Apple's new iPhone 15 range. Photo:
“I am not lying when I say the new iCloud storage plans just got the loudest real applause in the theatre today.”
These were the words of prominent You Tuber Marques Brownlee also known as MKHBD as Apple unveiled the new Apple iPhone 15 with more of the same stuff but subtle changes.
Four new devices, the iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max were introduced at the “Wonderlust” event, which was streamed from Apple’s Cupertino headquarters in California on Tuesday.
The most noticeable change on the new iPhone 15 was the inclusion of USB-C connectivity. Apple ditched its lightning tech after a tussle with the European Union.
The European bloc is insisting that all phones and other small devices must be compatible with the USB-C charging cables from the end of next year, a move it says will reduce waste and save money for consumers.
This means users can now use one cable for all gadgets that have a USB-C port.
The standard iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus get USB-C 2.0 ports, with support for data transfers up to 480Mbps (the same as Lightning), while the Pro models get USB-C 3.0 with speeds of up to 10Gbps.
“Since the very first iPhone, we’ve focused on giving our users a device that’s incredibly powerful, remarkably easy to use and beautifully designed,” Tim Cook, chief executive of Apple, said at the event.
Another noticeable change to the new mobile phones includes the base iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus which now feature Dynamic Island, the shape-shifting digital space that replaced the notch.
Titanium has been used on the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max body instead of the stainless steel found on last year’s iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max.
A new feature called an “action button” has been introduced and replaces the mute switch iPhones have had for years.
For those who love photography, the new smartphones are fitted with 48MP main cameras, with built-in telephoto capabilities supporting up to 2× continuous optical-quality zoom.
The iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, meanwhile, now feature a periscope camera, giving them 5x optical zoom, a hardware-based method to magnify images compared to the software-based digital zoom.
The iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus also get the iPhone 14 Pro’s A16 Bionic chip to provide faster performance and better battery life.
The iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max launch with an A17 Pro Bionic processor, a 3-nanometer chip that has 19 billion transistors for faster performance. The new six-core GPU is up to 20% faster than the A16’s GPU and enables ray tracing.
Apple said the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus will be available in five colours – black, light blue, light yellow, light green, light blue, and light pink.
The iPhone 15 will be available from $799 (R15,120, excl. VAT and charges), while the iPhone 15 Plus will cost $899 (R17,005).
The iPhone Pro 128GB and iPhone 15 Pro Max 256GB models will retail at $999 (R18,897, excluding VAT and charges) and $1,199 (R22,680), respectively.
The smartphones are available to pre-order in the US and will be generally available from 22 September.
Apple also announced the Watch Series 9 and the second generation of Watch Ultra, sporting the same dimensions as the previous variants.
The latest watches get the next generation S9 chip, capable of better animation and effects. It is the first processor upgrade since Apple released the Series 6 line in 2020.
The Series 9 is the company’s first carbon neutral product.
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