iPhone 15 Pro
Titanium-clad flagship is now better than ever
The new Action button has been designed to work like a hardware shortcut
From £999 FROM apple.com/uk FEATURES 6.1-inch Super Retina XDR Display (2556x1179 pixels), A17 Pro chip, 128/256/512/1TB of storage, Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, 5G, USB-C port
The first time Apple launched a new product clad in titanium, iTunes was fresh out of the gate and Apple still sold Macs powered by PowerPC chips: in this case, the PowerBook G4. Arriving in January 2001, it quickly went on to be nicknamed the ‘TiBook’ (see p106). Now we have the first ‘TiPhone’.
That’s because, like its famous forebear (and the Apple Watch Ultra), the new iPhone 15 Pro comes in titanium, the same metal used in everything from aeroplanes to surgical implants, thanks to its light weight, strength and rust resistance. However, rather than clad the back and sides of the iPhone 15 Pro in titanium, Apple has limited it to the iPhone’s frame – the same one that in previous years has been clad in aluminium or stainless steel. The result is that the iPhone 15 Pro is some 19g lighter than the iPhone 14 Pro that preceded it (187g vs 206g), while also being slightly smaller, if a little thicker (70.6x146.6x8.25mm vs 71.5x147.5x7.85mm). The titanium is now bonded to an internal aluminium frame, which is covered by a matt glass back and a 6.1-inch Super Retina XDR Display on the front. As with other recent iPhone models, the iPhone 15 Pro also benefits from Apple’s Ceramic Shield on the front glass to make it more robust, while the entire device is waterand dust-proof to IP68.
The titanium and glass design is available in four suitably ‘pro’ looking colours - Black Titanium, White Titanium, Blue Titanium and Natural Titanium, with the device’s edges sporting a slight brushed-metal effect.
While previous iPhones have sported up/down volume buttons and a Volume Mute switch on the left-hand side, the iPhone 15 Pro ditches the Volume Mute switch in favour of a new Action button (an idea ‘borrowed’ from last year’s Apple Watch Ultra). The Action button has been designed to work like a hardware shortcut, giving you quick access to a particular iPhone feature – the Camera app, say, or the torch. The available options can be found in Settings > Action Button and are easy to set up. You can even get the Action button to perform a Shortcuts action, if you wish.
To prevent accidental activation, the Action button has to be pressed then held to perform your chosen action – that should help prevent it being triggered accidentally although, as the Action button is located within millimetres of the Volume Up button, using it can be a little frustrating at first.
The most noticeable change to this year’s iPhone 15 Pro (and iPhone 15) is, of course, the replacement of the old Lightning port (see p16) with USB-C. While that’s felt like a move that was long overdue (with most other Apple products already using the port), the way it’s been implemented is rather curious.
On the iPhone 15 Pro, the USB-C port is
capable of transferring data at 10Gbps (the same as USB 3.1 Gen 2), but on iPhone 15, that speed is capped at 480Mbps, the same as USB 2.0 and/or the old Lightning port. This feels like something of a missed opportunity here, given that Apple could have included a Thunderbolt/ USB 4 port on the iPhone 15 Pro with data transfer speeds to match. There are lots of other benefits though. Aside from now being able to charge your iPhone using any USB-C cable you have around, you can also use the port to hook up all kinds of other devices, including external drives and displays. You can even use the USB-C port on the iPhone to charge up your AirPods, when used in their charging case. The USB-C port is also essential for certain tasks – want to shoot a movie in ProRes 4K at 60fps? You’ll need to hook up an external drive to do so, even if your iPhone 15 Pro has 1TB of storage on-board.
Performance
Despite these caveats, the iPhone 15 Pro performs brilliantly, with its speedy A17 Pro chip making light work of all kinds of tasks. Everything feels slick, quick and butter smooth no matter which app you use in iOS 17, with particular praise reserved for its gaming performance – while previous iPhones could stutter on occasion, the A17 Pro’s vastly improved six-core GPU doesn’t miss a beat – no wonder Capcom is bringing AAA titles Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil Village to the iPhone for the first time. With support for 4K output via USB-C and the ability to the pair the iPhone with a Bluetooth controller, you essentially end up with a pocket-sized games console.
Another big area of improvement lies in the iPhone 15 Pro’s cameras. Its triple-lens camera system is now even better, enabling you to capture 48MP images with Apple boasting that the Pro now essentially offers seven different lenses: 0.5 Ultra Wide (Macro and 13mm); Main (24mm, 28mm and 35mm); and Telephoto (2x, 48mm and 3x, 77mm). The results are incredibly impressive for a smartphone camera – you’ll be able to find out more when we take an in-depth look at the photography capabilities in our iPhone 15 Pro Max review next issue. Rob Mead-Green