OPINION: Apple’s Glowtime event focused heavily not only on the iPhone 16 collection and updates to the Apple Watch and AirPods, but software – and Apple Intelligence – in particular.
Announced at WWDC earlier this year, Apple Intelligence is Apple’s long-awaited foray into the world of generative AI, and it looks like it’ll permeate practically every aspect of the iOS experience once iOS 18.1 is released later this year.
From a faster, smarter, on-device Siri experience to new AI-powered features like custom emoji dubbed Genmoji, a smarter Photos app, image generation capabilities, summarising phone calls and emails and even integration with LLMs like ChatGPT, there’s a lot to get excited about where Apple Intelligence is concerned.
However, due to either poor (or purposeful, depending on how sceptical you are) planning on Apple’s part, the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus, despite being just a year old, aren’t powerful enough to run the Apple Intelligence experience.
That’s no doubt an annoyance for iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus users who might feel a little shafted that their year-old iPhones aren’t getting Apple Intelligence, especially when the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max are.
The answer, in Apple’s mind, is to simply buy an iPhone 16. Unlike the iPhone 15 collection, the entire iPhone 16 collection is designed to run Apple intelligence flawlessly thanks to the upgraded A18 and A18 Pro chipsets used in this year’s collection, with a huge boost to NPU performance alongside the regular CPU and GPU gains.
But before you hop, skip and jump to the Apple Store, credit card in hand, there’s something important to note: even if you’ve got an iPhone 16, you still might not get access to Apple Intelligence.
That’s because, despite being the iPhone 16’s headline feature, Apple Intelligence is restricted to US English for now.
Now, that in itself isn’t terrible news. If you’re in the UK, you can simply go into the Settings app and change your language to English (US) ahead of UK English support rolling out later this year.
However, that’s not the case if you reside within the European Union. If you’re interested in the world of AI, you’ll likely already know how seriously the EU courts are taking the rollout of Artificial Intelligence services.
It already put the brakes on Zuckerberg’s Meta AI rolling out to the likes of Facebook, WhatsApp and the Meta Ray-Ban Glasses in the EU, citing data privacy concerns about Meta’s AI training and operating handling large volumes of data that’s potentially GDPR-protected, and it’s a similar story with Apple Intelligence.
Essentially, without Apple being able to guarantee compliance with stringent European data privacy laws, Apple Intelligence is a non-starter in the European Union – for now, anyway – and that means that Apple has implemented a hard block on devices used in the EU, unable to be circumvented by simply changing your iPhone’s language to English (US).
The EU courts giveth, and the EU courts taketh away, I suppose.
The question is, then, is the iPhone 16 really worth it if you live in a region where Apple Intelligence is unavailable? It’s certainly going to be a harder sell where the iPhone 16 or iPhone 16 Plus are concerned.
Yes, there are benefits compared to the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus, including both the Action button and the new Camera Control button. There’s also the A18 chipset that can power AAA games like Resident Evil Village that were previously exclusive to the Pro-level iPhones, but it’s not exactly a huge year-on-year upgrade without Apple Intelligence available.
That really is the reason to pick up one of the regular iPhones, even if you’ve got an iPhone 15.
Harder to dismiss
It’s a bit harder to dismiss the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max as there’s more of a notable hardware upgrade compared to their iPhone 15 counterparts. This includes a boost to screen sizes from 6.1- to 6.3 inches and 6.7- to 6.9 inches respectively, with much slimmer bezels, along with a new 48MP ultrawide with autofocus that doubles up as a macro lens.
The iPhone 16 Pro finally benefits from the upgraded 5x telephoto that was previously exclusive to the top-end Pro Max model, and both models also feature both the Action Button and Capture Control buttons.
There’s also the A18 Pro chipset, which will no doubt be the most powerful in the smartphone market, and Apple claims that the iPhone 16 Pro Max in particular has the best battery life of any iPhone to date. So, even without Apple Intelligence, there’s a lot to appreciate about the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max.
Of course, there’s every possibility that Apple Intelligence will have a wider rollout sooner rather than later, at which point the iPhone 16 could very well be an easy recommendation, but it certainly lacks that killer element for Apple fans residing in the European Union right now.
