iPhone 16 reactions - weird

Joelist

Joelist

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Since the iPhone 16 rollout the reactions from Tech influencers have been all over the place. Some are enthusiastic some really negative (usually Android influencers) and others lukewarm. What's funny though is the Pros are already sold out - pickup dates now out to mid October. So it seems the actual buying public are not aligned with the influencers this time :D
 
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It does seem like the iPhone 16 is not selling as well as expected. Usually you’d have 1-2 months backlog by now, but many models are still available for early October shipping.
 
Mine won’t arrive until Friday so I can’t offer an opinion on whether it’s good or bad, but I’m coming from a 14 Pro Max so new to me will be the titanium frame, bigger screen, smaller bezels, action button, camera button, 5x zoom, etc. Year after year, they make these things incrementally better. It adds up, even if it’s no longer a “you need a new one every year” situation.
 
I think the big ‘complaint’ this year is that physically it looks similar to prior years - but I just don’t get it.

New larger screen with smaller bezels - > check
Bigger sensor with more megapickles on the wide end -> check
Quad pixel (higher resolution camera)
Faster readout speed -> this is and of itself HUGE. For content creators I don’t know why this is not being picked up more. 4k120 with what looks to be no pixel binning (most phones offering this as a spec sheet, have pretty crappy looking slow mo. The high frame rate slow mo that I saw coming out of this is generationally better than anything else out there). They are also offering 4k120 with HDR dolby vision. Chris and Jordan at petapixel speculated that to do that they are actually sampling at 4k240 frames per second. That’s insane if true.
New coatings on the lens elements -> removing the weird green flare ghosting etc…
New A18 chip (faster, more energy efficient for the same level of performance)
Faster charging
Additional camera button.


I just don’t get the hate on - literally last weekend I bought a Galaxy S24 Ultra with Ultra watch (I wanted to scratch an itch after seeing my brothers) and maybe needed reassurance that what I had was actually pretty great. Yup. I hated it. It went straight back mid-week to Samsung. The hardware was lovely but the hardware/software/services integration was nowhere near as polished.

I’m going to be picking up an iphone 16 pro or pro max on Friday.

Question for you guys getting the iPhone 16 pro/max on Friday (existing iPhone 15 pro user)…

1. are you going Pro or Pro Max?

2. What color are you going? I’ve been reliably informed that the natural titanium and black are faster than the gold this year! :D
 
tomO2013 said:
I think the big ‘complaint’ this year is that physically it looks similar to prior years - but I just don’t get it.

New larger screen with smaller bezels - > check
Bigger sensor with more megapickles on the wide end -> check
Quad pixel (higher resolution camera)
Faster readout speed -> this is and of itself HUGE. For content creators I don’t know why this is not being picked up more. 4k120 with what looks to be no pixel binning (most phones offering this as a spec sheet, have pretty crappy looking slow mo. The high frame rate slow mo that I saw coming out of this is generationally better than anything else out there). They are also offering 4k120 with HDR dolby vision. Chris and Jordan at petapixel speculated that to do that they are actually sampling at 4k240 frames per second. That’s insane if true.
New coatings on the lens elements -> removing the weird green flare ghosting etc…
New A18 chip (faster, more energy efficient for the same level of performance)
Faster charging
Additional camera button.


I just don’t get the hate on - literally last weekend I bought a Galaxy S24 Ultra with Ultra watch (I wanted to scratch an itch after seeing my brothers) and maybe needed reassurance that what I had was actually pretty great. Yup. I hated it. It went straight back mid-week to Samsung. The hardware was lovely but the hardware/software/services integration was nowhere near as polished.

I’m going to be picking up an iphone 16 pro or pro max on Friday.

Question for you guys getting the iPhone 16 pro/max on Friday (existing iPhone 15 pro user)…

1. are you going Pro or Pro Max?

2. What color are you going? I’ve been reliably informed that the natural titanium and black are faster than the gold this year! :D
Click to expand...
ordered a pro max for me, and a pro for my wife. Hers is white, mine is desert titanium (I tend to get the “color-of-the-year” most years, as I’ve had too many black or white iPhones over the years).

I’m coming from a 14 pro max, and my wife is coming from a 14 pro.

I think the issue this year is that the regular iPhone/Plus is too similar to the Pro’s. Makes the base phones a much more attractive deal this time around, especially because you can get nice colors.

I also see some people complaining that it’s hard to use the camera button with one hand. I find this slightly weird because i always hold real cameras (which this is designed to emulate) with two hands. If I want to use one hand I assume I can still use the volume buttons as a shutter button.
 
tomO2013 said:
Question for you guys getting the iPhone 16 pro/max on Friday (existing iPhone 15 pro user)…

1. are you going Pro or Pro Max?

2. What color are you going? I’ve been reliably informed that the natural titanium and black are faster than the gold this year! :D
Click to expand...

A 16PM in black for me, coming from a 15PM. Being into photography, the camera tech is the main motivator for the change. Also curious about AI, and particularly the manner in which Apple is implementing it in phones.

My wife will also be updating to a 16 coming from an iPhone 8. But she's waiting to see mine (picking it up Friday) before she decides which 16 and color to order.
 
Eric said:
qz.com

Apple iPhone 16 demand is so weak that employees can already buy it on discount

Sales of the new iPhone lineup have so far seemed to fall short of expectations
qz.com qz.com

Apple iPhone 16 demand is so weak that employees can already buy it on discount​

Sales of the new iPhone lineup have so far seemed to fall short of expectations​

Click to expand...

I don't think there's anything wrong with the device other than the price. People simply aren't spending big on discretionary purchases right now.

Iphone 12/13 and possibly earlier are fast enough and most likely have enough storage to hold people over for some time yet.

I'm fairly well off myself (cash in the bank to refresh all my apple gear if desired, not living pay to pay etc.), but it's pretty hard to justify when my M1 iPad/M1 Pro Mac devices are still so functional, the 13 mini is still perfectly fine, etc.

Without some killer app (and on-device AI that isn't even delivered yet is not that) there's simply no driver for sales to most people right now outside of device death.


There's a BIG hole in the lineup right now between the SE and the 16 base. I think they should never have killed the 13 mini and just used it to replace the SE. It may have slightly cannibalised 14/15/16 sales, but I think they'd be selling a heap of those to iPhone SE users as an upgrade/atttrition replacement right now, whereas the 16 is too much of a stretch/price hike.

But hey, I'm sure Apple's price torture/marketing department have run the numbers to determine the price pain vs. return point for their customer base.
 
Eric said:
qz.com

Apple iPhone 16 demand is so weak that employees can already buy it on discount

Sales of the new iPhone lineup have so far seemed to fall short of expectations
qz.com qz.com

Apple iPhone 16 demand is so weak that employees can already buy it on discount​

Sales of the new iPhone lineup have so far seemed to fall short of expectations​

Click to expand...

It'ill be interesting seeing how that plays out over the coming month or two. I'm not at the point where I take Kuo's word as gospel.

But honestly, I really don't care one way or another - it makes no difference to me. I'm picking up my new iPhone tomorrow. If it doesn't meet my expectations with respect to value after a week's worth of use I'll simply return it within the 14 day return period Apple offers its customers. Apple makes it easy.

Being deep into photography and enjoying making (not taking - another discussion) photographs, camera (and supporting app) improvements, as well as other phone improvements don't need to be huge to push me over the edge.

Take the camera control button as just one example. Will it be ground breaking? Unlikely. Will it "reduce friction," something Apple is really good at in all aspects of their business, from using their products and software, to being able to easily return a product that doesn't meet expectations? Quite possibly.

The only way I'll know about that, and other aspects of the phone, is to have it in my hands and using it for a week. Speaking of Apple's quest of reducing friction for its customers... I will be getting $650 for the 15PM I'll be trading in - assuming the 16PM turns out to be a keeper.

Yes... Apple has sucked me in. That's OK. :)
 
throAU said:
I don't think there's anything wrong with the device other than the price. People simply aren't spending big on discretionary purchases right now.

Iphone 12/13 and possibly earlier are fast enough and most likely have enough storage to hold people over for some time yet.

I'm fairly well off myself (cash in the bank to refresh all my apple gear if desired, not living pay to pay etc.), but it's pretty hard to justify when my M1 iPad/M1 Pro Mac devices are still so functional, the 13 mini is still perfectly fine, etc.

Without some killer app (and on-device AI that isn't even delivered yet is not that) there's simply no driver for sales to most people right now outside of device death.


There's a BIG hole in the lineup right now between the SE and the 16 base. I think they should never have killed the 13 mini and just used it to replace the SE. It may have slightly cannibalised 14/15/16 sales, but I think they'd be selling a heap of those to iPhone SE users as an upgrade/atttrition replacement right now, whereas the 16 is too much of a stretch/price hike.

But hey, I'm sure Apple's price torture/marketing department have run the numbers to determine the price pain vs. return point for their customer base.
Click to expand...
I think that the annual updates have become incremental at best and as a result offer very little incentive to upgrade. They've pinned themselves into a corner with it and TBH the price point is just too high for existing users to upgrade without any real new features.

My current schedule is every 3 years or so, even then it's hard to actually see a noticeable difference.
 
Yep, I used to be every year or two when they were rolling out new features. This will be a 3 year refresh for the iPhone (13 mini) and only 2 years for the watch because I had bad timing buying the SE - no WatchOS 11 support - they'll let me extend my AC+, but that's really not desirable to stay stuck on WatchOS 10.6.x

Edit: I am a little excited - I'm expecting this device to have much better cellular performance than my 13 mini does.....shipment notification at 5:35am PT this morning. :D
 
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Eric said:
My current schedule is every 3 years or so, even then it's hard to actually see a noticeable difference.
Click to expand...

Same here but I am 1 year ahead right now because I have a scuff on the screen of my 14 Pro that is annoying. Plus the battery is not holding as well as it used to. Not sure if it is battery related or me simply using it more.
 
Herdfan said:
Same here but I am 1 year ahead right now because I have a scuff on the screen of my 14 Pro that is annoying. Plus the battery is not holding as well as it used to. Not sure if it is battery related or me simply using it more.
Click to expand...

My 14 pro max also seems to have a faster-degrading battery. I’ve seen some chatter that it was an issue relating to that generation, perhaps due to temperatures during wireless charging. Unfortunately, my battery health is at 85%, which is 5% too high for a free applecare repair. I’d consider trying to stress charge it to push it into sub-80% before I turn off recurring applecare monthly payments on the thing (I typically hand my phone down to family members), but it’s actually been stuck at 85% for at least 6 months now, so maybe it’s stabilized and won’t go down no matter how hard I push it.
 
Cmaier said:
My 14 pro max also seems to have a faster-degrading battery. I’ve seen some chatter that it was an issue relating to that generation, perhaps due to temperatures during wireless charging. Unfortunately, my battery health is at 85%, which is 5% too high for a free applecare repair. I’d consider trying to stress charge it to push it into sub-80% before I turn off recurring applecare monthly payments on the thing (I typically hand my phone down to family members), but it’s actually been stuck at 85% for at least 6 months now, so maybe it’s stabilized and won’t go down no matter how hard I push it.
Click to expand...
I've noticed the battery on my 15 Pro Max going a lot faster, often times with just general usage I have to put on the charger in the middle of the day.
 
man my 13 pro is at 89% often with some charging in the middle of the day. I have had it over 2 years now.
 
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fooferdoggie said:
man my 13 pro is at 89% often with some charging in the middle of the day. I have had it over 2 years now.
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I'm sure I can't be the only one that has noticed that battery degradation across the board appears to have been worse for the modern devices that support intelligent charging and charge limits than my older gear.
  • My S2 and S4 watches had better battery longevity than my S6
  • My 2011 and 2015 MacBooks appear to have had better battery charge capacity retention than my 2021 M1 Pro 14"
  • My 2020 SE and 13 Mini iPhones seem to have had worse degradation than previous phones.
Maybe apple are building smart charging into their battery life expectancy these days, and the actual batteries are now worse?
 
throAU said:
Maybe apple are building smart charging into their battery life expectancy these days, and the actual batteries are now worse?
Click to expand...

That would be surprising. Life expectancy is based on the battery chemistry, so there would need to be some sort of battery chemistry change that lowered the expected cycles the battery can handle before it drops to 70% capacity. The opposite of what research is trying to accomplish. You can keep the chemistry the same, but if the battery needs to be topped up 50% each day instead of 40% for example, you'll burn more cycles in a year which will age the battery a bit faster.

Assuming the anecdote is accurate, I'd actually wonder more about heat. SoC and temperature are the two biggest factors when it comes to batteries aging. Intelligent charging and charge limits reduce how long the battery sits at high SoC, which prolongs calendar aging.

There are changes in the last few years that will age the battery more quickly:

- Higher prevalence of fast charging, which generates more heat that needs to be dissipated. Even if not exceeding 1C, the extra current still produces more waste heat which can age the battery faster.
- Higher prevalence of wireless charging, which generates heat from losses. The losses can be considerable when the coils get misaligned. I've seen a soft-touch plastic charging pad start to deform from coil misalignment. If you wireless charge, use a Qi2/MagSafe puck. Seriously.
- MacBooks, especially the last few years of Intel are heat monsters. While the M1 is much better in terms of waste heat, Apple still lets it build up more than when the Intel systems were actually usable on a lap.
- M1 supports Power Nap which means it's awake and drawing power more often. This can mean going through more cycles per year.
- Recent iPhones can get quite warm under load, which is more waste heat that will age the battery faster. The larger capacity batteries they stuff in helps offset the extra power drain, but may make it more susceptible to the extra heat?
 

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