Review: The iPhone 15 Pro, 15 Pro Max Are Impressive

Speaker 1: This is the iPhone 15 Pro at 15 pro backs and they're filled with improvements, refinements, and some significant additions like having a U S B C port instead of lightning. Apple gave the pro models a minor glow up with a refreshed, lighter build new cameras, including one with a longer zoom and support for consulter video games. Now, I've reviewed [00:00:30] and tested the iPhone for years, but the iPhone 15 Pro Max is the first time I've been enamored and at the time I'm recording this video. I've been using the phones for three days and most of the time was spent with the 15 Pro Max. But if you want to know more about either phone, please check out my full written review on cnet. So with all that out of the way, let's jump right in. [00:01:00] I am here at the Cal Academy of Sciences and I thought this would be a great place to spend my first day with the iPhone 15, pro 15 Pro Max. Test out the cameras, get a feel for the phone and take a lot of photos of fish and dinosaurs. Let's get to it. Speaker 1: Bone is one of the toughest materials known on the face of the earth, but one of the other toughest materials [00:01:30] is titanium, and that's what the new iPhone 15 Pro and promax are made of. The last three generations of pro models were made out of stainless steel and they felt very durable, but they also felt very bulky. This still feels as durable. It feels like a solid piece, but it's not as heavy. There might be a lot of people who wouldn't want this big of a phone just to get that camera, and I think it's a good trade off with the lighter weight. I think this looks really good. I know people are making fun of the fact that the 15 pros colors really didn't have colors. [00:02:00] This titanium gray, I think Apple calls it natural. It looks slick. This is going to sound odd, but the volume buttons on these pro models feel a little different. Speaker 1: I dunno if it's a titanium or the redesign interior, they just got a little more pop to them. It kind of reminds me of the old pro models. Those volume buttons would be kind of like those Nike Air shoes from the nineties versus the ones today that have that crazy foam in it. That's what these are. They're kind of like the foam soles on a speaker. I was a big fan of the mute silent switch on previous iPhones. In fact, it largely [00:02:30] has remained on all iPhone models up to now unchanged. And this action button, well, it's curious on the action button, there's a few ways you can tell that it's silence or switch. One is if I tap, I get a little message in the dynamic island, it let me know that I'm in silent mode and when I switch modes, there's haptic feedback, so I'm going to switch to ring. Speaker 1: There is a staccato vibration. If I do it again, it's a silent, it's kind of like a wiggled vibration. Now, the more I've used the phones, the more I've discovered the action [00:03:00] button's potential. I especially like having it open the camera, which once it's open lets the action button double as a physical shutter button to take a photo. But the fact that I can use the action button to trigger a shortcut multiplies the possibilities. Well, to an extent I say that because the only way to change what the button does is to go into settings, scroll down to the action button menu and change it there. Heck, I'd be happy with just even a control center button that's [00:03:30] a shortcut into the action button menu, but the action button isn't the biggest change that would actually be on the interior. Apple said they redesigned the insides of the 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max to make them easier to repair. So if the back glass is damaged, it should be faster and more affordable to have it replaced. And with that, let's move on to the cameras because there's a lot to talk about. Speaker 1: Apple said that the 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max are the [00:04:00] equivalent of having seven camera lenses in your pocket. These photos were taken at the equivalent lens length of 13 millimeters, 24 millimeters, 28 millimeters, 35 millimeters, 48 millimeters, and 120 millimeters, and to switch between 24, 28 and 35, I just tap the one x magnification button and it changes to 1.2 times magnification 28 millimeters. If I tap it again, it goes to one and a half times magnification [00:04:30] and equivalent of 35 millimeters. It's a clever addition to Apple's camera interface, and I like that it doesn't take up any more space because since 2020, the camera app has been getting a little crowded. But let's get to the good stuff and look at some of my favorite photos and videos that I took with the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max. Speaker 1: [00:05:00] So if that wasn't enough to give you an idea just how versatile these cameras are, don't worry. I got you covered. I decided to do a photo shoot with one of my favorite people [00:05:30] to see just how different the iPhone 15 pro's three times optical zoom is compared to the 15 Pro Max's five times optical zoom. Let's go start with the iPhone 15 Pro. I'm going to use the telephoto camera to photograph a bra. This has the same three times optical zoom that we've seen on previous pro models. I know I said that weird, but trust me, it works. There we go. Great. But what if I want to be farther away from my subject? Well, [00:06:00] that's where the iPhone 15 Pro Max comes in and it's five times optical zoom. In fact, in this scenario, it allows me to be three feet farther away from a bra. So let's take a picture back here and look a little bit forward here. There we go, and thank you aar. One of the other neat features on these phones is now that they have a U S B C port, that port supports U S B three speeds. So eventually I'll be able to plug these phones into a computer [00:06:30] and use software like Capture one for studio capture of live photos. Sadly, it won't be up until later this year. Speaker 1: The iPhone 15 Promax has a five times optical Zoom camera, and I thought it might be fun to compare it against the Google Pixel seven Pro, which has a five times optical Zoom camera and the Galaxy SS 23 Ultra that has a three times optical zoom and a 10 times optical zoom. Let's see what happens. Speaker 1: Now, taking these photos challenged all three [00:07:00] phones. We had a cloudy sky and lots of fog, but even with that, the Galaxy S 23 Ultra was at a disadvantage. While the Pixel seven Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max both have five times optical zoom. In order for Samsung to match it, I had to set it to five times digital Zoom and well, as you can see, the results weren't great. The pixel fared better, but notice the detail of the trees looks muddy compared to what the iPhone grabbed. Now, none of these photos are great, but the iPhone SNAP is the best [00:07:30] of the three. But wait, Samsung has something the other phones don't, and that's a 10 times optical Zoom. It gets much closer, but the quality isn't great, but it does look better than the 15 Pros maxes 10 times digital Zoom. Also, if you're like me and you're wondering what that building is, it's the University of San Francisco. But at the time I didn't know that. So I used the iPhone's visual lookup tool to find out. Now, while the iPhone did identify [00:08:00] it as a landmark, it couldn't actually tell me what it was. In fact, it shared a photo of the S tower in Iran. So I hopped on my pixel use Google lens, which gave me the correct answer. Speaker 1: Portrait mode now lets you change the focus after the fact. I mean, check out my nineties grunge band style poses with my pal beja. I can change the focus after I've taken the photo from me to him, and this is going to be a killer feature for parents. [00:08:30] Then there's portraits and photo mode, which lets you take a regular photo and change it to a portrait mode pick after the fact with certain subjects. So here's a photo I took of Kit Katt, the Bodega Catt. In photo mode, I can turn portrait mode on and adjust the aperture to keep his whiskers in focus and even apply portrait lighting effects. I mean, that's pretty cool. Also, I'm happy to say that the new lens coating on the 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max help reduce light source reflections [00:09:00] on the whole, if there is a reflection or lens flare, it's minimal at best and usually just a single point. Speaker 1: But in night mode, I did get some strange light streaking when using the five times telephoto camera on the 15 Pro Max, like in this night mode photo with string lights and this one with a lamp inside a bar. Now, I wonder if it has something to do with the prisms used for the lens. But to be clear, out of the hundreds of photos I've taken with these phones, only a handful had [00:09:30] these light streaks. And in terms of video recording, I'm going to keep this short because this video is already quite beefy. Video recordings look good, and I'm very excited about being able to record and log, and I can see using Log for videos like this review that I'm doing as well as films where you're using multiple cameras from different brands. The log footage looks flat when you recorded, but does give you a little more leeway to make the iPhone videos match the color with footage from other cameras that you use. Speaker 1: Let's move on from [00:10:00] the cameras to the new A 17 Pro Chip. The brain behind everything you do, and that's best shown off with video games, and I'm not talking about Candy Crush, the 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max support, full console games like Resident Evil Village, which I got to test, well, at least the beginning of it. Resident Evil Village looks phenomenal on the 15 Pro Max's screen, especially in terms of lighting and shading. In my time and through my casual gamer's [00:10:30] eyes, I was impressed and it speaks volumes that games like this can come to the iPhone last. If the A 17 Pro Chip is the 15 Pros brains, then iOS 17 is its soul. The new OSS is filled with lots of small quality of life improvements all throughout standby mode has won me over. I love being able to have my lock screen show widgets like the time or photos while it charges the interface [00:11:00] is clean and contemporary, and breathe new life into the iPhone. Speaker 1: I also love making custom stickers from photos and live photos and messages it makes communicating with my friends and my family even more expressive and very personal. Autocorrect on the keyboard works so well for me. I'm usually horrible at phone typing, which is shocking because I'm a phone reviewer, but this new autocorrect just gets me, and I don't even curse that much. At the end of the day. I [00:11:30] am impressed with the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max. I still have more tests to run for performance benchmarks and battery, which will be in my written review. But in terms of battery life, so far, the 15 Pro Max has been making it through a day, no problem. On one day, it started with a full battery at 7:00 AM and after a heavy day of use, filming videos, taking photos, playing video games, having the screen on at full brightness, it was at 7% at 10:00 PM. Speaker 1: Also, [00:12:00] in terms of U S B C and charging on the phones, the only change is that I now plug in A U S B C cable, which comes with the phone instead of a lightning cable. I mean, it's largely the same charging speeds as prior iPhones, which might be a little disappointing for some. But in the 30 minute charge test, the iPhone 15 Pro went from 4% to 66% with a 20 watt wall plug, and the 15 Pro Max went from 7% to 56% and the same time with the same [00:12:30] plug. Now, there are other features that will come out later to these phones, like spatial video and the Journal app, which I am excited to test. So should you upgrade, well, I recommend the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max for anyone coming from a 12 Pro 12 Pro Max or older. And if you're trying to decide between the Pro and the Promax in that five times telephoto lens, while it's extremely compelling, if you don't take a lot of zoomed in photos, it might be best to stick with the smaller size. [00:13:00] Last. Please make sure to check out my full written review on cnet. If you like this video, give it a thumbs up and please subscribe to Seated. Thank you for watching.