As soon as I first touched the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max after Apple’s annual fall event on Tuesday, I could feel one major refinement compared to previous iPhone Pro models. The new premium iPhones are made with titanium instead of the stainless steel used to construct last year’s iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max, making this year’s models lighter and easier to hold. While the titanium shell is the most immediately noticeable difference for 2023, there are several other new features that stand out on the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max.
In recent years, Apple used its Pro phones to push the envelope with tech advances, while keeping the standard models with the previous year’s tech, likely to reduce costs and incentivize upgrading to the pricier premium models. That’s proved true with the standard iPhone 15 and 15 Plus, which get last year’s 14 Pro perks. The iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max carry on this tradition, and since rumors of an iPhone 15 Ultra were unfounded, these are Apple’s most advanced phones yet.
Watch this: Everything Apple Announced at Its iPhone 15 Event
11:36
Better cameras, better zoom
The iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max have a 48-megapixel camera with a larger sensor. The photos are 24 megapixels by default, and lidar scanning augments low-light and night photography. The phones also have a 12-megapixel ultrawide camera inherited from last year’s iPhone 14 Pro.
But the big feature this year is better zoom, though only for the larger premium phone. The Pro retains its predecessor’s 3x telephoto camera (equivalent to a 77mm lens), while the Pro Max has a 5x optical zoom (equivalent to a 120mm lens) — a “tetraprism” design that refracts light multiple times to enable more zoom within the iPhone’s compact frame. When I tried the Pro Max’s new telephoto camera out, it was eye opening what a difference 5x made over 3x on the 15 Pro. I was even able to digitally zoom to 25x magnification which is ridiculous for an iPhone.
Watch this: What the iPhone 15’s Spatial Video Feature Means for the Vision Pro
04:20
