iPhone 15/15 Plus and iPhone 15 Pro/15 Pro Max come out on Friday, and the first press reviews are hitting today. All four phones pack loads of changes ranging from the camera system to USB-C and much more. Here’s what the early reviews and hands-on videos have to say so far…
iPhone 15 & iPhone 15 Plus
The Verge hit on the more comfortable design, especially for the Plus model:
The edges of the phone don’t cut into my hand like the older models did, and these tweaks even make it somewhat comfortable to hold the large iPhone 15 Plus without the aid of a PopSocket or other grip.
Then there’s the camera upgrade with super high-res images and updated HDR:
Images captured by this new high-resolution sensor are instantly recognizable as iPhone shots, but Apple has tweaked its HDR algorithms to allow brighter highlights than in years past. That has the effect of making images feel less “flattened” and more dynamic than with older iPhones.
CNET makes the case for the iPhone 15 being more than just a repackaged iPhone 14 Pro:
The iPhone 15’s similarities to the iPhone 14 Pro gave me some deja vu. But those coming from an aging iPhone model will find a lot of value in this upgrade, from the new USB-C port to its higher resolution camera, the Dynamic Island and fresh design. As someone who’s been using an iPhone 12 for the past three years (when I’m not reviewing other phones, of course), I can say this feels like a big upgrade. That said, if you have an iPhone 14, or even an iPhone 13, you can likely wait a little longer, unless you’re super eager to get USB-C or the Dynamic Island.
All four new phones use USB-C instead of Lightning, and WSJ gives that a shoutout along with battery life:
Am I very excited about the USB-C charging port? Yes. Am I struggling with the transition? Also yes. In the car, for my wife and I to both use CarPlay, we need to switch between a USB-C cord and a Lightning cord. (I even had to order a USB-A to USB-C cord.) Same goes in our kitchen. But hey, short-term pain, long-term gain.
As far as battery life goes, none of the iPhone 15 models I tried lasted significantly longer than their predecessors. Yet one of the main reasons I am getting the 15 Pro Max this year is that it’s lasted at least two to three hours longer than the 15 Pro. Besides, I’ve been disappointed in my 14 Pro’s battery life and how it has degraded over the last year. Both the Plus and Pro Max models have bigger batteries, so they outlast the smaller models.
Wired on the iPhone 15 camera system:
The entire camera system on the iPhone 15 does offer more granular control over your photos than the iPhone 14 does, even if some of the resulting images aren’t stunningly better than the prior generation’s. The biggest update is that the iPhone 15 has the ability to capture both 24-megapixel and 48-megapixel images, which can be preset under “Resolution Control” in your phone’s camera settings. But this feature is optimized for shooting at 1X in decent light, whereas if you shoot at .5X, or ultrawide, the camera will default back to 12-megapixel captures.
iPhone 15 Pro & iPhone 15 Pro Max
The Verge hits on the new 5x optical zoom from the iPhone 15 Pro Max:
Side by side with the other Pro phone with a 5x zoom lens, Google’s Pixel 7 Pro, the 15 Pro Max’s telephoto keeps up well. The Pixel 7 Pro holds onto more color detail in dim light, though I see a bit more fine detail in greenery from the iPhone’s image. But you don’t have to go pixel-peeping to see that the iPhone produces a darker image overall. The Pixel 7 Pro image is just a little brighter and tidier, even if the level of detail looks about the same. Oh, and the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra? Beats the pants off both of them with its 10x lens.
As for the rest of the camera system:
Among the three, the iPhone doesn’t win every category — special shoutout to the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra’s excellent portrait mode — but in a week of shooting with it in a lot of different conditions, the 15 Pro is the one most likely to deliver the color I was looking for consistently. It’s the familiar iPhone camera experience, now with a bit more flexibility in your composition options.
TechCrunch discusses the new Action button:
I know a lot of folks who immediately knew what they wanted to do with their Action button the moment it was announced. I’m a bit more indecisive, which is kind of how I roll with these sorts of things. I’ve mostly been alternating between Camera and Voice Memo. I thought I was going to be a Camera guy right out of the gate, but the existence of the camera button on the lock screen has caused me to rethink that mindset. […]
The more I think about it, the more I like tying Shazam to the Action button. The ability to set timers or open up the Notes app might be nice, as well.
In a separate post, TechCrunch takes the iPhone 15 Pro Max to Disney:
I’ll be honest, I was pretty skeptical about having 4K60 shooting available to me on device. I figured it would torpedo battery life, make the phone run hot and be lackluster in low light due to frame rate issues. None of that was true. In fact, as you can see in the footage we shot for our video review, the Max Pro didn’t just pull its own weight, matching a professional grade video camera, but it actually out-performed that camera in some low light and variable light situations.
TechRadar shares what to expect in file size when increasing the resolution of shots from 12MP to 24MP:
Every default image I shot with the iPhone 15 Pro Max comes rendered at 24MP resolution. Yes, that’s a new resolution for iPhones and Apple manages it by first pixel binning 48 megapixels-worth of data into the best possible 12 megapixel still and then combining that with the full detail of the 48MP sensor. The only downside is that 24MP images will be larger than 12MP stills (by about a megabyte). Apple mitigates the storage cost a bit by automatically storing photos in HEIF (High Efficiency Image Format) format. You can also shoot in 48MP RAW format for uncompressed imagery, ready for editing.
Inverse provides some battery life expectations:
On the topic of battery life, the iPhone 15 Pros have the same rated hours as the iPhone 14 Pros. Apple claims up to 23 hours (video) / 20 hours (video streamed) / 75 hours (audio) on the iPhone 15 Pro and up to 29 hours (video) / 25 hours (video streamed) / 95 hours (audio) on the iPhone 15 Pro Max.
In my testing, that works out to a full day of battery using the iPhone 15 Pro and almost 1.5 days using the iPhone 15 Pro Max. Your battery mileage will vary depending on the apps, widgets, always-on display setting, etc. But “all-day” seems to be the benchmark Apple is comfortable maintaining.
And Wired praises the new titanium frame:
The frame of the iPhone 15 Pro is now made of titanium, a metal that’s lighter, more durable, and more scratch-resistant than the stainless steel that came before. Durability is nice, but I care more about how light it feels. The phone is so light compared to the iPhone 14 Pro that it initially felt cheap, but I quickly got used to it. The switch to titanium gives the Pro a weight savings of roughly 10 percent. That’s not a lot on paper, but it really makes a difference when you’re holding the phone above your face as you doomscroll in bed.
I’ve seen reports online of people talking about the titanium “discoloring” around the edges, but this is not true. I noticed that in a case, the buttons of the case leave a ring around the physical buttons on the phone that are a shade lighter than the rest of the frame’s edge. Rubbing it with a damp microfiber cloth gets rid of it and any other smudges. (The Pro does like smudges). This discoloration is less pronounced on the Natural Titanium color (the superior color) as opposed to the Blue Titanium, but I can’t speak for the other colors. None of this is an issue on the back of the phone, which is a lovely matte glass.
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