This year's iPhone 16 launch is an excellent example of a pretty fundamental truth; two things can be true at the same time. It's tricky, especially when the two truths are in direct conflict with each other. You're here to find out if I like the iPhone 16, and I do. But at the same time, I have to say that the way Apple has chosen to market and stage this particular launch is disappointing, if not downright misleading.
First truth; iPhone 16 is a polished, well-designed, coherent and, to say the least, impressive smartphone that not only provides access to an almost endless ecosystem of solid features and cool accessories, something I really miss now that I've left it behind for a while, but it is on its own a reliable companion for everything everyday life brings, and thus in a way really easy to recommend, especially if you come from an older iPhone and have made a qualified decision to stay in Apple's little fenced-in garden of Eden.
Second truth; due to EU directives, strategies and something that comes dangerously close to misleading marketing, this particular iPhone is launched with features that are simply not ready for primetime, and Apple has even outright refused to set concrete release dates for when these will land. This is true in the US, where Apple Intelligence is actually about to be released. Here, a myriad of key aspects of the enhanced AI user experience are missing, such as ChatGPT integration into Siri, and a host of features that form the backbone of this new suite of AI tools. Even US consumers are unboxing an iPhone 16 that can't take actions based on the content of apps, that can't talk to a larger LLM to respond more intelligently to questions, that can't image edit in the way it was showcased during WWDC back in June, nor has the new Siri animation that is otherwise plastered across Apple's flagship store in New York right now.
You may not care about AI features in general - I don't either. But there's a principle in actively marketing a piece of consumer technology based on features that the product in question simply doesn't have yet, and in some cases these won't arrive for several months. And here at home it's even worse; we basically don't know if these will arrive at all.
Yes, it's a bit of a trap. But again - to get back to the point - if you wander into a store and want the latest iPhone because you're getting tired of the battered iPhone 11 you've had in your back pocket for the last four years, then this is a fantastic upgrade all round to say the least. Two things are true at the same time.
Sure, the new Super Retina XDR display is still 60Hz (which is starting to be downright unforgivable), but this OLED panel is still downright fantastically calibrated, and with 2000 NITS outdoor brightness and a resolution of 2556x1179, it's truly beautiful to look at. Combined with Dynamic Island, which has only become more useful over time, the display is something of a highlight. The A18 chip has more cores and a much larger 16-core Neural Engine, but the truth is that iPhones have long been faster than we need them to be, a truth that only continues here. However, it does allow WIFI 7, improved Bluetooth and a longer battery life that has actually been meaningful during testing. There's USB-C now, thankfully, there's wireless charging, there's IP68 certification, there are two decidedly excellent camera lenses on the back in the form of a 48 megapixel 26mm Fusion lens equipped with sensor-shift optical stabilisation, and which has a sort of dual-aperture that allows it to also act as a telephoto. And then you have a solid 12 megapixels at 120 degrees. It takes some truly excellent pictures, not least because Apple has honed its post-processing over the years, so that everything from dark, low-light shots to crisp HDR-like daytime images really impress with the dynamic range.
You get the new Action Button that can be programmed the way you want via Shortcuts, iOS 18 is more customisable for the end user than ever before, and then there's Camera Control. The idea is strange to say the least. First of all, it's placed at the bottom right, which of course makes sense if you take most of your photos with your phone orientated horizontally, because then it's a traditional shutter. But do you do that? Do you take the majority of your photos horizontally? I don't, personally. And if you want to use it with the phone orientated vertically, it's positioned in a way that doesn't feel very intuitive. But getting more hardware, more tactile approaches, is hard to complain about. If it weren't for the feature traditionally known as 'half-press to focus', where you press a shutter halfway down to find focus in the depth of field, then press fully and take the picture - well, that feature isn't here yet. That will come later too.
I hope this doesn't sound like the iPhone 16 is not recommended, because it is. It is, due to Apple's masterful design to say the least, almost automatically among the better smartphones of the year. But that doesn't change the fact that Apple, perhaps for the first time, has launched an unfinished smartphone with a number of key features missing.