The iPhone 16 Pro marked its second anniversary on Sunday, 20th September just days following the launch of its second-generation successor, the iPhone 18 Pro. Despite this year's fun colours, last years iPhone redesign and improvements in battery life, thermal performance and cameras, I'm sticking with the iPhone 16 Pro until 2027.
And that's not because I particularly love it. It's because, two years later, the iPhone 16 Pro is still a perfectly capable phone that does everything I need it to do. I'm just getting bored of it.
It Still Does Everything I Need
As we come to the end of 2026, the iPhone 16 Pro still does everything I need. I have not found myself looking over the shoulder of iPhone 17 Pro and 18 Pro users, feeling like I'm missing out on the latest capabilities. In fact, if I had upgraded to the iPhone 17 Pro this would have been a very stale upgrade from a daily use perspective. Of course, the latest Pro models feature a new look and fun colours, we'll get to that later.
Cameras
The cameras are simple to use and shoot perfectly fine photos, just like any iPhone I've ever used. The benefits of the iPhone 16 Pro is the triple camera system, which allows me to take photos with four useful zoom options:
- 0.5x
- 1x
- 2x
- 5x
I find myself regularly using these zoom options when I want to get a closer image of my subject, without getting closer myself.
The phone can also zoom up to 25x digitally, though the image quality is significantly reduced, especially in low light or when the subject is far away. Digital zoom is a nice-to-have feature, but I would be fine without it.
Apple made a big deal out of the photographic styles on the iPhone 16 Pro, and its later Pro models. Whilst photographers may use this feature, it means nothing to me, and I have not opened the styles panel once.
Moving to the front camera, it's clear, sharp and fine if you want to take a selfie or record a front-facing video. With the iPhone 17 series, Apple brought a square sensor to this front camera fitting more people in the frame when taking group selfies, and brought Center Stage to the iPhone for the first time.
This is another feature I was not bothered by, as I almost exclusively use the back cameras.
Storage
I was a year ahead of Apple, upgrading my iPhone 16 Pro from 128GB to 256GB of storage. The following year, 256GB became the default on Apple's latest iPhone models.
This storage upgrade is part of the reason I've managed to hold onto the iPhone 16 Pro for longer, as I currently sit at about 110GB of storage 2 years later. Of course, I would have survived with the 128GB of storage, but this allows for more breathing room - such as downloading iOS updates.
Camera Control
A controversial addition to the iPhone 16 series, the Camera Control button has led to many complaints that it is useless and just causes you to accidentally open the camera app.
I have had a different experience.
If I want to open my camera and take a quick photo, Camera Control is convenient. Plus, you can use the button again to quickly snap the photo without using the onscreen controls.
The button is positioned in an easily accessible place, where I can click the button with my thumb in both portrait and landscape mode, and as Camera Control does not stick out I have not accidentally pressed it.
However, I only use Camera Control as a shutter button or a way to open the camera app, and do not use the gestures or double tap feature for more camera tools.
I'm Bored of the iPhone 16 Pro
Despite my praise for the iPhone 16 Pro - I'm bored of it.
My boredom has nothing to do with the software or performance and instead relates to the hardware design, specifically the colour I chose.
The Black Titanium iPhone 16 Pro looks good, but also looks the same as the Black Titanium iPhone 15 Pro, which looks the same as the Black iPhone 14 Pro.
My 2024 iPhone already used a design that had been around for two years at launch, so four years later I'm ready for something new. My boredom has not been helped with the redesign of the iPhone 17 Pro last year, my favourite colour appearing on iPhone 18 Pro and Apple's recent expansion of product categories, such as iPhone Air, iPhone Duo - and even the iPhone 16e!
The iPhone 17 Pro Redesign Made my iPhone Feel Older
Of course, the year after I buy the latest Pro iPhone, Apple redesigns it.
The iPhone 17 Pro featured an all-new chassis design with the full-length camera plateau, aluminium unibody and the bold Cosmic Orange finish.
Apple's pivot to bold and colourful Pro finishes, after a history of much more muted colours on their flagship lineup, did not help my boredom with the black iPhone 16 Pro.
The Glacier Blue iPhone 18 Pro...
Just a couple of weeks ago, my boredom spiked again with the launch of iPhone 18 Pro. Apple introduced a Glacier finish, a light blue colour that would perfectly match my Sky Blue MacBook Air and Blue iPad mini.
I had been waiting for a phone in this colour, so it is tempting to ditch the iPhone 16 Pro for a redesigned iPhone, in one of my favourite colours. Unfortunately, I went with the boring choice - stick with my 16 Pro.
New iPhone Form Factors
I have had my eye on the iPhone Air since it launched last year, with its thin and lightweight design, premium titanium frame, Ceramic Shield 2 and Sky Blue finish.
I almost made the switch, multiple times, but have always been put off by the fact it has a single camera on the back, but costs almost as much as my iPhone 16 Pro, which is miles ahead on paper.
Apple also introduced a new form factor this month, with the iPhone Duo. As someone who has never been interested in foldable iPhones, I had no interest in Apple's foldable iPhone during the year as I covered the rumoured device.
Following the official announcement, my opinion changed. The completely new look, nano-texture folding display, new colours and a reworked version of iOS - I was sold.
Real Reasons to Upgrade
It feels unnecessary to upgrade an iPhone just because you want a new colour. So here's what the iPhone 16 Pro has not done so good at over the past two years, and what features I didn't need.
Battery Life is Beginning to Show its Age
iPhone 16 Pro has OK battery life, it'll get you through the day if you're not stressing the device too much. On days where I use my iPhone a bit more, I'll bring a power bank with me just in case.
I currently sit at 531 full battery cycles, after 648 days of ownership. That is about 80% a day on average.
However, my battery health is beginning to degrade at a rapid pace following my upgrade to iOS 27. For a while, my battery health sat at 97% maximum capacity, a perfectly reasonable amount.
Following my update to iOS 27 seven days ago, I noticed that it had dropped by 2 percentage points to 95% maximum capacity. I can't say whether the software update caused the change, but the timing caught my attention. 95% is still perfectly fine, but hopefully the decline doesn't continue at this rate.
iPhone 16 Pro Struggles in the Summer Heat
One of my biggest complaints with the iPhone 16 Pro is its performance during the summer.
If you're outdoors in the summer, you can feel the device heating up and the screen dims to a point where you cannot see the content on screen. Apple rates a peak outdoor brightness of 2,000 nits on the iPhone 16 Pro outdoors. In practice, I can't make use of this feature as my iPhone gets too warm and has to dim the display instead.
The device also begins to lag in the heat, and the battery drops rapidly.
This issue is not just in direct sunlight either, with performance rapidly degraded by the heat when indoors or outside under a shelter out of the sun.
Apple has addressed the thermals in its recent devices, switching from titanium to aluminium for better heat dissipation, and introduced a vapour chamber that they recently increased the size of with the iPhone 18 Pro.
"Built for Apple Intelligence"
Apple marketed my iPhone 16 Pro as "Built for Apple Intelligence". This followed the announcement of Apple Intelligence at WWDC24, where Apple announced an intelligent and overhauled version of Siri available on iPhone 15 Pro and newer.
At the time, I was using an iPhone 13 so I upgraded to the iPhone 16 Pro ahead of the launch of the new Siri.
That version of Siri, which I was ready for in December 2024, made its debut on my iPhone last week, in September 2026.
My device, which was advertised to me as being built for Apple Intelligence, does not support some newer AI features, including expressive Siri voices and some advanced on-device models.
Features I barely use
My iPhone has many advanced capabilities over the base model iPhone and iPhone Air which I have not used. These include the advanced Pro video features, with 4K at 120fps, USB 3 speeds in the charging port and the majority of the additional camera features my phone is capable of.
The dual camera system on the latest iPhone 17, and USB 2 speeds would be perfectly fine for me.
My Next iPhone Might Not be Pro
To summarise my experience with the iPhone 16 Pro, my first ever Pro iPhone, is that it’s fine but boring.
As a result, my new iPhone might not be a pro model, and could instead be one of Apple's newer models such as the iPhone Air, or even the iPhone Duo.
If I wanted to experience real change with my iPhone, I could go for the iPhone Duo. However, I think the next-generation iPhone Air 2 in spring 2027 could be a good middle ground.
Switching to an iPhone Air would mean I lose features, but these are features I had never used anyway.
I also have the option to wait until September 2027, and pre-order the 20th anniversary iPhone. This could be big, if the 10th anniversary iPhone, iPhone X, is anything to go off of.
Why I'm Waiting
After two years, the iPhone 16 Pro is not a bad phone. It's still fast, capable and can run everything I do on my iPhone.
The biggest problem is that I'm bored of it.
The Black Titanium is dull. The redesigned iPhone 17 Pro made it feel outdated. The Glacier Blue iPhone 18 Pro is the colour I've wanted for years. Battery life is beginning to show its age, and the summer heat is a major weakness.
But I don't need a new phone yet, so I'm waiting.
I might end up with the iPhone Air 2. Maybe the iPhone Duo will finally convince me to buy a foldable. Maybe Apple's 20th-anniversary iPhone will be worth the wait.
But for now, I still have at least a few more months with the iPhone 16 Pro.
