Years ago, the smartphone market reached a point where the revolution left the field for evolution. To say that mobile devices are practically unchanged would, of course, be demagoguery and abuse. Changes and novelties appear, but they are much more subtle. They do not hit us in the face, as they did in the times of the first generations of iPhone or the first Android smartphones.
After three days spent with the latest iPhone 15 Pro, I can say what is probably obvious: Apple didn’t reinvent the iPhone. Of course, this does not mean that engineers from Cupertino have slept through the last year. iPhone 15 Pro is in many respects a better device than its predecessor.
Here are 6 things worth knowing about it.
1. Lighter and more comfortable
Just after pulling it out The refreshed design of the device attracts attention from the box. For the first time, Apple used in the design titanium, which replaced the stainless steel known from previous generations of iPhone. As a result, the 15 Pro weighs only 187 grams and it is lighter than the 14 Pro model (206g). It is also slightly slimmer (146.6 mm x 70.6 mm x 8.25 mm). It surrounds the casing aluminum frameand the back of the smartphone was covered textured matte glasswhich does not collect fingerprints.
What I particularly liked are: rounder edges and slightly rounded front. As a result, the iPhone 15 Pro fits very well in the hand and is more comfortable to use than the slightly angular housing of the 14 Pro model.
Another new feature that has already caused a lot of confusion is: additional button activities, which is located on the left edge, just above the volume buttons. It replaced the existing bell-mute switch (i.e. the iconic “slider” or “flick”).
The default function of the action button is to toggle between ringtone and mute (just like the slider mentioned above). The difference is that we can also assign other functions to the new button – e.g. turning on the recorder, camera or flashlight, or even switching between focus modes.
Theoretically (and in principle and practically), the introduction of this solution is a step forward that users should be happy about. The problem is that the iconic “flick” has over the years become one of the most characteristic features in the design of iPhones – suffice it to say that it has accompanied Apple smartphones since 2007, i.e. since the first generation of these devices.
2. The screen is still in a class of its own
When it comes to the screen, there are no major changes, or in fact, there are no changes at all. It’s still the same great display Super Retina XDR (OLED) with technology ProMotion and adaptive refresh rate up to 120 Hz (this is still reserved only for Pro models).
The so-called Dynamic Island, . The dynamic island houses the True Depth front camera lens and several other sensors. To mask its presence, Apple integrated this area with the notification system and with the applications themselves.
3. The A17 Pro chip will mess up the benchmarks again
As far as the basic versions of the iPhone 15 are powered last year’s A16 Bionic chip, their successor has been added to the 15 Pro models. The 6-core A17 Pro is Apple’s first chip made in a three-nanometer technological process.
Apple mobile processors basically every year they set standards for the entire industry and occupy first places in benchmarks and rankings. It is no different in this case. Apple 17 Pro is a real performance monster.
iPhone 15 Pro GeekBench
Apple boasts that this system is about 10 percent faster than its predecessor. I decided to check it out. In the GeekBench 6 benchmark, the A17 Pro chip scored 2941 points in the single core test i 7357 points in the multi-core test. The results for the A16 Bionic system were respectively 2517 and 6375 pts. So it turns out that that the Cupertino company does not mince wordsand the actual performance increase is even more than 10 percent.
During the presentation of the Apple iPhone 15 Pro devoted a lot of space to the gaming capabilities of this device. Suffice it to say that the redesigned GPU now offers support for the technology ray tracing. I must admit that the tested smartphone coped perfectly with every title I ran on it (including the quite hardware-demanding “Genshin Impact”). However, the real test will be AAA productions such as “Resident Evil Village” or “Assassin’s Creed: Mirage” , which – according to Apple’s announcement – will be available on the App Store platform in the coming months.
4. USB-C is finally here, but what does THIS cable do in the box?
Another important novelty that was talked about for a long time before the premiere of the iPhone 15, is the transition from the proprietary Lightning charging standard to the USB-C standard used by Apple’s competitors. This is the result of the European Parliament’s decision, which requires that all smartphones sold in the EU from autumn 2024 be equipped with a USB Type-C connector.
This change can only be applauded. Even in the “Apple universe” many devices have been using USB-C for a long time (e.g. iPads and MacBooks). Now all iPhone 15 models join this group, so there will be much less cable juggling in the future.
And speaking of cables, I must unfortunately say that Apple decided on an ugly trick here. The USB-C port in iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max supports the standard USB 3.1.which offers data transmission speeds of up to 10 Gbit/s. The problem is that the cable found in the box with the devices only supports the… USB 2.0 standard (this one is over 20 years old and offers a bandwidth of only 480 Mbit/s).
If we want to use the full bandwidth, we must purchase a cable that supports the USB 3.1 standard. Fortunately, it can be a cable from any manufacturer, not just the “original” one from Apple.
Changing the charging standard to USB-C also means that the iPhone 15 Pro can now be used as… łcharger for the second iPhone, headphones or other accessory. It’s a small thing, but it makes me happy. Especially for people who – like me – constantly forget to charge their AirPods cases.
5. Battery and camera? Tests are ongoing
It’s unreliable to make a final judgment about a smartphone’s battery life after just three days of testing. In the first days, the battery life may be noticeably shorter, for example due to the data indexing process after restoring the device backup. So I will reserve judgment on this particular aspect until the full review of the iPhone 15 Pro is published. Especially as more and more industry sources report battery drain problems in all iPhone models (both newer and older), which are said to be caused by the new iOS 17 system.
The same applies to the camera, which I will also devote a separate review to. So far, I don’t notice any significant changes in photo quality between iPhone 14 Pro and 15 Pro, but the devil is often in the details, so I need a few more days to thoroughly test all camera functions.
6. Apple took pity on us and prices went down
However, it can be clearly seen that Apple has lowered the prices of iPhone 15 Pro compared to last year’s models. Fortunately, because until now they were absurdly expensive. It’s still not cheap now, but the situation is more bearable. Prices for iPhone 15 Pro start at PLN 5,999, while for iPhone 15 Pro Max (256 GB) we will pay at least PLN 7,199.
Source: Gazeta
Mabel is a talented author and journalist with a passion for all things technology. As an experienced writer for the 247 News Agency, she has established a reputation for her in-depth reporting and expert analysis on the latest developments in the tech industry.
