Here are 5 reasons to upgrade your 5-year-old iPhone 11 to Apple's latest iPhone 16.
Last week, Apple officially launched the all-new iPhone 16 series with a larger battery, a new Camera button, and more. The company calls these the first iPhones built for Apple Intelligence. So if you own an iPhone 11 , should you upgrade to the iPhone 16? Here are 5 very convincing reasons.
1. Much better display: Super Retina XDR
Apple introduced OLED displays to standard iPhones in 2020, but if you're using an iPhone 11 or earlier, you're stuck with the older LCD display. OLED technology offers much higher resolution, better colors, deeper blacks, and support for high dynamic range content.
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In short, everything looks much better with Apple's Super Retina XDR display. OLED screens are also much brighter - the iPhone 16's screen supports a maximum brightness of up to 2,000 nits outdoors, while the iPhone 11's screen only has a maximum brightness of 625 nits.
2. Personalized AI on iPhone
Apple Intelligence was unveiled at the WWDC Developers Conference in June, offering a brand new Siri experience with personal context, Writing Tools to improve writing, Genmoji to create your own emojis, a new Clean Up feature to remove unwanted content from photos,...
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Not all of these features will be available at launch, but they’ll only be available on the iPhone 15 Pro or iPhone 16 series. The all-new Siri experience is expected to launch in the spring, and everything else will roll out before the end of the year, split into iOS 18.1 in October and iOS 18.2 in December. And of course, the iPhone 11 doesn’t get this privilege.
3. Better battery experience
The iPhone 16 has a number of battery and charging improvements over the iPhone 11. Apple has switched from Lightning to USB-C with the iPhone 15 series, providing a unified charging experience. Now you can use the same cable on your phone, laptop, and more.
The battery has also taken a big step forward this year, with the iPhone 16 lasting 5 hours longer than the iPhone 11 for video playback, an increase of about 30%. With better battery life, users won't have to worry about recharging their iPhones as often.
In addition, the iPhone 16 also supports up to 45W wired charging and 25W wireless charging (with MagSafe). In contrast, the iPhone 11 can only support up to 20W wired charging and 7.5W wireless charging.
4. Dynamic Island
Apple introduced Dynamic Island on the iPhone 14 Pro, replacing the traditional iPhone “notch.” It’s a combination of hardware and software that allows users to interact with notifications, apps, and other forms of apps at the top of the screen. Users can use this area to control music, answer phone calls, and more.
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Dynamic Island also interacts with Live Activities, so apps like Flighty can display flight details right in the “pill” cutout at the top of your iPhone’s screen.
5. Additional buttons
The iPhone has had two new buttons since the iPhone 11: the Action Button (replacing the mute switch) and the Camera Control "button".
By default, the Action Button still functions as a mute button. Users can also set additional features, including: Focus mode, opening the Camera app, turning on Flashlight, recording Voice Memos, etc. Additionally, in iOS 18, apps can create separate controls for both the Action Button and Control Center.
As for Camera Control, this is a new toggle button on iPhone 16, providing users with new, convenient and flexible ways to use the iPhone camera. Users can freely adjust modes such as: Exposure, Depth, Zoom, Cameras, Style and Tone.
Other minor features only available on iPhone 16 Series, not on iPhone 11:
- 48MP camera with 2x optical zoom option
- Newer ultra-wide angle camera supports macro photography
- Better water resistance
- Sensor-shift optical image stabilization
- Record video in cinema mode
- Action mode video recording
- Take photos and videos of space
- Supports 5G, Wi-Fi 7
- MagSafe Wireless Charger
In addition, users should also upgrade to iPhone 11 this year, especially when iPhone 11 is out of memory capacity, providing short battery life. However, if you are still patient to wait another year, iPhone 17 Series will be equally attractive.
