iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max review: Still worthwhile after long-term testing, and the only current iPhones that will support Apple's AI

Through extensive testing, we can recommend the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max as superb high-end phones, though new models may be imminent.

When you buy through our links, Business Insider may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more

The iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max aren't just an incremental upgrade from the previous generation. Sure, they may look similar to the iPhone 14 Pros, but several new features combine to produce something much newer than what we've seen in the last three years. 

There's a new "Pro" processor, a new Action button, the new USB-C port, a new titanium frame, new rounder edges, and a new 5x zoom camera for the iPhone 15 Pro Max.

And, we didn't know it when the iPhone 15 Pros were released, but they'll also support Apple's upcoming AI, or "Apple Intelligence," features, which will be introduced when iOS 18 is rolled out in the fall. For clarity, the base iPhone 15 models won't support Apple's AI.

These are significant and impactful upgrades — more so than previous generations of iPhone Pros in recent memory, making the iPhone 15 Pro models among the best iPhones to upgrade to.

If you haven't already picked up an iPhone 15 Pro, it's impossible to ignore the likelihood that Apple will announce the iPhone 16 series soon in September. However, those who pick up an iPhone 15 Pro now will not be disappointed.

Performance: A new chip designed for better gaming and other 'pro' features

Apple introduced a brand-new type of processor for the iPhone 15 Pro models called the A17 "Pro." One of the things that makes the A17 Pro a "Pro" chip is dramatically improved performance for gaming relative to a typical new iPhone release. However, in our testing, the A17 Pro's improved gaming performance was mostly seen in benchmark results rather than felt in the games themselves.

Gaming benchmark results showed much higher results than we typically see in a new iPhone release, especially for ray tracing (lighting quality in a game, basically). 

In real life, however, the experience of playing games on the iPhone 15 Pro largely felt the same as playing games on any new iPhone release — graphics look great, and gameplay is smooth whether I played games on the iPhone 15 Pro or the iPhone 15. The main benefit of gaming on the iPhone 15 Pro over the iPhone 15 is the option to play at 120 frames-per-second (fps), thanks to its 120Hz ProMotion display, on games that support it. 

Games that support 120 fps look and feel smoother on the iPhone 15 Pro than those limited to 60 fps, and smoothness is a highly desirable trait while playing games. Yet, it's not necessary to own an iPhone 15 Pro to have fun. As I mentioned above, power-hungry games still play remarkably smoothly and look great on the base iPhone 15, and even on older iPhones like the iPhone 13. The likelihood is that games look and play very well on even older iPhones, but we didn't have one on hand to try out at the time of testing. 

However, the iPhone 15 Pro and the A17 Pro are actually necessary to play certain games, like "Resident Evil Village" or "Assassin's Creed Mirage" when they're released, as some games aren't compatible with even the iPhone 15. 

With all this said, I anticipate the iPhone 15 Pro's gaming performance will remain stronger for longer than a typical iPhone release based on the leap of its benchmark scores compared to previous iPhone Pro generations. The iPhone 14 Pro, for example, scored an average of 6.26% gaming performance improvement in our benchmark tests over the iPhone 13 Pro. Meanwhile, the iPhone 15 Pro scored an average of 17.6% gaming performance improvement over the iPhone 14 Pro. 

If you don't play games on your iPhones, the A17 Pro won't mean much more than a typical generational improvement over the A16 Bionic processor. That means the iPhone 15 Pro models open and run apps as quickly and smoothly as we expect for the latest iPhone Pros. They'll also last about a year longer than phones running the A16 Bionic, like the iPhone 15 and iPhone 14 Pros, before apps start to open and run more sluggishly than you prefer. 

Some users have reported concerns with overheating on their iPhone 15 Pros, and I did experience a constant warmth on the iPhone 15 Pro Max, even when I wasn't using the phone. However, the constant warmth issue seemed to be related to using a transferred backup from a previous iPhone, as it disappeared after setting up the iPhone 15 Pro Max without a backup. Otherwise, I haven't experienced other overheating-related issues.

Outside of performance, the A17 Pro powers certain features on the iPhone 15 Pro models that you won't find on the base iPhone 15, like an AV1 decoder for viewing high-resolution video filmed in the ultra-efficient AV1 codec, as well as a USB 3 controller for faster transfer speeds from the iPhone 15 Pro's USB-C port (more on that later).

Design: Introducing titanium into iPhones

The iPhone 15 Pro models introduce one of the biggest design changes to the iPhone in years: a titanium frame and rounder edges. To be sure, the new frame isn't made entirely of titanium — it has an aluminum base (or substructure, as Apple calls it).

The iPhone 15 Pro's titanium frame with a brushed metal aesthetic subjectively looks better than the shiny polished steel from previous iPhone Pro generations. Objectively, it's less of a fingerprint magnet, but it still picks up smudges from sweaty fingers. The slightly softer, rounder edges are more comfortable and forgiving to hold and use compared to the harsher and sharper edges from the iPhone 12 series to the iPhone 14 series. Yet, you won't notice these improvements if you use a case, which we recommend. (See our guides to the best iPhone 15 Pro cases and best iPhone 15 Pro Max cases for top options.)  

Thanks to the titanium frame, the iPhone 15 Pro models are slightly lighter than the iPhone 14 Pro by 0.67 ounces. The weight difference isn't dramatic, but they're the lightest iPhone Pros since Pro models were introduced in 2019 with the iPhone 11 series. 

Action button: A shortcut to your favorite feature, but it could be better

The iPhone 15 Pro models introduce a brand new button called the "Action button" that replaces the iconic Silent switch. It's basically a shortcut button you can customize to perform certain tasks, like enabling or disabling a Focus mode, opening the camera, turning the flashlight on or off, starting or stopping a voice memo, opening the Magnifier app, opening the Translate app, enabling a shortcut in the Shortcuts app, or quickly accessing an accessibility feature. And, yes, you can use the Action button to enable and disable silent mode, just like the old Silent switch. 

The Action button is a blessing for anyone who wishes they could do any of those things without unlocking their iPhone and navigating iOS to open the app. However, there's a lot of untapped potential here for shortcuts to other apps and features, and it's stuck to only one app or feature shortcut at a time, too. The Action button could be even more useful to enable more than one shortcut with various button-pressing combinations, like double or triple-pressing.

I wish the Action button was more prominent. It's rather small and can be hard to find by feel alone when it's so close to the volume-up button. And it's quite a reach for the larger iPhone 15 Pro Max, even for my decently large hands.

Still, the Action button is useful, and I use it far more than the old Silent switch, which I typically use only a couple of times in an iPhone's lifetime.

Cameras: A new 5x zoom camera, but only for the Max

For photos, the iPhone 15 Pro models introduce Apple's Smart HDR 5, improved portrait mode, and the option to shoot photos at 24MP resolution on top of the standard 12MP resolution. 

That's a lot of upgrades, but generally, there's little about photo quality that's tremendously different from the previous iPhone 14 Pro generation. The iPhone 15 Pro models deliver an excellent balance of color, brightness, contrast, and reliability that's typical for Apple's iPhone cameras. As usual, the improvements you'll perceive are relative to how old your current iPhone is. 

There is one big camera difference between the two iPhone 15 Pros, however. The iPhone 15 Pro Max has a new 5x zoom camera, while the iPhone 15 Pro has the usual 3x zoom camera. 

The biggest impact of the Phone 15 Pro Max's 5x camera is that it can take sharper photos when you zoom beyond 5x than the iPhone 15 Pro's 3x camera. Otherwise, when you're shooting under 5x on either phone, there's only a noticeable difference when you zoom into photos you've already taken.

Video quality is as excellent and reliable as always, and the iPhone 15 Pro models continue to be one of the best options for recording videos. Though the base iPhone 15 models have similar quality recording up to 4K resolution at 60 frames per second (fps), having a dedicated zoom camera is a notable boon if you take a lot of videos.

Apple added a couple of professional-leaning features to the iPhone 15 Pro models, like log (logarithmic) recording and the Academy Color Encoding System (ACES) for video recordings. Combined with the ProRes recording format option that existed in previous iPhone Pro models, the iPhone 15 Pro phones can be worthy tools for video professionals, content creators, and hobbyists. 

The iPhone 15 Pro models also support Apple's Spatial video recording to view in the company's Vision Pro AR headset while the base iPhone 15 phones don't. It's only going to matter to you if you and your friends and family own Apple Vision Pro headsets to share and view Spatial videos. If you or no one else you know have a Vision Pro headset, Spatial videos can't be viewed, and it isn't a reason to buy an iPhone 15 Pro model on its own. 

Battery life and charging: The same excellent battery life, and a totally new charging port

The iPhone 15 Pro ended our battery test with 58% remaining, and the iPhone 15 Pro Max did the same test with 69% left in the tank. While these results show the iPhone 15 Pro models have excellent battery lives, it's unlikely you'll be making significant changes to your regular charging habit. 

The iPhone 15 series at large, including the base models, now have USB-C ports instead of Apple's proprietary Lightning port. It's a major win for anyone who already has USB-C chargers and cables for other devices, whether it's a laptop (including MacBooks), tablets (including iPads), or any Android users making the switch to iPhone. It means you don't need a dedicated Lightning cable just to charge your iPhone anymore. More accessories are also available compared to those made specifically for the Lightning standard.

If you're fully entrenched in the Lightning ecosystem and don't own other USB-C devices, cables, or chargers, the switch from Lightning means buying new cables and chargers, which can be bothersome. With that said, even if Apple was basically mandated to switch iPhones to USB-C, a change in charging ports and standards was inevitable. It's just happening now rather than later.   

On the subject of the USB-C port, the iPhone 15 Pros support USB 3 speeds of up to 10Gbps, which is very fast and valuable to anyone who transfers large files between their iPhone and computer. If you took a long, high-resolution ProRes video, for example, you'll appreciate the iPhone 15 Pro's transfer speeds if you plan on editing that footage on a computer. Conversely, the base iPhone 15 models only support USB 2 speeds (around 480Mbps), which is still "fine" for most people, but a shame for anyone who often transfers data from their phone to computers. 

A major catch about the iPhone 15 Pro's USB 3 port is it needs a compatible cable to transfer data at USB 3 speeds. And no, the USB-C cable included with the iPhone 15 Pro phones is not one of those compatible cables. 

Another catch is that the iPhone 15 Pro's USB 3 port doesn't support Thunderbolt accessories, even though both standards use the USB-C standard for plugs and cables. If you've built up an ecosystem of Thunderbolt storage devices, for example, you won't be able to use them with the iPhone 15 Pro. You can use a Thunderbolt cable for general data transfer and charging, however.

Should you buy it?

After extensive testing, we can recommend the iPhone 15 Pro models as superb high-end phones. Both models have fast and long-lasting performance, excellent versatile cameras, beautiful 120Hz displays, great battery life, ultra-premium design and materials, and super-fast transfer speeds via USB 3. We wouldn't expect less for the $999 starting price. 

More than ever, the iPhone 15 Pro models are designed with video content professionals in mind, thanks to new features like AV1 decoding, USB 3 data transfer speeds, log video capture format, and ACES encoding.

The iPhone 15 Pro models are also the best iPhones for gaming thanks to the 120Hz ProMotion display and powerful A17 Pro processor. 

At the same time, the iPhone 15 Pro has every right to be in the hands of a casual iPhone user who has no plans on creating ultra-high-quality video content or playing power-hungry games, if any at all. The dedicated zoom camera, whether the iPhone 15 Pro's 3x or iPhone 15 Pro Max 5x, is reason enough for someone who often uses their current zoom cameras or wishes they had a zoom camera. 

I should note, however, that the base iPhone 15 models are the best we've seen in years, thanks to a couple of premium trickle-down features from the iPhone Pro series, like the Dynamic Island and 48MP main camera. The only glaring negative in the base iPhone 15 models is the outdated 60Hz display. The base iPhone 15 models also have a maximum storage option of 512GB, while the iPhone 15 Pro models can go up to 1TB. Otherwise, it's expected that the base iPhones have a dual-lens camera instead of a triple-lens camera, and that its USB-C port only supports slow USB 2 speeds.

With all this said, Apple is likely to announce new iPhones in September. If you can hold on until then, we'll see what Apple has in store for the iPhone 16 series, which might have worthwhile updates and upgrades. After Apple's WWDC event in June, the company has made it clear it's focusing on AI features in the upcoming iOS 18 operating system, and the next iPhone series will likely be built and specced with AI in mind to a higher degree than the iPhone 15 Pro models. However, the iPhone 15 Pros are also the only current iPhone models set to support Apple's AI features with the launch of iOS 18.

If carrier deals keep going the way they have been, you might be able to get the next iPhone Pro for a heavy discount, if not free, with typical carrier conditions, like staying on the carrier for two years. There's also a small chance the iPhone 15 Pros could receive a significant discount in September if Apple happens to keep the full iPhone 15 series in its lineup following the next iPhone launch, though it's more likely that they'll discontinue the previous-generation Pro phones and retain only the base iPhone 15 models, as they've done for the past several generations.

Overall, however, if you need a new iPhone now for any reason, you won't be dissatisfied with either of the iPhone 15 Pro models.