Shawdesh Desk: This September is when we expect the new iPhones will land, as they do every year. But what can we expect? Here’s what we’ve learned so far about two of the four phones thought to be on their way, the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus.

Design And Display

The Pro models may be moving up to larger screens, but the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus will probably retain the current 6.1-inch and 6.7-inch screens. But the phones may adopt a new OLED material called M14 for the displays, which is more power-efficient.

The big design change is likely to be the rearrangement of the two cameras into a vertical instead of diagonal orientation, making it possible for the iPhone 16 to shoot spatial video, currently the preserve of the Pro models in the current generation.

And the Action Button, a highly useful replacement for the mute/ring switch, also restricted to the Pro models in the current range, is also likely to land on all models in this fall’s range.

Just as importantly, it looks like physical buttons could be replaced by capacitive buttons, which is pretty cool.

And the colors will doubtless change, as well. This may mean that the current yellow option will remain exclusive to iPhone 15 and a new white iPhone 16 and 16 Plus will join the range. Or there could be as many as seven colors to choose from.

Cameras

The Pro cameras have always outshone the regular cameras on the iPhone, but things move fast. Now, the iPhone 15 matches the 15 Pro for pixels in the main camera (48 megapixels), though not with quite the identical sensor. It’s expected that the cameras on this year’s models will match the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus.

Processors

The iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus use a chip first seen on the iPhone 14 Pro. So, you might have expected the 16 and 16 Plus to employ the A17 Pro chip found in the iPhone 15 Pro. But no, it seems the strategy is changing and this fall’s releases will all use the A18, whether they’re a regular or a Pro model. That’s not to say the chips will be the same across the range, as two versions of A18 processor are predicted. It may be that we’ll see the A18 in the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus, with A18 Pro reserved for the Pro models. Apple’s chips are always punchily fast, so whatever they’re called, we can expect strong performance. It’s also thought that the next chips will double down on avoiding thermal issues and overheating, which—briefly—dogged the current iPhone 15 Pro before software updates solved this.

Release Date

Things will become clearer but expect the new iPhones to be announced in the second week of September, and on sale the week after, likely Friday, September 20.

Altogether, the reports so far suggest a decent upgrade to the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus hardware, and it’s possible that the real upticks will come in the software, exploiting the hardware with new features dominated by AI.