Why are the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max getting bigger?

New iPhones are a little over one month away. The iPhone 16 lineup will fully support Apple Intelligence and feature camera upgrades, a dedicated Capture button, and more. But there’s one key design change coming to the Pro models only: larger displays.

Both the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max will be bigger than any previous Pro phones. Thanks to a variety of corroborating reports, we know that larger displays are happening. What we don’t yet know is why. Here’s my best guess.

Display sizes for iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max

As has been affirmed many times from many sources, the iPhone 16 lineup is expected to include Pro models with the following display sizes:

• iPhone 16 Pro: 6.3 inches (up from 6.1)
• iPhone 16 Pro Max: 6.9 inches (up from 6.7)

These size increases are relatively small, as you can see in the image above from Sonny Dickson.

In fact, the moderate scope of these size bumps is itself what makes them confusing.

These changes aren’t so small that they can be credited to a slight internal parts rearrangement.

They also aren’t so big that they’ll make a radical difference for users.

All of which calls into question the reason behind the change.

A brief overview of iPhone size changes

When size changes happen with the iPhone, they’re usually pretty noteworthy.

The original iPhone’s 3.5-inch display lasted all the way from 2007 until 2012, when the iPhone 5 took that size to 4 inches. The bigger jump, however, happened in 2014 with the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus at 4.7 and 5.5 inches. When the iPhone X launched in 2017, its edge-to-edge display came with a slight bump to 5.8 inches, but in a similar size frame. The following year saw the first Max model at 6.5 inches. Some minor updates followed.

The last major size change happened in 2019. That’s when the iPhone lineup began largely consisting of 6.1-inch and 6.7-inch models—excluding the unsuccessful mini.

Now, five years later, Apple is finally shaking up those 6.1 and 6.7-inch sizes.

But why now? And how much of a difference will the move to 6.3 and 6.9 inches make?

My explanation for the larger 16 Pro models

Every year, Apple sells hundreds of millions of iPhones. It doesn’t make changes to its flagship product flippantly.

So as I have tried to wrap my head around the reasons for these size changes, here are the top two reasons I can think of.

1. It’s time to shake things up: After five years, the iPhone sizes are overdue for a change. However, Apple knows it can’t push sizes too much without making the iPhone uncomfortable to hold. Thus, the moderate increases this year.
2. Apple Intelligence: The rapid growth of AI means Apple needs to put even more powerful chips in the iPhone. In the past, Apple often enjoyed a chip lead that was a year or more ahead of competitors. With AI’s high computing demands, however, the company needs to push iPhone chip development more than ever. This could lead to needing more enclosure space for larger chips, better thermal management, or larger batteries—or all of the above.

Whatever Apple’s reasons end up being for the new display sizes, the iPhone 16 lineup is shaping up to be a strong one.

Why do you think Apple is making the Pro models bigger? Let us know in the comments.