Don’t Buy the Apple iPhone 15.
This year, the base iPhone offering from Apple might not be your best bet. Apple is marketing the iPhone 15 as a “huge leap,” but in reality, it doesn’t offer a substantial upgrade over the iPhone 14, which itself was quite similar to the iPhone 13. Considering the $200/€250/£200 price difference between the iPhone 15 and the iPhone 15 Pro, it’s worth examining why the entry-level iPhone 15 may not be the wisest choice. Here are the key reasons why.
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Inferior Display
While the iPhone 15 boasts an updated Dynamic Island cutout and improved brightness, most other aspects of the display remain unchanged. The same 6.1-inch Super Retina XDR OLED display with a 60Hz refresh rate is still present.
If Apple had upgraded it to 90Hz, some of the criticism might be mitigated. However, the display on the standard iPhone 15 falls far behind the 120Hz LTPO OLED on the 15 Pro, which also offers the exclusive Always-On Display (AOD) feature. Additionally, Apple has reduced the bezels on the 15 Pro, making it sleeker than the standard iPhone 15.
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Performance Gap of iPhone 15
The A16 chipset inside the iPhone 15 is an incremental improvement over the A15 used in the previous two generations of iPhones. It features a 6-core CPU with 2 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores, along with a 5-core GPU and 16-core Neural Engine. While it’s manufactured on a more advanced 4nm process compared to the older 5nm A15 on the iPhone 14, the performance gains are subtle at best, as demonstrated in last year’s iPhone 14 Pro review.
In contrast, the 15 Pro comes with an all-new 3nm Apple A17 Pro chip, the first of its kind on the market. It promises 10% faster CPU performance and a 20% improvement on the GPU side. Apple is also focusing on gaming capabilities in the 15 Pro series, with PC and console games like Resident Evil Village and Assassin’s Creed Mirage coming to the iPhone 15 Pro series, featuring hardware-accelerated Ray Tracing. Additionally, the 15 Pro offers 2GB more RAM (8GB vs. 6GB in the standard 15), which should result in better long-term support.
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Less Capable Cameras
While the iPhone 15 has an improved 48MP sensor for its main camera, Apple has reserved the best cameras for its Pro models. The 15 Pro features a larger 48MP main sensor with 1.22µm pre-binned pixels, an f/1.78 aperture, and second-generation sensor-shift stabilization. It also exclusively offers ProRAW image capturing, enabling you to fully utilize the sensor and access all of Apple’s computational photography enhancements.
The 15 Pro includes a telephoto module with 3x optical zoom, a feature absent from the standard iPhone 15. The 15 Pro also supports 28mm and 35mm digital zoom modes for more dynamic portrait shots, and you can even set one of these focal lengths as your default option. Selfies on the 15 Pro benefit from Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) on the 12MP front-facing camera.
The new A17 chip in the 15 Pro models enables them to capture 4K 60fps in ProRes RAW with support for the ACES color profile, Additionally, 3D spatial videos that work with the Vision Pro headset will be available.
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Slower USB-C Speeds of Apple iPhone 15
While USB-C is a welcome addition to the iPhone 15, it doesn’t offer a significant speed improvement over the Lightning connector, as it’s still based on USB 2.0 technology. This means you’ll experience the same maximum transfer speeds of 480 Mbit/s, while the USB Type-C 3.0 connector on the 15 Pro offers speeds of up to 10 Gbps – that’s over 20 times faster.
Faster speeds are particularly advantageous when transferring large video files, and you can even shoot 4K 60fps ProRes videos directly onto an external SSD for more substantial projects, which is a valuable addition for videographers. However, do note that you’ll need to provide your own Thunderbolt cable since Apple ships all new iPhone 15 models with USB 2.0 Type-C cables.
P.S. If price is your primary consideration, you can still opt for an iPhone 13, which Apple is now offering at a reduced starting price of $599/€729/£599. You won’t be missing out on much compared to the standard iPhone 15.
