The first and foremost thing is that this phone has been in a case since the first day, I guess. So there are no scratches or any damage and it is actually in a pristine condition, just like the way my past iPhone was. So it’s not a big deal for me, but the thing is I don’t even like it outside the case either. What I mean by that is it might sound negative, but listen to this.
This phone is not as premium-feeling as my past iPhones. For example, the iPhone 11 felt premium and had much more heft of its own. The iPhone 15 Plus has a different kind of heft. I’m not even trying to compare it with the past iPhone Pro models like the iPhone 11 Pro or the iPhone 10S Max. I mean, those were much more premium with the stainless steel body. I’m comparing it with the iPhone 11 that lasted with me for like three years.
And I didn’t really like the in-hand feel of it. And I didn’t really like the whole body of it. But that doesn’t mean it is not premium. It is a heck of a premium-built phone. It’s just the fact that it doesn’t feel premium in my hand.
The other thing that I don’t really like and most companies are following that is flat sides. It is practical for sure, but too much of flatness in hand feel is not good. Even though it is enhanced compared to its previous models, thanks to the curved edges at the frame, but that doesn’t do everything. Because you know, if you love the curvy iPhone like the iPhone 6 to the iPhone 11 series, you’re not gonna love this. But it does look premium though, that’s for sure. Compared to those phones, this is one heck of a premium phone in terms of look.
But I also love the attention to details in iPhones. Like the USB-C port is also similarly colored as the whole phone outside. And the whole phone, the back texture is really unique and I love that thing. And it has like, you can’t even put a scratch on it. It’s just that good. But it also kind of feels like a toy. I mean, it’s fun though with these kind of vibrant colors. It is fun. It’s just not premium. That’s what I’m saying. But it’s fun.
The next is the camera bump. The camera sensors are quite a bit bigger. They’re not really that big, but they are actually quite big. They’re not as big as the Pro models for sure, but they are quite big. This is having a 1/1.56 inch sensor, so it’s really big. And you will feel it. Even if you use a case or not, you will feel it every single day, every single time. It’s something you’re gonna notice.
And I kind of really love that thing, you know. Because it kind of reminds me every single time that I have a phone that has really good cameras. It kind of makes me feel proud, I guess.
But what is the best thing in this phone is actually the display. It also kind of surprised me. It has 2000 nits peak brightness and I think in terms of brightness, it is very legible outside. And it stays on the peak brightness quite a bit of the time. But then again, it does exhibit the same behavior as many other flagship phones with this much brightness. Because at the end of the day, this high brightness for a long time will cause the phone to overheat and it will just lower down the brightness to an unusable level. So that’s something to keep in mind.
But even then, the brightness is so good that when I go outside, I don’t feel like I need more brightness than this. Heck, I would want 5000 nits, but that’s not the point. The point is whatever it is right now, it’s really good. The resolution, the colors, it’s an iPhone, so it’s always been great. And it is still the same thing on this phone, except the fact that it doesn’t have 120Hz refresh rate or even 90Hz for that matter, even at this freaking price, which is a shame. I’m not saying it is something that you really really need. I don’t really need it, even though I have most things with a high refresh rate except this iPhone. But I think people deserve it. That’s the thing. I said it the last time as well. I’m saying the same thing this time.
Another thing is that I feel a lot of eye strain while using this phone closely, which isn’t something that I get why that is the case. Maybe it’s the PWM that’s the reason why I’m getting it. But whenever I use this phone in the night at lower brightness, oh my god, I feel a lot of headaches. So that’s one thing to keep in mind. The next is bezels. The bezels are like really thin on this device. Even though I have a screen protector on, I have to disclaim that. Even though I have a screen protector on this device, so that might make it slightly few millimeters thicker, I guess, maybe here and there, but they’re even. But this phone has really thin bezels compared to my iPhone 11. I mean, it’s just so good. So if you’re coming from iPhone 11, you’re getting a big upgrade.
Now, I already told you about the whole feel of it, but one thing I haven’t talked about is actually at the bottom. You might be thinking I’m talking about the USB-C. No, not right now. It’s the speakers. The speakers on this phone are surprisingly amazing for, like, let’s say, a normal music playback or a video playback. It’s so good. And if you hold it in front, the stereo speaker setup actually works like magic.
Next, the charging, the battery life and the USB-C. The data transfer is slow for sure, but I don’t see that as a major con, because for me, whatever footage I take, I usually airdrop them. But if I do transfer them to my Windows computer, sometimes it is slow, but not by that much. I mean, how often are you transferring like a ProRes footage? It’s gonna take a heck of a lot longer. But other times, I don’t really care.
Now, the main question is, what do you actually shoot though? You actually have to have the free Blackmagic’s Pro camera application to shoot ProRes video.
That’s where you can actually shoot with ProRes Photo too. That’s what you can take ProRes HQ or LT footages. Pretty cool. But I will come back to the cameras later. The USB-C, as I said, it’s a USB-C and that’s what I love about it. I don’t really feel like I need more than this because this is the only reason I kept myself from buying any newer iPhones after iPhone 11.
I’m damn sure about that. The USB-C is the only reason why I switched to iPhone 15 series like immediately.
It’s a big relief from my side. I can charge it with any iPhone charger, Samsung chargers, or even Motorola chargers in our home lying around. It charges fairly quickly, if not the fastest one, but fairly quickly because I usually charge it between 30% to 80% or something like that because we have a new option in the iPhone 15s. It’s Apple’s thing that it is only available for the 15 series, but there is a software lock you can enable it in the settings, which will prevent the phone from charging over 80%.
Pretty good, sometimes it just forgets to do that, but that’s mostly once in a month, I guess.
But the battery is something that, oh my God. I’m just talking about the battery life, okay? I’m just talking about the battery life. I’m talking about the battery of 80% of the iPhone’s battery. And I’m talking about a battery life experience with only max 80%, so I’m using the 80% capacity of the whole battery and yet I am damn surprised by this battery life. It is so good that I have zero words to explain.
Now the overnight drains, sometimes it’s more, sometimes it’s less, but that doesn’t matter. Most of the time it’s fine. It’s maybe one percent drain or maybe not even, because it’s not showing, at least it’s not showing it in the indications at the very least. But the battery life when you’re using the phone at higher brightness outside, wow, the phone doesn’t heat up, the phone doesn’t just go bonkers, freeze with the battery. No, it just provides a huge, hugely long battery life.
I mean, I don’t know, I’ve been like, I can, if I’m going out somewhere, I know that I don’t have access to a charger, this is the phone I’m gonna use the most compared to my Samsung, even though the Samsung is actually probably a better phone than this one at the same price, but that’s a different thing. That’s for the video I already made. But I love this battery. I have to say it.
Now don’t confuse the thing that I have personally loved between a Samsung phone as well. Now don’t mix up the things that I love Samsung and Apple. I actually love all these three companies: Samsung, Google, Apple. I just use them in separate devices and I don’t really mix them like, oh yeah, I wanted this more than this. No, no, not like that way. I prefer one over another for sure, but I love both of them.
Now, another thing, the haptics. Well, I have to say it, haptics has been great on iPhones. It is still great on iPhones. I mean, sometimes in the night when the phone is on the table, it seems like someone is tapping on the table. It’s so damn good and so freaking powerful.
It is everywhere and you just love it.
Apple iPhone 15 Plus Dynamic Island and FaceID
Now before coming to the big thing, the cameras, I just want to touch on the other things, like the Dynamic Island. I kind of feel like it’s modern, it’s a different shape of an iPhone, so it’s the newer thing, but I feel like I don’t really have any use of it. And it does interrupt a lot while consuming most videos on the phone, unlike the notch of past iPhones. Not so annoying, but it’s there for sure.
It is just another gimmick and I’m clearly saying it. As much as it has the Face ID behind it or the selfie cameras and I appreciate that, but at the end of the day, the whole dynamic island thing is a marketing joke and nothing else. Sometimes it comes in handy and you have a small little thing over there, like someone is calling you or you’re playing music or something like that, but mostly when you have to touch it at the top, I mean, it’s irritating for sure. It messes up the front camera lens and it’s not that useful and it’s very slow to handle. It’s very slow to access the music too, like you have to tap and hold then swipe up. No, no.
But rather I have found out that the Face ID works from many different angles and from a much wider distance, it works. But it’s still not as good as a fingerprint scanner. So it has its own limitations, like when it’s lying down on the table, it’s really hard to use this one and I have to put the whole password that is 10 digits long. I mean, come on, think about that.
The other thing I have found out is that the calling is actually amazing on it. Nobody complained at all. Because there is a feature where if you turn it on, it will actually reduce all the background noise and only focus on your voice, so even if you’re playing something on a speaker somewhere and you’re talking to someone, they will only hear you, not something else. That is so elegant of a feature using the A15 and the A16 Bionic NPU. Really cool.
Now I have faced a few bugs here and there in the software, but mostly I can neglect them because they’re not that major bugs which close the applications. Sometimes locking and unlocking solves that, but it’s really tiny. I don’t even have footage of them, so just mentioning things. But if you are an iPhone user, you’re coming to an iPhone user, it’s not a big deal. But if you are an Android user coming to an iPhone, the interface might seem a little bit more restrictive and clunky at the same time, but it also feels kind of like a human design, very human design. What I mean by that is that everything is just where you want them to be, except a few things that are really annoying. But most things just kind of feel fine, so whether you have to access the camera easily, lock screen easily, notifications easily, or control center, it just feels so seamless and intuitive.
Now a lot of people might say, oh, it doesn’t have the action button which is really good. I don’t see myself ever using an action button, even because that button is very at the top and for a big phone like this, just accessing it is a pain. I can just imagine that. And I don’t really need anything for it. I don’t really need an action button to do anything. Rather, Apple should allow us to customize the power button to do something more than just locking and unlocking and doing the accessibility stuff. The double press, triple press, or press and hold should do more things than this. I wonder if Apple allows that. I mean, if Apple allows that, then it’s all great. I don’t really need an action button. I actually find the notch to be more satisfying and much cooler.
But this is the last year you’re gonna see this. Next year, it will also be an action button, so yeah
Apple iPhone 15 Plus Camera
The only thing remaining is the cameras. Now, I have a different kind of judgment on these cameras. Even though they are probably one of the best cameras at this price, they are not the best. Because at the same price, I got the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra, which has a much better camera system.
So when you talk about the zoom, the portrait photos, the portrait videos, or anything like that, it is so damn good. The iPhone, though not bad, is not as great as the Samsung. But then again, you might be thinking, well, I have only used Samsung phones. And then you might be thinking, well, I have only used iPhones, so is it good by iPhone standards?
Well, heck yeah, it’s so good. If you love the natural iPhone tone of photos, then it is so good. Like the 14MP photos. I have to say that the full 14MP photos don’t really have that much shutter lag and they take such good photos and so detailed photos even at 14MP resolution that they beat the ass off the 108MP photo of the Samsung.
It is so good, you can zoom in a lot in that photo. So for taking a very detailed photo, that’s the iPhone that I’m taking with.
But then you also have another thing, which is the 24MP by default mode. So that every photo, even though you might think that it is a lot heavier than the 12MP photos, they are actually not. They don’t take up that much space, barely like 1.2 times or something like that.
Compared to the 12MP photos. And they are way more detailed than any 12MP photos I have ever seen. And if you compare that with the 14MP photo, the difference between them isn’t that much. So if you’re thinking that’s better, right? Also, another thing is that if you switch to 14MP photo in the night and take a photo, well, you can’t really take a photo in 14MP resolution.
48MP resolution. By default, it will switch to a 12MP. Even without night mode. But if you switch to 24MP and take a photo in the night, it will still be 24MP even with night mode. So it’s a bit quirky thing you have to keep in mind.
Another thing is that with this 48MP resolution, there is also sensor crop. Which actually allows you to zoom in two times without losing any quality at 12MP resolution.
So you get a phantom telephoto camera for free.
But I find that in most situations, the iPhone photos kind of look a little more dull compared to the Samsung’s vibrant and brighter photos. I mean, whether that is good or not, that’s up to you, which one you prefer, but that’s a thing. But in broad daylight,
I found out that if you take photos of green nature, which I have more access to than anyone else, I guess, which is what I only have access to now,
It looks so good. And I don’t have any complaints regarding that.
But as I said, the human portrait photos are automatically captured by this iPhone. But sometimes it just doesn’t work. So you need to tap to focus on a human to capture portrait photos every single time without switching to portrait modes. That’s the thing. That’s a normal thing on this iPhone. Another thing I have found out is that you can’t really focus on a closer subject with this iPhone. And it is quite a bit bad on this phone. Here’s one example between a Samsung and an iPhone at a very close situation. I just can see it online. It just can’t really focus on that. Why is that the case? I just don’t know. But it also can’t do that same thing with the ultra wide angle lens and that’s the only reason why it doesn’t even have macro mode. I mean, it should have had a macro mode, but it just doesn’t have it. The pro models have it, but it doesn’t. It’s pretty bad.
The same way, the portrait cutouts are not great all the time. Sometimes if the background separation is already great, then yeah, it will do an amazing job. If the background is very close to the subject, it can’t really do that. And mostly because it doesn’t have the lidar sensors unlike the pro models. So that’s another thing because it’s using the depth mapping of the camera, not the lidar sensors. But the video quality is amazing. Now, I’m not gonna talk about the selfies too much because it’s just a good selfie camera and there is nothing great about it and it does the fantastic job like every other iPhone has been doing for a few generations now since iPhone 13. Great HDR capabilities. Great details and everything.
But I’m gonna talk about the videos now. In the videos department, you have a few great options. The first is that the normal video quality, the automatic video quality, is great. So great that I will pick this phone up every single time. I’m gonna shoot a video under any lighting conditions, whether it’s dark or bright, whether there is a lighter or darker environment. I just don’t care. This phone shoots amazing photos and videos even in night mode.
I’ve already seen the night mode capabilities of this phone which are amazing on this camera. A pitch black situation can become really bright. Sometimes it may miss the focus for sure, but it will just upscale and make the photos really really bright and lively. You’re gonna see that. So it’s pretty good. That’s why the video is also a winner on this one. Whether you zoom in 2x without losing any quality or at 1x, it’s so good. And there is the Blackmagic Camera app which actually allows you to shoot up to 4K HDR footages. So if you really want that customization or want the manual camera mode, then you have the Blackmagic Camera app. I shoot a lot of the footages on my channel using this phone. Some of them are actually from the Samsung, some of them are actually from the iPhone.
So just don’t hate another brand just because you love another brand. Now if you’re thinking about the raw photos, you can actually use another true camera application by a developer. I will show the app over here and this app actually allows you to do that. So in case you’re thinking you have to have these two free applications to get these features, you don’t have them natively but you have them as an option for free. So why complain, right?
Apple iPhone 15 Plus other stuffs
Now I will also have to talk a little bit about the storage and the software it comes with. It has a 120 gigabyte base model and that has been the case since iPhone 13, so it’s good. But it is a normal NVMe storage, so it’s not that fast. But I don’t see that causing any problems in my daily life.
And the same thing I can say about the RAM. It’s only 6 gigabytes, which is fairly good. I mean, I don’t really need more than 6 gigabytes on this phone. But yeah, Apple could have provided 8 gigabytes for future-proofing. I don’t know. I haven’t faced any RAM problems or anything like that, so I don’t see why people complain. I don’t see my apps reloading every other time, so I don’t complain at all.
Now the last thing I want to mention is that this phone is going to get so many software updates. It’s currently running on the latest software, but I’m just going to tell you this. I don’t believe in updating to the major software versions. I don’t like updating my phone with the major software because that actually reduces the overall battery quality.
Now here’s a simple thing. I am not going to upgrade this phone to iOS 18. Yes, I’m going to keep it on the stock firmware. The only thing that I care about is actually the security updates, not the major updates. Because the major updates don’t really bring that much features, but they create more problems in the phone. Like they bring in a lot of bugs, sometimes they make the phone lag, sometimes they put a lot more pressure on the CPU and I don’t really like that. Sometimes the phone feels slow, sometimes I see a battery degradation. I just don’t really want those hassles, so I’m going to keep this phone as stock as possible. As stock as it came and that’s what I’m going to keep and I’m going to stay happy with this phone.
So with these few complaints, I don’t have any major complaints regarding this phone’s everyday use cases. And it’s also a great phone for many, but maybe not the best phone for the price it’s currently selling at. Maybe next year with more discounts, it will become a greater choice.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any organization or entity. This article has not been reviewed by a human editor and may contain errors or inaccuracies. The author has used online editing tools to improve the quality of the article, but does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness. Readers are advised to exercise their own judgment and discretion when reading this article.
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