Does it make sense to upgrade to iPhone 15?
Apple announced its long-awaited phone last night and now we can make an iPhone 15 vs iPhone 14 writing with peace of mind!
Apple convened its annual iPhone launch event at its Cupertino, California headquarters, Apple Park, on Tuesday.
During this event, the company introduced the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus, which come equipped with USB-C charging capabilities and start at a base price of $799. In addition to this, Apple unveiled the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max models.
Subsequent to the event, Apple's stock experienced a decline of approximately 2% for the day. The presentation itself was delivered in the form of a pre-recorded video, commencing at 1 p.m. ET.
If you have missed Apple's ''Wonderlust'' event, catch it from the YouTube video by Apple below.
So without further ado, here is our iPhone 15 vs iPhone 14 comparison.
iPhone 15 vs iPhone 14: Design and build quality
The iPhone 15 boasts a familiar design but with several notable updates. The rounded edges on both the front and back provide a comfortable grip, while the new matte finish on the glass gives it a distinct look.
The al side rails and IP68 dust and water resistance ratings remain unchanged from the iPhone 14. However, the mute switch has been replaced by an "Action Button" on the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max models.
This versatile button can be configured to perform various tasks, such as activating the flashlight, initiating a Focus mode, running a custom shortcut, or simply muting the phone like its predecessor.
Additionally, Apple has switched to USB-C charging, meaning you can bid farewell to your Lightning cables. The new iPhone 15 USB-C port allows for faster file transfers and charging, thanks to the EU's mandate.
iPhone 15 vs iPhone 14: Performance
The iPhone 14 marked a significant departure from tradition by introducing a split chip distribution. In this configuration, the base models retained the previous-generation A15 chip, while the iPhone Pro models received a performance boost with the newer and faster A16 chip.
As anticipated, the iPhone 15 continues this dual-tier chipset strategy. The standard iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus are equipped with the A16 chip, which previously powered the Pro series from the preceding year. Meanwhile, the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max step into the limelight with Apple's cutting-edge A17 Pro chip. This particular chip is a momentous development for tech enthusiasts, as it represents Apple's inaugural foray into the realm of 3-nanometer chip fabrication—a claim Apple proudly touts as an industry first for smartphones. Beyond the technological achievement, what truly matters is the tangible impact on users, which can be distilled into one key benefit: a faster smartphone.
While the A17 Pro maintains a 6-core CPU configuration akin to its A16 predecessor, Apple asserts a remarkable 10% increase in processing speed. Moreover, the 16-core Neural Engine delivers a performance boost of up to twice the speed of its predecessor. However, the A17 Pro distinguishes itself from the earlier Pro models of the iPhone 15 in several other ways.
Most notably, it features a redesigned GPU with six cores, a notable upgrade from the five-core GPU found in the A16. Apple claims this enhancement results in a 20% increase in graphical performance. Additionally, the A17 Pro introduces new features, such as improved video quality thanks to a state-of-the-art AV1 decoder, and the capability to handle tasks like rendering HDR video at 4K and 60 frames per second. Notably, the iPhone 15 Pro, equipped with the A17 Pro chip, supports hardware-accelerated ray tracing.
Apart from all that, we have previously reported that the iPhone 15 series will reportedly get larger batteries across all models and that is the case now. iPhone 15 is offering a larger and optimized battery now.
iPhone 15 vs iPhone 14: Camera enhancements
The iPhone 14 introduced significant camera enhancements when it succeeded the iPhone 13. These enhancements encompassed two key improvements. First and foremost, all four models now boast an auto-focusing selfie camera. Secondly, the Pro models received a substantial boost with the inclusion of a 48MP primary camera.
Apple has embraced inclusivity by making the 48MP main camera standard across all iPhone 15 models. Nonetheless, disparities in sensor quality still distinguish the iPhone 15 Pro models from their more affordable counterparts in the realm of photography.
In fact, the iPhone 15 Pro models have received several unique camera enhancements of their own. Both models now offer versatile focal lengths, including 24mm, 28mm, and 35mm, providing users with greater flexibility in their photography. Additionally, the iPhone 15 Pro Max has introduced an innovative "tetra prism" telephoto lens, offering an impressive 5x zoom capability and a focal length of 120mm.
Apple justifies the absence of this remarkable camera feature in the standard iPhone 15 Pro, citing space constraints. Consequently, the exclusive privilege of the "tetra prism" telephoto lens lies with the most premium iPhone 15 Pro Max.
Moreover, both Pro models benefit from software-based improvements not shared by their more budget-friendly counterparts. These enhancements include a cutting-edge Photonic Engine designed to enhance low-light photography and the powerful A17 Pro chip, which drives the capabilities of the new Pro iPhones to new heights.
iPhone 15 vs iPhone 14: Price
Apple maintained the pricing structure of the iPhone 14 in alignment with its recent flagship iPhone iterations. This entailed a $799 base model for the iPhone 14, a $999 price point for the iPhone 14 Pro, and a $1,099 cost for the iPhone 14 Pro Max. The only alteration was the discontinuation of the $699 iPhone 13 mini, replaced by the introduction of the new $899 iPhone 14 Plus model.
However, for international customers, the scenario was less favorable. In the United Kingdom, the pricing commenced at £849 for the iPhone 14, £949 for the iPhone 14 Plus, £1,099 for the iPhone 14 Pro, and £1,199 for the iPhone 14 Pro Max—representing an increase of at least £100 compared to their iPhone 13 counterparts.
Similarly, in Australia, the pricing trend mirrored that of the UK, with the iPhone 14 at AU$1,399, the iPhone 14 Plus at AU$1,579, the iPhone 14 Pro at AU$1,749, and the iPhone 14 Pro Max at AU$1,899, all exceeding the costs of the previous year's models.
In the United States, however, the pricing landscape for the iPhone 15 exhibited a distinct pattern. Only the new Pro Max variant of the iPhone 15 saw a price hike, now commencing at $1,199, marking a $100 increase over its predecessor.
In contrast, the other models maintained their starting prices, with the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus remaining at $799 and $899, respectively, while the iPhone 15 Pro retained its introductory price point of $999.
Now you: Do you consider getting the new iPhone 15?
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Really the only thing I dislike about MacOS as a whole is the way Apple updates the OS with huge update file downloads. Actually 700Mb is small compared to some Apple has released which are in the gigabyte size. These large file sizes also translate to long update times as well.
I like Emre, Onur, Shaun and Eray’s articles more, Ashwin and Martin are always complaining about something instead of getting excited and sharing their excitement with the world.
Ever since I started bookmarking their pages my mood has been so much better, I’m glad to be free of the depressing vibe the two of them have. Damn it feels good to just enjoy life and not look for things to complain like I used to while I were under their influence.
Personally I really like @Ashwin and @Martin articles both equally. Please respect the authors.
You realize that none of the authors you like are real people, right? They are AI bots ‘writing’ articles that are basically taken from product advertisements (e.g., “Get Protected the Right Way With Avast Free AntiVirus” Really?) So, yes they are excited, but the excitement comes from advertising copy. No real world negativity from those sources.
My approach is to use a UBlock Origin filter to block all the articles except those by Martin and Ashwin. It has made the site readable again for me.
I would like to achieve that as well. Mind sharing some UBlock tricks & tips? :)
@ Anonymous,
Go to this link from yesterday https://www.ghacks.net/windows-11-update-stuck-fixed-for-good/#comment-4573146 and scroll down to the post by “Anonymous said on September 2, 2023 at 1:33 pm” He (or she) posted instructions on how to skip articles written by users other than Martin and Ashwin.
You might want to consider changing your name before you post to make it easier for users to identify your comments.
@Herman Cost
You can add this to your rules in uBlock Origin:
ghacks.net##.hentry,.home-posts,.home-category-post:not(:has-text(/Martin Brinkmann|Ashwin/))
@John World. Than you dude. So much better.
Why does Martin even allow this garbage to ruin his website. Every single article not written by martin and ashwin reads like sensational clickbait, I don’t care about if I should buy the latest apple product every week, new roblox cock rings that don’t pull your pubic hair, elon musk’s new body spray or whatever bullshit these bots can come up with.
+I like Emre, Onur, Shaun and Eray’s articles more
you’ve made my day
It’s not the EU’s fault that Bing is such a crappy search engine. In any event it’s built into the OS and Microsoft does its best to convince users to adopt it over Google by making it the default search tool. A great Many Windows 11 users are not technically minded and don’t know how to switch to another search engine and just accept their lot.
In any event I hope the EU Commission doesn’t allow Microsoft to pull the wool over their eyes.
Both Google and Bing are now worthless. Nowadays, Yandex is the only search engine that finds anything I’m looking for.
Try https://sear.be.
Yandex is Russian and under Putin’s control. Search results you get may not be accurate and possibly manipulated to give you a false sense of security depending on what you’re looking for.
Bing is absolutely a gatekeeper. Except for countries such as China and Russia that have their own search engines (Baidu and Yandex), most of the world’s searches relies on just two search engines: Google and Bing.
Alternative search engines overwhelmingly get their search results from Bing. DuckDuckGo, Ecosia, Qwant, Swisscows, Excite, Lycos, Yahoo, You, etc. all use Bing behind the scenes for their results.
StartPage originally used the Google search engine for it’s results, but have also started using Bing as well recently.
Microsoft also use Bing as the default search engine in Windows (such as the Start menu search, Taskbar search, desktop search bar, Edge sidebar, etc.) and use Bing as the default search engine in Edge – which is the default browser on Windows. Windows has greater than 70% desktop market share and is used by more than two billion people.
Not to mention Microsoft’s anti-consumer efforts when it comes to Bing. They have a history of malicious intent by aggressively trying to trick users who use a different search engine and browser into resetting their default search engine and browser back to Edge and Bing (by displaying unscrupulous popup dialogue boxes and full screen pages prompting the user to change their settings back to the “recommended settings” – which is Edge and Bing).
@ ECJ,
Microsoft’s Bing has managed to sidestep the EU’s Digital Markets Act for now arguing that it doesn’t qualify as a gatekeeper: https://www.computerworld.com/article/3705935/eu-lists-gatekeepers-to-be-regulated-opens-imessage-and-bing-investigations.html
The easiest way to avoid Bing is never to use Edge. It’s not mandatory and you’re free to use which browser you wish. I use Floorp myself which is a Firefox fork with many extra privacy configurations. https://floorp.app/en/download/
“A report claims that Apple is developing an affordable MacBook series”
Its is time to stop posting Rumors as reports.
Apple has already a Chrombook killer. It is called : iPad.
I can see Apple getting concerned about losing sales to Chrome OS devices. Given that K-12 kids have probably been using Chromebooks and would be familiar with that platform going off to college. I remember when Apple ruled K-12 computer rooms and because they simply out priced the educational sector. Google managed to take a huge bite out of educational market especially with COVID. I never thought iPads worked in a K-12 setting, and mac’s are too expensive. I doubt Apple can really make a MacBook below $500 which would compete with Chromebooks.
I managed hundreds of ipads for schools when I worked at an MSP – ipads are certainly OK, and boy are they hundreds of times better than Android tablets. Chromebooks suck so much, their market penetration into school system became real when schools received a bunch from government
Apple has always had great diffculty grasping what “low cost” means. I don’t have much faith in them ever generating anything that can compete with a Chromebook, but I’ll buy it if they do. I don’t want a Google OS, Windows is getting painful, and I’m tired of hearing how great Linux is from people who don’t use it.
I agree with the posters above about the usefulness of using a uBO filter to limit the posts I see on this site to those from Martin and Ashwin.
While Apple has patched iOS 16 for this, they haven’t yet indicated if they’re going to for supposedly-still-getting-security-updates iOS 12 (the latest OS option for the millions of still-in-use iPhone 6) and iOS 15 (still in use on millions of iPhone 6s to 8, which can’t be upgraded to 16).
I hope they do. Long-term support is one area where Apple phones crush Android, and it’s the #2 reason I use them (#1 is because not a privacy nightmare).
Apple has now released security updates for iOS 12 and 15 to address this issue. This is how you keep loyal customers.
Released an update for iOS 15, yes; for iOS 12, no. It’s not clear from reading their release notes if this means iOS 12 is not affected, or if they’re just not bothering.
M3 won’t move the needle much on performance. Honestly, Apple has put itself in a bind making the M1 really good. Probably the first time when Mac users can have some real lasting performance. But that also means that many won’t be persuaded to upgrade as often either. I am using a M1 MacBook Air and a M1 Mac mini and have yet to even entertain upgrading to a M2 or even a future M3 model of either because I am very satisfied with the M1 performance.
I like iPhone in general have owned iPhones for many years. But I don’t see these Apple events inspiring me to want to upgrade and spend hundreds to get what few improvements offered up.
People still watch this nonsense? As I get older technology no longer excite me.
I love it – Apple took an objectively bad thing and turned it into something people don’t hate. “It’s not that our front camera/sensors cover up screen real estate, this is uhh, a dynamic island… Yeah! It’s a feature actually, you’re lucky to have it”.
@ bruh,
I like iPhone too, but you have to be a virtual millionaire these days to own one and I don’t have the kind of money required to purchase one I’m afraid.
2015??
“Sorry Series 8, Apple Watch Series 9 is as powerful as it is handsome”
“Apple to release iOS 17 and iPadOS 17 on September 18, and macOS Sonoma on October 26”
“Apple unveils the Apple Watch Series 9 and Watch Ultra 2”
“Apple Watch Ultra 2 packs a punch to the older generation”
“Does it make sense to upgrade to iPhone 15?”
“iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max with Ray Tracing, Action Button announced”
“Apple announces iPhone 15 series with USB-C port, Dynamic Island”
Seven Applespams, all pushed out within a few hours. You should rename this site “AppleHack”.
I can’t believe people waste their money on smartwatches. The world has truly gone insane.
A total waste of money. Thats why people can’t afford basic necessities anymore. They just keep falling for Apple’s BS every year.
That is, if you don’t mind paying for Apple and their US Gestapo friends reading your most intimate data to use it against you.
> Apple also updated the macOS Sonoma 14 web page to reveal the release date of its desktop operating system. Sonoma will be released on October 26.
This is not true. The website says September 29. I have no idea where your October 26 comes from.
> Rumors suggest that Apple could announce the first M3 Mac in October, though another reliable leaker quashed hopes for any new MacBooks.
I am not aware of any _current_ rumor that suggests that there will be a M3 Mac before 2024.
Is this again an AI written article?
Just an FYI on the USB C situation.
The iPhone 15 and 15 Plus only use the USB-C end-connector. The actual cable attached to it transfers data at the many years old Lightning cable speed, which is USB 2.0 based. (Max 480 Mbits/s in ideal lab conditions.)
If you want iPhone USB data transfer at true USB 3.0 speed, then you have to pay more to buy the iPhone 15 Pro or 15 Pro Plus, which transfers data at actual USB 3.0 speed (5 Gbit/s in ideal lab conditions).
Just another example of Apple using absurd (and very mean-spirited, IMO) down-grading of their lower-priced phone hardware. I mean, who else would sell an $799+ phone in 2023, using a data port that transfers at USB 2.0 speed?
The USB 2.0 spec was published in year 2000, 23 years ago.
The USB 3.0 spec was published in 2008 and the USB C connector spec was published in 2014, tho not widely adopted til paird with USB 3.2 in 2017, fyi.
Man, I find this stuff so cringy – but obviously, it appeals to a certain type of person. I have no issue with Apple, my only issue is that every other hardware and software manufacturer seem to just be trying to copy Apple, instead of coming up with original ideas & visions. I don’t blame Apple for “innovating” in whatever direction they feel necessary, I’m just annoyed that nobody else is,,,
Android is looking more like iOS, Windows 11 is looking more like MacOS, I had to set up a “premium” high-spec Dell laptop recently at work which just looked like a knock-off Macbook. It’s just sad.
People aren’t going to buy stuff that strays too far from the norm. Take for example foldables. I haven’t seen anyone personally that has one, nor are they “taking the market by storm”.
RE: Android looking more like IOS:
That ‘Material You’ garbage is thankfully nowhere near iOS. I think you might be referring to Samsung’s UI though. They try to keep things like Apple to win over Apple users (I think anyways). If it weren’t for Samsung’s UI though, Android would be totally a non-option for me, as Material You is just plain ugly.