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Manila Bulletin devider Technews devider iPhone 15 Pro: is it worth the upgrade?

iPhone 15 Pro: is it worth the upgrade?

Comparing the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro: Discover the key differences and decide if the latest features justify the switch

Published Sep 14, 2023 02:58 am

At A Glance

  • The Apple "Wonderlust" event lacked excitement due to leaks accurately predicting many of the features. However, some surprises included Apple's focus on environmental sustainability, new gesture controls for the Apple Watch, and other features.
  • The main reasons for considering the upgrade to the iPhone 15 Pro are the inclusion of a USB 3 Type-C interface and a weight reduction thanks to the use of titanium.
  • The iPhone 15 Pro models have incremental improvements over the iPhone 14 Pro, including a better processor (A17 Pro), better camera features, and faster WiFi 6E, among others.
  • The iPhone 15 Pro Max sets itself apart from its smaller sibling primarily through a more powerful 5X zoom feature.
  • A decision needs to be made between 256GB and 128GB storage options, complicated by the new ability to save directly to external storage via USB Type-C.

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Apple's "Wonderlust" event was lacking in excitement, at least for me. I guess the leaks were so on point that it drowned whatever Apple was presenting. There were some moments where the leakers failed, but not enough to sustain any excitement. I'd leave it to the reader to scour the leaks prior to the event, but some moments which Apple successfully kept secret are [1] the focus on the environment (with a slight dig on companies wasting millions of gallons of water to cool down the data centers used to train their machine learning models), [2] double-tap gesture for the new Apple Watch models this year, [3] Thread support on the new iPhone 15 Pro models, [4] availability of higher capacity iCloud+ storage tiers, and [5] road-side assistance via satellite. Sounds boring, right? 

Coming from an iPhone 14 Pro with 128GB, I am definitely upgrading. Why? Two reasons mainly. First, USB 3 Type-C interface. Whilst I am not convinced that Apple voluntarily did this, but I think it is high time that Apple changes the Lightning interface to a faster one. I do not mind having a USB Type-C cable and a Lightning cable really, but Lightning needed a major data transfer speed and higher capacity charging boost. Anyway, this is moot and academic now as USB 3 Type-C is standard on the new iPhone 15 Pro models. One less cable to carry, I guess.

The second reason is the slight reduction in weight, thanks to the titanium. Even the 10% reduction becomes really significant when holding the iPhone for taking photos and videos, specially in long periods of time.

Compared to the iPhone 14 Pro models, the iPhone 15 Pro models come with a better processor and GPU, the A17 Pro, better camera (with the Max sporting a 5X zoom), smaller bezels, a new Action button, upgraded ultra-wideband chip, and faster WiFi 6E. For some, these are not significant enough for the 14 Pro to 15 Pro upgrade.

This year, the iPhone 15 Pro Max differentiates itself from its smaller sibling by having a 5X zoom. The additional 2X zoom is definitely tempting. Personally, at first, I considered the higher price and increase in weight are worth the 2X zoom, but eventually, I decided against it, so iPhone 15 Pro it is.

The next decision is how much storage to get this time, 256GB vs. 128GB. Currently have 50GB/128GB, but since the image and video files are much bigger, and not to forget future-proofing some videos by shooting spatial videos for the Apple Vision Pro, 256GB is the logical choice. However, Apple allows saving direct to external storage via USB Type-C during video capture, so is 128GB enough already? I hope that reviewers are already testing this.

For me, the USB 3 Type-C support and the decrease in weight are my major criteria for the upgrade. How about you - are these enough to upgrade?

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