After more than a month with the iPhone 16 Plus, I’m happy to report that the upgrade from the iPhone 14 Pro was totally worth it. There’s only one thing I regret, and it’s not what you might think. I don’t mind losing the 120Hz display or the third zoom camera of the iPhone Pro. It’s the plus size that takes some getting used to considering it’s my first time using one iPhone with a 6.7-inch display.

If you are not sure which iPhone 16 model to buy, I’ll go over two things to try before you decide if you need a new Pro or non-Pro iPhone in your life. Honestly, only one of them really matters given how powerful the iPhone is.

The problem with upgrading from a previous generation iPhone Pro to an iPhone 16 or 16 Plus is that it might not feel like an upgrade. The fear of missing out will kick in as the Pro models offer better features than the non-Pro models.

But going from a previous generation Pro to an iPhone 16/Plus is a massive upgrade when it comes to specs. You get the A18 chip with 8GB of RAM, a slightly improved display that can operate at a minimum brightness of 1 nit, and an improved camera. Battery life is amazing, easily one of the best things about the iPhones of 2024.

When you go for a non-Pro version of the iPhone 16, you miss out on the titanium chassis, triple-lens camera on the back, and the 120Hz ProMotion Always-On display.

Chamber

The iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max feature 12-megapixel quad-zoom rear cameras that support 5x optical zoom. So what?

The iPhone 14 Pro did not have a periscope camera and supported a maximum 3x optical zoom. I haven’t used the zoom that much. Can’t say I missed the 3x option when I moved to the iPhone 16 Plus.

This is the first thing you should try on your iPhone Pro right now. See how often you use the zoom camera and why you do it. If you take a lot of photos at full optical or digital zoom, you may need three cameras from the iPhone 16. In that case, you’ll want to get an iPhone 16 Pro or 16 Pro Max. Again, both come with the same tetraprism camera on the back.

I will also have to note the other advantages of the iPhone 16 Pro camera experience. You get support for night mode portraits, something I don’t think I’ve used as much on the iPhone 14 Pro. You also have support for Apple ProRaw, Log video recording, ProRes video recording, and a four-mic array. The latter could be useful if you record a lot of video.

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If moving from a triple-lens setup to a dual camera isn’t a problem, leaving behind the 120Hz dynamic display might be. But guess what? It’s entirely possible to do it, and you might not see much of a difference going back to a static 60Hz screen.

I know I had no problem switching from the 120Hz screen of the iPhone 14 Pro to the 60Hz screen of the iPhone 16 Plus. I’ll explain how I did it.

First of all, I don’t need the Always-On display. Its one of the first iOS 16 features we disabled when I got the iPhone 14 Pro almost two years ago. Deactivating the Always-On feature it will also increase your iPhone’s battery life.

Second, I set the 120Hz dynamic refresh rate to a 60Hz dynamic rate and forgot to change it back. It happened in the early days of the iPhone 14 Pro. I realized my mistake about a year ago when looking at the phone’s display settings. I also found that the 60Hz refresh rate didn’t bother me, so I kept it off. The bonus? Additional battery life savings on iPhone 14 Pro.

I know many iPhone users will say they can tell the difference between 120Hz and 60Hz. Most of the time I can’t and I think I understand why.

Many years ago, Apple introduced the parallax effect for system-wide animations. It happened with iOS 7. It was nice, but I couldn’t stand it. I mean, the motion made me nauseous, so I turned it off Accessibility section in the Settings app (search for Reduce movement in Movement menu). I haven’t experienced it in over a decade.

ProMotion screens will make animation look much smoother than 60Hz screens. I suspect the downgrade from 120Hz to 60Hz would be noticeable if you have parallax effects enabled. Most people do. But I’m less likely to notice any jittery effects because I’ve reduced the intensity of the movement effects.

The 60Hz display is not a problem when scrolling content in apps or enjoying games. Note that ProMotion displays change the refresh rate from 1 Hz to 120 Hz (or from 1 Hz to 60 Hz) by themselves. They won’t always run at full refresh rate because they don’t have to.

If you want to test a non-Pro iPhone experience without buying a non-Pro device, try turning off the Always-On display and then setting the refresh rate to 60Hz for a few days. You can also disable motion and see how it affects your experience.

If you can’t stand the 60Hz screen, avoid the non-Pro iPhone 16 models.