I don't have the money to buy a new iPhone Pro outright. They're $1000 minimum. Which is why I just lease my iPhone from Apple's "iPhone Upgrade Program." It's a known expense every month that I budget for, so I always upgrade when a new model comes out because the monthly cost is the same. This way I don't have to stress over my phone getting older and breaking or losing its value. I did it yet again this year.
Welcome to the new iPhone 16 Pro...
The tl;dr version is this: Unless you are a part of the iPhone Upgrade Program and don't mind being trapped in an eternal lease, I would not upgrade from the
And here we go...
ULTRA-WIDE. Apple finally increased the megapixels on my favorite lens... the ultra-wide, taking it from 12MP to 48MP. It seems to help most with macro shooting more than wide-angle photos. The only thing left to go 48MP is the 5X lens, which desperately needs to be better, but is still languishing in 12MP. Because? 48MP is nice! Especially when you warm the tone and shift the flatness out...
iPhone 15 Pro Max Macro Lens
iPhone 16 Pro Max Macro Lens
iPhone 15 Pro Max Macro Lens — Zoomed
iPhone 16 Pro Max Macro Lens — Zoomed
iPhone 15 Pro Max Macro Lens
iPhone 16 Pro Max Macro Lens
TONE & STYLE. I'm just putting this out there... I fucking hate the Camera app in the 15 Pro Max. It shoots over-processed, boring, flat, shitty photos. There's no depth in the shadows. So there's no pop or subtlety to the images. Everything has an appearance that approaches cell-shaded. And, guess what, the default photos you get out of the 16 Pro Max are fucking worse. The difference is that you have the ability to set an "undertone look" which can offset this flat, boring, shitty, awful default. This photo I shared of Jake on Caturday had the highlights dialed back a bit in the Photos app, but that's the only adjustment I felt I had to make because it looked darn good right out of the camera...
The rich warmth comes from slightly leaning into the "Amber" style... but you can see that I also drop out of the horrific fucking blown out shadows by lowering the tone a bit so there was some actual depth...
I realize that if I don't like the iPhone's Camera app that there are dozens of others I could use. And I own a lot of them. But the convenience of the default app is too handy to ignore... especially now that you can do something to improve how it shoots. I'm not saying Apple redeemed themselves with the new camera because they still have shitty defaults that most people will never change, but at least there's a way out if you're aware it exists and figure out how to use it. And, as a bonus, you can apply/adjust the undertone settings after the photo has been taken! Nifty!
THE DISPLAY. It's aces. It was aces last time. I find it bizarre that the non-Pro models are still 60Mhz, but the Pro has a buttery-smooth 120Mhz that looks incredible. Thanks to the smaller bezels (and slightly larger size) you get a few more pixels too. The 16 Pro Max has 2868 × 1320 pixels vs. the 15 Pro Max 2796 × 1290.
MICROPHONES. The new microphone array is not being overhyped. It really does make a difference.
4K 120FPS. The fact that a frickin' phone can shoot 4K video at 120 frames per second is mind-blowing. Usually you have to spend tens of thousands of dollars on a RED Cinema camera to get stuff like that. Assuming you have an external high-speed drive attached to hold the massive file sizes it requires. Apparently Danny Boyle is shooting his new 28 Years Later movie on an iPhone 15 Pro Max, and I'll bet it will look great... even though he will undoubtedly be slapping on a lot of additional tech to his phone. Wonder what people will do with the iPhone 16 Pro?
BATTERY. Before my 16 arrived, I logged a Saturday with my 15 doing common tasks with plenty of video watching, app using, and photo-taking. Then I repeated that day with the 16 as closely as I could. Apple did not lie. I was already very pleased with the battery life, but it looks like I would get an extra 40 minutes (with plenty left on both phones) on the newer model. This will be very cool if I have to travel somewhere, because that's when I use the most battery.
PERFORMANCE. For years the iPhone's CPU/GPU performance has been more than adequate. And yet it keeps getting faster and more capable anyway. It's a good thing because it allows the photo processing to keep getting better. The fact that this benefits intensive apps (like some games) is just the icing on the cake.
CAMERA WEIRDNESS. In most ways the camera is the same as 15 Pro Max. In some ways the camera is better than 15 Pro Max (like the new Ultra-Wide), but in some ways it's strangely worse. This may be a settings issue that I have to work out, but it's frustrating to take a photo on the 15 and have it look perfectly fine, then take the same exact shot with the 16 and have it blown out in the highlights or isn't as defined. Where's that coming from? No idea. Fortunately, it's not common, but it's common enough to be irritating. I hope this is a software issue that can be rectified.
THE SIZE. I started buying the "Pro Max" because it was the only way to get the best camera. But now both Pro models get the same camera spread, so I was very close to going back to the "no-Max" size because Apple made the Max model larger than it used to be. And it's like WHY?!?. My God... you sell fucking iPads, stop turning your iPhones into iPads. Yes, the size increase is small, but it's still an increase.
CAMERA CONTROL. The feature I was most excited to get is the new "Camera Control" (AKA the "not-a-button button"). And while the idea is good, the implementation is awful. It looks like Apple tried to position the control in a spot that is supposed to be accessible to both landscape and portrait shooters. In doing so, it's fucking terribly positioned for both. They should have just picked one (landscape, obviously) and put it where you naturally want to position your finger instead of having to stretch across the screen in a weird way to reach it. In addition, the half-press access to the actual "controls" of "Camera Control" is janky as hell. I've tried to get used to it, but it's unwieldily and strange. It actually screws up my shots sometimes because it activates when I didn't intend it to, and the action of pressing it to take a photo is so odd that I end up moving the camera while trying to press down, thus un-framing my shot. I've adjusted the pressure and dwell sensitivity in the "Accessibility Settings" and I'm really hoping that I can get the hang of it. Because... yikes. Did ANYBODY use this fucking thing before they slapped it on their phone?!? I'm seriously wondering if I'm going to end up turning this not-a-button off so I don't have to worry about accidentally fucking up the settings on my shots. I sure hope Apple adjusts this in software soon, because in reality it's nothing like what they advertise, at last not for me...
AI MISSING. This phone's entire reason for being is AI. Apple has literally said that it's "Built from the ground up for Apple Intelligence." So where is it? Nowhere. The brand new iPhones aren't shipping with it. Sure you can install betas and developer betas to get it (like I have), but it's profoundly stupid to ship the new model without its hallmark feature. This is once again a company caring more about a date on the calendar than customer experience. Apple, who has more money than God, should seriously reevaluate how they're operating. Because this "It's coming, I promise!" bullshit in tech is getting old.
THE COLORWAYS. It's so FUCKING stupid how the cheaper iPhones always get the nicer colorways. I don't know how it was decided that getting extra features means getting stuck with these shitty, drab, morose, ugly colors... but here we are. I picked "Black Titanium" because it was the least shitty. And the cases Apple sells mostly follow suit. At least this year we get a bright yellow and a nice "ultramarine" case for the Pro models which let you pretend you don't have a boring-ass phone. I am sick to fucking death of Apple's "Pro" aesthetic, and wish they would get the fuck over themselves and give us at least ONE bright, fun color each year. Instead we get "desert"... Good Lord. For the second time we don't get a Product (RED) version in the non-Pro iPhone (we've never been given a Pro version ever). And no (RED) case again this year for any model. I'm guessing Apple has given up on it, since there's no (RED) Apple Watch this year either.
THE PRICE. Let's face it, the iPhone Pro models are insanely expensive. I honestly don't know that they're worth it when you can get a model from two years early for less money that's going to still be very good. This year things are even more confusing because the non-Pro models are not as far away from the Pro models. Both have an Action Button now. Shockingly, they both got the Camera Control feature as well. As if that wasn't enough, base iPhones leapfrogged a generation of Apple Silicon and are now at A18 chips which is more on parity with A18 Pro, when previous years were always a generation behind. No idea what Apple is thinking on that. My guess is that they are trying to make base models better so they can better compete with equivalent Android phones. But they're starting to compete with the Pro models as well. With better colors.
And there's my 2¢ on my new iPhone. I'm now very curious to know what they're going to do for the 17 Pro models to keep things moving forward. At this point I think the only thing that could push me to upgrade would be a 48MP
I have many times sang the praises* of the iPhone Upgrade Program. It allows you to make monthly interest-free payments on the iPhone of your choice... then you can either trade it in after a year and upgrade to a new model... or you can finish out your two years of payments and keep it. This really is the best of both worlds. When the next model iPhone comes out, you get to decide whether or not it's worth it to start all over with two years of payments or skip a year and own your phone.I just like that the program means I can afford a top-of-the-line model. Maybe you have $1,100 laying around to go buy one, but I sure don't, so this is the only way I was getting an iPhone 13 Pro MAX.
Today was the day I prepped my old iPhone 12 Pro MAX for return to Apple.
It's been a good phone, I've gotten a lot of use out of it, and I've enjoyed having it, so I'm a little bit sentimental about having to part with Tomato (the name I gave him because of his tomato-red case). Back when I first used the program to upgrade, I Googled to find out what happens to returned iPhones. I found a YouTube video (since removed) which explained that more recent models in good condition have components replaced to get refurbished, then get sold. If your iPhone is too old or too busted to be refurbished, Apple takes it apart and salvages what materials they can so they can turn them into more modern parts for newer models. Pretty slick. And a good investment for Apple, since they can continue to make money off of phones that were already purchased!
My iPhones get slapped into cases the minute I unbox them, so they get returned in prestine like-new condition. I'm relatively confident that they get refurbished and resold, which means somebody is getting a terrific phone at a discounted price. Which is far better than chucking the thing in a cabinet with the rest of my old iPhones to collect dust.
My return box arrives tomorrow. At which time it will be buh bye Tomato.
Hopefully your new owner likes you as much as I did.
*WARNING: DO NOT GO TO THE APPLE STORE TO TRADE IN YOUR iPHONE! ABSOLUTELY 100% DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT IT. WHEN I DID THIS, THEY DIDN'T LOG MY PHONE AS HAVING BEEN RETURNED SO APPLE SAID THEY WERE GOING TO BILL ME FOR BOTH PHONES SINCE I DECIDED TO KEEP IT. THIS TOOK *MONTHS* TO GET STRAIGHTENED OUT. MONTHS!!! HOURS OF WASTED TIME TALKING TO APPLE SUPPORT... AND GETTING HUNG UP ON. HOURS OF WASTED TIME TRYING TO TALK TO THE APPLE STORE. HOURS OF SENDING EMAILS. IT WAS HANDS-DOWN ONE OF THE WORST EXPERIENCES I'VE HAD WITH ANY COMPANY EVER! SO UNTIL APPLE STARTS HANDING OUT RECEIPTS FOR TRADE-INS AT THE APPLE STORE, HAVE YOUR NEW PHONE DELIVERED SO THEY CAN SEND YOU A RETURN BOX WITH A TRACKING NUMBER! DO *NOT* MAKE THE MISTAKE I DID!
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