Baseline funky

This year it's the entry-level iPhone that packs the most appealing combo of price and feature set - here's why, this time, basic is best

Apple’s biggest new iPhone feature of 2024 wasn’t even available when the handsets went on sale.

Apple Intelligence is a suite of AI tools for iOS, initially rolled out in the US and coming to South Africa in December. And it won’t even be complete then, with some extra features due later. It’s easy to update, of course, and is just one of many aspects that we’d normally consider in a review. The problem is that Apple has put so much effort behind associating Apple Intelligence with its 2024 iPhones that it’s a challenge to just forget about it. But, though we’ve had a play with an early version, we have decided not to consider it here – it’s just too early to tell whether it will be a benefit worth buying for.

So what else does Apple’s new iPhone lineup have to offer? The other headline feature is ‘camera control’, essentially a shutter button that also opens the camera app and can be used to tweak zoom levels (or other custom options). This is not just coming to the Pro models (see p26) but is also available on the 6.1in iPhone 16 we’ve tested here, as well as the 6.7in iPhone 16 Plus. As before, the Plus is the same as the base model except for the screen and battery.