The iPhone 16 is here – even if the Apple Intelligence features that played such a big part in its announcement aren’t yet. Regardless, there are some serious upgrades under the hood, with the iPhone 16 chip finally catching up to the Pro models instead of lagging a year behind. With fast speeds, some great photographic capabilities, and extra buttons to augment your use of the phone , it’s a more exciting base iPhone than I’ve seen in years.
It doesn't get everything right, but it manages enough. The iPhone 16 is as cleanly and elegantly designed as ever. A glass front and back sandwiches the aluminum frame, and the back and frame are matted, providing a subdued look.
Around back, the camera system has returned to a vertical stack embedded on a pill-shaped bump, a la the iPhone X. Apple opted to set the flash into the normal back glass rather than stretching the camera bump to fit it, which would have led to a more iPhone 12-like design. It’s a careful game Apple has to play to get a distinct design without throwing it back to an old model when so little changes year after year.
Of course, if ain’t broke...
While Apple has touted the strength of the Ceramic Shield covering the phone, I’ve found it a bit of a letdown. In the first few days of testing the new iPhones, when they were largely spending time in a bag – safe from the cruel, cruel, world – only coming out to snap photos, the iPhone 16 still managed to get some notable scrapes and blemishes on the d.