Apple's iPhone 15 is here, along with upgraded Apple Watches

September 13, 2023

IN THIS ISSUE

📱 Apple unveils iPhone 15 Pro with titanium body and USB-C

📱 iPhone 15 gets the Dynamic Island and a new camera

⌚️ Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 see minor changes

🍏 How to watch Apple's 'Wonderlust' event if you missed it

UP FIRST

Apple unveils iPhone 15 Pro with titanium body and USB-C

The iPhone Pro 15 comes with a slew of improvements, including a faster processor and a lighter weight

Apple held its big fall event on Tuesday, called Wonderlust.

Presented as a live stream, CEO Tim Cook and his team took the wraps off a number of products, including the latest versions of its highly anticipated flagship phones.

The top-end iPhone 15 Pro and larger Pro Max are now significantly lighter than their predecessors thanks to their titanium bodies, which replace the stainless steel ones seen with earlier models.

The new Pro phones also feature slightly smaller bezels, rounder edges, and a new gray color called “natural titanium.” Other options include titanium blue, white, and black. The Max comes with a new 5x optical zoom lens as part of the camera setup.

The mute switch is gone, replaced by a new action button that can be configured for a range of uses, and this is the first iPhone to feature a USB-C port in place of the Lightning port – a move prompted by a new EU rule.

But there's also something notable about the new iPhone 15 Pro that Apple failed to mention on Tuesday ...

iPHONE 15

iPhone 15 gets the Dynamic Island, new camera

Opt for the iPhone 15 and you'll have five colors to choose from

Apple also unveiled the more wallet-friendly versions of its smartphone, the 6.1-inch iPhone 15 and 6.7-inch iPhone 15 Plus.

The first thing you’ll notice is the addition of the Dynamic Island, which first appeared with last year's iPhone Pro and replaces the notch. Housing tech like the camera and FaceID sensors, the pill-shaped Dynamic Island transforms its shape when delivering snippets of useful information. It hasn't taken off in the way Apple had hoped, but now that additional iPhones have it, app developers will hopefully start taking more of an interest in it.

The iPhone 15 also gets a new 48-megapixel main camera for a 24-megapixel output or 12-megapixel crops, and a new portrait mode that enables automatically.

As with the Pro devices, the Lightning port has been replaced by USB-C – this article is worth a look to find out exactly what that means for iPhone 15 owners ...

APPLE WATCH

Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 sees minor changes

The new smartwatches look the same but see improvements under the hood

While the Apple Watch Series 9 may seem like a fairly minor upgrade over its predecessor, especially with its familiar design and similar health-tracking features, the real notable improvement is its new S9 chip that Apple claims is 30% faster than the previous-gen processor.

Additionally, the screen now dims to just 1 nit in brightness to save battery with the optional always-on display and also brightens to up to 2,000 nits – double that of the Series 8.

Apple has also updated the chunkier, pricier, and more feature-rich Ultra 2 smartwatch. It gets the same S9 chip as the Series 9, and also receives Apple’s new U2 chip for ultra-wideband (UWB) communications, allowing the wearer to locate their AirTags, AirPods, and iPhone more precisely than before.

It also gets an even brighter 3,000 nits display – up from 2,000 – but disappointingly sees no improvement in battery life, which remains at 36 hours during regular usage ...

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

How to watch Apple's 'Wonderlust' event if you missed it

Apple stuck with its post-pandemic routine of using a slickly produced video to launch the new gear

Apple’s video presentation lasted just over 83 minutes. It streamed live across a range of platforms on Tuesday before being added to its YouTube channel for on-demand viewing.

Having already received tens of millions of views, it’s fair to say there’s quite a bit of interest in the tech giant’s new iPhones.

But the presentation wasn’t all about its latest handset. It also introduced the Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 and offered an update on the company’s efforts to ease its impact on the environment, among other news. If you’ve not watched the stream and have the time and desire to do so, then you can find it on Apple’s YouTube channel.

The company also dropped a bunch of shorter videos – some of them taken from its main presentation – for an easier viewing experience ...

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