iPhone 16/16 Pro Review: Times Have Changed!
Summary
TLDRIn this review, the iPhone 16 and 16 Pro are unveiled with incremental updates and a focus on AI features, despite these being incomplete at launch. The new models introduce a camera control button, enhanced displays, and improved battery life. The iPhone 16 offers a solid camera experience, while the Pro model excels with its main sensor and additional camera capabilities. The reviewer suggests upgrading from an iPhone 13 or older for the best experience but advises against it for those with newer models, emphasizing the importance of current features over promised future updates.
Takeaways
- 📱 iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro have been launched with a focus on new AI capabilities and improved hardware.
- 🎨 The iPhone 16 Pro introduces a new 'camera control' button for manual camera settings, enhancing photography experience.
- 🔋 Battery life is slightly improved with larger capacity batteries, but the difference may not be very noticeable.
- 🚀 The new iPhones support faster charging up to 45 watts, but the fast charger is not included in the box.
- 💾 All iPhone 16 models now have 8GB of RAM, likely to support upcoming AI features.
- 📲 iOS 18 comes with the new iPhones, offering more customization options for the iPhone.
- 📸 The iPhone 16 Pro has a significant camera upgrade with a larger main sensor, higher resolution ultra-wide, and a 5x telephoto lens.
- 📹 Video capabilities have been enhanced, with the iPhone 16 Pro supporting 4K at 120 FPS.
- 🤖 Apple is emphasizing AI features, but they are not yet available on the new iPhones, which is an unusual move for the company.
- 💡 The reviewer suggests buying the iPhone 16 if you're using an iPhone 13 or older, and the iPhone 16 Pro for those seeking better cameras and displays.
Q & A
What is the name of the new app for wallpapers mentioned in the script?
-The name of the new app for wallpapers is 'panels'.
On which platforms is the 'panels' app available?
-The 'panels' app is available on both iOS and Android platforms.
What is the claim about the wallpapers in the reviewer's videos over the past year?
-The claim is that almost all the wallpapers used in the reviewer's videos for the past year have come from the 'panels' app.
What is the iPhone 16's relationship to the iPhone 15 in terms of updates?
-The iPhone 16 is a minor update over the iPhone 15 with a ton of new AI features labeled as 'Apple intelligence'.
What is considered unfinished about the iPhone 16 at launch?
-The iPhone 16 is considered unfinished because the 'Apple intelligence' features, which were heavily marketed, are not available at launch and are labeled as 'coming soon'.
What new physical buttons have been added to the iPhone 16?
-The iPhone 16 has added the action button from last year's models and a new button called 'camera control'.
What is the claim about the iPhone 16 Pro's battery life?
-The iPhone 16 Pro is claimed to have the longest battery life ever in an iPhone.
What is the new charging feature of the iPhone 16 lineup?
-All new iPhone 16 models support up to 45 watt wired charging.
What is the significance of the new camera control button on the iPhone 16?
-The new camera control button is meant to give users more control over the camera settings, allowing for customization of photographic styles, tone, and other elements.
How does the reviewer feel about the new camera capabilities of the iPhone 16 Pro?
-The reviewer feels that the new cameras on the iPhone 16 Pro, especially the main camera and the 5x telephoto, are a significant step up and have risen the iPhone back to the top of their personal favorite rankings for smartphone cameras.
What is the reviewer's recommendation on whether to buy the new iPhones?
-The reviewer recommends buying the iPhone 16 if you're on an iPhone 13 or older and looking for an upgrade. They recommend the iPhone 16 Pro for those who want better cameras or displays. They advise buying for what the phone is today, not for what it could be tomorrow.
Outlines
📱 Introduction to iPhone 16 and Panels App
The script introduces the iPhone 16 and 16 Pro, highlighting their new features and design. The reviewer has been testing them for two weeks. A significant part of the introduction is dedicated to the launch of a new app called 'Panels,' which offers wallpapers created by various artists. The app is available on both iOS and Android. The reviewer also discusses the incremental hardware improvements and AI features in new smartphones, noting that the iPhone 16 series is a minor update with a lot of new AI features labeled 'Apple intelligence,' although these are not yet available.
🔋 Battery Life and Charging Improvements
The script discusses the battery life of the iPhone 16 series, mentioning that the batteries are slightly larger than previous models, with the Pro models having a 9% increase. The reviewer found the battery life to be similar to the previous year's models. However, a significant improvement is the support for faster charging up to 45 watts, although the phone does not come with a fast charger. The script also mentions the new A18 and A18 Pro chips, which offer better performance, and the increase in RAM to 8GB across all models to support future AI features.
📸 Camera Control and New Camera Features
The script focuses on the new camera control button on the iPhone 16, which allows for more manual control over camera settings. The reviewer likens the camera's adjustability to headphone EQ, where users can tweak settings like exposure compensation, photographic styles, and tone to achieve their desired look. The new camera control button is described as finicky but useful once users get accustomed to it. The script also discusses the new camera hardware on the iPhone 16 and 16 Pro, with the Pro models receiving significant upgrades in camera capabilities.
🤖 The Hype and Delay of Apple Intelligence
The script addresses the hype around Apple intelligence, which was heavily promoted by Apple but is not yet available on the iPhone 16 series. The reviewer expresses disappointment that the phone is being marketed with features that are not yet implemented, calling the phone 'unfinished.' There is a discussion about the pressure on companies to appear as AI leaders and the trend of promising future software updates that may not yet be fully developed.
🛍️ Should You Buy the iPhone 16?
The script concludes with a recommendation on whether to purchase the iPhone 16. The reviewer suggests that users with an iPhone 13 or older should consider upgrading, while those with newer models may not see a significant benefit. The iPhone 16 Pro is recommended for users who value camera and display improvements. The script reiterates the idea of buying a product for its current capabilities, not for promised future updates.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡iPhone 16
💡iPhone 16 Pro
💡Apple Intelligence
💡Action Button
💡Camera Control
💡Battery Life
💡Fast Charging
💡A18 Chip
💡iOS 18
💡Fusion Camera
💡Promotion
Highlights
Introduction of the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro with new AI capabilities
Launch of the 'panels' app for wallpapers on iOS and Android
The iPhone 16 is described as unfinished due to missing Apple intelligence features
Physical changes to the iPhone 16 include new colors and a camera control button
iPhone 16 Pro models have slightly larger displays and thinner bezels
New iPhone models have larger capacity batteries but without specific numbers provided
Faster charging is now supported up to 45 watts in the new iPhone lineup
All new iPhone models come with 8GB of RAM for improved performance
iOS 18 introduces new customization features for the iPhone
The new camera control button offers more manual control over smartphone photography
iPhone 16 Pro has a significant camera upgrade with a larger main sensor and higher resolution lenses
iPhone 16 Pro supports 4K 120 FPS video recording
The term 'Fusion camera' is introduced, indicating an updated image processing pipeline
Critique on the marketing of Apple intelligence before the features are fully available
Recommendation on whether to buy the new iPhones based on current features rather than promised updates
Final thoughts on the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro as solid incremental upgrades
Transcripts
a widescreen iPod with touch controls a
revolutionary mobile phone and a
breakthrough internet communication
[Music]
device profound new intelligence
capabilities that will make our
platforms even
smarter so this is the iPhone 16 and
this is the iPhone 16 Pro brand new and
I've been testing them for about 2 weeks
now but you know what I've been doing
way longer than 2 weeks weeks working on
a new app that we are finally launching
you guys have always been asking me
where I get my wallpapers like it's
frequently the number one suggested
search result under my name has been for
years so now we've put them all in one
place it's called panels and it's
finally live in the App Store both on
iOS and on Android feels really good to
be able to say that so if you're
wondering where the wallpaper on these
phones and the review came from panels
if you're wondering where the wallpaper
in the last video came from panels
matter of fact almost all the wallpapers
all the devices and in backgrounds
you've seen in my videos for the past
year have all come from panels which is
pretty sick we have a bunch of awesome
artists over there that we are splitting
profits with 50/50 and there's already a
ton of great collections of Art and much
more incoming and we have some pretty
big plans for this thing so it's
starting off as a wallpaper app now I
don't want to overpromise too much but
it's going to be pretty consistently
improving over time which is part of the
reason why we're offering a subscription
to support it so go pick it up now poke
around find your new favorite wallpaper
your new favorite artist and let me know
what you think it's kind of fun to be on
the other side now on the development
side where now other people are going to
review what we make which is always
exciting anyway so the meta with new
smartphones these days is a bunch of
incremental Hardware improvements and
then a whole bunch of AI features that
also are being added on top which is
where the real value is and while
they're a little late to the game Apple
has hit that chapter 2 with the iPhone
whether we like it or not so the iPhone
16 is a minor minor update over the 15
but with a ton of new AI stuff labeled
Apple intelligence except that stuff's
not here yet which is a little awkward
considering basically all of the
marketing for this phone is Apple
intelligence stuff like I've seen
Billboards touting that as the new thing
here their whole event was about how
it's glow time which is a reference to
the new glowing Siri animation but none
of that stuff
is on this phone none of it so the only
way to square the state of this phone
right now with everything Apple has said
about this phone is that it's unfinished
like this is the most unfinished I've
ever seen a new iPhone launch so until
we actually have all that Apple
intelligence stuff we are left with a
very incremental upgrade cycle
so there's not a lot actually physically
new with this year's iPhone but it's not
nothing so the iPhone 16 looks a little
different from the iPhone 15 there was a
moment in time not that long ago where
Apple removed the headphone jack and
then there was a ton of speculation
about them maybe removing all the ports
and all the buttons but instead it's
gone the opposite way and they've added
the action button from last year's pros
and yet another button called camera
control which we'll get to in a second
aesthetically though there are some
really poppy new colors and slightly
larer protruding cameras lined up on the
back of the phone and okay I know
everyone puts a case on their phone so
this is probably nothing but I think
this is the wobbly slab phone I have
ever seen or at least that I can
remember but either way the rest of the
general shape and flat sides and
dimensions of this phone are basically
the same very familiar iPhone the pro
phones are even harder to tell apart but
they do have new displays and they are
great so they're slightly bigger 6.3 and
6.9 in respectively
and the bezels are I think actually
noticeably thinner and still even all
the way around so both sized phones are
just a little larger than last year and
fit bigger batteries too and we should
talk about batteries so when Apple
unveiled all these new phones they made
kind of a big deal about how they all
have slightly larger capacity batteries
across the board and that the new Pro
Max would have the longest battery life
ever in an iPhone which I mean I would
hope that your newest most expensive
most high-tech big biggest phone ever is
the longest battery but still they
didn't give any numbers to support that
so we don't actually know how much
larger and milliamp hours the battery is
or how much longer the battery actually
lasts all I have to go on is Apple's
websites comparison tool which only
measures in video playback hours so it
has the iPhone 16 at 22 hours of video
playback up from 20 and the 16 Pro Max
is all the way up to 33 hours versus
last year's big phones 29 unfortunately
this means almost nothing to me because
that video playback can be optimized
with like cores on a chip who cares but
now the phones are out and people have
gotten them and torn them apart measured
them turns out the batteries are about
6% larger across the board and 9% larger
on the pro and I found battery life
about the same as last year to be honest
like not noticeably better not
noticeably worse I end up saying a lot
of the same things about it like it
lasts me a whole day on the pro heavy
use no problem
what actually did make a difference to
me though is faster charging less people
are talking about it but all of the new
iPhone 16 lineup supports up to 45 watt
wired charging now Apple never talks
about fast charging they never brag
about like how fast you can go 0 to 100
or 0 to 80% but when their phones do get
slightly faster at charging it's pretty
nice it's too bad it doesn't come with
the fast charging Brick In The Box but I
have a fast charger I am loving the new
fast charging and bursts and also mag
safe supports with the new Puck up to 25
W wireless charging instead of 15 on the
inside these phones have the a18 and a18
pro chips and again I'd be lying if I
told you I just noticed any difference
right out the box and I think basically
anybody would but yes they will
Benchmark 10 20 30% faster depending on
what you ask it to do but the extra
power is definitely more about Fringe
activities high-end stuff future
proofing I was actually more curious
though to find that all of the models
have 8 gigs of RAM now so the pro phone
and the non-pr phones which usually have
different amounts no doubt this is
because the Apple intelligence features
when they eventually ship are going to
need every last bit of it but for now
hey you can enjoy more RAM for all your
other apps too iOS 18 launched with
these new phones too so I made an entire
separate video about iOS 18 all the new
features that's what's rolling out to
everybody's older iPhones as well now
too so you can put your home screen
icons wherever you can color your home
screen icons you can change your lock
screen shortcuts basically customize the
iPhone a bit more than ever before you
could argue this makes a bigger
difference to the iPhone than any of the
other Hardware stuff but yeah I'll I'll
link that full video below but speaking
of new hardware there is one other new
button so I guess nobody at Apple is
allowed to call it a button but I'm
going to call it a button so this is the
new camera control button on all of the
new iPhone Ione 16s I've used and played
with and thought a lot about this button
and actually it all comes down to
smartphone cameras in general my take is
that smartphone cameras are like
headphones EQ like you get a new pair of
headphones out the box and you listen to
them you don't like them oh no no don't
worry that's just one of the ways that
these headphones can sound you can
change the EQ and it'll sound like a
totally different pair of headphones and
that's also true with smartphone cameras
this year more than ever with the iPhone
so the default photos from the iPhone
look more iphony than ever remember how
every year in the blind smartphone
camera test the iPhone loses because it
kind of overly brightens all the shadows
and it doesn't have as much contrast
yeah it's still doing that especially in
photos with people in it but the purpose
of this new button has been made very
clear and it's kind of a theme for the
whole phone which is well camera control
this year Apple's kind of just giving
back control of the camera to users in
an interesting way but you have to know
how to use it like you have to know that
it's a double half press with just the
right weight to bring up the sliding
menu of camera controls for things like
exposure compensation and zoom and
photographic Styles and tone and then
play with it enough to realize that tone
is actually maybe the most important one
where turning up tone actually removes
Shadows even more but turning down tone
brings real Shadows back but it doesn't
seem to have a memory so you have to
remember to set it every time you open
the the camera app but you also have
this d-pad that lets you change even
more elements of a photo including
undertones and mood and color and really
mess around and dial in the look of the
photos you want and this one does have
memory so every subsequent time you open
the camera it'll remember your color Hue
and tone so I found that tone at around
minus5 is a nice balance for most photos
that I've been taking feels less flat
more contrasty this is all really useful
to me and combined with the actual new
cameras on the phones this has risen the
iPhone back to the top of my personal
favorite rankings of smartphones to
shoot with I just like having more
control over the camera camera control
but it is really finicky like the
placement on the side of the phone for
the button is mostly ideal for landscape
but would definitely be easier to reach
if it was closer to the corner but for
being honest most people take photos and
videos in portrait these days and the
corner would be horrible for portrait so
they split the difference and moved it
up a bit so you could reach it but it's
still not great and the half press
sensitivity takes some time to really
get used to I'm on week three now and
I'm still accidentally taking pictures
by tapping too hard and the scrolling it
has momentum physics and you can
accidentally scroll too far and go past
the thing you were targeting in this
more continuous scrolling interface it
is just finicky enough and just hidden
enough that I I honestly think like 99%
of people will never use this for
anything other than just a camera
shutter
button and I guess that's fine too I
personally did quickly get used to
opening the camera quickly with the
camera control button and so I remapped
my action button to something else my
tasks app and I've also remapped my lock
screen shortcut so it's now flashlight
and my tasks app again and you can
always just swipe over sideways from the
lock screen and get to the stock camera
app so if you really want you can map
the camera control button to open any
other camera app on your phone or just
keep waiting for app intelligence
features that this will probably make
more sense for so yeah long story short
one it's a button two it's also a
customization slider
three is just going to be a button for
most people but also four there are new
cameras on the
[Music]
back so there's a bunch of new cameras
across the line for both iPhone 16 and
16 Pro best way to summarize it okay so
iPhone 16 cameras are nice like they're
pretty solid main cameras very much in
character with iPhones of the past but
not noticeably better than previous
years and then the 16 Pro cameras with
the much bigger main sensor and the
higher resolution Ultra wide and the 5x
telephoto are a significant step up in
my opinion the main camera I think is my
favorite primary sensor in any
smartphone to shoot with right now it's
really good at basically everything the
ultrawide is also better but kind of
only in detail during the daytime since
it's the 48 megapixel sensor now but the
sensor is not bigger enough to matter at
night though and now my night Ultra
wides all look kind of vignetted for
some reason I mean look at that it looks
like I added a filter but then the 5x
telephoto on both the pros is also nice
now and there is some chatter about it
being worse at the 3x to 4X range
because you're still having to do
digital zoom and technically that's true
but I find the 5x to be a pretty useful
zoom and it's also better at resolving
all the detail past 5x than before even
without AI shutter speeds are super fast
and freeze action better than ever
before this is kind of underrated but I
love this like this shot came from a
moving car at highway speed and so did
this one so that's sick and the ease at
which you can get a shallow depth of
field with a close-up subject is on par
with any other big sensor Android
Flagship like s24 Ultra or pixel9 Pro
and no apple has absolutely not fixed
the lens flare issue with Point lights
at night
so for those who are wondering sorry but
aside from that video is very impressive
I'll be publishing the next autofocus
video on the Silverado EV pickup truck
pretty soon so subscribe over there for
that first of all but that's going to be
shot entirely on iPhone 16 Pro and I've
been very happy with it and apple also
added a 4K 120 FPS mode to the pro
phones and it's sick it looks great it
is really convenient to shoot and edit
the only thing you got to be careful
with is storage cuz it can really eat up
storage like you can get up to near a
gig a minute and that's before you even
do 4K 120 Pro res or prores log but yeah
I still love shooting it anyway it also
proves to me that they have the
processing power and the sensor readout
speed to do 8K 30 they just choose not
to and I wonder why sometimes this also
the first year they're using the term
Fusion camera and you kind of have to
dig in a little bit to try to figure out
what that means turns out it's basically
the same thing as last year's like punch
in Optical quality Zoom but with a
slightly updated image processing
pipeline cool but also that Zoom is not
technically one: one Optical quality
because the photo sites are smaller in
that smaller crop nevertheless iPhone 16
camera good iPhone 16 Pro Camera great
[Music]
there is something truly weird about
this product being launched at an Apple
event called glow time and not launching
with the thing that glows the new Siri
there's something weird about people
happily going out to a Fifth Avenue
Apple Store this week which is literally
glowing with rainbows now and walking
out with a brand new phone that doesn't
have that like there's something just
off about Billboards and marketing
material and all highlighting Apple
intelligence and Tim Cook saying this
was the first phone built from the
ground up for Apple intelligence the
next generation of iPhone has been
designed for Apple intelligence from the
ground up yet this phone does not have
apple intelligence at all it's all
coming soon and coming later this year
and into next year eventually with
software updates but if I've said it
once I've said it a million times never
buy a product based on the promise of
future software updates buy it for what
it is right now when you buy it that's
been the golden rule for
forever but yet here we
are times have changed this has been a
common Trend alongside Ai and you think
Apple might be immune to it but they're
not they're a public company and just
like lots of other public companies
they've sort of caved to this pressure
that they have to appear like an AI
first AI forward company like a leader
in AI so they have presented a ton of AI
stuff that they working on and they've
done the song and dance of like hey we
are AI first and the phone's built from
the ground up for AI it's our whole
theme this year but the fact of the
matter is it's not good yet it's not
it's that's actually not even finished
if it was they'd be shipping it but it's
in beta and they're still working on it
and they'd rather keep working on it
than ship it to you
now so how do we Square this do we even
Square
this you remember the rabbit R1 the
rabbit was a little AI in a box pretty
classic 2024 product when I reviewed
that rabbit it was basically useless
like literally almost none of the
functionality was working as it shipped
and so I said so in the review same with
the Humane AI pin really really really
bad product missing almost all of its
functionality worst product I'd ever
reviewed for now both of those products
have started to get some updates since I
reviewed them but again I can only
review what's in front of me like I got
that thing in the mail just like real
customers are going to get that thing in
the mail and now it feels like the new
iPhone is suddenly in the same boat so I
guess the difference between the rabbit
and the Humane pin and the iPhone is
well one the iPhone is a fine Standalone
product even without the promised stuff
and it's buyable and usable where the
other two not so much but
two is that Apple at least now has
some element of a track record of
developing and shipping things that they
promised where Humane and rabbit didn't
so you could argue there's some
dimension of trust to this and that
apple is really leaning heavily on how
much you trust them because to be honest
to me it's really bold to be shipping
the product like this without any of
these big things that you're promising
like they must really believe in
themselves to eventually ship this stuff
so that people aren't mad
but yeah there's that's the AI world we
live in I guess is that everyone has
this pressure to feel like a leader in
Ai and be shipping all these new
features and stuff but a lot of it not
that good yet not that done yet so I'm
planning an entire separate review of
Apple intelligence as a whole when it
comes out I've been using some of the
features in 18.1 beta on my 15 Pro but
even this is really limited like it's
basically just writing tools and the new
Siri animation but they have a long way
to go I'll say get subscribed to see the
Apple intelligence review when it drops
when it's done because clearly it's a
big part of this
[Music]
phone so you made it this far into the
video or you skipped ahead to this
chapter because you just really wanted
an answer on if you should buy these
phones or not fine either way so okay
you should buy the iPhone 16 if you're
on
an iPhone 13 or older and you know that
phone is on its last legs and you're
really looking for an upgrade to a new
iPhone fine anything newer and it
probably won't feel like it's worth an
upgrade and you should buy the iPhone 16
Pro if you really want a better phone in
cameras or displays that's really the
two places where the pro shines over the
regular phone the cheap iPhone really
has never looked better honestly it has
the camera control it matches the ram of
the more expensive Pros it has the more
interesting colors if you're into that
it has the action button now too and it
has the same brightness of a display and
it also goes all the way down to one
knit just like the pro screen now I
personally cannot use a 60 HZ $800 phone
in 2024 I just can't do it and there are
lots of people just like me who will
immediately have to upgrade to the pro
just for that but there are also tons of
people who don't even notice or care
about promotion which I know it's it's
kind of hard to WRA my head around too
but for those people yeah this phone is
the base phone is going to be great but
then it's someone who shoots a lot of
photos and videos and you know Social
Media stuff the autofocus Channel
between all that the cameras are better
enough on the pros for that to be worth
the upgrade for me but yeah I still say
buy it for what it is today not for what
it could be tomorrow and even without
any of the AI stuff maybe ever coming to
these phones they're still Rock Solid
very very incremental
upgrades thanks for watching catch you
guys in the next one peace
[Music]
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