Apple debuts iPhone 15 and 15 Plus with Dynamic Island and brighter HDR display

With the upgrades coming to the iPhone 15 lineup, Apple brought features that were limited to the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max last year to its base-model phones. That includes the Dynamic Island, which replaces the notch as an intuitive way to disguise the front-facing camera and Face ID sensors. However, the Dynamic Island isn't the only improvement coming to the iPhone 15 display. The iPhone 15 features a high-quality HDR display that offers a peak brightness rating of up to 2,000 nits, which stacks up with or bests most flagship smartphones. It comes on the heels of last year's iPhone 14 Pro, which was considered the brightest smartphone ever released, with the same 2,000-nit rating as this year's iPhone 15 models.

USB-C replaces the Lightning connector

Apple, pressured by the European Union to replace its longtime Lightning connector, brought the USB-C port to the iPhone 15 series. However, unlike the iPhone 15 Pro models, the upgrade to USB-C on base-model iPhones doesn't coincide with performance gains. Like the original Lightning connector, iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus are both limited to USB 2.0 speeds, which isn't great for data transfer. If you're planning to take a lot of photos and videos with your smartphone and want to be able to transfer them quickly via a cable, the iPhone 15 Pro or iPhone 15 Pro Max might be a better choice. To unify the experience, Apple also tweaked AirPods Pro 2 to include a USB-C port.

The USB-C connector isn't the only thing Apple changed with regard to connectivity, as it debuted a second-generation Ultra Wideband chip. This facilitates features like Precision Finding on products like the second-generation AirPods Pro and the AirTag. Apple says that the range of Precision Finding with the U2 chip is tripled, which means it should be easier than ever to locate your lost devices.

A camera system upgrade

Last year, Apple upgraded the main camera sensor in the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max to feature the first megapixel increase in years. Now, the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus get the same treatment, offering a 48-megapixel main camera system with a quad-pixel layout. There's also a secondary telephoto lens that offers 0.5x, 1x, and 2x optical zoom options, which is the first time those options are available on a dual-camera iPhone. By default, Apple is using computational photography features to capture 24MP high-resolution photos designed to be stored in compact file sizes.

A16 Bionic makes its way to iPhone 15

Apple started a trend of using last-generation systems-on-a-chip (SoCs) for its base-model iPhones. It continued that trend this year, bringing the A16 Bionic platform to the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus. This SoC first appeared on last year's iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max, but it's now available on lower-end models. Essentially, this chip will bring improved CPU and GPU performance in daily use. More importantly, a more powerful neural engine makes certain iOS 17 features possible, like Live Voicemail transcriptions. These features will be available with iOS 17, which makes its public debut September 18.

Made with Apple's climate goals in mind

The iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus, like the Apple Watch Series 9 announced today, were designed with Apple's climate initiatives at the forefront. The two smartphones have batteries made with 100% recycled cobalt, as well as logic board made with 100% recycled copper. If you typically purchase cases and accessories directly from Apple, you might be surprised to learn that the company has completely discontinued leather for new products. Apple says that this is to reduce its environmental impact, and has offered new FineWoven cases as an alternative.

Pricing and availability

Apple announced the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus today, which retail for $799 and $899 respectively. You can pre-order the devices starting Friday, with widespread availability coming September 22. Apple is offering select trade-in deals for iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus, and you can get the phones for as low as $0 with an eligible trade in at major cellular carriers.