Almost a year after an iPhone 14 considered too timid in its new features, Apple is back at it by unveiling its new iPhone 15. New notch, new USB-C port… Is the iPhone 15 worth it? The answer in our test.
If the month of September often rhymes with the start of the school year, it is also the opportunity for the giant Apple to launch its new smartphone for the coming year. The iPhone 15 was unveiled with great fanfare during the keynote on September 12, 2023 and the latter was able to reach our editorial staff on the sidelines of its release.
New USB-C port, new photo sensor, new colors… Here is the program for this iPhone 15 for this year. Still accompanied by three other versions (Plus, Pro and Pro Max), is the iPhone 15 interesting enough to make us forget the timid iPhone 14 released last year? This is what we will check after several weeks of testing the phone.
If there is one point on which Apple is often mocked with the iPhone, it is its design: “it’s the same as last year”, “there is no difference”, “it no longer evolves”… And these criticisms are often legitimate. Yes, it can be difficult to differentiate an iPhone 12 from an iPhone 13 for example. However, the brand never wanted to change its habits, especially since the design of previous generations remained excellent.
Never mind. The iPhone 15 sees its design evolve this year… For the Pro versions. The basic model still has some new features that are quickly visible: new colors (yellow here), new USB Type C port and “Dynamic Island” notch. The edges of the iPhone 15 are also slightly curved, which makes it more pleasant to hold on a daily basis, but also more “slippery” (we did not fail to drop our copy on a few occasions).
The front of the iPhone 15 has a little “new feature”. This is of course “Dynamic Island” which definitely draws a line under the iconic notch of Apple’s smartphone. Taken from the iPhone 14 Pro, this small addition, if not established as a revolution, proves to be very practical in everyday life. Whether it’s following a timer, changing music or checking the battery of your AirPods, the new notch of the iPhone 15 is fluid and perfectly follows our daily controls.
The back of the iPhone 15 reveals the new colors chosen by Apple this year. The latter have a very pastel coating (even faded for some). A decision that you will like or not. Let’s just note that the brand logo is sometimes barely visible as it blends in with the back of the phone. The iPhone 15’s photo sensors are still housed in the upper left corner of the phone. Slightly curved, this location still does not allow you to use the iPhone on a flat surface without knocking it against it. We therefore always recommend using a case that can also protect the iPhone 15 against possible falls.
As was the case with its predecessors, the iPhone 15 is certified with the IP68 protection index. This allows it to withstand nearly 30 minutes spent underwater up to 6 meters deep.
Let’s quickly move on to the screen of the iPhone 15. Inherited from its predecessor, the latter also has slightly rounded edges to mark the difference with last year’s generation. The iPhone 15 screen also sees its maximum brightness increase up to 2000 nits outdoors to enhance the readability of your content, even in direct sunlight.
What can I say except that using it on a daily basis is a real pleasure? Whether you’re in a very dark place or, conversely, in direct sunlight, it’s very easy to check your messages or notifications without having to squint. The smallest details are sharp and TrueTone technology perfectly transcribes colors depending on the ambient brightness. No real surprise here, the screens of the latest iPhones were already excellent in the past and Apple continues to refine a winning formula.
All this good news is unfortunately spoiled by a single downside: a refresh rate still stuck at 60 Hz (compared to 120 for the Pro models). A difficult choice to understand and accept for a smartphone that costs around 1000 euros (even if we welcome the price drop for this generation). Even mid-range phones now manage to display a refresh rate of up to 120Hz, so why not the iPhone 15?
The chip that powers the iPhone 15 is not unknown. This is the A16 Bionic which we already found last year on the Pro models of the iPhone 14. Apple seems to want to stick to this new strategy of reserving its new chips for its models stamped ” Pro” while the classic versions recover the processor from the previous generation.
This does not mean that the iPhone 15 is devoid of power, far from it. The A16 Bionic chip is still capable of delivering very high performance in your games and applications. Particularly resource-intensive titles like Asphalt, Call of Duty Mobile or Genshin Impact run without any slowdown with their graphics pushed to the max. The iPhone 15 thus establishes itself as an excellent smartphone for gaming enthusiasts. The addition of the USB-C port is even ideal for connecting the iPhone 15 to a television or monitor and enjoying your games and applications on a big screen (and it’s pretty impressive)!
However, we have a small reservation for the heating of the device which, if it is not as pronounced as for the iPhone 15 Pro, can bother some hands after a while. Nothing that should panic you, but it is a detail that we prefer to note.
One of the main new features of the iPhone 15 is its “new” 48 Mpx main photo sensor (compared to 12 on previous generations). If we put quotation marks in our sentence, it’s because this same sensor is also used in the iPhone 14 Pro (but with a better focal aperture to capture more light). This addition allows you to choose between three capture modes:
The photos obtained with the main sensor of the iPhone 15 are, unsurprisingly, of good quality. The contrasts are generally good even if we sometimes observe colors that are a little more vivid compared to reality (a characteristic that we usually find with Samsung). The photos taken with the iPhone 15 have good sharpness and the details are quite rich. If the 48 Mpx mode may be tempting, the size of the files obtained with it must also be taken into account. We recommend instead staying on the 24 Mpx which still displays excellent results on a daily basis.
Let’s also welcome the new portrait mode of the iPhone 15. The latter allows you to apply a blur effect (called “bokeh”) to one of your photos, even if the latter was not captured at the time. using your device’s portrait mode. A great addition that will correct certain shots and highlight your subject. If the results can sometimes be quite approximate (observe the left shoulder which is blurred in our photo), this functionality is often very practical. It’s a shame, however, that this option is not available if your photo was captured using an Android smartphone.
At night, results can vary greatly depending on the brightness of your scene. However, the results remain mostly good with good detail reproduction. However, night mode can take quite a long time to focus (between one and five seconds), which can cause you to miss a good photo. If the iPhone 15 is still far from the results obtained with an Honor Magic5 Pro or a Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, its night photos remain of good quality for the majority of the public. However, we observe its limits during scenes where the brightness is almost absent. The iPhone 15 will then draw on all its software resources without succeeding in avoiding blur and lack of details as is visible in the second photo.
The iPhone 15 is capable of shooting up to 4k at 60 FPS. Although this format naturally produces videos that are quite heavy for storage, the results obtained are always of high quality. Let us particularly salute the stabilization of the iPhone 15 which does a remarkable job if your hands are a little too shaky or you are filming something while moving. The iPhone remains a device regularly popular with content creators on YouTube and TikTok, and this is understandable.
The videos produced with the iPhone 15 are of very good quality. Motion blur is well reduced by the device’s software processing and this allows the iPhone 15 to establish itself as an excellent camera for budding videographers. Be careful, however, with the size of files stored in maximum quality which can quickly saturate the phone’s storage space.
The iPhone 14 disappointed many users on one very particular point: after the first months of use, its battery melted quickly. While it is impossible to know if the iPhone 15 has corrected this problem, our first analyzes show very good battery life.
Used daily for several weeks, the iPhone 15 can last a little more than a day depending on your use. Unplugged at 8 a.m., the smartphone still showed 48% of its battery at the end of the day around 6 p.m. A rather solid score, but which does not really surprise and remains in line with the smartphones offered by Apple in recent years.
However, we have more reservations about charging the iPhone 15. Although Apple’s latest phone finally has a USB-C port, the latter is only capable of charging the device with maximum power of 20 W. You will therefore need to count on a little over an hour and a half to fully recharge the iPhone 15. It’s long, and its slow charging will not allow you to do small recharges at the end of the day to hope to save a lot of battery and leave for the evening.
The iPhone 15 has a chip compatible with Wi-Fi 6 (and not 6th unfortunately). This allows for a fast and smooth connection when browsing the web with the phone. We encountered no particular latency or disconnection issues during our different weeks of testing. A good point which is not really a surprise as the latest iPhone models were already very good in this area.
Our communications with the iPhone 15 were also of good quality. Even when we were in the middle of a particularly hectic place, our conversations were clear and audible to the person we were talking to. Tested with a 4G plan, the iPhone 15 showed no problems connecting to the mobile network.
Released at the same time as the base model, the iPhone 15 Plus has the same characteristics as its little brother with two exceptions: a larger battery and a more imposing size. The iPhone 15 Plus will therefore be more suitable for those who want to equip themselves with a phone with a large format (similar to that of the iPhone 15 Pro Max). Its performance is equivalent to that of the basic iPhone 15, except that the Plus model seems to have a bit better battery life. Reserved for users who have large hands and want to acquire an iPhone capable of following them for longer during the day.
While the iPhone 15 is far from perfect, it could well be the most interesting model this year. Its transition from its predecessor is important enough to encourage many users to take the plunge and swap their old iPhone for this new generation.
While the majority of the additions aren’t directly visible, they are significant enough to help establish the iPhone 15 as a very good phone. The new photo sensor further refines the shots to allow more detail and overall quality to be displayed in the shots. The arrival of the “Dynamic Island” notch and the A16 chip taken from the iPhone 14 Pro are also good additions for productivity. The USB-C port imposed by the European Commission and its ability to perform reverse charging is also very appreciable and should delight many users.
We will curse (like every year) on the iPhone screen. If its brightness and readability are further improved and are excellent, it is still very frustrating not to have a refresh rate higher than the 60 Hz offered on the base model of the iPhone 15 range. Recharging limited to 20 W is also very debilitating on a daily basis. We can bet that Apple finally corrects the situation next year and offers charging of up to 30 or 35W for its future iPhone 16.
