the iPhone 16 Pro is in a pretty tough spot right now. See, a part of me wants to tell you how much I love this phone because it's a good phone. I love the slightly larger display and the razor-thin bezels. The new 5x telephoto lens is incredible. The new microphones sound insane, and the battery life is finally better. But the other part of me just wants to tell you the truth about the things that have really defined my experience with the iPhone 16 Pro because Apple just isn't telling the full story about this phone, and I feel like somebody has to. For context, I've bought the new iPhone every single year since 2011. I have seen this device grow and change over time, but this year something is different. So, what is it? Well, it's pretty simple. This is the first time Apple has ever released an unfinished iPhone, just straight up. The iPhone 16 Pro isn't done yet, but it's on sale, and you can feel that in a tangible way. So, while a lot of the small parts of

the iPhone 16 Pro feels great. There are two big parts that just don't feel good at all, and they're the two biggest problems and the two biggest features for this generation. The first problem for the iPhone 16 Pro is the new camera control button. Listen, at this point, I have spent over a week trying to enjoy using this feature, and I just keep coming back to the same conclusion every time: it's just not good. The marketing for camera control shows a magical new way to interact with the camera app. It enables you to snap photos and adjust settings with just a click or a swipe. It looked really fun, really fluid, and I could not wait to try it until I actually did, because in reality, camera control is just super clunky. For starters, it's in a bad spot. Your index finger does not naturally rest on it, so you constantly have to remind yourself that it's there, to the point where legitimately I forget that this button is on my phone sometimes. And then when you do use it, the touch sensitivity

doesn't work very well, making it super hard to know what result you're going to get. The swiping feels inconsistent, and it takes way longer to change settings through camera control than by just tapping your screen. Switching between all of your lenses, brightening or darkening the exposure of your photos, or even using any of the new photo styles, it's all just quicker and easier when you don't use camera control and you just touch your screen as you've always been able to. I mean, the physical button is fine, I guess, but the software just feels like an afterthought, and it looks way cooler than it actually is. Camera control doesn't bring any new functionality here, it just makes accessing the same settings a little bit more complicated. And ironically, the one new piece of functionality that Apple has shown off with this button, the ability to lock focus and exposure on your subject by tapping and holding, that's not here yet. That's coming in a software update later this year. Camera control feels like a beta feature we're getting to test early on these phones.

that Apple's like sort of figured out, but not exactly just yet, which is unfortunately a trend that continues with the rest of the iPhone 16 Pro and with the durability of the iPhone 16 Pro also feeling like a beta this year. That's why I partnered up with Rhino Shield, who sponsored today's video. Rhino Shield's cases offer the ultimate protection optimized for iPhone 16 because standard, they all come with 11 ft of drop protection around the edges. They've got these super satisfying and solid clicky buttons, and there's a cutout for the capture button so that when you do want to use it, it's right there. And on their MagSafe cases, they made the connection twice as strong, which I've tested, and you can absolutely feel. Their case lineup this year also has something for everybody. There's the brand new Jelly tint series based off the colors of the lower-end iPhone 16, so it can really make your iPhone 16 Pro pop a bit more. Rhino Shield is also debuting a new printing technology that

they're calling retexture, which adds a layer of printing on top of the case to give your phone a really unique look with a number of different patterns. Or, if you're looking for an even more custom design, Rhino Shield has thousands of different prints available on their website, like this Lakers one that they sent me. And to give this design a paper cut collage sticker-like finish, Rhino Shield has incorporated a special 3D ink that adds texture and depth here. And while the Lakers are my favorite, they also have cases for a ton of other teams like the Bulls, Celtics, or Warriors too. Or for a more classic series, Rhino Shield has their solid two cases, which are durable, easy to install and remove. And if you don't know what style to choose from, you can't go wrong with a classic. So whether you just got an iPhone 16 or you're looking to refresh your old phone, head over to the link down below in the description and use code Apple track to get 10% off your order. A huge thank you to Rhino Shield for sponsoring this one.

Now let's get back to it. Now listen, say what you will about camera control, but at least it's actually a real feature that you can use on your iPhone right now. Because the second big problem for the iPhone 16 Pro are all the new AI Apple intelligence features that aren't actually on the phone yet. Now I knew this would be a big deal for some people, but I didn't expect it to really bother me. Yet when I went to the Apple Store, paying Apple $1,100 for my iPhone 16 Pro, and I took it out of the box and still had this version of Siri, I really think a little part of me died. You have to understand that every single part of Apple's marketing for the iPhone 16 Pro this year has been Apple intelligence, in this new version of Siri specifically. It was the first thing you saw in the reveal videos for the phones this year. It's been an Apple ad showing how useful this new version of Siri is going to be. They went so far as to

recolor the fascia of the flagship Apple Store in America with the rainbow Siri Apple intelligence look as if it's real right now. Not only are they promoting something that you can't use yet, but when it does come out, it's coming in beta. It's not the full finalized version of the feature; it's a beta feature. Is the headline feature for the iPhone, and the kicker is that we're only getting some new intelligence features next month when they launch something that Apple is showing in the fine print of these ads that you won't really see when you just look at the front of a rainbow Apple Store. The actually big features like gen Emoji for creating custom emojis, native chat GPT integration, and the underlying Siri framework that is actually smarter and understands personal context. Apple hasn't yet committed to a release date for any of those features, and by the way, this is confirmed. Siri's ability to see what's on your screen and do something with it isn't coming until later. Siri's ability to perform actions inside of apps.

without you touching your screen isn't coming until later. They've only committed to releasing this set of features in October, starting in the US initially, which means that it's entirely possible that some of these features Apple has promised for the iPhone 16 series could come closer to the launch of iPhone 17 next year than to right now. What this feels like a parody of a video. Is this even real? And it's really tricky that Apple is releasing this new look for Siri without all the other functionality. You see how we're getting into a real slippery slope here. I mean, I'm pretty forgiving, but imagine a normal person sees all this Apple intelligence stuff. They're excited for it. They want to upgrade their phone, and then they take it home, and out of the box, it doesn't have any. And when it does have some of it, well, it doesn't have the other cool stuff that Apple showed off. Listen, here's the bottom line: Apple is better than this. They are the biggest technology company in the entire world, and the fact that they're just not

being straight up about the entire roadmap for Apple intelligence and when these features are coming, and even committing to exact release dates, is somebody who bought the phone already. It doesn't feel great. So where does that leave us with the iPhone 16 Pro? What basically leaves me right where I started, feeling so mixed about this thing, basically that parts of this phone are so great, but they're unfortunately overshadowed by all of this baggage Apple has added. The value proposition isn't clear this year like it usually is, and most importantly, Apple's going to be really testing the trust of their customer base this year. Apple's whole brand, their greatest success, is that people expect a consistent experience, not just on one product but across everything. When you start to fragment out features and release things that feel like a beta, that trust slowly but surely is going to start to erode a little bit. And I'm not saying by any means this is the end of Apple. It's not a stupid video like that. What I'm saying

is that with a product as important as their iPhone, the driver for over half of their revenue, I think they need to be a little bit more careful than how they're acting this year. Because the real overarching issue now is that Apple has to execute on everything they've promised, essentially perfectly, or people are going to get really upset. All of these new features that Apple hasn't released yet have to work exactly as well as Apple showed, or I and I think a lot of other people are going to be really frustrated that not only did we have to wait for it, but then when we got it, it wasn't even good. To be clear, I have full confidence that Apple's going to pull all this stuff off. I'm just saying that I'm glad I'm not in their shoes because that is a lot of pressure and a lot of people to please that already spent money on something. They just want to see the product finished. It's going to be a really interesting story over the next year to see how this

phone develops what features come when, and ultimately how long it takes for this phone to be done. When is the last feature that Apple showed off going to be ready? Right now, we literally have no idea, so let's leave it there for now. I'm on this journey with you. I bought the phone. I'm not returning it. We're all in this together, and let's see how it goes. I've been Sam. I hope you're doing well. Subscribe for more like this in the future. Really appreciate you guys watching all this, and I'll see you in the next one. Bye-bye.

iPhone 16 Pro Has A Problem.

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