I upgraded to the iPhone 16 Plus and have some ideas

Every fall, Apple releases four new iPhones, but until last year, I only had eyes for the Pro. Neither the standard, nor the mini nor the Plus (depending on the year), nor the Pro Max. Just the Pro: a wonderful combination of premium features and a compact body.

But in 2023, that changed, mainly because my colleagues already had access to the Pro and Pro Max review samples and it just made more editorial sense for me to request the Plus. I made this decision grudgingly and with low expectations, thinking the phone would be the worst of both worlds: too big to fit comfortably in a pocket while lacking in specs and features. But I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed using the 15 Plus and volunteered to try the 16 Plus this year, especially since my colleague felt it was the better choice.

But what’s it like to go from an iPhone 15 Plus to a 16 Plus? Here’s what I learned from the process.

The 16 Plus is prettier. That’s just the case

Seems strange, doesn’t it? Considering Apple has largely kept the same design this year. But I much prefer the look of my new phone due to some minor cosmetic changes.

The colors, for one thing, are much more vibrant. I opted for pink both times, but where the 2023 pink was a washed out pink blush that looks almost white in photos, the 2024 pink is amazing. I discuss my thoughts on the importance of good pink in a separate article.

David Price / Foundry

David Price / Foundry

David Price / Foundry

I also prefer the camera module on the back, which thanks to its vertical configuration is less obtrusive, and the fact that the Action button means that the case does not have a cutout on the left edge. It’s just a cleaner, more satisfying look.

The Action button is better, but not by much

Here’s one of the downsides of using the 15 Plus last year: I’m disconnected from the Action button, one of the flagship features of 2023. I’m using it for the first time now. Apologies if the following hot take turned cold.

Here is my point of view. Having an action button instead of a mute switch is clearly preferable, because it looks nicer (see above), is easier to use, doesn’t get clogged with dust, is probably less prone to breakdowns and can be programmed to perform other functions. than mute/unmute the sound if you prefer. But the latter is the main advantage although I don’t really see why you would want to use any of the other main functions.

Having easy access to a mute control is helpful, and when using the 16 Plus, I was never willing to sacrifice that for a different control. I need the flashlight less often and it’s already easily accessible via the lock screen; this last point also applies doubly to the camera, which is accessible via the Lock Screen or the new Camera Control. Shazam is a niche feature that I can imagine using, what, a few times a year? For Magnifier, that number is probably five or six times. And let’s face it, most people don’t take the shortcuts of creating their own actions.

The only alternative use I see for the Action button is Translate. If I’m going on vacation to a place where I don’t speak the language, I turn this feature on and use my iPhone as a handy sci-fi translator. But for the rest of the year, it remains a glorified dumb switch.

The camera is much better for close-ups, but that’s it

The camera is a crucial part of a smartphone’s arsenal, so I tested the 16 Plus’s photographic capabilities extensively… and to be honest, 90% of the time it’s not noticeably different. The main camera has been renamed “Fusion”, which, you know, sounds Well, the ultra-wide aperture has been increased from f/2.4 to f/2.2 and the photographic styles have been updated. But none of this resulted, at least in my subjective experience, in better photos.

Except for the new macro photography feature. Close-ups are much better and it’s not even close (no pun intended).

If you spend a lot of time taking photos of tiny painted models to post on the Internet, this could be a huge benefit for upgrading.

I really don’t like the camera control. Not now, and probably never

So the camera itself isn’t that different, but the way you access it is. There’s a new button called Camera Control on the right edge and this lets you open the Camera app with one click and take a photo with a second click.

My problem with this is twofold. First, as mentioned before, it’s not particularly necessary: ​​the Camera app is already easy to open by swiping directly from the lock screen. Second, the button is placed in an awkward part of the chassis, where my ring finger presses on it unintentionally when I hold the phone in my left hand, and where my right index finger can’t easily reach it when I hold it with both hands. hands. landscape orientation. It’s just a little too far for comfort. (This may be an issue exclusive to the Plus model with its longer bezels. I haven’t tried the standard iPhone 16.)

David Price / Foundry

David Price / Foundry

David Price / Foundry

That’s before we get to the advanced controls. If you do a “light press” on Camera Control, it allows you to adjust the exposure, depth of field effect, zoom, style, etc. Doing two light presses lets you switch between them. But these actions are so counterintuitive, so difficult to implement, that I have no interest in using them… which means it’s unlikely I’ll ever improve. The good news is that you can turn it off.

Wind noise reduction doesn’t seem to do much

All four 16 Series phones have a new feature that Apple calls Wind Noise Reduction, “which uses powerful machine learning algorithms to reduce unwanted noise and improve audio quality.” I recorded myself talking into my phone like an idiot on a windy, rainy day with the 15 Plus and 16 Plus, but when I rewatched the videos, I noticed no difference: in both cases, the wind was barely perceptible. but there was a lot of noise from passing cars.

Take a look at the spec sheet and you’ll notice that (at least in theory) we’ve moved forward two processor generations this year: from the A16 Bionic on the 15 Plus to the A18 on the 16 Plus. Apple remains cagey about the precise specifications of its proprietary chips, but my speed benchmarking supported the idea that this is a major step forward. The 16 Plus was around 25% faster than the 15 Plus on the Geekbench 5 and Geekbench 6 CPU tests, and an astonishing 45% faster on the GB5 Compute test.

While this is an impressive improvement on paper, the real-world effect is barely noticeable. There simply isn’t any iPhone task right now that requires this much theoretical speed, and you’ll probably find, as I did, that the 16 Plus doesn’t feel any faster in practice.

However, this gives you an extra year or two of longevity. Applications will become more and more demanding to take advantage of the greater processing power appearing on the market. And of course, there’s Apple Intelligence. Speaking of…

Connor Jewiss / Foundry

Connor Jewiss / Foundry

Connor Jewiss / Foundry

And we’re still waiting for Apple Intelligence

It seems strange to get to this last step, because Apple Intelligence is the flagship feature, the upgrade around which Apple has built the entire iPhone 16 launch. But it’s not there yet, and probably won’t be for several weeks. It’s hard to know what to think about it.

Obviously, you can’t expect customers to be as eager to upgrade if the main feature doesn’t arrive until almost two months after launch. But more insidiously, you’re asking people to buy their iPhone based on a feature that no one outside of Apple Park has tested, and which might not be (perhaps we should say “almost certainly” not”) immediately lived up to the hype. . Apple has had to build its own AI platform largely from scratch and we can’t expect it to perform as well as ChatGPT and other established competitors from day one. AI needs time and training data, and Apple hasn’t had much of that either; it may take years for Apple Intelligence to reach its full potential.

Die-hard Apple fans are sometimes accused – not without reason – of buying the latest iPhone on launch day, whether it was a worthwhile upgrade or not. But at least in the past, these fans had a general idea of ​​what to expect. This time, Apple is asking them to open their wallets before anyone sees the main feature, and that seems risky for everyone.

Conclusion: Is an upgrade worth it?

If you own an iPhone 15 Plus, I wouldn’t recommend upgrading to the iPhone 16 Plus. It doesn’t feel faster, the camera is only better in one specific use case, and I don’t rate the camera control at all. The colors look nicer, but that doesn’t justify spending so much money.

If you need to upgrade, at least wait until Apple Intelligence launches in late October. Then we can see if the main event is worth the price of admission.