It’s not brown, it’s Desert Titanium
I’ve spent the last year recapping iPhone 16 rumors, and today, everything was finally revealed at Apple’s Glowtime event. Most of the rumors we talked about turned out to be true. The iPhone 16 got a stacked camera system on the back, along with the iPhone 15 Pro’s Action Button. iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro have a Camera Control button, which allows you to flip the device and act as a point-and-shoot camera. And yes, the iPhone 16 Pro comes in copper. It’s not as brown as originally reported, and we’re all happy about it. Apple calls it “desert titanium,” and indeed, I saw someone in Palm Springs wearing this shade of sun tan.
I went with the iPhone 16 Pro in this new color and the iPhone 16 in its new colors, especially teal and pink. The most important change in this generation’s system is the Camera Control button I mentioned earlier. Considering we’re already talking about the iPhone 17 going without a button, it’s a curious addition. The “taptic” button is a little confusing to use at first.
iPhone 16 and the camera shutter button
It was hard to get my hands on the desert titanium iPhone 16 Pro. This it was a popular color in the showroom at the Steve Jobs Theater in Apple Park, probably because it looked expensive. Desert titanium looks like gold from a distance, and that’s because of the gold border around the chassis. The actual back of the phone is the kind of golden beige you’d wear somewhere like Death Valley or the Sahara desert. I didn’t think brown could be such a game changer, but there you have it. Apple has made history. There’s also black titanium, natural titanium, and white titanium if that’s not your style.
Honestly, Apple’s take on the Pro is that it’s so professional at what it does that it’s always worn for work, hence the muted background, which I’ve seen complained about in Threads and elsewhere as people compare it to a color palette. for iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus. However, background color doesn’t need to draw attention when a company sells a phone starting at $1,000 and claims Hollywood-caliber video recording capabilities.
Speaking of which, the new iPhone 16 colors are actually eye-catching. They are flourishing near and far. And I dig the list of the new stack camera. It looks more integrated than the previous stovetop with just two lenses. The Action Button and the Camera Capture Button are there, in the same color as the rest of the iPhone 16. This year it includes black, white, pink, yellow, and ultramarine (blue).
Apple is trying to sharpen the message that its smartphones i Cameras will be hit, so the button to capture the camera. I got to do a short demo, even though it was Apple employees doing the tapping for me. The camera’s taptic shutter button means it can sense whether you press it lightly or fully. It can also feel your finger slide from left to right to cycle through menu options or zoom. It works as well as you’d think, and in that second half, it felt as serious as the W/T did back in the Handycam days.
Bigger is better
Another trend I noticed during the Glowtime event is that Apple’s device lineup is getting bigger and bigger. look forward to it on small phones. The iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max are 6.3 and 6.9 inches, respectively, each slightly larger than the previous one. But since these are professional-grade phones, they should be big giving you more space to edit, pan, slide, and scroll through any task or project at hand. I still prefer the smaller iPhone 16 Pro to the Pro Max. And this year, you don’t have to compromise optical zoom by choosing between the Pro and Pro Max. It is 5x optical zoom between the two devices this time.
Apple Intelligence is coming
I know you want to see more of Apple Intelligence in action. I do too, but we are still waiting for it to be launched. I’ve seen some complex design features between the iPhone 16 and 16 Pro lineups. But I didn’t see any generating script, ChatGPT magic, or anything like that. That’s on the way next month.
When we get iPhone 16 review units, we’ll be curious to see if the hot work Apple has done inside the phone translates to the outside. A few people near me in the audience were complaining that their iPhone 15 Pros were too warm to handle after a while. I will also be curious about the Spatial Video that can be captured by the iPhone 16 and if there is a way to translate that content outside of the Vision Pro environment so that it is not limited to the Apple product system.
If you want to be among the first to give the camera a shutter button, you can pre-order the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro later this week. It officially starts on September 20.
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