Is Apple AI Enough to Justify Upgrading to the iPhone 16?

The iPhone 16 is here. Apple’s Glowtime event on Monday unveiled the newest iPhone model and colors, along with the new Apple Watch Series 10 and black finish for the Watch Ultra 2. As with every other tech event this year, AI, presented here in the form of Apple Intelligence, played a major role in the event.

Of all the tech events I cover during the year, Apple’s are some of my favorites. This time around, I was excited to see the company’s generative AI in action on the iPhone 16. When we got our first look at Apple Intelligence in June at WWDC, the company’s annual developers conference, I praised Apple for taking such a pragmatic approach to AI: cautious, privacy-focused and efficiency-oriented. But I was also heartbroken to learn that I’d have to spend some serious cash for even the possibility of getting my hands on Apple’s AI at launch.

Apple Intelligence, rumored to be released in October as an update to iOS 18, will primarily run on-device, not on a cloud server, though the company said some tasks will have to be sent to Apple’s Private Cloud Compute system. While that means Apple may have a better shot at keeping your information private, it will also require top-of-the-line processing power. For now, the only iPhones that will have enough firepower to run Apple’s AI will be the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max and the new iPhone 16 lineup. 

That’s disappointing for people like me who want to use Apple AI but don’t want to break the bank with an upgrade. A new CNET survey found that a quarter of American smartphone users don’t find AI features helpful. Only 18% of smartphone users cite AI integrations as their motivation to upgrade their devices.

What’s worse for Apple is that the iPhone 16 doesn’t have enough going for it to make it seem like a worthy investment, even with Apple Intelligence. The iPhone 16 has a larger and more battery-efficient display, thinner bezels and upgraded cameras — standard incremental adjustments that don’t give it the oomph it needs to justify the expensive starting price.

And while I do think Apple’s slow start with AI is smart, it also means there isn’t a blockbuster or must-have AI tool that makes me feel like I can’t live without it. Apple’s “visual intelligence” features will let you use your camera and the new capture button to add an event to your calendar, look up a restaurant or identify a dog breed. We’ve also seen there will include a text summary tool, image personalizations and a spelling and grammar checker. These are all nice, but they’re not enough to motivate me to break down Apple’s door to get my hands on Apple Intelligence.

All this feeds into a bigger issue about how new phones are created and released. As my colleague Andrew Lanxon writes, new phone events have gotten boring, and changes to new models are smaller and less impressive. At the same time, some mobile companies are extending their support periods — Samsung extended Android and security updates from five to seven years for its Galaxy S24 devices — meaning you can get more mileage out of older devices. That’s not even mentioning the increasingly steep price tags on premium models. People aren’t buying new phones as often, and mobile AI, at least for this iPhone 16, doesn’t seem like it’s going to be a solution.

While I still think Apple’s overall approach to AI is promising, I don’t think it’s enough to get me to upgrade. Apple’s pragmatic approach is a double-edged sword; it’s playing it safe in a treacherous landscape, but it’s not enough to convince me I can’t live without it.