Apple’s latest flagship smartphone series -- the iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max -- debuted in Korea on Sept. 20 as the US tech giant included the country among the first regions for its newest phones’ launch.

Since the first iPhone debuted here in 2009, it marks the first time that Korea has been included in the list of the first countries to have new iPhones.

Despite the early release, Korean sales remain lukewarm. Coupang, a major online seller, saw the sales volume of the iPhone 16 almost cut in half. Some 4,200 preorders have been made for the new iPhone, down from 94,000 preorders for its predecessor.

Professional camera phone

The Korea Herald had a chance to try out the new iPhone 16 Pro for about four days.

The appearance was not noticeably different from its predecessor at first glance but there were some design changes.

The Pro model measures 149.6 millimeters in length, 71.5 mm in width, 8.25 mm in thickness and has a 6.3-inch screen. Compared to its predecessor, the iPhone 15 Pro, the screen size has increased by 0.2 inches, making it the largest ever, with the device being 3 mm taller and 0.9 mm wider.

This is due to both the larger device and the thinner bezel, which is now around 1.2 mm. The thickness remains the same as the previous model, but the weight has increased by 12 grams.

The new Camera Control button was useful when filming. By lightly pressing the button twice in succession, the reporter could easily select shooting options such as brightness, zoom and aperture.

Camera performance has significantly improved compared to the previous model.

The A18 Pro chip inside supports 4K Dolby Vision video recording at 120 frames per second, making it the highest-performing smartphone, not just among iPhones, but among all smartphones. When shooting a video in 120-frame mode, the results were of decent camcorder quality.

It also features a 5x telephoto camera, allowing it to capture distant movements. The reporter could clearly zoom in and capture signs of a building that were too far away to be visible to the naked eye.

Although the iPhone 16 is the first series to be manufactured in consideration of Apple's own AI system, Apple Intelligence, I felt that its AI capabilities were significantly lacking compared to its rival, Samsung Electronics’ flagship Galaxy smartphones.

Apple said its AI system Apple Intelligence will support Korean sometime next year, as well as launch the iPhone 17 series. Currently, only the US English version is available here, which might be an inconvenience to iPhone users wanting to use Korean.