I disagree, there's lots to improve on that "regular users" would notice. I went from an 11 (non pro) to a 15PM, and there's still a few major gripes I'd like to see fixed that haven't been addressed in the 16, but would benefit regular users if improved:

- I wish my phone was easier to unlock when outside in the bright sun and wearing glasses. I often have to take them off or try again, or put in a passcode.

- I'd like the screen to not dim after a few minutes outside in the sun.

- I wish my phone charged faster, especially for moments where I'm like "Oh crap, my uber will be here in 5m and I forgot to charge my phone"

- I wish my safari tabs didn't attempt to reload at the most inopportune times (or ever like my Macbook). This is a very real scenario I run into often when in the subway with no cell/wifi, and is extremely annoying. Better than my 11, but not fixed by any means.

- I wish my OLED screen didn't have visible PWM at low brightness, and strained my eyes. Not everyone is sensitive to this, but some are, and I didn't have this issue with my 11.

These are all regular user stories.

> I wish my safari tabs didn't attempt to reload at the most inopportune times

This is my absolute #1 wish for my phone.

I want to load up 30 news tabs before I hop on the subway and just have them all stay loaded, instead of the most recent 4 staying loaded, while any others refresh (and fail) if I switch back to them.

I absolutely want all of my tabs to have the page state cached in storage whenever I leave them and they're done loading. With the scroll position too, as I'll often be interrupted halfway through reading a long story. I don't want them to be stored ephemerally in memory.

Surely it can't be so impossible to "pickle" the state of the page and then unpickle? I can totally accept it not surviving every app upgrade too. Just let me load up stories on the subway platform and read them all on my underground commute.

The “reading list” feature in safari saves pages for offline viewing.

Should be theoretically possible via swap. Like, my MacBook can have a thousand browser tabs open without reloading any of them, and I'm sure it doesn't all sit in physical RAM. Is your phone low on storage, or are iPhones just less swappy?

I don't think iPhones swap at all.

They just purge the oldest-used app(s) when they need more memory.

Unlike on a Mac, applications don't stay open in the background. With some exceptions for specific authorized background processes.

Right, I know at least 3P apps get the "memory warning" and have specific rules about background execution, but wasn't sure about Safari since it's special.

> I wish my OLED screen didn't have visible PWM at low brightness, and strained my eyes. Not everyone is sensitive to this, but some are, and I didn't have this issue with my 11.

Have you tried playing with Reduce White Point in accessibility options? This plus the Dark Reader plugin for Safari it's a good option for late night reading.

Do you have one of the high wattage charging bricks? I got one from Anker and the speed at which my phone charges is absolutely insane.

> - I thought the notch would be annoying, I don’t even notice it anymore, it’s never been an issue in actual use

I have several apps the notch covers. Arguably that's the app's fault for not upgrading ? Or is it Apple's? Maybe Apple should let apps opt into the notch. For apps that don't opt in they'd get a blank bar at the top. That would at least not have broken so many apps.

> - I was convinced TouchID was better than FaceID but I completely changed my mind. FaceID is just more reliable and convenient, especially if you have sweaty palms

Sucks with face masks.

Sure, but no more than TouchID sucks with gloves or wet fingers...

No longer relevant. Hardly anyone but severely immune compromised people and untreated OCD sufferers(I used to be an extreme case) wear masks now.

Masks are commonplace in some countries such as Japan.

Face ID works fine with face masks. Check that you have the feature enabled. https://support.apple.com/en-us/102452

Face ID does not work fine with face masks. Tons of complaints. Tons of people for which it doesn't work. If it works for you consider yourself lucky.

Not everyone has the same set of use cases that you do. Device storage for example is a big deal for anyone who spends significant time outside of wifi. Buying more cloud storage doesn't help someone without an internet connection. Many people prefer TouchID for various reasons and I'm not sure why we wouldn't believe them just because you happen to like FaceID.

> I was convinced TouchID was better than FaceID but I completely changed my mind. FaceID is just more reliable and convenient, especially if you have sweaty palms

Actually for me it's the opposite, and I see much more failures to unlock with FaceID compared to TouchID. There are many times where I had to hold the phone out in front of me like I'm taking a selfie and look directly at it for the system to work, whereas TouchID works in all kinds of weird positions as long as I'm able to place my finger on the sensor.

Same, I have more failures with FaceID vs TouchID but it's like a 95% vs 99.9% success rate. I don't have sweaty palms though.

The notch is ok, but FaceID is a downgrade, and so is not having a home button or a headphone jack.

Have you tried a phone with Face ID? I can't say that I've ever missed the home button.

Yeah, on an iPhone 12. Once you enable FaceID, the option to require passcode only after X minutes is removed, leaving only "immediately," which makes it a lot more important for FaceID to work reliably. It fails more often than TouchID does, and I can't unlock it without looking at it. Also the new swipe gestures are harder than using the home button; it's like they copied Android.

I gave up and went back to my 6S.

FaceID is not really compatible with Always On Displays. When you glance at a screen it's because you want to take a look at the clock or see if there are any notifications. I don't want my glance to unlock it! At least that's my experience with Galaxy phones and how I use AOD.

Looking at an iPhone unlocks it. You can then read the notifications. You will see that there are notifications but the content is hidden while the phone is locked. It does not go to the Home Screen until you swipe up from the bottom.

iPhones with FaceID and AOD work fine. Your glance doesn't unlock it unless/until you want it to.