iPhone 16: a tale of future promises

So Apple's upcoming iPhone 16 series will be introducing the fruit-logo company's flavor of Artificial Intelligence, "cleverly" renamed to Apple Intelligence in this case.

The hot new tech trend of companies one-upping each other with AI is upon us, and we'll all finally get to see Apple's response to it.

Well, that's a lie. You'll get to see it only if you live in the US. If you're in the EU, like I am, you instead get the "pleasure" of paying for a new iPhone without getting arguably its biggest new feature.

That's right, phone enthusiasts, the iPhone 16 launch event date is official – Monday, September 9. Four new successors to the current iPhone models are coming, with a few new upgrades and likely a higher price.

But more notably – that Apple Intelligence… only in the US. So the question is…

Why, oh why would I buy a lesser smartphone for a higher price? Apple isn't the first to put me in this position, to be fair…

As mentioned earlier I live in the European Union, which, if you're a smartphone enthusiast, hasn't been the best place to be. Phones may come out late here, and with less features, yet for the same or an even higher price.

Case and point – the same Samsung phones that get released with Snapdragon processors in the US used to arrive with less powerful Exynos processors here, until recently.

Even in earlier years I remember looking up fun and crazy phones to buy, only to find their EU-slash-international models missing a fingerprint sensor or some other pretty big feature. I'm reminded of the Alcatel Idol 4S in this case, which I mentioned in our "worst phones we've ever used" article from 2020…

iPhone 16 launching with "DLC" like a modern triple-A game, as if those aren't bad enough

To be fair, the European Union has strict privacy policies, and has been on tech giants' tails for a while now. It's all for good reason, and the likes of Apple need to find a way to comply with the EU's regulations, while still delivering on their promised iPhone features.

But marketing Apple Intelligence to high heavens (and believe me, you'll hear a lot about it during the upcoming Apple event too), then not be able to deliver it to anyone, but US users, and not even them in time for the phones' launch, is not a good look. And doesn't set a good precedent.

As an occasional gamer, this ordeal reminds me of a lot of modern triple-A games – they launch in a rushed, unfinished state, get a massive day one patch, and you're expected to wait a year or two until they're finally the finished, complete product that was promised. Cyberpunk 2077 comes to mind.

What else is there about the new iPhones that makes them worth buying? Zzzzz…

Well then, the iPhone 16 will be unveiled in less than two weeks, and besides Apple Intelligence, what else is there that's a convincing selling point?

A new "capture" button for really fast video recording and photo shooting. That's neat, even if some Android phones have done this concept over a decade ago.

The usual ever so slightly larger screens due to smaller bezels, and the usual more powerful processors, which are already overkill for most tasks. Neat, again. At least now the processing power behind those chips will be used for on-device AI. In theory. Some day. Hopefully soon.

The iconic mute switch will now become an "action button" for quickly launching stuff, supposedly. I actually hate that. The mute switch is one of my favorite iPhone features, but evidently Apple has decided that it's time for it to go.

Oh, and now the non-Pro iPhone 16 models will have an outdated-looking pill-shaped camera arrangement, as opposed to the square one all modern iPhones did rock until now. Interesting.

I'm sure Apple has its own great explanation for changing the arrangement, but the cynic in me can't help but feel it's just to differentiate those phones; the cheaper iPhone 16 models from the more expensive Pro ones, so you're more inclined to buy the latter, lest you "look like a peasant." Dirty move, Apple.

If you could see my lack of enthusiasm about these phones right about now…

Honestly, Apple Intelligence sounds great – on-device AI, but come on…

I'm using ChatGPT conversationally all the time. I made a website with it, I use it to help me with code – I love AI. I'm really excited for generative AI in particular, which can create images, and someday could create videos for us out of thin air. As a hobbyist game developer, this would save me a ton of work and money.

And Apple's AI doesn't sound too shabby. It's supposed to do a lot of tasks securely, on-device, meaning on your iPhone as opposed to sending your requests off to a server somewhere to get processed – and that's pretty cool and rare to see, still.

Even cooler is the fact that Apple Intelligence could be free. Or at the very least, only some of its features could require an unsurprising subscription, hopefully for a reasonable price.

I'm all for AI, I just don't want to see it get rushed into Apple's marketing just because it's the "hot new thing" right now, considering it's not actually getting launched anytime soon. Especially if you're in a region Apple may not consider important enough to sort its local legal troubles out, before releasing the new iPhones.

Let's hope Apple Intelligence lives up to the hype, because having us wait for it will only make our expectations grow higher.

But what are your thoughts – are you buying the iPhone 16? Did you find a good reason to do so, and is Apple Intelligence the main one? Let us know in the comments section below!