Apple iPhone 16 Pro

At Rs. 396,999, the Apple iPhone 16 Pro is a premium purchase, and its value depends on what you own now. It is a small step over the iPhone 15 Pro, so anyone on an iPhone 13 or newer has little reason to upgrade. Owners of an iPhone 12 or older will notice a much bigger jump.

Main advantages:

• Best-in-class video, now with 4K 120 fps
• A bigger, brighter display with thinner bezels
• A 48 MP ultrawide and a 5x telephoto
• Camera Control and tone settings for more photo control

Main compromises: Camera Control is finicky, battery life is about the same as last year, wired charging is slow, and the base 128 GB fills fast with high-frame-rate video.

Verdict: worth it for video creators, photographers and long-time iPhone users on older models. If you mostly want battery life and value, the Google Pixel 11 or Samsung Galaxy S26 cost much less.

The iPhone 16 Pro has a 6.3-inch LTPO OLED display at 1206 x 2622 pixels with a 120Hz refresh rate, so scrolling and animations stay smooth. Our database lists 1000 nits typical and 2000 nits in high-brightness mode, with HDR10 and Dolby Vision support for rich video.

The screen is slightly larger than last year's Pro, and the bezels are thinner and even all the way around, which makes the phone feel more modern. Displays and cameras are the two places where the Pro clearly beats the regular iPhone 16, which stays at 60Hz.

Limitation: one side-by-side test found the Pro's screen consistently a little dimmer than the 15 Pro Max in a side-by-side test, despite the same quoted brightness.

The Apple A18 Pro is built on a 3 nm process and has a 6-core GPU. It benchmarks roughly 10 to 30% faster than last year's chip depending on the task, but in everyday use the difference is hard to notice because the previous Pro was already very fast.

The extra power matters more for demanding tasks and future-proofing. All iPhone 16 models now have 8 GB of RAM, which helps apps stay in memory. A test of console-style Assassin's Creed on the base iPhone 16 held a steady 30 frames per second with settings cut down from the console version; the Pro was not tested the same way.

Heat: none of the sources tested sustained thermals for the Pro, and the phone still uses a graphite sheet instead of a vapour chamber. We cannot say how it behaves in long gaming sessions.

The iPhone 16 Pro camera is a significant step up from the regular iPhone 16. The 48 MP main sensor is one of the best to shoot with, and freezes motion well with very fast shutter speeds, even from a moving car. Shallow depth of field on close subjects is on par with big-sensor Android flagships.

• Ultrawide: now 48 MP, with clear extra detail in daylight and better macro shots. Night shots do not improve much and may show vignetting.
• Telephoto: a 12 MP 5x lens that is useful and resolves more detail beyond 5x. The 3x to 4x range uses digital zoom.
• Photo control: Camera Control and tone settings let you reduce the bright, flat iPhone look. Lowering tone gives more natural shadows.

Video is the highlight: 4K 120 fps looks great, and the four-microphone array with the audio mix feature can isolate voices, though storage use is heavy. Weakness: lens flare from point lights at night has not been fixed.

The iPhone 16 Pro has a 3582 mAh battery, about 9% larger than last year's Pro. In real use, battery life is about the same as last year: it lasts a whole day of heavy use, but not noticeably longer. Independent lab tests found it outlasting the Galaxy S24 and Pixel 9 in browsing tests.

Charging: our database lists 50% in 30 minutes over a wire, and faster wired charging proved useful in short bursts. There is no fast charger in the box, so you need to buy one. MagSafe and Qi2 wireless charging reach up to 25W with Apple's newer charger, but that needs a 30W adapter as well.

Compromise: reports differ on how fast wired charging really is, and Apple's wired speed is slow next to many Android rivals.

The iPhone 16 Pro runs iOS 18, and our database lists it as upgradable to iOS 26.3. Apple does not publish a fixed number of update years for iPhones, so treat long-term support as a track record, not a promise.

Useful features:

• Customisable home and lock screens, including coloured icons and lock screen shortcuts
• An Action Button you can map to the camera, a task app or other shortcuts
• Pause while recording video, plus music that keeps playing when you start recording

Apple Intelligence was not available when the phone launched and arrived later in software updates. Some features proved useful, such as email summaries, while Siri and photo cleanup felt limited. Availability can vary by language and region, so check before buying. Pakistani buyers should also check PTA approval, especially for imported units.