Almost a week ago, Apple held its Fall 2023 Wanderlust event showcasing the Apple Watches Series 9 and Ultra 2 and the iPhones 15, 15 Plus, 15 Pro, and 15 Pro Max. More importantly, they came sporting some updated Silicon and features that could lead to some great enhancements for the Apple ecosystem. Let’s take a look.
Apple Watch
Apple released the Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2. Externally, there’s not much difference save the color options and the addition of double-tap controls. The screens are brighter, but the feature set remains mostly the same. The biggest change is the S9 SIP, which after 3 years of using the Thunder cores, is moving on to newer generation efficiency cores. There’s also a newer generation GPU and a 4-core neural engine that allows for on-device Siri. Considering that the S-series chips are used in the current generation HomePods, it would not surprise me if the S9 showed up in a future HomePod or HomePod mini Variant or even a new AppleTV or Apple Smart Display. The S9 also uncles the UWB2 chip for better precision locating.
iPhone 15
Ever want an iPhone 14 Pro with one less camera but at a more affordable price, aluminum case, and USB-C? Well, that’s basically what the iPhone 15 is. Same A16 chip, the same 48MP main sensor, same basically everything. There’s even a 2x zoom function via trickery from the 48MP sensor. There’s also the dynamic island. The star of the show is a USB-C 2.0 port. It's not going to be faster than Lightning, but it uses a cheaper, more common cable. There’s also bi-directional USB-C charging for your iPhone to charge other devices, like the newly USB-C-equipped AirPods Pro 2. There’s also a huge USB-C accessory market from the Android world. This is not like the transition from 30-pin to Lightning. Everything is already established. For the gamers, Backbone, Razer, Rotor Riot, and GameSir have already announced firmware updates to for iPhone capability on their USB-C controllers.
If you’re up for an upgrade from a standard iPhone or even an older Pro with the new telephoto zoom mode, you can get a world-class iPhone for less this time around.
iPhone 15 Pro (Max)
I’m going to start off by saying that I’m separating the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max from the A17Pro chip. I think the latter deserves not only its own section but its own article. That said, the rest of the phone is no slouch. The biggest difference is the phone itself. Stainless steel is gone with Titanium replacing it. Not only is titanium physically lighter, but the strength of the alloy Apple is using allows them to shift the weight distribution of the phone around making it feel even lighter than it is. Considering how heavy the current steel pro phones can be, especially the Max, this is a very welcome addition. When being used in continuity camera, my current iPhone 12 Pro Max will drag down my Macbook’s display requiring me to prop it out with something behind it. My personal hope is that the weight difference is enough that I will no longer have to do this. The rounded corners make it more comfortable to hold as well. It’s also got a much brighter 2000nit peak screen making it much easier to see on a sunny summer day.
The first key point of this year’s pro phones is the action button replacing the mute switch. While it has its fan base, a lot of us rarely use this switch and were hoping for a programable button and control center mute controls. We got our wish. It can not only do some preconfigured Apple actions, like launching the camera or bringing up the translate function, but it can also trigger shortcuts for nearly limitless options for what this button can do. The one downside, so far, is that it only has single press capability. Double, or even triple-click options would make this even more powerful. For those who don’t want to change it, it's set to mute as default.
Then there’s USB-C. On the iPhone 15, it’s USB 2.0 speeds, and honestly, it’s there you can share a cable with your other modern Apple, and everything else, devices. The Pro models include USB 3.0 speeds so this changes everything. For the first time, an iPhone can record video in real life to an external device and can drive a 4k display. Between SoC power and I/O, the iPhone 15 Pro could probably pretty comfortably run macOS if Apple really wanted it to if hooked up to a USB-C. This is by far the most capable mobile device any company has ever produced. I/O is rounded out by a Thread ratio for smart devices, the 2nd gen UWB chip, and Wi-Fi 6E.
The most pro part of this phone may be the camera. The man camera brings back the 48mp main lens with the telephoto, ultra-wide, and true depth front camera all being 12mp. The Pro has a 3x zoom while the Pro Max uses its expanded space for 5x. The main photo now shoots in by default in 24mp instead of 12 with 48MP full-size images available in ProRAW and now HEIF. The main sensor can also mimic different focal lengths and portrait data is automatically taken for retroactive portrait mode. ProRes video can also now be shot at 4k60 and in ACES color workflow. If that wasn’t enough, it can use the main and ultra-wide lenses in combination to shoot spatial video for use in visionOS once the Vision Pro comes out.
If Apple had given the 15 Pro and Pro Max the Ultra moniker, it would have been warranted this year. However, I have a feeling that will be saved for something truly special.
Accessories and the Environment
Apple has always been a company that has been environmentally conscience. At least as long as I can remember. They used a surprisingly long portion of the keynote to address this. In addition to the usual push to carbon neutral and recycled materials, Apple announced its discontinuation of leather as a material. It has been replaced by what Apple is calling FineWoven. However, if you still want the animal hides, Hermes and other third parties will still offer it. You just can’t get leather with an Apple logo.
That’s a not-so-quick rundown of everything announced. Next up will be the A17 Pro and how this chip could be crucial to Apple’s plans.
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