I spent the final 12 months recapping iPhone 16 rumors, and at the moment, the whole lot was lastly revealed at Apple’s Glowtime Occasion. A lot of the rumors we coated turned out to be true. The iPhone 16 did get a stacked digital camera system on the again, plus the iPhone 15 Professional’s Motion Button. The iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Professional have a Digicam Management button, which helps you to flip over the gadget and faux it’s a point-and-shoot digital camera. And yep, the iPhone 16 Professional is available in bronze. It’s not brown like initially reported, and we’re all thrilled about it. Apple calls it “desert titanium,” and certainly, I might see somebody in Palm Springs sporting this shade of solar tan.
I went hands-on with the iPhone 16 Professional on this new coloration and the iPhone 16 in its new colours, particularly teal and pink. Essentially the most vital change to this technology’s lineup is the Digicam Management button I discussed earlier. Contemplating we’re already speaking concerning the iPhone 17 going buttonless, it’s a curious addition. The “taptic” button is a little bit complicated to make use of at first.
iPhone 16 and the Digicam Seize button
It was onerous getting my fingers on the desert titanium iPhone 16 Professional. This was a preferred coloration on the demonstration flooring on the Steve Jobs Theater at Apple Park, most likely as a result of it simply seemed costly. Desert titanium appears like gold from afar, and that’s due to the goldish border across the chassis. That precise bottom of the telephone is extra of the form of golden beige you’d put on someplace like Demise Valley or the Sahara desert. I didn’t assume the colour brown may very well be this game-changing, however there you will have it. Apple made historical past. There’s additionally black titanium, pure titanium, and white titanium if that’s not your model.
In all sincerity, Apple’s tackle the Professional is that it’s so skilled at what it does that it’s at all times dressed for the job, therefore the muted backsides, which I’ve seen complained about on Threads and elsewhere as folks in contrast them to the colourful array of the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus. Nonetheless, the colour on the again doesn’t have to be eye-catching when an organization sells a telephone that begins at $1,000 and claims Hollywood-caliber video recording capabilities.
Talking of which, the iPhone 16’s new colorways are, in actual fact, eye-catching. They’re vibrant up shut and from afar. I’m additionally digging the brand new stacked digital camera array. It appears rather more put collectively than the earlier stovetop with simply two lenses. The Motion Button and Digicam Seize button are there, in the identical coloration as the remainder of the iPhone 16. This 12 months consists of black, white, pink, teal, and ultramarine (blue).
Apple is attempting to hone in on the message that its smartphones are the cameras to beat, therefore the Digicam Seize button. I obtained to demo it briefly, although it was Apple staff doing the tapping for me. The Digicam Seize’s taptic button means it could sense whenever you soft-press or totally press it. It could possibly additionally really feel your finger slide from left to proper to cycle by means of menu choices or zoom. It really works precisely the way you assume it’d, and in that break up second, it felt simply as delicate because the W/T did again within the Handycam days.
Greater is best
One other pattern I observed through the Glowtime occasion is that Apple’s gadget lineup is getting greater at the same time as of us yearn for smaller telephones. The iPhone 16 Professional and Professional Max are 6.3 and 6.9 inches, respectively, every just a few factors bigger than earlier than. However since these are professional-level telephones, they need to be greater to provide you extra room to edit, pan, slide, and scroll by means of no matter work or undertaking is at hand. I nonetheless favor the smaller iPhone 16 Professional to the Professional Max. And this 12 months, you don’t should compromise on optical zoom by selecting between the Professional and the Professional Max. It’s 5x optical zoom between each gadgets this time round.
Apple Intelligence is coming
I do know you wish to see extra of Apple Intelligence in motion. I do, too, however we’re nonetheless ready for it to roll out. I noticed extra subtle enhancing options between the iPhone 16 and 16 Professional lineups. However I didn’t see any generative textual content, ChatGPT magic, or something like that. That’s on the way in which subsequent month.
Once we get the iPhone 16 evaluation items in, we’ll be particularly curious to see if the thermal work Apple did contained in the telephone interprets to the skin. A number of folks round me within the viewers have been muttering about how their iPhone 15 Execs have been too heat to deal with after some time. I’ll even be curious concerning the Spatial Video that the iPhone 16 can take and whether or not there’s a technique to translate that content material outdoors of the Imaginative and prescient Professional surroundings in order that it’s not simply restricted to Apple’s product lineup.
If you wish to be among the many first to don a Digicam Seize button, you may pre-order the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Professional later this week. It formally launches on Sept. 20.
