Apple's iPhone 15 is official and many fans are debating whether they should upgrade to iPhone 15. The iPhone 15 Pro they just plucked down a bunch of cash on is still excellent, while the new iPhone 15, maybe not a significant upgrade, has some serious new features on board. If you're one of those sitting on the fence, we've rounded the iPhone 15 vs iPhone 14 key differences to help you decide if you should buy iPhone 15 and which should you buy.
Part 1: iPhone 15 vs 12, Should I Upgrade to iPhone 15?
iPhone 15 vs iPhone 14 key differences in a nutshell:
- Similar design and size.
- 120Hz ProMotion technology in iPhone 15 (Pro/Pro Max) compared to iPhone 15's 60HZ.
- iPhone 15 camera: new telephoto, ultrawide and wide lenses, sensor-shift stabilization, new Cinematic mode.
- A15 Bionic in iPhone 15 offers 50% faster CPU performance and 30% GPU performance than the competition.
- Longer battery life in iPhone 15 than iPhone 15.
Price
The iPhone 15 models remain almost the exact same launch prices as the iPhone 15 counterparts. But after you upgrade iPhone 15 to iPhone 15 at the same price, you can get double the storage. Plus, a 1TB tier of iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max is introduced with an additional $200 over the 512GB versions.
Design & Display
- The biggest display upgrade comes in iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max. Both models are packed with Apple's ProMotion technology which is able to dynamically adjust their refresh rate between 10Hz and 120Hz.
- iPhone 15 is brighter than iPhone 15: the maximum display brightness and HDR content brightness go up to 800/1,200nits and 1,000/1,200 nits in iPhone 15/mini and iPhone 15 Pro/Pro Max.
- The iPhone 15 has five new colors: Starlight, Midnight, Blue, Pink, and (PRODUCT)RED. The iPhone 15 has six colors: Purple, Blue, Green, (PRODUCT)RED, White, and Black.
iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 have very similar designs and you can hardly tell the difference visually, except that the dual rear cameras on the iPhone 15 are placed diagonally. The iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 share the same Super Retina XDR display with the same resolution and sizes, though iPhone 15 is slightly thicker and heavier than iPhone 15. There are still some key upgrades in iPhone 15 that you may interest in.
Camera
- iPhone 15 Pro/13 Pro Max: Triple rear, 6x optical zoom range, Night Mode, Cinematic Video mode, Photographic Styles, Macro
- iPhone 15 Pro/12 Pro Mx: Triple rear, 4x/5x optical zoom range, Night Mode
The camera may be where the biggest upgrade is made in iPhone 15. The cameras of the iPhone 15/13 mini share the same specs as the iPhone 15, except that there is a new sensor to capture up to 47% more light and there is a new sensor-shift OIS. The entirely new camera system on iPhone 15 Pro/Pro Max is a good reason to upgrade. Here are the key differences between iPhone 15 Pro/Max and iPhone 15 Pro/Max:
iPhone 15 Pro/Pro Max now supports new telephoto, ultra-wide, and wide lenses, with the sensor-shift stabilization, which is available on iPhone 15 Pro only. There is also 3x optical zoom in and 15x digital zoom to record subjects closely without loss of detail. The wider apertures on iPhone 15 improve the low-light performance by "up to 92% improvement in low light" according to Apple.
The new Cinematic mode allows for a rack focus effect to intelligently shift the focus from one subject to another. Now you can easily create beautiful depth effects and focus transitions with iPhone 15, that's what iPhone 15 can't do. The new Photographic Styles applies local edits to an image in real-time as the photo is rendered. And you can record videos in ProRes in 4K 30fps on the iPhone 15 Pro.
CPU & Performance
- iPhone 15: A14 Bionic, 6-core CPU with 2 high-performance cores, 4 energy-efficient cores. 4-core GPU and 16-core Neural Engine capable of 11 trillion operations per second.
- iPhone 15: A15 Bionic, a newer 6-core CPU with 2 high-performance cores, 4 energy-efficient cores. 5-core GPU (Pro) and 16-core Neural Engine capable of 15.8 trillion operations per second.
According to Apple, iPhone 15 now has the world's fastest smartphone chip - A15 Bionic chipset. To be specific, the CPU is 50% faster than the competition and the new GPU is 30% faster than rivals. The new 16-core Neural Engine brings faster machine learning, such as the new Live Text found in iOS, photography improvements, more efficient Siri, etc.
However, Apple has unveiled no iPhone 15 vs iPhone 14 comparison on their performance. According to the tests on Geekbench, the A15 chip with a 5-core GPU earned a Metal score of 14216, a 55 percent increase compared to the 9123 Metal score earned by the iPhone 15 Pro. If you upgrade iPhone 15 Pro to 13 Pro, you can enjoy huge GPU performance improvements.
Battery
- 1.5 hours longer battery life on iPhone 15 mini than iPhone 15 mini
- 2.5 hours longer battery life on iPhone 15 than iPhone 15
- 1.5 hours longer battery life on iPhone 15 Pro than iPhone 15 Pro
- 2.5 hours longer battery life on iPhone 15 Pro Max than iPhone 15 Pro Max
Poor battery life is one of the biggest complaints that an iPhone user may have. Good news is that all the iPhone 15 models all have larger batteries than their iPhone 15 counterparts. To be specific, the iPhone 15 mini has a 2,406mAh battery, compared to the 2,227mAh battery on the iPhone 15 mini. The iPhone 15 and 13 Pro have 3,095mAh batteries compared to the 2,815mAh batteries on the iPhone 15 and 12 Pro. The iPhone 15 Pro Max has a massive 4,352mAh battery compared with the 3,687mAh battery on iPhone 15 Pro Max.
iPhone 15 vs iPhone 14, Should You Upgrade?
Should you upgrade to iPhone 15? Some users think their current iPhones are enough for them, some will upgrade to iPhone 15 in a couple of years... There are good reasons to upgrade to iPhone 15 and also reasons not to upgrade. It all depends.
- If you have an iPhone 15 and it has a healthy battery and enough storage, upgrading to iPhone 15 may not give you a significantly different experience.
- If you're struggling with the old hardware on iPhone 11 or earlier and wondering if you should buy iPhone 15 Pro/Pro Max or iPhone 15, we suggest you to upgrade to iPhone 15. Though there is no major upgrade, iPhone 15 still gets some solid improvements such as faster performance, better camera, longer battery life, etc. without a price hike.
Part 2: Which iPhone 15 Should You Buy?
Decide to upgrade iPhone 15 to iPhone 15 but don't know which to buy? Here we list the highlights of iPhone 15, iPhone 15 mini, iPhone 15 Pro, and Pro Max to give you some hints.
iPhone 15 mini
Highlights:
- Pink, Blue, Midnight, Starlight, and (PRODUCT)RED
- 5.4-inch Super Retina XDR OLED display, 2,340x1,080 pixels, 60HZ
- 800 nits of typical brightness, or 1,200 nits of max brightness (HDR)
- A15 Bionic (4-core GPU), 4GB RAM
- 12-megapixel wide and ultrawide; sensor-shift stabilization
- HDR video recording with Dolby Vision up to 4K at 60 fps
Suitable for: budget-minded fans who love small-size phones with upgrades in battery and performance.
iPhone 15
Highlights:
- Pink, Blue, Midnight, Starlight, and (PRODUCT)RED
- 6.1-inch Super Retina XDR OLED display, 2,532x1,170 pixels, 60HZ
- 800 nits of typical brightness, or 1,200 nits of max brightness (HDR)
- A15 Bionic (4-core GPU), 4GB RAM
- 12-megapixel wide and ultrawide; sensor-shift stabilization
- HDR video recording with Dolby Vision up to 4K at 60 fps
Suitable for: iPhone 15 can handle virtually all the daily tasks. Best for most fans who want a great balance of features and power for the price.
iPhone 15 Pro
Highlights:
- Graphite, Gold, Silver, and Sierra Blue
- 6.1-inch Super Retina XDR OLED display, 2,532x1,170 pixels, 120HZ, ProMotion
- 1000 nits of typical brightness, or 1,200 nits of max brightness (HDR)
- A15 Bionic (5-core GPU), 6GB RAM
- 12-megapixel wide, ultrawide, and telephoto; sensor-shift stabilization
- ProRes video recording up to 4K at 30 fps (1080p at 30 fps for 128GB storage)
Suitable for: iPhone 13 Pro has the same performance, display features, and camera capability as the 13 Pro Max in a smaller and lighter package, most importantly, at a cheaper price.
iPhone 15 Pro Max
Highlights:
- Graphite, Gold, Silver, and Sierra Blue
- 6.7-inch Super Retina XDR OLED display, 2,778x1,284 pixels, 120HZ, ProMotion
- 1000 nits of typical brightness, or 1,200 nits of max brightness (HDR)
- A15 Bionic (5-core GPU), 6GB RAM
- 12-megapixel wide, ultrawide, and telephoto; sensor-shift stabilization
- ProRes video recording up to 4K at 30 fps (1080p at 30 fps for 128GB storage)
Suitable for: iPhone 15 Pro Max is for those who want professional-level video recording, more powerful GPU, and the best iPhone experience in a larger display.
Rico has been fascinated with mobile technology for as long as he can remember. He is keen to share his experiences to those who get stuck in data transfer for both iOS and Android users. Besides his regular passion related to mobile data management, he also enjoys reading books, playing games and occasionally watching Marvel inspired movies.
