Apple’s newest iPhones go on sale in just a few days, and if you haven’t preordered yet, you’re probably going to have a hard time finding one. Delivery date almost immediately slipped into October and beyond when they went live last week, and now that the first reviews have arrived, more people are going to rush to buy one.
iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max: Design
At The Verge, Allison Johnson writes that new titanium alloy “makes a noticeable difference,” and that the iPhone 15 Pro Max “actually feels like a regular phone and not an oversized paperweight.” She also notes that the slightly curved design makes the phones “a little more comfy in the hand.”
Patrick Holland at CNET says the iPhone 15 Pro “feels less bulky than the straight-edged 12, 13 and 14 series” and notes that the buttons “feel a bit more springy than the buttons on previous stainless steel Pro models.”
The Wall Street Journal’s Joanna Stern says the models are “meaningfully lighter than their stainless-steel predecessors—something you feel instantly in your hand.” However, she did make “a small dent in the side of the frame” when dropping her review unit.
iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max: USB-C
The new port on the iPhones also made an impact on every reviewer, with Johnson calling it “a wonderful thing” and “friggin’ great.” Stern said she’s “struggling with the transition” due to an abundance of Lightning cables that need to be switched out.
TechCrunch’s Matthew Panzarino agreed, saying early adopters are “constantly going to be trying to slip a Lightning cable into your USB-C slot, at least for a while as the older devices make their way through your family pipeline and into the used market or a recycling program.”
iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max: Action button
The iPhone 15 Pro dumps the mute switch for an Action button and the reviewers universally praised it. Panzarino says the new button is “a really great quality of life improvement” that could be “workflow-changing” for many people. CNET’s Holland also liked it but wondered if Apple would open it up for “multiple presses and taps to trigger different presets.”
iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max: Camera
The 5X zoom on the iPhone 15 Pro Max got the most attention in the early reviews and rightfully so. Holland compared the 5X zoom against the Pixel 7 Pro and Galaxy S23 Ultra and found that the “iPhone’s snap is the best of the three” even when faced with difficult conditions.
Johnson was less impressed, calling the results “fine” and pointing out that “noise levels start creeping up rapidly even in moderate lighting.”
Panzarino was the most impressed, calling the iPhone 15 Pro Max’s camera “a beast” with “noticeably better and more subtle color handling” compared to the iPhone 14 Pro Max. He loved the telephoto camera as well, calling it “probably the best camera Apple has ever made.”
Macworld will have its own iPhone 15 Pro review shortly, so stay tuned for our impressions.
Author: Michael Simon, Executive Editor
Michael Simon has been covering Apple since the iPod was the iWalk. His obsession with technology goes back to his first PC—the IBM Thinkpad with the lift-up keyboard for swapping out the drive. He's still waiting for that to come back in style tbh.