Is it worth upgrading to the iPhone 16 Pro from a 13, 14, or 15 Pro?

Image: Apple

It’s that time of year: Apple has announced its new suite of iPhones, raising the question of whether current owners should upgrade or stick with their older model.

There are many factors to consider – those still using the Lightning port could potentially justify an upgrade for USB-C alone – but we’ll mainly focus on the cameras for this article. This year, more than ever, the price premium on the Pro phones doesn’t make much sense if you’re not using them for photography and videography, so we’ll be trying to answer a straightforward question: will upgrading let you take better pictures?

Note: unlike last year’s models, the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max appear to have identical camera setups. We’ll talk a lot about the ‘iPhone 16 Pro’s’ cameras in this article, but anything we say will apply to both size options.

Scenario 1: You have an iPhone 15 Pro

We’ll start by comparing the 16 Pro to the last-generation 15 Pro since it lets us talk about the brand new features that will be an upgrade over the 14 Pro and 13 Pro too. However, we’ll start by saying it’s hard to recommend the year-over-year upgrade unless you have a specific use case that requires the new features.

Even Apple quietly admits this; during the announcement, whenever it compared the iPhone 16 Pro to previous models, it was usually put up against the iPhone 14 Pro instead of its direct predecessor. The iPhone 15 Pro is also the only other phone in Apple’s lineup capable of running all the Apple Intelligence features, which are the main selling point of the iPhone 16 line.

Image: Apple

However, there are still some improvements to be found in the iPhone 16 Pro’s camera system. Apple says that the 16 Pro uses a ‘second-generation’ sensor for its main camera, which can read out data two times faster, ‘enabling zero shutter lag’ even when taking Raw photos.

The 5x, 120mm equiv. camera from the 15 Pro Max is also now available on the regular-sized iPhone 16 Pro, replacing the 3x, 77mm equiv. camera from the 15 Pro. That’s not necessarily a clear win, though. The extra reach may be useful if you often shoot far-off subjects, but it makes it a little bit harder to take portraits; you’ll have to stand further away from your subject if you want to get the classic 80mm portrait framing, which will also compress the foreground and background more. However, if you want a 5x camera in a smaller phone, the 16 Pro is Apple’s first model to offer it.

iPhone 16 Pro cameras vs iPhone 15 Pro cameras

There are a few other minor improvements to the 16 Pro’s camera system compared to the 15 Pro’s. It can now shoot 3D-esque Spatial Photos, and Apple has upgraded the Photographic Styles system, which lets you apply different looks to your photos straight out of camera. Previously, they were baked-in, meaning you couldn’t shoot a picture with the ‘Warm’ Photo Style and then change it to the ‘Cool’ or ‘Rich Contrast’ one – now you can.

The 16 and 16 Pro also have slightly larger screens than their predecessors, which makes taking and viewing photos nicer, and the QuickTake video that you can access from the photo mode is now 4K60p instead of 1080p30p.

The most significant changes relate to the iPhone 16’s ultrawide camera and video modes. That brings us to a few reasons you might be able to justify an upgrade.

Scenario 1a: You’re a macro/wide-angle photography enthusiast

The ultrawide camera used for macro shots now has a much higher-resolution sensor. Image: Apple

The iPhone 15 Pro’s 0.5x, 13mm equiv. F2.2 ultrawide camera uses a 12MP, 5.6×4.2mm sensor and produces broadly disappointing photos. While the ultrawide camera on the iPhone 16 Pro appears to be using the same size sensor, it’s now using 48MP quad-Bayer technology.

This will allow for pixel binning, though the real-world effect remains to be seen. Given that the sensor is the same size and will likely bin down to the same resolution, it’s hard to imagine there being much of an improvement in low-light performance, which is where the previous iteration of the camera struggled.

If the 0.5x camera is your favorite, it’s probably worth waiting for the reviews to see how much of a difference the resolution bump makes. We’ll be sure to update this article as soon as we can with some wide-angle comparison shots.

Scenario 1b: You are going to shoot The Weeknd’s next music video with your iPhone

The Weeknd’s new music video is the latest addition to the Shot On iPhone gallery. Image: Apple

The next-generation sensor in the iPhone 16 Pro’s main camera enables a big jump in video performance: it can now shoot 4K footage at 120fps, double the speed of the previous Pro. You can even shoot at 120fps in Apple’s ProRes codec, provided you’re recording to external storage via USB-C.

Apple also claims the 16 Pro has much-improved audio with the addition of a ‘studio-quality’ four-microphone array. The microphones allow for wind noise reduction and some fancy software tricks called ‘Audio Mix’ that enable you to fine-tune how a video’s subjects sound.

As with the iPhone 15 Pro, Apple showed off the 16 Pro’s video prowess by having a famous artist shoot a music video with it. This year, it was The Weeknd, whose video for ‘Dancing in the Flames’ (seen above) was shot with the iPhone 16 Pro, making heavy use of the new slow-motion features. Feel free to judge how the footage fares, though do keep in mind that the video was shot by top-tier professionals using thousands of dollars of lighting and grip equipment.

Scenario 1c: You can’t live without the Camera Control

Image: Apple

We get it: new buttons are exciting, especially when they’re providing a new function. Apple’s new Camera Control button promises to let you launch the camera from anywhere, will act as a shutter button once you’ve opened the app, and you can slide your finger across it to adjust parameters like the focal length or aperture.

Apple also promised to improve the button via a software update that will make it act like a traditional shutter button that locks focus and exposure with a half press, and takes a picture with a full press. The Camera Control will also be available for third-party developers, so you may get some milage out of it even if the default iOS camera app isn’t your go-to.

There will be some people who call the Camera Control a gimmick, and who say that there’s no way it’d be worth upgrading from a perfectly good phone that’s only year old for it. And sure, it’s possible it won’t end up being very useful because of its placement, or its relatively complicated control scheme, which mixes gentle taps and press with swipes.

But if it actually improves the ergonomic experience of taking pictures with an iPhone, it could a real nice-to-have – though it’s up to you whether it’s ‘immediately upgrade’ compelling, or ‘look forward to it the next time you get a new phone’ compelling.

Scenario 2: You have an iPhone 14 Pro

The iPhone 14 Pro introduced the 48MP, 9.8×7.3mm quad-bayer sensor that Apple has iterated on for the iPhone 16 Pro, but that doesn’t mean that there haven’t been improvements in the past two years. The 16 Pro’s faster readout speeds should provide the same speed boost compared to the 14 Pro as they did to the 15 Pro.

The lenses on the 16 Pro’s cameras also have a variety of coatings not found on the 14 Pro, and, similar to the 13 Pro, the 14 Pro is stuck with the slower Lightning port instead of the near-universal USB-C one found on the 16 Pro.

The 16 Pro can shoot slow-mo ProRes 4K. The 14 Pro can’t. (The 128GB 14 Pro can’t shoot ProRes 4K at all; it’s limited to 1080p.) Image: Apple

For the main camera, many of the iPhone 16 Pro’s upgrades lie in software, not hardware. The 14 Pro can only shoot 4K ProRes at 30fps, which rules out the possibility of using it for slow motion like you can with the iPhone 16 Pro’s 120fps 4K mode. The 16 Pro also has a ‘next-generation’ portrait mode, which Apple says offers ‘2x better low-light performance.’ Given that the iPhone 16 Pro’s camera hardware isn’t taking in any more light, that’s almost certainly down to changes in how it handles multi-shot photography.

By default, the 16 Pro will also bin images to 24MP, versus the 12MP that’s the only option for the 14 Pro. (Do note that it’s not available in all modes, though; night mode and flash photos are still binned to 12MP.)

The ultrawide camera is one of the iPhone 16 Pro’s most notable upgrades. Image: Apple

The iPhone 16 Pro’s other lenses have more notable improvements. The iPhone 14 Pro’s ultrawide camera is the same as the one found on the iPhone 15 Pro, so any jump in quality provided by the 48MP sensor will apply here as well.

The 16 Pro’s telephoto lens also has a larger sensor, and tighter focal length; the 14 Pro’s 3x (77mm equiv.) camera has a 4x3mm sensor, where the 16 Pro’s 5x (120mm equiv.) camera bumps that up to 4.5×3.4mm – a 27.5% increase. Both cameras produce 12MP images, and have F2.8 lenses.

iPhone 16 Pro cameras vs iPhone 14 Pro cameras

Overall, the 16 Pro’s cameras are iterative improvements over the 14 Pros. However, if you take tons of images on your phone or are serious about video, there’s probably enough there for you to notice a difference. If you’re more of an occasional shooter, though, it may be worth sitting this one out.

Scenario 3: You have an iPhone 13 Pro

If you have an iPhone 13 Pro or one of its predecessors, the 16 Pro’s cameras should be an upgrade in pretty much every way. The 13 Pro has a 12MP F1.5 main camera, while the 16 Pro bumps the resolution up to 48MP. While its F1.78 lens is slower, its 9.8×7.3mm sensor also has 65% more area versus the 13 Pro’s 7.6×5.7mm sensor – that equates to around 0.3EV more light gathering ability, even with the brighter aperture.

That extra resolution enables a lot of camera features on the 16 Pro that the 13 Pro doesn’t have. The most obvious is the pixel-binned 12MP or 24MP shots, as well as the 48MP ProRaw mode. It also allows for the 24mm, 28mm, and 35mm ‘faux-cal’ lengths for the main camera, which work by taking different crops off the sensor. The iPhone 13 Pro also lacks the ‘2x’ option, which crops in to the 12MP middle section of the sensor.

The 16 Pro’s main camera is a notable improvement from the 13 Pro’s. Image: Apple

The ultrawide and telephoto cameras also use larger sensors, and the 16 Pro’s 5x camera offers a 120mm equiv. focal length compared to the 13 Pro’s 3x 77mm equiv.

The iPhone 16 Pro also includes the latest iterations of Apple’s image stabilization and HDR systems, though the company hasn’t said much about what benefits they offer over the predecessors found on the iPhone 13 Pro.

iPhone 16 Pro cameras vs iPhone 13 Pro cameras

The 16 Pro has several video features not found on the 2021 model, such as Apple Log, Spatial Video, the super-stabilized ‘Action Mode,’ and access to 60 and 120fps frame rates when shooting 4K. And if you’re shooting a lot of video and want to offload it to a computer, the iPhone 16 Pro will offer a much better experience; its USB-C port can transfer files at 10Gbit per second. That’s 20 times faster than the USB 2.0 speeds that the 13 Pro’s Lightning port provides.

Outside of the camera, the 16 Pro has a lot of quality-of-life improvements. To name a few, there’s satellite SOS, tougher front glass, faster charging, an always-on-display and both the Action button and the new Camera Control button. It’s also 5g lighter despite being physically larger because its frame is made of aluminium and titanium instead of stainless steel.

None of this is to say that you must upgrade your iPhone 13 Pro. In fact, two of the winning photos from this year’s iPhone Photography Awards were shot with an iPhone 13 or 13 Pro. If you’re happy with your phone, by all means keep using it. However, if you do feel ready for an upgrade the iPhone 16 Pro should offer enough features and camera improvements to make it well worth it.