Apple’s September event has been a busy one. The company not only announced the iPhone 15 Pro Max – its new super flagship – but it also revealed the standard iPhone 15 models, standard Watch model and a second generation of the Watch Ultra. Among all of that excitement was the iPhone 15 Pro.
This model doesn’t carry with it quite the same excitement as it did with the iPhone 14 Pro, mainly because it’s been a little overshadowed by the bigger and badder iPhone 15 Pro Max, but the iPhone 15 Pro is still worthy of your attention, especially if you’re upgrading from an older Pro model. Here are my first impressions.
Design
The Apple iPhone 15 Pro may not look dramatically different to its predecessor, but that’s not to say there aren’t differences. You just have to look a little harder than the standard iPhone 15 to notice them. First up, let’s talk materials. The iPhone 15 Pro retains the flat, squared-off edges that were first introduced with the iPhone 12 models. It’s a design I’ve come to really appreciate over the years so it’s one I’m more than happy to see continue. Rather than the polished stainless steel finish that has become a custom look of the Pro models for a number of years though, the iPhone 15 Pro moves to a grade 5 titanium frame, which is significantly lighter than stainless steel, making it a delight to hold.
That frame is sandwiched between two pieces of glass, and like the iPhone 14 Pro models, there’s a frosted glass finish on the rear. For 2023, new colours join the portfolio, with Deep Purple replaced by Blue Titanium, which sits alongside Black Titanium, White Titanium and Natural Titanium. The blue is the most exciting of the four colours, though all the colours are striking and as usual for the Pro models, they are definitely more serious than the standard iPhone 15 models.
Dynamic Island remains a key feature of the display on the front, housing not only the front camera but the Face ID sensors and the interactive element that adapts to whatever you are doing or whatever app you are using. It’s no different to the iPhone 14 Pro, but this is still a relatively new feature and one that’s still exciting.
Another new and exciting change to the design is the silence toggle. The iPhone 15 Pro switches this toggle – which has been a signature feature of the iPhone since it launched in 2007 – to a customisable Action Button. This button can be set to do various tasks, whether it’s launch the camera, set a Focus, launch the magnifier or start a Siri Shortcut, as well as placing your iPhone into silent mode. Only one function can be selected but there are various functions for each task to choose from. For example, you can select selfie camera, rear camera or a different option all within the camera function. It’s easy to switch between functions too, with the Action Button seeing it’s own dedicated menu in the Settings app. The change essentially makes an existing feature more versatile and useful, similar to what Dynamic Island did with the notch.
Elsewhere, there are some changes that are noticeable and welcomed, one of which is slimmer bezels. The iPhone 15 Pro reduces the bezels surrounding its display, resulting in a much more streamlined design. It’s not quite edge-to-edge but it’s a noticeable improvement on the iPhone 14 Pro and it makes the frame of the iPhone 15 Pro smaller, whilst retaining the same size display.
There’s also the switch to USB-C to mention too. Replacing the Lightning port that we’ve seen on the iPhone since 2012, is a USB-C port. I’m all for this. There are no doubt some who will find it irritating, but it means you’ll only need one cable to charge most of your devices (not Apple Watch yet unfortunately), making everything a lot simpler.
Display
The iPhone 15 Pro has the same size display as its predecessor, along with the same specifications. There’s a 6.1-inch screen on board this model, while a larger display remains available in the more expensive iPhone 15 Pro Max. The 6.1-inch display is the same size as the standard iPhone 15 model, and it’s an OLED panel here too, delivering vibrant and punchy colours, deep blacks and bright whites.
The iPhone 15 Pro has a couple of tricks up its sleeve compared to the iPhone 15 however, just like the iPhone 14 Pro did compared to the iPhone 14. First up, there’s ProMotion on board, offering an adaptable 120Hz refresh rate compared to the standard iPhone 15’s 60Hz refresh rate.
You’ll also find an Always-On Display, which is one of the features I liked most about the iPhone 14 Pro. Always-On Displays aren’t anything new, though they were new for Apple users last year. The novelty may have worn off a little if you have an iPhone 14 Pro, but for those that didn’t invest in the 2022 Pro models, this is a feature you’ll likely enjoy.
Brightness remains the same for the iPhone 15 Pro as the iPhone 14 Pro at 2000nits and it’s glorious. I’ll wait until I’m outside to test the iPhone 15 Pro’s display properly, but from what I’ve seen so far, it’s as great as the iPhone 14 Pro but with lovely slimmer bezels that make it look even better.
Hardware and specs
Under the hood, the iPhone 15 Pro moves to an A17 Pro chip, which is built on 3nm technology and the specifications certainly sound impressive on paper. There were several billion transistors mentioned, and it was claimed the chip could perform 35 trillion operations per second. I won’t lie, I’m not even sure I could count to that, so I’m going to take Apple’s word for that element. In less geeky real terms, it should mean the iPhone 15 Pro will offer a decent performance upgrade over its predecessor, which is likely to be more apparent in areas like gaming. Speed improvements are pretty standard for generational devices so it won’t come as a huge surprise that the 2023 model is promising to be faster than the 2022 model, and it might be that it’s not that noticeable in practice either – the iPhone 14 Pro is already more than speedy enough – but I’ll of course test this when I come to review this device in full.
Storage options remain the same as the iPhone 14 Pro, so there’s a choice of 128GB, 256GB, 512GB and 1TB. None of these offer microSD support, not that we expect that now, it’s more normal not to offer expansion than to offer it these days.
As mentioned, the iPhone 15 Pro moves to USB-C charging over Lightning – a move the rest of the iPhone 15 models also make, though the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max offer support for USB 3 for transfer and charging. When it comes to battery, Apple has claimed the iPhone 15 Pro will offer all day battery life, though it didn’t specify the number of hours. This is another area I’ll need to test in a full review to determine how well it performs, but the iPhone 14 Pro performed well enough so I’d expect the iPhone 15 Pro to offer at least the same, hopefully a little extra with the new chip.
Like the other iPhone 15 models, the iPhone 15 Pro will arrive on iOS 17. The software build is available to a number of older iPhones so you don’t necessarily need the latest hardware in order to experience the newest features, but the speed improvements will likely help deliver a smooth and fluid performance overall.
Camera
Normally, there’s quite a bit to say in the camera department of the iPhone Pro models, though this device has had its limelight stolen a little by the iPhone 15 Pro Max this year. Still, there’s a 48-megapixel main sensor with f/1.78 aperture, which delivers a 24-megapixel image by default, but you can opt for 48-megapixel shots if you so wish. The main sensor is supported by a 12-megapixel Ultra Wide lens with an f/2.2 aperture, and a 12-megapixel telephoto lens with an f/2.8 aperture and a focal length of 77mm.
This is slightly different to the setup of the iPhone 15 Pro Max, which has 5x zoom and a focal length of 120mm, but it still offers hardware improvements and some clever computational photography smarts too. Portrait mode is improving for example, and that applies to both the iPhone 15 Pro and the iPhone 15 Pro Max. It will now recognise people within a shot so you can apply the portrait mode to a shot after the fact rather than having to remember to select it. You’ll also be able to change the focus of the shot and adjust the depth of the blur.
Overall, I’d expect the iPhone 15 Pro to deliver great shots like the iPhone 14 Pro did last year, and hopefully better. I’d also expect them to be natural ones too, so I’ll be testing all of this when I come to review the iPhone 15 Pro in the coming weeks. If you want the top camera specs this year however, it’s the iPhone 15 Pro Max you’ll need to opt for, with iPhone 15 Pro now sitting in the middle of the range.
First impressions
The Apple iPhone 15 Pro is all about refinement. It takes the excellent iPhone 14 Pro and makes a number of tweaks here and there, making the best the company once offered, better. From the slimmer bezels, switch to titanium, subtle upgrades in camera sensors and performance improvements, there’s plenty to love here.
It doesn’t stand out on the page or in the flesh as much as the iPhone 15 Ultra, and the standard iPhone 15 is creeping in on its territory a little, especially with its move to Dynamic Island, but I suspect the 15 Pro will still be the iPhone many will turn to. Even if it’s got some serious competition this year – and from its own team too.
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