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Intro
Last year, Apple brought back the "Plus" version to the iPhone lineup, giving us a bigger-screen, budget-friendly option to the iPhone Pro Max. Now, with the iPhone 15 series officially unveiled, the company is sticking to the same "new and improved" idea with the iPhone 15 Plus. But what's the deal with the regular iPhone 15 and how these two stack against each other?
Apple isn't straying too far from the standard model with the iPhone 15 Plus. The main differences are just the screen size and battery. Both of these fresh models rock last year's A16 chip and feature a camera upgrade, borrowed from the Pro lineup of 2022. Plus, they now have that funky pill-shaped cutout and the cool Dynamic Island feature. What are the differences, then?
Let's not get ahead of ourselves. We've measured the brightness of both displays, done a thorough evaluation of the battery life through real-life tests, put both processors through their paces in order to give you the best comparison between the two phones and ultimately, answer one very important question you all might be asking yourselves: "Which one should you get?"
Read on to find out!
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For better of for worse, there are no big differences in design this year. Apple hasn't made a radical change in the past couple of generations, and the glass-aluminum trend continues with the iPhone 15 series. This time around the back glass sports a textured matte finish, a small change compared to the last generation glossy backs.
Now, obviously, the iPhone 15 Plus can be viewed as a bigger version of the iPhone 15, both phones are nearly identical. The biggest difference is the size, the iPhone 15 Plus sports a 6.7-inch screen, while the vanilla iPhone 15 comes equipped with a smaller, 6.1-inch display.
This preserves the status quo between the Plus models and the regular iPhone, so the plus-sized iPhone seems to be a well-performing concept for Apple. Not much else can be said here, the colors for the non-Pro models in the iPhone 15 series are the same, you can find them below.
iPhone 15 Plus and iPhone 15 color options:
Black
Green
Pink
Blue
Yellow
(Image credit - PhoneArena)
The big change this year is the transition from Lightning to USB-C, so don't be surprised when you see that port on the bottom of the iPhone 15 series. Both the iPhone 15 Plus and iPhone 15 come equipped with this port.
The other design difference is the retirement of the notch, all iPhone 15 series models now come with a pill-shaped cutout in the display to accommodate the front camera and hardware, and this includes the Dynamic Island software feature as well.
In terms of real-life experience, obviously, both phones feature the same design but one is larger than the other. This changes everything, with or without a case. If you like smaller, more compact phones, then the iPhone 15 is the right one for you. During our testing we found out that it's more comfortable, especially for one-handed operation. If big phones don't bother you, and you prefer the additional screen estate, then go for the iPhone 15 Plus.
Display Differences
It's all about that size, size, size
(Image credit - PhoneArena)
The display size is one of the biggest (if not THE biggest) differences between the iPhone 15 Plus and the iPhone 15.
The iPhone 15 comes with a 6.1-inch OLED screen with a 60Hz display refresh rate and 800 nits of brightness (1,600 HDR peak brightness, 2,000 nits peak outdoor brightness), and the same goes for the iPhone 15 Plus, with the only difference being the size—we're taking about a 6.7-inch OLED with the same 60Hz display refresh rate.
The CIE 1931 xy color gamut chart represents the set(area)of colors that a display can reproduce,with the sRGB colorspace(the highlighted triangle)serving as reference.The chart also provides a visual representation of a display's color accuracy. The small squares across the boundaries of the triangle are the reference points for the various colors, while the small dots are the actual measurements. Ideally, each dot should be positioned on top of its respective square. The 'x:CIE31' and 'y:CIE31' values in the table below the chart indicate the position of each measurement on the chart. 'Y' shows the luminance (in nits) of each measured color, while 'Target Y' is the desired luminance level for that color. Finally, 'ΔE 2000' is the Delta E value of the measured color. Delta E values of below 2 are ideal.
The Color accuracy chart gives an idea of how close a display's measured colors are to their referential values. The first line holds the measured (actual) colors, while the second line holds the reference (target) colors. The closer the actual colors are to the target ones, the better.
The Grayscale accuracy chart shows whether a display has a correct white balance(balance between red,green and blue)across different levels of grey(from dark to bright).The closer the Actual colors are to the Target ones,the better.
The lack of ProMotion might be a downer for some, as might be the omission of an Always On mode, but these two are tied together, and you can't have one without the other, so to speak. The good news is that the notch is no longer present, and the Dynamic Island feature does its magic on the pill-shaped cutout on both the iPhone 15 Plus and the standard iPhone 15.
As you can see from our display benchmarks above, both phones perform almost identically when it comes to display brightness, color accuracy and color temperature, so display quality shouldn't be a deciding factor if you're trying to pick one of these two models.
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Performance and Software
Last year's grace
The hardware situation around the iPhone 15 Plus and the iPhone 15 is pretty clear. Both phones inherit the A16 chip from last year's Pro models, and this silicon is a known entity, so we knew what to expect even before we completed our tests. The performance between the two models is virtually identical, with small fluctuations inside the expected margin of error.
The performance jump over the previous models, namely the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus is there, again unsurprisingly. The new iPhones also manage to maintain the gap to the nearest Qualcomm-equipped rivals, getting on top of CPU-centric synthetic benchmark tests. The situation with GPU tests is much more complicated with the S23+ pulling ahead, and the iPhone 14 Plus displaying the least thermal throttling of the bunch.
As for the RAM, the situation is the same, both the iPhone 15 Plus and the iPhone 15 sport 6 GB of RAM, just like their predecessors, but this time it is a faster version, LPDDR5. Given the same hardware and software inside these two, the day-to-day performance and experience is also identical - fast, snappy, and fluid.
The storage options are also identical for both phones, starting at 128GB and moving through 256GB to land at the largest 512GB option. As for software, the iPhone 15 Plus and the iPhone 15 run iOS 17 out of the box, this next-gen version of Apple's mobile OS has already landed and it is available for download.
Among the highlights are updates to Phone, iMessage, and FaceTime, along with the introduction of a fun new feature called NameDrop. You can now check out our iOS 17 review as well, if you need a deep dive and some first hand experience with Apple's latest mobile OS. You can also check out the latest software updates that Apple already rolled out.
iOS 17.1 is official as well as iOS 17.2 are out, and they bring the promised AirDrop over the internet features, along with bug fixes, and improvements to StandBy mode, and finally, the ability to record Spatial Video (only for the Pro models). Check out our detailed article for a deep dive.
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The camera configuration is identical on both the iPhone 15 Plus and the iPhone 15. However, we're looking at a new main camera featuring a 48MP sensor inherited from the Pro models of last year. By the way, both phones output 24MP images from the main sensor as a default.
There's some magic going on here, as the images are first captured as 12MP shots through 4-1 pixel-binning, and then processed to increased detail and stored as 24MP files. Check out some samples below.
The ultrawide and selfie cameras are also identical on both phones, and not only that, but these are the same cameras we've already seen on the iPhone 14 series entry level models. Which is not a bad thing per se, as these cameras produce very pleasing shots. The bigger upgrades, of course, are reserved for the Pro models in the iPhone 15 lineup.
This new high-resolution 48MP sensor allows for what Apple calls Optical-quality 2x telephoto, which is actually just a crop from the full-resolution. 2X shots look great but neither of these phones is a true telephoto champion. You have to get the Pro Max for that.
The selfie camera is again the same as the one in the previous model, а 12-megapixel snapper that supports Portrait mode, Night mode and 4K, 60FPS video recording.
All in all, you shouldn't take the camera into consideration if you're trying to decide between the iPhone 15 Plus and the iPhone 15, both of which have the exact same camera systems.
Audio Quality
Boom, boom, boom
The loudspeakers Apple uses in its iPhone models are generally of very high quality and produce a nice, balanced, and rich sound. The same quality is preserved in this year's iPhone 15 Plus and iPhone 15 models, alongside the stereo setup, which uses the speakerphone as a second, well, speaker.
The bigger body of the iPhone 15 Plus gives that model a slight advantage when it comes to bass and resonance, giving it more oomph in the low frequencies (they need more space to travel and resonate properly).
The Taptic Engine is another strong point on most iPhones of late, and the same excellent strong and tight vibrations are present on both models.
Battery and Charging
Welcome, USB-C
The big change (and a needed one) in the iPhone 15 lineup is the switch to USB-C. Sadly, the USB 3.0 is reserved for the Pro models, so the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus feature the same charging and transfer speeds as their predecessors, despite the new connectivity. Apple cites 50% in 30 minutes with a 20W charger, so it's the same old, same old. You'll find the charging profiles of both phones below.
Here we have the other big difference between the iPhone 15 Plus and the iPhone 15 - the battery size. The bigger body of the Plus model allows for a larger battery. The Plus sports a slightly larger 4,383mAh battery than its predecessor, while the vanilla iPhone 15 also bumps up the capacity to 3,349mAh.
The iPhone 15 Plus beats the iPhone 15 in our battery benchmarks, which is expected, numbers don't lie. What's really interesting is that in some of the test the iPhone 15 is struggling to match its predecessor, even though the A16 chip should be more efficient than the A15 found in the iPhone 14.
Which one should you choose, then? It's a very straightforward question, given that these two phones are almost identical. It's pretty much down to screen size and battery life. If you like big phones, then the iPhone 15 Plus is the right one for you. If you prefer a more compact form factor, then get the iPhone 15.
Things are not so simple if you're upgrading from a previous generation iPhone or an Android device. Again, the same basic rules apply here, but if you already have the iPhone 14 or the iPhone 14 Plus, there's little to no reason to get the new models.
Mariyan, a tech enthusiast with a background in Nuclear Physics and Journalism, brings a unique perspective to PhoneArena. His childhood curiosity for gadgets evolved into a professional passion for technology, leading him to the role of Editor-in-Chief at PCWorld Bulgaria before joining PhoneArena. Mariyan's interests range from mainstream Android and iPhone debates to fringe technologies like graphene batteries and nanotechnology. Off-duty, he enjoys playing his electric guitar, practicing Japanese, and revisiting his love for video games and Haruki Murakami's works.
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