iPhone 16 series to arrive on September 9: From camera to colours, here's what we know so far

iPhone 16 series: Apple will host its annual fall event dubbed as 'It's Glowtime' on September 9. At the event, the company will refresh its Apple Watch and AirPods lineup by introducing updates to the Apple Watch Series 9, Apple Watch Ultra 2 and the second-generation AirPods. In addition to the wearables, the company will also be refreshing its iPhone lineup by launching the iPhone 16 series.

As is customary, Apple's iPhone 16 series will include four devices -- the iPhone 16, the iPhone 16 Plus, the iPhone 16 Pro and the iPhone 16 Pro Max. These upcoming models will not only bring faster processing capabilities and a better camera setup to Apple's iPhone lineup, but they will also bring artificial intelligence to Apple's devices in the form of what the company calls 'Apple Intelligence' or AI. Apple has already confirmed that it plans to bring Apple Intelligence to older iPhone models. However, the feature will be restricted to the iPhone 15 Pro and the iPhone 15 Pro Max, and it will arrive with iOS 18 update later this month. This will make the iPhone 16 series some of the first devices in Apple's smartphone portfolio to get AI.

Beyond Apple Intelligence, the iPhone 16 series is also expected to get faster connectivity features such as Wi-Fi 7 and a bigger battery to support the AI workload.

As we inch closer to Apple's It's Glowtime event, here's everything we know about the iPhone 16 series so far:

iPhone 16 series: Everything we know about it so far

iPhone 16 series design

Apple is not planning to make major changes to the overall design of the upcoming iPhone 16 series. This means that buyers will get the same aluminium chassis along with the glass back in the iPhone 16 series that they got in the iPhone 15 series last year. However, reports suggest that the company is planning to replace the mute button with the action button in all the iPhone 16 models this year -- something it did in the iPhone 15 Pro last year. This new Action Button will be located above the volume control buttons on the left side.

In addition to that, the company will introduce a separate Capture button in the iPhone 16 Pro models. This Capture button will be located near the mmWave antenna on the left side and it make it easier for users to capture images in landscape mode. Apple is also planning to replace the square camera module with a pill-shaped module placed vertically at the back.

As far as the colours are concerned, the iPhone 16 and the iPhone 16 Plus are expected to be available in Blue, Pink, Yellow, Green, Black, White, and Purple colour variants. On the other hand, the iPhone 16 Pro and the iPhone 16 Pro Max models are expected to be available in White, Black, Gold, and Gray colour variants.

iPhone 16 series display

Apple is also expected to make changes to the display of the iPhone 16 Pro models. The iPhone 16 Pro is expected to come with a 6.3-inch display while the iPhone 16 Pro Max is expected to come with a 6.9-inch display. For comparison, the iPhone 15 Pro and the iPhone 15 Pro Plus come with 6.1-inch and 6.7-inch displays.

On the other hand, display sizes of the non-Pro models, that is, the iPhone 16 and the iPhone 16 Plus, are expected to remain unchanged.

iPhone 16 series processor and operating system

Coming to the processor, the iPhone 16 Pro and the iPhone 16 Pro Max are expected to come with Apple's newest and 'fastest mobile processor yet' that is the A18 chip. This chip will succeed the A17 Pro chip that we saw on the iPhone 15 Pro and the iPhone 15 Pro Max. The company is expected to power the non-Pro models, that is, the iPhone 16 and the iPhone 16 Plus with the same chipset -- breaking away from the trend of using a slightly dated processor in the non-Pro iPhone models. Additionally, reports suggest that the iPhone 16 Pro models will have Qualcomm's Snapdragon X75 chip for 5G connectivity, while the non-Pro models have Snapdragon X70 for 5G connectivity.

The iPhone 16 series will be powered by the iOS 18.

iPhone 16 series camera

As far as the cameras are concerned, the iPhone 16 non-Pro models are expected to get the same rear camera setup as the iPhone 15. This means that we will get to see a 48MP + 12MP camera setup at the back and a 12MP camera on the front.

Coming to the pro models, the iPhone 16 Pro and the iPhone 16 Pro Max are expected to get a 48MP ultra-wide-angle lens, which will be a major upgrade from the 12MP ultra-wide-angle lens in the iPhone 15 Pro series. The pro models are also expected to get an improved telephoto lens at the back.