The iPhone 16 series is set to go on sale in India from today, September 20, 2024. The line-up includes the standard iPhone 16 and 16 Plus, and the more powerful iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max. The iPhone 16 is interesting in many ways. Even more so than the iPhone 16 Pro.
One is of course, the lower pricing. Then, there’s the specs to price proposition which is fairly large this year than say with last year’s iPhone 15. Last but not the least, the iPhone 16 is not only being locally manufactured in India, Apple has ramped up production to such an extent that made in India iPhone 16 is ready to ship globally from the country soon after launch instead of being made available several weeks after.
The iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max will be made in India too, but they will come a bit later. Needless to say, it’s a big year for Apple in India.
iPhone 16 India price check
The iPhone 16 comes in three memory configurations—128GB, 256GB and 512GB—with price starting at Rs 79,900.
| 128GB | 256GB | 512GB | |
| iPhone 16 price | Rs 79,900 | Rs 89,900 | Rs 1,09,900 |
iPhone 16 India sale date
The iPhone 16 will be available in India from Friday, September 20, 2024 starting 8:00 AM.
iPhone 16 Apple offer
Apple is offering a Rs 5,000 instant cashback to customers who make a purchase using one of the following bank cards: American Express, Axis Bank, or ICICI Bank.
iPhone 16 unboxing and first look
The unboxing experience is a bit different this year. The packaging might seem familiar from outside, but big changes await on the inside. Specifically on the iPhone 16, Apple has printed the back on the cover to highlight the new vibrant colour scheme of the iPhone 16. The cover matches the colour of the model you get. There are five colours to choose— ultramarine, teal, pink, white and black. Conversely, Apple has put the front of the device on the cover of the iPhone 16 Pro, perhaps showing off the larger screen and slimmer bezels.
Moving on, you get a braided USB Type-C charging cable with the iPhone 16 (this was all plastic on the iPhone 15) and in markets like India where Apple continues to offer physical SIM support, a SIM ejector tool is also bundled with the package. The paperwork has been cut down drastically. There are no Apple stickers or how-to setup manual in the box anymore.
With the phone itself, you get a couple of more buttons this year. On the left side, there is the Action button which was previously reserved for the pro models. On the right side, toward the bottom side, there is the new Camera Control, a capacitive button that lets you open the camera, shoot photos and videos, while also giving pro controls including colour and tone mapping. Apple plans to add more functionality such as press and hold to focus through an upcoming software update. While an even bigger feature called Visual Intelligence, will let you search for things by simply pointing your camera at it.
iPhone 16 full specs check
The iPhone 16 has the same display credentials as the iPhone 15. That’s 6.1-inch 2556×1179-pixel Super Retina XDR OLED with a 60Hz refresh rate. The panel can top 1,600nits in HDR and up to 2,000nits in sunny outdoors. A new trick up its sleeve is that it can go as low as 1 nits for more comfortable night-time viewing.
The biggest generational leap is coming by way of the underlying processor. The iPhone 16 comes powered by the 3nm (Gen2) Apple A18 chip with a 16-core neural engine and 5-core GPU, which belongs to the same family of chips that is inside the iPhone 16 Pro. In the past, these regular iPhones would have an older-gen chip. The memory has been bumped up as well. There is 8GB of RAM which brings support for Apple Intelligence which was missing on the iPhone 15. Storage can go up to 512GB.
The cameras appear to be unchanged—dual 12-megapixel wide, ultrawide with macro—but the new ISP brings support for new photographic styles and ability to record Spatial photos and videos that you will be able to see in 3D on the Vision Pro headset. Another big feature is audio mix which lets you record cinematic-style audio in videos. The front camera is the same 12-megapixel as the iPhone 15.
Battery life has been improved with Apple quoting 22 hours of video playback on the 16. Qi2 wireless charging up to 25W is supported.
The iPhone 16 is shipping with iOS 18 right out of the gate which means Apple Intelligence is not available at launch. Expect Apple to launch it alongside iOS 18.1 in October with features spread out well into early next year. Watch this space for our full review of the iPhone 16 coming soon.
