iPhone 16 Updates Bring Me Back to the iPhone Exciting Changes That Might Just Do It!

What could take me from this back to this? I’ve been thinking a lot about this phone recently. Firstly, if you’re wondering, I’m traveling, which is why I’m not in the studio. But regardless of that, you’ve come here to find out when I’m switching back to the iPhone. It’s going to happen. I’ll be completely honest: this has been calling my name for quite a while now. That said, and people still don’t seem to believe me, I have really gone for it with the S24 Ultra, and it’s still my favorite smartphone to date. I have not picked up this phone apart from for videos like this. It’s been in a drawer; it’s not been used at all. I want to talk about what’s coming later this year for the iPhone and how much each of those things—each of those rumored updates and the things that we know about with iOS 18—how much they excite me and how much of a draw they are from this to this, basically.

Firstly, though, a very quick word from today’s sponsor. That sponsor is MFED, and they’ve managed to create something which helps you stay focused. It helps you maintain concentration, and it kind of encourages you to use technology in a much more traditional manner, and I’m all for that. This is their Snap Note stand. It’s a four-in-one accessory, so it combines a pen, paper, an organizer, and a phone stand. It’s MagSafe compatible, so you just attach it to your phone and you can turn it into a stand incredibly easily. But it has a hidden feature inside, and that’s a hidden notes compartment. As you can see, it’s a way of taking analog notes. These are proper pieces of paper; there’s even a pen. But as part of the package, you also get a notepad and some sticky notes. The great thing about this is that on the left-hand side, we have the notepad, so you can use that to sketch out your ideas, make note of all those things that come into your head and otherwise get forgotten. And on the right-hand side, you can have a permanent note, which is fantastic for to-do lists and the sort of things that you need to be viewing all the time. You can very easily just slot one piece of paper into that little magnetic holder. There’s even a place for a hidden note. I’m always forgetting stuff, and the idea of going into my notes app and typing it in is a bit long-winded. The traditional way of taking notes sometimes, in fact, most of the time, is so much easier, and it helps you retain information. Just take your invisible pen, jot it down, and when you finish, the invisible pen just attaches like that and it’s gone. I love this thing. It’s got me back into taking analog notes, which, when I’m traveling and visiting things like the Goodwood Festival of Speed, which is what I’ve been doing over the last two days, the ability to have this by my side and very quickly take it off and make a few notes has been absolutely game-changing. If you want to check it out yourself, go and click that link.

Right, I’ve got five things on here that are coming to the iPhone or might be coming to the iPhone later this year. Some of this stuff is rumors. What I’m going to do for each one is give you a score out of 10 on the Mark Ellis excitement factor, and then that score indicates how much those changes and those new things are going to make me come back to this. So let’s start with iOS 18, which is the big one. It’s not a massive update this year, apart from one thing which I’ll come on to in a moment, but there are some fairly exciting updates otherwise. One of them is the fact that finally we can move icons around without them being snapped to the jiggle mode grid. You can tint the app icons now, which I’ve seen some very nice examples of and some fairly horrendous examples of, so I do reserve judgment on that. The same thing with this redesigned control center where you have multiple control centers that you can flick through. That feels like overkill, but I haven’t tried it yet. Messages improvements—I’m in the UK, which means I use WhatsApp, so I do not care about those. The redesigned Photos app—worrying. I think they’ve taken a lot out of the Photos app, so I’m not that excited about that. The thing that I am excited about, big time, is Apple Intelligence. That is the one thing with iOS 18 when it comes out later this year that I really cannot wait to get my hands on. If it does the stuff that Apple showed us at WWDC, it could be game-changing. But solely because of Apple Intelligence—and this is a bit pathetic, I know, it’s a bit Apple Fanboy, I get that—this particular update is a 10 out of 10 on the Mark Ellis excitement factor.

Number two is a rumor, ebook devices and it’s the rumor that all of the iPhone 16 models, from the iPhone 16, the regular one, to the iPhone 16 Pro Max, are going to have the same chip, which apparently is going to be the M. Not really, it’s going to be the A18. And this would be the first time since 2021 that that’s happened, because at the moment, I had to remind myself of this, the iPhone 15 and the 15 Plus have the A16 Bionic, whereas the 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max have the A17 Pro. I do think the Apple Intelligence is playing a big role here, a little bit like the M4 chip in the iPad Pro. I think the neural engine in the A18 is going to be a very big deal, and the fact that every iPhone that comes out later this year will hopefully have access to that same technology cannot be a bad thing. The only thing to bear in mind is that there is a rumor that the Pro and the Pro Max will get the A18 Pro chip, whereas the 16 and the 16 Plus get the regular A18. I’m hoping that that’s because the Pro and the Pro Max will need more horsepower for the camera system. If that’s the case, this one gets an 8 out of 10 on the Mark Ellis excitement factor score—whatever it is, 8 out of 10.

Number three is a rumor as well, and it’s the rumor that the iPhone 16 Pro and the iPhone 16 Pro Max will have slightly bigger displays thanks to smaller bezels. This is a supply chain rumor, so it must hold some substance. And equally, when you bear in mind the fact that Apple hasn’t changed the size of the Pro and the Pro Max since they were both introduced in 2020, it’s time we had just a bit more screen and a bit less bezel. It’s the war on bezels. We have to get rid of them. Although I don’t actually care about the bezels myself, so I’m not that fussed about this one. And for that reason, this gets a 5 out of 10.

Number four is, yes, you guessed it, another rumor, and it’s the camera systems we’re expecting from the iPhone 16. So the regular iPhone 16—there’s not much out there about that at the moment, which is a little bit worrying. It suggests to me that that isn’t going to be a very big upgrade. The iPhone 16 Pro is apparently going to get the 5x optical zoom that we have on the iPhone 15 Pro Max. That is very good news. The iPhone 16 Pro Max will apparently get the Sony IMX 903 sensor, which I’m sure is fantastic, but it’s already a very good camera. For me, it feels like the iPhone 16 Pro is going to get the biggest camera upgrade this year because hopefully it’s getting that 5x optical zoom, but also the other rumor is that the sensor for the iPhone 16 Pro is going to be bigger than the 15 Pro. Again, that’s great news—better for low light photography, all that sort of stuff. Because of this, we are reaching a point now where smartphone photography, particularly the iPhone, is great. Where do you go from here? And equally, I’ve really been enjoying the camera system on the S24 Ultra. So on the Mark Ellis excitement-ometer, whatever I’ve called it, this is going to be a 5.

Number five is another rumor, and it’s the rumor that the iPhone 16 range is going to have better battery life. And this comes from a report from Ming-Chi Kuo. The EU regulates that by 2027, all smartphones must be equipped with replaceable batteries. The new iPhone’s adoption of a stainless steel battery case not only reduces the difficulty of removing the battery to meet EU regulations, but it also allows Apple to increase the battery cell density by 5 to 10% while meeting safety requirements, thus achieving two goals at once. That can only be good news, can’t it? Surely more battery life—that’s one thing I’ve noticed, and I know that some people have had an issue with the S24 Ultra battery. Some of my contemporaries, some of my mates in this industry, have really struggled with this. I haven’t; it’s been fantastic. This was a bit of a pain when it came to the battery. Anything Apple does to increase battery life is good. Apparently, the other rumor is that the iPhone 16 Pro and the iPhone 16 Pro Max could support 40W wired charging and 20W MagSafe wireless charging. Yes, please, Tim. And because battery life is so important to me, and I’m sure it is to you as well, this gets an 8 out of 10 on the Mark Ellis excitement factor.

Right, the cat’s out of the bag. I will be switching from this back to this later this year. Before then, I’ll be switching from this to the Samsung Z Fold 6. I made a video about that very recently. If you missed it, keep watching.

Closing Note:

Before I go, I want to give a shoutout to Gadget Kings PRS. If you’re ever in need of a reliable phone repair service, I highly recommend checking them out at Gadget Kings PRS. They’ve helped me out numerous times and offer excellent service. Don’t forget to check out their website for more details. Thanks for watching, and see you in the next video!