Apple iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max Review: Compelling Upgrade With My Favorite iPhone Feature in Years

A few days into my week-long test of the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max, it became obvious to me that the best feature on Apple's premium devices isn't the new camera control button, bigger screen or larger battery. It isn't even Apple Intelligence.

The iPhone 16 Pro's ability to record high-resolution slow-motion video is the best new iPhone feature I've seen in years. I used the 16 Pro to record footage of a lion dance rehearsal and was surprised by how the slow motion made the dancers' fast acrobatic movements look graceful, sustained and powerful -- something that's difficult to appreciate in real time. OK, I'm biased because I used to make short films and love the beauty of slo-mo.

See more: Apple iPhone 16 and 16 Plus Review: Little Improvements Add Up

But is the 16 Pro's 4K, 120-frames-per-second video capability really enough to get people who aren't camera nerds excited about Apple's new premium iPhones -- especially as the company touts the power of its Apple Intelligence suite of generative AI features?

With its straight-sided titanium build and Siri's rainbow glow, Apple hyped the iPhone 16 Pro as a vessel that will bring generative AI, in the form of Apple Intelligence, into our everyday lives.

Turns out, the complete vision for the iPhone 16 Pro with Apple Intelligence that the company showed off at its September iPhone event just isn't ready yet. I appreciate that Apple is taking its time to wade into the gen-AI waters -- it can hopefully avoid the blunders associated with a rushed rollout that we saw with Google's AI Overviews release. But it's unfortunate that people who may have bought the iPhone 16 Pro or 16 Pro Max specifically for Apple Intelligence will have to wait before experiencing it on their new phone.

And while I did get to test an early preview version of Apple Intelligence on the iPhone 16 Pro, key features were missing. I didn't get to test the ChatGPT integration, Genmoji or Image Playground.

However, other standout features left me impressed with the 16 Pro. That high-resolution slow-mo recording function, various iOS 18 capabilities as well as hardware upgrades help the iPhone 16 Pro feel like a compelling upgrade.

With its straight-sided titanium build and Siri's rainbow glow, Apple hyped the iPhone 16 Pro as a vessel that will bring generative AI, in the form of Apple Intelligence, into our everyday lives.

Turns out, the complete vision for the iPhone 16 Pro with Apple Intelligence that the company showed off at its September iPhone event just isn't ready yet. I appreciate that Apple is taking its time to wade into the gen-AI waters -- it can hopefully avoid the blunders associated with a rushed rollout that we saw with Google's AI Overviews release. But it's unfortunate that people who may have bought the iPhone 16 Pro or 16 Pro Max specifically for Apple Intelligence will have to wait before experiencing it on their new phone.

And while I did get to test an early preview version of Apple Intelligence on the iPhone 16 Pro, key features were missing. I didn't get to test the ChatGPT integration, Genmoji or Image Playground.

However, other standout features left me impressed with the 16 Pro. That high-resolution slow-mo recording function, various iOS 18 capabilities as well as hardware upgrades help the iPhone 16 Pro feel like a compelling upgrade.

The year was 2020 and in the middle of the lockdown, Sony sent me the Xperia 5 II, which could record 4K, 120fps, slow-motion videos. The feature was the first time slow-motion video in 4K resolution had ever been offered on a phone. The Xperia 5 II was clearly ahead of its time and, until now, had been the high-water mark for phone-based slo-mo recording.

Apple takes all this to another level.

Not only can the 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max record 4K 120fps slow motion video, it can do so with little effort. Unlike the Xperia 5 II, which required using a professional camera app to record and preserve the footage, Apple bakes in the ability right into the iPhone's native camera app.

And the results look outstanding, which is why this feature is such a big deal. Previous slow motion videos shot on the iPhone could look good if there was a lot of light. But they topped out at a lower HD resolution and the image quality was a significant step down from regular 4K 30fps video recording.

The iPhone 16 Pro's new slo-mo has great details, good dynamic range and accurate colors which puts it on par with regular iPhone video quality. Even when I was recording a lion dance rehearsal by the Lion Dance Me company in their San Francisco warehouse space, under medium lighting, the video looked good. You can see this slo-mo footage and more in the video below.