage.
This price is the same as the launch price of the iPhone 15 Plus.
We’ve rounded up full iPhone 16 Plus pricing information below.
iPhone 16 Plus specs
- Like the iPhone 16, the iPhone 16 Plus ships with the A18 chipset
- We think RAM has been upgraded from 6GB to 8GB, to power Apple Intelligence
The iPhone 16 Plus sees Apple bring some key spec boosts to its cheapest large-format phone. We’ve rounded up the most crucial ones below.
| iPhone 16 Plus | |
|---|---|
| Display: | 6.7-inch |
| Chipset: | Apple A18 |
| Rear cameras: | 48MP main, 12MP ultrawide |
| Front camera: | 12MP |
| OS: | iOS 18 |
iPhone 16 Plus: key upgrades
- The iPhone 16 Plus inherits the Action Button from the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max
- The camera app now has a dedicated Capture Control button
- The iPhone 16 Plus ships with the A18 chipset
- It’s likely that RAM has been increased from 6GB to 8GB, to power Apple Intelligence
- We’re expecting 128GB, 256GB and 512GB storage options
- Apple Intelligence will bring AI features to the iPhone 16 Plus, such as a smarter Siri, text summarization, and image creation
- The rear cameras are now aligned vertically, to enable Spatial Capture
Despite looking much like last year’s iPhone 15 Plus, the iPhone 16 Plus brings a suite of external and internal upgrades to Apple’s cheapest large phone.
Most visually striking are the vertically aligned cameras, re-oriented from the diagonal arrangement found on base-model iPhones since the iPhone 13. This is to allow for Spatial Capture, the same photo and video format used by the Apple Vision Pro headset.
The mute switch is gone, replaced by the iPhone 15 Pro’s multi-purpose Action Button, which users can assign to one of several functions in Settings.
The all-new Camera Control gives tactile control over the camera app, acting as a dedicated focus and shutter button, with a capacitive surface allowing touch gestures.
Under the hood (screen?) Apple has given the iPhone 16 Plus some key spec boosts. While these are incremental as usual, the software power these upgrades unlock makes them some of the most meaningful iPhone spec increases in years.
The new A18 SoC replaces the A16 Bionic chip found in the iPhone 15 Plus, which Apple says brings a 30% performance boost, though we’ll test this for ourselves in our review. The A18 supposedly brings a 40% increase in graphics performance, too.
We’re assuming that the iPhone 16 Plus also ships with 8GB of RAM, the same as the rest of the iPhone 16 lineup, as this is the minimum amount required to run Apple Intelligence features.
Speaking of which, the iPhone 16 Plus’ biggest upgrade is on the software side of things: Apple Intelligence brings a ChatGPT-powered Siri that can execute commands across different apps as well as text summarization and generative image creation. Apple Intelligence will not be available at launch, though, with Apple confirming a beta release in October and full launch in December.
The Camera Control will also enable Visual Intelligence, using AI to analyse the images seen through the viewfinder and find relevant information online.
Apple Intelligence will mark Apple’s entry into the AI race, so far populated by packages like Google Gemini and Samsung Galaxy AI. You’ll need an iPhone from the iPhone 16 lineup or an iPhone 15 Pro or Pro Max to use these new features.
We found that the iPhone 15 Plus had the best battery life of any iPhone, so we’re eager to test the iPhone 16 Plus for ourselves to see if Apple has managed to continue this trend.
This is a developing story. We’ll be updating this page with new information as it’s confirmed by Apple…
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