iPhone 16 / 16 Pro Impressions!

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JIOCINEMA
  • 2 days ago
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Hands on impressions with the Apple iPhone 16, 16 Plus, 16 Pro and 16 pro Max

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iphone 16, apple, iphone 16 pro, iphone 16 pro max

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Transcript
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 is 50%
00:34stronger than the first gen ceramic shield, which is a large number. And everyone wins when it comes
00:39to durability improvements. But then they didn't really give any detail on specifically how that
00:4450% was measured. So it will probably be some really niche test that's been done. And the day
00:49to day difference won't be nearly as transformative as that. But the one visual difference that you
00:54absolutely will notice are these cameras, they've gone from the boxy squarer camera arrangement on
00:59the 15s to now a straight line down the phone, kind of exactly how they used to be on the old
01:05iPhones. It really does make me feel like we're on some sort of roundabout when it comes to iPhone
01:09design, where instead of just deciding that one thing is better and sticking with it, we're
01:14actually just rotating between the different options to keep whatever's new feeling different.
01:18But yeah, the reason that Apple saying they've made the cameras like this again, is so that the
01:22main cam and the ultra wide can work together kind of like your eyes to be able to record
01:26spatial video that you can watch on the Apple Vision Pro. So big moment for the seven people
01:34who own one of them. They are also slightly better cameras than last year, because the ultra wide has
01:38now been given autofocus, which means when you go super close to something, your phone can still keep
01:43it in focus, which is not a new feature. The pro phones have been able to do this for a while now,
01:48but Apple does this dance every year. The pros will always come with some new and exciting hero
01:53feature that the normal phones don't get. But then as soon as the pros get the next hero feature,
01:57then the normal phones are allowed to have the old stuff, which is, I think it makes sense. It means
02:02that Apple can differentiate their more expensive offerings, but also then if you don't want to pay
02:06pro prices, you can still get the features you want by waiting another year. And in the same vein,
02:11you now also get the action button that last year's pro phones had, which I personally find
02:16pretty uncomfortably positioned. I mean, for me, it's less of an action button and more of a
02:21slowly stretch as far as I can until I realise my fingers aren't long enough and then give up and
02:25then just resort to using my screen to open the app like on a peasant non action button phone
02:30anyway. But that's not to say that I haven't seen hundreds of fascinating ways that other
02:34people have used theirs. There's obviously the basic stuff like using it to take photos,
02:38but then also I've seen people use this button to specifically turn on a dim flashlight that
02:43they 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 I just feel like we've
03:33seen so many companies do things like this, but then, hey, I guess there is still room for a
03:38company to do it really well. Time will tell if that is this, but then the other side of this
03:43camera control is photography stuff. So one press can open the camera app and then it can actually
03:48detect two stages of press kind of like the track pads on a Mac book, if you've ever used one of
03:52those. So you can light press to start using it, to be able to zoom in and out by swiping. But
03:58there'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,
07:43based on an early play around, I will say that it all looks very pretty. It seems like the way
07:47that Apple will signal that something is an Apple intelligence feature is by making it glow like
07:52this. And every one of these animations is beautifully put together. That said, in terms
07:56of the actual output, it doesn't feel like Apple intelligence is doing much that others aren't
08:01already doing. All these features like being able to proofread the messages you're writing and
08:05rewrite those messages in another tone. It's all fine, but it's all been done. And I'm not sure
08:11it's stuff that I use very often, to be honest. Like I am a really casual messenger. So when I
08:16type things out to people, I don't use like, dear sir, I would like to inquire. I'm always like,
08:20yo, what do you think to this? And Apple intelligence, like basically every other
08:25phone companies AI right now is not yet able to match that texting tone. But one big thing,
08:31Siri is finally getting Apple intelligence, which is going to make it a lot smarter. And
08:35thank goodness for that, because I am reaching my limit with here's what I found on the web.
08:40So the upgraded Siri should be able to rely much less on that and be much more able to directly
08:46answer the questions you're asking it. And also completely understand the context of the last
08:50thing you asked it when you're asking continuous questions. I would go as far as to say that Siri
08:54has been the weakest pillar of iOS for quite a while now. Like so many times I ask it to remember
08:59something or open an app and it like accidentally calls my mom. However, key, key caveat here,
09:06Apple intelligence, like all this stuff you're seeing here, isn't actually coming to later in the
09:11year, which kind of makes this feel like a Google pixel event where the product comes first and then
09:16the feature later. And that obviously takes something away from the excitement, especially
09:21for an event where half the focus is these AI features. But I assume it's the immense complexity
09:27of getting these features right combined with the awful consequences if they don't get them right.
09:32So that's the base iPhone 16s. I'd say decent all round upgrade, nothing revolutionary. The
09:37presentation was a lot of like telling you about some really cool stuff that the phone does, but
09:41then you slowly realizing halfway through that the things they're telling you were already features
09:45on last year's iPhone 15s. It feels like they're making it purposefully murky what was on last
09:49year's phone, because if you actually focused on just what is different compared to that,
09:53it's not actually a huge amount. And the screens still have that 60 Hertz refresh rate, which makes
09:57them feel a little bit laggy compared to most similarly priced other phones. But then at the
10:02same time, I also wouldn't hold out expecting any revolutionary upgrades to the base iPhones from
10:06now on. Like I think all the really cutting edge stuff Apple want to save to release on the pro
10:11phones first anyways. So let's talk about those, the iPhone 16 pro and the iPhone 16 pro max. Now
10:18I would say these are actually quite a pretty set of phones from the back. There's not a whole lot
10:23different except this new desert titanium color, which is, I mean, how many times can you make a
10:28gold look different? I like it. I'm just finding it hard to love it because it's so safe. But from
10:34the front, the upgrade is pretty obvious because the displays are bigger for the smaller pro 6.1
10:40inches has now become 6.3. And on the bigger pro max 6.7 has become 6.9. And I think that's a bit
10:46of a feat because these new phones, they are a bit bigger, but quite a bit of that size increase has
10:51actually come thanks to a further trimming down of the borders around the screen, which mean these
10:56things look very fitting for the year 2024. They might actually have the slimmest even borders on
11:01any mainstream smartphone. And yeah, let's be very clear. The new iPhone doesn't de-age you. It doesn't
11:05make you more successful. We are talking about the millimeters of bezel on the display, but it makes
11:11the phones look cutting edge while giving you some of the largest viewing areas in both the compact
11:17and the jumbo form factors. I'm just remembering the days when Android tablets had seven inch
11:22screens. We are there with phones. Isn't that, isn't that kind of wild? There is also an upgraded battery
11:27on the pro phones too, which as you know, I'm all about, but again, shockingly little detail provided
11:32about what and how all they said was it now has faster wireless magsafe charging. And that this
11:38is the best battery on an iPhone, which is great. It just probably means I'm going to be awake all
11:42night when it comes to the battery test. So thoughts and prayers would be appreciated. There's
11:47another new chip. So while the base iPhone 16s get the A18, the 16 pros get the A18, well pro, which
11:54is a slightly juiced up version also with improvements to cooling that lets the phone do a
11:59few more things with a lot of those things being related to the camera. And this is where it gets
12:04fruity. So the main camera is still 48 megapixel like it was last year, but the sensor has been
12:09updated to be able to capture information faster, which means two things. One, they're saying that
12:14you can now capture photos with zero shutter lag, something that the iPhone was already pretty good
12:19at, but this might further extend its lead. But then also it means the 16 pros can shoot video
12:25faster. And what I mean by that is that the 15 pros could shoot 4k video at 60 frames per second.
12:30These new phones can shoot that same 4k resolution, but now at 120 frames per second, which is enough
12:35frames that you can now slow that 4k down into slow motion territory. And it feels like the way
12:41Apple is selling this is basically that you can now just keep 4k 120 as your default recording
12:46option. And what that then allows you to do is after you've taken any kind of video, you can then
12:50just decide whether you want that to play back in normal speed, half speed, quarter speed, or even
12:5520% speed. I do like how seamless they've made it to record this 120 FPS footage, but then at the
13:01same time, if you did actually want that to become your default, you're going to need more storage
13:05than the 128 gigabytes still being offered as the default on the smaller pro iPhone. It's just,
13:11it's just not enough for almost 2025. The ultra wide camera previously 12 megapixel is now also
13:18up to 48 two to match that main camera, which is a good upgrade. I really liked the freedom that
13:23comes with feeling like all the cameras on my phone are great. And that all I need to worry
13:27about is which one do I want to use as opposed to which one is technically the best that I should
13:31try to use. And the ultra wide is a bit of a two in one upgrade because upgrading your ultra wide
13:36also upgrades your closeup macro photography because it's the same camera. So that means up
13:40to 48 megapixel macro photos, which is pretty delicious. The phones have four studio microphones
13:47around them now, which is what it's actually really good for a number of reasons. More and
13:51better mics means that your phone can hear you better. So that's obviously good for your audio
13:55quality in videos, but also just generally like how well Siri can hear you. And there's even now
14:00different audio mixing modes. So after you've taken a video, you can decide whether you want
14:04the focus on just the audio of the people in the shot, or also if you want to get in more of that
14:09background chatter. There's actually quite a few new very advanced software features like this,
14:13like a new control pad to adjust the colour profile of your shots in real time. It has got me thinking
14:19this is all really cool stuff. These are all technically very difficult to achieve impressive
14:24features. But it also feels in a way like a few too many tools for any one human to be able to
14:30use. It feels like a lot of the extra features now, while impressive, are tailored to actual
14:36industry professionals, as opposed to the casual user who just wants the best point and shoot
14:41camera. And I'm not saying that that point and shoot experience is getting worse. It just doesn't
14:46feel like Apple's attention is focused on making it significantly better. Anyway, the final camera
14:51thing is now the smaller Pro iPhone now also inherits the five times optical zoom camera that
14:56last year only the Pro Max got. Meaning this must be one of the smallest phones with a five times
15:01optical zoom lens. It's usually something that only the big phones get because you have to create
15:05space between your camera sensor and your lens. Most companies do this by lying their cameras
15:10vertically across their phone. But Apple's created that space by using a tetraprism that's bouncing
15:15the light multiple times within a more compact space. And slight segue for 30 seconds. If you
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15:25just makes sense. Because you see this camera protector here, well that also doubles as a stand
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15:34cameras, it's allowed them to make the back of the case ultra thin, giving these cases the fastest
15:39MagSafe charging of any stand case. And to top it all off, they're well priced with shock absorbing
15:44air guard corners, meaning that every case actually exceeds military protection standards. So
15:50what's my take on the 16 Pros? Well, I think so far that the new features this year are a bit of
15:56a mix. Because on one hand, it feels like less hardware improvements than usual, because Apple
16:02is relying on Apple Intelligence to do the heavy lifting for sales. But then Apple Intelligence is
16:06both not ready yet, and also not really seeming, at least on first glance, like anything groundbreaking
16:12right now. But then on the other hand, we are getting decent improvements to basically all the
16:16key pillars of a phone, the screens, the battery, the camera, even the microphones. And so for me,
16:22what a lot of it's going to come down to is how much better are these phones at all of that core
16:26stuff? The testing begins. And remember to check out the ESR MagSafe stash stand cases in the
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