Apart from the charm that the Apple iPhone holds, this launched with some very serious issues. Durability, battery, heating, design, there are many issues with the new iPhone 15 Pro. However, it also solves the longest-standing problem with iPhones (Lightning port), and brings an end to the long-standing alert slider in favour of the rather useful action button.
After covering technology and reviewing gadgets for about 7 years, I have finally reached a stage where I am getting to review my first Apple iPhone. Naturally, given that it is my first iPhone review, I went for the high-end iPhone 15 Pro since I wanted to experience the best of Apple.
This year, the ‘Pro’ models in the Apple iPhone 15 series come with big changes. We FINALLY have a USB type-C port, a new Action Button which replaces the alert slider, the brand new Apple A17 Bionic chip, and Apple’s new camera smarts to compliment all of that. But that’s not all. We get a new Titanium Frame with a slimmer and lighter build.
Now, a couple of weeks into the life cycle of the new iPhones, we are hearing a lot of complaints by users, reviewers, and influencers alike about the new Apple iPhone 15, especially the Pro and Pro Max variants. We are hearing issues with the smartphone’s durability and heating, and in some cases, the battery. In this detailed review of the new Apple iPhone 15, I will address all those issues and tell you what the reasons could be and if I have faced the same with my Apple iPhone 15 Pro.
So I’ll start with what’s being doubted the most on this year’s Apple iPhone 15. The design. This year, Apple has moved to a Titanium frame on the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, moving away from the stainless steel frame that last year’s iPhone 14 Pro models had. This has reduced the weight of the iPhone 15 Pro significantly – 206 grams for the iPhone 14 Pro vs 187 grams for the iPhone 15 Pro – a good 19 grams weight reduction makes a lot of difference when you hold these two phones side-to-side.
Another design change this year is that the iPhone 15 Pro is marginally slimmer than the iPhone 14 Pro, and the edges are a bit rounded off in order to make the grip a bit better and easier. Now, using titanium is a logical step – it is a better conductor as compared to steel and aluminium and it is much lighter and stronger. However, the frames on the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max don’t really look as “premium” as compared to the stainless steel frames on the previous Pro models. Furthermore, the titanium on iPhone 15 Pro gets smudges way too easily. Like the moment I unboxed my iPhone 15 Pro, just putting my hand on the phone once gave the frame way too smudges.
Now coming to the design element that is being criticised the most, the build quality. Yes, from the moment you hold the new iPhone 15 Pro it doesn’t feel as sturdy and well-built as the previous Pro variants. But that is all for a good reason – to reduce the weight. The phone may not feel as well-built, but in my experience, it doesn’t feel that it is too fragile to just break into two pieces, unless of course my intention is to break it into two.
With whatever is available on the internet, I have not really seen the titanium frame break in half or anything. Yes, the back panel seems too fragile and while I can’t test the durability myself, there is a reason for the back panel being so delicate. This year, Apple has removed the metal back plate that was placed on the back of the glass panel last year. With the iPhone 15 Pro, the company has put that metal plate on the smartphone itself, which does make it more fragile, but at the same time, this makes replacing the back glass easier.
Overall, there aren’t many changes in the design. From a distance, the iPhone 15 Pro looks the same as the Apple iPhone 14 Pro. There are subtle differences. We have a titanium frame, which I’m not sure looks better than the stainless steel, but definitely makes the phone lighter. The edges aren’t as sharp and the slightly slimmer profile makes the smartphone marginally more handy as well.
Coming to display, Apple has always been considered one of the best. The Super Retina XDR AMOLED panel with ProMotion has been one of the bigger upgrades in the iPhones display since last year. The 6.1-inch 2K panel on the iPhone 15 Pro is also the brightest display we have ever seen on any iPhone so far. Apple claims a peak brightness of 2000 nits, which is the same as last year’s Pro variants, but according to our tests, there is a major improvement.
I used a Lux Meter to test the maximum luminance of the iPhone 15 Pro and the smartphone showed a peak brightness of 1998 on a plain white screen under bright sunlight. This basically means that Apple’s claims about the brightness are on point, and the Apple iPhone 15 Pro demonstrates fantastic sunlight visibility.
The ProMotion display works well, and there is a visible difference between the 60Hz iPhone 14 that I had used before this and the 120Hz refresh rate on the iPhone 15 Pro. The animations and scrolling through menus and apps is super slick. Like I have said earlier, with the 120Hz display, the iPhone had taken one step towards being and feeling like a complete smartphone.
Picture quality on the iPhone 15 Pro is also as good as it gets. This display also supports HDR10, HLG and Dolby Vision so you will be able to enjoy all HDR formats on this display. The colour accuracy and vibrancy is pretty similar to last year’s iPhone 14 Pro.
Coming to performance, the Apple iPhone 15 Pro has the new Apple A17 Pro chipset, which is the world’s first 3nm chip on a smartphone, and the new chip promises a lot! During Apple’s launch event, the company showcased that the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max can run many AAA games. Not the mobile version, the actual PS5 version of the game. While there is still some time for us to be able to enjoy things like this, it puts into perspective just how powerful this phone is. Here is a graph of just how the iPhone 15 Pro dominated the synthetic benchmark tests as compared to recently-launched flagships.
Before I get into my experience with the smartphone, let us address the major issues that have been coming up with the new iPhone 15 series. Issues that concern the performance of the smartphone like heating. The heating issues with the new iPhone were said to be due to the lack of a good thermal system design due to the slimmer and lighter design. However, Apple has now said that this is due to a software issue. In a statement, the Cupertino-based giant has said that the new iPhone 15 series may feel “warmer during the first few days after setting up because of increased background activity.” Apple has also said that some recent updates to third-party apps are causing them to overload the system.
My unit of the iPhone 15 Pro did definitely heat up while doing intensive tasks like using the camera or while playing games. However, during normal conditions, it is very random. For example, while browsing through social media and stuff, the iPhone 15 Pro won’t heat up, but the smartphone may just heat up while it’s in my pocket and I’m listening to music through my earphones. Even while charging the iPhone 15 Pro heats up sometimes, but sometimes it is absolutely normal.
Coming to the biggest upgrade this year, type-C! With type-C, the Apple iPhone has finally been opened up to new possibilities. We get on-drive data processing, faster data transfer speeds (although the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus have USB 2.0 speeds), and much more. The charging speed, however, has remained the same at 25W. In our 0-100 charging test, the iPhone 15 Pro took an hour and 27 minutes (87 minutes) to charge from 0 – 100 percent.
The battery of the iPhone 15 Pro is bad. With everything online about the new iPhone 15 series, battery is also one of the issues, and with good reason. The battery on the iPhone 15 Pro doesn’t last as much. While on paper, we have a slightly bigger 3274mAh battery and a 3nm chip, which should technically be better, but that is not the case. At least not always. For example, on an average the iPhone 15 Pro is giving me more than 5 hours of on-screen time. However, there are days when the Apple iPhone 15 Pro has also given me more than 9.5 hours of on-screen time.
While my personal experience has been a bit of a hit and miss, in the battery tests also, the iPhone 15 Pro didn’t show any impressive results. While gaming it lost 4 percent of its battery in a 15 minute Call of Duty: Mobile session. GPS navigation for 1 hour took up 9 percent of the battery, and in the video loop test, I was able to drain the smartphone’s battery in just 6 hours! This is one of the lowest times in the recent battery tests I have done on smartphones this year.
Like I said, this is my first iPhone review and the first time I have experienced a “Pro” iPhone. Needless to say, this is a different level of camera experience. Like many of our prominent reviewer friends have said, the “Pro” in Apple iPhones is mostly directed towards the camera. As I write this review after using the iPhone 15 Pro for about two weeks, I’m still not done playing around with this camera.
Before I get into it, let us get the specs out of the way. This year, we are seeing a slightly bigger primary 48-megapixel shooter, a 12-megapixel ultrawide angle shooter which also acts as the macro lens, and a 12-megapixel telephoto lens. Now, the upgrade isn’t as major in the hardware department, but in terms of software, there are a lot of new things.
Firstly, all images from the iPhone 15 Pro’s primary shooter are 2x pixel binned, instead of the 4x binning we saw in the previous iPhone 14 Pro models. This means that by default, the smartphone puts out 24-megapixel images. It does so by clicking a full 48MP image and a 4x binned 12MP image and then combining them to create a 24MP image. Not only this, the new Image Signal Processor enables you to click images faster, and it also enables the automatic portrait feature on the new iPhones, where it will automatically take a portrait if it detects a single subject in a frame. You can also go back and forth between using the image as a portrait or using it as a normal photo.
The photos from this camera are very good. Photos are detailed, they have a very good dynamic range, and represent colour quite accurately. Like all iPhone cameras, the photos from this are more true-to-life. Furthermore, photos from the wide angle and telephoto lens also remain consistent, meaning they are as good as the ones from the primary shooter.
In low light, the iPhone performs well. Both photos and videos are very good. However, in some cases, you will get light flare in and around light sources. Portraits, like always, are one of the best on any smartphone. I also used 3x optical zoom quite a lot since of course, we get iPhone photos with optical zoom. Like there is enough to make you want to be more creative.
The iPhone 15 Pro also has other features to play around with. For example, the cinematic mode and action mode are two of the things that I find myself using quite often when I want stable, cinematic footage of something. This year, the video capabilities on the iPhone Pro models have gone a step ahead towards being “Pro.”
This year, we can shoot videos in a log mode, which basically gets rid of all software enhancements that Apple has in place, giving creators proper raw footage that they can easily play around with. Pair that with USB type-C’s ability to record and save and process data on a drive, and you can very well guess why this is as “Pro” as a device can get for creators.
So overall, the biggest upgrade on iPhones since maybe the last three years. For me, this is the biggest update since maybe USB type-C became a thing. And this is also the first time I am reviewing the iPhone, so the experience is kind of overwhelming. I want to talk about everything in way more detail than a few words allow and while it’s time to end this review, I am left thinking if I have even touched upon everything.
Apart from the charm that the Apple iPhone holds, this launched with some very serious issues. Durability, battery, heating, design, there are many issues with the new iPhone 15 Pro. However, it also solves the longest-standing problem with iPhones, and brings an end to the long-standing alert slider in favour of the rather useful action button. The cameras, as usual, are superior to everything out there in terms of the video capabilities and compatibility. So yes, overall the iPhone 15 Pro is one of the most important iPhone upgrades of all time but if you are an iPhone user, the upgrade only makes sense if you’re using an iPhone 12 series or older.
