iPhone 15 Plus Review – A Reboot

After settling with my iPhone 15 Pro Max review, I was pretty eager to get my hands on the iPhone 15 Plus device. It perfectly sits between my previous iPhone 14 Pro and the iPhone 15 Pro Max that I just gave a spin to. Before you jump to conclusions and claim that it’s just another iPhone 14 Pro, hear me out.

Unboxing the iPhone 15 Plus

Inside the iPhone 15 Plus, you get the iPhone 15 Plus device itself, a USB Type-C to Type-C cable, user guides, a SIM ejector, and the Apple sticker. I’m not sure if the unboxing sensation will ever change for the iPhone, but it is what it is for now. Let’s get going.

Specifications

CPU	Apple A16 Bionic 2 x performance cores (Everest) up to 3.46GHz 4 x efficiency cores (Sawtooth) up to 2.02GHz 4nm TSMC 16-core Neural Engine
GPU	5-core GPU
Memory	6GB LPDDR5 DRAM
Storage	up to 512GB NVMe
Display	6.7″ 2796 x 1290 (460 ppi) Super Retina XDR 60Hz OLED with Dolby Vision, 19.5:9 ratio HDR10, True Tone, Dynamic Island, P3, 1000 nits (typical), 1600 nits (HDR), 2000 nits max brightness
Audio	Spatial audio playback with stereo speakers
Camera	48 MP, f/1.6, 26mm (wide), 1/1.56″, 1.0µm, dual pixel PDAF, sensor-shift OIS 12MP 2x Telephoto (enabled by quad-pixel sensor): 52 mm, ƒ/1.6 aperture, sensor-shift optical image stabilisation, 100% Focus Pixels Stills: Night mode, Deep Fusion, Photonic Engine, Smart HDR5, Portraits with Focus and Depth Control, 63MP Panorama, Advanced red-eye correction, Burst mode Video: Up to 4K60 HDR video with Dolby Vision, 4K60, 4K30 HDR Cinematic mode, 2.8K60 Action Mode, 1080p240 Slo-mo, Time-lapse with stabilization, Digital zoom up to 6x, True Tone Flash, Continuous auto-focus video
Selfie Camera	12 MP, f/1.9, 23mm (wide), 1/3.6″, PDAF TrueDepth camera Stills: Portrait with Focus and Depth Control, Portrait Lighting, Animoji & Memoji, Deep Fusion, Photonic Engine, Retina Flash, Smart HDR 5, Photographic styles Video: Up to 4K60 HDR video with Dolby Vision, 4K30 HDR Cinematic mode with zoom, 1080p120 slow-mo, Retina Flash
Connectivity	WiFi 802.11ax, WiFi 6 with 2×2 MIMO Bluetooth 5.3 NFC with reader mode Ultra Wideband chip (2nd Gen) 5G NR sub-6GHz with 4×4 MIMO (Bands n1, n2, n3, n5, n7, n8, n12, n20, n25, n26, n28, n29, n30, n38, n40, n41, n48, n53, n66, n70, n77, n78, n79) FDD-LTE Bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 28, 30, 32, 66) USB Type-C 2.0, DP
Software	iOS 17.0.3
Battery	Li-ion 4383mAH 20W charging 15W MagSafe wireless charging, 7.5W Qi wireless charging
Dimensions	160.9 x 77.8 x 7.80 mm
Weight	201g
Ingress Protection	IP68 (max depth of 6m up to 30 mins) under IEC standard 60529

Performance

The iPhone 15 Plus comes equipped with the Apple A16 Bionic chip, which I believe might be the final version, given that the iPhone 15 Pro Max has transitioned to the A17 Pro chip naming. This chip boasts a 6-core CPU, split between 2 high-performance cores and 4 power-efficient ones. The dedicated 5-core GPU handles graphics, while a 16-core Neural Engine drives its AI capabilities. Sounds pretty similar to the chip in the iPhone 14 Pro, doesn’t it? Time to see how it performs in real-world tests.

Kicking things off with our standard Geekbench test. Though it may seem like the same A16 Bionic chip found in the iPhone 14 Pro, the scores tell a different story. It’s now ranking second on our list for both single and multi-core metrics. If the gap was just a mere 100-200 points, we might’ve chalked it up to Apple’s oversight. But with such a pronounced difference, that’s certainly not the case here.

Next up is the Antutu v9, and things just got a lot more intriguing. The absence of the iPhone 14 Pro on the chart? It’s because it scored below 1 million and sits much lower on the list. One clear takeaway is that Apple, despite reusing the chip from its predecessor, didn’t merely transplant it without further tweaks. The device’s optimization is evident in these results, and trust me, its impressive performance shines through in day-to-day use as well.