Apple iPhone 16 Plus vs. iPhone 15 Plus

The iPhone Plus is the least favorite iPhone out there for being too close to the Pro price-wise, but with less features and the notoriously crippled OLED at 60Hz refresh rate. Still, its thin and lightweight design and amazing battery life has made sense to some buyers and they would 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 complete specs sheets or directly continue with our editor’s assessment in the following text.

To sum things up, the iPhone 16 Plus arrives with a new chip with the promise of AI capabilities down the line, an improved screen glass, expanded camera capabilities, and faster wireless charging. There is also the added Action key and the new Camera control. But all this fits on a specs page – let’s see how different the two devices really are in real-world use.

Size comparison

The iPhone 16 Plus has an identical footprint to the iPhone 15 Plus, which has hardly surprising. 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 of Ceramic Shield front, which is supposed to be 50% tougher than the previous one on the iPhone 15 Plus.

There are also two new buttons on the iPhone 16 Plus which are missing on the iPhone 15 – the Action key used to be an exclusive to iPhone Pro’s and there is also the new Camera Control here.

Display comparison

The iPhone 16 Plus has the same display as on 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 1,000 nits of typical and up to 2,000 nits of maximum brightness.

Well, as per 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 of a difference, but still.

Battery life

The iPhone 16 Plus boasts a bigger battery than its predecessor – 4,674 mAh from 4.383 mAh. This is a rather modest increase of around 7%, but we’ll take it.

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

As a result, the new iPhone 16 Plus achieved a record-breaking Active Use Score of 18:49h. It’s a chart-topping battery endurance and it shows the new Plus model offers 10 more hours on voice calls, 2.5h more web time, and 1 more hour of video streaming when compared to the iPhone 15 Plus. It’s probably safe to say that it’s the iPhone with the best battery life to date.

Charging speed

The iPhone 16 Plus supports fast wired charging, though Apple never reveals the maximum power rating. The company quotes a 50% charge in 30 min when using a 20W USB-PD charger.

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

We carried out our charging tests with a 45W PD charger to give the iPhones the best chance. Both phones took about the same time to charge. An hour on that charger refilled 85% of the iPhones batteries’ and the last 15% took over 30 minutes.

Speaker test

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

The iPhone 16 Plus scored a Very Good mark on our loudness test, while the iPhone 15 – a Good mark. The difference can be heard via our audio playback tool, though you will have hard time doing so in real life.

Performance

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

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

The A18 CPU is advertised 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 does score about 20% more than the A16 inside the iPhone 15 Plus. There is also between 30% and 60% jump in GPU performance depending on the 3D test.

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

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

Thanks to the new chipset, you’d also get access to the Apple Intelligence feature once they are released – as long as you reside in a supported region (outside the European Union and China).

Camera comparison

The iPhone 16 Plus practically borrows its main camera setup from the iPhone 15 Plus. It is quite potent – a 48MP sensor with 1/1.56″ size, 1.0µm individual pixels and sensor-shift OIS. There is a bright f/1.6 lens in front of it. The same goes for the selfie camera – the 12MP shooter has already proven its salt and is equipped with phase detection autofocus as well.

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

Of course, there is also the new Camera Control. It is an actual physical button with real travel when pressed. It also integrates a capacitive sensor that allows for touch and swipe interactions as well as a high-precision force sensor that detects light presses.

Image quality

There is hardly any improvement in the daylight photo quality, regardless what Apple may try to convince you. The iPhone 16 Plus captures the same photos as the iPhone 15 Plus. They are detailed, with natural colors, low noise, and great dynamic range. The foliage rendition is not our favorite – especially if you shoot in the default 12MP.

The samples below have been taken at the same locations 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 from the main cameras we took in low-light conditions, both in 1x and 2x modes, are largely identical. The camera app did not opt for Night Mode on the iPhone 15 Plus, but nevertheless, the quality remains similar.

The brighter aperture on the ultrawide camera does have an effect at night and the ultrawide photos from the iPhone 16 Plus are brighter, with more detail and 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 – studio-grade microphones for better audio quality, plus capabilities for spatial video and audio recording.

Other than that, the video quality remains the same across all cameras.

The daylight videos from all three cameras are excellent across the board, including stabilization.

Below we have a few framegrabs from the videos taken by the two phones at each focal length so it’s easier to compare them.

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

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

The low-light videos from the ultrawide camera are now better – they are better exposed, with more detail and less noise.

iPhone 16 Plus: 0.5x • 1x

iPhone 15 Plus: 0.5x • 1x

Verdict

The iPhone 16 Plus is an excellent premium smartphone with flagship-grade features and it delivers in all 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. The battery life has gotten better, too, and the durability has been improved if we believe Apple. You now also get the Action key and the Camera control.

Even though it provides roughly the same user experience, the iPhone 16 Plus is objectively the better phone compared to the iPhone 15 Plus.

However, the iPhone 15 Plus is about €250 cheaper than the 16 Plus nnow and it carries much of the same qualities. Choosing between the two would depend on your budget and whether you value the extra features that the iPhone 16 Plus can provide.