Apple iPhone 15: everything we know so far
The iPhone 15 is nearly here! Check out all the latest up-to-date news plus rumoured specs and features
UPDATE: The iPhone 15 has now been announced alongside the iPhone 15 Pro – we’ll be updating this feature shortly.
Original feature continues below
Apple’s upcoming phone will debut today – the iPhone 15 will be joined by the larger 15 Plus as well as the more premium iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max versions..
The Pro Max is set to go even more upmarket than before and as a result may be called the iPhone 15 Ultra (to match the Apple Watch Ultra). Read on for all the latest news and rumours about the iPhone 15 lineup including everything you need to know about the move to USB-C, a more rounded design and a solid-state Action button instead of the mute toggle.
The Wonderlust Apple Event may also yield an Apple Watch Ultra 2. There will be an Apple Watch Series 9 launching at the same time, while there may also be a new version of the AirPods with USB-C charging, too.
When are the iPhone 15 launch and release dates?
The iPhone 15 will debut later today as part of Apple’s Wonderlust launch. The date for the event was announced two weeks prior on 29 August 2023.
As always nowadays, Apple’s iPhone launch events take place at the Steve Jobs Theater in Apple Park, Cupertino, California. As always, this event will start at 10am PT, 1pm ET, 6pm BST, 1900 CET. The event video is now live on YouTube and you can save/watch it right here:
The iPhone release date normally takes place just over a week later on a Friday. That means the iPhone 15 release date should be 22 September 2023 with pre-orders going live on Friday 15 September.
In July, Wamsi Mohan, a global securities analyst at Bank of America suggested the iPhone 15 release date could be delayed. Crucially though, there was no reason for the delay and we’d not heard the same from other sources.
We have since heard from 9to5Mac that the Pro Max (or Ultra if it turns out to be so named) will be delayed into October. This is due to a delay in Sony providing camera parts for the new handset. You can read more about the iPhone 15 camera lineup below. As well as why the Pro Max has a more comprehensive setup this time around.
iPhone 15 series at a glance: what we’re expecting
- The iPhone 15 Pro Max could be renamed as the iPhone 15 Ultra
- Four models will again debut – iPhone 15 and 15 Plus as well as the iPhone 15 Pro and Ultra/Pro Max
- The Dynamic Island will come to all iPhone 15 models
- USB-C will replace Lightning – finally
- Again there will be 6.1 and 6.7in screen sizes
- The Pro and Ultra may have a new periscope zoom, but it might just be the Ultra
- There will be a single volume rocker and the mute slider will be replaced by a (customisable) button.
- All will run iOS 17 out of the box.
How much could iPhone 15 cost?
Given the outrage over the higher prices in Europe for the iPhone 14 (starting at $799/£849), we’d expect the iPhone 15 price to stay the same. But if there is an Ultra model instead of the Pro Max, you can expect that will command an even more premium price than we saw with the iPhone 14 Pro Max. So you’d expect a starting price somewhere in the region of $1299/£1249.
A research note from Jeff Pu of Haitong International Tech Research (reported on by AppleInsider) claims that the iPhone 15 Pro Max or iPhone 15 Ultra is expected to be very popular this time around because of the enhanced features over and above the standard Pro model that you can read about below.
We do know that Apple is keen on introducing higher-spec models to take advantage of bigger sales prices. “I think people are willing to really stretch to get the best they can afford in that category,” said Tim Cook in Apple’s Q1 2023 earnings call. Which says it all, really.
iPhone 15 design leaks
In terms of design, it seems that more curved edges are on the way to the iPhone 15 series, certainly more curved than on the the iPhone 12, 13 and 14. This will possibly just be coming to the Pro and Pro Max/Ultra though it could be throughout the lineup. These renders from serial renderiser (yes we made that word up) Ian Zelbo points the way to the likely design:
These renders are the result of various rumours about the new iPhones as well as information gleaned from accessory makers. You might be able to make out differences with the buttons – more on that shortly.
In May 2023, MacRumors got hold of dummy iPhone 15 units. These again show a very similar aesthetic to the Zelbo renders above. Again they show the USB-C port on the bottom and slightly rounded bezels. There are some suggestions that all iPhone 15 models will have this. But it could well be this change will be Pro-only.
This should provide a softer feel in the hand than the angular models we’ve had since iPhone 12. However, there’s not a massive amount that’s revealed here.
Well-known leaker Ice Universe claims the screen bezels will be even slimmer than the Xiaomi 13‘s 1.81mm bezels. The iPhone 15 Pro’s bezels would be just 1.55mm, it’s claimed. This remains very much unconfirmed since we haven’t seen anything about this from other sources.
The SIM tray could also potentially be removed on all variants – it was missing on the US iPhone 14 models. European networks may not be too keen on that but it’s an inevitability that it will happen eventually.
New materials and finishes
One of the key differences this time around is in the materials. The iPhone 15 Pro (and possible Ultra) will have a titanium casing rather than stainless steel. This has been confirmed by sources in the supply chain. As we mentioned above, these will have more rounded corners.
The iPhone 15 Pro is also rumoured to come in a dark red colour this time around. The USB-C cables are also set to be colour-coded to the handset, just like the iMac lineup.
iPhone 15 button changes
It also seems certain that the premium models won’t have buttons that move when pressed. Instead, they’ll be solid state with taptic feedback to make you feel like you’ve pressed them. This is just like the Home button on later Touch ID iPhones. Some rumours suggest this will get left out this year though but will be in 2024’s iPhone 16.
It looks like there will be a single volume button this time around, something backed up by early looks at iPhone 15 cases – this one is for the Pro Max/Ultra. Some sources are also reporting that this button is prepositioned as is the power button. But we think the case leaks show them in the same place as on the iPhone 14. The below case could show a larger camera in the top model, too – more on that below.
So will there be an iPhone 15 action button?
We may also be saying goodbye to the physical mute switch – the cut-out does look smaller in the above case. Getting rid of it altogether is a sad move. It’s a big USP of what makes an iPhone an iPhone in our book.
Rumours suggest there will be an Apple Watch Ultra-style action button instead of the mute switch. This button will then enable to choose what you use it for. So you could still mute if you wish or configure to use another common shortcut.
Some evidence of this control has been spotted in iOS 17 beta 7. Some new haptic feedback was found for when you enable or disable Silent Mode. Plus numerous other uses were found for the button, with names such as Camera, Flash, Translate and Magnifier.
Without having room for buttons to move, the mechanisms will take up less space inside the iPhone. It’s also one less part that could break, with the side buttons as part of the Self Service Repair program. Plus, it’ll make the device more water-resistant, with fewer openings for water to creep in. Stuff regular Craig Grannell wrote this piece about why a portless iPhone would be a bad thing.
iPhone 15 rumoured display specs
The iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max’s Dynamic Island feature will be rolled out across all iPhone 15 versions. That’s according to display industry analyst Ross Young. The Island will presumably stick around until Apple can get rid of it altogether. It could well get some extra features in iOS 17.
While Young expects the Dynamic Island to appear on the standard iPhone 15, he doesn’t think that the non-Pro models will get 120Hz displays or Apple’s ProMotion tech. As for an under-display Face ID system, Young suggests this will come to the iPhone 16 Pro in 2024. Another regular Apple watcher, Ming Chi-Kuo, agrees.
Getting rid of the Dynamic Island in 2024 or beyond will definitely require a serious improvement in under-display camera tech. And that’s for it to be as good as the current arrangement for Face ID. Since Apple has clearly done a lot of work on Dynamic Island, we don’t expect it to go anywhere anytime soon.
One interesting development is that LG Display is set to produce a bigger amount of the iPhone 15 displays than it did for iPhone 14. LG produced the LTPO OLED display for the iPhone 14 Pro Max but according to The Elec, it had problems resulting in delays and meaning Apple had to pay more for over 4 million displays from Samsung. LG has apparently boosted capacity meaning it will make displays for both the Pro-level iPhone 15 handsets this time around.
iPhone 15 USB-C and charging speed latest
We know the iPhone 15 will have to make the jump to USB-C. Apple head of marketing Greg Joswiak acknowledged this in an October 2022 chat with the Wall Street Journal’s Tech Live event (video below). The EU has legislated for it and it’s well overdue on the iPhone, having been a staple of the iPad for several years now. Some rumours suggest Foxconn is making wired Apple EarPods with USB-C. It’s also suggested that USB-C will be fitted to the iPhone 14 lineup too.
One side-effect of the move to USB-C is that it should be capable of fast 40Gbps Thunderbolt data speeds like Macs and the iPad Pro as well as fast charging. This may be something that’s restricted to the Pro models, or even just the UItra.
ChargerLab suggests leaked iPhone 15 circuit board pics suggest “at least three iPhone 15 models will incorporate Thunderbolt/USB4’s 40Gbps high-speed data transmission feature.”
If true, you could use an iPhone with an external display, but given how un-keen Apple seems to be to give the iPad Pro proper external display support, this seems a pipedream. The move to USB-C should mean Apple can make a bigger thing out of fast wired charging – which could be around 35W. Even so, the fastest charging speeds are rumoured to be restricted to cables that are certified as part of Apple’s Made for iPhone program.
What about wireless charging?
As for wireless charging, it sounds like the new phones will all support the Qi2 standard, which is based on MagSafe. Cheaper (non-MagSafe) Qi2 wireless chargers will be able to charge up to 15W. You can currently only get this speed with MagSafe chargers. We don’t know if there will be any rise in the MagSafe charging speed though. You’d hope so, considering 15W is pretty pedestrian compared to some wireless charging speeds these days.
There are some rumours about larger battery capacities coming to the new phones but these don’t seem reliable. The battery life may be improved slightly even if the batteries are the same size as a result of processor efficiencies.
Which Apple chips will be used in the iPhone 15?
We also believe the new iPhone 15 Pro will have more RAM – 8GB instead of 6GB. That’s according to Taiwanese research company TrendForce. Interestingly TrendForce says in the same note that the proportion of Pro vs non Pro models is tipping more in the Pro’s favour – around 60% of iPhone 14 models sold, partly due to the late introduction of the iPhone 14 Plus. Rumours suggest there will be 2TB of storage available on the iPhone 15 Ultra, with lower capacities on the other units.
As for chips, expect the standard iPhone 15 models to make the jump to the Apple A16 Bionic series from last year’s iPhone 14 Pro, while the iPhone 15 Pro models will move to the A17 Bionic which will be even more efficient thanks to a 3nm manufacturing process. The hottest rumour so far is that these chips will come with 6-core GPUs, which could make them serious gaming powerhouses.
There are already some rumored benchmarks floating around for the A17 Bionic courtesy of @NaveenTechWala, spotted by NotebookCheck. These suggest serious performance enhancements over the previous generation and significantly over leaked benchmarks for Qualcomm’s upcoming Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 – the A17 Bionic was 47% faster for single-core performance. Of course, it is very much worth taking these leaked scores with a huge pinch of salt.
iPhone 15 memory, battery and 5G
We also believe the new iPhone 15 Pro will have more RAM – 8GB instead of 6GB. That’s according to Taiwanese research company TrendForce. Interestingly TrendForce says in the same note that the proportion of Pro vs non Pro models is tipping more in the Pro’s favour – around 60% of iPhone 14 models sold, partly due to the late introduction of the iPhone 14 Plus. Rumours suggest there will be 2TB of storage available on the iPhone 15 Ultra, with lower capacities on the other units.
The iPhone 15 will continue to use 5G modems from Qualcomm, probably the X70 from early last year. Apple’s difficulties with developing 5G modems are well documented. It started developing them itself in 2019 but the results of that work are unknown.
Apple was seemingly set to move away from Qualcomm modems either in 2024 or 2025 but on 11 September – yes a day before the iPhone 15 launch – it announced it had signed a new deal with Qualcomm to use its Snapdragon 5G modem parts “for smartphone launches in 2024, 2025 and 2026.” Apple had already announced a deal for some future radio parts to come from Broadcom’s US facilities.
Battery life on the standard iPhone 15 will almost certainly stay broadly the same, but the iPhone 15 Pro and Ultra could have a few hours extra as a result of the new chips used – that’s certainly been the form of the last few years.
Analyst Ming-chi Kuo predicted that there may be a redesigned Ultra Wideband (UWB) chip inside the phones to work better with Apple Vision Pro.
iPhone 15 cameras and zoom latest
Nikkei suggests that Sony Group will apparently supply the iPhone 15 with a top-tier image sensor. According to Nikkei, Sony’s newest image sensor doubles the saturation signal in every pixel, which reduces overexposure or underexposure. That should stop photo subjects being drowned out by backlight. The standard iPhone 15 will have a 48MP main lens.
The iPhone 15 Ultra should offer 8K video recoding alongside a periscope camera (seemingly not coming to the Pro). This technology involves multiple camera lenses at an angle, to decrease a smartphone camera’s size, improve zoom, and increase the megapixel count. Introducing a periscope camera with 5x zoom (some say 6x) on the iPhone 15 would enable Apple to approach Samsung’s impressive zoom capabilities. Though, since the S23 Ultra has a 10x optical and 100x digital zoom, it will still lag behind that.
The iPhone 15 Ultra will almost certainly have a thinner camera bump, thanks to that rumoured periscope camera. However, it appears that the camera bump won’t reduce on the Pro. Indeed, something very noticeable from the iPhone 15 Pro renders we’ve seen so far is that the individual camera lenses are bigger.
It’s also been suggested the periscope lens on the iPhone 15 Ultra could mean the position of the telephoto and ultrawide lenses are switched around to fit everything in. The periscope camera would be the one between the flash and LiDAR sensor.
iPhone 15 software
The iPhone 15 series will run iOS 17 out of the box. This isn’t a major update to iOS, but includes several cool features. There are contact posters so you can show your photo or memoji when you call someone, Live Voicemail (a transcription of voicemail messages that have been left) and Message Check-In so people can see when you’ve got home.
Widgets can now be more interactive, while you can NameDrop someone your contact details. You can also share your location — and request someone else’s location — through Find My in Messages. You can also share AirTag and other Find My accessories in a group, too.
Dan Grabham
Editor-in-Chief