KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 19 — It's been a long time coming but yes, Malaysians, that annoying person you know (we all know that one person) will no longer be complaining about the iPhones being "late” coming in.

The latest iPhones will officially be on sale in Malaysia on September 20 (tomorrow) and I got to try the iPhone 16 and the iPhone 16 Pro Max in the ‘hot’ launch shades.

iPhone 16 up close

The iPhone 16 range has some pleasing colour choices this time around with Google ads immediately showing me the pink model so I suppose that's going to be a hot favourite.

Your choices are black, white, aquamarine, teal and yes, pink. I'm more a fan of colours on the blue-green spectrum so I did appreciate Apple's take on it, but this spicier pink shade while a bit late to the Barbie party looks set to be a crowd pleaser.

I don't have last year's rosy pink to compare it to but I do have the iPhone 13 in pink and while that one has a nice subdued pastel charm, this is a strong, accent colour pink.

The new pink is Apple's boldest shade to date even when compared to Apple's past (Product) Red series and the bright yellow iPhone XR.

in-hand I would say it feels as comfortable as the previous consumer-grade iPhones to hold but on the back it's another story.

You get the sensors being placed vertically, one on top of the other, which is a departure from the last few years of base range iPhones.

Aesthetically it's pleasing but of course, it's more about what the cameras can do.

Speaking of the camera, the camera button seems silly on paper but in actual use, it's... fun.

Yes, there's a learning curve and might be trickier for the more tech-challenged but I promise it's worth the extra few minutes to learn how to use the light button press and light button double press.

At the same time if you just want to take a picture quickly, you can just press the button. You can also map the button to open third-party apps such as the much-acclaimed Halide as well.

The iPhone Pro - the screen has it

Remember when Apple was all about slimming down its bezels? And for a while there it was a phone competition to see which phone maker could win the supermodel skinny bezel race?

Well, Apple has restarted that again by squeezing in even more screen space on the new Apple iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max.

The added display real estate means you get 6.7-inch and 6.9-inch nearly edge-to-edge screens.

I have mixed feelings about the new Desert Titanium shade because if I was going to make a brown phone I'd want it the deepest, richest tone I could achieve but I guess that's why phone cases exist.

Depending on lighting, the phone looks at times pale gold, a very light yellowish beige or a shade similar to Apple's previous gold models.

Still, I'd like to see Apple figure out a way to get darker shades on their Pro models or at least figure out something more exciting, which the lineup deserves.

Really exciting for me is figuring out if I can fit my current handheld controller attachments onto the new iPhone Pro and see how well it functions as a Remote Play device for my Playstation 5.

Final thoughts

The iPhone 16 camera sensors being placed vertically gives me nostalgia for the X-range of phones; recently I charged up my old iPhone XS Max and thought about how, despite it being behind now feature-wise, it’s still a phone I think of fondly and one of the best iPhones ever made.

The leap from the 15 to 16 isn’t much to be frank but as far as incremental updates go, instead of a step up, it has gone a step and a half-up, so loyal annual upgraders might still find reasons to love the new changes especially to the whole phototaking experience

Will I feel that way about this range? Too soon to say but I'll be busy for the next week or so comparing the experience on the new iPhones with the past ones to see if Apple still manages to keep up with its latest tagline: "Designed to be loved.”

Tomorrow will be iPhone Day so will the new TRX Apple Store see a rush for orders? We'll have to wait and see.

Prices for the new iPhones start from RM3,999 for the iPhone 16 and RM4,999 for the iPhone 16 Pro.