Lost in the drama about whether or not Apple’s “Wonderlust” event was boring, or how cringey the “Mother Nature” film was, is the iPhone 15. The non-Pro iPhone models are never the star of the show, but I think the iPhone 15 might be the most significant announcement at yesterday’s event.
The corporate tech press seemingly never can break out of the bad framing evident in a post on X yesterday from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman in reference to the new slate of Apple Watches: “…little to no reason to upgrade if you have a 2022 one.”
Duh. That’s almost always the case with any Apple product year-to-year. But this isn’t how most people think, or at least not how they should think. Most people hang on to their Apple Watch or iPhone for three to four years. If you’re upgrading to an iPhone 15 from an iPhone 11, you’re getting a substantial upgrade. Heck, even jumping from the iPhone 14 to the iPhone 15 would be meaningful.
Why? The iPhone 15 brings the Dynamic Island down to the non-Pro line of iPhones, which is a significant change to the way iOS handles alerts and notifications. It also brings in the USB-C connector, meaning you no longer need to use a separate cable to charge your iPhone from the one you use to charge your Mac and an increasing number of other devices. The iPhone 15 also brings in iPhone 14 Pro’s 48MP camera system which lets you take much higher resolution photos and also includes a clever on-the-fly-cropping-at-2X feature which I think is an underrated item. The display is slightly higher resolution and can get up to 2,000 nits of peak brightness, making it significantly easier to read in bright sunlight.
All told, this makes for perhaps the biggest year-over-year update to the non-Pro iPhones since the shift to the current form factor with the iPhone 12.
If you’ve been hanging on to an older iPhone, this is a great year to go ahead and upgrade.
I’ve got no buyer’s remorse from jumping from an 11 Pro to a 14 Pro for something like $4 a month from T-Mobile last year. And I got an Ultra when the BX had a sale and no tax either. Feel no need to upgrade anything this year.