Apple has officially released the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus, and the major news is the inclusion of a USB-C connector. Finally! We’ve been waiting for the iPhone to adopt the widely used USB-C standard rather than Apple’s proprietary Lightning connection. Apple said last year that it will move to USB-C to meet with forthcoming European Union laws, and the iPhone 15 is now the first iPhone to do so.
The iPhone 15 begins at $799 for a 128GB device, while the iPhone 15 Plus begins at $899 for a 128GB model. Both are set to be released on September 22nd, with preorders beginning this Friday.
USB-C is great news, but if you were looking for a completely new iPhone 15 design, you’ll have to wait until next year. The iPhone 15 looks substantially the same as the iPhone 14 before it, with the 6.1-inch display remaining unchanged.
The Dynamic Island will be included with all iPhone 15 models. That’s the pill-shaped cutout that originally appeared on the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max, allowing users to read alerts and engage with applications in a new way. The iPhone 15 also sports Apple OLED Super Retina display with 1,600 nits of brightness that supports Dolby Vision content. In direct sunshine, the peak brightness of its display is 2,000 nits, which is double that of the iPhone 14.
Aside from the evident USB-C and Dynamic Island modifications, the most noticeable addition to the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus is an enhanced camera system. The primary camera sensor has been upgraded to a 48-megapixel sensor, up from the 12-megapixel sensor present in the previous iPhone 14. There’s also a 12-megapixel telephoto lens, and portrait mode upgrades mean you won’t have to manually convert to portrait mode any more.
Apple is also enhancing the iPhone 15 camera’s night mode, Live Photos, and action mode. If you enjoy taking selfies, the front camera has autofocus and portrait lighting.
Apple is also updating the chip within the iPhone 15 to the A16, which was present in last year’s iPhone 14 Pro versions. Because of the bigger battery, Apple promises “all-day battery life” with the iPhone 15. Like the new Apple Watch Series 9, the iPhone 15 features a second-generation ultra wideband processor. This enhances communication to other devices that are further away, and it can enable precise searching in discover My, making it simpler to discover friends who have the latest iPhone 15 models.
The iPhone 14 retained much of the design of the iPhone 13. Last year, there was no Mini option, and one of the more notable iPhone 14 innovations was Emergency SOS, an emergency message system that operates via communication satellites when you’re beyond of cell signal range.
Apple is releasing new iPhone 15 models, as well as a new Apple Watch Series 9, which contains an updated chip with increased GPU performance, a second-generation ultra wideband chip, a “double-tap” capability, and other features.
