The iPhone 15 is nearly here, at least, probably. Apple hasn’t released much in the way of official details about its next best smartphone, but a glut of leaks, analyst predictions and insider speculations has given us an inkling of what to expect.
The headline message is clear: expect more changes than those brought by last year’s iPhone 14. Speedier and more power-efficient processors, higher resolution periscopic lenses, USB-C, and a handful of surface design alterations – and it shouldn’t be long until we have confirmation of them all.
With those new features, though, could also come a less welcome iPhone 15 price hike. Hopefully, that’s one rumor that will be proved wrong.
iPhone 15 release date
We expect the iPhone 15 to appear in the middle of September, though Apple hasn’t yet confirmed an official launch date.
Apple plans to reveal the iPhone 15 on September 12 or September 13, before the smartphone goes on sale a week later on September 22, according to Bloomberg’s own sources. That corroborates an earlier report from 9to5mac, which claimed some mobile carriers have requested employees to refrain from taking time off work on September 13 in expectation of a major smartphone reveal.
All signs point to that being the iPhone 15. The last several iPhones have been released in September (barring the later October launch of the iPhone 12), with the iPhone 14 hitting shelves on September 16, 2022. The iPhone 15 is unlikely to be different.
iPhone 15 price
The iPhone’s price has remained static for the past few years, with the last three generations of the standard model launching for $799. But a report by Bloomberg claims it’s all changing for the premium-tier iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max, as Apple plans to increase prices in anticipation of slowing projected phone sales.
The company is already dropping hints that a price rise is on the way. During a quarterly earnings call last February, Apple CEO Tim Cook said “the iPhone has become so integral into people's lives” that customers are “willing to really stretch to get the best they can afford in that category”. iPhone devotees, in other words, can suck it up.
For reference, here are the retail prices of the 128GB versions of the iPhone 14 models. The iPhone 15 probably won’t look too different:
- iPhone 14: $799
- iPhone 14 Plus: $899
- iPhone 14 Pro: $999
- iPhone 14 Pro Max: $1,099
iPhone 15 models
Like the last few generations of Apple’s flagship smartphone, the iPhone 15 line-up is expected to consist of four models: the iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max.
A report from the top of this year suggests the Pro Max may be renamed Ultra, though Bloomberg later walked back on those claims and suggested Apple instead plans to introduce the Ultra as a distinct, higher-tier model in 2024.
iPhone 15 features
As ever, big changes are coming to the iPhone camera. Apple industry and markets analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicts both the standard iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus will inherit the 48-megapixel camera sensor of the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max. It’s a sizable upgrade on the 12-megapixel camera that’s been a feature of the last three generations.
The iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max, however, are expected to get an even snazzier periscope lens. Already found on a handful of premium smartphones, periscope lenses essentially support high levels of optical zoom, letting you capture crisp pictures from a distance. With the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra sporting a 10x zoom periscope lens and the Google Pixel 7 Pro a 5x zoom, Apple may well be looking to catch up.
The Dynamic Island – the pill-shaped black cutout at the top of the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max – is expected to become a staple feature too. It’s essentially an interactive notification area that replaces the top notch, which has been a mainstay of the phone’s design since the iPhone X. It can display music controls, incoming phone calls, AirDrop transfers, and a bunch of other app alerts. And since it’s interactive, the notification cutout can be expanded, shrunk, or split in two if displaying multiple background activities. While it was previously only a feature of last year’s Pro iPhone models, several insider rumors suggest it’ll hop over to the standard iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus.
For a while, it was also thought the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max would ditch their typical side buttons in favor of solid-state haptics that could vibrate and change intensity in response to pressure. But after Ming-Chi Kuo and others first hinted at the idea, they’ve more recently suggested that development issues have delayed integration, and Apple has reverted back to its standard physical button design.
iPhone 15 specs
It’s likely the whole iPhone 15 line-up will get a beefy chipset upgrade. Model identifiers pulled from the back end of a recent tvOS update suggest the standard iPhone 15 and Plus models will adopt the A16 chip found in the current iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max.
The next-gen A17 chip, meanwhile, looks to be reserved for the coming Pro and Pro Max. It’ll be Apple’s first 3-nanometer chip and, according to one prolific leaker, will feature six CPU and GPU cores, each running at up to 3.7GHz. That will offer the usual performance improvements, but its manufacturer has also reportedly boasted it will reduce power consumption by up to 35%, according to a report from Bloomberg – a big boon for battery life. More unusually, a recent report by The Information claims that the same manufacturer has signed a deal to exclusively develop the 3-nanometer chips for Apple for a full year before making them for competitors. If true, it’ll be one way Apple keeps ahead of the game.
Analysts have also predicted the iPhone 15 will include a newer ultra-wideband communications chip to support compatibility with Apple’s recently unveiled mixed-reality headset, the Vision Pro. Apple has framed the headset as a consumer and commercial device that directly will integrate with several core iOS apps. Improving the connectivity between the headset and other Apple devices seems like a natural step to shoring up the Apple ecosystem.
iPhone 15 design
At the top of the list of potential iPhone 15 design features is the disappearance of the Lightning port. After the EU introduced legislation last year requiring that all phones sold within its member countries use USB-C, Apple confirmed it would comply with the changes. It has until 2024 to do so, and is yet to clarify whether this year’s iPhone line-up will be the first to feature the port. It’s also yet to explicitly outline whether all iPhone models will make the switch to USB-C or just those sold within the EU.
Renders of the iPhone 5’s design provided to 9to5Mac by a Chinese case manufacturer show a USB-C port in place. They also show a handful of other design tweaks: more acute curving around the frame, more protruding camera lenses in a square array, and a slightly thinner screen bezel for the Pro models.
More significantly, rumors suggest the mute switch – which has been present since the first iPhone – will be replaced by an Action button. It’s claimed to function as an all-purpose, programmable shortcut that can instantly open various apps and features. An iOS 17 beta build from July mentions several functions that can be assigned to it: silent mode, camera, flashlight, accessibility, focus, magnifier, translate and voice memos. We’ll have to wait to see exactly how it works in practice if it is even real in the first place.
