Summary
Apple today announced theiPhone15lineup, which is scheduled to release on September 22. Thewidely leaked iPhone 15 seriesspans four models, as has been the case with the last three generations of Apple smartphones.
While hardware improvements are a given with each new iPhone refresh, there have been widespread expectations of even more meaningful changes with this year’s devices. Namely, after the European Union decided that a wide range of consumer electronics will be mandated to use USB-C starting in late 2024, many industry watchers predicted that Apple will begin complying with that directive a year earlier, thus finally makingUSB-C iPhones that don’t cost thousands of dollarsa reality.
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Those forecasts proved to be accurate, with the September 12 unveiling of theiPhone 15series confirming that the entire 2023 line ditches the Lightning port in favor of USB-C charging. The starting prices of the devices range from $799 for the base model to $1,199 for the iPhone 15 Pro Max. The iPhone 15 and 15 Plus will be available in 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB storage variants, while the iPhone 15 Pro will also have a 1TB option. Ditto for the iPhone 15 Pro Max, although even the cheapest version of that top-tier model comes with 256GB of flash memory.
Pre-orders begin on September 15, a week ahead of the lineup’s global release. As per usual, anyone who picks up one of these devices will receive complimentary three-month subscriptions to Apple Arcade and Apple Fitness+, with that bonus equating to just under $48 worth of freebies. The iPhone 15 and 15 Plus will be sold in black and light shades of blue, green, yellow, and pink. Meanwhile, the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max are set to be available in black, white, blue, and natural. Since the Pro line features a titanium frame, its natural color is a smokey shade of charcoal gray.
TheiPhone 15 Pro devices boast major gaming features like ray tracing, thus promising to really push the envelope in terms of smartphone graphical fidelity. And while their A17 Pro system-on-chip should hence set a new industry standard for mobile visuals, the A16 Bionic SoC found in the base iPhone 15 model and its Plus variant is also no slouch; after all, that’s the chipset powering last year’s iPhone 14 Pro Max.
In an apparent effort to demonstrate the gaming capabilities of its latest handsets, Apple partnered with Capcom on bringingtwo recentResident Evilgames to the iPhone 15 Pro line. Those iOS ports of theResident Evil 4remake andResident Evil Villageare still without a release date, with Apple merely stating they’ll launch sometime in 2024.
