The flagship iPhones just got even better as the iPhone 15 Pro series comes with an updated design, better build materials, and a new 3nm SoC, and it also received a redesign on the inside that makes it more repairable compared to its predecessor. While the prices remain the same in the US, they have increased a lot, yet again, in India.
iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max - Everything new for 2023
iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max are the direct successors to the iPhone 14 Pros from last year, and perhaps the biggest changes this year are in the outer chassis and the wired connectivity. The new Titanium outer chassis makes the construction much stronger, yet lighter than Stainless Steel. The USB-C port is obviously the other major highlight but unlike the regular iPhone 15's, the Pro models now support USB 3 speeds (up to 10 Gbps).
The design has also gotten a slight overhaul as the front bezels are now even thinner making this new generation of Pro iPhones, slightly smaller than their predecessors. Also, the iconic mute switch has been replaced with a new "Action Button" which can be used to toggle different actions from various apps and settings.
Apple has also introduced a new Natural Titanium color option alongside three other colors the company calls, Blue Titanium, White Titanium, and Black Titanium. Of course, the US variants are eSIM only while the Indian variants will get a SIM card slot, but still, there's no mmWave 5G for India.
The cameras also received several new upgrades including a 5x Optical Zoom and up to 120mm Focal Length on the 15 Pro Max alongside 2nd-gen sensor-shift stabilization for both Main and Telephoto cameras. It's a 48MP(Main)+12MP(Ultrawide)+12MP(Telephoto) setup for both devices and there's also a Spatial Video capture option to shoot 3D videos for the upcoming Vision Pro headset.
The A17 Pro SoC is the other big upgrade as it's now built on a 3nm Process Technology and has a new powerful GPU that supports hardware-based Ray Tracing. It has a 6-core CPU (2P+4E), a 6-core GPU, and a 16-core Neural Engine. I'm looking forward to major performance gains in both Productivity and Gaming.
The display now peaks at 2000 nits outdoors while the Typical Brightness is 1000 nits and the HDR Brightness peaks at 1600 nits. It's still 6.1 inches in size for the 15 Pro and 6.7 inches for the 15 Pro Max, but the experience should be a bit more immersive now thanks to the smaller bezels.
There are no major upgrades to the display technology this year as the Pro Motion still holds at 120Hz just like several past generations of devices and while Always-on-Display is available, that was also introduced with the 14 Pro last year.
iPhone 15 Pro series Pricing and Availability
Apple decided not to increase prices in the US (again), so the iPhone 15 Pro still starts at $999 for the 128GB variant. The iPhone 15 Pro Max, on the other hand, ditches the 128GB variant and starts at $1199 for 256GB of storage.
The situation is completely different in India as the base 128GB model for the iPhone 15 Pro now starts at ₹1,34,900 which is 15K more compared to the base 14 Pro from last year. For the iPhone 15 Pro Max which now starts with 256GB storage, you'll have to pay a whopping ₹1,59,900.
Pre-orders for the iPhone 15 Pro series begin on 15th September and the devices will start hitting the stores a week later on 22nd September. Will you buy an iPhone 15 Pro for yourself? Let me know in the comments section below.
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