Downsizing from 13 Pro Max to an iPhone 16e

[Rod]

Some of you may know that while in our second home in Indonesia my hand me down iPhone 13 Pro Max suffered an episode of the so called "White Screen of Death". This terrifying condition renders your phone unusable with a fixed, blank, white screen meaning that you cant even power off the device, much less anything else. Luckily I was able to get it repaired but with no guarantee that it wouldn't occur again. So, I was faced with the inevitable decision that I must replace it while back in Australia because Indonesia does not support Apple as a retail outlet. This means while available from third party retailers Apple devices are outrageously expensive and Apple's warranty may not apply.

So, currently here in Australia I had tossed and turned over the alternatives. A Pro or a Pro Max, an earlier model or the current model, storage size, features and most importantly price. Then just when I was about to give up along came the announcement of the release of the iPhone 16e.

Yes, it was the same size as the iPhone's I'd had (both being iPhone SE models) before my wife gave me her 13 Pro Max but that was an option I had already accepted because of price and availability. Back to a 6.1' screen, well the Pro Max had been nice but it's not as if I watch movies on the thing and it was, well, big and heavy and the single rear camera is still 48 megapixels.

Bottom line, the 16e is current so it's kinda future proofed in that way, it has most of the features of the iPhone 16 except a few that I really don't need like MagSafe and a wide angle camera while being much better technologically than the iPhone SE's had been with it's gorgeous OLED screen, A18 chip, Apple Intelligence features and Apple's new C1 modem.

Most importantly it was cheap, well, cheaper than an iPhone 16 at AU$999.00 minus around AU$500.00 from my iPhone 13 Pro Max as trade in.

 

[MacBiter]

They say that - as a replacement for the SE - it's a good phone but outrageously priced compared to the SE... ("They", not "I" as I haven't researched it in depth).

 

[Jimmysb]

I often look for a replacement phone, not that I NEED one, but I look anyhow, and today I came across the 16e, and compared it to the 16. A number of missing features, but reasonably cheaper, and as you mention being 16, it is (within reason) future proofed, be interesting to see how you get on, especially if you go down that route.

 

[lclev]

From doing some comparisons the 16e looks like a nice option. Yes, it lacks some features but if want a phone that can make calls and text, don't plan to shoot your next movie with it but maybe take some pictures, it would be an excellent choice especially given the price. Now if you don't like the two colors - black or white - that could be a deal breaker.

My 2 cents!
Lisa

 

[Rod]

From doing some comparisons the 16e looks like a nice option. Yes, it lacks some features but if want a phone that can make calls and text, don't plan to shoot your next movie with it but maybe take some pictures, it would be an excellent choice especially given the price. Now if you don't like the two colors - black or white - that could be a deal breaker.

My 2 cents!
Lisa

You can just buy a case for it. Not an apple one though, the colour options (at the moment) are awful. I got a black model so I bought a MagSafe case for mine (takes care of that missing feature) and you'll never guess what colour?



Effectively it's a black case, I would have preferred a red silicon case but not available yet. It's transparent on the back so the Apple logo is quite obvious in some lighting. Either way for $16.00 on Amazon, it will do for now.

 

[Rod]

The other thing I havent mentioned is the screen size, the 13 Pro Max was "big" but it only took me a week to start taking it for granted. Getting used to the 6.1" screen again has taken even less time. Luckily my eyes are much improved since cataract surgery but the screen is very sharp.

 

[lclev]

Nice! I use a wallet case on my iPhone. This has allowed me to not need to carry a purse anymore.
I did get the 16 pro max this last upgrade but I most likely will go back to the smaller screen as the max is heavy. Not sure when that will happen as the iPhone 17 thinness rumors are causing me to have flashbacks to the iPhone 16 "bendgate"

Lisa

 

[IWT]

I have the iPhone 16 Pro Max. My first "Max" iPhone. Yes, as Lisa says, it is a touch heavy, in small part because of the "plastic" protector.

But I do like the bigger screen. I doubt I would go back to a smaller screen.

The other feature for me - perhaps not so important to Rod or Lisa?? - is the Camera. I take a lot of pics and some videos.

Best yet in the iPhone series with a multitude of options. One of my favourite features is the AI-operated "Clean Up".

This allows me to erase unwanted things that appear on the photo, such as my shadow, or poles, walls and so on. Dead easy to use and AI is phenomenal in replacing the "object" with the exact and proper background.







See how AI has removed the poles and replaced the wall with tar macadam continuous with the pavement.

Not bad, eh?

Ian

 

[Rod]

It really is a great feature Ian, while the 16e lacks some camera featuresike the dedicated portrait lens I do still have that one.

 

[lclev]

I am curious as to how that new modem designed by Apple will be. Qualcomm has always been so rock solid. I am hoping Apple has made something equal or better. They definitely did with the M series processors so I can only hope they pulled a repeat.

Lisa

 

[Rod]

Lisa, how might I evaluate the the new C1 modem myself?

 

[MacBiter]

Best yet in the iPhone series with a multitude of options. One of my favourite features is the AI-operated "Clean Up".

This allows me to erase unwanted things that appear on the photo, such as my shadow, or poles, walls and so on. Dead easy to use and AI is phenomenal in replacing the "object" with the exact and proper background.




See how AI has removed the poles and replaced the wall with tar macadam continuous with the pavement.

Not bad, eh?

Ian

Nice! But please don't call it AI - this kind of feature has been in Photoshop for decades.

 

[Rod]

I'm not sure I agree MacBiter. While yes, there were "programs" based on complex algorithms that could do this kind of editing, Photoshop as you say and Android phone apps but I believe Apple's Camera app does use AI for this function.

It really comes down to the difference between traditional computer programs and AI.

I like the cake analogy; To use a cooking analogy, you can ask the computer to bake a cake, but it will only be able to complete the task if you have given the computer the recipe to follow. Regular computing is reliant upon pre-determined instruction, and it will only produce a result if you have told it how to achieve said result.
AI systems are designed to mimic human intelligence. Machines learn, adapt, and make decisions based on data without explicit programming. Using the cake analogy once more, rather than pre-programming a specific cake recipe, you’d feed your AI programme with multiple different cake recipes (this being the raw data). In response to the task ‘bake a cake’, the AI would generate what it thought to be the most appropriate steps to follow based on the recipes in the input data set.

So, in some ways you have less control of the result with AI but you don't have to do much work (or learn how to use Photoshop) making it much faster and, it gets better with use.

 

[IWT]

I agree with Rod. In all the years I have mucked about with trying to improve photos and watching the process becoming easier, the introduction of AI is way beyond the "photoshop experience".

AI is constantly "learning" and improving. The simple example I showed in my Post #8, took a matter of seconds to achieve the change. It wiped out the poles and wall and AI calculated what would it look like without them.

With photoshop or its equivalent, this would be a big job and require skilful handling by me whereas, AI did it in seconds and to perfection.

Ian

 

[Rod]

Another bit of good news; Apple honoured the full amount of my trade in of the 13 Pro Max, $520.00 reducing my total outlay by more than 50%.

 

[lclev]

Lisa, how might I evaluate the the new C1 modem myself?

My thoughts would be how well it holds calls and the clarity of those calls. Remember back when cellphones first became a thing and we all walked around trying to get and hold a signal (can you hear me now?). I imagine others will be posting evaluations online eventually too.

Lisa

 

[lclev]

I agree with Rod. In all the years I have mucked about with trying to improve photos and watching the process becoming easier, the introduction of AI is way beyond the "photoshop experience".

AI is constantly "learning" and improving. The simple example I showed in my Post #8, took a matter of seconds to achieve the change. It wiped out the poles and wall and AI calculated what would it look like without them.

With photoshop or its equivalent, this would be a big job and require skilful handling by me whereas, AI did it in seconds and to perfection.

Ian

Have you tried the latest versions of Photoshop? It now has a feature that lets you indicate what to remove and fills in the background based on content-aware using the contextual tool bar. I have found none of the removal programs do a perfect job but they keep getting closer. It took me about 2 minutes to remove the young man out of the photo with his dad. That included resizing it to make for a smaller file size. I have used my iPhone to do the same thing and it also works well but I find Photoshop will let me be more precise.

- Lisa

 

[Rod]

My thoughts would be how well it holds calls and the clarity of those calls. Remember back when cellphones first became a thing and we all walked around trying to get and hold a signal (can you hear me now?). I imagine others will be posting evaluations online eventually too.

Lisa

Well, it certainly works well here in Melbourne Australia as I would expect, perhaps Bali will be more of a test although there we tend to use WhatsApp on cellular data or WiFi for voice calls, it's cheaper.

 

[Rod]

Well, it certainly works well here in Melbourne Australia as I would expect, perhaps Bali will be more of a test although there we tend to use WhatsApp on cellular data or WiFi for voice calls, it's cheaper.

 

[MacBiter]

I'm not sure I agree MacBiter. While yes, there were "programs" based on complex algorithms that could do this kind of editing, Photoshop as you say and Android phone apps but I believe Apple's Camera app does use AI for this function.

It really comes down to the difference between traditional computer programs and AI.

I like the cake analogy; To use a cooking analogy, you can ask the computer to bake a cake, but it will only be able to complete the task if you have given the computer the recipe to follow. Regular computing is reliant upon pre-determined instruction, and it will only produce a result if you have told it how to achieve said result.
AI systems are designed to mimic human intelligence. Machines learn, adapt, and make decisions based on data without explicit programming. Using the cake analogy once more, rather than pre-programming a specific cake recipe, you’d feed your AI programme with multiple different cake recipes (this being the raw data). In response to the task ‘bake a cake’, the AI would generate what it thought to be the most appropriate steps to follow based on the recipes in the input data set.

So, in some ways you have less control of the result with AI but you don't have to do much work (or learn how to use Photoshop) making it much faster and, it gets better with use.

I was talking specifically about Photoshop. While I agree with the general points you've made (especially about AI 'learning' as it goes), the removal of content in images under the general heading of 'content aware' processing has been present in Photoshop for quite a long time without ever being called "AI". I think Lisa's post and pictures demonstrate this very well - at first Photoshop's content aware fills could be rather patchy, but they've gradually improved; not by the 'content aware' process learning itself but by the improvement of the programming. Which is what I intuit is also the case with Apple's Photo processing.