【Mobile China】When will the iPhone 15 series be released? What new features will it offer and, more importantly, how much will it cost?
iPhone 15 series rendering
This time of year, rumors and leaks about the next iPhone line come from all directions. However, in this era of information explosion, it is often difficult to pay close attention to every small revelation about the new iPhone.
With that in mind, we've put together all the information related to the next iPhone, including its name, design-related upgrades, performance, price, and release date. Among them, some revelations may excite you, and some may disappoint you.
iPhone 15 series
As usual, this year's iPhone 15 series may also include four models - two regular models and two large-screen models. Among them, the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro should have a 6.1-inch OLED display, and the iPhone 15 Plus and iPhone 15 Pro Max have a larger 6.7-inch screen. Some leaked renderings suggest that the screen size of the first two iPhones may increase slightly to 6.2 inches.
iPhone 15 Pro rendering
In early 2023, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman had predicted that the top-of-the-line iPhone 15 Pro Max could debut under the name iPhone 15 Ultra. But then he stepped back and said that in addition to the Pro Max version, Apple may release a higher-end Ultra version in 2024 (not in 2023).
appearance
The appearance of the iPhone 15 series should be similar to its predecessor. However, the standard version will abandon the previous Liu Haiping and adopt a smart island design. The Pro series still supports ProMotion (120Hz refresh rate).
iPhone 15 Plus rendering
It is said that all Lightning ports in the iPhone 15 series will be converted to USB-C ports, but Apple may reserve faster data transfer speeds for Pro series models. And the difference could be significant, as the regular version of the iPhone may be limited to the USB 2.0 standard, while the Pro version will be in USB 3.2 or Thunderbolt 3 standard.
In addition, the USB-C accessories supported by the iPhone 15 series are likely to be limited to USB-C accessories that have passed Apple's own Made for iPhone (MFi) program certification, and third-party accessories that are not certified may have limited functionality.
The new color scheme of the iPhone 15 series has been revealed
As for the color matching, it was revealed that the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus may add two colors: dark pink and light blue. The iPhone 15 Pro may add dark red, and the Pro Max will add titanium gray. It is said that the Pro series model will also have thinner bezels and titanium sides to distinguish it from the regular model. Both models may also have slightly lower positions for the power and volume buttons.
camera
The new iPhone 15 series will likely come with new, improved cameras that will allow users to take better images during the day and at night.
Among them, the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus may be equipped with the 48-megapixel (f/1.78, 24mm) main camera of the iPhone 14 Pro series, but the ultra-wide-angle camera remains the same, with some adjustments.
The iPhone 15 Pro is also expected to feature the familiar triple camera, which includes a 48-megapixel main camera, a 12-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera, and a 12-megapixel lens with up to 3x optical zoom.
But the iPhone 15 Pro Max will likely come with a new periscope zoom lens that can zoom in further without losing sharpness. Although the company has not confirmed this, Apple expects to increase the zoom range to 5x. Popular Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo even believes that the iPhone 15 Pro Max will be equipped with a 6x periscope telephoto lens.
The CAD rendering of the iPhone 15 series shows that the new machine has a thicker camera module, especially the Pro series model, which indicates that the new machine uses a larger sensor. The front-facing camera and Face ID sensor should remain the same, at least on the iPhone 15 series. There have been reports that the iPhone 15 series is equipped with under-screen Face ID, but this is unlikely to happen in the next few years.
performance
Last year, Apple upgraded the iPhone 14 Pro series to the latest A16 Bionic chipset based on TSMC's 4nm architecture. In contrast, the regular version of the model comes with an enhanced version of the A15 Bionic chipset. This strategy has helped Apple achieve multiple goals. First, it could allow Apple to reduce the manufacturing costs of regular iPhone models. Second, it establishes a clear distinction between the regular iPhone and the Pro iPhone. Apple has no good reason not to follow this strategy this year.
iPhone 14 Pro series
The iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus are expected to run the A16 Bionic chipset with 6GB of RAM, albeit the faster LPDDR5. It's still a very powerful combination. The iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max should come with a more powerful A17 Bionic chipset based on TSMC's 3nm manufacturing technology. TSMC predicts that the new processor will be 35% more energy efficient, which means longer battery life. It is speculated that all models of the iPhone 15 series will come with larger batteries.
In addition, Apple may also increase the RAM of the Pro model to 8GB. The iPhone 15 series will also come with iOS 17 out of the box, with many new features.
Price and release date
Analyst Jeff Pu believes that the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max will be more expensive than the iPhone 14 Pro series.
For reference, Apple released the iPhone 14 Pro in 2022, with a 128GB version starting at $999 (the National Bank version costs 7999 yuan). However, the iPhone 15 Pro may start at $1099, and the iPhone 15 Pro Max starts at $1199.
The iPhone 14 Pro series is priced at
The price increase may be due to high-end components such as new chips, periscope camera sensors, larger batteries, titanium chassis, etc. But at the moment Apple has not confirmed any of these details.
Finally, let's talk about the estimated iPhone 15 release date. For the past decade, Apple has been releasing new iPhones in September, and there's no reason to think it won't release the iPhone 15 series at the same time this year. Therefore, the iPhone 15 series should also be released in early or mid-September this year.
It may be a coincidence, but Apple always introduced new iPhone models on Tuesday, including the iPhone X, iPhone 11, iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 series. After the official release of the iPhone 15 series, it should be released about ten days apart.