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The fold 6 is really nice. 👍🏻 I was at the Samsung store 🏬 over the holidays and they had many on display.
I was impressed by it as well. Not sure if foldable phones are at the stage of being durable enough yet but it certainly has the appeal.
 
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I was impressed by it as well. Not sure if foldable phones are at the stage of being durable enough yet but it certainly has the appeal.
That’s my concern too. I think they’re a lot more durable than years ago. My carrier had the fold 4 for $10 x 24 months. Unfortunately I have 11 months left on my iPhone 14. I would’ve bought the fold 4 at that price, it was on clearance.
 
I upgraded from the 13 Pro Max to the 16 Pro Max in late October, and as a tech enthusiast, I’m already bored with this brick. It doesn’t offer anything noticeably different from the 13 Pro Max, which I used for 2.5 years.

Apple’s “AI” doesn't exist it's just a marketing gimmick, and the camera upgrades are not noticeable, even though I take a lot of photos and videos. The new camera button? good idea but poorly designed, touch-sensitive aspect of it is unreliable and completely unergonomic. The display looks identical to the 13 Pro Max, and I don’t see any real benefit from the Dynamic Island over the old notch. Plus, the new Photos app is just terrible.hate it everythime.

I love my other Apple devices: MacBook Air (best laptop), Apple TV (amazing), AirPods Pro 2 (excellent), and Apple Watch Ultra (great). But I’m just not into the iPhone or iOS anymore.

I already have a nice, fast 8” Android tablet and have owned a few Samsung Note flagships over the years, so I’m not addicted to iOS, and I never use iMessage.
I’m seriously thinking about switching to the S25 Ultra for a change, even if it means giving up my Apple Watch Ultra (which I think is way better than any other smartwatch).


Anyone else disappointed with the 16 series, especially those who are into tech and upgrading from the 12 series or newer?
iPhones are tools for me. Improvements to the camera in particular are especially useful. "Boring" is not a term that I apply to any tool that I use. Annual improvements have always been non-zero, but even if they were zero some year that would not cause me to describe the tool as boring.

The iPhone Pro is a tool, and quite a good tool.
 
What all of us have to get out of our heads is the idea that phones should be continually new and exciting. Frankly, they're not. Phones are commoditised now, a useful appliance but an appliance all the same.

Moving part and parcel to Android isn't something you should take lightly as iCloud data extraction can be infiruatingly time consuming. Android phones are very good and an S25 Ultra would serve you well. If you already rely on them for some things a Microsoft backend makes a compelling alternative to Google on Samsung devices.

But an S25 Ultra is still just a phone.
 
Same here….

Back on December 2019 I got an iPhone 11 Pro Midnight Green with 512 GB.

Unfortunately after 5 years of rough and loyally use, the battery of my 11 Pro has been degraded to 74% and has been very hard to finish the day without charging at midday. Also the lightning charging port stop working 2 years ago so the only way I’m able to charge it is through a Qi “wireless” charging base…. what drive me nuts when I’m away from home or my office.

So last December I gifted myself a brand new iPhone 16 Pro White Titanium with 1 TB.

Being honest, I haven’t found too much differences between my new 16 Pro and my old 11 Pro. Ok, better camera, larger screen, but nothing very special that had justified the update beyond my issues with the battery and the lightning charging port which by their own were enough reasons to update.

In my experience the improvements has been just marginal but massive at all, and I’m not comparing year to year models, but 5 years model comparison (16 pro vs 11 pro) which feels almost the same…. And yes, as I said, better camera and larger screen are just incremental improvements, not massive nor impressive improvements.

I love when Apple really improves, although honestly, from 11 pro to 16 pro, I don’t see improvements which worth, nevertheless I bought a new 16 pro because of other reasons.

So I expect my new iPhone should last me at least 5 years more. The only way I would update before is, if Apple launches a flip or foldable iPhone which I would buy since day 1.
 
I was a long time Samsung user…phones and watches. I had the Note 20 Ultra die just outside the 1 year warranty and 2 watches fail in under 2 years. I got fed up and got the 13 Pro Max, my first iPhone since IPhone 5. The 13 was an awesome phone and just got the 16 Pro Max which I’m very happy with.
Apple Music, Passwords, Apple Pay and IOS is so much more polished than the android alternatives, and having a MacBook Pro and AirPods makes everything seamless. I also love being able to go to an Apple Store should something go wrong as opposed to sending it off to Samsung.
 
I’m neither bored nor disappointed with my 15Pm. Next year I will upgrade my wife’s 14pm to a 17pm. The 15pm was a huge upgrade from my xs max. More than just some incremental improvements.

The 16pm imo should have had 12 gig memory.
 
Mine is much like the 13 Pro Max I had before, so same old for me really. I don't really expect an iPhone to be exciting these days as improvements are largely incremental, but at the same time I couldn't tell you what I expect as I am not from a background of developing tech.

I am looking forward to the Siri improvements that are supposedly coming, as lets face it, Siri has been appalling since 2012.

I tend to upgrade every 2 years when my contract is up but if the releases continue to be the way they have been for the past 5 years, I may extend my time with the 16 Pro Max.
 
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I upgraded from the 13 Pro Max to the 16 Pro Max in late October, and as a tech enthusiast, I’m already bored with this brick. It doesn’t offer anything noticeably different from the 13 Pro Max, which I used for 2.5 years.
So you bought an expensive new device for no good reason and are now disappointed? Not sure how we can help.
 
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In this forum, there are people who see tech as a hobby, as an end in itself, and those who see tech as a tool, merely a means to an end (but also have opinions about it), and those who are some mix of the two extremes (probably most if not everyone).

I am almost completely a “tech as a tool” person. I recently got a 16PM coming from an SE3, so that’s one of the biggest jumps you can make. And I’m neither dissatisfied nor excited. The 16PM is everything I expected—the same (solid) iPhone but bigger and with a couple extra features. Honestly the only extra features I really care about are the camera and larger storage. Not that they excite me, they’re just useful. And that’s all I want from a tool.
I have mixed feelings about the bigger screen. Coming from using a small phone and an iPad Mini, the 16PM is both too big and too small. But that’s getting off topic. I only bring it up to say that the only way I can imagine Apple making a phone that excites me is if they make another one-handed phone, because I really miss that usefulness. Even my SE3 I found a little annoyingly big.
But yeah other than that, I’m not looking for excitement from a phone, nor do I think a phone could provide that for me. But I have my own interests that I’m sure others just see as a means to an end.
 
bored…. Do what you want but at the end of the day with a iPhone 19max etc ultra Samsung change your phone usage? I highly highly doubt it.

My phone use from Xs max, to iPhone mini, to pixel fold 9, to iPhone 16 to now another mini. It’s the sameeeee use case. The only difference is how often I charge the phone and texting via satellite
 
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I know I probably need to ditch to mini and I bought the 16 with the intention of doing so but I just decided let me wait another year. 4 years between generations should be worth the 1k they charge now.
 
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I know I probably need to ditch to mini and I bought the 16 with the intention of doing so but I just decided let me wait another year. 4 years between generations should be worth the 1k they charge now.

It's not worth the prices they're asking these days, especially when there's no real change in the last few models.
 
I upgraded from the 13 Pro Max to the 16 Pro Max in late October, and as a tech enthusiast, I’m already bored with this brick. It doesn’t offer anything noticeably different from the 13 Pro Max, which I used for 2.5 years.

Apple’s “AI” doesn't exist it's just a marketing gimmick, and the camera upgrades are not noticeable, even though I take a lot of photos and videos. The new camera button? good idea but poorly designed, touch-sensitive aspect of it is unreliable and completely unergonomic. The display looks identical to the 13 Pro Max, and I don’t see any real benefit from the Dynamic Island over the old notch. Plus, the new Photos app is just terrible.hate it everythime.

I love my other Apple devices: MacBook Air (best laptop), Apple TV (amazing), AirPods Pro 2 (excellent), and Apple Watch Ultra (great). But I’m just not into the iPhone or iOS anymore.

I already have a nice, fast 8” Android tablet and have owned a few Samsung Note flagships over the years, so I’m not addicted to iOS, and I never use iMessage.
I’m seriously thinking about switching to the S25 Ultra for a change, even if it means giving up my Apple Watch Ultra (which I think is way better than any other smartwatch).


Anyone else disappointed with the 16 series, especially those who are into tech and upgrading from the 12 series or newer?

I guess it depends on what you want to "tech enthusiast" on. A phone is a phone these days. Most flagships are broadly interchangeable. Yes, Android offers you more control but the question is are you actually going to use that. And going from one mainstream flagship to another is going to be barely different in terms of hardware.

Seems like as a "tech enthusiast" you might look at making your overall tech situation better than just buying the same thing over and over again.
 
If money was no object I definitely would. I miss android and am getting tired of iOS and the same iphone design for the last five models in a row.
 
It's not worth the prices they're asking these days, especially when there's no real change in the last few models.
I know I made a post about the 16 and I got dumped on by people when I said the exact same thing.
 
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If you are bored with your phone, you will end up bored again with Android. The problem isn’t the phone.
It’s a phone lol what more can it do now other than changing size. Mini, 16, pro max, fold, it’s the same use case. The only difference is how it fits in one’s pants and whether you can sit comfortably depending the tightness of one’s pants lol.

The pixel fold 9 was genuine fun, but man it’s huge. I always had to take it out of my pocket.
 
If you're bored, why not really change things up? Instead of merely switching from one smartphone to another, you should ditch your smartphone and use one of these (or the equivalent) for a while. Removing the constant connection to the internet that smartphones provide will give you an entirely different class of experience.


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After last night's Galaxy Unpacked (Repacked?) event I'd be interested if the OP is still considering switching?

The S25 Ultra, despite the annual stat bump is just the S24 Ultra with a worse stylus. Given the S24 Ultra was just the S23U with an anti-reflective screen my advice would be to keep the iPhone 16pm and buy an S23 Ultra for £$600 to see what all the fuss is about. Two years of 'updates' hasn't amounted to much.
 
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Yes, I am highly considering the Pixel Fold. A friend has one and it is really nice. Apple is boring and Apple Intelligence is a huge disappointment
 
I kind of want my phone to be boring an predictable? It's just a tool, and it does its job really well.

When a phone stops being "boring" it usually means you're having issues and need to hack on it all the time to get what you want.
 
If you do it why not save money and get the 24 Ultra?

I think its a good thing to switch to Android if you are bored with iphones. Hi end Android phones offer a really good experience and people could experience all the things that iOS doesn't have. I know for myself its only a matter of time before I abandon Apple and go back to Android.
 
Yes, I am highly considering the Pixel Fold. A friend has one and it is really nice. Apple is boring and Apple Intelligence is a huge disappointment
Pixel is cool. I wouldn’t call pixel AI revolutionary. It’s an interesting demo like Apple version.
 
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