iPhone 16 Pro Max: One Week Camera Review

Apple’s iPhone 16 Pro Camera: Revolutionary or Just a Button Short of Amazing?

So, Apple’s out with the shiny new iPhone 16, and everyone’s buzzing about the camera, right? They slapped a fancy new “Camera Control” button on the side, which sounds great until you realize it’s like trying to tap dance with your pinky finger.

The big deal is supposed to be snapping photos faster, but this button, especially on the jumbo-sized Pro Max, is so awkwardly placed you’d think Apple hired a T-Rex to design it. Seriously, who takes photos holding their phone like they’re playing a trombone?

Now, don’t get me wrong, the camera itself is no slouch. They’ve upgraded the Ultra Wide lens to 48 megapixels, which is basically like giving your Instagram feed a shot of steroids. It uses this fancy “pixel binning” trick to give you more detail, even in low light. Think of it as the camera equivalent of one of those magic shrinking rays, only instead of making things smaller, it makes your photos look better.

They also made the 5x optical zoom available on both the Pro and the Pro Max, which is nice for those times when you want to take a picture of your neighbor’s cat without actually having to, you know, go near your neighbor’s cat.

But here’s the thing: the main camera? Pretty much the same as last year’s. And those “Photographic Styles” they’re touting? Just a bunch of filters with a fancy name.

The video features are pretty cool, though. You can shoot in 4K at 120 frames per second, which is like filming in super slow motion. Plus, there’s this “Audio Mix” thingy that lets you tweak the sound, which is great if you’re trying to drown out the sound of your kids screaming in the background.

Look, the iPhone 16 Pro camera is definitely good. It’s just a shame that this control button thing is kind of a swing and a miss. They were so close to a home run, but they tripped over their own shoelaces at the last minute.

Stay tuned, folks, because next week we’re gonna pit this camera against some other big-shot smartphone cameras and see who comes out on top. It’s gonna be like the smartphone camera Hunger Games, only without the, you know, actual hunger. Or the games. Or the violence. You get the idea.