Apple held its latest iPhone 15 event this week to little fanfare. Once upon a time, I’d call Tim Cook and Steve Jobs’ phones and leave lots of pestering voicemails asking for a press credential, but not so much lately.
Unless you’re Huawei operating under sanctions there’s not a lot to be excited about with any new phone. Samsung and Google Pixel cameras have finally caught up to iPhones in performance. Phone features have become more evolutionary than revolutionary and more software features are being released than any whizbang hardware feature.
What’s New in 15?
Off the bat, this year’s iPhone 15 standard devices will get everything in last year’s iPhone 14 Pro lineup.
The biggest change across all iPhones is dumping Apple’s proprietary Lightning Port with an industry standard USB-C port. The USB-C port will result in faster overall transfer speeds between iPhones and computers. USB-C was forced upon Apple due to an EU decision to ban phones from using proprietary connectors.
The iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max have titanium casings, newly styled Action buttons, and new processors with enhanced GPUs.
Apple has done away with the flip lock Ringer button in favor of a press-button Action button that can be programmed to do a bunch of things. You can reprogram the Action button to open apps, mute, or take pictures. It’s default feature is still a ringer switch, but having options is important.
The Pro series phones will see 10Gbps file transfer between the phone and device. That’s a lot of gigabytes.
The Cameras
iPhone cameras have always been top notch. The iPhone Pro 15 cameras will sport lenses that are the equivalent of 7 distinct lenses. It’s an upgraded 48 megapixel camera that has better low-light capture. The new camera design also allows your inner photog to choose a default focal length between 24, 28, and 35mm focal lengths. The iPhone also ships with a zoom lens that rival’s Samsung. The Pro will get 120mm optical zoom lens this year.
Another cute, new feature is the ability for the Pros to capture spatial video. This is a new video format that uses LIDAR in addition to optical capture that’s being featured in the Vision Pro.
Another cute feature for this year’s lineup is Live Voicemail in iOS 17. That could be an interesting feature as I’m one of the few people still making phone calls.
The Verdict
Apple claims the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max are the most powerful iPhones ever with prosumer capabilities. But is it worth it?
Well, that all depends. iPhones are still the sexiest devices on the planet and there’s nothing like having a new device. Titanium is an interesting feature. Especially for those of us who don’t surround their phones with cases. Like me. My current iPhone is full up with pictures and I could use a new one with more space.
But, it’s an evolutionary revision. Is it worth $1,200 for an upgrade with extra storage?
The notch is still there, which is a huge discriminator for me. I’m sure there’s technology to place those AI cameras behind the screen.
More powerful processors are great for avid gamers playing on small screens, but who’s really doing that. I take lots of pics and often complain about low-light images, so that’s a plus.
If you haven’t clogged up your phone with 100s of gigabytes of images, and you’re a couple of revisions behind, the iPhone 15 Pro is a good upgrade.
If your trusty iPhone 12 is still trucking along and you don’t need the space…
#nope