After returning from a trip abroad and once again having my iPhone 16 Pro seize up from overheating, causing me to miss countless photo opportunities, I had enough.
I often joked that I must have ended up with a “Friday afternoon phone”, but truth be told, my iPhone 16 Pro has been the worst iPhone I have ever owned. I have been with Apple since the iPhone 3G, then the 3GS, 4S, 5S, 6S, 8 Plus, 12 Pro, 14 Pro, 16 Pro and now, as of yesterday, the 17 Pro. I normally wait a couple of years between upgrades, aside from the early days, but the 16 Pro became unbearable.
It would just do things on its own. Random calls, phantom app launches, strange website visits, even near-purchases I never made. Once, it called my parents overseas without me knowing. All they heard were muffled sounds, which of course panicked them. That set off a chain reaction with them calling my wife, who then got worried, and so on. Aside from causing a minor family crisis, it also cost a few euros in international call charges.
HomeKit was another nightmare. The phone would switch lights and devices on and off while it sat in my pocket.
And then there was the overheating. Honestly, it was like carrying a furnace in my pocket. The battery drained in no time, forcing me to carry a power bank everywhere. Charging only made it worse as it would get so hot it throttled during calls and even basic tasks. In my car, on the built-in Qi charger, it became scorching hot and refused to charge properly.
I tried everything including DFU restores, full resets and diagnostics. Apple insisted there was no hardware fault, so no replacement. At one point, I half-seriously considered breaking it and claiming on the insurance.
After just ten months, I finally traded it in for the 17 Pro. It has only been a day, but I have pushed it hard and the camera app has remained perfectly stable. I will see how it holds up over the coming weeks, but fingers crossed, because if the 16 Pro is the direction Apple is heading, they have seriously lost the plot.
I often joked that I must have ended up with a “Friday afternoon phone”, but truth be told, my iPhone 16 Pro has been the worst iPhone I have ever owned. I have been with Apple since the iPhone 3G, then the 3GS, 4S, 5S, 6S, 8 Plus, 12 Pro, 14 Pro, 16 Pro and now, as of yesterday, the 17 Pro. I normally wait a couple of years between upgrades, aside from the early days, but the 16 Pro became unbearable.
It would just do things on its own. Random calls, phantom app launches, strange website visits, even near-purchases I never made. Once, it called my parents overseas without me knowing. All they heard were muffled sounds, which of course panicked them. That set off a chain reaction with them calling my wife, who then got worried, and so on. Aside from causing a minor family crisis, it also cost a few euros in international call charges.
HomeKit was another nightmare. The phone would switch lights and devices on and off while it sat in my pocket.
And then there was the overheating. Honestly, it was like carrying a furnace in my pocket. The battery drained in no time, forcing me to carry a power bank everywhere. Charging only made it worse as it would get so hot it throttled during calls and even basic tasks. In my car, on the built-in Qi charger, it became scorching hot and refused to charge properly.
I tried everything including DFU restores, full resets and diagnostics. Apple insisted there was no hardware fault, so no replacement. At one point, I half-seriously considered breaking it and claiming on the insurance.
After just ten months, I finally traded it in for the 17 Pro. It has only been a day, but I have pushed it hard and the camera app has remained perfectly stable. I will see how it holds up over the coming weeks, but fingers crossed, because if the 16 Pro is the direction Apple is heading, they have seriously lost the plot.
