Hands on impressions with the Apple iPhone 16, 16 Plus, 16 Pro and 16 pro Max
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00:00I've just spent the last couple of hours hands-on with every new iPhone. So that's the iPhone 16 and
00:0416 Plus, as well as the iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max. So buckle up, this is the good, the bad,
00:10and the ugly. Okay, let's start with the normal 16 and 16 Plus. And aesthetically, aside from this,
00:15I have to admit, quite spicy new ultramarine colour, they're basically the same as the iPhone
00:2015s, including the same size screens. So the base iPhone gets a 6.1 inch screen, and then the Plus
00:25is basically the same phone, but stretched out to a 6.7 inch screen with a bigger battery too.
00:30There is an upgraded ceramic shield covering those screens, though, which Apple is saying
00:34is 50% stronger than the first gen ceramic shield, which is a large number. And everyone wins when it
00:39comes to durability improvements. But then they didn't really give any detail on specifically how
00:43that 50% was measured. So it will probably be some really niche test that's been done. And
00:49the day to day difference won't be nearly as transformative as that. But the one visual
00:53difference that you absolutely will notice are these cameras, they've gone from the boxy squarer
00:58camera arrangement on the 15s to now a straight line down the phone, kind of exactly how they
01:04used to be on the old iPhones. It really does make me feel like we're on some sort of roundabout when
01:09it comes to iPhone design, where instead of just deciding that one thing is better and sticking
01:13with it, we're actually just rotating between the different options to keep whatever's new
01:17feeling different. But yeah, the reason that Apple saying they've made the cameras like this again,
01:21is so that the main cam and the ultra wide can work together kind of like your eyes to be able
01:25to record spatial video that you can watch on the Apple Vision Pro. So big moment for the seven
01:34people who own one of them. They are also slightly better cameras than last year, because the ultra
01:38wide has now been given autofocus, which means when you go super close to something, your phone
01:42can still keep it in focus, which is not a new feature. The pro phones have been able to do this
01:47for a while now, but Apple does this dance every year. The pros will always come with some new and
01:52exciting hero feature that the normal phones don't get. But then as soon as the pros get the next
01:56hero feature, then the normal phones are allowed to have the old stuff, which is, I think it makes
02:02sense. It means that Apple can differentiate their more expensive offerings, but also then if you
02:06don't want to pay pro prices, you can still get the features you want by waiting another year.
02:10And in the same vein, you now also get the action button that last year's pro phones had,
02:15which I personally find pretty uncomfortably positioned. I mean, for me, it's less of an action
02:19button and more of a slowly stretch as far as I can until I realise my fingers aren't long enough
02:24and then give up and then just resort to using my screen to open the app like on a peasant,
02:28non action button phone anyway. But that's not to say that I haven't seen hundreds of fascinating
02:34ways that other people have used theirs. There's obviously the basic stuff like using it to take
02:38photos, but then also I've seen people use this button to specifically turn on a dim flashlight
02:43that they can use at night. I've seen people use it to activate their insulin pump. I've seen people
02:48use it to make fart noises on command. So it's up to you what you make of it. Now, the only other
02:53somewhat camera related feature is this, the new camera control button. So two separate new buttons
03:00in one year on an iPhone. How many people had that on the bingo club? I definitely did not.
03:06So it's a new button on the right hand side, completely dedicated to camera stuff. And I'll
03:11give them some credit. They are getting a lot of functionality out of this one button. So tapping
03:17and holding will bring up the visual intelligence feature, which is not yet live, but it's kind of
03:21like Google lens. It's a way to analyse information using your phone's camera. So like save the details
03:26of an event poster or find out what type of dog is in front of you, which meh. I mean, I just feel
03:33like we've seen so many companies do things like this, but then, hey, I guess there is still room
03:37for a company to do it really well. Time will tell if that is this. But then the other side of
03:43this camera control is photography stuff. So one press can open the camera app and then it can
03:48actually detect two stages of press, kind of like the trackpads on a MacBook, if you've ever used
03:52one of those. So you can light press to start using it, to be able to zoom in and out by swiping.
03:57But there's actually a lot more because then you can double light press to bring up this sub menu,
04:02which basically lets you select what you want the swiping to control. So it doesn't need to
04:08be zoom. It could be the exposure of your shot or the different photographic styles, for example.
04:13Okay. But honestly, I am confused why this exists. It feels like a really, really good feature,
04:20but for like 2% of iPhone users. I mean, for starters, one of the things they showed in the
04:25presentation was how you'll be able to use this button to control focus by lightly holding down
04:30on it, you know, just like you would with a proper camera shutter button. But when was the
04:35last time you actually wanted to manually focus your phone? There's already like a hundred pieces
04:40of hardware and software making sure that your subject is in focus automatically. We've actually
04:45been programmed out of needing to do that. There's the fact that phones are becoming more and more
04:49portrait devices. I take almost all of my photos like this now because every feed that I'd be
04:55potentially posting those photos on is vertical, but this camera control, while it does work in
05:01portrait is very clearly designed for landscape use. It's really fiddly and a little painful to
05:06reach for when your phone is upright. I wouldn't wish these finger gymnastics on anyone. And I
05:11nearly dropped the thing trying. It's actually quite reminiscent of my experience with the action
05:16button, but then also, yeah, isn't this what the action button was meant to do? Now, obviously,
05:21yes, the camera control button does the camera side of things better, but it just feels like a
05:25really weird un-Apple thing to do to add yet another button that somewhat overlaps in functionality
05:31with what's also just been added. And that's it for cameras on the normal iPhone 16s. There's
05:36actually pretty huge camera upgrades to the pros, which I'm getting to, but it feels like the main
05:39changes here are actually the battery, the power and Apple intelligence. So the battery is bigger.
05:46That's actually all they said at the event. They said it will be a big boost, which is a technical
05:51term, I guess. So yeah, that I need to test in our upcoming battery comparison. In terms of power,
05:56though, it's quite cool because we're actually jumping forward two generations in terms of the
06:00chipset. The iPhone 15s have the A16 chip. The iPhone 16s have the A18 chip, which means 30%
06:06faster CPU, 40% faster graphics, and a hundred percent faster machine learning AI stuff. All
06:12with more efficient construction, which means the chip will use quite a bit less power for
06:17equivalent tests. And you know what, for today's fairly stable smartphone market, these are big
06:22improvement numbers. And considering that these aren't pro phones, the gaming experience is very
06:27impressive, which is also helped by a new thermal structure on the inside of the phone that gets rid
06:32of heat, allowing for 30% better sustained performance. But yeah, there's no beating around
06:36the bush. If there's one thing that Apple has made very clear about this generation of iPhones,
06:40it's that they want them to be known as the AI generation. I read a report recently that said
06:45300 million iPhones around the world have not been upgraded in four years. So there's a ton
06:49of people out there who are due an upgrade, but are likely holding off until it feels like a big
06:54turning point moment. And Apple wants now to feel like that turning point moment with Apple
06:59intelligence. So what's it going to let you do? Well, for starters, there's a base layer of Apple
07:05intelligence sprinkled throughout iOS here. Things like if you go into an email app, instead of the
07:10text by default, just being the first few lines of whatever the email was, it'll now summarize
07:15entire emails content, things like cleanup to erase distractions from your photos, which is
07:21not something we haven't seen on other phones, but it does work very quickly and effectively
07:25in my time with it. Or what I thought was really cool is reduce interruptions mode,
07:29which uses AI to silence most notifications, but then also allows what it thinks you need to see
07:34to still come through. This might well become the permanent mode that I keep my phone in.
07:38It's kind of like a lower risk version of do not disturb, but is it good? Well, based on an early
07:43play around, I will say that it all looks very pretty. It seems like the way that Apple will
07:48signal that something is an Apple intelligence feature is by making it glow like this. And
07:53every one of these animations is beautifully put together. That said, in terms of the actual output,
07:57it doesn't feel like Apple intelligence is doing much that others aren't already doing all these
08:02features, like being able to proofread the messages you're writing and rewrite those messages in
08:06another tone. It's all fine, but it's all been done. And I'm not sure it's stuff that I use
08:12very often, to be honest, like I am a really casual messenger. So when I type things out to
08:16people, I don't use like, dear sir, I would like to inquire. I'm always like, yo, what do you think
08:21to this? And Apple intelligence, like basically every other phone companies AI right now is not
08:27yet able to match that texting tone. But one big thing, Siri is finally getting Apple intelligence,
08:33which is going to make it a lot smarter. And thank goodness for that, because I am reaching
08:38my limit with here's what I found on the web. So the upgraded Siri should be able to rely much less
08:43on that and be much more able to directly answer the questions you're asking it. And also completely
08:48understand the context of the last thing you asked it. When you're asking continuous questions,
08:53I would go as far as to say that Siri has been the weakest pillar of iOS for quite a while now.
08:57Like so many times I ask it to remember something or open an app and it like accidentally calls my
09:03mom. However, key, key caveat here, Apple intelligence, like all the stuff you're seeing
09:08here isn't actually coming till later in the year, which kind of makes this feel like a Google pixel
09:14event where the product comes first and then the feature later. And that obviously takes something
09:19away from the excitement, especially for an event where half the focus is these AI features. But I
09:25assume it's the immense complexity of getting these features right combined with the awful consequences
09:30if they don't get them right. So that's the base iPhone 16s. I'd say decent all round upgrade,
09:36nothing revolutionary. The presentation was a lot of like telling you about some really cool stuff
09:40that the phone does, but then you slowly realizing halfway through that the things they're telling
09:44you were already features on last year's iPhone 15s. It feels like they're making it purposefully
09:48murky what was on last year's phone, because if you actually focused on just what is different
09:52compared to that, it's not actually a huge amount. And the screens still have that 60 Hertz refresh
09:57rate, which makes them feel a little bit laggy compared to most similarly priced other phones.
10:01But then at the same time, I also wouldn't hold out expecting any revolutionary upgrades to the
10:06base iPhones from now on. Like I think all the really cutting edge stuff Apple want to save to
10:11release on the pro phones first anyways. So let's talk about those, the iPhone 16 pro and the iPhone
10:1616 pro max. Now I would say these are actually quite a pretty set of phones from the back. There's
10:22not a whole lot different except this new desert titanium color, which is, I mean, how many times
10:27can you make a gold look different? I like it. I'm just finding it hard to love it because it's so
10:33safe. But from the front, the upgrade is pretty obvious because the displays are bigger for the
10:39smaller pro 6.1 inches has now become 6.3. And on the bigger pro max 6.7 has become 6.9. And I think
10:46that's a bit of a feat because these new phones, they are a bit bigger, but quite a bit of that
10:50size increase has actually come thanks to a further trimming down of the borders around the
10:54screen, which mean these things look very fitting for the year 2024. They might actually have the
11:00slimmest even borders on any mainstream smartphone. And yeah, let's be very clear. The new iPhone
11:04doesn't de-age you. It doesn't make you more successful. We are talking about the millimeters
11:08of bezel on the display, but it makes the phones look cutting edge while giving you some of the
11:14largest viewing areas in both the compact and the jumbo form factors. I'm just remembering the days
11:20when Android tablets had seven inch screens. We are there with phones. Isn't that kind of wild?
11:26There is also an upgraded battery on the pro phones too, which as you know, I'm all about,
11:30but again, shockingly little detail provided about what and how all they said was it now has faster
11:35wireless magazine charging and that this is the best battery on an iPhone, which is great. It just
11:41probably means I'm going to be awake all night when it comes to the battery test. So
11:45thoughts and prayers would be appreciated. There's another new chip. So while the base
11:49iPhone 16s get the A18, the 16 pros get the A18, well pro, which is a slightly juiced up version.
11:56Also with improvements to cooling that lets the phone do a few more things with a lot of those
12:01things being related to the camera. And this is where it gets fruity. So the main camera is still
12:0648 megapixel like it was last year, but the sensor has been updated to be able to capture information
12:12faster, which means two things. One, they're saying that you can now capture photos with zero
12:16shutter lag, something that the iPhone was already pretty good at, but this might further extend its
12:20lead. But then also it means the 16 pros can shoot video faster. And what I mean by that is that the
12:2715 pros could shoot 4k video at 60 frames per second. These new phones can shoot that same 4k
12:32resolution, but now at 120 frames per second, which is enough frames that you can now slow that 4k
12:37down into slow motion territory. And it feels like the way Apple is selling this is basically that
12:42you can now just keep 4k 120 as your default recording option. And what that then allows you
12:47to do is after you've taken any kind of video, you can then just decide whether you want that to
12:51play back in normal speed, half speed, quarter speed, or even 20% speed. I do like how seamless
12:57they've made it to record this 120 FPS footage, but then at the same time, if you did actually
13:02want that to become your default, you're going to need more storage than the 128 gigabytes still
13:07being offered as the default on the smaller pro iPhone. It's just, it's just not enough for almost
13:132025. The ultrawide camera previously 12 megapixel is now also up to 48 too, to match that main
13:20camera, which is a good upgrade. I really like the freedom that comes with feeling like all the
13:24cameras on my phone are great. And that all I need to worry about is which one do I want to use as
13:29opposed to which one is technically the best that I should try to use. And the ultrawide is a bit of
13:33a two in one upgrade because upgrading your ultrawide also upgrades your closeup macro
13:37photography because it's the same camera. So that means up to 48 megapixel macro photos, which is
13:43pretty delicious. The phones have four studio microphones around them now, which is, well,
13:48it's actually really good for a number of reasons, more and better mics means that your phone can
13:52hear you better. So that's obviously good for your audio quality in videos, but also just generally
13:57like how well Siri can hear you. And there's even now different audio mixing modes. So after you've
14:02taken a video, you can decide whether you want the focus on just the audio of the people in the
14:07shot, or also if you want to get in more of that background chatter. There's actually quite a few
14:11new, very advanced software features like this, like a new control pad to adjust the colour profile
14:16of your shots in real time. And it has got me thinking, this is all really cool stuff. These
14:21are all technically very difficult to achieve impressive features, but it also feels in a way
14:27like a few too many tools for any one human to be able to use. It feels like a lot of the extra
14:33features now while impressive are tailored to actual industry professionals, as opposed to the
14:38casual user who just wants the best point and shoot camera. And I'm not saying that that point
14:43and shoot experience is getting worse. It just doesn't feel like Apple's attention is focused on
14:48making it significantly better. Anyway, the final camera thing is now the smaller pro iPhone now
14:53also inherits the five times optical zoom camera that last year only the Pro Max got meaning this
14:59must be one of the smallest phones with a five times optical zoom lens. It's usually something
15:03that only the big phones get because you have to create space between your camera sensor and your
15:07lens. Most companies do this by lying their cameras vertically across their phone. But Apple's created
15:12that space by using a tetraprism that's bouncing the light multiple times within a more compact
15:17space. And slight segue for 30 seconds. If you want to protect those shiny new cameras, then
15:22ESR's new MagSafe stash stand case, our sponsor, just makes sense because you see this camera
15:27protector here. Well, that also doubles as a stand to prop your phone up at any angle, but it's even
15:32better because your stand is baked into the cameras. It's allowed them to make the back of
15:36the case ultra thin giving these cases the fastest MagSafe charging of any stand case. And to top it
15:42all off, they're well-priced with shock absorbing air guard corners, meaning that every case actually
15:47exceeds military protection standards. So what's my take on the 16 pros? Well, I think so far that
15:53the new features this year are a bit of a mix because on one hand, it feels like less hardware
16:00improvements than usual because Apple is relying on Apple intelligence to do the heavy lifting for
16:04sales. But then Apple intelligence is both not ready yet. And also not really seeming at least
16:10on first glance, like anything groundbreaking right now. But then on the other hand, we are
16:14getting decent improvements to basically all the key pillars of a phone, the screens, the battery,
16:19the camera, even the microphones. And so for me, what a lot of it's going to come down to is how
16:23much better are these phones at all of that core stuff? The testing begins. And remember to check
16:29out the ESR MagSafe stash stand cases in the description, which you can get in three different
16:34flavors. You've got the classic case, the cloud case, which is super soft, and then the cyber
16:38tough case, which is no joke, seven times military grade protection.