I've just spent the last couple of hours hands-on with every new iPhone. So that's the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus, as well as the iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max. So buckle up, this is the good, the bad, and the ugly. Okay, let's start with the normal 16 and 16 Plus.
And aesthetically, aside from this, I have to admit, quite spicy new ultramarine colour, they're basically the same as the iPhone 15s, including the same size screens. So the base iPhone gets a 6.1 inch screen, and then the Plus is basically the same phone but stretched out to a 6.7 inch screen, with a bigger battery too. There is an upgraded ceramic shield covering those screens though, which Apple is saying is 50% stronger than the first gen ceramic shield, which is a large number.
And everyone wins when it comes to durability improvements, but then they didn't really give any detail on specifically how that 50% was measured. So it would probably be some really niche test that's been done and the day-to-day difference won't be nearly as transformative as that. But the one visual difference that you absolutely will notice are these cameras. They've gone from the boxy, squarer camera arrangement on the 15s to now a straight line down the phone.
Kind of exactly how they used to be on the old iPhones. It really does make me feel like we're on some sort of roundabout when it comes to iPhone design, where instead of just deciding that one thing is better and sticking with it, we're actually just rotating between the different options to keep whatever's new feeling different. But yeah, the reason that Apple's saying they've made the cameras like this again is so that the main cam and the ultrawide can work together, kind of like your eyes, to be able to record spatial video that you can watch on the Apple Vision Pro.
So... Big moment for the seven people who own one of them. They are also slightly better cameras than last year because the ultra-wide has now been given autofocus, which means when you go super close to something, your phone can still keep it in focus, which is not a new feature. The pro phones have been able to do this for a while now, but Apple does this dance every year. The pros will always come with some new and exciting hero feature that the normal phones don't get.
But then as soon as the pros get the next hero feature, then the normal phones are allowed to have the old stuff, which is... I think it makes sense. It means that Apple can differentiate their more expensive offerings, but also then if you don't want to pay pro prices, you can still get the features you want by waiting another year. And in the same vein, you now also get the action button that last year's pro phones had, which I personally find pretty uncomfortably positioned. I mean, for me, it's less of an action button and more of a slowly stretch as far as I can until I realize my fingers aren't long enough and then give up and then just resort to using my screen to open the app like on a peasant non.
action button phone anyway. But that's not to say that I haven't seen hundreds of fascinating ways that other people have used theirs. There's obviously the basic stuff like using it to take photos, but then also I've seen people use this button to specifically turn on a dim flashlight that they can use at night. I've seen people use it to activate their insulin pump. I've seen people use it to make fart noises on command.
So it's up to you what you make of it. Now the only other somewhat camera related feature is this, the new camera control button. So two separate new buttons in one year on an iPhone.
How many people had that on their bingo card? I definitely did not. So it's a new button on the right hand side completely dedicated to camera stuff and I'll give them some credit.
They are getting a lot of functionality out of this one button. So tapping and holding will bring up the visual intelligence feature, which is not yet live but it's kind of like Google Lens. It's a way to analyze information using your phone's camera.
So like, Save the details of an event poster or find out what type of dog is in front of you. Which, meh. I mean, I just feel like we've seen so many companies do things like this. But then, hey, I guess there is still room for a company to do it really well. Time will tell if that is this.
But then the other side of this camera control is photography. stuff. So one press can open the camera app and then it can actually detect two stages of press, kind of like the trackpads on a MacBook if you've ever used one of those.
So you can light press to start using it to be able to zoom in and out by swiping. But there's actually a lot more because then you can double light press to bring up this sub menu which basically lets you select what you want the swiping to control. So it doesn't need to be zoom, it could be the exposure of your shot or the different photographic styles for example.
Okay, but... Honestly, I am confused why this exists. It feels like a really, really good feature, but for like 2% of iPhone users. I mean, for starters, one of the things they showed in the presentation was how you'll be able to use this button to control focus by lightly holding down on it.
You know, just like you would with a proper camera shutter button. But... When was the last time you actually wanted to manually focus your phone?
There's already like a hundred pieces of hardware and software making sure that your subject is in focus automatically. We've actually been programmed out of needing to do that. There's the fact that phones are becoming more and more portrait devices. I take almost all of my photos like this now, because every feed that I'd be potentially posting those photos on is vertical.
But this camera control, while it does work in portrait, is very clearly designed. for landscape use. It's really fiddly and a little painful to reach for when your phone is upright.
I wouldn't wish these finger gymnastics on anyone. And I nearly dropped the thing trying. It's actually quite reminiscent of my experience with the action button.
But then also, yeah, isn't this what the action button was meant to do? Now, obviously, yes, the camera control button does the camera side of things better, but it just feels like a really weird, Apple thing to do to add yet another button that somewhat overlaps in functionality with what's also just been added. And that's it for cameras on the normal iPhone 16s. There's actually pretty huge camera upgrades to the Pros, which I'm getting to, but it feels like the main changes here are actually the battery, the power, and Apple intelligence. So, the battery is bigger.
That's actually all they said at the event. They said it will be a big boost, which is a technical term, I guess. So yeah, that I need to test in our upcoming battery comparison. In terms of power though, it's quite cool because we're actually jumping forward two generations in terms of the chipset.
The iPhone 15s have the A16 chip. The iPhone 16s have the A18 chip, which means 30% faster CPU, 40% faster graphics, and 100% faster machine learning AI stuff, all with more efficient construction. which means the chip will use quite a bit less power for equivalent tests. And you know what?
For today's fairly stable smartphone market, these are big improvement numbers. And considering that these aren't pro phones, the gaming experience is very impressive, which is also helped by a new thermal structure on the inside of the phone that gets rid of heat, allowing for 30% better sustained performance. But yeah, there's no beating around the bush.
If there's one thing that Apple has made very clear about this generation of iPhones, it's that they want them to be known. as the AI generation. I read a report recently that said 300 million iPhones around the world have not been upgraded in four years. So there's a ton of people out there who are due an upgrade, but are likely holding off until it feels like a big turning point moment. And Apple wants now to feel like that turning point moment with Apple Intelligence.
So what's it gonna let you do? Well, for starters, there's a base layer of Apple Intelligence sprinkled throughout iOS here. Things like if you go into an email app, Instead of the text by default just being the first few lines of whatever the email was, it'll now summarize the entire email's content. Things like Cleanup to erase distractions from your photos, which is not something we haven't seen on other phones, but it does work very quickly and effectively in my time with it. Or what I thought was really cool is Reduce Interruptions Mode, which uses AI to silence most notifications, but then also allows what it thinks you need to see to still come through.
This might well become the permanent mode that I keep my phone in. It's kind of like a lower risk version of Do Not Disturb. But is it good?
Well, based on an early play around, I will say that it all looks very pretty. It seems like the way that Apple will signal that something is an Apple intelligence feature is by making it glow like this. And every one of these animations is beautifully put together.
That said, in terms of the actual output, it doesn't feel like Apple intelligence is doing much that others aren't already doing. All these features, like being able to proofread the messages you're writing and rewrite those messages in another tone, it's all fine. but it's all been done and I'm not sure it's stuff that I use very often to be honest. Like I am a really casual messenger so when I type things out to people I don't use like dear sir I would like to inquire I'm always like yo what do you think to this? And Apple intelligence like basically every other phone company's AI right now is not yet able to match that texting tone.
But one big thing Siri is finally getting Apple intelligence which is going to make it a lot smarter and thank goodness for that because I am reaching my limit with, here's what I found on the web. So the upgraded Siri should be able to rely much less on that and be much more able to directly answer the questions you're asking it. And also completely understand the context of the last thing you asked it when you're asking continuous questions.
I would go as far as to say that Siri has been the weakest pillar of iOS for quite a while now. Like so many times I ask it to remember something or open an app and it like accidentally calls my mum. However, key key caveat here...
Apple intelligence, like all the stuff you're seeing here, isn't actually coming till later in the year, which kind of makes this feel like a Google Pixel event where the product comes first and then the feature later. And that obviously takes something away from the excitement, especially for an event where half the focus is these AI features. But I assume it's the immense complexity of getting these features right, combined with the awful consequences if they... don't get them right.
So that's the base iPhone 16s. I'd say decent all-round upgrade, nothing revolutionary. The presentation was a lot of like telling you about some really cool stuff that the phone does, but then you slowly realizing halfway through that the things they're telling you were already features on last year's iPhone 15s.
It feels like they're making it purposefully murky what was on last year's phone, because if you actually focused on just what is different compared to that, it's not actually a huge amount. And the screens still have that 60 Hertz refresh rate, which makes them feel. a little bit laggy compared to most similarly priced other phones.
But then at the same time, I also wouldn't hold out expecting any revolutionary upgrades to the base iPhones from now on. Like, I think all the really cutting edge stuff, Apple will want to save to release on the Pro phones first. Anyways, so let's talk about those.
The iPhone 16 Pro and the iPhone 16 Pro Max. Now, I would say these are actually quite a pretty set of phones. From the back, there's not a whole lot different, except this new desert titanium color, which is...
I mean, how many times can you make a gold look different? I like it. I'm just finding it hard to love it because it's so safe.
But from the front, the upgrade is pretty obvious because the displays are bigger. For the smaller Pro, 6.1 inches has now become 6.3. And on the bigger Pro Max, 6.7 has become 6.9. And I think that's a bit of a feat because these new phones, they are a bit bigger, but quite a bit of that size increase has actually come thanks to a further trimming down of the borders around the screen, which mean these things look...
Very fitting for the year 2024. They might actually have the slimmest even borders on any mainstream smartphone. And yeah, let's be very clear, the new iPhone doesn't de-age you, it doesn't make you more successful. We are talking about the millimetres of bezel on the display, but it makes the phones look cutting edge, while giving you some of the largest viewing areas in both the compact and the jumbo form factors. I'm just remembering the days when Android tablets had 7-inch screens. We are there with phones, isn't that?
Isn't that kind of wild? There is also an upgraded battery on the Pro phones too, which as you know, I'm all about, but again, shockingly little detail provided about what and how. All they said was it now has faster wireless MagSafe charging, and that this is the best battery on an iPhone, which is great. It just probably means I'm gonna be awake all night when it comes to the battery test. So thoughts and prayers would be appreciated.
There's another new chip. So while the base iPhone 16s get the A18, the 16 Pros get the A18. well, pro, which is a slightly juiced up version, also with improvements to cooling, that lets the phone do a few more things, with a lot of those things being related to the camera. And this is where it gets fruity.
So the main camera is still 48 megapixel like it was last year, but the sensor has been updated to be able to capture information faster, which means two things. One, they're saying that you can now capture photos with zero shutter lag, something that the iPhone was already pretty good at, but this might further extend its lead. But then also it means the 16 Pros can shoot video faster. And what I mean by that is that the 15 Pros could shoot 4K video at 60 frames per second.
These new phones can shoot that same 4K resolution, but now at 120 frames per second, which is enough frames that you can now slow that 4K down into slow motion territory. And it feels like the way Apple is selling this is basically that you can now just keep 4K 120 as your default recording option. And what that then allows you to do is after you've taken any kind of video, you can then just decide whether you want that to play back in normal speed, half speed, quarter speed, or even 20% speed. I do like how seamless they've made it to record this 120fps footage, but then at the same time if you did actually want that to become your default, you're gonna need more storage than the 128 gigabytes still being offered as the default on the smaller Pro iPhone.
It's just... it's just not enough for almost 2025. The ultra-wide camera. Previously 12 megapixel is now also up to 48 too to match that main camera, which is a good upgrade. I really like the freedom that comes with feeling like all the cameras on my phone are great and that all I need to worry about is which one do I want to use as opposed to which one is technically the best that I should try to use.
And the ultrawide is a bit of a two-in-one upgrade because upgrading your ultrawide also upgrades your close-up macro photography because it's the same camera. So that means up to 48 megapixel macro photos which is Pretty delicious. The phones have four studio microphones around them now, which is, well, it's actually really good for a number of reasons. More and better mics means that your phone can hear you better. So that's obviously good for your audio quality in videos, but also just generally like how well Siri can hear you.
And there's even now different audio mixing modes. So after you've taken a video, you can decide whether you want the focus on just the audio of the people in the shot, or also if you want to get in more of that background chatter. There's actually quite a few new very advanced software features like this, like a new control pad to adjust the color profile of your shots in real time.
It has got me thinking. This is all really cool stuff. These are all technically very difficult to achieve impressive features, but it also feels in a way like a few too many tools for any one human to be able to use.
It feels like a lot of the extra features now, while impressive, are tailored to actual industry. professionals as opposed to the casual user who just wants the best point and shoot camera. And I'm not saying that that point and shoot experience is getting worse, it just doesn't feel like Apple's attention is focused on making it significantly better. Anyway, the final camera thing is now the smaller Pro iPhone now also inherits the five times optical zoom camera that last year only the Pro Max got. Meaning this must be one of the smallest phones with a five times optical zoom lens.
It's usually something that only the big phones get because you have to create space between your camera's sensor and your lens. Most companies do this by lying their cameras vertically across their phone, but Apple's created that space by using a tetra prism that's bouncing the light multiple times within a more compact space. And slight segue for 30 seconds. If you want to protect those shiny new cameras, then ESR's new MagSafe Stash Stand Case, our sponsor, just makes sense.
Because you see this camera protector here? Well, that also doubles as a stand to prop your phone up at any angle. But it's even better. Because your stand is baked into the cameras, it's allowed them to make the back of the case ultra-thin, giving these cases the fastest MagSafe charging of any stand case. And to top it all off, they're well-priced, with shock-absorbing air guard corners, meaning that every case actually exceeds military protection standards.
So, what's my take on the 16 Pros? Well, I think so far that the new features this year are... A bit of a mix. Because on one hand, it feels like less hardware improvements than usual, because Apple is relying on Apple Intelligence to do the heavy lifting for sales.
But then, Apple Intelligence is both not ready yet, and also not really seeming, at least on first glance, like anything groundbreaking right now. But then on the other hand, we are getting decent improvements to basically all the key pillars of a phone. The screens, the battery, the camera, even the microphones.
And so for me, what a lot of it's going to come down to is how much better all these phones are. At all of that core stuff, the testing begins. And remember to check out the ESR MagSafe stash stand cases in the description, which you can get in three different flavors.
You've got the Classic case, the Cloud case, which is super soft, and then the Cyber Tough case, which is no joke, seven times military crate protection.