While everyone’s scrambling to pre-order their latest iPhone, do you know which new iPhone is the most suitable for your usage? Good thing is, there are 4 iPhones to choose from the latest lineup, and in this piece, we will deep dive into each new feature of the iPhone 15 & iPhone 15 Plus – and you can make the call on your own!
Beyond all the fancy new upgrades, it’s worth to note that the iPhone 15 lineup is literally made as an everyday beast – with the efficient A16 Bionic chip powering all the functional aspects of the iPhone 15 & iPhone 15 Plus.
If you’re looking for more details on the iPhone 15 Pro & iPhone 15 Pro Max, check it out here.
Aesthetics
Let’s start with the aesthetics – something that makes using the iPhone 15 & iPhone 15 Plus that much more aesthetically pleasing. Heh.
Source: Apple | Close up of iPhone 15 & iPhone 15 Plus in Pink
Can we talk about how good the iPhone 15 Plus looks???
Swanky New Contoured Edges
The new iPhone 15 & iPhone 15 Plus is outfitted with a brand new contoured edge surrounding the aerospace-grade aluminium enclosure which feels smooth and doesn’t cut into your hands, and the Ceramic Shield front cover is said to be tougher than any other smartphone glass. The iPhone remains water and dust resistant – something which we were wondering about when we first held the iPhone in our hands. Perfect for everyday use.
New Back Glass
The back of the iPhone 15 & iPhone 15 Plus are wrapped in a stunning, textured matte finish – an industry-first colour-infused back glass, might we add. With the beautiful sheen of colour infused throughout the back glass, the iPhone 15 & iPhone 15 Plus comes in 5 attractive and aesthetically pleasing colours: Black, Blue, Green, Yellow, and Pink.
USB-C
Both models are outfitted with a USB-C connector – something that is actually pretty exciting for us. You can now use the same cable to power up your iPhone, Mac, iPad, and the updated AirPods Pro (2nd generation). What’s more, you can now use your iPhone’s USB-C connector to quickly juice up your AirPods or Apple Watch while you’re on the go. Both models are also still compatible with MagSafe and future Qi2 chargers if wireless charing is your jam.
Software Upgrades
Source: Apple
A16 Bionic chip
The same Bionic chip powering the iPhone 14 Pro series is now here on iPhone 15 & iPhone 15 Plus. Specifically designed for energy efficiency, the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus comes with all-day battery life – with iPhone 15 Plus supporting up to 26 hours of video playback, 9 additional hours of video playback as compared to iPhone 12.
Dynamic Island
Previously only available for the iPhone 14 Pro lineup, Dynamic Island is now here on iPhone 15 & iPhone 15 Plus (the whole iPhone 15 family, actually!). Real-time alerts and Live Activities are collapsed into one singular, interactive spot on your iPhone in the form of a pill-shaped display at the top of your screen. This allows you to quickly and easily access what’s happening in the background, without interrupting whatever app you’re currently using.
Easily track your food delivery, skip to the next song, pause a timer or even see your gate number when you’re boarding a plane to your next getaway seamlessly just by tapping on your Dynamic Island.
Super Retina XDR Display
With the all-new Super Retina XDR display powering Peak HDR brightness that reaches up to 2,000 nits, you can now easily read texts / emails on your iPhone while you’re on the go – whether it be walking to the office on a bright sunny morning, or if you’re running errands in the hot sun. No more squinting, or holding a hand above your screen to block the harsh sunlight.
Peak HDR Brightness
Peak HDR brightness on your iPhone 15 & iPhone 15 Plus now reaches up to 1,600 nits – just like iPhone 14 Pro. This accentuates the true blacks in dark areas of photos and videos, and with Dolby Vision, your HDR videos will look mind-blowing – including the ones you shoot on iPhone natively.
Source: Apple
Ultra Wideband Chip
This is a really helpful one for the forgetful or panicky gang gang.. like me. iPhone 15 embraces a new second-generation Ultra Wideband chip leveraging on innovative signalling and has a 3x further range when connecting to another device with the same chip. What does this mean, you may ask. Well, this powers a new feature – Precision Finding for Find My.
The best thing about this function is that you’d be able to locate your friends or loved ones who are already in your Find My easily, even in a crowd. The Precision Finding arrow will show you clear directions to your friends in a bustling area – no more panicking when you can’t find people who keeps saying ‘I’m here’ – where’s ‘here’?!
Voice Isolation
Yoooo this is pretty cool, especially when you have to take work calls while on the go. Simply swipe down the top-right corner of your screen while on a call, tap Mic Mode, and select Voice Isolation to activate this function.
Camera Upgrades
In line with the whole positioning that the iPhone is made to be a daily device, the iPhone 15 & iPhone 15 Plus has spanking new camera upgrades that allows you to simply pick up the iPhone, snap a photo, and move on – without any compromise on quality of output.
Shot on iPhone 15 Plus in 1x Camera
48MP Photos
Tapping on the legendary Photonic Engine, the iPhone 15 uses a new 48MP frame to combine the best of low light and incredible range of detail. 48MP photos with individual pixels will blow up fine details in the most complex scenes, and 12MP photos with large quad pixels empowers you to capture the best low light scenes.
For maximum resolution, you can go to Settings > Camera > Formats, turn on Resolution Control and tap the HEIF MAX control toggle in the top-right corner to snap a photo in 1x Photo Mode.
Shot on iPhone 15 Plus in 2x Zoom
2x Telephoto
Tapping the 2x Telephoto zoom mode in Photo, Video, Portrait mode, Cinematic mode, Time-lapse and even Panorama gives you an added level of zoomed in detail to whichever scene or people you’re shooting. By harnessing the middle 12MP of the new quad-pixel sensor, iPhone 15 provides an optical-quality 2x Telephoto for photos and videos at a 52mm focal length. Try this out for yourselves – it’s pretty wow.
Shot on iPhone 15 Plus in Night Mode
Night Mode
Night mode on the main Camera never looked better – the sharp details and vivid colours are retained at its best resolution in dark scenes thanks to Photonic Engine.
Shot on iPhone 15 Plus – Portrait in Camera Mode
Portraits
I’ve always loved snapping Portraits of my furkids but low key found the need to swiping to Portrait Mode in the camera sometimes a bit cumbersome. Here comes a really welcomed update to the camera – you can now take portrait shots directly from Photo mode. When iPhone now detects a person or pet prominently in the frame, it will automatically capture depth information and allow you to tap on the ƒ icon that pops up on the bottom left to preview and enable Portrait effect immediately and fuss-free.
If you prefer to only do this at a later stage while reviewing your photos, you can also Edit and tap on Portrait to turn the effect on after capturing the photo.
Source: Apple
Focus & Depth Control
For the creative gang gang, you can now adjust the focus point of your portrait photo easily after the shot. Simply tap on Edit in the Photos app, then tap on where you want the focal point of the photo to be. Easy.
Source: Apple | NameDrop
iOS 17
NameDrop
Of all the cool updates to iOS 17, there are 2 key updates that we’re pretty stoked about. NameDrop allows you to easily connect with people you just met – simply hold your iPhone close to someone else’s iPhone or Apple Watch to get started. You can even choose to Receive Only, or Share – totally up to you.
Source: Apple | Contact Posters
Contact Posters
The Phone app has been redesigned to allow you to customise your own Contact Posters – either place a photo of yourself, or a Memoji with beautiful treatments to best represent yourself. Check out more about iOS 17 here.
Sustainability
As Apple strives to achieve the goal of making every Apple product carbon neutral by 2030, the iPhone 15 & iPhone 15 Plus are made with even more recycled content – from 100% recycled cobalt in the battery to 100% recycled copper in the main logic board, copper wire in the Taptic Engine and copper foil in the inductive charger in MagSafe – this is truly a first for iPhone.
Source: Apple
Materials for Apple Accessories
By eradicating the use of leather in new Apple products and accessories, Apple is introducing a new suede-like FineWoven Case and FineWoven Wallet with MagSafe – made from an extremely durable and elegant microtwill that is made from 68% post-consumer recycled content that has a lower level of carbon emissions – as compared to leather.
Yay or Nay?
It’s a clear YAY for me – considering that the Blue hue of the stunning iPhone 15 Plus’ back glass is absolutely adorable.
Source: Apple
Where to Purchase
iPhone 15 & iPhone 15 Plus
iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus Colours: Pink, Yellow, Green, Blue, Black
iPhone 15 & iPhone 15 Plus Storage Capacities: 128GB, 256GB, 512GB
iPhone 15 starts at S$1,299 and iPhone 15 Plus starts at S$1,449 here.
Source: Apple
Accessories for your new iPhone 15 & iPhone 15 Plus
The FineWoven Case with MagSafe & FineWoven Wallet with MagSafe will both be available for S$89 in Black, Taupe, Mulberry, Pacific Blue, and Evergreen.
Source: Apple
If FineWoven ain’t your thing, all good! You’d be able to purchase a Silicone Case with MagSafe for S$75 in Black, Storm Blue, Clay, Light Pink, Guava, Orange Sorbet, Cypress, and Winter Blue.
Availability
Pre-order is now open here, and will be available in Singapore (and in your hands) from 22 September 2023 onwards.
