iPhone 16 pro camera features: any benefits for blind users?

I love the enovations in the area of accessibility Apple is doing, and lot of these features are indeed industry first in a smart-phone formfactor, in real life, I hardly ever use them.
Take lidar senser for example, there's that app which kind of behaves like a smart-cane, vibrating as the objects in front of senser get closer, it's not practically implemented to use in day to day life.
The detection mode is indeed useful, and I've even assigned a gesture to open it. Apart from it's text and image description features, the rest, such as point and speak, door detection aren't that frequently used in real life. Cause may be it's just not practical enough to wip out a phone, activate a function, and start pointing it in direction you want to navigate, while also hold cane and walking.

I'm also considering upgrading to the iPhone 16. I've read all about the Pro, and I can't name one Pro feature that I would need. It's my understanding that point and speak, door detection, live recognition, etc., will all work on the iPhone 16.

The Pro has a better processor. I doubt I would notice a difference in typical use. That being said, the Pro processor might be a good investment if I planned to keep the phone for several years, well into Apple's promised future AI improvements.

The Pro has a better camera. Apps designed for blind users work fine with my plain iPhone 15 camera, so I don't need a new camera.

The screen on the Pro is biger, but, well, I'm blind, so why pay more money for that?

The Pro has some slick video editing features, but, again, the blind thing.

Finally, the Pro has this amazing ability to isolate voices. The demo with the guitar didn't impress me, but the idea of isolating a speaker spatially sounds like it might have potential to be useful. But there are no blind apps that could take advantage of that today, and I'm reluctant to pay more money for a potential app that no one has even announced.

I haven't placed my order yet, but those are my thoughts, and if I ordered it today, I'd get the plain iPhone 16 with 256GB.

First of all, i'm so glad to have Applevis back up and running. It's fantastic that be My Eyes agreed to do this.
I've also been wondering about this.\I currently have and iPhone SE 3, and was thinking about upgrading to the 15 pro because of the liDAR functions for finding objects and reading text, although i'm not really sure how muc of this is actually necissary.
So, 15 or 16 pro?
I don't even know what i would use the dedicated camera swich for...
Has anyone had experience with the supposedly better (Studio quality) mics o the iPhone 16 pro? i'm a musician and I teach every day, majority of it online and was thinking about the use cases when I don't always hav access to my XLR mics and auio interface...
Thanks guys.
Regards:
Melissa.

The AI stuff alone has me upgrading to the pro max from the 13. Then again, I'm not very smart and am the most "ooh shiny" person you'll ever come across.
I'm pretty confident in the pro max. Seems the best bang for my buck and I'm getting a Siri that's not so unforgiveably dumb.

I too have a SE3, and while I can see how easily it is for folks to be overwhelmed with all the hype over Apple Intelligence, I find myself in no hurry to upgrade right now. My eyes are set on the new SE4 rumored to be out in the next few months, if not sooner.

This will be my 3rd SE model iPhone once SE4 is released. I guess I have a soft spot for the underdog. 😇

There is no real benefit for blind users. Save yourself money. Get an SE for. It is more than enough camera, and it will also support Apple Intelligence.,

I'd say no. I agree with others. Wait until next spring and get the SE4. It won't have the camera capture button, I don't think, and possibly not the action button but, I never use the action button my 15 pro, and I don't think anyone else does. It kinda feels they are now flinging the dregs at the wall to see what sticks. I personally think they should move to the same release rotor as iPad. Release when they have something interesting to release... But doubt Tim Apple will listen to me.

The SE4 sounds, as much as it is possible, to be the perfect phone for us. All the brains, but none of the flash we can't use anyway such as 120 refresh, the camera button, fancy cameras etc. I do think it will be a little more expensive than the SE3 due to inflation, £549/599, but that still saves you £200 on the standard, I think. It's what I'll be suggesting to my folks, if I can pry open their rusted shut wallets. I think the SE is a very good product to stick with both on features and refresh. I, even though I have a 15 pro, might jump on the SE train... Maybe... Probably not... Of course not! I like new and shiny!!

I’ll hunt the article down in the morning but current rumors from Mark Gurman has said there will be an action button.

If it says anything I'm thinking of downgrading from my 15 pro max to the SE4. it looks like an awesome phone.

I know what you mean but, I think the 15 pro will remain a better phone than the SE4 and, by the time we sell and purchase the SE4, I don't know if it's a good option.

It will be interesting to see where they cut costs then. I assume the camera array, but if it can use apple AI, it's going to have parity with iPhone 15 pro at least with 8 gb ram and a more modern chip. Maybe it will be lower quality materials, less dust resistance, maybe even without magsafe?... There is going to have to be enough of a differential for it not to eat into 16 sales. All interesting though.

I think it will be in the camera which won't make a lot of difference. if that is the only difference the camera and Lidar I'm fine with it.

The latest reportedly states the SE4 will have the backing of an iPhone 16, front of an iPhone 14, and a single 48 megapixel wide camera in the back. Not sure of the FaceTime camera in the front. It will also have an OLED display, action button, and Apple Intelligence. Will also reportedly have Apple's new 5G modem, as they are veering away from qualcom.

Oh, and of course USB-C as well. 🙄

I've heard that as well. it is going to be an awesome phone.

I wonder how they are going to price it then. Sounds suspiciously close to the 16. Maybe it will come in at £699, iPhone 16 at £799 and so on. They won't spec it almost the same and charge considerably less as it would cannibalise 16 sales... Which kinda defeats the object of the SE. The old game plan was make old tech new, but if they're not using old tech... I wonder.

I'm upgrading from the 14 pro 512 gig to the 16 pro 1,024 gig model. The reasons: More storage. faster processor. AI features. Major camera improvement. Going to a 48 megapixel camera system should result in better recognition for our apps, and, yes, I am beginning to take pictures as a totally blind user. I have already downloaded the new operating system on my 14 pro, and I think the performance will improve using the 16 pro. Also, the 16 pro will provide better sound, which all blind people can appreciate. For those waiting for the new S E, keep in mind that the home button will not be a feature. Face ID will be used, unfortunately. I wish that both security features were used, as I still liked the fingerprint method better.

Considering that the iPhone SE3 is still 429 USD, seems that the price would jump up to 500 USD for said SE4.

It'd be strange if they priced it at 450 USD...

Higher resolution of the camera does not automatically lead to better recognition. AI models, for example, resize images before processing (at least the OpenAI models do, but I believe that is true for others as well). The OpenAI models have a max resolution of 2048*2048 so approx. 4 MP. If this resizing also is made with other features like those built into the phone or OCR in other apps I don't know. Also, I wonder how much difference in accuracy 24 (or even 12) MP and 48 MP really amounts to. Does anyone know if this has been investigated? 12 MP is already a high resolution, 50% more pixels than 4K.
Anyway, if you have a better camera and save the images, when AI models and so on hopefully will be able to take advantage of higher resolutions you have good originals, so it is not a bad thing, just be aware that you may not benefit from it right now.

Thank you for the info on resolution, blindpk. I am going to point to the above post from this moment on, whenever someone tells me how weak my SE3 camera is. 😃

The only thing that interests me about the iPhone 16 Pro camera button is if you press down and hold, it can apparently tell you descriptions of certain things, like a restaurant opening or closing hours or a type of a dog. I feel that would be pretty beneficial for blind users, but we have apps like seeing AI and be my eyes who can do that, so I'm not sure.

You can just use Live Recognition, the default gesture is a 4 finger triple tap. Of course you can change the gesture to something a little more convenient, like a double tap on the back of your device.

I have an iPhone XS Max, so not too sure how well it would work

I wonder if that name is even going to stick with people.

Most likely not...

Glad it's on the normal 16 models though...

Yes, I think that was the one I was talking about. Maybe not, not sure.

Either than that I see absolutely no reason to upgrade to the iPhone 16 series, unless you're really into that AI stuff, which I'm not, really into all of that AI stuff, despite me using ChatGPT basically every day

I highly doubt a phone which is so close to function as the iPhone 16 will be $500. They will have to make the SE4 significantly less featured or, price it more expensively. I wonder how much the new fusion camera systems are in teh build. That might be where they save... If so, great for us.

Probably the wrong place to put it but, digging into the reason why it's only the 16 pro that can do multi track recording in voice memos, it's because when audio is playing half of the mics are switched off. We can do this to some extent with video on older phones but the audio drops to mono. I think the mic that switches off, is actually being used to record the ambient sound for processing hence, to have stereo recording whilst the speakers are puting out sound, two of the four mics have to be used.