The calendar ticking over from July to August can only mean one thing. Well, actually it can mean several — including that there’s some kind of reality distortion going on, considering I could have sworn it was 2022 just yesterday — but one of the many is that the iPhone 15 is now due next month.
Well, possibly not. But even if that is true, we now have a pretty good idea of what’s to be expected, and many of those details have now been confirmed by Bloomberg’s Apple psychic Mark Gurman.
In his latest Power On newsletter, Gurman confirms a number of things that have been rumoured for months. Firstly, the Pro versions of the phone will adopt a titanium frame for the first time. It’s been used in Apple Watches for a while, and is both lighter and tougher than the current “fingerprint-prone” stainless-steel edges.
New display technologies also will likely shrink the bezel by around a third, Gurman says, which looks a bit like this. In other words, barely noticeable if you don’t have the two side by side, but nice all the same.
There are two more Pro exclusive features of note. The first is that the mute switch will be replaced by a button you can programme as you like. Personally, I like the switch — it’s a lifesaver in the theatre or cinema — but each to their own. The second is the 33-nanometre A17 chip which will apparently be “noticeably snappier” than the hand-me-down A16 coming to the regular iPhone 15.
Speaking of hand-me-downs coming to the regular iPhone 15, it’ll also be getting Dynamic Island — the cut-out notch which offers some neat functionality, but is ultimately just a clever way of making a bit of ugly design seem intentional. All four iPhone 15 models (basic, Plus, Pro and Pro Max) will come with USB-C connectivity for the first time, too.
Surprise, surprise: all of this will probably come with a price hike. “I would look out for at least minor price increases across all four models outside of the US,” Gurman writes.
But this time, even the US might not be immune from paying more, he reckons. Probably about time, since Americans haven’t seen an iPhone Pro price rise since the line launched in 2019 with the US$999 iPhone 11 Pro.
