Apple iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max official: say hello to my little Action Button!

Good news and bad news here, folks! The good news is that there isn't much of a price hike compared to last year — contrary to rumors. The bad news is that Apple is removing the 128 GB tier for the iPhone 15 Pro Max, meaning that the Pro Max automatically starts at $1,199 for the 256 GB model. The regular iPhone 15 Pro will still start at $999 for 128 GB.

Is your wallet ready to take the hit? Pre-orders will begin this Friday — September 15 and the phones will start shipping and be available at in-store locations on the 22nd of September.

iPhone 15 Pro design and build

Yes, folks, the familiar shapes are back — a soft rectangle with a full screen upfront. This year, even more so, as Apple shaved that bezel around the display further, giving the Pro iPhones a bigger screen-to-body ratio. Meaning, we get the same big screens, yet the phones are marginally smaller.

And yes, we get a titanium-made frame! To be exact — Grade 5 Titanium, which has one of the highest strength-to-weight ratio, which is still supported by aluminum underneath. Yes, that's fancy, but it will also ensure that the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max are lighter than before (without sacrificing durability). That's a welcome change, since these Pro iPhones were definitely getting up in the weight department.

This also gives us a new "brushed" finish to the frame, which will be a welcome change after the fingerprint magnet shine that was the stainless steel frame.



The screen on the front is the same 6.1-inch (iPhone 15 Pro) or 6.7-inch (iPhone 15 Pro Max) OLED panel with 120 Hz ProMotion refresh rate — just like we are used to. And it still has the Dynamic Island around the selfie camera — a black spot that animates to show you different types of information, depending on what apps are running on your iPhone (or in the background). It's a fun way to hide the selfie camera hole, but has been a controversial design decision since Apple introduced it with the iPhone 14 Pro — but Cupertino is doubling down on it.

Now, we have an Action button instead of the switch. By default, it will still be a ring toggle that will allow you to quickly mute the iPhone. However, you can also customize it to run your favorite apps, Focus Mode, or functions within apps with Siri shortcuts.

But it's not just the CPU — the new GPU in the Apple A17 Pro is also updated. 20% faster now and, for the first time, we get hardware raytracing on an iPhone chip!

The Neural Engine will also work in conjunction with the GPU to upscale images on the fly and deliver high-res gaming at, supposedly, no loss in performance.

Apple also announced console-level games coming to the iPhone 15 Pro. And we mean console-level — Ubisoft's future Assassin's Creed Mirage, and Capcom's Resident Evil being the biggest namedrops.

The new System on Chip also comes with support for the latest and fastest Wi-Fi 6E protocols, plus baked-in Thread compatibility. Thread is the new smart home alliance between all major players — Apple, Google, Samsung, and many IoT device makers have agreed to develop their tech in a "common language". The iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max are the first Thread-ready smartphones to hit the market.

We now have a new coating to reduce lens flare — sounds promising. And Apple said that night photos have been improved — including night portraits — and a new HDR algorithm will be capturing skintones more accurately. The low light improvements will also be translating to the Video and Action Cam modes.

Zooming controls now allow you to choose your favorite as "default" so you can always snap that Portrait Mode photo in a jiffy.

Pro Mode users will be happy to know they can now shoot in 48 MP HEIF, not just 48 MP RAW. This should allow you to capture the same high-quality photos but at the cost of less — much less — storage space.

Prepping for the Apple Vision Pro, the iPhone 15 Pro now has a special "Spatial Video" mode. Using two of the lenses at once, it will capture depth data so the footage can later be experienced in VR... whenever the Vision Pro launches.

With the new USB 3 speed, ProRes video can be recorded directly to external storage devices, making it easier for those that actually use the iPhone Pros for cinematic work to transfer and work on their files faster.

Like usual, Apple promises "all day battery" from its devices and doesn't divulge "geeky" specs like battery capacity. We certainly expect the iPhone 15 Pro Max to take us beyond that 1-day mark, as its predecessors are doing very well in the battery endurance field. If the Apple A17 Pro is truly more energy-efficient, we may even see some improvement here.

What we do know for a fact is that the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max will come ready for the Qi2 standard, with the first chargers of that generation planned to hit the market by the end of 2023.