The iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus have arrived. Here’s how they differ from the 2022 iPhone 14, and whether it should be your next upgrade.
The iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus have arrived. Here’s how they differ from the 2022 iPhone 14, and whether it should be your next upgrade.
The iPhone 15 is now Apple’s flagship standard smartphone, bringing with it a series of updates and other improvements over the previous generation, the iPhone 14.
The launch of the iPhone 14 was marred slightly by Apple’s decision to make the model less of an upgrade from the iPhone 13. A tweaked chip and improved cameras were small highlights in an otherwise muted generational change.
Customers hoped the iPhone 15 didn’t suffer the same fate.
iPhone 15 vs. iPhone 14 — SpecificationsiPhone 15 vs iPhone 14 – Physical Dimensions
The iPhone 14 didn’t change that much from the iPhone 13, at 5.78 inches tall and 2.82 inches wide, but it was marginally thicker at 0.31 inches. Given the overall muted upgrade it was, this wasn’t a really unexpected statistic.
At 6.07 ounces, the iPhone 14 was slightly lighter than its predecessor, despite the extra thickness.
It wasn’t quite the same story for the iPhone 14 Plus as it was replacing the very different iPhone 13 mini. Even so, the iPhone 14 Plus was 6.33 inches long, 3.07 inches wide, and 0.31 inches thick, with a weight of 7.16 ounces.
For the iPhone 15 and Plus, Apple made some small size tweaks, with the iPhone 15 at a longer 5.81 inches while keeping the 2.82-inch width and 0.31-inch thickness the same. The Plus is almost identical to the previous version at 6.33 inches by 3.06 inches by 0.31 inches.
There’s a little bit of weight loss on the iPhone 15’s side too, at 6.02 ounces and 7.09 ounces respectively.
Construction-wise, the iPhone 14 uses aerospace-grade aluminum as the core and edging, with glass front and back sides. The front features Apple’s Ceramic Shield for added durability.
The iPhone 15 continues this design aesthetic, though it does lose the infamous notch in favor of Dynamic Island. While it does inherit some Pro elements, Apple does keep the mute toggle on the side of the iPhone 15, instead of opting for the all-new Action button as found on the iPhone 15 Pro models.
iPhone 15 vs iPhone 14 – Displays
Apple included a 6.1-inch Super Retina XDR OLED display in its iPhone 14, complete with the usual rounded corners as part of the edge-to-edge design. The iPhone 14 Plus grew the screen to 6.7 inches.
Like the iPhone 13, the iPhone 14 sports a resolution of 2,532 by 1,170 pixels, giving it a high pixel density of 460 pixels per inch. The Plus counterpart goes for 2,778 by 1,284 pixels, with a 458ppi pixel density.
The iPhone 14 displays can handle HDR content, with brightnesses of up to 1,200 nits at peak for HDR, and 800 nits for typical usage. Due to the use of OLED, they also have a 2 million:1 contrast ratio.
The story is pretty much the same for the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus, with the 6.1-inch and 6.7-inch displays only varying by a few elements. For a start, the resolution is a little higher at 2,556 by 1,179 and 2,796 by 1,290 respectively, though now both devices have a 460 pixel-per-inch density.
Apple has also increased the brightness, with 1,000 nits of maximum brightness for typical usage, 1,600 nits at peak for HDR, and 2,000 nits at peak for outdoor usage.
An inclusion since the iPhone X, the iPhone 14 screen has a notch at the top, providing a window to the world for the TrueDepth camera array. Meanwhile the iPhone 15 has adopted the Dynamic Island UI function.
Apple also included TrueTone support, Wide color (P3) coverage, Haptic Touch, and a fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating with the iPhone 14’s display panel, which the iPhone 15 also uses.
Though the iPhone 15 pair do effectively inherit some elements of the iPhone 14 Pro’s screens, it’s not an entire copy-and-paste here, as ProMotion is still not available on the non-Pro models.
iPhone 15 vs iPhone 14 – Cameras
The iPhone 14 pair of rear cameras consist of a 12-megapixel Main camera and a 12-megapixel Ultra Wide version.
The Main camera has an f/1.5 aperture, a seven-element lens, sensor-shift optical image stabilization, and 100% Focus Pixels for focusing shots. The Ultra Wide goes for an f/2.4 aperture, a five-element lens, and a 120-degree field of view.
Overall, the iPhone 14 had a 2x optical zoom out, and a 5x digital zoom in.
Apple included a large number of features in the iPhone 14, including True Tone flash, the Photonic Engine and Deep Fusion computational photography, a Portrait Mode with Depth Control, six Portrait Lighting effects, and Photographic Styles.
There were also more standard elements including a 63MP panorama, Night Mode, advanced red-eye correction, auto image stabilization, Burst mode, and HEIF and JPEG support.
