I’ve been recapping iPhone 16 rumors for the past year, and today, everything was finally revealed at Apple’s Glowtime Event. Most of the rumors we covered turned out to be true. The iPhone 16 will have a stacked camera system on the back, plus the iPhone 15 Pro’s Action Button. The iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro will have a Camera Control button, which allows you to flip the device over and pretend it’s a point-and-shoot camera. And yes, the iPhone 16 Pro will come in bronze. It’s not brown as initially reported , and we all love it. Apple calls it “desert titanium,” and I can definitely imagine someone in Palm Springs sporting this tan.

I’ve personally tried out the iPhone 16 Pro in this new color and the iPhone 16 in its new colors, namely teal and pink. The most significant change in this generation’s lineup is the Camera Control button I mentioned earlier. Given that we’re already talking about the iPhone 17 being buttonless, this is an odd addition. The “taptic” button is a bit confusing to use at first.

iPhone 16 and the camera record button

Getting your hands on the desert titanium iPhone 16 Pro was a struggle. This was a popular color on the demo floor at the Steve Jobs Theater in Apple Park, probably because it just looked expensive. Desert titanium looks gold from a distance, and that’s thanks to the gold-ish band around the case. The actual back of the phone is more of a golden beige you’d wear somewhere like Death Valley or the Sahara Desert. I didn’t think the color brown would have such a game-changing effect, but there you have it. Apple made history. There’s also black titanium, natural titanium, and white titanium if that’s not your style.

Frankly, Apple thinks the Pro is so professional at what it does that it always looks good. Hence the understated back, which I’ve complained about on Threads and elsewhere as people compare it to the colorful iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus. However, The color on the back doesn’t have to be flashy when a company sells a phone that starts at $1,000 and claims to have Hollywood-level video recording capabilities.

Speaking of which, the new colors of the iPhone 16 are actually striking. They’re vibrant up close and from far away. I also love the new stacked camera array. It looks much better than the previous hotplate with only two lenses. The action button and camera capture button are there, in the same color as the rest of the iPhone 16. This year, there are black, white, pink, teal, and ultramarine (blue).

Apple is trying to get the message across that its smartphones the cameras to beat, hence the Camera Capture button. I got to demo it briefly, although it was Apple employees doing the tapping for me. The Camera Capture taptic button means it can sense when you’re pressing it gently or fully. It can also sense your finger sliding left and right to scroll through menu options or zoom. It works exactly as you’d expect, and in that split second it felt as sensitive as the W/T back in the Handycam days.

Bigger is better

Another trend I noticed during the Glowtime event is that Apple’s lineup of devices is getting bigger and bigger, while people desire for smaller phones. The iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max are 6.3 and 6.9 inches respectively, each a few points larger than before. But since these are pro-level phones, they should bigger to give you more room to edit, pan, slide, and scroll through whatever work or project you have. I still prefer the smaller iPhone 16 Pro over the Pro Max . And this year, you don’t have to compromise on optical zoom by choosing between the Pro and Pro Max. It’s 5x optical zoom this time around between the two devices.

Apple Intelligence is coming

I know you want to see more of Apple Intelligence in action. I do too, but we’re still waiting for it to roll out. I saw more advanced editing features between the iPhone 16 and 16 Pro series. But I didn’t see generative text, ChatGPT magic, or anything like that. That’s coming next month.

When we get iPhone 16 review units in, we’ll be especially interested to see if the thermal work Apple has done inside the phone will translate outside the phone. A few people in the audience around me muttered that their iPhone 15 Pros got too hot to handle after a while. I’m also curious to see what Spatial Video the iPhone 16 can shoot and whether there’s a way to translate that content outside of the Vision Pro environment so it’s not limited to just Apple’s product line.

If you want to be among the first to sport a Camera Capture button, you can pre-order the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro later this week, when it officially launches on September 20.