iPhone 16 Pro vs iPhone 14 Pro: What has changed?

Owners of the iPhone 14 Pro are in for some noticeable changes this year with the iPhone 16 Pro.

Two years of evolution have resulted in a new Pro iPhone that has a bigger screen, improved battery life, a faster chip and new AI capabilities. And did we mention this is the first smaller iPhone with a 5X zoom camera?

This might just be the perfect moment to upgrade, so let's explore all of the differences.

The iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro look very much alike, with flat sides and the familiar triple camera system on the back.

However, they are not exactly the same. The iPhone 16 Pro comes with a 6.3-inch screen, larger than the 6.1-inch display on the 14 Pro. The bezels around that screen are now slimmer for a more futuristic look.

And if you are curious about just the physical dimensions of these two phones, see below:

In summary, the iPhone 16 Pro is a tiny bit taller, but it weighs less than the 14 Pro.

You also get two new physical buttons. In place of the mute switch, the iPhone 16 Pro has the Action Button, which you can customize to pretty much everything with a few select presets and the endless possibilities of the Shortcuts app.

There is also a new Camera Control dedicated to camera features only. It is positioned below the power key on the right side of the phone. It's a capacitive button, which works with the stock camera app, but with third-party camera apps as well. It functions much like a standard camera shutter button – a lighter press lets you lock focus and exposure, and a firmer press captures a photo or starts recording a video. Since it's a capacitive button with a bigger area, you can also swipe on it to control zoom, background blur in portrait mode and other settings.

We love these new buttons, they are small changes that go a long way.

The 16 Pro also uses the fancier and lighter titanium material for the frame compared to stainless steel on the 14 Pro.

And did we mention the iPhone 16 Pro has a USB-C port, while the 14 Pro uses the older, proprietary Apple Lightning port? The USB-C port also supports fast USB 3 transfer speeds at up to 10Gbps, so you can easily work with an external drive.

Read more: iPhone 16 colors

As for the rest, it remains the same: IP68 water and dust protection, and the Dynamic Island with Face ID on the front.

The unboxing experience is changing a tiny bit as Apple is using a slimmer box, but what is not changing is the minimal contents of the box. You only get a cable and some user manual with your new iPhone, no charger, cases or a screen protector.

We already mentioned the difference in screen size – 6.3 inches on the 16 Pro vs 6.1 inches on the 14 Pro, and the slimmer borders around the screen on the 16 Pro.

The 14 Pro reaches around 1,000 nits of typical max brightness, while the 16 Pro can output 1,200 nits, so it is easier to use outdoors.

The minimum brightness can also drop to just 1 nit on the 16 Pro, which is noticeably dimmer than the 14 Pro and makes it easier to use the phone in bed.

The Face ID module is not changing, however, and works similarly on both phones.

A neat improvement is that the Ceramic Shield cover glass on the 16 Pro is now up to 2X stronger. This sounds great, but not very specific, and we guess Apple is referring to strength against drop tests rather than an improvement to scratch resistance. We wish we had more specifics here.

Apple has a new chipset ready for the iPhone 16 Pro, and we expect it to run faster and cooler. We still don't have an official name, but it's likely it will be called the Apple A18 Pro vs the A16 Bionic chip on the 14 Pro.

Apple is expected to jump to a new manufacturing technology using the next-gen 3nm process at chip maker TSMC, so we are optimistic.

The more important upgrade, however, might just be the humble upgrade to 8GB of RAM, up from 6GB RAM on the 14 Pro.

This is crucial for Apple Intelligence, which seems to only work on iPhones with 8GB of RAM.

AI will be a staggered launch, with many of the coolest features like the new and more knowledgeable Siri arriving months after the iPhone 16 launch. Still, you know they will be coming to the 16 Pro and not to the 14 Pro.

Also read: iPhone 16 AI features: Here is what to look forward to

Gamers will be happy to see new heat dissipation solution on the 16 Pro wchih will help with overheating problems, and games are first in line to benefit from this.

We cannot yet confirm this but the 16 Pro is likely to use the newer Qualcomm Snapdragon X75 modem, which should deliver improved connectivity and better signal.

What we know for sure is the new model gets Wi-Fi 7 compared to Wi-Fi 6 on the iPhone 14 Pro, and some of the benefits of Wi-Fi 7 are up to 2.4X faster speeds and lower latency in ideal conditions.

 

Both the 16 Pro and 14 Pro have a triple camera system on the back, but with a few significant differences.

The main camera remains a 48-megapixel sensor on both phones, but the iPhone 16 Pro benefits from better processing of photos.

You also get a big upgrade for the ultra-wide camera. The 12MP ultra-wide snapper on the 14 Pro is getting replaced by a new 48MP one on the 16 Pro, and that one performs better at night and gives you the option for high-res capture.

Finally, the 3X zoom camera is replaced by a 5X tetraprism zoom lens. This is great if you want to film your kid's concert or something far away, but it also means you will no longer have the native 3X zoom option (we loved that for portrait snaps).

We also love the new Photographic Styles on the 16 Pro. Styles have been available on iPhones for a while now, but on the 16 Pro Apple is making them way more powerful with more controls. Best of all, you no longer need to select a Style before taking a photo, you can apply and change styles after you capture a photo.

For video, the big new feature is the long anticipated high quality, 4K120 slow motion.

The iPhone 14 Pro maxes out at 1080p slow motion, and the 16 Pro looks crisper. This is a feature so advanced that many high-end cameras don't support it yet, and it will transform creative video capture on the iPhone. Most Android phones lack this feature, except for one – the Sony Xperia 1 flagship series.

When you edit a video on the newer model, you can also use Audio Mix, which lets you cut out background noise and isolate voices better. All of this should work great with the new studio quality mics in the 16 Pro, which promise improved clarity for audio.

Also read: iPhone 16 camera

We should also mention that the iPhone 16 Pro supports Apple's new Visual Intelligence, which in many ways is similar to Google Lens. You can point it towards objects in the real world to get information about them, but it's even more convenient as you can quickly fire it up with the Camera Control.

We don't yet have the battery size for the iPhone 16 Pro, but rumors mention the number 3,577mAh, which is nearly 10% bigger than the 14 Pro (which has a 3,200mAh battery).

What we do have is some other numbers.

Apple rates the iPhone 16 Pro for 27 hours of video playback, longer than the 23 hours for the 14 Pro. And the 16 Pro gets 85 hours of audio playback compared to 75 hours on the 14 Pro.

Of course, we will also be running our extensive in-house battery tests once we have the iPhone 16 Pro, so stay tuned for a lot more detail in this section soon.

Charging is also faster, but in an unexpected way.

We were hoping to see faster wired charging, but that remains the same as Apple quotes 20W max wired charging speeds for both the 16 Pro and 14 Pro.

However, MagSafe wireless charging now reaches 25W vs 15W previously. You would need a new MagSafe charger (the 16 Pro is also Qi2 compatible), and you will need to pair that with a powerful charging brick that delivers at least 30W to get the full benefit.

When you have all of that in place, the 16 Pro can get 50% top up in 30 minutes with MagSafe, while the 14 Pro only gets around 35% charge back with the older MagSafe standard.

And here is a look at the iPhone 16 Pro vs iPhone 14 Pro specs in a table:

So, should iPhone 14 Pro owners upgrade to the iPhone 16 Pro?

We say: yes, it's a good time to do this.

The iPhone 16 Pro is advertized with AI in mind, but there are multiple other changes that will make your life better. Improved cameras, longer battery life, faster MagSafe, cooler design with slim borders, USB-C and a lighter weight.

This checks most of our boxes.

Also read: iPhone 16: the deals

And for those who are not in a rush, rumors say the iPhone 17 Pro next year will bring the first major redesign in years, so that's what the future holds.