Apple Announce iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max

By James
September 13, 2023

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A new titanium finish
Upgraded A17 Pro chip set
Upgrades cameras and a new action button

Apple have unveiled the new iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max models, alongside a new iPhone 15 and 15 Plus. The big headline change everyone knew was coming is the move to a USB-C connection, replacing the lightning port. This standardises the iPhone series connectivity to bring it in line with most Android phones, newer iPads and games consoles.

The new design uses a titanium frame instead of stainless steel which has resulted in a far lighter Pro model – in fact, it weighs 19g less than the 14 Pro series. It’s similar now in weight to the iPhone 11 Pro.

Apple have removed the mute switch from the side of the Pro models and replaced with a customisable action button which can be used for other shortcuts such as activating Siri, the camera or, yes, muting the phone. It supports long press, press and double press.

iPhone 15 Pro: Design & Display

The iPhone 15 Pro has a 6.1 inch display, whilst the larger Pro Max model is 6.7 inch. Both use the new titanium frame design – the same titanium used in some spacecraft apparently. It has a brushed texture, slightly contoured edges, and a reduced bezel/edges which means the actual phone is smaller than the 14 Pro series, whilst retaining the same display size.

The glass on the front is the same as the 14 Pro series, with Ceramic Shield. The actual display is a Super Retina XDR which supports 120Hz ProMotion and Always-On. Thanks to iOS 17 you can also utilise Standby mode which allows you to use the always-on display as a desk clock or other widget-enabled tool.

iPhone 15 Pro: Action button

The new action button replaces the mute switch and can be used to activate the camera, torch, voice memos, focus modes, translate or features like Shortcuts or the Magnifier.

iPhone 15 Pro: New A17 Pro chip

Both the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max are powered by Apple’s new A17 Pro chip, giving them a performance boost versus the A16 found in the iPhone 15 model. Not only is the new chip faster, but it can support powerful graphic features such as hardware-accelerated ray-tracing, smoother graphics and augmented reality applications. This means we’ll see plenty more console games make their way over to iPhone, including confirmed titles such as Resident Evil Village, Resident Evil 4 and Death Stranding.

iPhone 15 Pro: Camera

This is where many of the 15 Pro upgrades have occurred, with the equivalent of seven lenses on each model. There is a 48MP (megapixel) main camera which also supports a 24MP default setting for more reasonable file sizes. The main camera has three main focal lengths – 24mm, 28mm and 35mm – any of these can be set as the default too. The main camera supports 48MP ProRAW and 48MP HEIF which is useful for photographers who like to do a lot of editing with their photos after taking them.

The 15 Pro also houses a 3x Telephoto camera (like the iPhone 14 Pro), whilst the 15 Pro Max takes it to another level with a 5x zoom which is the longest optical zoom ever on an iPhone. Supported by optical image stabilisation, it should mean fewer blurry photos when zoomed in on your subject.

Portrait-mode is now applied to the main camera setting too which means you can change any photo into a Portrait-mode snap after taking it as the 15 Pro captures all the extra depth info it needs.

Night mode has had an upgrade so it performs better in low light which should result in sharper images and more vivid colours.

In a update coming later this year, the iPhone 15 Pro will support spatial video recording for the Apple Vision Pro, this means users will be able to capture footage in three dimensions and the play it back within the Vision Pro headset when it eventually launches in 2024.

iPhone 15 Pro: Emergency SOS

The entire iPhone 15 line up supports Crash Detection and Emergency SOS via satellite. It’s currently available in 14 countries with more rolling out this month, including Spain and Switzerland.

iPhone 15 Pro: Colours and Pricing

iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max will be available in black titanium, white titanium, blue titanium, and natural titanium finishes. iPhone 15 Pro will start at £999 and is available in 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB storage capacities. iPhone 15 Pro Max starts at £1,199 and is available in 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB storage capacities.

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