When many people have already fallen asleep, Apple quietly announced the autumn new product launch conference. In the early morning of August 27, Apple officially announced that the Apple special event will be held at 1 am Beijing time on September 10, which has made September look forward to it. This also means that the iPhone 16 series will officially meet global consumers, and a technology Spring Festival Gala for the AI era is about to kick off.
Unlike last year’s “curiosity”, this year’s theme is “Highlight Moments”, which may mean that the iPhone 16 series has brought a greater breakthrough in imaging. And this breakthrough may not be the main camera, after all, the 48-megapixel main camera has only been used for a few years. The author speculates that it is at the telephoto end, allowing the iPhone 16 Pro Max’s telephoto to compete with a number of Android imaging flagships. Of course, this highlight may also have more meanings, such as highlights from comprehensive upgrades in various configurations, or bright highlights brought by new colors, etc. The specific meaning may not be revealed until the press conference.
Before the press conference, let’s talk about the iPhone 16 series based on the existing leaked information, especially under the wave of AI, can Apple achieve a turnaround with Apple Intelligence?
First of all, in terms of appearance design, consumers are actually used to the iPhone family-style design concept, and they don’t have too many expectations for each generation update. In the past updates, the full screen of the iPhone X was a milestone update. After using the notch screen for several years, the introduction of the smart island was also a milestone update. This year’s iPhone 16 series is likely to still have the smart island design, which is its positive side. Moreover, it is basically certain that the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus will still not have a high refresh rate. If you want to experience the smoothness of 120Hz, you must get the iPhone 16 Pro series.
On the back, color innovation is actually more concerned. The iPhone always has just the right control over color. The standard version has the standard version positioning, and the Pro series has the advanced Pro series. Judging from this year’s official announcement poster, color is still the highlight, and the standard version may bring more choices to users. In addition, last year’s iPhone 15 Pro series introduced titanium alloy materials, which made the body lightweight to the extreme. This year is expected to continue titanium alloy and make adjustments to the color, which is another choice for users.
In terms of models, in addition to iPhone 16, 16 Plus, 16 Pro, and 16 Pro Max, there is a saying that an Ultra version will be introduced this year. As for whether the Ultra version will replace Pro Max or be higher than Pro Max, there is no definite news. But no matter which choice is made, Ultra is more like a convergence of Apple’s mainstream market. After all, there are many Ultra models on the market, such as Huawei Pura 70 Ultra, Xiaomi 14 Ultra, vivo X100 Ultra, OPPO Find X7 Ultra, and Samsung S24 Ultra. If you look closely, you will find that except for Apple, the top manufacturers in the market are all named Ultra, which is very interesting. So if Apple brings an Ultra version this year, it is not a big deal.
In terms of performance, the A18 processor is the highlight of this year, which represents the strongest processing power at present. It will adopt TSMC’s 3nm process technology. The more sophisticated process also allows the number of transistors of A18 to be increased, thereby achieving a far lead in performance, and will then form the most direct competition with Qualcomm Snapdragon 8GEN4. And it is reported that in order to bring stronger AI capabilities, the iPhone 16 series will not use the A17 Pro chip on the iPhone 15 Pro series, but will upgrade the entire series to A18. This is obviously good news for users who have higher demands for performance and AI. They no longer need to pay a high price to upgrade to experience Apple’s AI.
Speaking of AI, this is both a pain point for current iPhone products and a possible highlight for the iPhone 16 series. The core concept of Apple Intelligence is to closely combine advanced generative modeling technology with the user’s personalized context to provide intelligent services that are both efficient and considerate. Relying on the powerful computing power of Apple chips, Apple Intelligence can accurately capture the user’s current needs and context, intelligently schedule various applications, and help users complete key tasks quickly. In order to further enhance the user experience, Apple Intelligence has also introduced a series of innovative system-level collaboration tools, which have been deeply integrated into iOS 18, iPadOS 18 and macOS Sequoia, covering emails, memos, Pages document processing, and writing scenarios of many third-party applications.
In addition, based on Apple Intelligence, users can finally input questions to Siri, which is finally on the same path as the current AI phones, giving users an additional way to interact during use. In addition, Siri can understand and respond to more natural language, including situations where users stutter or change their minds when speaking. In addition, there is the feature of cross-application operation. The functions of Apple Intelligence can be widely used in Apple and third-party applications, such as Mail, Messages, Notes, etc., as well as office software such as Keynote, Powerpoint or Word.
The iPhone 16 series will be the product that Apple will use to face the domestic manufacturers in the next year. It is also the mainstay for Apple to sit firmly in the high-end market without panic. Each generation of iPhone has its own mission. Although it has been criticized for lack of innovation in recent years, Apple is still in the leading position in sales, and it is difficult for domestic brands to shake it. In the AI era that has already arrived, the iPhone 16 series is also working hard to catch up, and even relies on Apple Intelligence built on A18 to achieve a straight overtaking of domestic manufacturers, which is exciting. For more information about the iPhone 16 series, let us look forward to the press conference at 1 a.m. on September 10.
