After months and months of speculations and beating around the rumor mill, we finally have our answers. Apple finally announced the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus at the Wanderlust event on 12 September 2023.
The most exciting tech event of the year had a range of products in store for us. Along with the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus, the Cupertino giant also announced the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max. Apart from the latest additions to the iPhone lineup, we also saw USB-C AirPods, Apple Watch Series 9, a second-generation Apple Watch Ultra, and finally a public release date for iOS 17.
Here’s a quick rundown of the top iPhone 15 features.
Dynamic Island Displays – Bye Bye Notch
The iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus still sport the same flat 60Hz 6.1 and 6.7-inch displays respectively. The biggest difference you’d notice in this year’s iPhone 15 lineup is that now all iPhones have Dynamic Island. Unlike
last year, when only the Pro models got the Dynamic Island. The fruit-named company has finally gotten rid of the dreaded notch. Furthermore, the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus have brighter displays that go up to 1600 nits and hit a peak brightness of 2000 nits.
New Colors & Cables
As reported earlier, the new iPhone 15 and 15 Plus will get USB-C support and come with a braided USB-C cable in the box. Sadly, it won’t be color matched so we’re stuck with a plain white color USB-C cable. Apple being Apple, took a bite here and did not include USB 3.0 support. In simple terms, even though we have USB-C ports, their transfer speeds will still be the same as a decade-old Lighting port i.e. USB 2.0.
The iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus come in these new colors.
The colour-infused back glass with a textured matte finish gives it an all-new look and the aerospace-grade aluminium enclosure gives a premium in-hand feel.
Before we talk about anything else, we need to talk about the new chip.
A16 Bionic Comes to the iPhone 15
Most of the new upgrades are possible because of the new chip. Last year’s iPhone 14 used the A15 Bionic and still offered more than enough performance for all kinds of users. Be it shooting 4K@60fps Dolby Vision videos or editing TikToks, conducting raids in online games with zero lag, taking Zoom calls on the go & more. Imagine getting an upgrade on that. The six-core CPU included in the A16 Bionic chip houses two high-performance cores (that use 20 percent less power) and four efficiency cores (that use a third of the chips that other phones use).
In short, it can do more work with less power. You guessed it. That means a longer battery life.
Did we mention a lot of the new features in iPhone 15 are made possible by the 16-core Neural Engine. It can perform almost 17 trillion operations per second!
The iPhone 15 series also features the second-generation UWB chip. It enables more accurate and longer-range connectivity. Devices with second-gen chips can now communicate over a three times larger range than before, taking precision-finding features to a whole new level.
Battery Life & Charging
Not only that, Apple also increased the battery capacity of the iPhone 15 series. The iPhone 14 series already had a good battery life. In fact, it was so good that even leakers couldn’t keep it under the sheets. Once again thanks to the A16 Bionic chipset the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus deliver the same battery life as the iPhone 14 series, at least on paper.
Talking about the fast charging speeds of the iPhone 15 series, you can change your daily driver at a maximum speed of 20W. Does that mean you’ll have to get a new charger? Not necessarily. If you’ve already got a USB-C fast charger for your Android phone or tablet, you can just use that.
If you want to treat yourself to an upgraded power brick, check out our roundup of the best chargers for iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus.
New Cameras
Apple has always excelled in smartphone photography, and the iPhone 15 series is no exception. Just like for the last five years, t
he number of cameras on the regular iPhone has stayed the same. The major upgrade this year is the new AI-powered image processing algorithms. These magical software algorithms (Photonic Engine, Smart HDR) are actually powered by the A16 Bionic chip. They ensure every picture and video you capture has the most amount of details. No matter how bad the lighting is, your iPhone 15 and 15 Plus will capture pixel-perfect pictures with sparkly highlights and noiseless shadows.
The base iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus finally got a new hardware for its camera. The primary camera has been upgraded from the years-old 12MP to a 48MP camera. Do note that this is not the same as the 48MP camera module from the iPhone 14 Pro series. In fact, it’s a brighter module at f1.6 as compared to f1.7 on the iPhone 14 Pro series.
Again thanks to A16 Bionic, the iPhone 15 series offers three different optical zoom options (0.5x, 1x, 2x) by cropping in on the main sensor. Furthermore, it also offers a 24MP & 48MP Super-high-resolution mode. It is the best of both worlds by balancing lighting capture and without sacrificing the details. There are more features for camera nerds like next-generation portraits with Focus and Depth Control.
iOS 17 comes home
After months of buggy releases, we finally have a feature-rich iOS. The new iPhones will come with the latest version of iOS, offering a feature-packed user experience. With iOS 17, users can enjoy
super cool contact posters, enhanced web browsing experience, new iMessage features, and much more. You can read about the all-new iOS 17 features here.
If you’ve been waiting for the release date of iOS 17, we’ve got good news. iOS 17 will be publically available for download on 18th of September 2023. Although, we don’t recommend that you download it right away. Wondering why? Read this to learn more.
Pricing and Availability
Apple has kept the price of the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus the same as last year. So, you can get a new iPhone at just $799 USD.
| iPhone 15 | Price | iPhone 15 Plus | Price |
| 128GB | $799 | 128GB | $899 |
| 256GB | $899 | 256GB | $999 |
| 512GB | $1099 | 512GB | $1199 |
Pre-orders are set to begin on 20 September and the devices will be available in stores starting Friday 22 September 2023.
Also read: Best Cases for iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus
