iPhone 16 Pro Hands on: It’s Not Brown, It’s Desert Titanium

I spent the last year recapping iPhone 16 rumors, 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 did get a stacked camera system on the back, plus the iPhone 15 Pro’s Action Button. The iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro have a Camera Control button, which lets you flip over the device and pretend it’s a point-and-shoot camera. And yep, the iPhone 16 Pro comes in bronze. It’s not brown like initially reported, and we’re all thrilled about it. Apple calls it “desert titanium,” and indeed, I could see someone in Palm Springs wearing this shade of sun tan. 

I went hands-on with the iPhone 16 Pro in this new color and the iPhone 16 in its new colors, specifically teal and pink. The most significant change to this generation’s lineup is the Camera Control button I mentioned earlier. Considering we’re already talking about the iPhone 17 going buttonless, it’s a curious addition. The “taptic” button is a little confusing to use at first.

iPhone 16 and the Camera Capture button

It was hard getting my hands on the desert titanium iPhone 16 Pro. This was a popular color on the demonstration floor at the Steve Jobs Theater at Apple Park, probably because it just looked expensive. Desert titanium looks like gold from afar, and that’s because of the goldish border around the chassis. That actual backside of the phone is more of the kind of golden beige you’d wear somewhere like Death Valley or the Sahara desert. I didn’t think the color brown could be this game-changing, but there you have it. Apple made history. There’s also black titanium, natural titanium, and white titanium if that’s not your style.

In all sincerity, Apple’s take on the Pro is that it’s so professional at what it does that it’s always dressed for the job, hence the muted backsides, which I’ve seen complained about on Threads and elsewhere as people compared them to the colorful array of the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus. However, the color on the back does not need to be eye-catching when a company sells a phone that starts at $1,000 and claims Hollywood-caliber video recording capabilities.

Speaking of which, the iPhone 16’s new colorways are, in fact, eye-catching. They are vibrant up close and from afar. I’m also digging the new stacked camera array. It looks much more put together than the previous stovetop with just two lenses. The Action Button and Camera Capture button are there, in the same color as the rest of the iPhone 16. This year includes black, white, pink, teal, and ultramarine (blue).

Apple is trying to hone in on the message that its smartphones are the cameras to beat, hence the Camera Capture button. I got to demo it briefly, though it was Apple employees doing the tapping for me. The Camera Capture’s taptic button means it can sense when you soft-press or fully press it. It can also feel your finger slide from left to right to cycle through menu options or zoom. It works exactly how you think it might, and in that split second, it felt just as sensitive as the W/T did back in the Handycam days.

Bigger is better

Another trend I noticed during the Glowtime event is that Apple’s device lineup is getting bigger even as folks yearn 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 professional-level phones, they should be bigger to give you more room to edit, pan, slide, and scroll through whatever work or project is at hand. I still prefer the smaller iPhone 16 Pro to the Pro Max. And this year, you don’t have to compromise on optical zoom by choosing between the Pro and the Pro Max. It’s 5x optical zoom between both devices this time around.

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 sophisticated editing features between the iPhone 16 and 16 Pro lineups. But I didn’t see any generative text, ChatGPT magic, or anything like that. That’s on the way next month.

When we get the iPhone 16 review units in, we’ll be specifically curious to see if the thermal work Apple did inside the phone translates to the outside. A few people around me in the audience were muttering about how their iPhone 15 Pros were too warm to handle after a while. I’ll also be curious about the Spatial Video that the iPhone 16 can take and whether there’s a way to translate that content outside of the Vision Pro environment so that it’s not just limited to Apple’s product lineup.

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