USAToday Column

September 13, 2023

The new iPhone 15 is a solid upgrade for people with old phones. Here's why

By Bob O'Donnell

Sometimes, it really is the little things that matter. That is, as long as there are a lot of them.

Such is the case with Apple’s latest smartphone, the iPhone 15, which the company unveiled alongside a new line of Apple Watches at its highly anticipated product reveal event yesterday.

The iPhone 15 includes multiple relatively minor changes that individually aren’t very noteworthy, but collectively represent a positive step forward—particularly for people with 3- or 4-year-old phones who are ready for an upgrade.

Best of all, they did so without the price increases that many feared might happen with this generation. The one exception is the top-of-the-line iPhone 15 Pro Max, which now starts at $1,199. Still, its 256 GB of base storage matches last year’s iPhone 14 Pro Max price with a similar amount of storage.

The standard iPhone 15 models inherit the same high-end 48-megapixel camera and A16 Bionic processor upgrades that Apple first brought to the iPhone 14 Pro line last year. Arguably, that makes them a better value for those who want last year’s high-end technology at this year’s prices.

For those who do want the latest tech, of course, Apple did bring some intriguing upgrades to the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max. Chief among them is an intriguing new telephoto-style lens for the iPhone 15 Pro Max that uses a technology Apple refers to as a tetraprism design. What it does is bounces the image through multiple mirrors to give it a 5x optical zoom—particularly impressive for the confined space of a smartphone.

Apple also announced that starting later this year, the 15 Pro Max will be able to capture “spatial” videos—think 3D videos—using two of the phones’ lenses. You’ll be able to view these on the upcoming Vision Pro extended reality headset that the company confirmed is coming to market sometime early next year.

Interestingly, some of the changes that are going to have the most impact are available across all iPhone 15 models. First, Apple has moved away from its proprietary Lightning connector and switched to USB-C for the entire iPhone 15 line. This was a widely anticipated, yet still somewhat controversial, move on the company’s part, because it means existing Lightning cables and any peripherals with built-in Lightning ports—like some clock radios—won’t work with the new phones. (To be clear, existing iPhone chargers will still work—you’ll just need a different cable from the charger to the phone.)

The move was driven in part by new regulations from the EU, which required that all phones sold there, starting in 2024, would have to have USB-C connectors in an effort to force standardization. In addition, however, USB-C has become an industry standard not only for every other smartphone, but Apple’s newer iPads, Macs, and AirPods as well, so the move was inevitable. Plus, on the iPhone 15 Pro Max, the USB3 support also enables fast data transfers from the phone to other devices—particularly useful for large video files—and can remotely charge Apple Watches and Airpods, bringing more capability than Lightning could offer. Still, some folks are bound to be unhappy about the decision.

Something virtually everyone is likely to be happy about, on the other hand, was Apple’s decision to add Roadside Assistance to its satellite-based SOS services. As with the company’s Emergency SOS feature first debuted with last year’s iPhone 14 line, the new service utilizes satellite-based connectivity in the iPhone 15 to reach out to a service provider—in this case, AAA—to help out when you’re in an area with no connectivity. Given the sense of safety this will provide for drivers and their loved ones, I think this is going to be a surprisingly popular capability.

The enhanced connectivity on the new iPhone 15s is due in part to the Qualcomm modems that Apple incorporates into the 15 (and based on a newly announced agreement, for several generations to come). Apple has also improved the Wi-Fi capabilities on the iPhone to support Wi-Fi 6E and added a new Ultra-Wideband chip for better location-based services like Find My.

Collectively, this combination of incremental upgrades, while nice, don’t really have a big wow factor. But, given the challenging environment of a declining smartphone market, they do represent the kind of offer—especially with stable prices—that will likely get even budget-wary consumers to give the new iPhone 15 a serious look.

Here’s a link to the original column: https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/columnist/ODonnell/2023/09/13/new-iphone-15-shows-incremental-changes-matter/70839338007/

USA TODAY columnist Bob O'Donnell is the president and chief analyst of TECHnalysis Research, a market research and consulting firm. You can follow him on Twitter @bobodtech.