As consumers, we’ve probably gotten used to only iterative upgrades on our common gadgets each year. Gone are the heady days of dramatic display upgrades, and features being introduced that hadn’t been heard of before. But every once in a while, these iterative upgrades come together to make what might be the near-perfect you’ve used in a long time. I might believe after almost a month of using it, that the new iPhone 16 Plus is one such device. Here’s why.
Design
The most appealing aspect of the iPhone 16 Plus’ new aesthetics is the drool-worthy new colours - Ultramarine, Teal, and Pink. If wishes were horses, and money grew on trees, I’d get all three for myself. In terms of hardware, what’s noteworthy is the new Camera Control button, which I’ve written about in my review of the iPhone 16 Pro, and will also talk more about further in this article. The still-new customisable Action Button from last year has been carried over to this year as well. I personally find it quite handy, with the ability to choose among multiple functionalities.
Display
I love big screens and I cannot lie. And, the 6.7 inch Super Retina XDR display on the iPhone 16 Plus is such a delight. Having switched to this after reviewing the compact iPhone 16 Pro, I almost don’t miss the high-end phone owing to all the extra real estate available on this. Having said that, I have to mention that the device still offers a 60 Hz refresh rate in a market where even mid-rangers offer 120 Hz refresh rates. Another way it doesn’t match the ‘Pro’ models is the lack of an ‘Always On’ display. I’ve been using this feature on so many smartphones over the last year - both mid-range and premium ones - that it feels weird not to have it.
Camera
The primary camera setup on the iPhone 16 Plus includes a 48 MP main camera and a 12 MP ultrawide camera with auto-focus. By default, daylight photos are rich, with sharp contrast. Photos taken in bright or near-perfect lighting conditions render some endearing results on the iPhone 16 Plus. Take away a bit of that light, for example, sitting indoors around 4 PM, without a lamp nearby, and the image quality in terms of exposure, skin tone, and noise suffers a bit. The real charmer with the new camera experience is the different photographic styles available in-app. These can be applied while finalising a shot, and are great to play around with. Each preset has its distinct appeal, and can also be tracked in terms of the tone, palette, and colour tweaks as I swipe through options. The photographic styles remind me of the 2010-era Instagram filters, but way more high quality.
There’s also a 12MP selfie camera, which delivers some decent selfies, although again the best results are rendered in daylight or well-lit conditions.
The unique Camera Control button takes some time to get used to. From the home screen, a single firm press on the capacitive button launches the camera app. Once in, a gentle half-press launches the zoom scroll feature. A full-push quick press captures still, ad a long full-press starts recording videos. While I struggled to get used to the sensitivity to trigger each feature, at the beginning, over time the button proved so handy that I’d be loathe to use the on-screen options.
Tech Specs
The Apple iPhone 16 Plus, and the iPhone 16, both run on the A18 processor. Multitasking is smooth, and no app or game feels sluggish on the device. With iOS 18 as the user interface, there are plenty of new customisation options on the home screen including a dark mode theme for the apps as well. The big USP of iOS 18, Apple Intelligence, though has still not announced its arrival. With the promise of Apple’s own AI experience which brings in features such as rewrite, proofread, summarise, and ChatGPT integration on-device, there’s been a lot of noise around this AI debut. But in practical terms, it’s still in the pipeline and not available on Apple devices at the time of writing.
Battery
The battery life isn’t exactly stellar but is also not disappointing on the iPhone 16 Plus. A full charge lasts me an entire day of moderate usage that involves, playing casual games, checking and responding to emails, reading articles online, streaming songs from Spotify, and using the camera often. At the end of my day (around 10 PM), the smartphone would still have anywhere between 20-40 per cent to spare, which also necessitates a plug-in at the end of the day. It takes me easily more than an hour to get it to fully charge from zero.
Verdict
If you’ve always wanted an iPhone but haven’t found the perfect starting point, there’s no better time than now. The iPhone 16 Plus carries over the best of the past - excellent build quality, an Action button, Dynamic Island, decent camera - and marries that with bold new colours, a new Camera Control button, improved battery life, and the promise of Apple intelligence landing on the device soon.
Price
₹89,900 (128 GB)
₹99,900 (256 GB)
₹1,19,900 (512 GB)
Pros - Fantastic hardware, catchy new colours, Camera Control, new Photographic Styles, powerful chipset Cons - 60 Hz refresh rate, lack of always-on display, long charging time