Which iPhone Should I Get?

Our general philosophy about upgrading (as described by Wirecutter’s founder) is that if you’re happy with what you have, you don’t need the latest and greatest. Last year’s iPhone or the one before that (or even the one before that) should continue to serve you well. New phones tend to offer incremental upgrades—they’re not revolutionary products that change the experience. Apple still issues security updates to older devices, and iOS 18 still supports every iPhone from 2018 on; even six years later, older phones are getting new features.

If you have an older phone that’s beginning to feel slower, you may want to check the battery’s health. A battery with depleted capacity can slow down your phone due to power-conservation features. If the iOS Battery Health screen shows the status “Performance management applied” or “Battery health degraded,” consider having Apple replace the battery (which can cost up to $119 out of warranty), rather than investing in a new phone.

Apple usually saves its best features for its most expensive iPhones, but the iPhone 16 makes fewer compromises than we’ve seen in previous years. If you own an older iPhone, this model offers a dramatic improvement that’s worth the upgrade.

The latest iPhone has a similar design to the iPhone 15: a 6.1-inch screen with the Dynamic Island pill-shaped display cut-out for the front-facing camera, and a color-infused glass back with an aluminum frame. (The iPhone 16 Plus looks identical, but it has a larger, 6.7-inch screen.) The iPhone 16 is powered by Apple’s A18 chip, which enables console-quality gaming and will support Apple’s forthcoming AI features. It has a new Camera Control button, a redesigned rear-camera system with a new ultrawide sensor capable of macro photos, the Action button from the iPhone 15 Pro, and all-day battery life with faster charging. It doesn’t have the iPhone 16 Pro’s larger screen, always-on display, titanium frame, powerful processor, studio-quality microphones, or a camera system capable of telephoto zoom and high-quality slow-motion video. But those features are overkill for most people (and they cost more).

If you want a larger screen and longer battery life, the iPhone 16 Plus is an extra $100 over the base model. It doesn’t last as long on a charge as the iPhone 16 Pro Max, but Apple’s most-premium iPhone costs $300 more.

First things first: Apple Intelligence is promising, but it’s not yet ready for prime time. The early Apple Intelligence features rolled out in beta (i.e. unpolished) in iOS 18.1. I compared it against Google’s Gemini AI on a Google Pixel 9 Pro, asking each virtual assistant a series of questions about the best morning workouts, how to be more mindful, and fun things to do in Cupertino. On the latter question, Google’s assistant was more useful: It offered a summary with a list of activities, while Siri recommended specific locations, but without links or a way to export those recommendations outside of a screenshot. I also found Google’s AI-powered voice transcription to be more accurate than Apple’s.

The Apple Intelligence Writing Tools feature is slightly more capable than Gemini, however. Gemini can summarize and read highlighted text and documents aloud, while Apple can proofread, summarize, and rewrite emails or messages to sound more friendly, professional, or concise, in addition to reformatting text into key points, lists, or tables. The results were decent overall, comparable to services like Grammarly, and were processed relatively quickly. However, we wouldn’t recommend buying the iPhone 16 for the current Apple Intelligence features just yet. More AI features will be coming to the iPhone later this year.

The A18 chip powers more-impressive graphics while gaming. Along with 8 GB of RAM (up from 6 GB on the iPhone 15), the iPhone 16 feels noticeably snappier than the iPhone 15 for multitasking, speech recognition, image and video processing, and gaming without performance compromises. The latest iPhone also gains more-realistic visual effects and lighting in games like Resident Evil 4, Death Stranding: Director’s Cut, and Assassin’s Creed Mirage, which was previously available only for the iPhone 15 Pro and consoles. The A18 is also designed to power Apple’s new AI features, when those become available.

The new Camera Control button is useful, but it takes some getting used to. The entire iPhone 16 lineup has a new pressure-sensitive, physical button to quickly control camera features, including capturing photos and recording video. An initial hard press opens the camera app, an additional hard press will capture images, and a long press and hold will record videos (recording will cease once you let go). Swiping across the Camera Capture button cycles through additional controls, such as exposure, depth, zoom, camera angles, photography styles, and undertones.

We found the button was fairly responsive for swipe, half-, and full presses. But in the early days of using the new button, we found it was hard to remember which type of press activated which camera shortcut; the half-press functions to access the camera options particularly take some getting used to. However, you can adjust the controls in Settings > Accessibility > Camera Control, and you can also reassign the button to different tasks, like quickly launching a QR code scanner or Magnifier. You can also choose not to assign an action to the button.

A DSLR-like two-stage shutter feature—which will let you lock focus and exposure with a half-press of the Camera Control button and a full press to capture the photo—is coming later this year.  Also coming soon is Apple’s Visual Intelligence feature, a Google Lens–like visual search tool that uses Google, OpenAI, and Yelp to give you information about the subject you’ve photographed. It’s disappointing that these features, like other Apple Intelligence features, aren’t yet available, but we’ll update this guide with additional testing when they roll out.

The upgraded cameras take excellent photos. The iPhone 16 and 16 Plus both have a vertically stacked dual-lens rear-camera system that includes a 48-megapixel main lens and a new, 12-megapixel ultrawide with autofocus.

The results from the main sensor are always sharp, vibrant, and full of detail, and they feature accurate colors. By default, these images are reduced to a 24-megapixel file, with the option to shrink it even further to 12-megapixels. However, Apple has added the option for full-resolution 48-megapixel images, which can be accessed by going to Settings > Camera > Formats, toggling Resolution Control on, and then tapping JPEG MAX for full-resolution images in the Camera app. It works only at 1x, and it can’t be used in Night Mode or Flash Photos. This won’t be useful for most people, and if you buy an iPhone with the base amount of storage, know that full-resolution images can take up a ton of space (around 8 MB per image).

The iPhone 16 uses a combination of software and an ultrawide camera to shoot 2x optical-quality zoom. This produces nearly the same image quality as the 16 Pro’s optical zoom, though in some cases you’ll see additional noise, and details won’t be as sharp. The new ultrawide sensor with auto-focus enables macro focus, which captures crisp, high-quality photos when you want detailed shots. The stacked camera setup also allows you to capture spatial photos and spatial 1080p videos for the Apple Vision Pro, if that’s a thing you’re interested in; both of those features were previously exclusive to Pro iPhones.

The entire iPhone 16 lineup supports new Photographic Style presets in the Camera app; these are kind of like filters, except they adjust the tone and color palette of specific parts of your photos. You can access Photographic Styles by opening the Camera app and selecting a new icon, on the top right, that looks like a grid of dots next to the Live Photos icon. You can swipe to cycle through a total of nine presets, and you can also adjust the undertone of skin colors in photos to more accurately reflect what they look like in real life—this has been a big emphasis of Google’s Pixel cameras, and it’s a welcome addition to the iPhone.

In my testing, Google’s image-rendering software handles darker skin tones slightly better than Apple’s new photographic styles, but it’s a step in the right direction for Apple. The photographic styles can help showcase darker skin tones more accurately, but they require some tweaking after applying them, to get the tones spot-on. Google’s software gets it right by default.

The iPhone continues to capture the best videos of any smartphone we’ve tested this year. The iPhone 16 has the same video quality as last year's model, producing sharp, stabilized, detailed footage. It shoots 4K HDR up to 60 frames per second, slow motion in 1080p up to 240 fps, 4K cinematic mode up to 30 fps, and Action mode in 2.8K. And with the new ultrawide lens, it can capture macro-level video and slow motion up to 4K 60 fps.

Its battery lasts longer and supports faster wireless charging than those of previous iPhone models. With the A18 chip and a new ability to dim the display to just 1 nit, the iPhone 16 lasted an hour longer than the iPhone 15 in our testing. Wired charging speeds remain unchanged, hitting 50% in about 30 minutes and 100% in two hours. But wireless charging speeds get a big boost: If you use a MagSafe charger with a 30 W adapter, your iPhone 16 will charge about as fast as it does when charging via USB-C cable.

If battery life is your highest priority, Apple says the iPhone 16 Pro Max has the best battery life of any iPhone, and our real-world testing confirms that to be true—but the iPhone 16 Plus comes close. With light to moderate usage, the 16 Plus lasted a couple of days on a charge. On days of heavy testing—which included a total of 45 minutes of GPS navigation, streaming YouTube content for an hour, playing Call of Duty: Mobile and Resident Evil 7: Biohazard for over two hours, writing this review for an hour, 40 minutes of web browsing, and about 30 minutes of doomscrolling TikTok before going to bed—the iPhone 16 Plus was still at 40%, compared with 21% after a similarly heavy day of testing the iPhone 16. If you don’t need Pro-level features, the iPhone 16 Plus will last nearly as long as the Pro, and it costs a lot less (though it’s much larger than the basic iPhone 16, if size is an important factor to you).

The Action button comes to non-Pro iPhones. The Ring/Silent switch is gone from the base model iPhones, and it’s replaced with the customizable Action button introduced on last year's Pro models. You can use the button to enable Silent mode or Focus mode; launch the Camera (for selfies, photos, videos, portrait mode, or portrait selfies); turn on the flashlight; open Voice Memo, Translate, Magnifier, Shortcuts, or Accessibility; or assign it to do nothing. You can also use it to Shazam a song or open the Control Center.

Apple’s iOS 18 adds several new apps and features, with many coming soon. iOS 18 enables deeper customization of your homescreen, lockscreen, and Control Center; RCS messaging (which makes texting your Android friends easier with read receipts and high-res images); a built-in Password manager; the ability to lock and hide apps; and more. Our full guide to iOS 18 is here, and you don’t need an iPhone 16 to take advantage of its new features.

It comes in fun colors. The iPhone 16 comes in black, white, and a jewel-toned pink, teal, and ultramarine, and the three latter shades are vivid and beautiful. If you don’t plan to cover your iPhone with a case, a dramatic shade is worth buying.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

Apple’s first wave of much-hyped AI features aren’t exciting. The iPhone 16 lineup is designed for Apple Intelligence, but it launched without them, and the early AI features available in iOS 18.1 are underwhelming. They include a photo clean-up tool that can remove unwanted people or objects from photos; a smarter Siri, which can better understand your questions; new writing-assistance tools, for making your emails sound more professional; and email summaries. Additional features will roll out in December and throughout 2025. But given that Apple’s marketing for the iPhone 16 has emphasized artificial intelligence, we’re frustrated the phones launched without it and the early features aren’t that impressive.

The Pro-model iPhones have always been designed for power users and creatives who need lengthy battery life, the best camera, high-quality audio, and other features that are overkill for regular people. The iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max double down, with new tools for professional filmmakers and content creators. Both Pro models have bigger screens than their predecessors, and both offer multiple camera focal lengths with upgraded ultrawide and 5x telephoto cameras, which can capture video in high-resolution slow-motion. And both models have new, more powerful, more versatile microphones. The 16 Pro Max has a bigger screen and longer battery life than the 16 Pro, but otherwise, the two are identical.

The larger display and A18 Pro processor make the iPhone 16 Pro great for gaming. The 16 Pro gets a bump up to a 6.3-inch display with 2622 x 1206 pixels, from the 15 Pro’s 6.1-inch screen with 2556 x 1179 pixels. The 16 Pro Max has a 6.9-inch screen with 2868 x 1320 pixels, compared with the 15 Pro Max’s 6.7-inch screen with 2796 x 1290 pixels. Both 16 Pro models offer 2,000 nits of maximum brightness, which dim as low as 1 nit to preserve battery life. And both have 120 Hz high-refresh-rate screens, with an always-on display feature that allows you to view your notifications without powering on your screen, plus thinner bezels. Apple claims to have improved its graphics to run high-end games better than last year’s A17 Pro processor in the iPhone 15 Pro, but it isn’t noticeably faster. During our testing, it handled graphic-heavy games like Call of Duty: WarZone Mobile and Resident Evil 7: Biohazard without any hiccups, though it did get slightly warm to the touch.

You don’t have to splurge on an iPhone 16 Pro Max to get the best cameras. Apple normally saves its most impressive camera array for its biggest, priciest phone, but the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max have the same triple-lens rear camera systems: a 48-megapixel main lens, a 48-megapixel ultrawide, and a 12-megapixel telephoto with 5x optical zoom. With this triple-camera setup, you can shoot seven focal lengths: 13 mm macro, 13 mm ultra-wide, 24 mm, 28 mm, 35 mm, 48 mm 2x telephoto, or 120 mm 5x telephoto. The iPhone 16 Pro takes excellent photos in normal conditions, but it also excels at night-mode shots, portrait shots, night-mode portraits, and selfies, all with natural colors and sharp details.

The new 48-megapixel ultrawide is a welcome addition, providing better resolution for both wide-angle photos and sharper macro photos. With its new sensors and A18 Pro chip, the 16 Pro models can now record in 4K 120 fps video, which lets you shoot high-quality slow-motion, because you can adjust the speed and frame rate when editing. This isn’t for everyone: Shooting 4K slow-motion video takes 740 MB per minute. You can also still record ProRes video using an external SSD with a minimum speed of 220 MB per second.

The 48-megapixel main lens can capture full-resolution images with options for smaller 24-megapixel and 12-megapixel images. To take advantage of the full 48-megapixel sensor, you can turn on the ProRAW and Resolution Control toggle within the Format section of the Camera app settings. If you plan on buying the base Pro with 128 GB storage capacity, keep in mind that larger ProMax photos can take up to 75 MB of storage, so you may want to use the JPEG Max option for a smaller 10 MB file size.

The iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max have impressively long battery life. The iPhone 15 Pro got only a marginal boost in battery life year over year, but this generation is different. While testing the iPhone 16 Pro, I spent 40 minutes using GPS navigation for subway and bus transit and nearly three hours capturing test photos and videos. I also played 30 minutes of Call of Duty: Warzone, scrolled Instagram for a half-hour, and watched TikTok videos for almost an hour before bed. And I still had 30% battery left. The 16 Pro charges from 0% to 50% in about 30 minutes, and up to 100% in around two hours. MagSafe charging speeds are much faster, now matching wired charging speeds using a 30 W adapter.

The iPhone Plus models typically have the longest battery life in the iPhone lineup, but this year, the iPhone 16 Pro Max is the winner. With light to moderate usage, I eked out nearly three days on a single charge. On a heavier usage day, I mapped my way around using GPS navigation for more than a half-hour, streamed YouTube videos for nearly two hours, played Call of Duty: Mobile and Resident Evil 4 for nearly two hours, spent an hour typing notes for this review, browsed the web using Google Chrome (a notorious battery hog) for 30 minutes, and scrolled TikTok for close to an hour before bed. I went to sleep with still more than 40% battery at the end of the day, compared with just under 30% on the iPhone 16 Pro. However, the larger 16 Pro Max will take two and a half hours to fully charge from 0% to 100% due to its bigger battery size.

The Pro models are great for recording sound. Apple added four new microphones to the Pro models. Those new mics are combined with an iPhone 16-exclusive Audio Mix feature, which uses mics and AI to filter out unwanted background noise and isolate vocals on an audio track, giving the Pro models a noticeable advantage in audio quality. (The Audio Mix feature is also available on the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus models, but the Pro’s new mics give it an edge.)

Flaws but not dealbreakers

The already-massive Pro Max is now even bigger. The 6.7-inch iPhone 15 Pro Max was already pushing the limits for those with small hands, pockets, and bags, and the 6.9-inch iPhone 16 Pro Max is even larger and heavier. The 6.3-inch Pro hits the sweet spot—not too big or too small—and saves you $200, but you’ll sacrifice the best battery life.

Apple Intelligence is mostly unnoticeable and not super useful—for now. Like the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus, the Pro models offer a handful of early AI features with iOS 18.1, which rolled out in October, but we found them to be mostly lackluster.

The iPhone SE (3rd generation) is more than just an inexpensive iPhone—it’s a great phone in its own right. Even though it’s smaller than the other phones in Apple’s current lineup, it uses a modern processor that’s fast enough for pretty much any task. It also takes very good photos, and it offers all of this while costing nearly $400 less than the 128 GB iPhone 16. If you generally like smaller devices, prefer using a fingerprint instead of Face ID to unlock your phone, or don’t want to pay the premium for a larger iPhone, the SE is a great option.

It performs well and can run iOS 18. It uses the same A15 Bionic processor as the older iPhone 13 phones, and in our testing it ran apps and played games without any slowdowns or hiccups. The updated processor improves performance as well as battery life; this helps the SE last well into the evening with heavy usage or even longer with light to moderate usage. And Apple has shown a commitment to extending the life of its iOS handsets through software updates; the SE came out in early 2022 and has been updated with Apple’s latest operating system, iOS 18.

It will fit in any hand or pocket. Other than the price, the iPhone SE’s most appealing feature is its size. The 4.7-inch screen is small enough for most people to reach from the bottom-left corner to the top right with their thumb without adjusting their grip. It’s not as small as 2021’s iPhone 13 mini, though, and it has a lower screen-to-body ratio.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

It has only one camera lens. The iPhone SE’s one camera is comparable (but not quite identical) to the wide-angle lens on 2020’s iPhone 12, and it supports the background-blurring Portrait Mode (for people, not animals or objects). Since the iPhone SE still lacks Night Mode, it falls far short in its low-light photo performance—if you take a lot of pictures at night or in dark environments, you’ll be far happier with the iPhone 16 or iPhone 15. Although the front-facing camera on the iPhone SE has a lower megapixel count and can’t record 4K video, we found its photos to be fine. And the iPhone SE is the only iPhone without Face ID that can take Portrait Mode selfies, a welcome feature.

This is still the only iPhone you can currently buy without Face ID. Instead, the iPhone SE gives you a pressure-sensitive Home button and Touch ID fingerprint sensor to unlock your screen, confirm purchases, and authenticate your identity for various apps. Although Touch ID is fast, it can fail if you don’t place your finger on it properly or if your finger is wet. In contrast, Face ID is generally seamless, but it can be inconvenient if your phone is in a position where placing your face in front of it is awkward (for example, if it’s flat on a desk or in a stand or a car mount).

The iPhone SE offers decent water resistance, but it’s not the best. The SE is rated IP67, less than the IP68-rated iPhone 16; the iPhone SE is tested to withstand being under 3 feet of water for 30 minutes, compared with 20 feet for the iPhone 16. Regardless, the SE should be impervious to splashing and incidental water damage, and it should be able to survive a drop in the pool, the tub, or (let’s face it) the toilet. Note, however, that you shouldn’t charge any phone until it’s completely dry.

If you’re on a tight budget, the 64 GB of storage on the iPhone SE is probably adequate. But if you take a lot of photos, or if you keep videos or a music library on your phone, consider doubling that storage space to 128 GB for only $50 more.

The $700 Apple iPhone 15 and $800 iPhone 15 Plus can’t shoot macro photos, they won’t support the forthcoming Apple Intelligence features, and they lack the Action and Camera Control buttons. But they still offer fast performance, can shoot amazing photos and videos, and are now $100 cheaper than they were at launch.

The $600 Apple iPhone 14 and $700 iPhone 14 Plus are still great phones, but they lack newer features, such as the Dynamic Island and a USB-C port. If you have an extra $200 to spend (or come across a great trade-in deal), the $800 iPhone 16 is worth buying because it will support software updates longer and will enable Apple’s new AI features.

This article was edited by Arthur Gies and Caitlin McGarry.