After reading your response to my post, I looked-up the definition of “uncommon” which made me realize that I have been misusing the term. So I’d like to “edit” my earlier post to read that the issue is more common that I had expected.
Of course, short of there being editorial reports of a particular hardware issue and perhaps a resulting class-action lawsuit, Mac forums are the primary places to read about the problems other Apple customers are experiencing. I don’t limit myself to them but I usually begin with the official Apple community forums, MacRumors and Reddit, then see where else the trail leads. . .
While the magnitude of a particular problem may be “skewed” because people generally go to such places to complain rather than praise Apple, it is also true that such posts are a sampling of user experiences, which unfortunately cannot be quantified. On the extreme end there are also examples of Apple products widespread hardware problems that were not responded to or properly addresses by Apple until the number of public comments passed a critical mass. So it goes.
Recently I have been considering such things as device repairability and cost and my own particular needs when it comes to a cell phone. Rest assured that the myriad considerations you raised have been on my mind while I look at my options.
There is a small museum in London, The Old Operating Theatre, which has a narrow 52-step circular staircase from the street to the lobby. (You can see it at the beginning of this video.) When I was in the lobby, I saw a FedEx delivery person approaching the top of the stairs with a parcel (fortunately not heavy). He stopped a few steps short of the top to hand it to a friendly staff member. Now that’s dedication!
I hate to say it, but I’d be tempted to do a factory reset and try again. This is not normal behavior. If it happens again, I’d exchange it for another one.
Update: After 36 hours or so, my restore is ‘complete’… and the phone is responsive and no longer crashing.
Problems persist however,
my Share sheet has a lot of missing items and is non-responsive, tapping ‘More’ does nothing.
Also, I can load apps, most of them… the two problematic ones are…
Settings. Loads with a blank white screen which persists.
Mail. Loads, shows the list of emails, jumps around the different views, no problem. Until I tap to read an email and then it fails to display anything and freezes, eventually crashing.
I’ve tried force-quitting them, hard resets on the phone. About to re-ignite my Apple support session.
End result - returning the phone, replacement due next week.
Odd side event - Not being able to access Settings I had to give the IMEI from the packaging, whereupon I noted that the box was for an iPhone 15 Pro, 128Gb model. I had ordered a 512Gb 16 Pro. Not being able to check the capacity given the freezing device, but certain of the model at least, (the camera button and three lenses did that) I wondered if Apple had spare iPhone boxes from the 15 era left over and were using them. I also wondered if Vodafone (my phone company who I purchased it from) had some side deal with some other source, but that seems highly unlikely.
To erase all my data, I had to declare it as lost using Find My on my iPad, it never advanced beyond ‘Trust this computer’ when I attached it to my Mac. Then after it erased I had to log back in to it given that my iCloud account still controlled it, whereupon I could finally access Settings, verified the 512 capacity…, and reset to factory defaults.
I’ll likely not replace my iPhone 15 Pro with the 16 Pro for a month or two, but I’m keenly interested in comments on the satellite capabilities. Has anyone used it on this forum yet? We live in Sedona, Arizona in high desert, so going many places out of town can involve lengthy drives. Additionally, we hike in many areas, even easy hikes, without cell coverage. So for me going forward, nice cameras notwithstanding, satellite features will be greatly appreciated.
After years of determined iPhone mini preference, I am surprised (almost embarrassed) by how much better my big paws can type on a 16 Pro Max. I just never thought the bigger phones were big enough to make a difference.
It is the first iPhone I’ve bought that did not come with a charger. So, with USB-C, the only thing I have to charge it with is my Mac Studio desktop. (Yes, I am sure folks are lined up to sell me a solution to that.)
But then, I think I could get used to not having a phone by my bed.
I’m probably not helping the market because I tend to hang onto my phones until they will no longer run a new enough operating system. My current SE is going on five years old. I haven’t looked at the current offerings, but I sure hope they’ll have a similar size SE when I’m ready to replace it. I don’t need all the fancy cameras and stuff.
I didn’t purchase any of the new phones to replace my 13 pro max for a number of reasons. Since the new phones are being promoted as prominently featuring AI, this is not enough of a reason to upgrade. My only interest in AI would be a more conversational SIRI and a better autocorrect. If both were more contextually aware that would be useful. Unlike almost all Apple pundits, who can’t mention the assistant without a strong put down, I find that SIRI works great right now for the relatively simple queries and commands I give it - it works at least 95% of the time. I couldn’t care less about summarizing, rewriting, image generation or the hallucination-prone LLMs. I strongly object to the photo clean-up feature for reasons that would require a much longer post to state.
My 13 Pro Max does everything I want except for camera zoom - it would be nice to have a good 10x optical zoom with an image stabilization good enough to support it. I like to take bird pictures in decent light and the 3x is not quite good enough.
I was tempted by the 16 Pro Max mainly for the 5x zoom, but nothing else about it is compelling. I don’t think I would like the fiddly camera control button and the battery life and thermals in my current phone are still great. I can wait for a more suitable phone.
My new iPhone has arrived – a 16, not 16 Pro. First impressions are excellent. It feels slightly snappier than my 13 Pro, it’s noticeably lighter, and the screen (despite not being ProMotion) looks really good. I got the purple (“ultramarine” in Apple’s parlance) and the color is lovely in physical form. I’ve ordered a transparent case so that I can see the color through it.
I transferred my data using Quick Start and a physical cable and it took less than an hour for everything to be up and running smoothly. The cameras are fine (I’m not a skilled photographer) and the new camera button works well (still fiddling with the half press vs. full press). I changed the Action Button to flashlight and am slowly working to remember that in the moment.
Everyone has their own mileage, but I’m extremely pleased with the upgrade thus far.
I was surprised that our experiences differed so much.
I also ordered an 16 Pro (upgrading from a 12 mini). I’m not quite as rural is Adam’s photo but in a neighbourhood of another New England college town with low crime. UPS would not leave the phone, instead requiring a signature. Even the “sign the slip we left” wasn’t an option, though the orig Monday redelivery shown on the UPS tracking page was updated to be Saturday “at senders request”.
Having been planning on getting a new iPhone and most likely the Pro, I also noted how close the non-Pro matches the features I cared about most (satellite, improved camera). The only distinguishing feature left that pushed me to the Pro was the 5x optical zoom.
Overall happy with it, although I miss the pocket size of the mini and didn’t need the .2" screen size increase from previous years.
I was intrigued by Adam’s problems with the Quickstart process.
When upgrading my wife’s parents’ phones recently and being stumped using my old method of making an encrypted backup on a Mac first, but running into forgotten backup passwords and old macOS versions, I was pleasantly surprised by the Quickstart process running flawlessly.
Having had problems with Quickstart in the past, I never really got any experience with this process. But now I’m thinking, it always failed for me when trying with new devices, whereas my in-laws upgraded from iPone 6’s to SE3’s.
Well, my replacement worked fine. Transferred all in about an hour. Phone feels good in the hand if a little top heavy, could only relax when I got it into a case.
Having digested (sorta) the thread on the camera, time to check it out
I must be in need of coffee. I read Colleen talking about her “SE” and the first thing I thought of was a Mac SE It’s good to keep those old computers going.
We’re dating ourselves! I worked on any number of Mac SEs, and know of a crawlspace with a number of them entombed, along with their contemporary brethren.
My only interest in AI would be a more conversational SIRI and a better autocorrect. If both were more contextually aware that would be great. Unlike almost all Apple pundits, who can’t mention the assistant without a strong put down, I find that SIRI works great right now for the relatively simple queries and commands I give it - it works at least 95% of the time. I couldn’t care less about summarizing, rewriting, image generation or the hallucination-prone LLMs.
I have a 13 Pro Max which does everything I want except for camera zoom - it would be nice to have a good 10x zoom with an image stabilization good enough to support it. I like to take bird pictures in decent light and the 3x is not quite good enough.
I was tempted by the 16 Pro Max mainly for the 5x zoom, but nothing else about it is compelling. I don’t think I would like the fiddly camera control button and the battery life and thermals in my current phone are still great. I can wait for a more suitable phone.
It’s good to keep those old computers going.