Apple iPhone 15 specs and rumors latest: fast 35W charging via USB-C
All the latest up-to-date Apple iPhone 15 and 15 Pro news plus rumoured specs and features we think we'll be seeing this September
The iPhone 15 launch date is getting rather close! 2023’s upcoming phone from Apple will once again have four different versions and should be with us in next month. Read on for all the latest news and rumours including the advent of USB-C on the iPhone and the latest info on what it could mean for fast charging speeds.
As you’d expect, the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus will be joined by the more premium iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max. The Pro Max is set to go even more upmarket than before and as a result may be called the iPhone 15 Ultra (to match the Apple Watch Ultra).
As if the recent arrival of the Apple Vision Pro headset and 15in MacBook Air weren’t exciting enough!
The 2023 iPhones will run iOS 17 out of the box. This isn’t a major update to iOS, but includes several cool features. There are contact posters so you can show your photo or memoji when you call someone, Live Voicemail (a transcription of voicemail messages that have been left) and Message Check-In so people can see when you’ve got home.
Widgets can now be more interactive, while you can NameDrop someone your contact details. You can also share your location — and request someone else’s location — through Find My in Messages. You can also share AirTag and other Find My accessories in a group, too.
Check out the 10 best iOS 17 features to look forward to as well as find out if your current iPhone will run iOS 17.
iPhone 15 series at a glance: what we’re expecting
- The iPhone 15 Pro Max could be renamed as the iPhone 15 Ultra
- Four models will again debut – iPhone 15 and 15 Plus as well as the iPhone 15 Pro and Ultra/Pro Max
- The Dynamic Island will come to all iPhone 15 models
- USB-C will replace Lightning – finally
- Again there will be 6.1 and 6.7in screen sizes
- The Pro and Ultra may have a new periscope zoom, but it might just be the Ultra
- There will be a single volume rocker and the mute slider will be replaced by a (customisable) button.
- All will run iOS 17 out of the box.
iPhone 15 rumored price increases
A research note from Jeff Pu of Haitong International Tech Research (reported on by AppleInsider) claims that the iPhone 15 Pro Max or iPhone 15 Ultra is expected to be very popular this time around because of the enhanced features over and above the standard Pro model that you can read about below.
Pu believes there will be a price hike for this model, which makes complete sense given Apple’s recent track record of pushing products ever more premium. So we’d expect a starting price somewhere in the region of $12999/£1249.
Given the outrage over the higher prices in Europe for the iPhone 14 (starting at $799/£849), we’d expect the iPhone 15 price to stay the same. But if the Pro Max/Ultra gets more expensive, it could be the same for the standard Pro.
We do know that Apple is keen on introducing higher-spec models to take advantage of bigger sales prices. “I think people are willing to really stretch to get the best they can afford in that category,” said Tim Cook in Apple’s Q1 2023 earnings call. Which says it all, really.
When is the expected iPhone 15 release date?
To guesstimate this year’s iPhone release date, we need to go back and look at what happened in the past.
The iPhone 14 and 14 Plus recently re-launched in yellow, which is fairly standard. Apple has done new colours as a mid-year update a few times now, with purple in 2021 and alpine green in 2022 before yellow in 2023. The iPhone 14 series proper hit the shelves back in September 2022.
As you can see below from the dates of previous iPhone launches, we’re predicting that the iPhone 15 will debut on either Tuesday 5 or Tuesday 12 September 2023. With the iPhone release date normally taking place just over a week later on a Friday, the iPhone 15 release date would be 15 or 22 September 2023.
Industry analyst Mark Gurman suggests the 13th was under consideration, but has now picked the 12th as the most likely candidate.
On 20 July 2023 one analyst suggested the iPhone 15 release date could be a few weeks later – in October. Wamsi Mohan, a global securities analyst at Bank of America said in a research note that the handsets could be on the streets a few weeks later than previously expected. Crucially though, he gave no reason for the delay and we’ve not heard the same from other sources.
When has the iPhone launch taken place in the past?
The original iPhone came out in January 2007, though the UK launch was towards the end of that year. Since, some launches have taken place in June and even October. But since the iPhone 5, things have settled in the September slot. The exception to this was in 2020 when there was a delay to the iPhone 12 lineup – as there was with almost everything else that year. The iPhone 13 series returned to normal and the iPhone 14 launch was slightly earlier than the launches in previous years. That’s led to our slight uncertainty about the week the launch event is going to be in.
- iPhone 5 – 12 September 2012
- iPhone 5S / 5C – 10 September 2013
- iPhone 6 / 6 Plus – 9 September 2014
- iPhone 6S / 6S Plus – 9 September 2015
- iPhone 7 / 7 Plus – 7 September 2016
- iPhone 8 / 8 Plus / X – 12 September 2017
- iPhone XS / XS Max / XR – 12 September 2018
- iPhone 11 – 10 September 10 2019
- iPhone 12 – 13 October 13 2020 (later due to manufacturing delays with the pandemic)
- iPhone 13 – 14 September 2021
- iPhone 14 – 7 September 2022
Apple’s iPhone launch events usually take place at the Steve Jobs Theater in Apple Park, Cupertino, California and start at 10am PT, 1pm ET, 6pm BST, 1900 CET.
iPhone 15 rumored design
The iPhone 15 won’t look a whole lot different. Slightly more curved edges are on the way, certainly more curved than the iPhone 12-14. This will possibly just be coming to the Pro and Pro Max/Ultra though it could be throughout the lineup. These renders from serial renderiser (yes we made that word up) Ian Zelbo points the way to the likely design:
These renders are the result of various rumours about the new iPhones as well as information gleaned from accessory makers. You might be able to make out differences with the buttons – more on that shortly.
In May 2023, MacRumors got hold of dummy iPhone 15 units. These again show a very similar aesthetic to the Zelbo renders above. Again they show the USB-C port on the bottom and slightly rounded bezels. There are some suggestions that all iPhone 15 models will have this. But it could well be this change will be Pro-only.
This should provide a softer feel in the hand than the angular models we’ve had since iPhone 12. However, there’s not a massive amount that’s revealing here.
In terms of the screen bezels, leaker Ice Universe claims that they will be even slimmer than the Xiaomi 13‘s 1.81mm bezels at just 1.55mm. This remains very much unconfirmed.
New materials
One of the key differences this time around is in the materials. The iPhone 15 Pro (and possible Ultra) will have a titanium casing rather than stainless steel, something seemingly confirmed by sources in the supply chain. This looks to have more rounded corners. The SIM tray could also potentially be removed on all variants – it was missing on the US iPhone 14 models. European networks may not be too keen on that.
The iPhone 15 Pro is also rumoured to come in a dark red colour this time around.
As the launch approaches, the renders keep coming – here from 15 July.
It also seems certain that the premium models won’t have buttons that move when pressed. Instead, they’ll be solid state with taptic feedback to make you feel like you’ve pressed them. This is just like the Home button on later Touch ID iPhones. Some rumours suggest this will get left out this year though but will be in 2024’s iPhone 16.
Will there be an iPhone 15 action button?
It looks like there will be a single volume button this time around, something backed up by early looks at iPhone 15 cases – this one is for the Pro Max/Ultra. Some sources are also reporting that this button is prepositioned as is the power button. But we think the case leaks show them in the same place as on the iPhone 14. The below case could show a larger camera in the top model, too – more on that below.
We may also be saying goodbye to the physical mute switch – the cut-out does look smaller in the above case. Getting rid of it altogether is a sad move – how else do you mute your phone in your pocket? It’s a big USP of what makes an iPhone an iPhone in our book. We’re also wondering how you’ll be able to avoid pressing the mute button when you don’t want to.
Rumours suggest there will be an Apple Watch Ultra-style action button instead of the mute switch. This button will then enable to choose what you use it for. So you could still mute if you wish or configure to use another common shortcut.
Without having room for buttons to move, the mechanisms will take up less space inside the iPhone. It’s also one less part that could break, with the side buttons as part of the Self Service Repair program. Plus, it’ll make the device more water-resistant, with fewer openings for water to creep in. Stuff regular Craig Grannell wrote this piece about why a portless iPhone would be a bad thing.
iPhone 15 rumoured display specs
The iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max’s Dynamic Island feature will be rolled out across all iPhone 15 versions. That’s according to display industry analyst Ross Young. The Island will presumably stick around until Apple can get rid of it altogether. It could well get some extra features in iOS 17.
While Young expects the Dynamic Island to appear on the standard iPhone 15, he doesn’t think that the non-Pro models will get 120Hz displays or Apple’s ProMotion tech. As for an under-display Face ID system, Young suggests this will come to the iPhone 16 Pro in 2024. Another regular Apple watcher, Ming Chi-Kuo, agrees.
Getting rid of the Dynamic Island in 2024 or beyond will definitely require a serious improvement in under-display camera tech for it to be as good as the current arrangement for Face ID. And since Apple has clearly done a lot of work on Dynamic Island, we don’t expect it to go anywhere anytime soon.
One interesting development is that LG Display is set to produce a bigger amount of the iPhone 15 displays than it did for iPhone 14. LG produced the LTPO OLED display for the iPhone 14 Pro Max but according to The Elec, it had problems resulting in delays and meaning Apple had to pay more for over 4 million displays from Samsung. LG has apparently boosted capacity meaning it will make displays for both the Pro-level iPhone 15 handsets this time around.
iPhone 15 USB-C and charging speed latest
We know the iPhone 15 will have to make the jump to USB-C. Apple head of marketing Greg Joswiak acknowledged this in an October 2022 chat with the Wall Street Journal’s Tech Live event (video below). The EU has legislated for it and it’s well overdue on the iPhone, having been a staple of the iPad for several years now. Some rumours suggest Foxconn is making wired Apple EarPods with USB-C. It’s also suggested that USB-C will be fitted to the iPhone 14 lineup too.
One side-effect of the move to USB-C is that it should be capable of fast 40Gbps Thunderbolt data speeds like Macs and the iPad Pro as well as fast charging. This may be something that’s restricted to the Pro models, or even just the UItra.
ChargerLab suggests leaked iPhone 15 circuit board pics suggest “at least three iPhone 15 models will incorporate Thunderbolt/USB4’s 40Gbps high-speed data transmission feature.”
If true, you could use an iPhone with an external display, but given how un-keen Apple seems to be to give the iPad Pro proper external display support, this seems a pipedream. The move to USB-C should mean Apple can make a bigger thing out of fast wired charging – which could be around 35W. Even so, the fastest charging speeds are rumoured to be restricted to cables that are certified as part of Apple’s Made for iPhone program. 35W isn’t that fast in the Android world, with the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra capable of 45W, but many phones offer several times that. The year-old OnePlus 10T boasts a whopping 150W and juices up in 20 minutes.
What about wireless charging?
As for wireless charging, it sounds like the new phones will all support the Qi2 standard, which is based on MagSafe. Cheaper (non-MagSafe) Qi2 wireless chargers will be able to charge up to 15W. You can currently only get this speed with MagSafe chargers. We don’t know if there will be any rise in the MagSafe charging speed though. You’d hope so, considering 15W is pretty pedestrian compared to some wireless charging speeds these days.
Which Apple chips will be used in the iPhone 15?
We also believe the new iPhone 15 Pro will have more RAM – 8GB instead of 6GB. That’s according to Taiwanese research company TrendForce. Interestingly TrendForce says in the same note that the proportion of Pro vs non Pro models is tipping more in the Pro’s favour – around 60% of iPhone 14 models sold, partly due to the late introduction of the iPhone 14 Plus. Rumours suggest there will be 2TB of storage available on the iPhone 15 Ultra, with lower capacities on the other units.
As for chips, expect the standard iPhone 15 models to make the jump to the Apple A16 Bionic series from last year’s iPhone 14 Pro, while the iPhone 15 Pro models will move to the A17 Bionic which will be even more efficient thanks to a 3nm manufacturing process. The hottest rumour so far is that these chips will come with 6-core GPUs, which could make them serious gaming powerhouses.
There are already some rumored benchmarks floating around for the A17 Bionic courtesy of @NaveenTechWala, spotted by NotebookCheck. These suggest serious performance enhancements over the previous generation and significantly over leaked benchmarks for Qualcomm’s upcoming Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 – the A17 Bionic was 47% faster for single-core performance. Of course, it is very much worth taking these leaked scores with a huge pinch of salt.
iPhone 15 memory, battery and 5G
We also believe the new iPhone 15 Pro will have more RAM – 8GB instead of 6GB. That’s according to Taiwanese research company TrendForce. Interestingly TrendForce says in the same note that the proportion of Pro vs non Pro models is tipping more in the Pro’s favour – around 60% of iPhone 14 models sold, partly due to the late introduction of the iPhone 14 Plus. Rumours suggest there will be 2TB of storage available on the iPhone 15 Ultra, with lower capacities on the other units.
The iPhone 15 will continue to use 5G modems from Qualcomm, probably the X70 from early last year. Apple’s difficulties with developing 5G modems are well documented. It started developing them itself in 2019 but the results of that work are unknown. Apple models definitely won’t be ready this time around, though it looks set to move away from Qualcomm modems either in 2024 or 2025. Apple has already announced a deal for some future 5G radio parts to come from Broadcom US facilities.
Battery life on the standard iPhone 15 will almost certainly stay broadly the same, but the iPhone 15 Pro and Ultra could have a few hours extra as a result of the new chips used – that’s certainly been the form of the last few years.
Analyst Ming-chi Kuo predicts that there may be a redesigned Ultra Wideband (UWB) chip inside the phones to work better with Apple Vision Pro.
iPhone 15 cameras and zoom latest
Nikkei suggests that Sony Group will apparently supply the iPhone 15 with a top-tier image sensor. According to Nikkei, Sony’s newest image sensor doubles the saturation signal in every pixel, which reduces overexposure or underexposure. That should stop photo subjects being drowned out by backlight. The standard iPhone 15 will have a 48MP main lens.
The iPhone 15 Ultra should offer 8K video recoding alongside a periscope camera (seemingly not coming to the Pro). This technology involves multiple camera lenses at an angle, to decrease a smartphone camera’s size, improve zoom, and increase the megapixel count. Introducing a periscope camera with 5x zoom (some say 6x) on the iPhone 15 would enable Apple to approach Samsung’s impressive zoom capabilities. Though, since the S23 Ultra has a 10x optical and 100x digital zoom, it will still lag behind that.
The iPhone 15 Ultra will almost certainly have a thinner camera bump, thanks to that rumoured periscope camera. However, it appears that the camera bump won’t reduce on the Pro. Indeed, something very noticeable from the iPhone 15 Pro renders we’ve seen so far is that the individual camera lenses are bigger.
It’s also been suggested the periscope lens on the iPhone 15 Ultra could mean the position of the telephoto and ultrawide lenses are switched around to fit everything in. The periscope camera would be the one between the flash and LiDAR sensor.
How much could iPhone 15 cost?
Given the outrage over the higher prices in Europe for the iPhone 14 (starting at $799/£849), we’d expect the iPhone 15 price to stay the same. But if there is an Ultra model instead of the Pro Max, you can expect that will command an even more premium price than we saw with the iPhone 14 Pro Max. So you’d expect a starting price somewhere in the region of $12999/£1249.
We know that Apple is keen on introducing higher-spec models to take advantage of bigger sales prices. “I think people are willing to really stretch to get the best they can afford in that category,” said Tim Cook in Apple’s Q1 2023 earnings call.
