Apple's September 2024 event: The iPhone 16 launches
Apple held its annual fall event yesterday. Titled “It’s Glowtime,” the event featured the launch of the iPhone 16, as well as some other updates to Apple’s mobile hardware. And, of course, there’s the almost-unavoidable AI, or “Apple Intelligence” as Apple’s calling their flavor of such. Some of the news wasn’t a surprise, as Apple announced some of it back in June.
While most of the announcements were incremental updates (or tied to AI), there was some news that interested me, which I’ll discuss below.
The iPhone 16 line launches
As usual, the newest iPhone model, iPhone 16, launched. Among the new features:
The Pro and Pro Max models come with larger screens: 6.3 inches on the Pro and 6.9 inches on the Pro Max. (The base models are 6.1 inches for the iPhone 16 and 6.7 inches for the Plus.)
A new button’s been added to control the iPhone's cameras.
An A18 processor.
The newest version of iOS, iOS 18.
Colors available for the 16 and 16 Plus include black, white, pink, teal, and ultramarine. The 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max models come in black titanium, white titanium, desert titanium, and natural titanium. One guess what they're actually emphasizing in the Pro line.
As I noted last year, it’s pretty incremental updates at this point for smartphones, though that’s not a bad thing. It means your phone will last a lot longer, especially with Apple’s lengthy support.
The new low end iPhones: the iPhone 14 and the 2022 iPhone SE
Meanwhile, Apple’s dropped the iPhone 13 from its lineup. The officially offered models are the 2022 iPhone SE, the iPhone 14, the iPhone 15, and the iPhone 16.
The iPhone SE is looking even more like the odd man out. It’s the only iPhone left with a physical touch button on the front, and its design is getting long in the tooth. Its 4.7 inch screen is small by today’s standards, and the phone’s body is the same chassis as the iPhone 8, which came out back in 2017. The screen size is one reason I didn’t go with a newer iPhone SE when I bought a new phone a year ago; I went with a Samsung Galaxy A54 instead.
That said, it's rumored a new version of the SE is supposedly due to come out next spring. According to MacRumors, it’ll be based on the iPhone 14, thus giving Apple’s lowest-end phone 2020s-era features (a larger screen, etc.). That said, I know there’s people who like smaller phones, so not having a smaller-sized iPhone model might be off-putting.
The keynote itself
Here’s a link to the full keynote (over an hour and a half long), as well as The Verge’s edited version that’s 16 minutes long.