Apple today introduced the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus, the Watch Series 9 and the Watch Ultra 2. But the stars of the event might have been the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, its latest flagship smartphones. The devices have a number of new features including a titanium frame, the A17 Pro chipset, an action button and more. The new titanium case has a brushed surface. It makes the iPhone lighter than any previous Pro model while increasing durability. The frame has a contoured edge for a more comfortable hand feel. The edges around the display have also become significantly slimmer.
The Apple iPhone 15 Pro now has an action button instead of the previous mute switch. Press and hold to toggle between ringing and muting, with haptic feedback indicating a change in status. You can also switch between different actions. This includes recording voice memos, launching the camera or a specified app, or activating a feature.
A17 Pro chipset
The new Apple phones also feature a new chipset – the A17 Pro, which is manufactured using a 3 nanometer process. Also, the A17 Pro has a six-core CPU for 10% faster CPU performance and 20% faster GPU performance. It also features a 16-core neural engine that is twice as fast to accelerate machine learning. The Neural Engine is responsible, for example, for autocorrect or cropping motifs in an image. It can process up to 35 trillion operations per second.
There is also a brand new GPU with a shader architecture developed by Apple. According to Apple, this is the largest redesign in the history of Apple GPUs, with a focus on performance and efficiency, running complex applications and new rendering features. It offers hardware-accelerated ray tracing and new mesh shading functions. You can play console games like Resident Evil 4 directly on the iPhone 15 Pro.
First periscope zoom camera on an iPhone
The Apple iPhone 15 Pro also features an improved camera system. The main camera has a larger sensor and a new coating to reduce lens reflections. This should enable better portraits in poor lighting conditions and generally better images in night mode. There’s also a new 24-megapixel standard mode with expanded resolution. The iPhone 15 Pro Max’s periscope telephoto camera offers 5x optical zoom at 180mm focal length with a 25% larger sensor. Apple combines the whole thing with optical image stabilization and an autofocus 3D sensor shift module. The ultrawide camera features a new anti-reflective coating as well as improved night mode and Smart HDR.
The new USB-C port for charging and data transfer is also a premiere. The A17 Pro supports transfer speeds of up to 10Gbps with a USB 3 cable. For example, you can transfer your 48 megapixel ProRaw photos to a MacBook or record ProRes videos directly to an external storage drive. Higher quality recording options are available for external drives, with support for the first time for 4K60fps and log encoding.
Next-generation portrait mode
Like the standard models, the Apple iPhone 15 Pro features a next-generation portrait mode. This automatically detects when there is a subject in the picture and switches to portrait mode. There are also new focus and depth control tools that allow you to change the focus from one person to another after the photo is taken. Night mode has also been improved and thanks to Smart HDR, the device can capture the sky and the subject at the same time.
A new second-generation Apple Ultra Wideband chip is also on board. It establishes connections over three times the distance and can track friends who share their location directionally like an AirTag. The devices also support Wi-Fi 6E, Qi2 charging and Thread, opening up future possibilities for home app integration. Building on Emergency SOS via satellite, it is now possible to connect to a satellite for roadside assistance. Call audio quality has been updated with a more advanced machine learning model that prioritizes your own voice.
Apple iPhone 15 Pro prices
The two new Pro models are sold in the colors Titan Black, Titan White, Titan Blue and Titan Natural. The Apple iPhone 15 Pro starts at $999 and is sold with storage capacities of 128 GB, 256 GB, 512 GB and 1 TB. The iPhone 15 Pro Max is available from $1,199 euros with storage capacities of 256 GB, 512 GB and 1 TB. Sales start on Friday, September 15th, 2023.
