Sorry, Apple. AI isn’t enough to make me upgrade to the iPhone 16

Apple unveiled the iPhone 16 and 16 Pro at its Glowtime event this week, and they feature some new buttons, AI features, and colors. Monday also marked the 10th anniversary of the Apple Watch, and we got the new Apple Watch Series 10, a new black finish for the Watch Ultra 2, and a set of new AirPods 4 and AirPod Max. And because it’s a tech event in 2024, we saw how the new devices will be powered by Apple’s AI, Apple Intelligence.

Surprisingly, Apple spent most of its event talking about hardware, not AI. We first heard about Apple Intelligence at the company’s developer conference in June, and got a preview of it through iOS 18 betas. When it was first announced, I praised Apple for its more pragmatic approach to generative AI. Apple’s AI will include a text summarization tool, email integrations, and image personalization, and as we learned this week, the new “visual intelligence” will let you use your camera to scan the world around you for quick information.

But it also broke my heart to learn that I had to spend a lot of money to even have the opportunity to get my hands on Apple’s AI at launch.

Apple Intelligence, rumored to be released as an update to iOS 18 in October, will run primarily on-device rather than on a cloud server, although the company said some tasks will need to be sent to Apple’s Private Cloud Compute system. While that means Apple can better keep your information private, it also requires top-notch processing power. Currently, the only iPhones with enough horsepower to run Apple’s AI are the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max, and the new iPhone 16 lineup.

That’s disappointing for people like me who want to try out Apple AI but don’t want to spend too much money on 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 a motivation for upgrading their devices.

There are certainly other reasons to upgrade to the iPhone 16. The new camera record button makes it easier to access your camera and use new cinematic modes and editing settings. It has the new A18 chip with Apple’s most advanced Neural Engine, which Apple says gives it 30% more gaming performance. (This is also part of what allows the device to run Apple AI.) Plus, you might be yearning for an improved camera and battery life, both of which the 16 promises.

I know that any upgrade to my current iPhone 11 will bring a huge improvement in camera quality, battery life, and processing power. So the question is: do I really need the latest, greatest, most expensive model just to get Apple AI on top of that? The answer, for me at least, is probably no. And for people in similar situations, Apple AI may not be the essential feature Apple is hoping for.

As my colleague Andrew Lanxton pointed out, mobile AI is the next battleground for smartphones. Apple’s slow start to AI might help avoid bigger problems, but it also means there’s no blockbuster or must-have AI tool I can’t live without. There’s no FOMO, partly because the features are a bit boring, and mostly because access to AI is so limited. Apple’s pragmatic approach is a double-edged sword; it plays it safe in a treacherous landscape, but it’s not enough to convince me I can’t live without it.