All new iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro Max features

The biggest iPhone 15 Pro Max vs iPhone 14 Pro Max changes will be the addition of a periscope zoom camera and the removal of the mute switch for the sake of an Action Button, both for the first time on an iPhone. The Action Button - with Accessibility, Camera, Flashlight, Focus, Magnifier, Shortcuts, Silent Mode, Translate, or Voice Memo functions - is be similar to the one Apple has on its Watch Ultra, while the new iPhone 15 Pro line looks like this:

Apple finally entered the era of folded zoom lens with the camera on the iPhone 15 Pro Max with a 5x optical zoom and 120mm equivalent. It seems to approach the task somewhat differently than the periscope zoom on, say, the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, with a number of refraction optics bouncing a beam of light in a zigzag manner.

The zoom upgrade is not the only new camera option on the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, though, as Apple also upgraded the main 48MP camera with a new larger sensor that allows for 2x better light sensitivity which comes in handy for night and portrait shots.

At up to 5x optical zoom magnification, with a 12MP 1/3" sensor and f/2.8 aperture, Apple still needs to do some catching up to the 10x zoom of the Galaxy S23 Ultra, or the 50MP periscope zoom camera sensor of the Oppo Find X6 Pro that beats Samsung in low-light zoom photos. Apple added 3D Sensor Shift image stabilization for the first time on a phone, though, but we'd wait to see how it processes zoom shots before we make any conclusions on hardware alone.

The other big new iPhone 15 Pro Max feature is the move to titanium for the frame instead of the stainless steel that Apple uses on the Pro models. It has allowed for much thinner bezels and lighter phone, as, let's face it, the iPhone 14 Pro Max was quite a heavy and blocky chubster. We say was, since Apple no longer sells it.

Together, all this new hardware and design features only raised the base price of the iPhone 15 Pro Max by $100, though, and that's for double the base storage of its predecessor.

The smaller iPhone 15 Pro has all the iPhone 15 Pro Max upgrades - Action Button, titanium frame, thinner bezels, new Apple A17 chipset, and USB-C port - save for its periscope zoom camera, driving an even wider specs gap wedge in the 2023 iPhone models, this time between the Pro and Pro Max versions. All that titanium doesn't cost you extra, too, but leads to lighter iPhone 15 Pro!

The big new iPhone 15 Plus feature is the 48MP camera with a 65% larger sensor from last year's Pro line. It should offer better image quality and allow the phone to achieve more detailed 2x zoom photos, as it crops from the main sensor.

While the iPhone 15 Plus keeps the low 60Hz refresh rate display of its predecessor, it uses Samsung's modern M12 OLED display generation across the lineup, making for a much brighter 2000 nits panel compared to the 14 Plus. Moreover, Apple got rid of the notch on its cheaper phone models, too, and included the Dynamic Island cutout on the Plus version as well. The iPhone 15 Plus also ships with the 4nm Apple A16 processor instead of the new 3nm A17 with 15% lower power consumption of the 15 Pro.

The biggest iPhone 15 vs iPhone 14 changes are the 48MP camera and Apple 16 processor from the 14 Pro line, and a twice more luminant screen with the Dynamic Island cutout heretofore reserved for the Pro models.

The processing upgrade to a 4nm Apple A16 chipset offsets the more power-hungry screen and the iPhone 15 keeps its battery life of up to 20 hours when running video on the iPhone 15. Plus, there is now be a USB-C connector at the other end of the charging cable, for added convenience.