Early look at the iPhone 15 Pro Max’s five best changes and the first is a dream come true
DUST off those wallets because Apple’s top new iPhone model looks like the perfect treat for gadget fans.
The U.S. Sun has had a chance to play with the new iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max.
The powerful pair of smartphones were announced earlier today at the Apple Wonderlust event in California – check out our Apple liveblog.
And the Pro models were clearly the headline act.
I got to spend a little bit of time with them at Apple Park HQ, and I’m already impressed.
Here are the standout features you need to know about…
Titanium design
Previous iPhones have used stainless steel for the frame.
But with the iPhone 15 Pro, Apple has switched to a titanium design.
This means the iPhone remains strong, but doesn’t weigh as much.
For instance, the iPhone 15 Pro is 187 grams – lighter than its 206-gram counterpart from last year.
And the iPhone 15 Pro Max weighs 221 grams, which is less than the 240-gram iPhone 14 Pro Max.
The phones feel noticeably lighter in the hand.
This is great because I’ve been using the iPhone 14 Pro Max for a year, and it’s undeniably weighty. The lighter design is a dream come true.
All of the paintjobs are slick too – look out for Black Titanium, White Titanium, Blue Titanium, and the very chic Natural Titanium.
Mute Switch
The Mute Switch is an iconic part of the iPhone.
But that small toggle on the side of your device has now been replaced with a solid-state button on the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max.
It’s called the Action Button, and is designed to be more versatile.
That means you can use it to silence your iPhone, but it can also do so many other things.
For instance, it can turn on Do Not Disturb, or launch the camera.
Or you could have it start a voice memo, or even run a custom Shortcut that you’ve programmed yourself.
USB-C
A very important chance is the scrapping of the Lightning port.
Now when you go to charge your iPhone, you’ll be using a USB-C port instead.
This means old Lightning cables won’t work with the new iPhone 15, which might sound rubbish at first.
But USB-C is increasingly popular and is used by loads of gadgets.
New cars have them fitted, most modern Android phones sport them, and even Apple features them on its latest iPad and MacBook models.
It means that in the long run, you’ll be able to use the same type of cable to charge or connect just about everything.
A17 Pro chip
The iPhone 15 Pro is powered by Apple’s new A17 Pro chip.
Apple is claiming it offers “groundbreaking performance” and described it as “game-changing”.
It delivers particularly impressive graphics performance, and overall computing power is improved too.
Apple reckons it’s the fastest smartphone chip on the market.
Zooming ahead
The iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max are packed with camera improvements.
But the best one – in my humble opinion – is the increased optical zoom.
Optical zoom means you’re taking a true photograph with a lens designed to zoom in that deeply.
Digital zoom is when this image is artificially blown up and cropped to make it appear like you’re zooming – but it’s not adding any extra detail.
The iPhone 15 Pro can now reach up to 3x optical zoom.
And the Pro Max offers an impressive 5x optical zoom, which is great for a smartphone.
It’ll let you snap stunning pictures of those far-off subjects like never before.
I was able to briefly try the 5x zoom and it seemed very impressive.
But we’ll do a full camera test in the coming days.
Final thoughts
We’ll need to wait for a review model to give a proper verdict on the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max.
But needless to say, the pair look like powerhouses that could claim the gong for smartphone of the year.
The only obvious downside is that the Pro models always cost a lot of money, so they’re not for everyone.
But if you can afford the $999/£999 iPhone 15 Pro or $1,199/£1,199 iPhone 15 Pro Max (which has 256GB storage instead of 128GB), it’s hard to see how you’d be disappointed.