Apple iPhone 16 Plus vs. iPhone 15 Plus | Infinium-tech

The iPhone Plus is my least favorite iPhone due to it being very close to the Pro in terms of price, but with less features and the infamous OLED at 60Hz refresh rate. Still, its thin and light design and amazing battery life have caught on with some buyers and they’ll probably want to know how the new Apple iPhone 16 Plus compares to the previous iPhone 15 Plus.

Table of Contents:

For starters, you can compare the full specifications or continue straight to our editor’s assessment In the following text.

To recap, the iPhone 16 Plus comes with a new chip that promises AI capabilities, better screen glass, expanded camera capabilities, and faster wireless charging. Action keys and new camera controls have also been added. But all of this fits on a specific page – let’s see how different the two devices actually are in real-world use.

size comparison

The iPhone 16 Plus has the same footprint as the iPhone 15 Plus, which is hardly a surprise. Both phones measure 160.9 x 77.8 x 7.8 mm. The iPhone 16 Plus is 2g lighter than the iPhone 15 Plus at 199g.

One difference is that the new iPhone 16 Plus should have improved durability, according to Apple. It features a new generation Ceramic Shield front, which is said to be 50% stronger than the previous one on the iPhone 15 Plus.

The iPhone 16 Plus also has two new buttons that aren’t on the iPhone 15 — the action key used to be exclusive to the iPhone Pro, and there’s also a new camera control.

display comparison

The iPhone 16 Plus has the same display as the iPhone 15 Plus – a 6.7-inch Super Retina XDR OLED with excellent HDR capabilities and high resolution, but a standard refresh rate of 60Hz. Both panels are advertised as capable of up to 1,000 nits normal and 2,000 nits maximum brightness.

Well, according to our display measurements, the iPhone 16 Plus screen is brighter than the iPhone 15 Plus – it offers 180nits more in auto brightness (1823 vs 1642), and 70nits more in manual mode (891 vs 820). Not that big a difference, but still.

battery life

The iPhone 16 Plus has a larger battery than its predecessor – up from 4.383 mAh to 4,674 mAh. That’s a modest increase of about 7%, but we’ll take it.

However, the more significant change comes from the improved efficiency of the new Apple A18 chipset and possibly some under-the-hood improvements in iOS 18.

As a result, the new iPhone 16 Plus achieved a record-breaking active usage score of 18:49 hours. This is a chart-topping battery endurance and shows that the new Plus model offers 10 hours more on voice calls, 2.5 hours more web time and 1 hour more video streaming compared to the iPhone 15 Plus. It’s probably safe to say that this is the iPhone with the best battery life yet.

charging speed

The iPhone 16 Plus supports fast wired charging, although Apple never discloses a maximum power rating. The company claims a 50% charge in 30 minutes when using a 20W USB-PD charger.

There’s also support for up to 25W fast wireless charging via the new MagSafe charger when plugged into a 30W+ power adapter. If you have a compatible Qi2 charger, the iPhone 16 Plus will max out at 15W. Meanwhile, iPhone 15 Plus MagSafe wireless charging maxes out at 15W.

We conducted our charging test with a 45W PD charger to give the iPhones the best chance. Both phones took almost the same time to charge. That charger filled 85% of iPhones’ batteries in an hour and the last 15% took more than 30 minutes.

speaker test

The iPhone 16 Plus and iPhone 15 Plus have identical stereo speakers. They are of the hybrid variety where the earpiece is one of the speakers. The second speaker is at the bottom of the phone, next to the USB-C port.

The iPhone 16 Plus scored a Very Good score in our loudness test, while the iPhone 15 received a Good score. The difference can be heard through our audio playback tool, although in real life you would have difficulty doing so.

Display

This year’s big upgrade for the iPhone 16 Plus is the Apple A18 chipset, which is two generations ahead of the iPhone 15 Plus – the A16. This is a second generation 3nm chip that is both more powerful and more efficient.

The Apple A18 features a faster six-core processor, a better 5-core GPU with better hardware raytracing support. It also comes with more RAM, now 8GB.

The A18 CPU is said to be 30% faster than the iPhone 15 Plus CPU and 60% faster than the iPhone 12 CPU. The GPU should be 40% faster than the iPhone 15 Plus and twice as fast as the iPhone 12.

benchmark performance

In our tests the new Apple A18 CPU inside the iPhone 16 Plus scores about 20% higher than the A16 inside the iPhone 15 Plus. There’s also a 30% to 60% bump in GPU performance, depending on 3D testing.

The A18 chip has a new NPU, which delivers scores almost twice as high as the NPU inside the iPhone 15 Plus.

The new iPhone chip allows all those high-end games to run very well on the iPhone 16 Plus that were incompatible with the iPhone 15 Plus and this is probably the most notable upgrade if you are a gamer.

Thanks to the new chipset, you’ll also get access to the Apple Intelligence feature once it’s released – as long as you live in a supported region (outside the EU and China).

camera comparison

The iPhone 16 Plus practically borrows its main camera setup from the iPhone 15 Plus. It’s quite powerful – a 48MP sensor with 1/1.56″ size, 1.0µm individual pixels and sensor-shift OIS. It has a bright f/1.6 lens on the front. The same applies for the selfie camera – the 12MP shooter has Its salt has already been proven and it is also equipped with phase detection autofocus.

The only upgrade is the new ultrawide camera. It’s still a 12MP unit. However, this year, there’s a brighter lens with an f/2.2 aperture. Plus, perhaps best of all, it now has autofocus, allowing it to also work as a macro camera for close-ups.

Of course, there are new camera controls too. This is an actual physical button that when pressed causes an actual trip. It also integrates a capacitive sensor that allows touch and swipe interactions as well as a high-precision force sensor that detects light presses.

image quality

There will hardly be any improvement in photo quality in daylight, no matter how hard Apple tries to convince you. The iPhone 16 Plus captures similar photos to the iPhone 15 Plus. They are detailed with natural colors, low noise and great dynamic range. Foliage rendering isn’t our favorite – especially if you shoot in the default 12MP.

The samples given below were taken at the same place but at different times.

iPhone 16 Plus: 0.5x • 1x • 2x • Selfie

iPhone 15 Plus: 0.5x • 1x • 2x • Selfie

The iPhone 16 Plus can now also take macro photos with its new ultrawide camera.

iPhone 16 Plus – Macro with UW camera

The photos we took with the main camera in both 1x and 2x modes in low-light conditions are quite similar. The camera app has not opted for night mode on the iPhone 15 Plus, but still, the quality remains the same.

The brighter aperture on the ultrawide camera makes an impact at night and ultrawide photos from the iPhone 16 Plus are more detailed and brighter with less noise.

iPhone 16: 0.5x • 1x • 2x

iPhone 15: 0.5x • 1x • 2x

video quality

New video options have been added to the iPhone 16 Plus – a studio-grade microphone for better audio quality, as well as spatial video and audio recording capabilities.

Furthermore, the video quality remains the same across all cameras.

Daylight videos from all three cameras are excellent, including stabilization.

Below we have some framegrabs of video taken by both phones at each focal length, so it’s easy to compare them.

iPhone 16 Plus: 0.5x • 1x • 2x • Selfie

iPhone 15 Plus: 0.5x • 1x • 2x • Selfie

Low-light videos from ultrawide cameras are now better – they’re better exposed, with more detail and less noise.

iPhone 16 Plus: 0.5x • 1x

iPhone 15 Plus: 0.5x • 1x

decision

The iPhone 16 Plus is an excellent premium smartphone with flagship-grade features and it delivers in all the areas that matter – design, screen, battery life, speakers, performance, and camera.

The iPhone 16 Plus is the faster phone of the two, with a better ultrawide camera and faster wireless charging. If we believe Apple, battery life has also become better and durability has also improved. Now you also get action keys and camera controls.

Even though it offers almost the same user experience, the iPhone 16 Plus is actually a better phone than the iPhone 15 Plus.

However, the iPhone 15 Plus is now around €250 cheaper than the 16 Plus and has many of the same features. Choosing between the two will depend on your budget and whether you value the additional features the iPhone 16 Plus can offer.