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iPhone 16 Pro 16 Pro - WTF Were They Thinking?

SmakFairy said:
Absolutely nothing special about the Pro models this year, and they don't even keep up with the competition. Even last year's Watch Ultra 2 got the new feature tile board - but the 16 Pro is so boring they couldn't fill one. Half of the presentation spent on contrived movie and music video shoots that don't represent anyone's actual usage - I mean, you can't get those images without at least $100k in outboard gear, but who is spending that on a shoot and using an iPhone?

Still limping along on a 12 Pro, and upgrades to the camera are the one feature that will motivate me to spend on a new iPhone. Despite the rumors, I was desperately hoping Apple would come through and deliver a camera that meets my needs and goes toe to toe with the competition. Alas, we suffer once again at the hands of Apple's bean counters. It's one thing for products to plateau as technology development slows - but this is something else.

Google just released their Pixel 9, with 48mp available at each sensor for increased image quality all around. Yet here we are now with Apple's flagship phone still offering only an aging 12mp sensor for the telephoto lens. What gives?

I use the telephoto all the time, so I was hoping for a significant upgrade to finally justify the cost of a new phone. Google can now deliver a real step up in image quality, so why can't Apple?

I would love to get better pictures out of my wide and ultra-wide cameras, along with stabilization, but I can't justify the cost of a new phone that will continue to leave me disappointed with half the pictures I take. If I want the best image quality available to me right now, it looks like I will have to switch to Google. I don't want that, but I also don't want an expensive new phone that barely improves on my old one.

There is no reason Apple couldn't offer something competitive with Google except for their greed and arrogance - assuming that people will continue buying iPhones regardless of what they actually offer, even if that means missing out on features they could have if Apple was not deliberating withholding. Probably they are correct. But not with me. 12 Pro will soldier on for another year - unless I give my money to Google instead.
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Nice post. I disagree
 
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will wait to see if it's an improvement over the 15 , still using an 11 pro and I think I could make it another year with it if need be
 
ProbablyDylan said:
Not sure why people are so negative on these phones. They bring new features and meaningful improvements over their predecessors. Are they earth shattering upgrades? No - but we haven't had any since 2017. Smartphones have plateaued.

Personally, they had me at better battery life.
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I was going to use the dislike emoji but its gone for some reason lol

Always expect more and don't settle for less unless you like donating $1k+ each year to a 3 Trillon dollar company
 
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Drk89wng said:
I got so turned off by all the rumors the past few weeks I jumped the gun and got a Z Fold6. Yes I still have my 15 Pro Max, for Apple Pay Cash, Apple Card, controlling my Apple TV and home pods. I still have my love for Apple products and own more than I should between myself and the wife. She's fine with whatever phone she has and isn't overly dedicated to a manufacturer or yearly updates but she's also disappointed with this announcement. This year they basically told us you either want your phone predominantly to use as a camera and basically nothing else. We still don't have hifi Bluetooth codecs, no update to the internal dac, no new screen tech outside of size, nothing to improve the overall "smartphone" aspect. Like yes we live in a social media oriented world but the Pro moniker doesn't sllude to professional photographer/videographer. I'm glad I'm trying out android again, it's refreshing. Less battery life, no iMessage (until I set up a BlueBubbles server), and less app cohesiveness and Samsung pass is terrible compared to iCloud keychain. All in all I just had to vent these frustrations, loving apple can dosclude their phone offerings and it took this phone release to realize it.
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Amen. Not sure how Apple keeps getting away with talking about audio quality and only offering AAC. I have a 15PM that I have zero intention of upgrading and a Fold 6 that kinda gets all of the other bases covered.

My AWU 2 is the main thing keeping me in the ecosystem…Android just can’t match that yet
 
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As @CloudChief mentioned, the # of megapixels is misleading. In a sense, more is better (higher resolution, right?), but in practice, especially for telephoto, more pixels can impact light and ultimately quality. Both Apple & Google leverage computational photography tech and I would be highly surprised if anyone can tell much of a difference between their two—Google likely making up for lower quality per pixel while Apple likely effectively upscaling from a higher quality lower resolution base.

The 16 Pro is a solid improvement in camera and experience vs iPhone 15 Pro. And if you're coming from an iPhone 12 Pro, you will be absolutely blown away at the difference in photo and video quality.
 
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Carrotstick said:
Maybe wait for independent reviews.
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Agreed. Recall back in the days of Intel processors vs PowerPC. Intel clock processors got faster and faster. Numerically the PowerPCs weren’t increasing as fast. But it also seemed to not have matter for a long time.

In other words is the numerically higher MP of the Pixel actually an improvement?

Why play the numbers game again when ultimately the numbers are a proxy for what you actual want: and that is actual quality improvement.

And also in other words: don’t let PR sway you that strongly. You might end up being a sucker born every minute. ;-)
 
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SmakFairy said:
Absolutely nothing special about the Pro models this year, and they don't even keep up with the competition. Even last year's Watch Ultra 2 got the new feature tile board - but the 16 Pro is so boring they couldn't fill one. Half of the presentation spent on contrived movie and music video shoots that don't represent anyone's actual usage - I mean, you can't get those images without at least $100k in outboard gear, but who is spending that on a shoot and using an iPhone?

Still limping along on a 12 Pro, and upgrades to the camera are the one feature that will motivate me to spend on a new iPhone. Despite the rumors, I was desperately hoping Apple would come through and deliver a camera that meets my needs and goes toe to toe with the competition. Alas, we suffer once again at the hands of Apple's bean counters. It's one thing for products to plateau as technology development slows - but this is something else.

Google just released their Pixel 9, with 48mp available at each sensor for increased image quality all around. Yet here we are now with Apple's flagship phone still offering only an aging 12mp sensor for the telephoto lens. What gives?

I use the telephoto all the time, so I was hoping for a significant upgrade to finally justify the cost of a new phone. Google can now deliver a real step up in image quality, so why can't Apple?

I would love to get better pictures out of my wide and ultra-wide cameras, along with stabilization, but I can't justify the cost of a new phone that will continue to leave me disappointed with half the pictures I take. If I want the best image quality available to me right now, it looks like I will have to switch to Google. I don't want that, but I also don't want an expensive new phone that barely improves on my old one.

There is no reason Apple couldn't offer something competitive with Google except for their greed and arrogance - assuming that people will continue buying iPhones regardless of what they actually offer, even if that means missing out on features they could have if Apple was not deliberating withholding. Probably they are correct. But not with me. 12 Pro will soldier on for another year - unless I give my money to Google instead.
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Yep, this one is not worth the upgrade at all from a 15. Look at the comparison on the Apple site, its virtually a carbon copy. Even the chip is basically the same thing. Next year may be better hopefully..
 
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rickbynight said:
16 Pro is a solid improvement in camera and experience vs iPhone 15 Pro. And if you're coming from an iPhone 12 Pro, you will be absolutely blown away at the difference in photo and video quality.
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I think blown away is an exaggeration. I look back at some photos taken with my iPhone 7 and it looks like it was taken today just with a little bit of noise added to it.

Once you share these high quality photos to another phone or social media the quality evens out anyway.

The only thing that blows here is that most are locked into paying more and more cloud storage for life without realizing it
 
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Are you going to buy a new phone this year?
Buy the pixel because it seems you're already convinced it's a better deal.

If not, good luck with your demands for something you aren't interested at all.
 
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