iPhone 17 vs iPhone 16: The upgrade the base iPhone needed, and why you probably don't need the Pro
Yes, you should probably upgrade.
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Every year, Apple releases a new iPhone lineup, and every year the older non-Pro models drop by $100, remaining officially available through Apple’s stores and website. But this time, things are a little different.
While the iPhone 16 now starts at $699, that price applies to the 128 GB model. At first, that seems fine, right? Right... until you realize the 256 GB version costs the same as the 256 GB variant of the iPhone 17, which is now the base storage.
In other words, Apple is practically nudging buyers away from the iPhone 16 and toward the newer model. But it’s hard to say no to the iPhone 17. Not only does it include more base storage, but it also adds a brighter display with 120Hz ProMotion, new 48 MP ultrawide and 24 MP selfie cameras, and faster charging.
So, the question here isn’t which one you should pick if you are deciding between the two — the answer to that is fairly obvious. The question is whether you should upgrade to the iPhone 17 if you already own the iPhone 16.
To see if upgrading is truly worth it, we tested both phones across battery, camera, display, and performance, and used them back to back in everyday scenarios. Some of the differences were expected, but others genuinely surprised us.
In other words, Apple is practically nudging buyers away from the iPhone 16 and toward the newer model. But it’s hard to say no to the iPhone 17. Not only does it include more base storage, but it also adds a brighter display with 120Hz ProMotion, new 48 MP ultrawide and 24 MP selfie cameras, and faster charging.
To see if upgrading is truly worth it, we tested both phones across battery, camera, display, and performance, and used them back to back in everyday scenarios. Some of the differences were expected, but others genuinely surprised us.
iPhone 17 vs iPhone 16 differences:
| iPhone 17 | iPhone 16 |
|---|---|
| Design | |
| Slightly heavier at 177 g | Lighter at 173 g |
| 7.95 mm thickness | 7.8 mm thickness |
| Single-tone all glass back, aluminum frame | Sharper edges |
| Ceramic Shield 2 front, reinforced glass back | Ceramic Shield front, glass back |
| Display | |
| 6.3" OLED with 1–120Hz ProMotion and Always-On | 6.1" OLED with 60Hz, no Always-On |
| 3000 nits peak brightness | 2000 nits peak brightness |
| Performance | |
| A19 chip | A18 chip |
| 5-core GPU | 5-core GPU |
| No vapor chamber cooling | No vapor chamber cooling |
| 8 GB RAM | 8 GB RAM |
| Cameras | |
| Dual rear cameras | Dual rear cameras |
| 48 MP wide | 48 MP wide |
| 48 MP ultrawide | 12 MP ultrawide |
| No telephoto camera | No telephoto camera |
| 18 MP front camera with OIS | 12 MP front camera without OIS |
| No ProRAW | No ProRAW |
| No ProRES | No ProRES |
| 4K60 video resolution | 4K60 video resolution |
| Battery | |
| 3692 mAh | 3561 mAh |
| Up to 30 h video playback (27 h streamed) | Up to 22 h video playback (18 h streamed) |
| Wired charging: 50% in ~20 min (40W adapter) | Wired charging: 50% in ~30 min (20W adapter) |
| 25W MagSafe | 25W MagSafe |
| Models | |
| $800 (256 GB base) | $700 (128 GB base) |
| 512 GB max storage | 512 GB max storage |
| Other | |
| USB 2 port | USB 2 port |
| Regular Mics | Regular Mics |
Table of Contents:
Design and Display Quality
Slightly larger, tougher, but familiar
The iPhone 17 gets tougher glass and a cleaner design — even if it’s not as light as before. | Image credit — PhoneArena
The iPhone 16 kept Apple’s familiar aluminum-and-glass design with Ceramic Shield on the front. With the iPhone 17, Apple introduces Ceramic Shield 2, which is three times more scratch-resistant. Unlike the new iPhone Air and the iPhone 17 Pro models, though, the back is not made with Ceramic Shield 2.
The iPhone 17 is also marginally larger and heavier than the iPhone 16, mostly because of the bigger 6.3-inch display and slightly larger battery. In the hand, though, the difference is hardly noticeable; both still feel compact compared to most modern flagships.
| iPhone 17 | iPhone 16 |
|---|---|
| Thickness 7.95 mm | Thickness 7.8 mm |
| Dimensions 149.6 × 71.5 mm | Dimensions 147.6 × 71.6 mm |
| Weight 177 g | Weight 173 g |
Color options shift each year: the iPhone 16 offered Pink, Teal, Ultramarine, Black, and White, while the iPhone 17 switches to Black, Mist Blue, Lavender, Sage, and White. We especially liked the new Sage color, which feels more modern compared to last year’s palette.
Apple is more playful with the iPhone 17 colors, adding a:
- Black
- Lavender
- Mist Blue
- Sage
- White
iPhone 17 colors. | Image credit — Apple
The iPhone 16 colors, on the other hand, were:
- Pink
- Teal
- Ultramarine
- Black
- White
iPhone 16 colors. | Image credit — Apple
The iPhone 17 is the first base iPhone to get a 120Hz ProMotion OLED display with Always-On support. | Image credit — PhoneArena
The display is where the iPhone 17 will feel most different. The iPhone 16 was widely criticized for sticking with a 60Hz OLED panel, which was dimmer and less fluid than virtually all of its rivals. The iPhone 17 finally fixes that with a 6.3-inch LTPO OLED screen capable of 1–120Hz ProMotion, Always-On mode, and even comes with an anti-reflective coating.
The anti-reflective coating doesn't do as good of a job as the glass on the Galaxy S25 Ultra, but there is a noticable difference between the iPhone 17 and 16 when light is hitting the screen directly.
The new anti-reflective coating pairs up perfectly with the higher outdoor brightness Apple introduced this year. The iPhone 17 now peaks at 3000 nits, compared to 2000 nits on the iPhone 16. That said, both hit 1600 nits in HDR content.
As for biometrics, Face ID continues to be the only biometric option.
In our lab, the iPhone 17 peaked at 2672 nits (20% APL), which is a noticeably increase over the iPhone 16's 2015 nits. The two reached almost identical peak brightness levels during our full-screen brightness test, though (just over 1000 nits).
Performance and Software
A19 chip brings refinements, but AI remains a question mark
The iPhone 16 debuted Apple’s A18 chip, which was already a 3nm powerhouse. The iPhone 17 comes with the newer A19, which brings some modest improvements to the performance.
Both phones come with 8 GB RAM, but the iPhone 17 doubles the base storage to 256 GB while keeping the same price, which is one of Apple's smartest moves with this year's base model, as it gives it an advantage over the competition on the Android side.
On the software side, both models run iOS 26, which introduces the new Liquid Glass design language, Live Translation, Call Screening, and Apple Intelligence features powered by on-device AI.
| iPhone 17 | iPhone 16 |
|---|---|
| Chip A19 | Chip A18 |
| Process 3nm | Process 3nm |
| RAM, Storage --- 8/256GB 8/512GB LPDDR5X RAM NVMe storage | RAM, Storage 8/128GB 8/256GB 8/512GB LPDDR5X RAM NVMe storage |
The iPhone 17 comes with iOS 26, which introduces the flashy new “Liquid Glass” design language and long-overdue quality-of-life features like Call Screening, Live Translate, and smarter Messages. The same is true for the iPhone 16, so you are not losing anything by staying with, or going for the older model.
CPU Performance Benchmarks:
The A19 pulls ahead in Geekbench single-core (3527 vs 3264) and multi-core (8798 vs 7899). The difference in the multi-core performance is significantly more noticeable, although you probably woudn't notice it unles you utilize more heavy apps, like ones for video editting or some more demanding games.
GPU Performance:
In 3DMark Extreme, the iPhone 17 scores 5172 high / 3295 low, a clear jump over the iPhone 16’s 4029 / 2397. This means the iPhone 17 is much more capable when it comes to graphically intensive tasks such as gaming or any work with video/photo editting software.
We did meet some hiccups during our initial benchmark testing with the iPhone 17, as it throttled quite early in our first perfrmance tests. In later tests, however, we did not encounter this issue.
Camera
Sharper ultrawide, much better selfies
We expected better results, but the differences are actually not that obvious. | Image credit — PhoneArena
The iPhone 16 introduced the vertical camera layout but kept the same 48 MP main and 12 MP ultrawide image sensors that came with the iPhone 15. With the iPhone 17, the ultrawide camera has been upgraded to 48 MP.
This is essentially the same ultrawide sensor as that one on the iPhone 16 Pro models, but it is now capable of producing 24 MP photos thanks to iOS 26’s new multi-aspect capture pipeline (a feature that Apple has also extended to the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max).
On the front, the iPhone 17 introduces an 18 MP selfie camera with Center Stage.
On the front, the iPhone 17 introduces an 18 MP selfie camera with Center Stage.
All of these camera upgrades should mean visible improvements when comparing these two phones, right? Well, as you will see from our camera score and samples, that's not exactly the case.
There's also a new Dual Capture feature on the iPhone 17, which lets users record simultaneously with the front and rear cameras.
PhoneArena Camera Score:
The iPhone 17 came only slightly ahead of the iPhone 16 in our Camera Score (150 vs 149). The gains come mostly from the main and ultrawide sensors, plus video stabilization. Selfie and zoom scores remain identical. The iPhone 16 already delivered solid image quality, and — when it comes to real world performance — it is not that much different to the iPhone 17.
Main Camera
The only noticeable difference here is that the iPhone 17's image is more saturated, which makes it feel more processed compared to the iPhone 16. Personally, I prefer the 16's look.
Zoom Quality
Here the iPhone 17's HDR pipeline seems to have performed better, showing more in the shadows. Again, it's also more saturated.
Ultra-wide Camera
The iPhone 16 seems to favor exposing for the shadows while the 17 for the highlights, with the former shoing more information in the darker areas and the latter in the brighter ones. The colors from the new ultrawide camera on the iPhone 17 look oversaturated, just like the ones from the main sensor.
Selfies
In this scenario, the iPhone 17’s tendency to oversaturate is its biggest enemy, as it makes the skin tones look almost comical. The iPhone 16 delivers far more natural-looking skin tones.
More Camera Samples
Video Quality
Battery Life and Charging
More battery, less battery life, and faster charging
We got 67% charge in 30 minutes with the iPhone 17. | Image credit — PhoneArena
Apple quotes 30 hours of playback for the iPhone 17, but our tests actually show worse overall battery life compared to the iPhone 16. Things have definitely improved when it comes to the wired charging speeds, though.
PhoneArena Battery and Charging Test Results:
Battery life is a close call: 6h 13min for the iPhone 17 vs 6h 21min for the iPhone 16. The older model still pulls ahead thanks to its performance during our Gaming test (9h 52m vs 7h 40m).
But the iPhone 17 shows an advantage over its predecessor when it comes to wired charging. It took just 1h 16min to cahrge it from 0–100%, compared to 1h 42min on the iPhone 16. In our 30-minute test, it reached 67% vs 59%.
Wireless charging remains capped at 25W on both, with the slight difference that — unlike the iPhone 16 — the iPhone 17 does not require a MagSafe charger to achieve those speeds.
Audio Quality and Haptics
Improvements, but not across the board
The iPhone 17 actually delivers one of the most noticeable upgrades in speakers this year. Compared to the iPhone 16, it sounds bigger and wider, with more bass presence and higher overall volume. Apple also cleaned up the whistling mids that made last year’s model sound a bit thin.
Haptics, powered by Apple’s Taptic Engine, remain as precise and tight as before across the lineup.
Haptics, powered by Apple’s Taptic Engine, remain as precise and tight as before across the lineup.
Specs Comparison
Here's an overview of the iPhone 17 vs iPhone 16 specs:
| iPhone 17 | iPhone 16 |
|---|---|
| Size, weight 149.6 × 71.5 × 7.95 mm, 177 g | Size, weight 147.6 × 71.6 × 7.8 mm, 173 g |
| Screen 6.3" OLED 120Hz | Screen 6.1" OLED 60Hz |
| Processor A19 3nm | Processor A18 3nm |
| Versions: --- 8/256 GB 8/512 GB LPDDRX5 | Versions: 8/128 GB 8/256 GB 8/512 GB LPDDRX5 |
| Cameras: 48 MP main 48 MP ultra 18 MP front | Cameras: 48 MP main 12 MP ultra 12 MP front |
| Battery: 3,692 mAh | Battery: 3,561 mAh |
| Charging: USB-C 40W wired 25W Qi2.2 wireless | Charging: USB-C 20W wired 25W MagSafe wireless |
Summary
Image credit — PhoneArena
So, suffice it to say, the iPhone 17 clearly offers better value for your money. While the days of upgrading your phone every year are long gone, this feels like one of those rare cases where doing so actually makes sense.
If you can secure a good trade-in offer or sell your iPhone 16, the upgrade shouldn’t cost too much, and it will likely feel worth it. The iPhone 17 may not have blown us away with its new cameras and slightly larger battery, but it’s undeniably a more modern flagship thanks to its faster charging, improved display, larger base storage, better durability, and better sound.
That said, the iPhone 16 is far from outdated. It’s still an extremely capable phone with excellent camera and chip performance. This comparison simply highlights an inevitable gap. Apple was always going to address the 60Hz display and slow charging limitations that plagued its non-Pro models. If those aren’t deal-breakers for you, there’s no need to feel pressured into upgrading just yet.
If you can secure a good trade-in offer or sell your iPhone 16, the upgrade shouldn’t cost too much, and it will likely feel worth it. The iPhone 17 may not have blown us away with its new cameras and slightly larger battery, but it’s undeniably a more modern flagship thanks to its faster charging, improved display, larger base storage, better durability, and better sound.
That said, the iPhone 16 is far from outdated. It’s still an extremely capable phone with excellent camera and chip performance. This comparison simply highlights an inevitable gap. Apple was always going to address the 60Hz display and slow charging limitations that plagued its non-Pro models. If those aren’t deal-breakers for you, there’s no need to feel pressured into upgrading just yet.
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