iPhone 15 Pro Review vs 14 Pro vs 13 Pro - Not worth the upgrade if... 🤔
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What exactly about the iPhone 15 Pro makes it worth the upgrade? In this article I’m going to talk about my experience with the camera, and answer some of your questions about various aspects like its thermals, its battery, speakers, and durability. (The chamfering around the edges does make it nicer to hold, but seriously, people are gonna need better reasons to upgrade, right?)
Reason 1
The switch to USB-C is for me, the biggest reason to upgrade to the 15 Pro from the 14 Pro, and especially 13 Pro. Even if it took Apple a long time, and even if they had to package it in a way that makes it look like it was the natural next step for iPhone. (Come on Apple, you were planning to make us live with the Lightning connector for a while longer, right?)
After living with this device for a week, it’s clear to me that this is more than just a change of ports, because on top of being capable of faster data transfer over USB 3.2, and faster 27W charging with the right adapter and cable, this USB-C port also delivers power both ways.
This means it’s even possible to use the iPhone as a last resort power bank. So you can charge your earbuds, Apple Watch, or another phone from this iPhone’s USB-C port.
It still can’t do wireless power sharing, but at least it’s possible to share some juice with other devices using a cable.
Reason 2
The other new feature I like is the Action button. Replacing the mute switch with a shortcut button may seem like a small change, but it makes so much sense! That’s because, as a long time iPhone user, after switching it to silent, it usually stays on silent all the time. So it feels like such a waste just having a switch there that does only one thing.
If you want to, it’s still possible to use that button to toggle silent mode, but you can also make it turn on the torch, camera, Music, voice memo, accessibility features like screen magnifier. It can also call up any app you want. For me, I made it a shortcut to the voice memo app because I use that a lot for work, but everyone’s got different needs, so I recommend exploring what works for you if you do get the 15 Pro.
iPhone 15 Pro Camera vs 14 Pro and 13 Pro
Of course, every year’s iPhone claims some improvement in terms of camera. In this case, the camera specs are the same as last year’s model, but the 15 Pro’s camera is now powered by the mighty A17 Pro chip.
This chip is such a huge step up in terms of graphics processing over the 14 Pro that they’re actually bringing AAA console games to the 15 Pro. And that extra power is also accelerating the 15 Pro’s image processing.
Shooting the same 48MP image on the 14 Pro and 15 Pro in low light conditions, the 15 Pro recovers more sharpness and color detail when you crop into the image.
It’s hard to tell the difference in the day, but at night you can see the gap in performance easily. And generally speaking, the 15 pro brings out colors better whereas the 14 Pro looks more flat.
Portrait mode allows you to choose the focus point after you take the picture. This is not something unique to the 15 Pro, because you can do the same thing on the 14 Pro and 13 Pro.
But, the bokeh blur on these 12MP images feel more natural on the 15 Pro than the 14 Pro, closer to shooting with a mirrorless camera.
Back to shooting regular photos. Compared to the 13 Pro, the difference is even more stark. With the 15 Pro’s bigger main camera sensor, darker areas of the scene do show up better. That being said, the 13 Pro has a softer, more pleasing quality to the picture, while the 15 Pro can seem a little too sharp and unnatural in low light.
You can also pick 3 different types of focal lengths on 1x Zoom. But this appears to be more of a gimmick. Each should give a different perspective on the subject, but it appears that this is just the 15 Pro cropping into the sensor to give an equivalent focal length to 24mm, 28mm, and 35mm lenses.
But do note that you can only shoot in the full 48MP RAW MAX with the 24mm focal length, otherwise you’re shooting in 24MP HEIF files which combine 12MP pixel binned images with a more detailed 48MP image.
Shooting Videos
The 15 Pro also comes with better in camera stabilization for shooting videos. Even without action mode, video seems to be smoother compared to the 14 Pro and 13 Pro. And with action mode it feels so smooth, as if I’m using a gimbal. (Sample footage)
On the front selfie camera though, there seems to be little difference compared to the 14 Pro. (Sample footage)
Speakers
In terms of the speakers, my reaction to it is mixed. It does have more low end, more body to the audio, but vocals feel a bit more recessed compared to the 14 Pro, so it sounds a little softer somewhat. Also when playing fast music at max volume it does tend to distort more than the 14 Pro. (Samples here)
But if you’re not playing at max levels, it’s a smoother, heavier sound than previous iPhones. I dig that. And yes you can definitely get a nice spatial stereo out of it which also works for gaming. (Samples Here)
Viewers’ Questions about iPhone 15 Pro
Thermals
Okay, I’ve got a couple questions about thermals. My answer is yes, it does heat up quite a bit when shooting photos and videos, and you don’t want to be shooting in hot weather because it’s going to get warm very fast, especially around where the camera is, but I haven’t experienced anything like what others are saying, that it gets too hot even to hold. In fact, it gets just as warm as the 14 Pro. What’s even more interesting is that I was playing PUBG on Extreme settings which is like console level graphics. I even got a warning that the phone might get very hot. One session later, it’s still a lot cooler than when shooting videos. The game ran very smooth too.
Durability
I haven’t seen the videos myself because I tend to stay away from reviews of products that I myself am reviewing in case I get influenced by other’s opinions, but from what I’ve read in forums, they’re saying that the 15 Pro isn’t as durable because Titanium is a softer metal, and if you bend the phone, the back glass will break since it’s taking more of the pressure from the bending compared to the frame. I don’t think it’s a fair test, because applying a sharp force to an expensive device is not something people do on purpose. Yes, you might accidentally sit on your phone, but I challenge anyone to do that with any phone. With enough force in the middle, something will break for sure. This is why I never leave my phone on the couch, and it’s always in my front pocket. Always. Unless it’s made of Vibranium. What I’m concerned about is dropping it, and from people who have dropped the 15 Pro accidentally, it seems to hold up very well. No, I’m not dropping mine cause I’m not rich and this is the only one I have. Sorry.
Battery Life
For me, I took it off the charger at 4.10am on Sunday, when it was 100%, and used it throughout the day as per normal, shooting pictures and video, reading reddit, forums, listening to music, watching youtube, and it lasted me till Monday 4pm, when it was at 3%. That’s 36 hours! No charging in between, no low power mode.
Juicing it back up was also fairly quick. Took about an hour and 20 mins to go from 3% to 93% at 27W. To me that’s decent.
Worth the upgrade?
Overall, this does feel like a huge upgrade if you’re still holding on to an iPhone 13 Pro, or older. The 15 Pro has USB-C, the Action button, brighter screen, much better camera powered by the mighty A17 Pro processor that can even run AAA games with hardware accelerated Ray Tracing. Some of the games announced include blockbuster titles like Resident Evil V, Death Stranding.
But if you’re not interested in those games, or mobile gaming in general, perhaps you can still be happy with 14 Pro for now because the performance gap in terms of camera is much smaller.
However if you do use the iPhone for professional work as a phototgrapher or videographer, you’ll definitely want the iPhone 15 Pro’s USB-C for the faster data transfer and faster charging. It will feel more like an asset and less like a bottleneck.
