Day after a new phone arrives = Arsing about with your new phone!!

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So I upgraded my phone from an iPhone 12 Pro (256gb) to an iPhone 16 (none-Pro but still 256Gb) Roughly 4 years between the two devices.

The day was mostly spent testing out the new camera, playing around with apps to ensure they all log-in and such, and also deleting garbage I no longer need on the phone.
.. like Tweetbot which is inexplicably still on the phone, even though Twitter unceremoniously killed that (and all other 3rd Party Twitter apps) off a couple of years ago.


Molly says Hi.. As does Mum!

Took me a while before I figured out how to get proper full-size photos out of it.
You need to go into Camera Settings, Formats, and activate Resolution Control, so that you then have an extra doohickey in the camera app, which when enabled allows you to take full sized pics.
That's a bit .. "not easy", and very un-Apple like, IMHO.
Hmm.
Also, the physical camera button seems to be a little too along. I'd heard that in reviews and such, but figured it'd be "a bit of a stretch" to reach.
It's not.
It's "a heck of a stretch" to reach it, so I've instead been using the regular onscreen camera button for photos.
Bit of a shame, if I'm honest.

Ho-hum.


Woodgrain!!!

So, what's new, and was it worth the upgrade?
I upgraded from an iPhone 12 Pro to an iPhone 16.
The new device has all the capabilities to use Apple Intelligence and has a glorious Macro lens. It's also a ton faster than my 12 was.

In terms of Optimisationalism 4, the iPhone's getting a nice 1.455, which is pretty much identical to my iPad Pro M4 (1.446), and faster than the MacBook Air M2 (2.273)
Cool!
Apparently it can handle "proper" games, too, but who wants those when you can play SpikeDislike in a silky smooth manner!?


Keys and Keys and Keys

I think, in all honesty, most of the advantages that the software+hardware brings, I've already got access to on the MacBook and the iPad. The camera's the biggest improvement that I'll be using on a regular basis. The actual phone and software stuff will likely be used for horrible days like being stuck in A&E all day, or shock-horror, if I ever end up back in hospital again.

It's nice to have access to that sort of technology in the palm of my hand.
Goodness, to think that my phone has more power than my laptop.. Crikey!

Recommended?

It all depends on your current setup.
If you're "Appled Up" like I am, and will be sticking with an iPhone, but have something that's getting a little long in the tooth. Go for it. Nice new camera, nice new tech. Woot!
If you've got an iPhone from the past year or two, though. Maybe not. You're probably already aware of just how long a good iPhone can last, and other than the AI stuff, there's not much need to switch just yet. I'd guess that once the iPhone 17 shows up, the AI stuff will be heavily improved, and maybe get a nice camera upgrade, and .. sure, then it'd be worth it.

For Android users, you probably already know if you want an iPhone or not. And Apple don't exactly make it cheap to take the leap and switch over.

Android?

I did think about it.. And I looked into it.
Me and Mum recently got a Huawei Band 9 each, so the first thing I did was look into their phones. But nothing stood out.
There's the Galaxy S25 Ultra AI which has a 200(!!) Megapixel camera, but whenever I see photos from that, they all look a little bit iffy, like that AI is doing a bit more work than it oughta. It's also more or less 1.7 times what I paid for my iPhone, and I *think* that's more than a little silly for a trial run of a phone, for the sake of a camera.
At that price range, you're actually looking at the cost of a half decent Mirrorless camera.
And then you're heading into the realm of faffing about with true large lenses, and zooms that would put any phone to shame.

And that was pretty much my reasoning for sticking with iPhone. It was more a choice, to me, of "new iPhone, or new Camera" rather than a standard "iPhone vs Android"

If there's any "OMG!" budget-but-outstanding cameraphones that I've missed, please do let me know in the comments or the Discord
I'm not adverse to buying a phone for the sake of it being used as just a camera.

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