🍎📲 Top 10 Apple’s iPhone 15 announcements
Get ready for USB-C, fast charging and a titanium frame
🍎 Questions? Ask Matt Swider on 🐦 Twitter or 📸 Instagram or 📧 just reply! Subscribers get 1:1 iPhone 15 answers & hand-picked deals from Discover Samsung / Walmart / Best Buy / Amazon / B&H Photo / GameStop / Xbox Game Pass / PlayStation+ / 🔥Microsoft Office Windows $30 / 🔥MS Office Mac $30
Update 2: Our full iPhone 15 Pro Max review is live on The Shortcut. It’s Apple’s best iPhone upgrade yet, according to Matt Swider.
Update: I’m going through to check off what I got right and wrong during today’s Apple iPhone 15 launch event. Look at the “📝 Report card” notation to see how I did.
Greetings from your friendly neighborhood Swider-Man (I’m not in NYC for once)! I’m here to help you decide if Apple’s iPhone 15 will be worth the upgrade.
🍎 10 predictions about iPhone 15 below ⤵️
Where can you hear me:
🚗 📻 KNX Radio, South California’s only 24hr news station, talking iPhone predictions during the morning drive
📡 📻 Sirius XM Shade 45 (Eminem’s channel) on Thursday at 1pm ET, detailing what Apple showed off in the end – hopefully matching all of the exciting predictions. Call-ins welcome!
📧 ✏️ I’ll be updating this page live as the Apple event happens at 1pm ET / 10am PT. You can watch the Apple event livestream here. Ask me questions in replies and I’ll do my best to answer them on this page.
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1. Apple iPhone 15 pre-order & release date
📝 Report card: Yes, got everything correct here!
Today’s Apple launch event in Cupertino, California, is just the beginning. I’ll be tracking the iPhone 15 Pro Max release date (the one you care about the most, according to my replies), from announcement to in-store release:
🍎 🚀 Today, Sept 12: Apple to announce the iPhone 15 and new AirPods with USB-C at 1pm ET / 10am PT.
📡 📻 Thursday, Sept 14: Is iPhone 15 worth it? Want to hear my thoughts on it? I’ll be talking to DJ Lord Sear on Sirius XM’s Shade 45 (Eminem’s channel) at 1pm ET / 10am PT. ☎️ Call-ins welcome!
📲 🛍️ Friday, September 15: iPhone 15 pre-orders likely to begin online (8am ET).
📱 🗓️ Friday, September 22: Expected iPhone 15 release date.
2. Confirmed: Samsung will try to disrupt Apple’s event
📝 Report card: Another win – Samsung launched its $1 SmartThings sale that was gone in just a few minutes – and I had exclusive codes via Twitter. Smart strategy.
Are you an Android user who can’t be swayed by Apple? Good news: this week marks the best time to buy Samsung phones, TVs, and gaming monitors, as Apple’s chief rival launches its big Discover Samsung Event.
Consumer-benefitting counter-programming:
⚡ Flash sale of Samsung’s popular SmartThings Station.
🚨 I’ll have exclusive promo codes on Twitter/X (follow me & 🔔 turn on notifications to snag one today).
📺 One of the best times to upgrade your TV before Black Friday.
📱 Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5, Z Flip 5 and Galaxy S23 deals return.
3. Goodbye Lightning, hello USB-C
📝 Report card: All correct, though Apple didn’t give USB-C its own name. In fact, it hardly made mention of USB-C and focused more on MagSafe.
Apple’s switch to USB-C on the iPhone 15 phones is going to be a boon for tech users who want to consolidate their collection of cables – especially when traveling.
❤️ Why I love it: My MacBook, GoPro Hero 12 Black, iPad Pro, DJI drone and even my portable charger all use USB-C. One fast-charging cable to rule them all will make my life a lot easier.
🤔 Who will be skeptical: People who hated the transition from the 30-pin dock to Lightning. But once they rip off the Band-Aid, they’ll love it. No one wants the 30-pin dock back in 2023, right?
🌎 Extra benefit: It’ll be an e-waste benefit over time when everyone is on the same charger worldwide. It’ll be great if Apple announces a comprehensive recycling program for our old Lightning cables.
4. Faster 35W charging speeds (well, maybe)
📝 Report card: Apple didn’t talk up 35W charging on the iPhone 15 series, and the official iPhone 15 Pro specs still talk about 50% in 35 minutes. But it’s still possible that using a 35W charger will eke out more speed. We’ll see in our tests.
❤️ Why I love it: My current iPhone 14 Pro Max (about 27W) charges pretty quickly (50% in about 34 minutes, according to my tests). The rumored 35W faster charging speed is going to make my life even easier when I need juice in a pinch.
👀 What to look for: What will Apple name its cable? Will it even say USB-C on stage? I like Thunder – short for Thunderbolt – a fitting post-Lightning name. However, the iPhone 15 could get a slightly slower charging speed vs the iPhone 15 Pro series.
🙄 What the naysayers will say: Some top-end Samsung phones charge at a max 45W and we have an MWC 2023 award to the Realme GT3, which has 240W charging. But none of these phones give me iMessage or FaceTime.
⚡ Wireless is the future: We’re stuck at 15W wireless on almost all phones, but I do love the convenience of wireless charging, especially with my Mophie 3-in-1 travel charger. I’d love to see this get an increase soon.
5. The big reason iPhone 15 Pro Max will be a hit
📝 Report card: Yes, and it looks even more impressive than the iPhone 15 rumors suggested. Major win for consumers jealous of Samsung phones.
The reason to spend your cash on the larger iPhone 15 Pro Max may have to do with the camera. It’s rumored to have a much better telephoto lens (5x to 6x vs 3x zoom) via a periscope lens and will include a slightly bigger battery.
👀 What to look for: How will this compare to Samsung’s ‘Space Zoom’ which can do 10x optical on the S23 Ultra and 100x digitally (more of a neat party trick).
🔋 Best iPhone battery life: Like last year, expect the iPhone 15 Pro Max to offer the best battery life of all the iPhone models.
🤓 Nerdy fact: Chinese companies were the first to insert the periscope camera sideways (traveling up the body of the phone) in an effort to include as many lenses as possible without making the phone body thicker. These cameras use an angled mirror to capture images from the rear of the phone. Pretty cool!
6. Price increase but great trade-ins
📝 Report card: The best possible news: only the iPhone 15 Pro Max will see a price increase in the US, and just $100 more for a 256GB version. So it’s a wash.
Your iPhone 15 may cost more money, at least in select countries (the US included). Expect to pay $100 more, just like almost everyone else is charging.
🔄 Trade-in offers: I’ve become known for deals and how to maximize trade-in offers, and I’ll continue to help you make sure you get the most money for your old iPhone if you reach out.
🍎 Apple and Samsung are the two tech companies with enough clout to pay up for old smartphones, but I’ll also scour US carriers (AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile) for their incentives.
💭 If I price increase happens, expect trade-ins to be emphasized even more.
7. Titanium frame, thinner bezels, new Action button
📝 Report card: Yes, yyes and yes.
You might not notice the iPhone 15 design changes – they’ll be subtle and some will allegedly be exclusive to the Pro models – but we’re expecting to see thinner bezels and a new Action Button.
🪨 Titanium frame: I will miss the way “Aluminum” is pronounced in Apple videos (the English way), but the introduction of a Titanium frame should result in a lighter, yet stronger iPhone – at least for the 15 Pro models.
🫥 Thinner bezels: More screen, less black outline is what the Pro models may exhibit. This makes me wonder: Will the new iPhone dimensions shrink or will the screen sizes get bigger? Either way, it’s good news for the Pro models.
👋 So long, mute switch: Apple is replacing the mute switch with a customizable Action Button that will let you assign nine different options to it. That means you’ll finally be able to launch the camera app with just one button now.
8. New colors & color-matching cables
📝 Report card: The colors look correct, but the color-matching cables were a no-show, sadly.
I liked the iPhone 14 colors, but leaks suggest that the iPhone 15 colors will be getting a few standout hues.
🎨 iPhone 15 Pro & Pro Max: Titanium, Silver (Gray), Space Black, and Dark Blue
🌈 iPhone 15 & iPhone 15 Plus: Midnight (Black), Starlight (White), Blue, Orange (Coral Pink), and Yellow
I still wish more “fun” colors would come to the more serious iPhones – a Product Red or Yellow. Maybe we’ll see some in a mid-cycle refresh in six months.
9. iPhone 15 plays catch-up to the 14 Pro
📝 Report card: Yes, and the iPhone 15 will steal thr 14 Pro’s 48MP photos.
The iPhone 15 is due to benefit from trickle-down features from last year’s Pros like the Dynamic Island. If you skipped last year’s model, you’ll get some nifty design and internal specs changes.
🏝️ Dynamic Island: Apple’s inventive way to hide the TrueDepth camera notch with a dynamic notifications window will come to the more affordable iPhone 15 series.
⚙️ A16 chipset: While Apple’s A17 chipset is due to make headlines in the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max, the A16 will be a step up for the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus, as the 14 and 14 Plus held back with the A15.
🤔 My take: I’ve grown to like the Dynamic Island on my 14 Pro Max as more apps support it, though new features coming to the iPhone 15 Pro Max will entice me to go for the more expensive version.
10. AirPods Pro USB-C, new Apple Watches
📝 Report card: No new features for the AirPods, but USB-C is confirmed. The Apple Watch 9 sounds more exciting than the Ultra 2 in some ways, so we’ll have to test each one out come September 22.
The iPhone 15 will be the main star of today’s Apple launch event, but it won’t be the only new refresh: USB-C AirPods Pro and new Apple Watches are incoming.
🔌 A new way to plug in AirPods: Just like on your forthcoming iPhone 15 phone, Lightning is going the way of the dodo bird and is expected to be replaced by USB-C.
👀 What to look for on the new AirPods Pro: Will Apple change from Lightning to USB-C only? Or will there be actual feature changes?
🏃♂️ Faster Apple Watch chipset: The Apple Watch may get a faster chipset, an upgrade we haven’t seen in a few generations.
👀 What to look for on the new Apple Watch: The big rumor is that the Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 will be a stepping stone to a larger refresh in next year’s Apple Watch X. I still find my Ultra 1 worth it for the larger screen and extra battery life (even for a non-runner), so can you really hold off another 12 months?