With the launch day of the iPhone 15 lineup fast approaching, I thought I would take a look at whether or not it’s worth upgrading, in particular, to the iPhone 15 Pro Max.
Many bloggers and YouTube are saying that the iPhone has become boring with little innovation compared to what’s happening with Android phones, in particular, the flip and fold phones. Yet people still flock to buy iPhones for many a reason. Although the Apple Event may not have been as stellar as others, we still got some good upgrades. So let’s look at what’s coming to the iPhone 15 Pro Max and if it’s worth the upgrade.
New Frame
With the new iPhone, we are moving away from the stainless steel frame to a new aerospace-grade titanium one. Titanium has one of the best strength-to-weight ratios, meaning that we will see a little iPhone Pro Max this year. It also has a lovely brushed finish which just looks great on all the marketing material. This should also remove those pesky fingerprint marks that you would get on the Stainless Steel finish.
Something else that is new to the frame is that it will have rounded corners. This should hopefully make the phone much more comfortable to hold in the hand. The bezels are also smaller, which is nice, but I’m not sure how much I would notice that.
USB-C
Many have wanted to come to the iPhone for a while, and this year we finally get it. You will get USB 3, which provides up to 10Gb/s transfer rates which should make it a lot easier to get videos and photos from your phone to your Mac or computer.
So this means you are going to get a new charging cable, and that will be braised. We have had braided cables on other devices like the Apple Watch Ultra and MacBooks.
Capacity
The base capacity on the iPhone 15 Pro Max has been increased to 256GB as someone who always goes for the base model. This will, however, not be the case for the standard iPhone 15s and 15 Pro; they will still start at 128GB.
This does mean that the starting price is slightly more expensive at an additional £100 because of skipping the 128GB storage size.
Camera Updates
If you want the best camera, unlike last years Pro Models, you will need to go for the Pro Max. The biggest difference between the iPhone 15 Pro and the iPhone 15 Pro Max camera is the Telephoto Lens. On the Pro Max, you will get 5x Telephoto and 5x optical zoom in, 2x out and 10x optical zoom range, as well as 25x digital zoom. So if the camera is your sole reason for upgrading, it’s the Pro Max all the way.
There are some other great stuff coming with the pro cameras, such as being able to turn Live Photos into Portraits, which is pretty cool. There are others, but I think that these are the main things for me.
Action Buttons
Apple has decided this year to replace the mute switch with a new action button. Out of the box, the action button will still mute or unmute your iPhone, but you can configure the setting. You could have configured it to bring up your camera or even your torch nice and quickly.
I will miss the mute switch, but I do like the idea of being able to customise the action button to what I use the most.
Final Thoughts
So am I upgrading? The answer is Yes, and I already have my pre-order in for delivery on launch day. It may seem like there is not a big change here, and to be fair, you are probably right. As always, if you are coming from an iPhone that you have had for a few years, then it will be a big upgrade and well worth it, in my opinion.
So why have I decided to upgrade? The 5 points above are the reason for me. I am looking forward to a new frame, being lighter, and having a new feel in my hand. I am also looking forward to the better zoom options on the camera. Having used the Samsung S23 Ultra, I am definitely looking forward to being able to zoom in more.