The time had come: it was time to change phones this year. After thinking hard about the decision and keeping the Pixel 9 on the list until the last moment, I settled on the iPhone 16. Not the Pro version – there is already an analysis of the iPhone 16 Pro – but the standard one. A few days ago I commented on the reasons for this decision and why I now think I am no longer an “iPhone Pro user”.

Ultimately, I wanted to stay in the Apple ecosystem but also have a more capable camera for fast, everyday situations. The iPhone 16 Pro is a great phone, but it has features that I wouldn’t take full advantage of by spending an extra 200 euros on AirPods 4. Also, given the four generations that have passed since then, I thought it made a lot of sense to switch from my iPhone 11 Pro.

The interesting thing is that, in recent days, on Threads, a social network that I don’t like at all but where I go to see if I can find an alternative to Twitter, I’ve been seeing a lot of questions from users asking: Is it worth replacing the iPhone 11 Pro/iPhone 12 Pro with the iPhone 16?

Since I did exactly that, I will tell you how I felt during the first 24 hours I spent with the new generation iPhone after the change. And if you are in this situation and it may help you to decide whether to switch to 16, go for the 16 Pro or wait for the iPhone 17, then it is much better. I can say that I do not regret the change in almost anything.

Almost a giant leap

When to change your iPhone is a very personal matter. There are those who renew annually, as well as those who wait for the double or single versions, because a two-year cycle gives more time to innovate. There are also those who can last as long as possible with their mobile phones, as long as they continue to receive updates, and when things get really bad or Apple stops providing support, that is, they decide to change.

My iPhone 11 Pro was already asking for the time. With 72% battery health, I had to charge it more than I wanted, the power was no longer enough for some games and multitasking (not an iPhone’s strong suit) was noticeably difficult. There were also slightly laggy animations and, most importantly, the camera lagged behind.

Not because we will see that the image quality is still very good, but because it is difficult indoors. And let’s not even talk about the night. With all this in mind, The transition from iPhone 11 Pro to iPhone 16 sucks. You may like the design a bit, but having USB-C is a joy (even if it’s slow) and the screen goes from 5.8 inches to 6.1 inches. The phone isn’t huge, but the screen is big. It’s very noticeable when playing and watching content.

Speaking of multimedia consumption: the speakers have improved tremendously. Not only are they much louder than the iPhone 11 Pro, but the sound quality is also much higher thanks to the more advanced bass. And when it comes to gaming, the truth is that I haven’t tried very demanding games, but I have tried Netflix games like ‘Hades’ or ‘Dead Cells’ and although they are very simple, the 11 Pro warmed up and this iPhone 16 works like silk.

The screen has the same resolution but thanks to the higher brightness the dynamic range is better and this is immediately obvious. Where the new iPhone 16 gets hot, despite its passive cooler (finally Apple), is when charging. I limited the charge to 80% but with a 65 W charger the phone gets hot. This is completely normal and what I noticed is that every time it gets hot, when it is no longer under stress the cooler does its job and quickly returns to the optimum temperature.

I’d love to try more challenging games, but I currently own existing games like ‘Death Stranding’ or ‘Resident Evil VIII’ on PS5 and Xbox Series X and I won’t be paying for them again.

You can see from the front

But at extreme angles… much more

For the rest, the new action button is something else you get when you move from an old iPhone Pro to the iPhone 16, and the dynamic island, which is still annoying but at least has more functionality than the traditional notch. And iOS 18 is a joy to navigate. The display goes up to 60Hz and it’s still embarrassing A mobile phone worth almost 1,000 euros has a panel with this soft drink, but the iOS animations are very good and absolutely everything loads very quickly thanks to the A18.

Come on, the change is there, but if you go from a ProMotion iPhone back to a 60Hz iPhone, no matter how smooth it is, you’ll feel like you’ve lost something. There’s another important thing when moving from an old iPhone to a new generation iPhone: NFC for payments is a bit more agile, as is FaceID.

The camera is another story

While there were a number of things I wanted to change about my phone, the most important one was the camera. away from home, iPhone 11 Pro continues to perform brilliantly -I actually think it’s the best camera Apple has ever made on an iPhone, thanks to the minimal processing of the images, but that’s another story. Things change when you’re out in the open, in everyday life, taking photos of food in a restaurant or your pet.

I still don’t really know what I think about this button.

Yes, obviously the 11 Pro still held its own, but a newer phone would be much more resolving, even if it wasn’t the Pro. I don’t plan to do an iPhone 16 camera analysisSince my colleague Iván Linares will delve into this topic in depth in his analysis, I want to share some samples taken on the first day so that you can see the transition from the iPhone 11 Pro to the iPhone 16.

The truth is that it is surprising and, first of all, I would like to note that in good lighting conditions, the photography of the 11 Pro looks better to me, thanks to a natural texture that the iPhone 16 (or the previous model, iPhones since 12) does not have due to excessive processing and a grinding I think photos are better when conditions are optimal, but the iPhone 16s is much, much more versatile.

Let’s look at examples and explain:

iPhone 11 Pro vs iPhone 16 | The 11 Pro has more natural noise, something the iPhone 16 lacks due to processing

iPhone 11 Pro vs iPhone 16 | I like the 11 Pro’s Pikachu better, but the 16’s background blur and colors are more noticeable for networks

iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 16

iPhone 11 Pro vs iPhone 16 Comparison | They feel so similar…

iPhone 11 Pro vs iPhone 16 | However, when you zoom in you can see that the 24 Mpx detail of the iPhone 16 provides an advantage.

iPhone 11 Pro vs iPhone 16 | Something similar is happening here

iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 16

iPhone 11 Pro vs iPhone 16 | Look at the whiskers, the details in the iris or the texture of the hair

iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 16

iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 16 | This is 2x optical in the case of the Pro and digital in the case of the 16.

All this considered, the weapon in favor of the iPhone 16 are the new styles. Not because of the new palette with more options, but because of the possibility of customizing the style before or after taking the photo to get a better tone in the shadows. I think it is something that can be easily seen in this video that I leave below:

In conclusion, with all this in mind, I think it’s a good idea to move from the iPhone 11 Pro or 12 Pro to the iPhone 16, even if we lose the double-optical telephoto lens. It’s not just you. a much more up-to-date chip (which guarantees updates for many more years), plus USB-C, a bright screen, very good speakers and a camera that performs excellently in all situations, with a large main sensor and 2x digital.

In the meantime, I leave you a video shot with both iPhones. The one on the left is the iPhone 11 Pro again, the one on the right is the iPhone 16. When you look at the trees on top, the noise is much more noticeable on the iPhone 11 Pro. A flash is not as present as on the iPhone 16, but both continue to have fairly regular lenses, causing glare.

The wide angle could still be improved a lot for a phone of this price, but I’m very happy with this change, even though the photos of the iPhone 11 Pro in good light conditions look more natural to me.

Photos | Xataka

At Xataka | If you don’t know which iPhone 16 to buy, we help you choose: these are the prices and the best of each model