It’s September, which means, new iPhones. This year, in terms of hardware, Apple has yet another S year. Which is fine. Most people aren’t upgrading every year, or even every couple of years. Most of the changes are in the software this year. Though there is Camera Control, which at least is available at launch. It’s a new button on the side of the phone that lets you control the camera.
iOS 18 is here with Apple Intelligence, though that is going to be limited to iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max. And Apple Intelligence is also delayed until at least iOS 18.1, which will start rolling out next month.
Best Overall iPhone: iPhone 16 Pro Max
iPhone 16 Pro Max gains camera control
The iPhone 16 Pro Max is by far the best iPhone that you can buy right now. While it does look pretty similar to the iPhone 15 Pro Max, it does bring in some nice changes. Of course, the big one is going to be the Camera Control. While it was rumored to be called the Capture Button, Apple refuses to call it a button.
With Camera Control, you can easily open the camera app and snap a photo in both landscape or portrait orientation. You can also adjust the settings using that button, including the focus, aperture, and even photographic styles. Though, more features will be launching with iOS 18.1 in October.
The cameras are the same this year, aside from the ultrawide. It is now a 48-megapixel camera which is going to allow for much higher-resolution macro photos. That’s actually a pretty big deal, and even shortens the minimum focusing distance for macro shots.
iPhone 16 Pro Max does have significantly better battery life this year, Apple is touting that it can hit 33 hours of offline video playback, versus 27 hours on the iPhone 15 Pro Max. Since Apple doesn’t like to list battery capacities, that’s about the best we can do here.
Apple is once again selling the iPhone 16 Pro Max starting at $1,199 for 256GB. There’s also a 512GB and 1TB model available too. It’s available in Black Titanium, White Titanium, Natural Titanium and a new Desert Titanium.
Best Small iPhone: iPhone 16 Pro
The smaller iPhone 16 Pro is now bigger than ever
Apple is one of the few companies that still makes a fairly small phone. Though, the iPhone 16 Pro is now larger than before, at 6.3-inches. Both Pro models did gain a 0.2-inch increase in its display size. Allowing for larger batteries and cameras on the iPhone 16 Pro.
The iPhone 16 Pro is also made of titanium, like the Pro Max model, which makes this iPhone a lot easier to hold onto, and more comfortable. It’s much lighter this year while also being more durable, which is rather interesting. Apple is selling the iPhone 15 Pro in four colors: black, white, desert, and natural titanium. Making for some pretty boring colors this year on the Pro models, unfortunately.
There are fewer upgrades here, compared to the iPhone 16 Pro Max, but it does also get that A18 Pro chipset. This is a pretty powerful chipset, benchmarking ahead of the competition. But as I’ve always said, benchmarks really don’t matter. In day-to-day usage, I do notice a difference between the A18 Pro and the A17 Pro that was in the iPhone 15 Pro. You should see a much better performance here, with slightly better battery life.
The A18 Pro is also great to use for gaming, as Apple is even bringing console-level games to the iPhone 16 Pro. Making it so you can have a console in your pocket now – Nintendo Switch who? The first of those games, Resident Evil Village, has already been launched. It looks amazing on the iPhone 16 Pro, but it’s much better with a controller. The Backbone controller is a good option.
Of course, we can’t forget about USB-C. Finally, the chargers for Android phones will work with your iPhone. I’ve been using the iPhone 16 Pro for over a month, and it’s still weird plugging in a USB-C cable to it. Mostly because I use MagSafe almost exclusively on my iPhone, and have since the iPhone 12 Pro series. Apple did give us faster charging speeds this year, for wireless on the iPhone 16 Pro it can now charge as fast as 25W.
Best iPhone for Most People: iPhone 16
The iPhone 16 narrows the gap with the “Pro”
For most people, you won’t need something like a 120Hz display, a telephoto camera, or titanium. And for those people, the regular iPhone 16 is the best option. The iPhone 16 starts at $799, with options for up to 512GB of storage. It does actually add quite a few pro features, and even brings it up to the A18 chipset this year. Which is slightly lower than the A18 Pro in the iPhone 16 Pro models.
The iPhone 16 does once again have a matte back and sides, thank goodness. This is a change that Apple made last year with the iPhone 15. It also changed the orientation of the cameras, making it look more like the iPhone X from 2017. The main reason for this was, to allow users to shoot Spatial Video, which you need cameras to be in the same horizontal space to do so, versus them being diagonal like the iPhone 15.
There was a lot of talk about the colors this year on the iPhone 15, or the lack of colors on the iPhone 15. Apple went very vibrant for the colors this year. There’s the usual black and white colors, along with pink, teal and ultramarine. My personal favorite is the ultramarine, to be honest.
The iPhone 16 this year, arguably got the biggest performance leap compared to the other iPhone 16 Pro models. That’s because it jumped from the A16 to the A18 and also jumped from 6GB of RAM to 8GB. So it’s a much more powerful device this year.
Best Value iPhone: iPhone 15
The iPhone 15 ditches some “pro” features for a cheaper price
For most people, you won’t need something like a 120Hz display, a telephoto camera, or titanium. And for those people, the regular iPhone 15 is the best option. The iPhone 15 starts at $699, with options for up to 512GB of storage. Now that the iPhone 16 is out, the iPhone 15 gets a $100 price drop to $699. As mentioned, it does ditch quite a few “pro” features, like the ProMotion display, the telephoto camera and also the titanium frame. Instead, Apple is using an aluminum frame, which is fine. It’s still pretty durable and should survive a few drops with ease.
Something new that Apple did this year for the iPhone 15 was, give the back a matte finish. This was sorely needed, since the iPhone 12, 13 and 14 series all were fingerprint magnets on the back. Now, that’s not an issue on the iPhone 15 series either. Even though most people are going to stick to using their phone in a case, now you have the option to not use a case.
There was a lot of talk about the colors this year on the iPhone 15, which is a lot more pastel this year, compared to previous years. Apple is still offering five colors: blue, pink, green, yellow and black. There’s no true white color this time, but the colors are all so light, that you might not even notice. Honestly, the pictures really don’t do it justice. My sister picked up the iPhone 15 in blue and it looks really good. You can definitely tell that it is indeed blue and not white.
A few other upgrades for the iPhone 15 this year include the camera and processor. The iPhone 15 picked up the 48-megapixel sensor from the iPhone 14 Pro series the year before. Which kind of solves that telephoto problem. Since Apple lets you do 2x lossless zoom on the 48-megapixel sensor. This is because the sensor is so large, that Apple can crop in and give you a 2x zoom without losing any details. That’s a pretty big deal, to be quite honest. Then there’s the processor, it’s the A16 Bionic from the iPhone 14 Pro from last year. It’s not really a new processor, just new for this phone. It’s plenty fast, and battery life is pretty decent, too, so there’s that.
Then there’s USB-C. Many believed that only the Pro models would get USB-C this year, but that’s not true. Apple did bring USB-C down to the iPhone 15. Though some will argue that it is still using USB 2.0 speeds instead of USB 3.0, keep in mind that most other phones on the market do this. Very few offer USB 3.0 or 3.1 speeds because many don’t transfer files off of their phones – they use iCloud.
With the launch of the iPhone 15, many were upset that it was still using a 60Hz display. I even wrote an editorial about why it’s not coming to the iPhone 15. Apple calls 120Hz, “ProMotion” so why would they add a “Pro” feature to a non-Pro iPhone? Additionally, most people don’t even know what 120Hz is. Which is why the iPhone 15 is the best for “most people”.
Perhaps my favorite feature of the iPhone 15 series is the new Find My Friends feature. This lets you find your friends, just like you put an AirTag on them. It’s thanks to the new Ultra Wideband chip (which they didn’t call U2 for some reason; the 2014 fiasco might be the reason why). This chip gives you better precision finding, the only problem here is that it is only available on the iPhone 15 models, so your friends and family would need an iPhone 15 series phone to use this feature.
Best Cheap iPhone: Apple iPhone 14
2022’s iPhone is a great bargain in 2024
Apple is surprisingly still selling the iPhone 14. Which is fine, because it is still a really good iPhone. I absolutely loved my red iPhone 14. It was a good size, lightweight and the battery life was really impressive. So the iPhone 14 used the same A15 Bionic as the iPhone 13 series, which seemed odd, but it meant that Apple was really able to optimize for it, offering up really impressive battery life on the iPhone 14.
Now that we are two years out from the iPhone 14 release, Apple has dropped the price permanently to $599. Now that’s not the cheapest “new” iPhone you can get, as the iPhone SE is still out there. But that iPhone SE is from 2022 as well, and is not a good option for $429. You’d be better off spending another $170 for a much better experience and much more storage. Considering the iPhone SE starts at 64GB.
It does still have that aluminum frame, which looks and feels great, though the back is not matte like the iPhone 15. If you’re going to stick it in a case or don’t really care much about fingerprints, then that’s not a deal breaker. For me, it was really annoying and forced me to use a case.
iPhone’s cameras are always really good, and that’s still the case on the iPhone 14. It sports dual 12-megapixel cameras for wide and ultrawide. It does not offer telephoto and only digital zoom. However, the pictures of this phone are still impressive. I’m still shocked when I see photos coming out of the iPhone 14 because it’s just on another level.
Now for the real question: is it worth buying a year-old iPhone? Apple is really good with software updates. It updated the iPhone 6s for well over seven years before calling it quits. And we’d expect something similar for the iPhone 14. So even though it launched with iOS 16 and has already gotten iOS 17, we definitely expect it to hit at least iOS 22 or longer. So, buying a year-old iPhone is not a big deal. And even once it stops getting new versions of iOS, it will continue to get security updates – Apple just updated the iPhone 4s with a security update in September 2023.
