Today, Apple introduced four new iPhone models: the iPhone 15, the iPhone 15 Plus, the iPhone 15 Pro, and the iPhone 15 Pro Max. The new iPhones pack a wide array of new features to cover, so let’s dig in.
iPhone 15 and 15 Plus
As in the past, the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus come in a greater array of colors than the iPhone 15 Pro or 15 Pro Max, with pink, yellow, green, blue, and black options this year. The design on the new iPhone 15 and 15 Plus is similar to last year’s models but with a new contoured edge and a glass back that embeds the iPhones’ color throughout the glass that’s etched for a matte finish.
The screen on the iPhone 15 is 6.1 inches diagonally, the Plus is 6.7 inches, and both displays are brighter than ever. Apple said the new iPhones can reach a peak HDR brightness of 1600 nits, which can reach 2000 nits in bright sunlight, which is twice the iPhone 14’s brightness.
On the inside, the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus inherit the A16 Bionic chip from the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max. Apple says the new chip’s two efficiency cores use 20% less power than the prior generation, its GPU has 50% more memory bandwidth, and the 16-core neural Engine can perform 17 trillion operations per second. The new iPhones also offer 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB storage options and support Wi-Fi 6E.
The latest iPhones have swapped their nearly decade-old Lightning connectors for USB-C as expected. The new port can charge the iPhones and transfer files, as you’d expect, but it can also be used for wired charging of an Apple Watch or AirPods. In addition, the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus feature Qi2-compatible MagSafe.
A second-generation Ultra Wideband chip is featured in the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus. The longer-range and more precise chip will allow users to locate friends when meeting in a way that’s similar to finding a pair of misplaced AirPods or an AirTag.
The camera on the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus has been improved, too, with a 48MP sensor. By default, the new camera takes 24MP resolution and has added the same sort of 2x Telephoto option we first saw in the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max. That means for the first time, Apple’s dual-camera iPhone will have the equivalent of what Apple calls three ‘optical-quality’ zoom levels: 0.5x, 1x, and 2x. Apple says it has improved the quality of portrait mode photos, too.
Apple’s iPhone line, is gaining a new safety feature Roadside Assistance, a satellite-based way to call for help if your car breaks down when you don’t have cell or Wi-Fi coverage. The service, which will be US-only at launch and offered in partnership with AAA, will be included for free for two years, and be available on the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max, too.
The iPhone 15, which starts at $799, and 15 Plus, which starts at $899, can be ordered this Friday, September 15th, and will be delivered starting September 22nd.
iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max
The new iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max are constructed from titanium fused with an aluminum inner chassis. The titanium outside has a handsome brushed look with contoured edges like the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus and thinner borders around the edges of the screen. According to Apple, the combination of a thinner bezel and titanium makes these Apple’s lightest Pro iPhones yet. As in the past, the colors available for the Pro models are muted in comparison to the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus, coming in black titanium, white titanium, blue titanium, and natural titanium. I’m going with blue, I think.
Like the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus, the new Pro models feature a USB-C 3.0 connector and Qi2-compatible MagSafe charging. However, the Pro models have added another unique hardware feature, too: an Action button that works a lot like the Action button on the Apple Watch Ultra. By default, pressing and holding the button mutes your iPhone with a little haptic feedback. However, the button can also be programmed to run a shortcut, turn on the flashlight, take a voice memo, activate the camera, or enable do not disturb, magnification, Translate, or other accessibility features.
The iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max use Apple’s new A17 Pro chip that uses a 3-nanometer process and features an updated GPU. Apple says the CPU is faster, as you’d expect, but the new GPU now includes hardware-accelerated ray tracing for more realistic reflections in games. Storage is available in 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB capacities.
The Pro models’ cameras have been updated too. There’s an improved 48MP sensor that takes 24MP images by default with 24 mm, 28 mm, and 35 mm focal lengths. Users have the ability to pick a default focal length for the first time, too. The iPhone 15 Pro has a Telephoto lens with 3x zoom, which the iPhone 15 Pro Max takes all the way to 5x thanks to a tetraprism design that bounces the light through a series of prisms to achieve a greater zoom without requiring a lens that sticks out further from the iPhone’s body.
Apple says it has improved its computational photography, with improvements to Night mode, a new Smart HDR for capturing more realistic colors, and improved low-light and Action mode videos. Pro videographers will also appreciate that video can be taken in ProRes at 4k resolution and 60 frames per second, with Log encoding, and support for ACES, the Academy Color Encoding System, a global standard for color workflows. The USB-C 3.0 connector allows photos and video to be saved directly to external storage. Later this year, the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max will be able to record spatial video for playback on the Apple Vision Pro too.
The iPhone 15 Pro, which starts at $999, and 15 Pro Max, which starts at $1199, can be ordered this Friday, September 15th, and will be delivered starting September 22nd.
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