Apple has announced its new iPhone 16 line-up with hardware updates that include a new dedicated camera control button.
Its highly anticipated Apple Intelligence features will only roll out next month in the US, and won’t be available when the iPhone 16 launches.
Apple Intelligence will rollout in December for English-speaking countries like South Africa, the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. It is also the first time South Africa was mentioned in an Apple keynote.
Also tying in with that, iStore has announced that South Africa will be included in the first wave of the iPhone 16 rollout globally, and will launch on the same day as the United States, on Friday, 20 September. Pre-orders will open on 13 September.
The Apple Watch 10 Series and updated Apple Watch 2 Ultra will also launch on 20 September in South Africa.
Introducing the iPhone 16 lineup
The new iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max now have bigger screens, with the Pro coming in at 6.3-inches and the Pro Max at 6.9-inches, the largest iPhone screens to date with narrow bezels.
The Pros are powered by the A18 chip; features the same 48MP Fusion camera with 48MP ultra-wide lenses and a 12MP telephoto with a 4K 120FPS video capture; 12MP selfie-camera; and feature four “studio quality” microphones.
Apple says its new “Audio Mix” uses machine learning to identify and separate background elements from speech, giving users three voice options: In-Frame Mix, Studio Mix, and Cinematic Mix.
According to the company, battery life has improved but it did not share the capacity of the batteries.
Meanwhile, the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus are 6.1-inches and 6.7-inches, respectively; and are powered by the A18 chip.
It gets a new back camera design that is pill shaped; the Action Button from last year’s Pro models; and as mentioned earlier, a dedicated camera button.
The iPhone 16 Pro model colours include titanium finishes: black, natural, white and a new desert shade.
The iPhone 16 model colours include black, white, pink, teal, and ultramarine.
iStore preorders open 13 September
The iStore says when preorders open on 13 September, customers can take up its “Contract Price Freeze” option to help consumers ‘beat inflation’. For the first time, customers can keep their monthly contract price the same as their existing plans, it says.
“Trade in your iPhone and freeze your current contract price, or even pay less than what you have for the last two to three years,” it said in a media release.
Customers can preorder the new iPhone 16 range, the Apple Watch Series 10 and updated Watch Ultra 2 on Friday, 13 September.
On launch day, September 20, customers can also get free iCarePlus, valued at R1999. It includes a new “guarantee buy back” feature, screen repair, extended warranty and technical support.
South African prices have not yet been announced.