I upgraded from an iPhone 8 to the iPhone 16 because Verizon offered a great trade-in deal, so it cost me less than any other phone would have. I am not happy with the decision I made.

The 8 was the last generation of iPhone with a physical "home" button, and I miss it. Having to rely on touchscreen interaction makes the 16 relatively sluggish and stubborn. To be brief: it simply doesn't always do what you want.

The camera lenses are enormous, and they protrude from the body of the phone by about the thickness of a quarter. This means that if you set the phone down, you can either lay it down face-first (and risk scratching the screen) or set it down so it rests on the camera lenses. This means that every time you set it down, you're looking for a soft surface to rest it on.

"Just get a case!" Right, because I want the phone to double in weight and thickness and make it even harder to get in and out of my pockets. (Ultimately I have no choice here. I will have to get a case. Which raises the question: why design the phone this way?)

Apple is very proud that the iPhone screen goes all the way to the edge of the phone. Why is this helpful?? It just means that you are more likely to accidentally activate the screen, or something on the screen, when you pick up the phone.

And that brings me to the buttons. The edge of the phone is *lined* with sensitive buttons, like the idiot camera button which they positioned exactly where the heel of your right hand will hit. This makes it very, very difficult to pick up or use the phone without accidentally triggering a function you don't need. I've accidentally opened the camera app while texting many, many times.

Apple is also very proud of the camera in this phone. They should not be. The official reviewers are lying to you: the iPhone 16 camera is no better than the iPhone camera from ten years ago. All they've done is added a pile of broken, janky features that do not work as promised.

The phone OS experience overall is very frustrating. They really, really want this thing to be making decisions for you, and it just isn't any good at any of that.

I am, of course, stuck now in this Verizon contract, so I'll have to try to get comfortable with this thing. But I absolutely hate it, and if I could afford to ditch it and start over, I would.

If you are coming from an old iPhone model, this is a solid upgrade. I have come from an iPhone X. So for about £200 less than I paid for that, I've gotten a slightly bigger screen, all the modern internal changes you'd expect for a new device and my favourite of all: the significantly better battery life!

The downsides? Apple Intelligence is pathetic. I have found it to be a niche feature that I just don't use.
Unfortunately the other big update to this year's model is the camera control button. It's just not very good. It has additional functionality but unless you really want a phone that focuses more heavily on camera features, it's just not that useful. If you are, I recommend you look at the iPhone 16 Pro line.
But for me, it takes pictures randomly when I take my phone out of my pocket due to its placement. Like, it really is just not very good.

Alright what else is there? Oh colours! The new colours are very vibrant! I went for the Teal model and I like it a lot and the storage options is also more flexible for me too (my last came in only 64Gb or 256GB).

So in short, it's a solid phone upgrade if you need to make it. The battery improvements are great. But if you want some of these new features like AI, I'd say skip the iPhone 16 and wait a year.

I didn’t want to upgrade quite yet, but my 13 was already on its last legs when the screen cracked from a fall. So I did some research and the baseline 16 seems to be the way to go at the moment. Some immediate observations: the camera is so much nicer. The pictures are clearer, the zoom is way better, and the operations are all much snappier. Taking a portrait shot went from a missed opportunity to a terrific photo. The action button is a nice tough, I locked that as a flashlight - I lost the physical button silent mode option, but I rarely used that anyways. Face ID also seems quicker, too. Less of an upgrade, the Dynamic Island is fine, nothing too exciting there. The camera button as a “click to open camera” is definitely nice, but the placement is awkward for landscape shots, and I would never use the haptic editing options - too cumbersome. It’s hard to rate battery, as my old phone really diminished over time. This one is obviously better… for now. Overall, a very worthy upgrade, with some minor touches still needing fine-tuning.

Excellent iPhone. Very happy with. I upgraded from an IPhone 8 Plus which had lasted for some years but felt it good to update. The colour is beautiful. Going into this new iPhone 16 was very different to the 8 Plus but I really like this now. I use the dark mode and so have many colours of contrast on phone and Facebook as emails. This not only makes it more interesting as it is great to see all the colours but easier to read when not young lol. Whilst the iPhone 16 is a little smaller than the Pro or Plus as is so for all phones, I am very pleased with this new iPhone 16 I had been feeling a bit left behind. I also have a lovely wallet case in case this is dropped. Again not had a wallet case for iPhone before but I am pleased with this as well. I’m told the photos seem brighter from someone who does not have this phone, so always good especially if a selfie.