From camera changes to a new Action button
Four of the most exciting smartphones of 2023 have now arrived, with Apple having unveiled the iPhone 15, the iPhone 15 Plus, the iPhone 15 Pro, and the iPhone 15 Pro Max.
There’s a lot that’s changed this year, and you can head to our hands-on iPhone 15 review, iPhone 15 Pro review, and iPhone 15 Pro Max review to read our first impressions of those phones. But there are some clear highlights.
Below, you’ll find seven top new iPhone 15 features – these are in many cases things that Apple has already shouted about, and in all cases they rank among the main reasons to consider picking up a phone in the iPhone 15 line.1. An iPhone finally has a periscope camera
Smartphone makers – other than Samsung – have been slow to adopt periscope cameras, which is a type of lens design that allows for longer distance optical zoom than a typical telephoto camera can manage.
As such, while Samsung has been offering a 10x optical zoom on its Galaxy Ultra phones for several generations, Apple has stuck with 3x. That is, until now.
While it still can’t match Samsung’s 10x optical zoom, the iPhone 15 Pro Max does at least have a 5x optical zoom camera, allowing you to zoom in much further than the 3x of its predecessor.
This will be ideal for taking photos of animals, high-up parts of buildings, and other things you can’t easily get close to.2. USB-C instead of Lightning
Perhaps the most widely expected change for the iPhone 15 line was the move to USB-C. The European Union had dictated that device makers must make this change in 2024, so it was always likely that Apple would get ahead of the game this year. But while this might not have been Apple’s choice, USB-C is a top new feature.
This switch means that you’ll be able to use the same cable for most things since the best Android phones and the majority of other battery-powered gadgets use USB-C – as do recent iPads and MacBooks.
