iPhone 16 Review: All About the Buttons
This is the iphone 16 and iphone 16 plus, which I've been testing out all around San Francisco and here in New York, I'm going to show you what's new, the iphone 16 and 16 plus have a bigger batteries than last year's iphone 15 and 15 plus. So I'm here taking the phone out around San Francisco during a really busy day right now, I'm using the iphone 16 plus and I've been using it all morning since about 7 a.m. And so far it's down to 94% at just after 10 a.m. So we'll see how long this lasts. The iphone 16 and iphone 16 plus are Apple's newest entry level phones. They come with a new camera control button, bigger batteries, the action button and Apple's new, a 18 chip. They're also among the only phones that will be able to run Apple Intelligence when it starts rolling out next month for the first time. It's hard to say exactly how big of a step up the new iphone is compared to the previous generation because the full version of Apple Intelligence isn't available yet. I've only been testing a preview of it so far. But based on my experience, it does seem like there's plenty that's new about the iphone 16 in other areas. Once you get the hang of it, the new camera control button does make it easier to swap between shooting modes when you're using the camera. Do you need it? No, but is it fun to use? Absolutely. I was also really taken with the new version of Apple's photographic styles. Effects much more so than I expected the action buttons arrival on the iphone 16 also means you'll have a faster way to trigger the flashlight. Turn on. Do not disturb or record a voice memo yet. Apple didn't give me everything I wanted with the iphone 16. For example, I'd still really like to see the always on display, make it to Apple's cheaper phones instead of just being for the pro as always, the iphone 16 will be worth it for those coming from an iphone. That's at least a couple of years old. The days of upgrading iphone every year seem to be far behind us. Although maybe I'll feel differently after spending time with Apple Intelligence. Let's take a look at these new colors. The iphone 16 comes in ultra marine teal pink, white and black. I've been testing the pink iphone 16 plus and the ultra marine iphone 16, like last year's iphone 15, these phones have a color infused glass back that gives them a frosted look. These colors really pop and it makes me not want to cover them with the case. In fact, I carried these phones around San Francisco for days without a case and tossed them in my bag and they haven't scuffed or scratched like last year's devices. The iphone 16 and iphone 16 plus are available in 6.1 and 6.7 inch sizes. Unlike the pro models, they can't boost their refresh rates up to 120 Hertz for smoother scrolling and they don't have an always on display for seeing the time and notifications at a glance. So this is the action button. It's new to the iphone 16, but it was on the iphone 15 Pro last year. You can program it to do a lot of things like recognize music, turn on the flashlight, things like that. I'm gonna use it to record a voice memo right now. Note to self. The ferry building has a lot of good restaurants and I should definitely try the burger place because it looked really good. I don't think it's reason enough on its own to buy a new iphone, but I do think the action button is a little underrated. It brings a level of customization to the iphone that you just really didn't have before. For example, I've programmed mind to order my morning coffee from Dunkin and I mean, what can be better than that just having a dedicated coffee button on your phone now for that new camera control button pressing it, launches the camera and from there, you can access certain settings and shooting modes in an overlay that appears on screen. So I can swipe between all these different settings. So you have styles, you have the different cameras, you can switch between zoom depth exposure, things like that. So if I want to get out of this, I can just kind of tap to go back to whatever the last setting was that I was using and then I can press down to zoom in a little bit and take a picture. I do feel like there's a little bit of a learning curve. Sometimes I forget how many taps I need or how many presses I need or how hard I have to press down. But it's really fun and it makes the iphone feel a little bit more like a point and shoot camera. And it's fun to see Apple kind of playing around with the camera interface in a different way. I'm going to be honest, using the camera control button. Didn't come naturally to me at first my first day with the phone, I kept instinctively reaching for that camera icon on my lock screen. But once I started using it, I really like, I didn't have to obscure the screen with my finger to snap a photo is also a lot easier to keep the shot consistent since I don't have to move my hands as much to zoom in the camera control button isn't a reason to go out and buy a new iphone right now, but it's really nice to see Apple improving the interface for one of the things that we use our phones for the. Unfortunately, the most interesting thing about the camera control button won't be coming until later this year when visual intelligence launches that feature will let you launch the camera and point your phone at objects in your surroundings to learn more about them like the hours for a nearby restaurant. It's also worth noting that Apple isn't the first company to have this kind of idea. Sony's experience one and experience five phones also have a dedicated camera button. What really impressed me the most though with Apple's new photographic styles, which the company improved to better understand skin tones, colors, highlights and shadows, there's a lot more range in customization and it makes the version on the iphone 15 and other older iphones feel basic by comparison. So as you can see, there's far fewer options here as well. You can still adjust the tone and warmth, but you just don't have quite as many options. I had so much fun adding different effects to my photos. In particular, I tended to gravitate towards the more dramatic looks like the vibrant option and the stark black and white option. These photos taken at the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory in San Francisco are some of my favorites for someone like me. Who doesn't have a background in photography. These effects gave me some creative control over things like color shadows and contrast without having to do much more than press a button. You're about to get into a driverless car to go to the ferry building. How do they know? So I'm here in AEMO. Let's do another battery check. It's 12:22 p.m. This is down to 78%. I've been using this for a little bit over five hours and I've had the screen brightness up pretty high and I've been taking a lot of photos. So not too bad, all things considered Apple made some other updates to the iphone 16 camera too. It improved the two X zoom by using the sensors middle 12 megapixels to create what it claims is a two X optical quality zoom. Important to remember the iphone 16 does not have a dedicated telephone lens that's only on the pro but Apple has done some work with the sensor to improve the quality of the two. Then there's the ultra wide camera which now has a larger pixels for gathering more light and should be able to produce better images in dark scenarios. It can take photos in macro mode now too. Can you see the difference between these photos taken with the iphone 16 and iphone 15? Let me know in the comments and I'll have a lot more to say about the iphone 16 camera in my written review on. There's another new feature for those who record a lot of audio on their phones. It's called audio mix. And it lets you adjust audio after shooting to enhance the voice of the person on camera. Based on my experience so far, it makes a huge difference. As I found out when testing it inside the ferry building in San Francisco, we're going to see how well audio mix really works. So I'm here in the ferry building where it's really loud. There's lots of people walking by, there's restaurants all around me. There's a lot of echo, not really a great place to be recording audio. There's one big thing we haven't really talked about much yet. Apple Intelligence, the iphone 16 lineup and last year 15 Pro and Pro Max are the only phones capable of running it, but it won't be available for the iphone 16 at launch. The first batch of features is rolling out next month with more to follow. Since it's not out yet. I've only been able to try Apple Intelligence in preview as part of Apple's IOS 18.1 developer beta. And because it's a preview and because a lot of Apple Intelligence features aren't even available yet as part of the preview, it's really hard to tell whether these features will be worth getting a new iphone for so far, I've been playing around with writing tools which can summarize and rewrite text and the new version of Siri, which is better at understanding you even when you stutter, what's the name of the lead actor from the chef? Oh, I mean the Bear. But I think what stands out to me the most so far is the way Apple Intelligence can summarize notifications and text messages. As someone who gets caught up in a lot of lengthy group messaging threads, this feels like something that's actually practical. It can be helpful in everyday life. Sometimes the summaries can feel a little silly like they're missing some context. But other times I've been able to know exactly what I need to know without even my phone, I'll have more thoughts on Apple Intelligence after I've had more time with it. And after I've tried the full version, I'm not trying to hurt you. So this is my final battery check with the iphone 16 plus for today. It's about 311 pm and it's down to 55%. I have had the brightness up for most of the day. I've been walking around taking lots of photos. So that's after about seven hours of heavy usage. So what are my thoughts on the iphone 16. Here's what I liked and didn't like. I really like the new photographic style effects and the camera control button does make it easier to adjust your shot without having to cover the screen. Some Apple Intelligence features like the new notification and message summaries show promise even though it's only available in preview right now. I'm also really glad that the action button made its way down. Apple's regular iphones this year as for what I didn't like. It's a shame that Apple Intelligence isn't available out of the gate. And I was really hoping to see the always on display on the regular iphones, especially at this price. So what do you think of the iphone 16? Let me know in the comments and don't forget to subscribe to cnet for more iphone coverage. Thanks for watching and I'll see you next time.