Excellent New Mold, Thinner yet, feels so much better, like a solid piece of metal without the wait. Everything is better, faster, stronger, the Superman of cellphones! Been a loyal AT&T customer for as long as we’ve have cellphones and loyal iPhone customer since Apple has joined the game and both stayed far ahead of all. We used to constantly get dropped calls and super expensive “roaming fees” for leaving your calling area but, sometimes that would merely be going 2 blocks away and literally getting charged for using the cell service from the next State over yet, AT&T was known for keeping your calls connected and never “roaming” making then #1 always as well as improving service again and again. The thing is, Cell Service is only as good as your cellphone and having an iPhone was a game changer, nothing ever compared and as it seems, nothing ever will. Just received my new iPhone 16 Pro Max 1TB, bought online from AT&T and delivered a full 14 days earlier that the delivery date promised, one of those super rare surprises nowadays and what a welcome surprise it was. I have had it for 3 full days now and haven’t stopped playing with it and I love it already. Gone are the days of going to the local cellphone stores, AT&T store or Apple store, wait in line or go up to a screen just to get a number only to have to wait for someone to setup your new phone as it was supposedly “Too Complicated” for anyone to do by themselves and say “Hello” to the easiest ever “Setup At Home”!!! So ridiculously easy as all you do is answer a few questions on your phone and choose between the “iCloud” or “Copy(Clone)” of you data to your new phone and once you pick your choice, everything is done automatically so, you can go on to do work, watch TV whatever you want as you are now free to do whatever you want while everything is being done for you and there’s a timer on the phone letting you know time remaining until finished. I choose to copy my old iPhone to the New iPhone 16 and when finished, it was the perfect clone, everything down to the APPS location on my screen were identical, phone numbers, all files and everything exactly where it should be making it a pleasure to jump right into using my phone was awesome. Now for the good stuff as I am completely enjoying myself while taking my time to learn all that is new and added.
I really really like the feel of this new phone and as far as all the new stuff, you don’t need to learn anything to get back to where you were with you older model as it’s all where you like it but, being the guy that I am or the “Average Dude”, this is my latest and greatest New Toy so, learning all the new upgrades, additions and things I didn’t know about has been a blast learning and playing with and I will take my time to enjoy it all.
This is Absolutely The Best Phone out there, in my opinion, I have tried others yet, I always come back to the iPhone as it seems to be the one phone that has it all and I just haven’t found anything else that comes close at any price. I can’t see anyone being disappointed by this latest and greatest iPhone from Apple and I can see all that purchase the iPhone 16, loving it as it is truly that good. Five Stars ⭐ ⭐⭐⭐⭐ and 😊😊😊😊😊!!!

I agree with these key features.

STUNNING TITANIUM DESIGNiPhone 16 Pro Max has a strong and light titanium design with a larger 6.9-inch Super Retina XDR display. Its remarkably durable with the latest-generation Ceramic Shield material that's 2x tougher than any smartphone glass.

BUILT FOR APPLE INTELLIGENCE Apple Intelligence is the personal intelligence system that helps you write, express yourself, and get things done effortlessly. With groundbreaking privacy protections, it gives you peace of mind that no one else can access your data. Coming fall 2024.

TAKE TOTAL CAMERA CONTROL Camera Control gives you an easier way to quickly access camera tools, like zoom or depth of field, so you can take the perfect shot in record time.

MAGNIFICENT SHOTS Take your videos to a whole new level with 4K 120 fps Dolby Vision, enabled by the 48MP Fusion camera. The improved 48MP Ultra Wide camera lets you capture mesmerizing detail in macro photos and wide-angle shots.

PHOTOGRAPHIC STYLES The latest-generation Photographic Styles give you greater creative flexibility, so you can make every photo even more you. And thanks to advances in the image pipeline, you can now reverse any style, any time.

THE POWER OF A18 PROA18 Pro chip enables Apple Intelligence with a faster Neural Engine, improved CPU and GPU, and a big jump in memory bandwidth. It also drives advanced video and photo features and powers AAA gaming.

A HUGE LEAP IN BATTERY LIFEiPhone 16 Pro Max delivers an incredibly power-efficient performance with up to 33 hours video playback. Charge via USB-C or snap on a MagSafe charger for faster wireless charging.

CUSTOMIZE YOUR IPHONE With iOS 18 you can tint your Home Screen icons with any color. Find your favorite shots faster in the redesigned Photos app. And add playful, animated effects to any word, phrase, or emoji in iMessage.

SATELLITE CONNECTIVITY If you don't have cell service or Wi-Fi, iPhone can connect to a satellite so you can send and receive messages and Tapbacks.6 In a severe car crash, iPhone can connect to emergency services when you can't.

PROS:
The iPhone 16 Pro Max (1TB) is slightly larger physically than my prior phone (iPhone 12 Pro Max 512Gb). The built-in audio is amazing - as a musician and audio geek this is a huge bonus. The mute/unmute switch has been replaced by an assignable button, which is mostly a great feature. It is definitely easier to access with the phone in a case than the old switch was. The screen has better specs than my old phone but I don't see much of a difference. There may be a slightly better contrast or sharpness than before. I was initially concerned about the USB-C plug but it's been a lot easier to find USB-C accessories than any of the other proprietary Apple connectors. There are three cameras on the back of the phone with a slightly better digital zoom option than before. The front-facing camera has better resolution and color than previous models.

CONS:
With the case on it no longer slides into my t-shirt pocket while I'm working (a slight nuisance). The AI features are even worse than how autocorrect/predictive text has become over the past four years, but most of those features can be turned off so not to be cumbersome stumbling blocks to my personal communication style, organizational strategies, or shopping habits. The assignable mute button takes some getting used to - it's in the place formerly occupied by the "volume up" button (with the volume buttons moved down), so habitual volume adjust bent for certain tasks and apps often results in me muting the phone instead of increasing the volume. The battery is advertised to last much longer than my prior phone (and was the primary reason for my upgrade) but it lasts me about 15 hours before it needs to be charged again. As with prior iPhones, Apple does not sell the charging block with the phone; you receive the iPhone and one USB-C to USB-C cable. Despite three cameras, the strongest zoom camera produces grainy images. It does magnify the image considerably (I got some good moon photos), but the resulting quality is splotchy. Under better light the images look better, though.

Aside from less-than-expected battery life, my only other more serious concern is that this new and unburdened 1Tb iPhone seems a lot slower than my maxed out storage 512Gb iPhone. Internet connection is slower (and sometimes does not connect) and some apps hang a little. I don't think this is the carrier (the same issues occur on wifi), and some apps seem to be working better today than last week. During the initial transfer/set up of the phone (which took almost two, uninterrupted days!) I did learn that the phone will be slower while it's updating, some apps weren't updated to work best with the latest iOS, etc ... but the sluggishness has continued. After having this phone over a week, I'm still struggling to manually download hundreds of apps that did not automatically download during the iPhone transfer.

Apple makes superb hardware that just gets better and better. The marketing team ran a bit wild with naming this year’s colors. I expected Desert Titanium to be a bit darker tone, but it’s just gold. Take note if you’re considering it.

Apple’s software sometimes takes longer to catch up with the hardware, as is the case with iOS 18 which premiered with the iPhone 16. It’s not just that Apple Intelligence isn’t here yet, although given the hype you’d think every one is loving it already. iOS itself feels a bit unstable, with lags and core app crashes and freezes. The accompanying WatchOS 11 release had a serious energy consumption issue related to the new Live Activities feature that drained the watch battery in about 9 hours. The watch issue is addressed with the 18.0.1/11.0.1 update and a unpair/pair cycle. iOS now feels a bit more stable, but I’m desperately awaiting the fix for transparency mode Headphone Accommodations turning off randomly with my AirPods Pro 2’s.

Two of the headline s/w features of this release cycle - Apple Intelligence and AirPods as Hearing Aids, are still off in the distance. I’m sure they will arrive in the first half of next year, but I now have concerns about their stability given my experience with the dot-oh release. I’ll probably hold off for one or two updates past their initial release, or at least wait until favorable reports on their stability come in before committing.

In general, I’m very happy with my new iPhone 16 Pro Max, but a bit disappointed with the maturity of the software release. Looking forward, I expect the software will improve and the new features will arrive. I’d just really like the transparency mode fix a bit sooner, please.