After a month with the iPhone 15 Pro, I love these 5 things the most

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iPhone 15 Pro successful Natural Titanium held successful manus successful beforehand of a woody gate.Christine Romero-Chan / Digital Trends

Apple’s iPhone 15 lineup has been retired for complete a period now and includes nan regular iPhone 15, nan larger iPhone 15 Plus, nan iPhone 15 Pro, and nan iPhone 15 Pro Max. There’s an iPhone 15 exemplary for everyone, and truthful far, nan caller phones look to beryllium a large hit.

I’m a personification who upgrades their iPhone each year, truthful I’ve had 1 of each procreation of nan iPhone since nan beginning. This year, I went pinch nan iPhone 15 Pro arsenic my upgrade from nan iPhone 14 Pro, and it’s been 1 of my favourite iPhones yet. Let maine explicate why.

Titanium makes a immense difference

Natural Titanium iPhone 15 Pro adjacent up showing curved edges.Christine Romero-Chan / Digital Trends

One of nan things that I hated astir my iPhone 14 Pro was nan weight. It was heavy. Combined pinch nan crisp edges, it would beryllium uncomfortable to usage for a prolonged magnitude of time, particularly one-handed.

When I unboxed my iPhone 15 Pro and lifted it retired of nan box, I was incredibly amazed by really lightweight it was compared to its predecessor. Then, conscionable to compare, I held my iPhone 14 Pro (sans case) successful 1 manus and nan iPhone 15 Pro successful nan other, and recovered nan weight quality to beryllium virtually nighttime and day. Switching complete to titanium from stainless alloy is 1 of nan astir important changes that Apple has ever made, and it really helps pinch ergonomics while still retaining a premium aesthetic.

Plus, nan titanium framework has much curved edges wherever it meets nan beforehand glass. The consequence is simply a softer consciousness erstwhile holding nan telephone since location are nary much crisp edges that excavation into your palm. It brings maine backmost to nan days of nan iPhone 11 Pro, which I recovered beautiful comfortable to hold. Ever since nan iPhone 12 Pro and done to nan iPhone 14 Pro, nan phones were conscionable getting heavier and sharper.

I’m very gladsome that Apple made nan move to titanium. I only dream that it continues to usage titanium for early iPhones arsenic well, because this is simply a awesome upgrade.

The Action fastener is great

Blue Titanium iPhone 15 Pro Action button.Christine Romero-Chan / Digital Trends

One of nan features that sets nan iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max isolated from nan regular iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus is nan Action button, which replaced nan mute/silent switch. While immoderate group whitethorn not beryllium utilizing nan Action fastener excessively often, it’s go 1 of my most-used features connected nan iPhone 15 Pro.

By default, nan Action fastener is group to alteration aliases disable silent mode, conscionable for illustration nan aged move did. But you tin alteration nan action to thing other from nan Settings app, including focus, camera, sound memo, flashlight, magnifier, accessibility, aliases shortcut.

Though location is simply a full organization retired location that has created immoderate chaotic multi-action Shortcuts for nan Action button, I’ve kept it elemental truthful far. I person stated earlier that I ever wanted a faster measurement to unfastened nan Camera app too nan often unreliable fastener surface shortcut, and nan Action fastener is nan reply to that.

I find myself utilizing nan Action fastener to motorboat nan Camera app aggregate times a day, whether it’s to return a photograph of my daughter, my fancy good eating adventures pinch my husband, aliases our predominant Disneyland trips. And since it lets maine get to nan camera faster, I’ve been capable to seizure much of my daughter’s spontaneous shenanigans alternatively than fighting pinch nan fastener surface shortcut and missing nan moment.

I conscionable dream that 1 time Apple changes it truthful you tin assign much than 1 action to nan fastener pinch different gestures, for illustration double property aliases triple press, alternatively than conscionable press-and-hold.

Apple fixed nan cameras

The backmost of a bluish iPhone 15 Pro.Prakhar Khanna / Digital Trends

One of my biggest complaints pinch nan iPhone 14 Pro was nan camera. It felt for illustration Apple was a small excessively heavy-handed pinch nan sharpening and processing of an image aft you captured it, which resulted successful photos that had harsh colors and excessively overmuch sharpness. But this wasn’t conscionable an iPhone 14 thing, arsenic it felt for illustration nan camera value had been declining since nan iPhone 13.

Thankfully, nan iPhone 15 Pro seems to beryllium doing a batch amended pinch photos this year, mostly acknowledgment to Apple’s Smart HDR 5. I person small to kick astir erstwhile utilizing my iPhone 15 Pro camera arsenic nan colors look realistic and existent to life, tegument tones are much accurate, and there’s much item captured acknowledgment to nan 24MP default alternatively than 12MP.

I’ve besides truly enjoyed nan Auto Portrait feature, wherever nan camera automatically captures extent accusation successful a regular photograph if nan attraction is connected a person, dog, aliases cat. This lets you move nan regular photograph into a image image aft nan fact. I’ve been making usage of this characteristic rather a bit, particularly pinch my daughter, since it’s difficult to manually move to Portrait mode pinch an progressive toddler moving around.

While nan smaller iPhone 15 Pro lacks that caller tetraprism telephoto lens that allows for 5x optical zoom, nan telephone is still very tin successful position of photography. It’s a large measurement up from nan results of its predecessor. Hopefully, adjacent year, Apple tin springiness nan smaller Pro immoderate much emotion successful nan camera department.

A USB-C iPhone is truthful convenient

Blue Titanium iPhone 15 Pro showing USB-C port.Christine Romero-Chan / Digital Trends

A immense alteration this twelvemonth pinch nan full iPhone 15 lineup was yet getting free of Lightning successful favour of USB-C. For immoderate people, this whitethorn mean having to bargain each caller cables, but for me, it was nan opposite.

I person a batch of different electronics astir nan house, whether it’s Android phones, tablets, aliases different small gizmos that request to beryllium charged up pinch a USB-C cable. Apple has already been utilizing USB-C for nan iPad and MacBook lineups, too, truthful it’s not a wholly caller thing. There are a ton of USB-C cables conscionable lying astir my house, and I tin decidedly opportunity I’ve accumulated much USB-C cables than Lightning cables successful nan past fewer years.

With nan iPhone 15 converted to USB-C, I now person a plethora of cables to usage already, and I don’t request to look for a proprietary Lightning cablegram anymore. For example, I tin conscionable usage nan aforesaid cablegram for my daughter’s Amazon Fire HD 8 Kid’s tablet for my iPhone 15 Pro while I’m successful nan surviving room. It’s conscionable truthful overmuch much convenient. Plus, astir of my Lightning cables ended up not moving aft a while, and Apple’s first-party cables ever had durability issues.

The Apple iPhone 15 Plus's USB C charging port, and nan iPhone 14 Plus's Lightning port.iPhone 15 Plus (top) and iPhone 14 Plus Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

Plus, pinch nan move to USB-C, I’m capable to make usage of Anker’s caller lineup of mobile powerfulness accessories, for illustration Anker’s 30-watt powerfulness slope pinch a built-in USB-C cable. This is 1 of my favourite caller powerfulness banks because of its compact size, integrated USB-C cable, and superfast 30W charging speeds. It moreover has a show that tells you really agelong it will return to complaint up your phone!

However, 1 point that still puzzles maine is nan truth that Apple did not amended nan charging speeds astatine each pinch nan USB-C switch. It’s still capped astatine astir 27W, for illustration its predecessor pinch Lightning. That intends you get astir 50% complaint successful 30 minutes arsenic agelong arsenic you usage a due (20W aliases higher) powerfulness adapter.

The iPhone 15 continues to beryllium 1 of nan slower-charging smartphones retired there. Maybe 1 time successful nan future, Apple tin springiness america faster charging speeds now that nan iPhone uses USB-C.

Smaller screens are nan best

Blue Titanium iPhone 15 Pro showing location surface pinch widgets.Christine Romero-Chan / Digital Trends

One of my problems pinch a batch of modern smartphones these days is that astir of them are conscionable excessively damn big. I’m not judge why astir manufacturers deliberation everyone wants a gigantic phone; I cognize I surely don’t.

I worth being capable to easy usage my telephone one-handed. Though I still person to scope for those precocious area buttons sometimes connected my iPhone 15 Pro, it’s overmuch much manageable than larger screens. I’ve been utilizing nan Google Pixel 8 Pro for nan cameras recently, which has nan aforesaid 6.7-inch size arsenic nan iPhone 15 Pro Max, and I person problem handling it single-handedly since my hands are beautiful small.

I wish Apple stuck pinch nan aged 5.8-inch size of nan iPhone X/XS because that felt for illustration nan absolute cleanable size. But it looks for illustration Apple is sticking pinch 6.1 inches for nan smaller iPhone size, and arsenic agelong arsenic it continues to beryllium offered, I’ll support getting it. I dread nan time that Apple whitethorn determine to ax nan smaller size (sorry, mini fans), and I dream it ne'er comes to that.

The iPhone 15 Pro has been excellent

Blue Titanium (left) and Natural Titanium iPhone 15 Pros connected a greenish parkland bench.Christine Romero-Chan / Digital Trends

This year, it seemed for illustration everyone was getting nan iPhone 15 Pro Max owed to nan caller telephoto camera, and yes, that’s a morganatic logic to get it complete nan smaller iPhone 15 Pro. However, I felt for illustration an outlier pinch my choice, arsenic I was 1 of nan fewer who went pinch nan smaller type instead.

But I’ve been very happy pinch my determination to get nan iPhone 15 Pro, moreover if it doesn’t person nan 5x optical zoom. It’s overmuch much ergonomic than nan iPhone 14 Pro I was utilizing before, and nan titanium really makes a quality successful weight. I’ve been utilizing nan Action fastener often for nan camera, and photos taken pinch nan iPhone 15 Pro don’t look bad this year. Also, having USB-C has been ace convenient.

Yes, nan iPhone 15 Pro whitethorn beryllium smaller, but it’s still rather capable. Apple has room to amended pinch nan iPhone 16 Pro adjacent year, specified arsenic adding an improved telephoto camera, but that doesn’t make nan iPhone 15 Pro immoderate little awesome today.

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