iPhone 16 and Apple Intelligence

Apple announced the iPhone 16 range on 9 September 2024. Pre-orders opened on Friday 13 September, and all four models — iPhone 16, 16 Plus, 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max — went on sale together on Friday 20 September. Apple's release put the launch at "more than 58 countries and regions", Japan among them. US starting prices were $799, $899, $999 and $1,199.

Five months later, on 19 February 2025, Apple announced the lower-priced iPhone 16e as "a powerful new member of the iPhone 16 family"; it went on sale on 28 February in 59 countries and regions, again including Japan.

A phone "built for Apple Intelligence" — and what was on it at launch

Apple described the generation as built for Apple Intelligence at every turn; the standard-model release says so in its first sentence.

The iPhone 16 that buyers collected on 20 September did not have Apple Intelligence. The launch release said as much: "The first set of Apple Intelligence features will be available in beta next month as part of iOS 18.1", "with more features rolling out in the months to come". From an owner's point of view, features arrived roughly like this:

For buyers in Japan, Apple Intelligence in Japanese arrived roughly six months after the phone. Apple's Japanese release had said at announcement that Japanese would follow the next year.

The personal-context Siri shown at WWDC slipped further. Apple admitted the delay on 7 March 2025, and according to 9to5Mac the capability reached the iPhone 16 with iOS 27 on 14 September 2026. The software story — the delay, the turn to Gemini, the buyers' class action — is told on the macOS Sequoia and Apple Intelligence page and is not repeated here.

Not an iPhone 16 exclusive

A second gap between name and fact: Apple Intelligence was never exclusive to the iPhone 16.

When it was unveiled on 10 June 2024, the eligible iPhones were the previous year's iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max. At the October rollout, eligibility was those two plus the four iPhone 16 models. The previous year's standard iPhone 15 and 15 Plus were left out.

So "built for Apple Intelligence" did not mean "only runs on the 16". It meant that, for the first time, even the standard models met the bar. Apple said the new A18 was built on "second-generation 3-nanometer technology" and that its six-core CPU was 30 percent faster than the A16 Bionic. The A16 in the previous standard models could not run Apple Intelligence; the A18 could. That is where the generational line fell.

Camera Control: a button that is also a touchpad

The headline feature that did work on day one was Camera Control, on the right-hand side of all four models.

Apple described three sensors in one part: "a tactile switch that powers the click experience, a high-precision force sensor that enables the light press gesture, and a capacitive sensor that allows for touch interactions". That lets a single control handle:

Apple's own cases cover the control with "a sapphire crystal coupled to a conductive layer" so that finger movements still register through the case.

Camera Control had a second, promised role: visual intelligence, pointing the camera at something to learn about it. Apple said at launch it would come later in the year, and it arrived with iOS 18.2 in December as a press-and-hold on Camera Control. Mapping an AI entry point onto a physical control was arguably the part's real purpose.

The Action button reaches the standard models

The other physical change was the Action button. Introduced on the iPhone 15 Pro in 2023 in place of the Ring/Silent switch, it now came to the standard models.

By default it "switches between Ring and Silent", but it can open the camera, flashlight or controls, recognise music with Shazam, start Voice Memos, toggle a Focus, launch Translate and accessibility features, and more. With this generation, the physical mute switch was gone from every model in the lineup.

The Pros

The two Pro models grew: 6.3 inches for the 16 Pro and 6.9 inches for the 16 Pro Max, which Apple called iPhone's largest display, with "the thinnest borders of any Apple product". The chip was the A18 Pro.

On the camera side, the 48MP Fusion camera could record 4K at 120 fps in Dolby Vision, the Ultra Wide went to 48MP, and the 5x Telephoto — Pro Max-only the year before — came to the 16 Pro as well. For audio, Apple fitted four microphones it described as studio-quality.

Five months on: the 16e and Apple's first modem

The February 2025 iPhone 16e carried another first. Apple called its C1 "the first modem designed by Apple and the most power-efficient modem ever on an iPhone". Cellular radios had long been the part of the iPhone Apple bought in; here it began replacing that with its own design.

The 16e has the A18 and supports Apple Intelligence. Apple's specification page lists an Action button but no Camera Control, and the press release says visual intelligence is reached through the Action button instead.

The same season on Android

Selling a phone on AI was not unique to Apple. Google announced the Pixel 9 series on 13 August 2024, about a month before the iPhone 16, leading with Gemini Nano running on the device. By the time the iPhone 16 arrived, an AI-first flagship was not unusual. What set Apple apart was that its headline feature missed launch day.

For where Apple's voice assistant began, see iPhone 4S and Siri; for the previous generation, iPhone 15; for the product line, iPhone; for the companies, Apple and OpenAI. The generative-AI boom itself started with the launch of ChatGPT.