Apple iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max Smartphones Review – Apple launched the new Apple iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max smartphones in September 2023. It was launched globally with units shipping later in the same month. So, you can get the device no matter where you live. The new Pro iPhone brings some of the best changes in iPhone history and plans to seriously shake up the flagship smartphone category.
At first glance, the new smartphones may look just like the previous version, iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max, but your thoughts will change the moment you pick them up, thanks to the use of Titanium in the build materials. That’s just one of the many goodies that the new Pro iPhones bring this year. There’s a lot more to these new smartphones, so let’s start the review of both iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max and find out all it has to offer.
Table of Contents
Apple iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max Smartphones Review
Highlights
- The Apple iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max feature a 6.1 and 6.7-inch Super Retina XDR OLED display. Both displays have support for Full HD+ resolution, 120Hz refresh rate, Dolby Vision, HDR10, and 2000 nits peak brightness.
- The chipset inside smartphones is a new 3nm Apple A17 Pro 5G hexa-core SoC clocked at 2×3.78GHz.
- Both Apple iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max arrive with iOS 17 out-of-the-box and should get 5 – 6 years of iOS updates.
- The new smartphones feature the same 48MP triple rear camera system with a 12MP selfie camera.
- The Apple iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max have Li-Ion 3274 mAh and 4441 mAh batteries respectively. It supports wired fast charging, a 15W wireless fast MagSafe charger, and 4.5W reverse wired charging.
Design and Display
The Apple iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max come with a new material called Titanium. This is the biggest change in the iPhone history since Apple first introduced the iPhone X with Stainless Steel six years ago. The use of Titanium in the new Pro iPhones allows for better protection against drops and is also lighter. That’s because Titanium is significantly stronger and lighter than Stainless Steel and Apple used Grade 5 Titanium, which is a really expensive variant of Titanium.
So, Apple left no stone unturned when it comes to build quality. The front and the rear are both made of custom ion-strengthened glass, designed by Corning. There is a new Action Button that replaces the iconic Mute Button that was previously available in all iPhones. The Action Button is a force-touch button that reacts according to the force and provides feedback to mimic the feel of a real button. This button can be configured for anything, including mute, launch camera, launch an app, and a lot more.
On the front, the iPhone 15 Pro features a 6.1-inch LTPO Super Retina XDR OLED display, while the iPhone 15 Pro Max features a 6.7-inch LTPO Super Retina XDR OLED display. These display panels have support for all the Pro capabilities like FHD+ resolution, Dolby Vision, 120Hz refresh, and HDR10. Also, being an LTPO display, the refresh rate can go as low as 1Hz to save battery and this allows Apple to feature an Always-on display. The displays can also get plenty bright at 2000 nits peak brightness under direct sunlight. The Apple iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max are made available for purchase in Black Titanium, White Titanium, Blue Titanium, and Natural Titanium.
Memory and Internal
Apple equipped both the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max with the new 3nm Apple A17 Pro 5G chipset. This hexa-core chipset is clocked at 2×3.78GHz, which is the highest clock frequency we have ever seen in smartphone history. There’s no doubt this is the fastest mobile processor in the world and may stay this way for a year until Apple releases a new mobile chipset. The raw CPU power that this processor has is beyond most ordinary people’s capability.
That means it won’t exhibit any slowdowns even after 5 – 6 years of usage and may get iOS updates even after that. Apple smartphones are known for their long software support. It also has a new 6-core custom Apple GPU that comes with hardware-based Ray Tracing support, which can a new level of graphics fidelity when supported game release with this feature. Speaking of games, this chipset can even play console-level games like Resident Evil Village, Resident Evil 4 Remake, and even the latest Assassin’s Creed Mirage that was just released.
These are console-level AAA games and this goes to show the true power of the Apple A17 Pro chipset inside the new Apple iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max. The new smartphones also have support for 5G connectivity and come with the latest iOS 17 out of the box. For memory and storage, the Apple iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max are available for purchase with 8GB of RAM and up to 128GB to 1TB of NVMe internal storage.
Camera
Both Apple iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max have a 48MP triple-camera setup, with a 48MP sensor as the primary camera, a 12MP sensor as the ultra-wide camera, and another 12MP sensor as the telephoto camera. While the primary and the ultra-wide camera is the same on both smartphones, the iPhone 15 Pro Max gets a supercharged telephoto sensor. The iPhone 15 Pro Max gets a new Tetraprism telephoto camera which can capture photos at 5x zoom optically. The regular iPhone 15 Pro maxes out at 3x.
The primary 48MP rear camera of both the new smartphones captures great detail levels, high dynamic, and accurate colors for all weather conditions, whether that’s sunny, cloudy, or overcast. The primary camera’s optimization truly shines and the results are clearly reflected. The 12MP ultra-wide camera captures photos with a 120˚ field of view without any distortions around the edges of the photos and also exceeds our expectations in terms of quality. While the telephoto camera remained the same in the regular iPhone 15 Pro, its capabilities have been vastly improved with the new sensor in the iPhone 15 Pro Max.
It packs some serious performance improvements and the image quality at 5x zoom is superb. It is also astonishing just how stable the tetraprism camera is at such high zoomed-in shots. Even during the night, both smartphones can capture some exceptional photos, including selfies. Speaking of selfies, there’s also a 12MP selfie camera in the front, which as we just mentioned, is incredible at capturing selfies, even during the night. When it comes to video recording, both rear and selfie cameras can shoot videos at ProRes 4K@60FPS and the video footage remains stable, thanks to the implementation of OIS with sensor-shift support.
Battery and Others
The Apple iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max have Li-Ion 3274 mAh and 4441 mAh batteries respectively. These high-capacity batteries will last more than 2 days with lighter usage. If you happen to watch a lot of movies and TV series, a fully charged iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max can play videos for over 10 hours. But if you play a lot of games, then the battery will drain faster and last lower than expected.
When it comes to charging, both Apple iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max support wired fast charging 15W wireless fast MagSafe charger, and 4.5W reverse wired charging. But if you don’t have a charger or an adapter, don’t worry as the new iPhones have USB Type-C connectors. So, you can use any USB Type-C charger and you will be fine.
Apart from that, the smartphones have support for dual-band Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.3, Face ID facial recognition system, Apple Pay, and Ultra Wideband 2. The Apple iPhone 15 is available at a starting price of $999 (Rs. 1,34,900 in India), while the iPhone 15 Pro Max is available at a starting price of $1199 (Rs. 1,59,900 in India).
Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max Pros and Cons
Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max Specifications Detail
Down below you can see the full specifications of the Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max smartphone.
| Specifications | Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max | Apple iPhone 15 Pro |
| Network | 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G | Same |
| Announced | September 2023 | Same |
| SIM | Nano-SIM and eSIM – International Dual eSIM with multiple numbers – USA Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by) – China | Same |
| Dimensions | 6.30 x 3.02 x 0.33 inches | 5.77 x 2.78 x 0.33 inches |
| Weight | 221 g | 187 g |
| Size | 6.7 inches | 6.1 inches |
| Display | LTPO Super Retina XDR OLED Always-On display 120Hz HDR10 Dolby Vision 1000-2000 nits brightness 19.5:9 ratio ~460 PPI density | Same |
| Protection/Others | Ceramic Shield glass IP68 dust/water resistant Apple Pay (Visa, MasterCard, AMEX certified) | Same |
| Resolution | 1290 x 2796 pixels | 1179 x 2556 pixels |
| OS | iOS 17 | Same |
| Chipset | 3nm – Apple A17 Pro | Same |
| CPU | Hexa-core (2x 3.78 GHz + 4x) | Same |
| GPU | Apple GPU (6-core graphics) | Same |
| Card slot | No | Same |
| RAM | 8GB | Same |
| Internal | 256GB, 512GB, 1TB NVMe | 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, 1TB NVMe |
| Camera | 48 MP (wide), dual pixel PDAF, sensor-shift OIS 12 MP (periscope telephoto), dual pixel PDAF, 3D sensor‑shift OIS, 5x optical zoom 12 MP (120˚ultrawide), dual pixel PDAF TOF 3D LiDAR scanner (depth) Dual-LED dual-tone flash, HDR (photo/panorama) Max – 4K@24/25/30/60fps 10-bit HDR, Dolby Vision HDR (up to 60fps), ProRes, Cinematic mode (4K@24/30fps), 3D (spatial) video, stereo sound rec. | 48 MP (wide), dual pixel PDAF, sensor-shift OIS 12 MP (telephoto), PDAF, OIS, 3x optical zoom 12 MP (120˚ultrawide), dual pixel PDAF TOF 3D LiDAR scanner (depth) Dual-LED dual-tone flash, HDR (photo/panorama) Max – 4K@24/25/30/60fps, 10-bit HDR, Dolby Vision HDR (up to 60fps), ProRes, Cinematic mode (4K@24/30fps), 3D (spatial) video, stereo sound rec. |
| Selfie | 12 MP (wide), PDAF, OIS SL 3D, (depth/biometrics sensor) HDR, Cinematic mode (4K@24/30fps) Max – 4K@24/25/30/60fps, gyro-EIS | Same |
| Loudspeaker | Yes (stereo speakers) | Same |
| 3.5mm jack | No | Same |
| WLAN | Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6e, dual-band, hotspot | Same |
| Bluetooth | 5.3, A2DP, LE | Same |
| GPS | GPS (L1+L5), GLONASS, GALILEO, BDS, QZSS, NavIC | Same |
| NFC | Yes | Same |
| Infrared port | No | Same |
| Radio | No | Same |
| USB | USB Type-C 3.2 Gen 2, DisplayPort | Same |
| Sensors | Face ID, accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, barometer Ultra Wideband 2 (UWB) support Emergency SOS via satellite (SMS sending/receiving) | Same |
| Battery | Li-Ion 4441 mAh Wired, PD2.0 15W wireless (MagSafe) 15W wireless (Qi2) – requires iOS 17.2 update 4.5W reverse wired | Li-Ion 3274 mAh Wired, PD2.0 15W wireless (MagSafe) 15W wireless (Qi2) – requires iOS 17.2 update 4.5W reverse wired |
| Colors | Black Titanium, White Titanium, Blue Titanium, Natural Titanium | Same |
| Expected Price | $920 (Rs 148,900 in India) approx. | $839 (Rs 127,990 in India) approx. |
Conclusion
The new Apple iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max phones brings a plethora of new features and capabilities that this new generation of iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max a worthy successor to the previous models. Every core component has been made better, and that vastly improves the user experience. The inclusion of Titanium, a better camera, and the new and improved chipset dramatically improved its value proposition and it’s all available at the same price tag as the previous model.
So, if you have been looking for the best iPhone ever and want to upgrade from an older phone, the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max are both excellent choices. However, they are not the only smartphone makers in the world. The smartphone industry is highly competitive and smartphones like Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra can be a worthy alternative to this model.
