Key Takeaways

• The iPhone 15 Pro offers subtle but appreciated enhancements that make it more worthy of the "Pro" name, including the introduction of USB-C, LOG Video Recording, and a customizable Action Button.
• The iPhone 15 Pro is arguably Apple's most well-rounded smartphone to date, with the fewest compromises.
• The iPhone 15 Pro's introduction of native support for LOG video recording is a game-changer for content creators, allowing for greater dynamic range and flexibility in video capture.

We've grown accustomed to incremental updates with our iPhones, and while that's still largely true, this year's iPhone 15 Pro offers a bit more to chew on. Apple's latest Pro doesn't flaunt a dramatic makeover, but it arrives with a bundle of subtle yet greatly appreciated enhancements that, when combined, make these smartphones more worthy of their "Pro" name than ever before.

With the introduction of USB-C, Apple takes a significant (albeit, forced by the EU) stride in addressing one of the main roadblocks that deterred diehard Android users from embracing the Apple ecosystem. Beyond the convenience of standardized charging, the iPhone 15 series, particularly the Pro and Pro Max, tackles a longstanding drawback of using an iPhone: lack of support for external accessories and extremely slow data transfer speeds.

It's safe to say that this is arguably Apple's most well-rounded smartphone to date. It's become my favorite iPhone upgrade to date.

However, a hot topic has cast a shadow over this parade. It seems that some combination of the new Titanium build, a slimmer profile, and the amplified processing power of the A17 Pro chip has led to widespread reports of overheating and thermal throttling in the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max. While potential software fixes are in the pipeline, have these new Pro models bitten off a little more than they can chew?

Starting Prices and Potential Future Price Hike

The base model of the iPhone 15 Pro starts at the same $999 as last year, with 128 GB of storage. Dropping its 128 GB option, the iPhone 15 Pro Max now starts at $1,199. Although this price matches the storage configuration and cost of the 256GB 14 Pro Max, for those who don't necessarily need the extra 128 GB of storage, that extra $200 gap between the two Pro models may be enough to sway them away from the larger Pro Max.

I suspect this is part of Apple's larger plan of gradually phasing out the 128 GB option from their Pro lineup, possibly extending this trend to their entire range. This move might be a precursor to Apple standardizing 256 GB as the new base storage option for all their devices. If that happens, we could might a $100 price increase across the board.

What's New on the iPhone 15 Pro?

Performance

Performance has always been a major talking point in Apple's iPhone keynotes, and the iPhone 15 Pro doesn't disappoint. As expected, it's the fastest iPhone to date, but of course, it would be. The speed boost comes courtesy of the new 3nm A17 Pro processor, and while it won't make your everyday tasks like app launches, web browsing, or gaming feel drastically smoother, it does bring some notable improvements.

Under the hood, the A17 Pro boasts a 6-core CPU, promising a 10 percent performance boost compared to the A16. The 6-core GPU, on the other hand, raises the stakes even further, delivering up to 20 percent faster performance. What's truly exciting is the GPU's newfound support for mesh shading and hardware-accelerated ray tracing. These cutting-edge graphics technologies can potentially enable features usually associated with PC gaming or current-generation consoles.

Apple has given us a glimpse of the future with teasers of upcoming games like Death Stranding, Resident Evil Village, and Resident Evil 4. These titles should harness the additional GPU performance on these new Pro phones. But, let's be honest, considering the storage space these games demand and the relatively small smartphone screens, one might question the necessity of such gaming prowess on a mobile device.

While iPhones may not be poised to overthrow dedicated gaming platforms like the Steam Deck anytime soon, it's undeniably a positive step in the right direction, especially when considering Apple's ongoing efforts to attract developers and expand its gaming ecosystem. Moving beyond gaming, the iPhone 15 Pro takes a practical step by increasing RAM from 6 GB to 8 GB. This isn't just about raw power; the device can keep more apps stored in memory in the background, resulting in slightly improved multitasking capabilities. It's these subtle enhancements that often make a noticeable difference in the overall user experience.

USB-C: More Than Just Charging

The arrival of USB-C in the iPhone ecosystem unlocks a lot of possibilities. For years, my iPhone felt like the odd one out among my tech devices, forcing me to remember to carry around a dated lightning cable anywhere I went. Adopting USB-C is a welcome shift, and it's undoubtedly one of the most significant changes. Yes, Apple was backed into a corner by the EU to make this move, but the benefits go beyond mere charging convenience.

Apple being Apple, they bundle the iPhone 15 Pro with a USB 2.0 cable. They'll tout their sustainability efforts yet still push users to buy another cable after the fact. The included cable is sufficient for charging, but if you own or purchase a faster USB 3 cable, you can unleash the full potential of 10 Gbps transfer speeds. This means that copying those substantial "Pro" video and photo files becomes a remarkably more convenient task. The inclusion of USB 3.2 Gen 1 is exclusive to the 15 Pro series this year, but it wouldn't be surprising if Apple continues this as a signature Pro feature in future models.

What's more exciting is with the boost in USB-C speeds, you now have the power to record videos directly onto external SSDs or even SD cards! Curiously, within Apple's default camera app, this is not only an option but a requirement if you intend to record LOG at 4K60FPS. I'm curious to see the possibilities of future third-party cases and accessories that more seamlessly integrate these external storage solutions or even accessory adapters.

For now, though, it still blows my mind that I can record video directly onto an SD card and then effortlessly transfer that footage to your MacBook without convoluted processes. Even if you don't plan on using LOG, it's an important step forward that simplifies the recording process and streamlines the post-production workflow for content creators.

Action Button

While some of us may miss the tactile satisfaction of sliding to silence and knowing at a quick glance that your phone won't go off during a wedding, the new Action Button is far more useful.

I have mine set to quickly launch the camera into its video mode, proving handy for those impromptu video captures. As simple as this seems, this was a huge surprise to me.

Kudos to Apple for allowing users to customize this button however they want, and not limiting actions to Apple's own apps or shortcuts. This is an incredible step towards flexibility: a Google Assistant shortcut button on an iPhone, anyone?

But right now, it feels a bit underwhelming, and it's somewhat of a mixed bag for me.

The absence of support for double clicks to trigger additional actions beyond what you've assigned to a single press feels like an oversight or perhaps an intentional limitation. It leaves us wanting to retain the convenience of silencing our phones while also enjoying a secondary function.

While some third-party workarounds use other apps, I'm hoping Apple brings native support for this in a future update. It's one of those features that has great potential and just needs a little more thought to blossom fully.

Is a 5X Telephoto Worth the Upgrade?

The 15 Pro sports three familiar cameras: a 24mm 48MP Main Camera with an f/1.78 aperture, an f/2.2 13mm 12MP Ultra Wide camera, and an f/2.8 77mm 12MP telephoto. They are largely the same as the 14 Pro, especially when taking photos during the day. As with most other iPhone upgrades, the benefits become more noticeable in lower light. Both the 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max have a larger 48-megapixel sensor on the main camera, which helps capture more detail.

Testing the iPhone 15 Pro and the 14 Pro later in the day, into the sunset and night, it was apparent that the new iPhone 15 Pro didn't need to activate night mode as frequently. The upgraded photonic engine works its magic behind the scenes, resulting in low-light images with improved noise control and retained sharpness.

One noteworthy convenience, thanks to its faster processor, is eliminating the need to switch between photo and portrait modes. If a person, cat, or dog is detected in the frame, the camera automatically collects depth data, allowing you to decide later whether you want a standard photo or a portrait. I often never shot in portrait as I knew the results were hit or miss, or I was shooting other subjects that didn't require that look, so I just decided to stick in its regular photo mode.

The 5X tetraprism telephoto lens exclusive to the iPhone 15 Pro Max might have you wondering if you should shell out the extra cash and upgrade to the larger model. It's an excellent choice when capturing subjects at a significant distance, primarily landmarks. However, it has some downsides that might make the 3X lens found on the Pro a more sensible choice for almost everything else. Notably, the 5X lens exhibits reduced quality in low-light conditions and lacks effective stabilization for video.

More importantly—and Apple managed to skip right over this in their keynote—it creates a significant gap in focal ranges from 24mm to 120mm. With the iPhone 15 Pro Max's move to 5X optical zoom, anything between 24mm to 120mm becomes digital zoom, resulting in a noticeable loss of quality. 5X zoom can often be excessive, making it challenging to frame shots, particularly for portraits. You already have to step back considerably to get someone's face in the frame, let alone get their whole body. While it might shine in specific scenarios like sports photography or even some street photography, for everyday versatility, the 3X / 77mm lens found on this Pro model remains the better choice overall.

Pro Video (Finally)

What had me most excited to "upgrade" to the iPhone 15 Pro from my 14 Pro Max is the addition of native support for LOG video recording. While I've been more than happy to travel lighter and leave my "real" cameras behind to take photos with my iPhone, that's never really been the case with videos. As a video enthusiast who records at least one piece of content a day, this has been on my iPhone wish list for a good four years. The power to capture videos with greater dynamic range and flexibility is a game-changer for creators, and it's a feature I've been eagerly anticipating. To finally get all of this on an iPhone all at once is a pretty big deal.

(Note, full resolution video samples can be viewed on YouTube)

While iPhones have always delivered impressive video quality with excellent stabilization, vibrant colors, and sharpness, Apple tends to apply a somewhat heavy-handed processing that can make videos feel overly stylized. It's excellent for quick shareable videos but falls short when it comes to creating more professional content. Color grading LOG can be difficult and time-consuming, but the results can be well worth the effort.

Even with the introduction of Cinematic Mode in previous iterations, it often felt like a gimmick. This year is different. We even have full support for ProRes LOG with the front-facing camera. In our side-by-side test, you can quickly notice how the color-graded LOG removes the over-sharpened look that still plagues the Standard profile.

Third-party apps like Moment or Filmic Pro offered more manual controls and different video profiles, including simulated LOG, but they couldn't provide any actual increased dynamic range to allow you to pull information from shadows and highlights.

After digging through a few pages of settings, you can now enable ProRes encoding with support for LOG, HDR, or SDR. While switching to LOG won't transform your videos into the quality of, say, a full-frame Sony a7siii, it does open up a new level of editing flexibility that was previously unavailable with iPhone video files. Beyond facilitating color correction and refining the look, LOG also eliminates the excessive sharpening that iPhones tend to apply.

With that said, Apple still doesn't seem to trust its users. Aside from frame rate and choosing which camera to record with, Apple doesn't think we "need" to have control over Shutter Speed, ISO, or White Balance. I understand the desire to keep the camera app easy to use, but I'd imagine most if not all users filming in LOG are also looking for these more advanced controls. Given their push towards "Pro" video, why Apple still hasn't added these very basic "Pro" features remains a mystery. Maybe they'll launch their own Apple Camera in a few years.

It's also worth noting that Apple's camera app does not support ProRes LOG at 4K60FPS unless you have a supported external drive or SD card.

On a more positive note, Blackmagic, the company behind the DaVinci Resolve video editing tool, has launched the Blackmagic Cam app just in time. This app fills the void by providing access to those missing features and more. It not only supports Apple LOG, but also allows recording in up to Apple ProRes 4444. Your file sizes will be insanely large, and in truth, the extra data in these less compressed codecs is still overkill for iPhone video, but this is a huge win for iPhone video creators.

Slimmer Titanium Build, but Less Heat Dissipation?

Side by side, the iPhone 15 Pro looks nearly identical to its predecessor. Love it or hate it, for right now, it seems Dynamic Island is here to stay.

This year, Apple has replaced its stainless steel frame, which they've used in the Pro series for several years, in favor of brushed Titanium with a more matte finish. I wasn't a fan of the shinier bezels found on previous Pros. They looked premium for about 5 minutes but quickly became a smudge and scratch magnet. Your color choices this year are all Titanium-themed: Natural Titanium, Blue Titanium, White Titanium, and Black Titanium.

The iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max also get narrower and more rounded bezels around the screen. Holding the 15 Pro and 14 Pro in hand, I instantly noticed the difference because of how the rounder edges allowed my hands to wrap around the sides and how much lighter it felt. The switch to Titanium and smoothing out its sides has allowed the iPhone 15 Pro models to drop 19 grams from its predecessors. While I was skeptical at first, together this makes this year's Pro devices much easier and comfortable to hold. I'm glad to see the switch to Titanium, though it seems as though it has a few downsides.

The Downsides of Titanium

For starters, there are several (painfully hard to watch) videos from YouTubers like JerryRigEveryThing that demonstrate how much softer Titanium is. It turns out that, apart from the Natural Titanium variant, all other colors of the iPhone 15 Pro are notably prone to displaying their scratches and dings. While I prefer to use a case from day one to protect my device, for those who prefer to rock a naked phone, extra care will be required to keep your device looking pristine.

However, what's been causing me more concern is the issue of overheating. The exact cause of this widespread problem hasn't been pinpointed, but it's suspected that the more powerful 3nm A17 Pro chip generates more heat, while the Titanium shell might be less effective at dissipating it.

At seemingly random moments, I've experienced times where my iPhone 15 Pro becomes uncomfortably hot to the touch, even with a case on. I'm not talking about scenarios like using it outdoors in direct sunlight while recording 4K60FPS LOG for extended periods. Instead, I've encountered instances where simply charging the phone indoors while I was casually reading Apple News triggered a warning message that "charging has been put on hold until phone temperatures return to normal."

While it's normal for new iPhones to warm up slightly during the first few days of use as they index and optimize background processes, it's pretty unusual for these issues to persist well over a week of regular use.

Apple has recently acknowledged this issue and attributed it to software bugs that they are actively working to address. Just before the release of this review, Apple pushed out iOS 17.1, which seems to have fixed these concerns without any noticeable decrease in performance. Time will tell if this is a permanent fix.

A Worthy Upgrade, Though Mostly for Content Creators

The iPhone 15 Pro is an exciting upgrade, particularly for content creators like myself. The long-awaited shift to USB-C simplifies charging and data transfers, while the customizable Action Button adds a touch of personalization, which is very uncharacteristic of Apple. Photography hasn't improved that much, but as a creator, it's the native support for LOG video recording that makes the iPhone 15 Pro feel genuinely pro.

Assuming Apple can deliver an appropriate fix for its overheating issues that doesn't cannibalize performance, this may be one of the most important iPhones we've seen in a long time.