iPhone 15 Pro Review: enter the era of USB-C

This year, Apple has made quite a few big changes to the iPhone 15 Pro: a switch to titanium which made the phone so much lighter, some welcome camera changes that can up your photo game, and the world's first 3nm chip as well as a number of smaller improvements.

But it seems that as cool as those changes are it is actually the simple switch to a USB-C port — the same port all other gadgets use — that most people are really excited for.

And while Apple has tweaked and changed many things, battery life, the one area where everyone was hoping to see improvement, well... it hasn't improved much, if at all.

Also, reminder: if you are looking for that cool new 5X zoom lens on this smaller iPhone 15 Pro... well, it's not here! That lens is only available on the larger Pro Max model, and you can learn more about it in our iPhone 15 Pro Max review.

As you can see above, the iPhone 15 Pro total score is now lower than one might expect. That is not because of some new iPhone flaw, but because we have implemented a new rating system at PhoneArena that gives readers a better idea of the performance of a phone across different categories. Remember to look at the scores and compare them to the average for the class, and we belive you will find these scores tremendously useful. Learn more about the new PhoneArena Review Scoring system here.

The box the iPhone 15 Pro comes in is nice and slim, but that also means that you don't get a charger there.

You do get a white, braided USB-C cable, however, this cable only supports USB 2 speeds, while the iPhone itself supports the faster USB 3 standard. So if you want to connect this to an SSD and transfer files at faster rates, you'd need to buy a USB 3 cable separately.

Before we dive deeper in individual features, here is an overview of the iPhone 15 Pro specs:

The iPhone 15 Pro keeps the familiar compact 6.1-inch form factor, but while the overall shape and size remain similar, it is not exactly the same as the previous 14 Pro model.

First, Apple switches to titanium: a more durable and lighter-weight material used for the railing of the phone (the internal frame is still aluminum). Titanium replaces the shiny stainless steel rails we had before, and the reduced weight alone makes it worth it. The darker models still catch fingerprint smudges, but the lighter models do not, so keep that in mind.

The other big change is the new USB-C port on the bottom. To that we say: finally!

Apple has already been using USB-C for years on Macbooks and iPads, and Android phones also use a USB-C port, so this will definitely make our lives easier. No more cable clutter!

You also get faster transfer rates via USB-C at 10Gbps speeds, an improvement of 20X over the slow Lightning connector. Keep in mind though that the USB-C cable included in the box does not support these faster transfer rates, but here is a selection of the best USB-C cables for iPhone 15 Pro if you need these faster speeds.

In terms of buttons, we have the familiar power (on the right) and volume (on the left) physical keys, but instead of the Mute Switch above the volume buttons, we now have the new Action Button.

You quickly get the hang of it and it requires a long press to work, which is nice so that you don't accidentally do something while you fiddle with your phone in your pocket. It defaults to a mute switch function, but you can change it to launch the camera or... well, literally anything via the Shortcuts app. Some clever suggestions what to do with the Action button are to start Google Assistant (smarter than Siri!), or to start your Spotify music playback. Let us know in the comments what have you set the Action button for.

In terms of hardware and sensor sizes, all three cameras appear to have the same specs as the iPhone 14 Pro.

However, thanks to the new A17 Pro chip and a new processing pipeline, the iPhone 15 Pro now supports sensor crop at 1.2X and 1.5X zoom, aka 28mm and 35mm focal lengths. Apple says these are practically two new "lenses", and we can indeed confirm that the quality is very similar to that of a dedicated physical camera lens. Best of all, these new "lenses" are perfect for everyday photography. The standard 24mm 1X camera is just a bit too wide and we have immediately changed the default setting on the iPhone 15 Pro to 1.5X which is so much better.

Another new processing trick that makes a huge difference for quality is what Apple calls Super High Res picture mode. Essentially, this is a new default resolution: the iPhone 15 Pro now shoots pictures in 24-megapixel size, up from 12MP on previous models. This is a great middle ground between low-detail 12MP shots and high-detail but very large 48MP files.

With this new image format, the excessive over-sharpening from the 14 Pro is now also fixed. This is great news and it elevates the camera quality of the iPhone 15 Pro so much higher than before.

The iPhone 15 Pro keeps the familiar 3X zoom lens. Some people are really excited about the 5X zoom lens on the Pro Max model, which you don't get here, but that one comes at the expense of quality in the 3X to 4.9X zoom range, and even at 5X zoom level, the iPhone 15 Pro model has a good amount of detail and is not too far behind the 15 Pro Max.

If you often take pictures at 10X zoom or further, then sure, the iPhone 15 Pro Max will take noticeably better shots, but if you rarely go that far, you will still be very happy with the 3X zoom lens and you can also use it for portrait mode photos.

There are no big changes to the ultra-wide camera and it still takes photos at the same 12-megapixel resolution as before. This is one lens we expect Apple to upgrade next year on the iPhone 16 Pro series.

There are subtle tweaks to front camera images with improved skin tones and HDR, and most of the cases you will not notice any difference in quality, but every once in a while you get to see the new iPhone 15 Pro capture a much better looking selfie when the 14 Pro fails.

In low light, the iPhone 15 Pro automatically captures 12MP images and the new 24MP resolution is not available. The reason for that is that Apple combines four pixels into one with the quad pixel binning process to reduce noise at night. But despite the 15 Pro having the same 12MP resolution as the previous model, in low light images look a bit cleaner. It's not a huge difference, but if you look closer you will spot less noise and less oversharpening which is a good thing. You really need to pixel peep for that though.

Unfortunately, despite improvements in the lens coating, you still get lots of flaring when you point the iPhone 15 Pro towards a bright light at night.

The ultra-wide camera captures good looking shots at night too.

Video quality on the iPhone 15 Pro is improved in some very minor ways, but it remains ahead of the competition, so Apple is in no rush to improve here.

The main camera records up to 4K60 footage with clean, crisp detail and excellent video stabilization. You also have smooth transition between the various cameras.

But if you are a professional you know the one feature you are coming for: ProRes video. And yes, you can record to an external SSD super easy, just plug it in and you see a USB-C signage appear that indicates that the footage goes directly to the SSD. Keep in mind that those files are gigantic, but the quality is really something else and it gives all the freedom to edit in post.

The iPhone 15 Pro will also support Spatial Video, which is captured with both the ultra-wide and main cameras shooting simultaneously to capture depth. You can then re-live those video moments in a very immersive way on the Apple Vision Pro headset. That feature, however, is only coming later this year and is not immediately available.

 

We have rigorously tested the camera on the iPhone 15 Pro and above you can see the results of those tests. We carefully measure the performance of all cameras in various test scenes, ranking the performance across important metrics like exposure, subject exposure, color accuracy, detail, artifacts and more. We do these tests for both photos and videos. 

You can learn more about our PhoneArena Camera Score testing protocol here.

You also have the new Qualcomm X70 modem here, which helps the phone get better and more consistent signal. You also have Wi-Fi 6E for the first time on an iPhone.

Another thing to remember is that the iPhone 15 Pro only works with eSIM in the United States, so you cannot just pop in your physical SIM card. International models, however, still use a regular, physical SIM card.

The iPhone 15 Pro launches with the new iOS 17 software, which all previous supported iPhones get as well.

And remember, iOS 17 is making its way to even older models, going back to the iPhone XR.

iOS 17 brings significant improvements to the Phone, Messages and FaceTime apps, plus a few smaller quality of life changes including better autocorrect (finally!), as well as a new way to trigger Siri by just saying “Siri” instead of “Hey Siri”.

The changes to the Phone app will probably end up most noticeable as you can now now set a Contact Poster for yourself which will be displayed full-screen on other iPhones when they receive a call from you. NameDrop is another new trick where you just bring your iPhone close to another one to exchange contact info. And in the messages app, you will be able to reply with animated stickers created from your Live Photos, a nice personal touch to the experience.

We also love the new Standby Mode where your phone will act like a mini home hub displaying useful information while it’s charging.

Other new features include interactive widgets, mood tracking in the Health app, as well as a brand new journaling app.

The best part of owning an iPhone is the software update support. Apple typically deliver five or even six years of software updates, so this means an iPhone 15 Pro will get the following:

Talk about a future-proof device!

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However, the actual iPhone 15 Pro battery life remains the same as on the previous model, at least according to the official iPhone 15 Pro battery life numbers by Apple:

But let's put this phone to the test and see if this is indeed the battery life you will see in real life.

In our testing, the iPhone 15 Pro scored lower than the previous model, and chances are that this is because of the higher clock speed of the processor that puts an extra strain and you can feel the phone getting a bit warmer than usual. For just regular use, without much multitasking, you should see similar battery numbers on the 15 Pro as on the 14 Pro, but with more intense use, the newer 15 Pro would probably last you a bit less than before.

This is a bigger deal than it may sound. USB-C on iPhones means we get closer to that one-cable-for-everything future, and we get far less cable clutter. But it also opens a world of possibilities. You can now easier connect an external drive directly to your iPhone or an SD card reader to transfer pictures from your DSLR or mirrorless camera to name just a few prospects.

The iPhone 15 Pro unfortunately does NOT support faster charging speeds.

One bright spot however are the faster USB 3 transfer rates that go up to 10Gbps, nearly 20 times faster than before. Keep in mind, though, that you need a special cable for that and that cable is not included in the box.

Other changes like the new USB-C port make life so much easier, and so does the new Action button. All of that also comes at the same starting price in the US, while in the UK and Europe Apple is even slashing the prices.

At the end of the day, the iPhone 15 Pro is a nice upgrade, but with some very specific features that you may or may not care about, and it doesn't changes the battery life which most people would care about.