Apple iPhone 15 review

Design

In terms of overall silhouette, the iPhone 15 is identical to the iPhone 14, which is practically the same as the iPhone 13. While the overall shape and size of the body might be nearly identical to last year at 147.6 x 71.6 x 7.8 mm, with an almost identical weight of 171 grams, this year arguably brings about a more significant redesign in the inclusion of the Dynamic Island.

Gone is the imposing display notch of the iPhone 14, and the iPhone 15 now has the same imposing display cutout as its Pro siblings. Apple calls this the Dynamic Island, and there are a lot of visual elements in the UI specifically designed around "utilizing" this design trait, like notification bubbles.

The notch is pretty large, but it houses several hardware components of Apple's Face ID system. The selfie camera also has a rather large cutout relative to the size of the lens itself. Overall, the Dynamic Island is rather large and takes up a significant portion of the 6.1-inch display of the iPhone 15. Still, it's definitely a more modern look than the previously used notch.

Speaking of sizeable, the display bezels on the iPhone 15 are not exactly what we would call slim. They are perfectly reasonable for a modern device but definitely bigger than what you get on the Pro models.

Other than that, Apple is sticking to a flat display on all its models for another year. This is definitely a deliberate choice, going against the grain, so to speak and the ongoing curved display trend in the Android realm. Frankly, we personally appreciate the flat display surface, and some of us around the GSMArena office even prefer a flat screen to the alternative.

As we already said, the overall silhouette of the iPhone 15 is mostly unchanged. You do get a new contoured edge on the aluminum frame, which makes it a bit easier to handle the device in contrast to the sharp edge we got before. The iPhone is still a glass "sandwich," with both the front and back panels laying perfectly flush with the middle frame without any lip. This is definitely a "slick" look.

There is nothing particularly new about the back side of the iPhone 15. We love the way the glass back surface and the slightly different materials and colors on the camera island complement each other.

Speaking of colors, Apple has a new lineup of color options for the iPhone 15. These include Black, Blue, Green, Yellow and Pink. We just love our pink review unit. It is a very soft and pastel pink shade that looks exquisite. Apple uses a special metallic ion process to infuse color into the single piece of back glass for great uniformity throughout the surface. In terms of feel, the surface is etched for a subtle matte finish.

Build quality

Apple devices are nothing short of excellent when it comes to the build quality. The iPhone 15 feels incredibly sturdy with no flex or hollowness to it.

Apple has once again sourced its toughened glass from Corning. There is no public information on exactly what Corning model is being used on the back, but they claim it's as tough as you'd find on any other phone.

Corning is supplying a more durable glass panel for the front, dubbed Ceramic Shield.

It should come as no surprise that the iPhone 15 comes with IP68 ingress protection. That means that it should be able to last in up to 6 meters of fresh water for up to 30 minutes. In more practical terms, it means that if you get your phone dirty, you could use water to carefully wash it. Just be aware that you might end up harming the oleophobic display coating if you overdo it. Apple has one of the best coatings around but is still susceptible to damage.

The tough middle frame that Apple calls the phone's "enclosure" is made out of 75% recycled aluminum on the iPhone 15. The battery uses 100% recycled cobalt, while the main logic board and Mag Safe charging coil use 100% recycled copper. All are part of Apple's 2030 carbon-neutral goal.

Controls

The iPhone 15 has a familiar set of controls. Let's start the tour with the top of the device, which is practically empty, save for the sole antenna line breaking apart the aluminum middle frame. There is no secondary mic here like you typically find on many other devices. Apple has a mic in the rear camera island instead.

The phone's right-hand side houses a rather large power button. It is conveniently placed height-wise, easy to feel out and offers a nice and satisfying "click" in terms of tactile feedback.

The same goes for the volume buttons on the opposite side of the iPhone 15. Apple has always made consistently great buttons, and these are no exception. The left-hand side also houses the SIM tray in regions other than the US, where the iPhone 15 is eSIM only.

Then, there is the familiar alert slider above the volume buttons. This year, Apple took a rather radical step and replaced the slider with a simple button on the two Pro models. The vanilla iPhone 15 and the 15 Plus still get the familiar slider, though, which we frankly appreciate.

The bottom side of the iPhone 15 is a bit busier. This is where the bottom-firing speaker (part of a stereo setup) resides alongside the main microphone, both hidden away beneath grills. All new this year, we have the USB Type-C port. We'll talk more about its capabilities in the following section.

There is no fingerprint reader on the iPhone 15. Apple relies on Face ID instead. Also, it should come as no surprise that there is no notification LED.

Also hardly surprising - Apple's haptic engine and feedback are industry-leading yet again. Even a mundane task like typing on the screen gets ten times more satisfying thanks to the excellent haptic feedback.

Connectivity

The iPhone 15 comes with a variety of network connectivity options depending on your region. The international version has a single Nano-SIM card slot and eSIM support for a second number. In the US, users get dual eSIM with multiple number support, whereas in China, the iPhone 15 has dual Nano-SIM slots. Regardless of region, you get dual standby and SA/NSA Sub6 connectivity. Certain models will also have mmWave.

In certain countries, Apple also offers satellite connectivity on the iPhone 15 for emergency pings outside of cell range and Roadside Assistance via satellite. The latter does require a subscription after an initial two-year grace period. Find My via satellite is also a thing, so you can update your location when outside of cell coverage and let your loved ones know you are safe. Emergency SOS and Find My via satellite do still have some regional limitations, though.

Apple promises clearer voice calls in this generation of iPhone. In fact, there is a new Voice Isolation toggle that you can manually enable during calls if your background is too noisy. We aren't quite sure why this neat feature doesn't get enabled automatically when needed, but we are still happy to see it present. In our testing, it works great to drown out surprisingly noisy environments.

For local connectivity, the iPhone 15 has dual-band Wi-Fi 6 (ax) as well as Bluetooth 5.3 with LE support. There is NFC on board for things like Apple Pay and Name Drop contact sharing. The iPhone 15 also has a second-generation Apple Ultrawideband (UWB) chip. It enables precise Find My with directional arrows and has up to three times increased range compared to the original Apple U1 chip. You can also use precision finding in a crowd with Find My Friends. We should note that the UWB chip and its functionality are not available in every market and are disabled in some countries due to regulatory issues.

Naturally, there is no FM radio or IR blaster on board, though.

The new Type-C port on the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus is backed up by a USB 2.0 data connection, which means a theoretical max transfer speed of 480 Mbps. You have to go with a Pro model for a faster USB connection.

Video output is supported, however. It uses the Display port DP via Type-C Alt mode, which means that most standard Type-C hubs with a video interface should be able to get an image from the phone. By default, you get a mirror of the display without any other fancy options like a dedicated desktop mode or anything of the sort. In other words, it does a simple screen mirror for the UI.

In terms of resolution, the iPhone appears to output in 4K (2160p) or at least near that, but in a 19.5:9 aspect ratio to match the phone's display - the TVs we connected it to, reported a 2160p signal.

However, apps behave differently; some, like the Photos app and Netflix, offer dedicated casting of content to the display in a 16:9 aspect ratio. Other video apps, like YouTube, however, don't have said dedicated video casting behavior and are stuck at 19.5:9 aspect ratio and 4K resolution, leaving the image both letter-boxed and pillar-boxed. There is seemingly no way to control this behavior, and it is a bit of an inconsistent mess.

The iPhone does offer some display settings when connected to an external display, mainly dealing with the selection of HDR or SDR color mode where supported, as well as a toggle for the ability to automatically adapt and match the output resolution to the content being played.

The iPhone 15 also supports USB Host mode, and we successfully hooked up a mouse and keyboard to it. The keyboard started working instantly, but getting the mouse to pick up and actually show an on-screen cursor required enabling the Assistive Touch option in settings. USB thumb drives and hard drives work fine and automatically mount and appear in the Files app.

In terms of sensors, the iPhone 15 has an accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass and barometer.