Our smartphones are built to last longer than ever these days, and the biggest tech companies are keeping them ticking over with vital software updates for several years – but that won’t stop Apple releasing a new iPhone every year. Four iPhones, in fact, if history is to repeat itself in 2024.

Ever since the iPhone 12 series in 2020, Apple has unveiled four flagship iPhone models at the tail end of the calendar year. The firm puts out two regular models and two pricier Pro models to give you four different price points and feature sets to choose from.

This looks set to continue with the iPhone 16, and if leaks and rumours are accurate then we don’t have long to wait.

Apple adds new features to the iPhone every year, sometimes with updates to the smartphones’ iOS software, which means sometimes older phones benefit too, but often the company opts to add new hardware to new iPhone models to limit the new tools to the latest handsets. Given year-on-year upgrades are very minimal, Apple tries to do everything it can to differentiate new versions of the iPhone.

That said, if you currently own an iPhone 12 or older, you will almost certainly find a lot of upgrades if you decide to buy an iPhone 16 later this year. We’ve scoured the web to bring you all the latest rumours and credible leaks about the devices – here’s everything you need to know about the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro.

Apple very often announces its new iPhone lineup in September. Every flagship iPhone has been launched in September since the iPhone 5 in September 2012, except the iPhone 12 which was unveiled slightly later than usual in October 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

All signs point to Apple announcing the iPhone 16 in September since the iPhone 13, 14 and 15 series were all announced in that month too, and more often than not, the events are held on a Tuesday.

Apple reporter at Bloomberg Mark Gurman has said he expects the iPhone 16 series to be launched on Tuesday 10th September 2024 – and he is rarely wrong.

This lines up with Apple’s habit of announcing the new smartphones on a Tuesday and then putting them up for sale three days later on the Friday, before shipping them and making them available for sale the Friday after.

That means we expect the iPhone 16 to be announced on Tuesday 10th September, go up for pre-order on Friday 13th September, and then go on sale on Friday 20th September.

Chinese tech site CNMO also backs up the claim that the iPhone 16 event is 10th September.

It looks as though there will be four iPhone 16 models that following the same naming conventions as the iPhone 14 and iPhone 15 line-up:

• iPhone 16
• iPhone 16 Plus
• iPhone 16 Pro
• iPhone 16 Pro Max

Below you can see four alleged dummy models of the upcoming iPhone 16 phones, posted to X by reliable Apple leaker Sonny Dickson:

Dickson has also posted two more images that claim to show off several colours of the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro models.

While the Pro phones look quite similar to the existing iPhone 15 Pro, it looks as though the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus will get a bit of a makeover, with vertically stacked dual cameras rather than diagonal, plus new, bolder colour options.

There are not many solid iPhone 16 price rumours floating about, which could be a good thing. It might mean that Apple keeps the same pricing as the current iPhone 15 models:

• iPhone 15: £799
• iPhone 15 Plus: £899
• iPhone 15 Pro: £999
• iPhone 15 Pro Max: £1,199

CNMO claims the iPhone 16 Pro Max will cost $1,199, the same as the 15 Pro does in the US, which points to prices staying the same, though CNMO is not a renowned reliable source for these rumours, so take it with a pinch of salt. Then again, we can’t see that price rising much more. The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra costs £1,249, which is surely the very most a phone can and should cost in 2024.

Apple sometimes changes the pricing for iPhones sold in the UK compared to the US pricing, but currently the prices match numerically – which is a rough deal for British buyers, given the current exchange rate. £799 for the iPhone 15 is $1,013 at the time of writing – in the US the iPhone 15 is $799.

Apple has fallen into a pattern of updating the iPhone’s design every two years but that could be set to change with the iPhone 16. Though the iPhone 13 and iPhone 14 were practically identical, the iPhone 15 introduced matt glass on the regular iPhone for the first time as well as rounded edges and the Dynamic Island.

The leaks of the iPhone 16 show it could look quite different with its new camera alignment, but otherwise we expect the design to be fairly similar.

As well as casing change, the phones could see an updated Action Button. This new button replaced the alert switch on the iPhone 15 Pro but remained on the iPhone 15

Macrumors reported that the updated Action Button could be capacitive rather than mechanical, allowing you to swipe on the button to change volume or other actions. Currently you can only set it to perform one function at a time. The publication believes this new Action Button, which could be called the Capture Button, will be on every iPhone 16 model.

Expect a spec bump up to the A17 Bionic processor, the one found in the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max – Apple has fallen into a pattern of giving the base model iPhones the Pro’s processor from the previous year. This year this is important, as this should allow the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus to be compatible with Apple Intelligence, Apple’s new AI features that are launching with iOS 18. Currently, only the 15 Pro phones can run it.

We also expect Apple to give the 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max a new A18 chip to give the high-end phones more oomph.

There are also strong rumours from several sources that suggest the iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max will have larger screens, going up to 6.3-inches and 6.9-inches respectively. In keeping with leaker Dickson’s images of the range, this will mean each of the four iPhone 16 models will have different screen sizes:

• iPhone 16: 6.1-inches
• iPhone 16 Plus: 6.7-inches
• iPhone 16 Pro: 6.3-inches
• iPhone 16 Pro Max: 6.9-inches

We hope this doesn’t make the Pro Max bigger physically as it’s already a pocket-busting size. Perhaps Appel has found a way to have the bezels down further and cram more screen into the same size body, but Dickson’s image earlier in this article clearly shows four different sized devices. The iPhone 16 range could be the biggest ever (we miss you, iPhone 13 mini), but it could mean the iPhone 16 Pro phones look almost borderless – with the Dynamic Island up top.

Don’t count on screen upgrades for the 16 and 16 Plus though – it’s very likely Apple will keep them at 60Hz refresh rates, saving its 120Hz ProMotion screens for the Pro models.

It seems unlikely that Apple will update the cameras on the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus, unless the lack of leaks means Apple has successfully hidden a major upgrade. The cameras on the iPhone 15 are a 48MP main sensor and a 12MP ultra-wide – though the main sensor has an effective 2x zoom because cropping in to the high resolution 1x image is so good, so it partly makes up for the lack of an optical telephoto lens that you’ll find on any Pro iPhone.

The iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max are tipped to get an upgraded 48MP ultra-wide camera, up from 12MP on the 15 Pro series. There is also talk that the 16 Pro Max will receive an improved main lens which will differentiate it from the regular 16 Pro.

Apple gave the 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max the same main and ultra-wide with a 3x optical zoom on the 15 Pro but a longer 5x on te 15 Pro Max. The firm has tended towards giving the Max that little bit more – it claims due to space constraints on smaller models, but we reckon it’s to push buyers to the most expensive iPhone.

Either way, the Pros are where it is likely to be at this year for any significant camera improvements.

There have also been rumours that Apple could boost the RAM in the base iPhone 16 to 8GB and also offer 256GB storage as standard. This is music to our ears, but they are unconfirmed reports.

Though we’d hoped Apple would offer 256GB on its cheapest iPhones, both the £799 iPhone 15 and £999 iPhone 15 Pro Max have just 128GB – that is very stingy for the price, so hopefully Apple will do better this year.

It’s thought the doubling of storage isn’t just out of the kindness of Cupertino hearts though – the extra RAM and storage could be so the handsets can cope with all the AI processing they will be expected to do.

You’ll also likely see the iPhone 16 range be the first to get Wi-Fi 7 compatibility (via DigiTimes), the latest industry standard – just remember in order to see better speeds and performance you’ll need a Wi-Fi 7 router.

Though the iPhone 16 range is expected to launch in September, Bloomberg’s Gurman is confident that the phones will go on sale later that month running a version of iOS 18 that doesn’t include Apple Intelligence.

Apple announced this new AI software back in June, and it brings an updated Siri with the ability to pull data from all your apps so you can ask more detailed questions and get accurate answers. An example is asking your iPhone what time you need to pick someone up from the airport, and your iPhone will scan your emails, texts, and other data – privately – to find the correct answer, including scanning up to date flight times to account for delays.

If this works as advertised it could be great, but Apple is clearly ironing out the kinks if Apple Intelligence won’t launch until October, as Gurman believes, in a software update to compatible iPhones. Apple Intelligence will also be able to create custom emojis based on text prompts, create summaries of long text documents, emails and audio recordings, deliver prioritised notifications, draft messages for you and create photo and video montages from your snaps.

iOS will also bring visual changes that finally let iPhone users put apps anywhere on their home screens, like Android, and change the colour or ‘tint’ of those app icons to personalise their phones more than ever.

We’ll continue to update this article with the latest iPhone 16 leaks and rumours as we near the launch of the phones.