I upgraded only because the speakers on my 12 Mini were failing making it nearly impossible to have a phone call.
(1) This phone is too big, heavy, and slippery and uneasy to grasp with one hand.
(2) The camera bump is ridiculously large. It’s laughable how much it rocks on the counter as you type on it. Not in a good way.
(3) The Camera button is in the worst place (accidentally clicking it constantly) and too confusing so I disabled it forever.
(4) I also disabled the action button. This seems too easy to disable silent mode which I have enabled 99.9% of the time.
(5) The screen is noticeably worse and has a blue cast. It’s not as sharp and the contrast is dull.
(6) I love the material used on the back, even though it makes it difficult to hold.
I fully understand the hardware is significantly more advanced but the iPhone 16 genuinely feels like a downgrade from the iPhone 12 Mini. I’m not happy at all.
I’m going to stop by the Apple Store this weekend and look at getting the SE.
You should get a Fairphone or a Pixel and install GrapheneOS on it. It would be cheaper than your current option, and provide you much more software freedom, including system wide ad blocking, Firefox with uBlock Origin, LibreTube, the ability to run AI models offline with more than 4GB RAM, the ability to run custom launchers, home apps and SMS apps, and ability to install apps without logging into a megacorporation.
What if you don't care about any of those?
Then run Android in case you care about any of those in the future, to prevent lock in. Unless there is something specific that iOS does better than Android, of course, but to my knowledge there is none.