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Apple's iPhones are still considered the best for "average consumers" as they offer a great experience out of the box. The iPhones deliver the best combination ...
iPhone 15
The iPhone 15 Pro Max is also powered by Apple's A17 Pro chip for improved performance. You're less likely to notice a huge difference in performance between the iPhone 15 Pro and the older iPhone 14 Pro when it comes to day-to-day usage, but it delivers more raw power that'll make a difference in very specific use cases, especially on the GPU side. The regular <anchor>iPhone 15</anchor> also deserves a special mention here as it brings significant improvements over its predecessor this year. You can't go wrong with the regular iPhone 15 Pro model either, but it's recommended that you go with the Pro Max model to get the best iPhone experience.
iPhone 15 review: A major yet sneaky upgrade from its predecessor
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# iPhone 15 review: A major yet sneaky upgrade from its predecessor

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Published Sep 30, 2023

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A blue iPhone 15 resting on a marble tabletop.

Apple has faced a litany of criticism over the past few years for failing to considerably improve its base-model iPhones, and for good reason. Last year's iPhone 14 was the worst example of this, which was so similar to the previous iPhone 13 that the two phones shared the same system-on-a-chip. For perspective, that was the first time a flagship iPhone was released without a chip upgrade, notably excluding budget-oriented releases like the iPhone SE. At first glance, you might think that Apple's new iPhone 15 — just released Sept. 22 in most regions — follows this same disappointing trend. From the outside, it looks the same as the past few generations of iPhone. But fear not, the iPhone 15 isn't just an upgrade over last year's iPhone 14; it represents the biggest upgrade of any iPhone model released this year.

To sum it up in a sentence, Apple made the base-model iPhone 15 more professional without increasing the price. Though I say that somewhat ironically, it means that the company brought many of the things that made the iPhone 14 Pro great to the iPhone 15. There's a new 2000-nit display, an upgraded 48MP main camera sensor, and an A16 Bionic chip on the iPhone 15 — all borrowed from the iPhone 14 Pro. Beyond that, you'll also find some of the all-new features that came to 2023 iPhones, like USB-C and a more comfortable design. When you put it all together, you get an $800 phone in the iPhone 15 that provides a well-rounded experience. I've spent the last year using the iPhone 14 Pro as my daily driver, and I use a secondary phone line to test the rest of the best phones you can buy. I didn't miss any of those devices when using the iPhone 15, and that's the highest praise I can give.

About this review: This review was written after a week of testing an iPhone 15 purchased by the writer. Apple had no input in this review, and did not see its contents before publication.

iPhone-15-Blue-Product-Tag-Transparent



A good iPhone for most people

##### Apple iPhone 15

Apple's internal improvements shine in this year's base model

9
/
10

Apple gave the "Pro" treatment to the base-model iPhone 15 this year, bringing a ton of iPhone 14 Pro features over to this smartphone. It now has a 2000-nit display, a 48MP main camera sensor, and an A16 Bionic chip. At the same $800 price point, the iPhone 15 is a subtle but great improvement.

SoC

Apple A16 Bionic (4 nm)

Display

6.1-inch Dynamic OLED Display, FHD+ resolution 2556x1179

RAM

6GB RAM

Storage

Up to 512GB

Battery

3,349mAh

Ports

USB Type-C

Operating System

iOS 17

Camera (Rear, Front)

Main: 48MP, (ƒ/1.6) ultrawide: 12MP, (ƒ/2.4) telephoto: 12MP (ƒ/1.6), Front: 12MP, (f/1.9)

Connectivity

5G (Sub-6GHz and mmWave) Gigabit LTE, Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) Bluetooth 5.3

Dimensions

5.81 x 2.82 x 0.31 inches (147.6 x 71.6 x 7.80mm)

Colors

Black, blue, green, yellow, pink

Display type

OLED

Weight

6.02 ounces (171 gm)

Price

Starting at $799

Security

Face ID

Release date
September 22, 2023

Pros

- Main camera sensor upgraded to 48MP
- Display now on par with Pro series iPhones (aside from refresh rate)
- A16 Bionic processor
- USB-C port

Cons

- No always-on display functionality
- Display limited to 60Hz
- No optical zoom
- Limited to USB 2.0 speeds

Expand

## iPhone 15: Pricing and availability

Apple revealed the new iPhone 15 lineup at a fall event, Sept. 12, at its Apple Park headquarters. The phones became available for pre-order starting Sept. 15 and debuted in most regions starting Sept. 22. Shipping and delivery dates have slipped for some configurations of the iPhone 15, and the base storage option will deliver roughly two weeks after your order is placed, as of this article's publication. However, you can get your hands on an iPhone 15 sooner if you choose an in-store pickup, or choose to purchase through your cellular carrier. Aside from Apple, you can also get the iPhone 15 from third-party retailers like Best Buy and Amazon. It's important to note that if you choose not to activate your iPhone 15 at the time of purchase, it will cost $830, instead of $800 with immediate activation.

The base-model iPhone 15 ships with 128GB of storage, but you can upgrade that to either 256GB or 512GB during your initial purchase. It comes in blue, pink, yellow, green, and black colors that are all very subdued and pastel hues. You can also choose the iPhone 15 Plus model for an extra $100, which gives you a 6.7-inch display instead of the 6.1-inch screen on the iPhone 15. Though the unit I tested was the regular iPhone 15, nearly all of my observations will apply to both models, as they share the same specifications.

## Design

### Mostly similar, but different where it counts

The iPhone 15 in-hand on a city street.

For the past few years, iPhones became difficult to hold and increasingly uncomfortable. This was more noticeable on the "Pro" models that had a stainless steel build. But because all recent iPhone models have had a boxy design featuring hard right angles, the sides of the phone would uncomfortably dig into your skin. Of course, this only applied to the select few of us who go case-less, which includes myself. Whether you use a case or not, you'll appreciate the design tweaks Apple made to the standard iPhone 15.

The frosted back glass of the iPhone 15.

The first thing you'll notice is the frosted glass back, which makes its way to Apple's base-model smartphone for the first time. Previously, it was the Pro models that featured frosted glass, while lower-tier models still featured a glossy texture. I'm not sure what Apple tweaked this year, but the frosted glass on all iPhone 15 models feels a bit more satisfying to hold than in prior years. The glass has a smooth feel, and your fingers almost glide across the surface. In theory, it's possible that this could lead to more slipping or accidental drops, but I haven't experienced this yet. The sides of the iPhone 15 sport aluminum rails, and I don't think you're missing out by choosing aluminum over the titanium iPhone 15 Pro Max. Aluminum is still one of the best materials for smartphones, as it blends cost, weight, and durability well.

Otherwise, the iPhone 15 looks largely the same as the iPhone 14, with one key difference. Apple slightly tapered the edges of the iPhone 15 this year, so the corners and sides are more rounded than usual. It's far from a full-rounded design, but it's a big improvement over the rectangular design of the iPhone 12 through iPhone 14. This makes the iPhone 15 much more comfortable to hold, and it's hard to describe how important this change is for daily use of the phone. All the things that make using a 6.1-inch phone troublesome — like one-handed use and reaching the top of the display — are made easier thanks to this design tweak.

## Display

### Flagship quality, with a few notable exceptions

The iPhone 15's display on a marble tabletop.

If you've heard one specification of the iPhone 15's display before reading this review, it's probably that the screen still has a 60Hz refresh rate. It's true, Apple still hasn't bumped up its base-model iPhones to 120Hz or even 90Hz refresh rates. However, if you're harping on that one part of the iPhone 15 display, you're missing the point. Refresh rates are just one part of display quality, and I'd argue that other factors like display technology, resolution, and peak brightness are more important. In those areas, the $800 iPhone 15 is a near perfect match to the $1,000 iPhone 15 Pro. While there are plenty of smartphones that cost around the same price as the iPhone 15 and offer high refresh rates, only a select few have overall quality up to par with Apple displays.

The iPhone 15 isn't just an upgrade over last year's iPhone 14; it represents the biggest upgrade of any iPhone model released this year.

The upgrade to maximum brightness is a big one: The iPhone 15 can now reach a peak outdoor brightness of 2000 nits, matching the iPhone 14 Pro's spec. It's also double the maximum brightness of the iPhone 14. In daily use, I find that the iPhone 15 display is actually more reliable than the iPhone 14 Pro. The latter model had a tendency to overheat and throttle the display's brightness, but this only happened once during the testing period. I suspect that since the iPhone 15 doesn't have a ProMotion or always-on display, it can better manage thermals and thus stay running at peak brightness for longer. It's an OLED panel with a 2556x1179 resolution at 460 pixels per inch, and it now supports full HDR content.

The Uber Eats live activity in the Dynamic Island on iPhone 15.

The Dynamic Island also comes to the base model this year as an intuitive way to disguise the iPhone 15's Face ID sensors. It continues the trend of iPhone 14 Pro features coming to the lower-cost model, since the Dynamic Island was exclusive to the more expensive phones last year. The Dynamic Island is neat, but it isn't as much of a game-changer as I thought it would be. However, had it not been present on the iPhone 15, I definitely would have missed it coming from the iPhone 14 Pro. With it, you can see things like now playing media, Live Activities, and system indicators. It's a convenient feature that looks great, and I'm happy it's available on all iPhones this year.

## Software

### iOS 17 is a huge release, and that's great for everyone

The iOS 17 update page on an iPhone 15.

There's good news and bad news about the iPhone 15's software. The good news is that iOS 17 ships with the iPhone 15 right out of the box, and it's a fantastic operating system. The bad news, per se, is that you can also probably get iOS 17 on the iPhone you already own. Many of my favorite parts about using the iPhone 15 aren't intrinsically tied to the new hardware, but rather are new software features derived from the iOS 17 upgrade. There are actually a few pretty significant changes coming to iPhone thanks to iOS 17, however, my favorite features are proximity sharing for AirDrop, NameDrop, and SharePlay.

With all three of these features, you can share content with other iPhone users by simply holding the two devices together. There's a really cool animation that appears, and it looks like the two phones are being fused together. Then, the content that will share depends on what you're currently doing. If you're on the home screen, and you're not contacts with the person you're sharing with, NameDrop will let you share your contact info. If you're watching a movie, SharePlay will let you start a session via proximity. You can also start an AirDrop with proximity and finish it with Wi-Fi after you've walked away. These new tools require both users to be running iOS 17, which makes them hard to test in the initial months after the update releases. However, iOS 17 is a massive update that makes the iPhone experience better, whether you're running it on a new iPhone 15 or an older device.

Many of my favorite parts about using the iPhone 15 aren't intrinsically tied to the new hardware, but rather are new software features derived from the iOS 17 upgrade.

Apple doesn't make any guarantees when it comes to software updates, but we can expect about five or six years of full operating system upgrades. You'll also get occasional security patches for a few years after that, most likely. For perspective, the oldest iPhones to get the bump to iOS 17 are the iPhone XS series, which released in 2018.

## Performance

### The A16 Bionic is more than enough

The back of a blue iPhone 15.

Apple made a somewhat concerning decision to reuse the A15 Bionic system-on-a-chip on both the iPhone 13 and the iPhone 14. While it was still a competent chip in both 2021 and 2022, the lack of a chip upgrade made it hard to justify getting an iPhone 14 over the older iPhone 13. Luckily, starting with the iPhone 15 series, Apple has made a move that I hope will be part of a pattern for future releases. The iPhone 15 now features an A16 Bionic processor, which is the chip that Apple debuted for the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max. That stands to reason that the new A17 Pro chip, which came out this year for the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, might make its way to the upcoming iPhone 16 series next year.

This is a reasonable upgrade path for both the consumer and Apple. I put the iPhone 15, iPhone 14 Pro, and iPhone 15 Pro through their paces with a Geekbench 6 CPU benchmarks, and you can view the scores in the table below. They show that the iPhone 15 is just as good — if not slightly better — in terms of processing power as the iPhone 14 Pro. It's important to remember that the iPhone 14 Pro is still a great phone, and was a thousand-dollar flagship just a year ago. The fact that the iPhone 15 matches the performance of that phone, and is roughly 13% slower than the new A17 Pro chip, is extremely impressive.

Phone

SoC

Single-core

Multi-core

iPhone 15

Apple A16 Bionic

2,606

6,564

iPhone 14 Pro

Apple A16 Bionic

2,605

6,332

iPhone 15 Pro Max

Apple A17 Pro

2,945

7,430

This matches up with my daily use of the phone, as it didn't skip a beat when coming from my iPhone 14 Pro. I did upgrade the storage to 256GB this year, as I feel like 128GB just isn't enough anymore in 2023. As far as battery life is concerned, the iPhone 15 performed handily better than the iPhone 14 Pro and lasted a full day most of the time. I could kill it around 10 p.m. after a long day of calls and streaming video, but this was a rare occurrence. For comparison, my iPhone 14 Pro needed to be charged around midday before switching to the iPhone 15.

## Cameras

### The main sensor gets a massive upgrade

The iPhone 15's rear camera system. 

Apple added a new main camera sensor to the iPhone 15, and also brought improved computational photography features across the board. There's a 48MP, f/1.6 aperture main sensor on the base-model iPhone 15 now, which is the same as the higher-end models. Using some computational photography tricks, this main camera now shoots in 24MP by default. It's important to note that these 24MP photos have 50% larger file sizes than the 12MP ones, but I'd still recommend leaving this setting on due to the quality improvements.

It's safe to say that the iPhone 15 has the best 2x zoom quality of any phone I've used without a telephoto lens.

More importantly, the 48MP sensor can now use sensor cropping to take a photo that has the same quality as 2x optical zoom, without a telephoto lens. Check out the samples below, where you'll find a photo at standard 1x zoom on the left and 2x zoom on the right.

A shot of Brookfield Place at 1x zoom on iPhone 15 Pro.

A shot of Brookfield Place using iPhone 15 at 2x zoom.

Close

It's safe to say that the iPhone 15 has the best 2x zoom quality of any phone I've used without a telephoto lens. The computational photography magic that Apple is using here, plus the 48MP sensor crop, lets you take a 2x photo without losing significant quality. You might be wondering why Apple didn't just include a telephoto camera on the iPhone 15, but that's because it opted for a 12MP, f/2.4 ultrawide camera instead. In practice, that means the iPhone 15's dual-camera system can take photos at 0.5x, 1x, and 2x zoom right out of the box. Overall, this phone has an excellent camera system that in many ways matches the iPhone 14 Pro series from last year. To see the quality for yourself, here's a collection of shots captured on iPhone 15.

Close

## Should you buy the iPhone 15?

The back of an iPhone 15 on a marble tabletop.

You should buy the iPhone 15 if :

- You want a better camera and a chip upgrade

- You like the Dynamic Island

- You have an older iPhone and are intrigued by this year's feature set

You should NOT buy the iPhone 15 if:

- You need a 120Hz ProMotion display

- You need an always-on display

- You need a telephoto lens and professional camera features

Though the iPhone 15 can easily fly under the radar as an incremental upgrade, it shouldn't. During my time with the iPhone 15, it felt just like using the iPhone 14 Pro, and a bit better in some areas. That's because the iPhone 15 actually has more in common with the iPhone 14 Pro than with it predecessor, the iPhone 14. To my surprise, there's enough in this iPhone 15 update to warrant even iPhone 14 users to upgrade, if you care about things like the display and camera performance. The iPhone 15 Pro Max will be remembered from this year's release as the flashy phone with an Action button and a 5x optical zoom lens, but the base-model iPhone 15 is sneakily a bigger upgrade.

iPhone-15-Blue-Product-Tag-Transparent

Great 2023 iPhone

##### Apple iPhone 15

Apple gave the "Pro" treatment to the base-model iPhone 15 this year, bringing a ton of iPhone 14 Pro features over to this smartphone. It now has a 2000-nit display, a 48MP main camera sensor, and an A16 Bionic chip. At the same $800 price point, the iPhone 15 is a subtle but great improvement.

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