Rumor focus shifts to iPhone 16 Pro with display and camera upgrades tipped even before your 15 Pro could cool down

With the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max still just a few weeks old the rumor mill is already in full swing for what we can expect from the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro. And the latest report hints at upgrades across the board.

We don’t expect Apple to unveil the new iPhones for almost another year but one analyst already expects there to be a handful of notable upgrades for those who upgrade to Apple’s best iPhones of 2024.

According to them, the iPhone 16 Pro models are set to benefit from improvements to many of its features including the display and camera, while a Wi-Fi upgrade might also be in the cards for those who live on the bleeding edge of home networking.

But with the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max having barely had time to cool down from their overheating issues, the rate at which we’ve moved on to iPhone 16 Pro rumors is enough to give you whiplash. Some people will still be waiting for their launch day deliveries to arrive and we’re already looking 11 months into the future for what comes next.

Worthwhile upgrades

iPhone 15 Pro review back flat angled camera

(Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)

The new iPhone 16 Pro report comes via a Jeff Pu research not seen by 9to5Mac which highlights a few upgrades that are believed to be on the way to next year’s models.

The biggest change, based on information Pu has gleaned from the supply chain, is that the new iPhones will have slightly bigger displays than the ones we all rushed to buy last month. It’s suggested that the new models will see their displays grow by around 0.2 inches — a figure that matches previous claims from display analyst Ross Young and supply chain watcher Ming-Chi Kuo. At this point, it would already be a surprise if this didn’t happen come September 2024.

The report also claims that the iPhone 16 Pro will benefit from a 5x optical zoom lens like the iPhone 15 Pro Max thanks to that impressive tetraprism solution Apple debuted recently.

Another camera upgrade is also tipped, this time for both the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max. If Pu is correct, they’ll both get a massive ultrawide camera upgrade — from the current 12-megapixel sensor to a new 48-megapixel one. That would be a massive deal for photographers.

Less interesting is probably the news that a new 5G modem will be faster and hold a connection better, while Wi-Fi 7 support is also rumored. That’ll only affect people whose networks support such a thing which, realistically, probably isn’t all that many.

Other tidbits? The iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max are getting a new A18 Pro with 8GB of RAM, which isn’t all that surprising given how fast the A17 Pro is. It isn’t yet clear what Apple will do with the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus chips, though.

Can we just chill a bit first?

We’re not even mid-way through October 2023 and we’re already starting to see pretty detailed rumors surrounding the iPhones that’ll launch in September of 2024. Sure, we were seeing Vision Pro rumors years before it launched, but the speed with which the iPhone 15 lineup became old news still seems unusually quick this year.

It’s always important to remember that Jeff Pu doesn’t have a 100% record on these things — but who does? — and Apple’s plans can and do change. But the display size increase is something that has been suggested before, and the A18 Pro rumor seems a given at this point. But, really. Can we just enjoy these new phones for at least a full month before we start obsessing over what comes next?

Anyway. Who’s ready for that Apple Watch X?