iPhone 15 – What’s New?

The new iPhone 15 is out, and we have the usual small batch of upgrades to the base and Pro models of the phones. Let’s talk about it, shall we?

To start off, as we look at the base iPhones, we see the new base 15 and 15 Plus have both inherited the features of last year’s Pro models. That includes, but is not limited to: the Dynamic Island, the sharp 48-megapixel main camera, the A16 bionic chip, and some other miscellaneous upgrades.

What About the Pros? What’s New With Them?

I’m glad you asked! Not too much is different from last year – but there are some nice things added to them that you will maybe, maybe not like. The 15 line-up now has replaced the Lightning port we had for practically a decade with the new popular USB-C type charging port due to some EU regulations stating that every smartphone by the end of the year must have a USB-C charging port. Apple did it, yes – but they cheaped out on the base model’s port. The port only is capable of 400+ MB transfer speeds. The Pro phones, on the other hand, get the 10GB transfers. So, if you buy the base model, not only do you have to buy a new charger… But your phone doesn’t even transfer files that quickly! The camera on the Pro Max now supports 5x zoom, due to it’s… “tetra-prism” upgrade. Whatever that means… But anywho, moving on to the less important things, we now have a replacement for the mute switch on the Pro models, and it’s called the “Action Button!” (real creative, Apple.) This Action Button is by default configured to act as a toggle for Silent Mode, but you can also configure it to act as a button for many other things as well! You can turn on your flashlight, activate a Focus Mode, record a Voice Memo, or even use a custom shortcut, such as opening an app, or something like that. Oh, and it can also be a dedicated shutter button. Turn your phone into a professional photography machine! (though, I don’t know why you’d want to do that) Now, all you need to do to set these to the Action Button, is just go to the Settings, find the Action Button pane, and viola! You can fiddle around in this menu to your heart’s delight. Speaking of Settings, there is a new feature in the Accessibility pane, under the Speech category, something called “Personal Voice!” Which allows you to record yourself saying 150 lines of text. “What do you recording yourself saying 150 lines of text do?” You may be asking, well… It synthesizes an AI voice using these lines and makes a copy of your voice for you. You can use it as the voice for Siri, which is pretty neat. It doesn’t sound the best, but I’m assuming it was just mainly created to let people who are mute communicate in the world without using Siri to speak on their behalf. Not useful for me, but for everyone who does find it useful, very happy you have this available to you now! The new Pro iPhones also get a new material for their side rails, and it’s Titanium. A little more prone to fingerprints if you have a dark color, but it’s a lot stronger! Very nice. Next up is the new Standby Mode, which is available to all phones that support iOS 17. Basically, Standby Mode is a mode that your phone enters when you put it on a wireless charger sideways. It gives you at-a-glance info such as the time, weather, etc. It doesn’t always stay on for the iPhone 13 and earlier. But, if you have the iPhone 14 or 15 Pro or Pro Max, it will always stay on, using the Always On Display. These are not Pro exclusive, but – Airdrop gets a small update where if your friend has an iPhone, you can pull up the Airdrop prompt in a picture or file, then bump your phone with your friend’s phone to share it in an instant! They are also working on adding a feature where you can bump the two phones together, then walk away, and it’ll download over cellular! This also works if you just wanna share your contact with them. All you need to do is bump, and boom! It’ll show up right on their phone. Hey, speaking of contacts – Apple has added new stuff to contacts so that you can have a fully custom contact page. It’s a lot like the Lock Screen in terms of customization. You can make your name a different font, color, and size. You can also put a photo in the back that you like, and this will also appear to someone when you’re calling them or they’re calling you! Pretty neat, huh?

Is It Worth It?

If you have money to splash, sure. If not, please – do me a favor and just get the base models of the 15. It’s basically a repackaged iPhone 14 Pro, and it’s way cheaper. I feel like the 15 Pro and Pro Max are a bit overpriced – The Pro Max starts at $1199 due to its double starting storage size. It now starts with 256GB, hence the jump in price. Still, though – I feel it’s a bit overpriced. So, as I said, just get the base model iPhone 15 or 15 Plus! Much better deal, a very powerful phone, it’s all you need. Besides, the base phones pretty much have most of the new features of this year already, since most of them are integrated in iOS. Apart from the new Action Button, which is hardware-related.

Conclusion

The conclusion is, if you have some money, get the 15 Pro or Pro Max, why not? If not, just get the base 15. Not that different, and it suffices for most of everything that you need a phone for. I do really like the new stuff added to the new Pro models, they’re very cool! But anywho, I hope you enjoyed this new post! I’ll see you all very soon, goodbye!