My initial impressions of the 16 Pro, which is replacing my ageing iPhone XR:
Firstly, the ordering process was really clumsy - a pointless pre-pre-order phase, Apple charged my credit card for the accessories individually before charging for the phone, which looked like fraud to my bank, who cancelled my card. Then Apple tarnished it's eco-friendly reputation by sending 2 deliveries instead of one - why would I need the case and charger 3 days before the phone?
Well it turns out the answer to that is that the 3 days were useful to send back the 'denim' colour case they sent instead of the black one I ordered.
3 days after that I and I now have a phone and a charger but no case as Apple won't send the right case until they have received and "processed" my return, which isn't the sort of customer service I'd expect at this price point. The packaging is beautifully over-engineered. No plastic, but still surprisingly heavy. The set-up was an odd mix of smoothness and clumsiness. It took four or five goes at 'putting the phone next to your old one' before the process wasn't interrupted by my old phone locking itself, later on I was texted a 6 digit code that had to be used within 30 minutes, but wasn't given any opportunity to enter it until after a 40 minute file copying operation, so it timed out. The file copying seemed to be done over bluetooth, which was daft given that the devices both had wifi and were plugged directly into the same Mac Studio. The progress bar stayed on '1 hour remaining' for ages, then counted down to about 35 minutes in real-time, then finished in about a minute - the same odd behaviour I seem to get with every iOS or OS update.
On to the hardware - overall, a bit disappointing, it really doesn't feel like I've gone from a cheap 2018 phone to the top of the range 2024 phone. The thinner bezel is nicer, as is the camera, but the 'island' feels more intrusive than the old notch, the much more rounded corners of the screen cut a lot more off, the screen has a greenish tinge and worst of all, the camera sticks out so much and is so offset that trying to use the phone on a flat surface means it wobbles. I've had to pad the back with blu-tack so I can use the phone. Why don't Apple get that this is a) really bad design and b) incredibly easy to fix? Also, why the hell can't I turn off the constant 'game mode on' pop-ups when switching apps?
Overall, it's ok, but feels hugely overpriced given the minimal improvements over a 6 year-old device.
