Technologies

iPhone 16 Plus vs. iPhone 16 Pro Max: How the Latest Big iPhones Compare

Apple’s most advanced phones include the largest iPhones yet — here’s how their specs and features compare in the iPhone 16 era.

At its September 2024 Glowtime event, Apple unveiled its latest lineup of iPhone 16 handsets. These phones share a lot of new features, with the biggest differences being in size and the division between standard and premium phones. While the iPhone 16E released in 2025 corners the affordable market, the biggest iPhone 16 models remain the priciest, and there’s plenty to differentiate them. Here’s the iPhone 16 Plus versus the iPhone 16 Pro Max comparison.

The most prominent distinction between the two bigger phones is size, as they’re no longer tied for the title of largest iPhone on record. The iPhone 16 Plus still has a 6.7-inch display, but the iPhone 16 Pro Max has a 6.9-inch display, giving it the crown for the biggest iPhone ever made.

See more: Apple iPhone 16 Pro Review: Compelling Upgrade With My Favorite iPhone Feature in Years

That decision has knock-on effects: everything the iPhone 16 Plus is, the iPhone 16 Pro Max does a little better. That comes at a literal price, with the iPhone 16 Plus with 128GB of storage starting at $899 (£899, AU$1,599) and the iPhone 16 Pro Max with 256GB of storage starting at $1,199 (£1,199, AU$2,149).

More from the Apple event

That’s a sizable price gulf between the two, but there are a handful of things the even bigger phone packs that its now-smaller sibling doesn’t. The iPhone 16 Plus has a 48-megapixel fusion camera (with a neat new 12-megapixel 2x digital zoom feature) and 48-megapixel ultrawide camera; the iPhone 16 Pro Max has that and a 12-megapixel telephoto camera with 5x optical zoom. Both phones have a 12-megapixel TrueDepth front-facing camera for selfies and FaceID.

The Pro Max also has a higher video ceiling, recording 4K video at 120 frames per second, which is good for converting to slow motion; the Plus tops out at 4K video with 60 frames per second. Both phones can shoot Spatial Video, the depth-focused format of videos watchable only in Apple Vision Pro, at 1080p at 30 frames per second.

What the Pro Max does have over its cheaper sibling is more sensitive audio recording thanks to its four microphones over the Plus’s 3. Both phones get Audio Mix, a trio of professional toggles to direct the phone to record certain sound sources over others when recording a video: in-frame captures who’s speaking in front of the camera (even if people nearby are speaking off-camera), studio is built for podcasters and vloggers to make them sound like they’re nestled in the sound-damped walls of a studio and cinematic combines sounds toward the front of the screen (much like a standard movie mix).

Unsurprisingly, the iPhone 16 Pro Max has a more advanced A18 Pro chipset than the iPhone 16 Plus’s A18 silicon, though both support Apple Intelligence. The bigger phone has more maximum storage with 256GB, 512GB and 1TB options, while the Plus has 128GB, 256GB and 512GB configurations. Apple has not released the RAM on each model.

Where the Plus is 6.33×3.06×0.31 inches (160.9×77.8×7.8mm), the Pro Max is 6.42×3.06×0.32 inches (163×77.6×8.25mm). That also means the smaller phone is lighter at 199 grams (7.03 ounces), while the bigger handset is 227 grams (7.99 ounces). The Pro Max comes in a titanium frame with four colors: black, white, a silver-ish natural and a tan desert hue. The Plus has a more vibrant range of colors: black, white, pink, teal and ultramarine. Both phones are IP68 rated for dust and water resistance, and both pack USB-C ports.

Both phones’ displays have OLED Super Retina XDR and 460 pixels-per-inch resolution, so they’re equally as sharp, though the larger Pro Max logically has more pixels in its screen (2,868×1,320-pixel resolution) than the relatively smaller Plus (2,796×1,290-pixel resolution). The big difference is in display refresh rate, with the Pro Max topping out at 120 Hz with its ProMotion tech while the Plus retains the 60 Hz refresh rate that base iPhones have had for years. Both phones max out at 2,000 nits of brightness in direct sunlight, but they can dip down to a single nit in darkness, which helps preserve battery.

That extra space means more battery life (though in typical Apple fashion, we don’t have rough hourly usage rather than exact capacity figures). The iPhone 16 Pro Max tops out at up to 33 hours of video playback (or up to 29 hours if streaming the video), while the iPhone 16 Plus has up to 27 hours of video playback (or up to 24 hours if streaming it). Both phones have the same wired charging (up to 20 watt) as the previous generation, though MagSafe wireless charging has been bumped up to 25 watts if using a 30-watt or faster charger.

Both phones run iOS 18 out of the box, and both will get Apple Intelligence when it drops later in September. Apple didn’t reveal much more about its AI capabilities than was shown off at WWDC back in June. The generative AI will supercharge Siri, offer suggestions for spiffing up the tone of a message, automatically arrange your photos and offer more accurate contextual searches among them.

Apple’s also added AI-generated emoji, which you can whip up by submitting prompts — say, a cowboy frog on a diving board.

The big reveal is Visual Intelligence, which sees Apple’s AI applied to the camera. Visual Intelligence is able to search for whatever is in your viewfinder. This is summoned with a new hardware feature: the Camera Control button, which is found on both phones on the right side below the lock button. It’s capacitive and physically clicky, so you’ll be able to push in for Visual Intelligence or tap it to bring up its second functionality: acting as an extra camera setting toggle.

For example, when your camera app is open, you can run your finger along it to zoom in and out or change the aperture — and it’ll work as an extra menu within third-party apps, too. The Apple presentation showed it functioning in Snap.

Similarly, the Action Button is now on both the premium and standard phones, taking the place of the ringer-silent switch to act as a customizable app shortcut. It’s no longer exclusive to the premium handsets.

That shrinks the number of exclusives that the Pro Max holds over the Plus, making its $300 price differential harder to justify. True, it’s larger, with a third rear camera (telephoto), titanium frame and bigger battery. But with Apple Intelligence coming to both phones (it’s only drifting back to the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max models), the premium phones are harder to justify over their cheaper siblings.

For a more detailed comparison, check our specs sheet below:

iPhone 16 Plus vs. iPhone 16 Pro Max

	Apple iPhone 16 Plus	Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max
Display size, tech, resolution, refresh rate, brightness	6.7-inch OLED Super Retina XDR display; 2,796 x 1,290 pixel resolution	6.9-inch OLED Super Retina XDR display; 2,868 x 1,320 pixel resolution
Pixel density	460 ppi	460 ppi
Dimensions (inches)	6.33 x 3.06 x 0.31 inches	6.42 x 3.06 x 0.32 inches
Dimensions (millimeters)	160.9 x 77.8 x 7.8mm	163 x 77.6 x 8.25mm
Weight (grams, ounces)	199 g, 7.03 oz	227 g, 7.99oz
Mobile software	iOS 18	iOS 18
Camera	48-megapixel (fusion), 12-megapixel (ultrawide)	48-megapixel (fusion), 48-megapixel (ultrawide), 5x telephoto
Front-facing camera	12-megapixel	12-megapixel
Video capture	4K at 60fps; spatial video at 1080p at 30fps	4K up to 120fps; spatial video at 1080p at 30fps
Processor	A18	A18 Pro
RAM/storage	128GB, 256GB, 512GB	256GB, 512GB, 1TB
Expandable storage	No	No
Battery	Up to 27 hours video playback; up to 24 hours video playback (streamed). 20W wired charging. MagSafe wireless charging up to 25W with 30W adapter or higher; Qi2 up to 15W	Up to 33 hours video playback; up to 29 hours video playback (streamed). 20W wired charging. MagSafe wireless charging up to 25W with 30W adapter or higher; Qi2 up to 15W
Fingerprint sensor	None (Face ID)	None (Face ID)
Connector	USB-C	USB-C
Headphone jack	No	No
Special features	Apple Intelligence, Action button, Camera Control button, Dynamic Island, 1 to 2,000 nits display brightness range, IP68 resistance. Colors: black, white, pink, teal, ultramarine.	Apple Intelligence, Action button, Camera Control button, 4x audio mics, Dynamic Island, 1 to 2,000 nits display brightness range, IP68 resistance. Colors: black titanium, white titantium, natural titanium, desert titanium.
US price off-contract	$899 (128GB), $899 (256GB), $1,199 (512GB)	$1,199 (256GB), $1,399 (512GB), $1,599 (1TB)
UK price	£899 (128GB), £999 (256GB), £1,199 (512GB)	£1,199 (256GB), £1,399 (512GB), £1,599 (1TB)
Australia price	AU$1,599 (128GB), AU$1,799 (256GB), AU$2,149 (512GB)	AU$2,149 (256GB), AU$2,499 (512GB), AU$2,849 (1TB)

Technologies

A New Mini Game Boy Collectible That Just Plays Pokemon Music? What a Tease

A surprise collectible on Pokemon Day looks just like a tiny Game Boy and plays music on swappable cartridges. Give us the real Game Boy again, come on.

Nintendo sure does love teasing us with Game Boy things. First, a collectible Lego Game Boy model last year that almost looked like a real Game Boy (but wasn’t). Now, for the 30th anniversary of Pokemon, Nintendo and the Pokemon Group are selling a collectible music player that looks like a tiny Game Boy and plays authentic original Pokemon Red/Blue songs on swappable cartridges, one per song. The Game Boy Jukebox is being sold on the Pokemon Center site later today, for a price that hasn’t yet been listed.

This level of absurdity is standard issue for Nintendo: Just in the last 18 months we’ve had Alarmo, a talking Super Mario flower and a Virtual Boy recreation. This new collectible is so tempting precisely because it looks like a little, even more pocketable Game Boy. Except it isn’t a Game Boy at all. It’s just a music player. Even the dot-matrix «screen» is fake — it’s just an overlay that the cartridges display when they’re slotted in.

The music this thing plays is Game Boy-accurate, down to the little boot-up ping. It just makes my skin itch for a new Game Boy (that isn’t one already made by several other companies).

But come on. Make a real Game Boy collectible, with actual preloaded games on it. You know you want to, Nintendo. It’s only a matter of time.

In the meantime, if you’re desperate for all 45 Pokemon Red and Blue songs on a little Game Boy music player, now’s your chance.

Technologies

Pokemon Winds and Waves: First Mainline Games for the Switch 2 Are Coming in 2027

Following the recent release of Pokemon Legends: Z-A, The Pokemon Company announced its first mainline games exclusively for the latest Nintendo console.

Pokemon Winds and Waves, the first mainline games in the series to come to the Nintendo Switch 2, were launched on Friday, the franchise’s 30th anniversary, on a special Pokemon Presents livestream. They will be released in 2027 exclusively on the Switch 2.

Following the precedent set by Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, the new games seem to be set in a fully explorable open world. The new playable region is scattered across multiple islands, with wide swaths of ocean between them.

The distinct split between water and land harkens back to cherished gameplay mechanics from generation-3 Pokemon games Ruby and Sapphire, which were released in 2002.

As tradition dictates, we got our first look at the three new starter Pokemon, which are powerful pals that serve as the player’s first partner in an unfamiliar new place.

The grass-type starter, Browt, is a chickadee with a head that’s bulbous enough to invoke the Brain. The water-type, Gecqua, is a quadrupedal gecko with a cool attitude. And the fire-type starter, Pombon, is a super cute orange kitty with a mane that eclipses its body. (I suspect Pombon will quickly become a fan favorite.)

Fan-favorite Pokemon from previous games were also shown off. So far, we can confirm that Pikachu, Tympole, Wailord, Tropius, Carnivine and Frillish are in the cast of monsters to be caught in the next mainline Pokemon games, among other older creatures. Many of the returning Pokemon seem to fit into the island theme, residing in volcanic caves, marshy swamps and underwater coves.

It’s been four years since the last mainline Pokemon games — Pokemon Scarlet and Violet — were released for the Nintendo Switch.

While those games were lauded by some fans for their open world and more freeform approach to telling a Pokemon story, they were held back by poor performance and game-breaking bugs on Nintendo’s first hybrid console. Nintendo will hope that Pokemon Winds and Waves — games built for, and exclusive to, the more powerful Switch 2 hardware — will fare better when it comes to in-game performance.

Pokemon Winds and Waves may be the first traditional Pokemon games for the Switch 2, but they aren’t the first ventures into the world of pocket monsters in recent years.

The recently released Pokemon Legends: Z-A introduced a whole new battling system, moving away from the turn-based mechanics the franchise has been known for since 1996. Pokemon Pokopia, an Animal Crossing-style game that will be released next month, is also primed to bring pocket monsters to cozy gaming spaces.

Both games will tide fans over until they can dive into the watery world of Pokemon Winds and Waves next year.

Technologies

Dance Like No One’s Watching With the Beats Studio Pro, Now $150 Off in a Best Buy Exclusive Color

This color is only available at Best Buy and you can grab it for just $200 if you’re quick.

Best Buy is offering the Beats Studio Pro in gold and black for $200, knocking $150 off the usual $350 price tag. That’s a significant discount on this stunning pair, so if you’ve had them on your wishlist, now is the time to make the move.

The Beats Studio Pro headphones earned a CNET review score of 8 out of 10, and offer two distinct listening modes: Active Noise Cancellation and Transparency mode. In his detailed review, our audio expert David Carnoy appreciated the effectiveness of their noise canceling. According to him, the ANC mode comes close to what you’d get from top-tier models from Sony and Bose, while the Transparency mode lets outside sound in naturally.

These play nicely with Apple and Android devices, and one-touch pairing makes it easy to connect within minutes. Battery life lasts up to 40 hours on a single charge and a quick 10-minute top-up gets you an extra four hours of listening time to keep the music going.

Voice calls get a boost, too. The pair comes with voice-filtering mics that cut out background noise, so you won’t just hear clearly; you’ll be heard just as well.

HEADPHONE DEALS OF THE WEEK

Sony WH-1000XM5 Wireless Noise Canceling Headphones (Black):

$248 (save $152)
Beats Studio Pro Wireless Noise Cancelling Headphones (Black):

$170 (save $181)
Sony WH-1000XM6 Wireless Noise Cancelling Over-Ear Headphones:

$398 (save $62)
Bose QuietComfort Wireless Noise Cancelling Headphones (Twilight Blue):

$179 (save $170)
Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless ANC Over-Ear Headphones (Black):

$200 (save $250)

Deals are selected by the CNET Group commerce team, and may be unrelated to this article.

Why this deal matters

The Beats Studio Pro are excellent headphones that deliver immersive sound and a comfortable fit. This deal knocks $150 off the regular $350 price, so you can grab them for just $200 today. In our experience, deals this good don’t last long, so it’s best to act fast if you want to snag a pair.