Apple iPhone 16 Pro And iPhone 16 Pro Max – What We Know So Far

There are only a few hours left until “It’s Glowtime”, so let’s do a recap of what to expect. In case you missed it, we already covered the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus rumors and leaks, here we will go over everything we (think) we know about the two Pro models.

The event starts at 5 PM UTC and we will have coverage of all the new launches. Until then, here is a recap of everything that happened in the last few months.

The launch

Pre-orders for the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max will start tomorrow if not later today. We are probably looking at two weeks of pre-orders, so the first shipments and in-store availability should be on September 20 (Apple always picks a Friday).

Apple Intelligence, the major upgrade for iOS 18, has missed the deadline and will arrive later as part of iOS 18.1. This is why Apple has two beta branches being tested simultaneously. Apple apparently didn’t want to delay the iPhone launch until Intelligence was ready, but we expect that it will be a major part of the presentation.

The design

This section will be brief – we’ve seen photos of iPhone 16 Pro Max dummies and if not for the new color (Gold, not Brown), we might have been fooled into believing that those were just iPhone 15 Pro Maxes. Speaking of colors, there are Titanium Black and Titanium White, of course, as well as Titanium Silver and Titanium Gold. There was a rumor of a Rose option, but there is no photographic evidence of such a hue. If you want colors, you’d may want to get an iPhone 16 or 16 Plus instead.

iPhone 16 Pro Max dummies in White, Black Silver and GoldiPhone 16 Pro Max dummies in White, Black Silver and Gold
The Gold color model also appeared in a short unboxing video where it is labeled “Desert Titanium” (the hue was apparently inspired by the sands of the Sahara desert). This video offers the briefest glimpse of the front of the phone – well, the front of the retail box, which has an image of the front of the phone – which shows that nothing much has changed. The Dynamic Island is in place, apparently no smaller than last year.

Size comparison between the four iPhone 16 modelsSize comparison between the four iPhone 16 models
Apple did tweak the design slightly, but it’s not immediately obvious. The iPhone 16 Pro Max will allegedly have the world’s thinnest bezels, but even so, the phone will be slightly larger. The reason why will become obvious when we get to the display section.

Dimensions iPhone 15 Pro iPhone 16 Pro iPhone 15 Pro Max iPhone 16 Pro Max
Height 146.6mm 149.6mm 159.9mm 163.0mm
Width 70.6mm 71.5mm 76.7mm 77.6mm
Thickness 8.25mm 8.25mm 8.25mm 8.26mm
Weight 187g 194g 221g 225g
Larger displays

Both iPhone Pros retain exclusivity on the ProMotion panels, i.e. if you want 120Hz LTPO, you get a Pro model. The two vanilla phones will keep using outdated 60Hz tech for yet another year. But this year the two pairs will diverge even further as they will no longer offer the same screen sizes.

iPhone 16 Pro Max retail package
iPhone 16 Pro Max retail package

The iPhone 16 Pro will go up to a 6.3” display, while the vanilla 16 will stick to 6.1”. The iPhone 16 Pro Max will be the biggest iPhone yet with a 6.9” display – up from the 6.7” of the previous Pro Max and the upcoming Plus. The resolutions will probably be bumped up slightly to keep the pixel density the same as before.

In the previous section we mentioned that the bezels will be thinner to offset some of the growth from the larger displays – not enough to entirely cancel it out but still. The iPhone Pro bezels will shrink from 1.71mm to 1.2mm compared to last year’s model, while the Pro Max bezels will go from 1.55mm to 1.15mm.

Here’s a mockup that Ice Universe made to show off the difference:

iPhone 16 Pro Max (left) vs. iPhone 15 Pro Max (right) bezelsiPhone 16 Pro Max (left) vs. iPhone 15 Pro Max (right) bezels
We’re not sure why there are so few leaked photos (or videos) that show the front of the iPhone Pros, but it’s clear that any major changes around the Dynamic Island will have to wait until next year (it will allegedly get narrower).

Action and Capture buttons

Side views of dummies show the tentatively named Action and Capture buttons, which will trigger custom actions and will act as a camera shutter key, respectively. This does mean that the Alert Slider will be removed, however.

All four iPhone 16 models will have an Action buttonAll four iPhone 16 models will have an Action button And a capture buttonAnd a capture button
Apparently, the Capture button will be more of a capacitive trackpad than a physical button, allowing swiping gestures – this could be used to control zoom, for example.

Apple A18 chipset and AI for all

Last year the two Pro phones were powered by the Apple A17 Pro chipset, while the two vanilla models had to reuse the A16 from the year before. This and the smaller amount of RAM means that the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus will not get Apple Intelligence.

Again, we suspect this will be a major part of the presentation later today and a major part of the marketing for the new 16-series, so all four models have to have it.