iPhone 15 vs iPhone 15 Pro: Which Handset Should You Choose? | Tom's Guide
Our iPhone 15 vs iPhone 15 Pro comparison will help you decide which new iPhone is right for you. The iPhone 15 Pro series has a sleeker titanium design, new Action button and faster A17 Pro chip. But the regular iPhone 15 has plenty of welcome upgrades, including the Dynamic Island, USB-C and a 48MP camera.
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00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 The iPhone 15 and the iPhone 15 Pro
00:06 have some of the biggest differences
00:07 that I've seen in years,
00:08 but the regular iPhone 15 is more pro than ever.
00:11 So which one should you get?
00:12 I'm gonna break down all the differences right now.
00:15 Let's start with design.
00:18 The new iPhone 15 borrows the Dynamic Island
00:21 from the iPhone 14 Pro series.
00:22 As a reminder, the Dynamic Island gives you live updates
00:25 at the top of the screen for things like your flight status,
00:28 Spotify tracks, and more.
00:30 So it comes in really handy.
00:32 Finally, the iPhone 15 also offers USB-C support.
00:35 You get that for both the Pro and the regular models,
00:37 but there's a big difference that you need to know.
00:39 If you're transferring lots of files
00:41 and want to do it fast,
00:42 the iPhone 15 Pro series lets you do it with USB 3 speeds.
00:46 USB-C on the iPhone 15 Pro supports transfer speeds
00:49 up to 10 gigabits per second
00:50 versus just 480 megabits per second
00:52 for the regular iPhone 15.
00:54 The iPhone 15 has a Pro-like frosted glass back,
00:58 which gives you multiple color options,
00:59 which includes blue, black, green, yellow, and pink.
01:03 I like it, but it's almost too Pro-like.
01:05 So let's talk about titanium.
01:07 Both the iPhone 15 Pro and the Pro Max
01:09 have a titanium body, which is stronger and lighter
01:12 than the stainless steel on the previous Pro models.
01:15 I like the brushed metal look,
01:16 and I also like the fact that the bezels are much smaller
01:19 on the Pro models, which results in a more compact design.
01:22 Another big difference for the iPhone 15
01:24 versus iPhone 15 Pro is the new action button.
01:27 This replaces the ringer switch
01:28 and allows you to do all sorts of shortcuts.
01:30 So for example, you can launch the camera or the magnifier
01:33 or the voice recorder button all with a long press.
01:36 Overall, I like it, but I wish you could do
01:38 more than one action at a time.
01:40 The good news is that the iPhone 15
01:41 has the same super high 1600 nits of brightness
01:44 and 2000 nits when you're outdoors in direct sunlight.
01:47 So in terms of overall quality, they're very similar.
01:50 Just remember that only the iPhone 15 Pro series
01:52 offers 120 hertz refresh rate,
01:54 which means you get smoother scrolling
01:56 and better gameplay.
01:57 The iPhone 15 is still stuck at 60 hertz,
02:00 which is not okay for a 2023 flagship.
02:03 The iPhone 15 gets a big camera upgrade
02:05 with a new 48 megapixel sensor,
02:07 which is a big jump up from 12 megapixels on the last model.
02:11 Because of this jump in resolution,
02:12 you get a lot more pixels to play with,
02:14 which means for the first time,
02:16 you get a 2X optical zoom treatment on the iPhone 15.
02:19 So it's almost like having a telephoto lens.
02:22 All of the new iPhone 15 models are smart enough
02:25 to capture portrait shots
02:26 without having to enter portrait mode.
02:28 And you can change the focus point of your shots
02:31 after the fact.
02:32 Plus with improved smart HDR,
02:34 you're gonna see brighter highlights, better colors,
02:36 and more natural skin tones
02:38 in all sorts of lighting conditions.
02:40 But the iPhone 15 Pro series
02:41 continues to be the pro powerhouse
02:43 because you can shoot in 48 megapixel raw mode
02:46 and you get a 3X optical zoom on the regular iPhone 15 Pro.
02:51 The iPhone 15 Pro Max takes this to the next level
02:53 with a 5X optical zoom using a tetraprism lens.
02:58 Both the iPhone 15 and the iPhone 15 Plus
03:01 feature the A16 Bionic chip from the iPhone 14 Pro series.
03:04 So you should expect faster overall speeds,
03:06 especially if you're upgrading from an older iPhone.
03:09 But the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max
03:11 are both more future-proof
03:13 because they pack the new 3 nanometer A17 Pro chip.
03:17 So what does this mean for you?
03:18 The iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max
03:21 both offer 10% better CPU performance,
03:23 twice as fast machine learning performance,
03:25 and an all-new GPU that is 20% faster.
03:29 And with ray tracing support,
03:31 you're gonna get the closest thing
03:32 to console-based performance in an iPhone ever.
03:36 Apple doesn't list the battery capacities
03:37 for its new iPhones,
03:38 but we do know that they're rated for
03:40 16 hours of streaming video with the regular iPhone 15,
03:44 and it goes up to 20 hours for the iPhone 15 Plus.
03:47 The iPhone 15 Pro is rated for 20 hours
03:50 and the iPhone 15 Pro Max goes up to 25.
03:53 The amount of endurance that you're gonna see
03:55 depends on how you use your iPhone,
03:56 but we're gonna be testing all four new iPhones
03:59 with our battery test, which uses web surfing,
04:01 to see which one lasts longest.
04:03 Unfortunately, all of the new iPhones
04:05 are still rated for fairly slow charging.
04:07 They're all rated to get to 50% in 30 minutes.
04:10 And frankly, I was hoping for more,
04:11 especially when the Android competition charges much faster.
04:15 And that's a little bit of a bummer,
04:16 especially since USB-C gives you access to more power.
04:19 Now let's get into the pricing.
04:20 The iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus
04:23 start at the same $799 and $899 as the previous models,
04:27 and the iPhone 15 Pro starts at $999, the same as last year.
04:30 The iPhone 15 Pro Max has a little bit of a price hike
04:33 because now it starts at $1199,
04:35 which is $100 more than last year.
04:37 But the good news is that you get double the storage,
04:40 so it starts at 256 gigs.
04:42 Overall, I'm more excited about the iPhone 15 Pro
04:45 and the Pro Max because you get the titanium design,
04:47 the more powerful A17 Pro chip,
04:49 and the new action button.
04:51 And I'm especially excited for the Pro Max
04:53 because you get a 5X telephoto zoom.
04:55 But don't write off the regular iPhone 15.
04:57 In a lot of ways,
04:58 it's like you're getting the iPhone 14 Pro for less.
05:01 We have plenty more coverage of the iPhone 15 lineup
05:04 on tomsguide.com,
05:05 and be sure to follow us @tomsguide
05:07 on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and more.
05:09 For Tom's Guide, this is Mark Spoonhauer.
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