Review: Apple iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max

USB-C! Action Button! Titanium! I call it C-A-T! For the first time in a few years, the “Pro” moniker finally seems to fit the iPhone a little bit more. Apple has made a number of changes in the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max that, when compared to previous years, make the top-tier handsets feel more deserving of the name than ever before. Like in years past, the larger Max model is the more impressive of the two Pro options.

Less impressive is the fact that the Pro Max's enhancements come with a price increase—it's $100 more expensive than last year's larger Pro model—but that's something you'll just have to accept if you want Apple's absolute best mobile hardware.

If you're wondering about the cheaper iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus, you can read my colleague Lauren Goode's review of those phones. Here, we'll dive into the Pro.

OK, I have to note that a part of why the iPhone 15 Pro feels like a big change from previous years is the new charging port. Like the rest of this year's iPhones, it uses USB-C instead of Lightning. (I wrote in detail about this change.) I knew this was going to make a big impact on me.

When I arrived at JFK Airport in New York City to fly out for the Apple event last week, I forgot a Lightning cable to recharge my iPhone. I had packed three USB-C cables instead. That's because my camera charges with USB-C. So does my on-camera video light, my wireless microphone system, my laptop, my Nintendo Switch, my Android phone … you get the idea. The new port means I can finally charge all my devices with one, glorious cable. I've been able to share USB-C accessories between my laptop and the iPhone too. It's a whole new world.

Here's the problem. To take advantage of the many high-performance features that USB-C enables, like data transfer speeds of up to 10 gigabits per second, connecting to an external display, and writing to a solid state drive to record videos in ProRes 4K at 60 frames per second, you will have to buy another cable instead of using the one Apple provides in the box. It's a Pro iPhone. Why couldn't Apple include a Pro cable with the beefier specs required to do Pro work?

The mute switch that's been on the side of the iPhone since the beginning has been replaced here with a user-programmable Action Button. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that I've seen phones with a configurable button for years. Apple lets you press and hold the Action Button to trigger things like the flashlight, the camera, voice memos, and even Shortcuts. Anyone who thinks they might miss the Mute switch should know that the Action Button is a Mute switch by default; tapping it toggles the phone's ringer to vibrate. It would've been nice to have a few more capabilities with this button—how about a double-tap or triple-tap action? The placement is also a little awkward and hard to reach, specifically on the Pro Max.

So that's USB-C, Action Button, oh, and titanium! The frame of the iPhone 15 Pro is now made of titanium, a metal that's lighter, purportedly more durable, and more scratch-resistant than the stainless steel that came before. I care more about how light it feels. The phone is so light compared to the iPhone 14 Pro that it initially felt cheap, but I quickly got used to it. The switch to titanium gives the Pro a weight savings of roughly 10 percent. That's not a lot on paper, but it really makes a difference when you're holding the phone above your face as you doomscroll in bed.

I've seen reports online of people talking about the titanium “discoloring” around the edges, but this is not true. I noticed that in a case, the buttons of the case leave a ring around the physical buttons on the phone that are a shade lighter than the rest of the frame's edge. Rubbing it with a damp microfiber cloth gets rid of it and any other smudges. (The Pro does like smudges). This discoloration is less pronounced on the Natural Titanium color (the superior color) as opposed to the Blue Titanium, but I can't speak for the other colors. None of this is an issue on the back of the phone, which is a lovely matte glass.

You'll likely be slapping a case on this iPhone (we have recommendations here!), and I want to make a note about Apple's new FineWoven case, made from recycled materials. It feels velvety soft, but repeatedly attaching MagSafe accessories on the back, like MagSafe battery packs, seems to leave some permanent scuffs on the case. It also seems to discolor slightly at the edges where your fingers touch the back material. I don't expect the material will look all that nice after a few months of use.

The iPhone 15 Pro models are equipped with the new A17 Pro chipset. Apple called out how much more power-efficient it is than the previous A-series chip, so I was surprised when I had to recharge the 6.1-inch iPhone 15 Pro at 4:30 pm when it had dipped to just 7 percent battery. To be running that close to empty before dinnertime seemed wrong. I took a dive into the Settings menu and saw that I was getting a little more than six hours of screen-on time. That's not that different from the performance of the iPhone 14 Pro. Don't get me wrong, that's still really good—I was using the phone heavily that day—but I was expecting better.

Here's where the larger iPhone 15 Pro Max shines. The 6.7-inch size allows for a bigger battery, and at the end of one busy day, I had more than 35 percent left with nearly six hours of screen-on time. With average use, I had no trouble going a day and a half on a single charge. It's not a huge change from last year's Max, but it is slightly more long-lasting. It's a shame these phones, with their USB-C ports, can't charge faster. They still take around an hour and a half to top up while plugged in, though the real pro trick is to use a 30-watt charger to take advantage of the phones' not-advertised 27-watt fast-charging capabilities to juice up as quickly as possible.

Apple's priciest iPhone gets some other perks. The Max comes with 256 GB of storage, but I'm left wondering why on earth this wasn't extended to the iPhone 15 Pro. Samsung's Galaxy S23+ comes with 256 GB of storage. Motorola's flagship phones have the same amount. If even budget phones start at 128 GB, shouldn't the Pro models have more space?

You will want that space. Apple's new Photonic Engine image processing system (a needlessly complicated name; you should just say “camera”) has a new way to capture images. It takes the traditional method of pixel binning, which combines pixels to make them larger to absorb more light, and combines it with a full 48-megapixel frame. You get the benefit of both capture techniques: a brighter image with more detail and resolution. The result is a 24-megapixel photo, which is now the default whenever you shoot with the main camera, even in Portrait mode. (It goes back to 12 megapixels in Night mode).

These 24-megapixel files are roughly 4.7 megabytes each. Photos shot with an iPhone used to be 2.7 megabytes by default. Your storage will be used up quickly, and soon you'll see the dreaded “Your iCloud storage is full” alert. Just select one of the new iCloud+ storage subscriptions! Duh! (You can choose to shoot at 12 megapixels in the Camera settings if you want to save on space.)

I had to zoom in a bit, but I can see the extra detail in iPhone 15 Pro photos over the ones from last year's iPhone 14 Pro. You can crop in closer to your subject without losing much quality, which is nice. Photos from the iPhone 15 Pro aren't drastically different from those shot with its predecessor, though I saw better high dynamic range overall, sharper details, and improvements in dealing with lens flare from streetlights. The same applies to the other cameras on the back.

Just like years prior, the Pro Max is the handset with the exclusive camera feature: a 5X optical zoom takes the place of the 3X optical zoom, which is what you're stuck with on the smaller iPhone 15 Pro. I won't lie, I'm a sucker for zoom lenses. I'm a shy photographer, so I prefer to be on the other side of the road snapping a candid scene rather than in someone's face, and I really like using the 5X zoom. It's great that you can use it in Portrait mode too. It works decently in low light, though you should expect a bit of noise in darker scenes.

Apple says the iPhone 15 Pro models have “seven lenses” in one device. That's some creative math. There's the macro camera, which is born out of the ultrawide camera having autofocus capabilities; the ultrawide; the 2X zoom, which crops the center of the main 48-MP sensor for a sharp result; and then the 3X or 5X zoom, depending on the Pro model. In between, Apple has denoted “24 mm, 28 mm, and 35 mm” focal length options, which are effectively 1X, 1.2X, and 1.5X zoom.

Apple insists these focal lengths are more than just digital zoom since they utilize the new image processing pipeline to produce sharp results. Frankly, I can't refute this. The photos, compared to the same zoom levels on the iPhone 14 Pro, are indeed slightly sharper and have less noise. (I like shooting at 35 mm best!) That said, since you have to tap the 1X button three times to cycle between these three specific focal lengths, I can't help but think that the vast majority of users will forget this feature even exists.

I strolled around New York City at weird hours to snap more than 250 photos to test the camera against the iPhone 14 Pro, Google Pixel 7 Pro, and Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra. Without boring you with the nitty-gritty, here's my consensus: The iPhone 15 Pro Max is the best camera phone right now, and the most consistent. Apple isn't as far ahead of the competition as it likes to suggest. There were certain scenes where I thought the skin tones on the Pixel were nicer. Samsung's selfie camera seems to be sharper in low light. The iPhone's 5X zoom captures more detail than Google's 5X zoom, but it certainly can't compete with the 10X zoom on the S23 Ultra. Apple does have a nice lead in the video department though.

Lastly, I want to touch on performance. The A17 Pro enables these iPhones to tackle more graphically demanding games, and that means AAA games like Resident Evil Village and Assassin's Creed Mirage are coming to the App Store later this year. I demoed a beta version of Resident Evil Village, and I'm quite mixed on the experience. For one thing, I really don't like touchscreen controls, especially when a game has lots of buttons you need to press. The phone also gets uncomfortably hot after about 30 minutes of play, if not sooner. Things are much nicer when you connect a controller like the Backbone One.

The visual quality of the game is impressive … most of the time. There are scenes where the resolution dips so things look a bit blotchy. Still, I haven't seen a game tax an iPhone in some time, and this is a pretty big step to bridge the portable gaming world with smartphones even further. But how much will these games cost? If they're going to have AAA pricing of $60, I'd much rather buy them for dedicated gaming consoles where I can enjoy greater graphical fidelity, like my PC or even the Steam Deck. Capcom and Ubisoft have yet to announce release dates and pricing for these titles.

As much as I hate to suggest spending more, if you're going to buy a Pro iPhone this year, the Pro Max is what I'd go for with its beefier battery and the 5X zoom camera. The question is do you need a Pro iPhone or Apple's latest? You can try to find the iPhone 14 Pro at other retailers for a cheaper price. Unless you're all in on USB-C. If so, the convenience is worth spending more.