The new iPhone 15 Pro weighs less than any Pro model Apple has made, because its frame is titanium. Apple introduced the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max on September 12, 2023, saying the alloy is the same kind used in spacecraft.
The phones come in 6.1-inch and 6.7-inch sizes and in four finishes: black, white, blue and natural titanium. Pre-orders opened Friday, September 15, with sales starting Friday, September 22. Apple says the titanium bands wrap a substructure of 100 percent recycled aluminum.
“This is the most pro lineup we have ever created,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.
Chip, button and port
Both phones run on the A17 Pro, which Apple calls the industry’s first 3-nanometer chip. The company says the CPU is up to 10 percent faster, the GPU up to 20 percent faster and the Neural Engine up to twice as fast as before. The GPU gets hardware ray tracing, which Apple puts at four times faster than the software version. Apple named Resident Evil Village, Resident Evil 4, Death Stranding Director’s Cut and Assassin’s Creed Mirage among the console games coming to the phone.
A new Action button replaces the ring/silent switch. Users can set it to open the camera or flashlight, start Voice Memos, switch Focus modes, run Translate or Magnifier, or fire a Shortcut.
The charging port is now USB-C, and that is the change many buyers will notice first. One cable charges an iPhone, Mac, iPad or second-generation AirPods Pro, and the phone can power AirPods or an Apple Watch directly. With a USB 3 cable, data moves at up to 10 gigabits per second, which Apple says is as much as 20 times faster than before. ProRes video can be recorded straight to external storage at up to 4K and 60 frames per second.
Cameras
The 48-megapixel main camera shoots at a 24-megapixel default and lets users pick between 24 mm, 28 mm and 35 mm focal lengths. The Pro has a 3x telephoto lens. The Pro Max goes to 5x at 120 mm, the longest optical zoom on any iPhone, using a tetraprism design.
Portraits no longer require switching modes. When a person, dog or cat is in the frame, the phone records depth data automatically, and the focus point can be changed afterward in the Photos app. Later this year, the iPhone 15 Pro will record spatial video for Apple Vision Pro.
Connectivity and safety
Both models add Wi-Fi 6E and a second-generation Ultra Wideband chip, which Apple says triples the range for Precision Finding between two iPhones. They are the first smartphones with Thread support.
Roadside Assistance via satellite debuts in the U.S. for drivers with car trouble and no cell or Wi-Fi coverage. It connects them to AAA and is free for two years. Emergency SOS via satellite, available in 14 countries and regions, was due to reach Spain and Switzerland later in September. The phones ship with iOS 17.
