Since the day iPhone 15/Pro/Max/Mini is exposed to the public, it has been at the forefront of the public voice. New features of iPhone 15/13 Pro? iPhone 15 full specification, price? iPhone 15 vs iPhone 14? These questions are the most common ones iPhone fans care. Yet, recently, the Q related to Apple iPhone 15/Pro merits and demerits is asked daily on the increase.
In such case, I think it's of necessity to list out the top strengths and weaknesses of iPhone 15 Pro/13 and aid the vast numbers of fans to have a full picture about iPhone 15/Pro before they make some decisions. The complete iPhone 15 pros and cons compared to iPhone will give you some clues. Just click the links below to the specific new iPhone pros cons part.
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For those who plan to upgrade to iPhone 15 Pro/13, use MacX MediaTrans to backup iPhone data (photos, music, videos, iTunes purchases, eBooks...) to macOS in case of software data loss when switching to new iPhone.
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Top iPhone 15 Pros and Cons
Top iPhone 15 Pro Advantages
1. A dramatically more powerful camera system
The camera system on iPhone 15 Pro is "off the charts" compared to the iPhone 14 Pro series. Both generations sport with a Pro 12MP camera system (Telephoto, Wide, and Ultra Wide). Yet, the gap is large. The major improvements on iPhone 15 Pro/Max camera system are:
- New cinematic mode comes to iPhone 15 series exclusively for you to shoot with shallow depth of field and auto add terrific focus transitions between subjects (Dolby Vision HDR supported, too).
- iPhone 15 Pro's telephoto camera (77mm local length) with 3X optical zoom (compared to iPhone 15 Pro's 2X optical zoom), a new 6-element ultra-wide lens with 92% more light, and a wide camera with a 2.2x improvement in low light.
- iPhone 15 Pro's new Macro photography is mind-blowing, capable of focusing at solely 2cm, making the even tiniest stuff look spectacular.
- Telephoto camera on iPhone Pro has no Night mode, but the one on iPhone 15 Pro now supports Night mode.
- iPhone 15 Pro becomes the 1st smartphone to let you record and edit video in high color fidelity and low compression codec - ProRes, up to 4K 30FPS. Considering the large size of ProRes video, 128GB iPhone 15 Pro is not advised to adopt ProRes codec for video recording. And compress 4K ProRes video to 4K HEVC if it's too large for your iPhone.
- More features for iPhone 15 Mini/13/Pro (Max): sensor shift, photographic styles, portrait mode, night mode selfies, deep fusion, smart HDR 4, etc.
2. Luminance and refresh rate on display gets improved
The display size doesn't get any change while the luminance and refresh rate gets optimized. All 4 iPhone 15 models come with Super Retina XDR OLED technology. Compared, iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 mini models can max out at 800 nits of brightness, while the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max can tune up to 1000 nits outdoors (200 nits higher than iPhone, 28% brighter.
Though Apple is mocked by Samsung with a tweet "we've been refreshing at 120Hz for a while now", congratulations to iPhone loyal fans that you can enjoy 120Hz refresh rate on iPhone series, starting from iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max thanks to ProMotion display firstly adopted.
3. 20% Smaller notch
Apple didn't redesign iPhone 15/Pro, almost 99% identical to iPhone 14 design. The 1% appearance difference lies on 20% smaller notch on iPhone 15 series. The notch is indeed a good bit smaller, and the tiny increase in height is barely noticeable.
4. Expansively Internal Memory
The iPhone respectively start from 258GB. This year, the storage space of iPhone 15 mini and iPhone 15 is extended from 128GB to 512GB and that of iPhone 15 Pro & 13 Pro Max ranges from 128GB to 1TB. Enough space for saving cinematic-style 4K footages, right?
5. Enhanced Face ID
To accustom to the current trend - COVID-19, Apple thoughtfully figures out the effective way to better protect you from covid virus outside. That is making iPhone 15's Face ID work with mask. Thus, you don't have to take off your mask to unlock your iPhone 15/mini/Pro/Max via Face ID. It's not a major improvement but a practical one.
6. Better 5G Connectivity
5G makes gaming, streaming, AR, downloading — everything so much faster. This time, Apple designs iPhone 15 models with Smart Data mode to downshift automatically to save power when you don't need all that 5G speed. It better assigns your 5G connection resource.
7. Higher cost performance than iPhone 15/Pro
The iPhone was sold at $749 for 128GB while iPhone 15 Mini is priced at $699 for 128GB, $50 cheaper. The same adjusted price also applies to iPhone 15 vs iPhone 14. As for iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, the price is identical to that of iPhone in terms of the corresponding internal memory. See, cost less or equal, and enjoy more advanced features & better performance.
Certainly, you're only required to add extra $200 based on the 512GB price and you can bring the 1TB iPhone 15 Pro or 13 Pro Max home with sufficient storage capability.
Top iPhone 15 Pro/13 Disadvantages
1. No really exciting new features
We don't see much really wonderful and unique features and design on the new iPhone 15 series, which is considered as a big disadvantage of iPhone 15. It seems that what Apple has done is to improve camera and to expand internal memory. In fact, new features like foldable phone, breakthrough on battery life, etc. have appeared across plenty of Android phones. Customers are not willing to pay more for less. For some, the new iPhone 15 is not worth roughly $799. How about Apple iPhone 15 vs Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3 (5G), which has more innovations?
2. Battery not much improved
iPhone 15 battery life for video playback is 19 hours, compared with iPhone 14's 17 hours. The endurance of iPhone 15 Pro for video playback goes to 22 hours, 2 hrs longer than that of iPhone. Thus, basically, there is no significant improvements on battery life. So you still need to learn tips on how to save iPhone battery life.
3. No Touch ID
New iPads are also unearthed on 2023 Apple Event. Among them, iPad Mini 6 regains the widely-expected Touch ID, which is integrated into the top button for fast, easy, and secure authentication. Many an iPad fan is happen to see this convenient Touch ID back on iPad. But this doesn't happen on new iPhone 15/Mini/Pro/Pro Max. Seriously, we miss Touch ID. Did you hear our voice from deep heart, Cook?
4. Still No foldable iPhone
Foldable smartphone has become a hot topic in the tech zone since a couple of years ago. And Apple's rival Samsung has already released foldable phones several years ago. But this still doesn't come to iPhone even now in 2024! Those who have used foldable phones like Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3, Flip3 will get its advantages, including nail multitasking, portable console gaming, relive your Game Boy days, type a novel, etc. All in all, foldable iPhone is worth anticipating.
5. No surprises on A15 Bionic chip
Any difference between iPhone 15 A17 and iPhone 14 A16? Not much really. Not buying all its sayings on Apple official website. A17 Bionic chip is made from 6-core CPU, 5-core GPU and 16-core neural engine, identical to those of A14 chip. And forget about the faster performance on iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Mini, for 50% faster CPU and 30% faster GPU only happen in iPhone 15 Pro! Well, Apple tells you to go for iPhone 15 Pro, see? Otherwise, there is no surprises brought by A15.
iPhone is far from perfection, and Apple's new iPhone 15 is no exception. The most common cons of iPhone 15 complained by users might also include iPhone 15 WiFi not working, battery drain issue, iOS errors, inconvenient wireless charging, iPhone 15 getting hot while charging, and so on. It must be mentioned that fast battery drain problem remains though Apple continually improves battery life. It's difficult for users to get rid of these irritating iPhone 15 drawbacks. If you plan to update to the new iPhone 15, we recommend you to wait a few weeks or months after release and see if it's worth buying.
Pros and Cons of Jailbreaking iPhone (iPhone 15)
What is jailbreaking? Jailbreaking is not the same to unlocking. It means bypassing the restrictions Apple puts on the operating system and taking full control of the device. Once that is opened up, any software, good or bad can now be uploaded to your device without Apple's approval process.
The Advantages of Jailbreaking iPhone (13 Pro)
A world of new apps: You can install apps that aren't available from the iTunes App Store. For example, Cydia is a framework that makes you add other unauthorized apps, such as games and networking apps.
Customization: Customizing your iOS is a big enticement for jailbreaking iPhone. Simply download a jailbreak app named springboard and you're able to practically change every aspect of the interface. Icons, text, default graphics, layout positioning, etc.
Change wireless providers: You are allowed to "unlock" your jailbroken iPhone to go from one cellular provider to another at will provided they're both carriers that use the GSM wireless standard. What you need to do is change the Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card.
The Disadvantages of Jailbreaking iPhone (13 Pro)
Dangers of unscreened apps: Jailbreaking downright let your iPhone accessible to the malware, adware and even virus since jailbreaking completely steer clear of the protection walls Apple built into both iOS and the iTunes App Store. The usually the malware for iOS has affected only jailbroken iPhone iPad iPod.
Piracy: Jailbreaking means the flood of pirated apps, as well. You see if many a user jailbreaks iPhone or other iOS devices, they just can download countless pirated apps for free, which will dramatically harm the benefits and enthusiasm of the Apple store developer. And the last thing we want to do is deter developers from creating more superb apps.
Fail to update: Once you're on the dark side, you kiss goodbye to take advantage of newer Apple's updates, owing to iOS 17 problems. You can always just update and lose your jailbreak, but you'd be advised to just do a full restore to ensure stability.
Shattered security: Jailbreaking is a double edged sword. It fundamentally changes the whole operating system and lets any app have full access to the phone. Supposed you download an untrustworthy app, you can open yourselves to all kinds of exploits, which might damage your device or slow down its running speed tremendously. More worse is that it might steal your personal information and lead to your privacy leakage with unnecessary trouble.
Conclusion: No matter the purpose of reading this article is for more info before purchasing iPhone 15 or jailbreaking iPhone 15, it would be better to postphone making decision before you think it twice. After judging and weighing iPhone 15 merits & demerits and iPhone jailbreaking, you finally know what you desire most and if you can accept its imperfect sides.