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Apple’s iPhone 15 and 15 Plus are the most impressive entry-level flagship iPhones yet
Our senior tech editor spent nearly a week putting the new iPhone 15 and 15 Plus with the Dynamic Island and improved cameras to the test to see who they’re…
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Apple’s iPhone is one of the most popular on the market at a global scale, and for 2023, the technology giant’s entry-level flagships are getting some serious upgrades. The iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus stick with a working design and 6.1-inch or 6.7-inch displays but kick things up a notch with the Dynamic Island, improved cameras, and better performance.
The iPhone 15 and 15 Plus launch this Friday, Sept. 22, but I got to test them out a week early. It’s a bigger leap than that from 13 to 14, and the 15s are a great entry point to Apple’s latest family of iPhones.
Let’s dive in and see exactly who the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus are for.
Apple iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
The Dynamic Island finally arrives on non-Pro iPhones | Still no ProMotion or adaptive refresh rate |
Major camera upgrades improve photos and videos, while also making captures easier | |
Long battery life on both sizes with USB-C charging |
Similar looks with a Dynamic Island
Since Apple is sticking with a 6.1-inch display on the iPhone 15 and a 6.7-inch display on the iPhone 15 Plus, it should be no surprise that these retain a similar overall build. Either is a rounded rectangle with more rounded edges that lead to better ergonomics when holding them.
Grabbing the larger 15 Plus is easier, while the standard 15 can sit comfortably in your hand. You’ll immediately notice the back is a bit more rounded and almost guides your fingers to the aluminum edges and onto the front screen. Anyone who’s used a recent iPhone will be at home with the main two camera array on the top-right rear corner, the power button on the right hand side, and the left-hand side filled with the silencer switch and volume rocker.
Related: The best iPhone 15 cases for Apple’s newest phone
The rear is still glass, but like the Pros, it’s now a matte finish and a bit more colorful thanks to a special infused glass. The 15 and 15 Plus come in pink to match the new Apple Watch Series 9, AirPods Max, and let you live out your Barbiecore dreams. It’s a pastel-y pink that might perk up more depending on how the light hits it. I’ve also tested the black iPhone 15, which screams and supports that everything should have a matte finish. iPhone 15 and 15 Plus also come in blue, green, and yellow.
It’s all pretty familiar, though once you wake the display on the front, a change is in the air. The once-exclusive to the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max Dynamic Island has arrived on the standard iPhones, and boy, am I happy to see it here. The Face ID notch is gone and swapped for a center near the top long pill cutout that contains all the tech needed to power Face ID. That’s the True Depth sensor stack, a 12-megapixel camera, and other sensors.
This is the Dynamic Island, and it’s essentially a portion of the screen that wraps around the front-facing camera. It’s an interactive wrap, though, as when you’re on a call and swipe up, you can see the call length at the top with a matching graphic. Playing music in Apple Music or Spotify, but you swiped up from the app? Have no fear, as you can see the album artwork and long press it on to see the name of the track and control playback.
It is quite dynamic because it can stretch to show more than an app and change based on the functionality required. Apple and third-party developers have taken advantage of it since it first launched with the 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max by delivering compelling experiences. Uber or Lyft will use it to show how far away your ride is, United will even show you your gate info and seat location when you’re on the plane. It’s all very handy and really is like having a mini display inside the larger iPhone 15 and 15 Plus displays.
Ultimately, the Dynamic Island on the iPhone 15s is a terrific addition, and I am happy that Apple didn’t take long to trickle this down from the Pros to the non-Pros. It’s also one that will continue to be more helpful as new app integrations are rolled out.
Looking further out, the respective 6.1-inch and 6.7-inch Super Retina XDR displays are still OLED panels for vibrant pops of color next to start contrast points, and they largely impress. Both are great screens, with the 6.7-inch iPhone 15 Plus scaling a bit more to show more at any given time and being a better fit for taking in content on the go. I enjoyed streaming YouTube videos and an episode of Ashoka via Disney+ on both 15s.
And while the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus still lack a buttery smooth 120Hz refresh rate, Apple increased the maximum brightness to 2,000 nits. That makes these displays on par with their Pro counterparts at dealing with a bright sunny day or harsh lighting outdoors. You shouldn’t have any issue seeing the 15 or 15 Plus in direct sunlight, which makes these approved for a beautiful fall day spent at the pumpkin patch or under bright stadium lights.
I would love to see a higher refresh rate, especially considering the iPhone 15 starts at $799 and the 15 Plus is $100 more at $899. In comparison, competing Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel phones come in at close or under the price point here and offer that adaptive refresh rate.
Three ways to shoot and a major main camera upgrade
Alongside the arrival of the Dynamic Island and a change in ports, which I’ll touch on below, the other big aspect of the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus is a change in optics. Both phones still have a two-main camera array on the rear, but Apple’s upgraded the main sensor.
It’s now a 48-megapixel main camera boasting a quad-pixel sensor and the ability to rapid-fire shot 24-megapixel photos and full-resolution 48-megapixel photos in the HEIF format. Furthermore, it can capture at the standard 1x or zoom in for a 2x telephoto shot. That equates to a 2x optical zoom, considering it’s still a 12-megapixel image.
This all comes together for an incredibly capable main lens, and the first time that Apple’s upped the standard iPhone’s main camera beyond 12 megapixels, that captures rich photographs with accurate colors and plenty of details. How? Since it delivers a 24-megapixel image by default, it combines pixels for a more punchy image. At the same time, it’s running the image pipeline, which contains HDR, people or focus detection, and deep fusion, among others.
The shooting experience is still super simple, as you just hit the shutter or capture button, and the image is in your library in a few seconds. It’s all quite fast, thanks to a boost in processing from Apple’s A16 Bionic chip, which premiered on the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max.
The biggest improvement is in details and overall colors, compared to even the iPhone 14, but you’ll see a bigger jump with older iPhones. Zooming into details on clothes or in the background, it doesn’t lose much detail, which is a normal occurrence with fewer megapixel captures. Hairlines are also improved as the clarity doesn’t drop off immediately if you’re focused on a person or two.
The iPhone 15 and 15 Plus use the “Photonic Eninge” that premiered with last year's Pro iPhones — vastly improving lower-lighting performance. Still, it also improves the iPhone's capability to properly capture the foreground and background without sparing aspects of the image.
Simply, the 15 and 15 Plus are still super easy to shoot with, and most of the time, you’re left with a great image to share with friends or family. The new 2x pre-shot makes it easy to quickly zoom in on a person for a tighter shot or even to zoom in on something far off in the distance. It’s the equivalent of a telephoto lens on some older Pro iPhones, but it gives you another way to shoot.
Of course, you also get the ultra-wide camera, which remains a nice way to frame more into a shot without moving physically.
My favorite feature of the upgraded cameras on the iPhone 15s and the 15 Pros would be automatic Portrait mode. Historically, you must be in the specific mode to get the shot with the awesome Bokeh effect. That’s no longer the case, though when the iPhone detects a person, dog, or cat in the frame, it automatically captures a depth map needed for a Portrait shot. You can add the bokeh effect after the fact and when shooting in Portrait mode, giving you more freedom to express the image creatively. It’s really fun.
Overall, the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus stand as some of the best cameras available in the world of smartphones, and as the standard iPhones, it’s the most compelling camera setup in years. Below is a gallery of images captured on the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus.
An image captured with the main 48-megapixel (binned down to 24-megapixels) camera on the iPhone 15 Plus.
Jacob Krol/TheStreet
Plenty of performance, and a new port
Similar to last year's iPhone 14 and 14 Plus, the 15 and 15 Plus don’t get Apple’s latest and greatest processor. It’s not a bad thing, though. The standard 15s are powered by Apple’s A16 Bionic, which debuted on the 14 and 14 Pro—and by all counts, including daily use, it’s swift, fluid chip that doesn’t show any signs of slowing down.
The iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus quickly react to inputs and make both first-party and third-party applications run smoothly on iOS 17. You can easily customize your lock screen and dive directly into a FaceTime call while multitasking between apps. Neither the 15 nor the 15 Plus will skip a beat, and they keep pretty cool doing more intense tasks.
Related: Apple’s new Adaptive Audio for AirPods Pro is a game-changer for travel
The iPhone 15 and 15 Plus ran well throughout my six days and offered enough performance for any thinkable task. The A16 Bionic, coupled with 6GB of RAM, means you don’t need to worry about closing out of apps and that jumping from app to app is quick. You can be in an intense match in NBA 2K from Apple Arcade to a photo edit in Photoshop Express with texting, web browsing, and social media.
For the price, you’re getting fast performance that will be ample for really any task. It’s also efficient, like the rest of Apple’s silicone offerings, which makes for excellent battery life. Over the year with the 14 and 14 Plus, I averaged about a day of use and a day and a half, respectively.
The iPhone 15 and 15 Plus have been meeting that mark so far. I haven't dropped below 20% until the very end of a packed day on the 15 and closer to a day and a half on the 15 Plus. You will at least get a full day of use with either of the iPhone 15s.
The final major change with the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus is a change from Lightning to USB-C for the single port on the device. While it’s not the best news if you’ve invested a ton in the Lightning ecosystem, it is the case of Apple adopting a universal standard, and included in the box is a fairly premium braided USB-C to USB-C cable. At the minimum, it will be more durable than the cables included with the iPhone 14 or older.
It also means you can likely carry one less cable with you since it’s the same that other gadgets like the iPad and MacBooks use. You can even plug a device like an Apple Watch or AirPods Pro into the USB-C port on the iPhone to use it as a power bank. It’s a maximum 4.5-watt charge, but it can help when you need a quick refuel.
Like most other smartphones and previous iPhones, you’ll need a USB-C wall plug to charge using the cable out of the box and at least a 20-watt one for a faster charging experience. With the iPhone 15, you can charge it 50% in 30 minutes, while the 15 Plus takes 35 minutes to hit halfway. I’d suggest looking at Apple’s 20-watt, this option from Anker, and this one from Nomad.
Bottom Line: Is the iPhone 15 or iPhone 15 Plus worth it?
Between the arrival of the Dynamic Island and a large step up in-camera capabilities, there is much to like about the iPhone 15. Even if you have an iPhone 14, you might consider upgrading for those two reasons, but those coming from an older iPhone will see the improvements.
For instance, if you’re using an iPhone 11, you’ll move to a sharper, more vibrant OLED display, get a big leap with both cameras and stretch the battery life further. That’s a bigger step, but it’s easy to see how this is a bigger jump than the iPhone 13 to 14. The real story is that Apple is adding more Pro-centric features, like additional ways to frame a shot and a screen within a screen, to its standard devices.
And that’s excellent news if you don’t need three lenses, a smoother display, or the latest processing tech from Apple. The iPhone 15 and 15 Plus deliver excellent features that impress and speed up daily tasks. Best of all, there is the best entry-level iPhone lineup I’ve tested in several years that will last for years.
Apple's iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus are up for preorder now at $799 and $899, respectively. Carriers like AT&T and Verizon are offering up to $800 off either model with a device trade-in on an eligible plan. You can see our guide to the latest deals for Apple's newest iPhones here.
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Prices are accurate and items in stock at time of publishing.
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February Employment Situation
By Paul Gomme and Peter Rupert The establishment data from the BLS showed a 275,000 increase in payroll employment for February, outpacing the 230,000…
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By Paul Gomme and Peter Rupert
The establishment data from the BLS showed a 275,000 increase in payroll employment for February, outpacing the 230,000 average over the previous 12 months. The payroll data for January and December were revised down by a total of 167,000. The private sector added 223,000 new jobs, the largest gain since May of last year.
Temporary help services employment continues a steep decline after a sharp post-pandemic rise.
Average hours of work increased from 34.2 to 34.3. The increase, along with the 223,000 private employment increase led to a hefty increase in total hours of 5.6% at an annualized rate, also the largest increase since May of last year.
The establishment report, once again, beat “expectations;” the WSJ survey of economists was 198,000. Other than the downward revisions, mentioned above, another bit of negative news was a smallish increase in wage growth, from $34.52 to $34.57.
The household survey shows that the labor force increased 150,000, a drop in employment of 184,000 and an increase in the number of unemployed persons of 334,000. The labor force participation rate held steady at 62.5, the employment to population ratio decreased from 60.2 to 60.1 and the unemployment rate increased from 3.66 to 3.86. Remember that the unemployment rate is the number of unemployed relative to the labor force (the number employed plus the number unemployed). Consequently, the unemployment rate can go up if the number of unemployed rises holding fixed the labor force, or if the labor force shrinks holding the number unemployed unchanged. An increase in the unemployment rate is not necessarily a bad thing: it may reflect a strong labor market drawing “marginally attached” individuals from outside the labor force. Indeed, there was a 96,000 decline in those workers.
Earlier in the week, the BLS announced JOLTS (Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey) data for January. There isn’t much to report here as the job openings changed little at 8.9 million, the number of hires and total separations were little changed at 5.7 million and 5.3 million, respectively.
As has been the case for the last couple of years, the number of job openings remains higher than the number of unemployed persons.
Also earlier in the week the BLS announced that productivity increased 3.2% in the 4th quarter with output rising 3.5% and hours of work rising 0.3%.
The bottom line is that the labor market continues its surprisingly (to some) strong performance, once again proving stronger than many had expected. This strength makes it difficult to justify any interest rate cuts soon, particularly given the recent inflation spike.
unemployment pandemic unemploymentUncategorized
Mortgage rates fall as labor market normalizes
Jobless claims show an expanding economy. We will only be in a recession once jobless claims exceed 323,000 on a four-week moving average.
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Everyone was waiting to see if this week’s jobs report would send mortgage rates higher, which is what happened last month. Instead, the 10-year yield had a muted response after the headline number beat estimates, but we have negative job revisions from previous months. The Federal Reserve’s fear of wage growth spiraling out of control hasn’t materialized for over two years now and the unemployment rate ticked up to 3.9%. For now, we can say the labor market isn’t tight anymore, but it’s also not breaking.
The key labor data line in this expansion is the weekly jobless claims report. Jobless claims show an expanding economy that has not lost jobs yet. We will only be in a recession once jobless claims exceed 323,000 on a four-week moving average.
From the Fed: In the week ended March 2, initial claims for unemployment insurance benefits were flat, at 217,000. The four-week moving average declined slightly by 750, to 212,250
Below is an explanation of how we got here with the labor market, which all started during COVID-19.
1. I wrote the COVID-19 recovery model on April 7, 2020, and retired it on Dec. 9, 2020. By that time, the upfront recovery phase was done, and I needed to model out when we would get the jobs lost back.
2. Early in the labor market recovery, when we saw weaker job reports, I doubled and tripled down on my assertion that job openings would get to 10 million in this recovery. Job openings rose as high as to 12 million and are currently over 9 million. Even with the massive miss on a job report in May 2021, I didn’t waver.
Currently, the jobs openings, quit percentage and hires data are below pre-COVID-19 levels, which means the labor market isn’t as tight as it once was, and this is why the employment cost index has been slowing data to move along the quits percentage.
3. I wrote that we should get back all the jobs lost to COVID-19 by September of 2022. At the time this would be a speedy labor market recovery, and it happened on schedule, too
Total employment data
4. This is the key one for right now: If COVID-19 hadn’t happened, we would have between 157 million and 159 million jobs today, which would have been in line with the job growth rate in February 2020. Today, we are at 157,808,000. This is important because job growth should be cooling down now. We are more in line with where the labor market should be when averaging 140K-165K monthly. So for now, the fact that we aren’t trending between 140K-165K means we still have a bit more recovery kick left before we get down to those levels.
From BLS: Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 275,000 in February, and the unemployment rate increased to 3.9 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job gains occurred in health care, in government, in food services and drinking places, in social assistance, and in transportation and warehousing.
Here are the jobs that were created and lost in the previous month:
In this jobs report, the unemployment rate for education levels looks like this:
- Less than a high school diploma: 6.1%
- High school graduate and no college: 4.2%
- Some college or associate degree: 3.1%
- Bachelor’s degree or higher: 2.2%
Today’s report has continued the trend of the labor data beating my expectations, only because I am looking for the jobs data to slow down to a level of 140K-165K, which hasn’t happened yet. I wouldn’t categorize the labor market as being tight anymore because of the quits ratio and the hires data in the job openings report. This also shows itself in the employment cost index as well. These are key data lines for the Fed and the reason we are going to see three rate cuts this year.
recession unemployment covid-19 fed federal reserve mortgage rates recession recovery unemploymentUncategorized
Inside The Most Ridiculous Jobs Report In History: Record 1.2 Million Immigrant Jobs Added In One Month
Inside The Most Ridiculous Jobs Report In History: Record 1.2 Million Immigrant Jobs Added In One Month
Last month we though that the January…
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Last month we though that the January jobs report was the "most ridiculous in recent history" but, boy, were we wrong because this morning the Biden department of goalseeked propaganda (aka BLS) published the February jobs report, and holy crap was that something else. Even Goebbels would blush.
What happened? Let's take a closer look.
On the surface, it was (almost) another blockbuster jobs report, certainly one which nobody expected, or rather just one bank out of 76 expected. Starting at the top, the BLS reported that in February the US unexpectedly added 275K jobs, with just one research analyst (from Dai-Ichi Research) expecting a higher number.
Some context: after last month's record 4-sigma beat, today's print was "only" 3 sigma higher than estimates. Needless to say, two multiple sigma beats in a row used to only happen in the USSR... and now in the US, apparently.
Before we go any further, a quick note on what last month we said was "the most ridiculous jobs report in recent history": it appears the BLS read our comments and decided to stop beclowing itself. It did that by slashing last month's ridiculous print by over a third, and revising what was originally reported as a massive 353K beat to just 229K, a 124K revision, which was the biggest one-month negative revision in two years!
Of course, that does not mean that this month's jobs print won't be revised lower: it will be, and not just that month but every other month until the November election because that's the only tool left in the Biden admin's box: pretend the economic and jobs are strong, then revise them sharply lower the next month, something we pointed out first last summer and which has not failed to disappoint once.
In the past month the Biden department of goalseeking stuff higher before revising it lower, has revised the following data sharply lower:
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) August 30, 2023
- Jobs
- JOLTS
- New Home sales
- Housing Starts and Permits
- Industrial Production
- PCE and core PCE
To be fair, not every aspect of the jobs report was stellar (after all, the BLS had to give it some vague credibility). Take the unemployment rate, after flatlining between 3.4% and 3.8% for two years - and thus denying expectations from Sahm's Rule that a recession may have already started - in February the unemployment rate unexpectedly jumped to 3.9%, the highest since February 2022 (with Black unemployment spiking by 0.3% to 5.6%, an indicator which the Biden admin will quickly slam as widespread economic racism or something).
And then there were average hourly earnings, which after surging 0.6% MoM in January (since revised to 0.5%) and spooking markets that wage growth is so hot, the Fed will have no choice but to delay cuts, in February the number tumbled to just 0.1%, the lowest in two years...
... for one simple reason: last month's average wage surge had nothing to do with actual wages, and everything to do with the BLS estimate of hours worked (which is the denominator in the average wage calculation) which last month tumbled to just 34.1 (we were led to believe) the lowest since the covid pandemic...
... but has since been revised higher while the February print rose even more, to 34.3, hence why the latest average wage data was once again a product not of wages going up, but of how long Americans worked in any weekly period, in this case higher from 34.1 to 34.3, an increase which has a major impact on the average calculation.
While the above data points were examples of some latent weakness in the latest report, perhaps meant to give it a sheen of veracity, it was everything else in the report that was a problem starting with the BLS's latest choice of seasonal adjustments (after last month's wholesale revision), which have gone from merely laughable to full clownshow, as the following comparison between the monthly change in BLS and ADP payrolls shows. The trend is clear: the Biden admin numbers are now clearly rising even as the impartial ADP (which directly logs employment numbers at the company level and is far more accurate), shows an accelerating slowdown.
But it's more than just the Biden admin hanging its "success" on seasonal adjustments: when one digs deeper inside the jobs report, all sorts of ugly things emerge... such as the growing unprecedented divergence between the Establishment (payrolls) survey and much more accurate Household (actual employment) survey. To wit, while in January the BLS claims 275K payrolls were added, the Household survey found that the number of actually employed workers dropped for the third straight month (and 4 in the past 5), this time by 184K (from 161.152K to 160.968K).
This means that while the Payrolls series hits new all time highs every month since December 2020 (when according to the BLS the US had its last month of payrolls losses), the level of Employment has not budged in the past year. Worse, as shown in the chart below, such a gaping divergence has opened between the two series in the past 4 years, that the number of Employed workers would need to soar by 9 million (!) to catch up to what Payrolls claims is the employment situation.
There's more: shifting from a quantitative to a qualitative assessment, reveals just how ugly the composition of "new jobs" has been. Consider this: the BLS reports that in February 2024, the US had 132.9 million full-time jobs and 27.9 million part-time jobs. Well, that's great... until you look back one year and find that in February 2023 the US had 133.2 million full-time jobs, or more than it does one year later! And yes, all the job growth since then has been in part-time jobs, which have increased by 921K since February 2023 (from 27.020 million to 27.941 million).
Here is a summary of the labor composition in the past year: all the new jobs have been part-time jobs!
But wait there's even more, because now that the primary season is over and we enter the heart of election season and political talking points will be thrown around left and right, especially in the context of the immigration crisis created intentionally by the Biden administration which is hoping to import millions of new Democratic voters (maybe the US can hold the presidential election in Honduras or Guatemala, after all it is their citizens that will be illegally casting the key votes in November), what we find is that in February, the number of native-born workers tumbled again, sliding by a massive 560K to just 129.807 million. Add to this the December data, and we get a near-record 2.4 million plunge in native-born workers in just the past 3 months (only the covid crash was worse)!
The offset? A record 1.2 million foreign-born (read immigrants, both legal and illegal but mostly illegal) workers added in February!
Said otherwise, not only has all job creation in the past 6 years has been exclusively for foreign-born workers...
... but there has been zero job-creation for native born workers since June 2018!
This is a huge issue - especially at a time of an illegal alien flood at the southwest border...
... and is about to become a huge political scandal, because once the inevitable recession finally hits, there will be millions of furious unemployed Americans demanding a more accurate explanation for what happened - i.e., the illegal immigration floodgates that were opened by the Biden admin.
Which is also why Biden's handlers will do everything in their power to insure there is no official recession before November... and why after the election is over, all economic hell will finally break loose. Until then, however, expect the jobs numbers to get even more ridiculous.
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