Apple blesses iPhone 16 users with more RAM, keeps USB speeds limited

Apple finally revealed the iPhone 16 lineup, which primarily revolves around camera and AI upgrades. While the Camera Control button may have been the main highlight of these phones, some under-the-hood changes (or the lack thereof) deserve some recognition. These include more RAM on the regular iPhone 16 models and support for a new image file format on the Pro variants.

As per a MacRumors report, all iPhone 16 models now offer 8GB of RAM. Last year, Apple limited this perk to the iPhone 15 Pro models, while the regular ones got 6GB. This year, the 2GB increase on the non-Pro variants is to accommodate Apple Intelligence, which requires at least 8GB of RAM to work.

On the contrary, Apple did not improve USB speeds this time. Both the regular and Pro iPhone 16 lines continue to offer last year’s USB 2 (up to 480Mb/s) and USB 3 (up to 10Gb/s) transfer speeds, respectively. While many users rely exclusively on AirDrop for wireless file transfer, others depend on wired solutions. This makes exporting large files, such as Apple ProRes footage, more time consuming.

Speaking of, the iOS 18 Release Candidate has added a pause button when recording video in the stock Camera app. This lets users pause and resume recording without splitting the footage into two (or more) separate files.

Lastly, the JPEG-XL rumors turned out to be true. According to MacRumors, iOS 18 code reveals that the iPhone 16 Pro models support this file format, which offers improved compression. It’s also compatible with both lossy and lossless outputs, making it a versatile option for different use cases.