Apple at its Glowtime Event held at its headquarters in Cupertino, California officially launched the iPhone 16, Watch Series 10, and AirPods 4 —which will all be available in stores starting September 20th with pre-orders starting today except for the iPhone 16 Pros —which starts on Friday.
The event was kicked off by Apple CEO, Tim Cook live from Apple Park —as he commenced the event with a focus specifically on Apple Intelligence and its capabilities. He called upon the company’s COO, Jeff Williams to introduce the latest smartwatch, the Apple Watch Series 10 which comes in two variants. Jeff revealed that the series is slimmer than its predecessor, but features a larger OLED display that is up to 40% brighter when viewed at an angle, making it easier to glance at information, while still offering the digital crown and the physical button on the right side of the watch.
Under the hood, the Apple Watch Series 10 is powered by a new S10 chipset with a four-core neural engine which according to Apple is 30 percent smaller. With a new change in design, users can now play music and podcasts directly on their smartwatch using the built-in speaker if they don’t have their AirPods.
Water resistance was upgraded and a new depth gauge automatically comes on when you dive into the water, allowing you to go down up to 5m. Apple says the smartwatches are perfect for snorkeling and are even getting the Oceanic+ app.
The watches support the fastest charging yet, you can get up to 80 percent of the charge achieved in just 30 minutes.
Apple Watch Series 10 with the GPS model starts at $399, and the GPS+Cellular one is $100 more while the Ultra 2 starts at $799. Pre-orders have commenced, and they will be available for purchase starting September 20th.
AirPods 4
Apple went on to introduce the next product, the AirPods 4 which comes in two variants; standard AirPods 4 and AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation. The AirPods 4 are touted as the best-sounding non-Pro AirPods and the most comfortable ones. Apple has used special mapping technology to examine a large pool of users’ ears and make the earpods more comfortable.
The AirPods 4 are powered by Apple’s H2 chip and feature a new acoustic architecture which is claimed to improve sound quality. AirPods 4 also offer personalized spatial audio, adaptive audio, and conversational awareness.
The case has also been revamped and Apple says it’s the lightest and most portable one yet. With the said case, the buds can go for 30 hours of continuous playback, so no compromises in battery life. The case also gets a small speaker so you can find your AirPods 4 easily or notify you of incoming calls, for example. Right next to the speaker, Apple has added a USB-C connector for charging. Now, the AirPods can be charged wired or wirelessly.
As for the pricing, the standard AirPods 4 without ANC will go for $129 and the ANC version will ask for $179. Pre-orders have commenced, and they will be available for purchase starting September 20th.
iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus
As expected not much has changed compared to its predecessor. Starting with the display, the panels are the same size as before, 6.1-inch for the iPhone 16 and 6.7-inch for the iPhone 16 Plus. They still run at 60Hz and can go from 2,000 nits in the sun to as low as 1 nit in the dark. According to Apple, the latest Ceramic Shield protection is 50% tougher than the original formulation and is twice as tough as the strengthened glass used by other phones.
The big upgrade is the Apple A18 chipset, which is two generations ahead of what the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus had, A16. This is a second-gen 3nm chip that is both more powerful and more efficient. The bionic chip is 30% faster than the iPhone 15 CPU and 60% faster than the iPhone 12 CPU. The GPU is 40% faster than the iPhone 15 and twice as fast as the iPhone 12. The iPhone 16 can offer the same CPU as the iPhone 15 performance while using 30% less power and the same GPU performance while using 35% less power. Apple also improved the system memory bandwidth by 17%.
The 48MP main camera hasn’t changed much, what has changed is the imaging pipeline behind it. Apple has introduced an intermediate mode that captures 24MP photos —they offer more detail than 12MP shots combined with smaller file sizes than 48MP images. There is a new ultra-wide camera —it’s the same 12MP module as last year’s Pros. It has autofocus, which enables a macro mode. Also, the brighter lens allows it to capture 2.6x more light than before for better nighttime images.
As for video, it can record 4K video with Dolby Vision at 60fps. The new AI features also include wind noise reduction for videos. There’s no dedicated telephoto lens yet, but instead the main camera and processing pipeline offer 2x zoom with optical quality at 12MP or you could choose a high-resolution 48MP option.
The two new models will be available from September 20, pre-orders will start this Friday. Both phones have 128GB base storage and you are looking at the same prices as last year —the iPhone 16 starts at $800 and the iPhone 16 Plus at $900.
58 countries and regions, including Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, South Korea, Turkiye, the UAE, the U.K., and the U.S. are in the first wave to get the new iPhone 16 and 16 Plus on September 20. The second wave of countries includes Macao, Vietnam, and 19 other countries and regions and they will get the new iPhones starting from Friday, September 27.
iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max
These are Apple’s most top-notch smartphones and are powered by the top-of-the-line A18 Pro chip, which also powers the new Apple Intelligence features that are part of iOS 18. The new iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max also feature larger displays than their predecessors. The iPhone 16 Pro has a 6.3-inch screen and the Pro Max goes to 6.9-inch.
The A18 Pro is built on a 3nm process and has a new 16-core Neural Engine. There’s a 17% increase in total system memory bandwidth, which also benefits the 6-core GPU which is up to 20% faster than the previous generation. The new 6-core CPU is “the fastest in a smartphone”, boasting two performance cores and four efficiency cores that can run the same workload as the iPhone 15 Pro 15% faster while using 20% less power.
Both iPhone 16 Pro models are equipped with a triple rear camera setup that comprises a 48-megapixel wide primary camera, an upgraded 48-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera, a 12-megapixel telephoto camera, and a ‘tetraprism’ periscope lens that offers up to 5x optical zoom performance. In the front, you have a 12-megapixel TrueDepth camera for taking video calls and capturing selfies.
The phones also support 4K 120fps recording.
The two Pro iPhone 16s will be available in black titanium, natural titanium, white titanium, and desert titanium. Pre-orders will start on September 13, and they will become available on September 20 for $999 and up for the Pro and $1,199 and up for the Pro Max.
In addition to the Action button that replaced the mute switch last year, Apple has equipped the new iPhone 16 series with a touch-sensitive Camera Control button that can be used to quickly launch the camera.
