**iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max Review**

The iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max are two highly anticipated smartphones that promise to deliver significant improvements over their predecessors. In this review, we'll delve into the features, performance, and camera capabilities of these devices.

One of the most exciting features of the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max is the introduction of portrait mode. This feature allows you to change the focus after taking a photo, which can be a game-changer for parents who want to capture clear images of their kids without them being blurry. The feature also works in conjunction with Portrait mode, which lets you take regular photos and convert them into portraits with certain subjects. We put this feature to the test with our friend Beatrum, and it was a blast trying out different poses.

Another notable feature is the new lens coating on the 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max, which helps reduce light source reflections and lens flares. This is especially useful in low-light conditions or when using the telephoto camera. We took some night mode photos with string lights and a lamp inside a bar to test this feature, and while we did encounter some strange light streaks, they were minimal at best.

In terms of video recording, the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max deliver impressive results. The new log footage capabilities are particularly exciting for filmmakers and content creators who want to capture high-quality footage on their iPhones. We recorded a few videos in log mode and were impressed with the results. Additionally, the devices support full console games like Resident Evil Village, which looks phenomenal on the 15 Pro Max's screen.

The brain behind everything you do is the new A17 Pro chip, which powers these smartphones. The chip is responsible for delivering fast performance and efficient battery life. We tested the devices with some demanding apps and games, including Candy Crush, and were impressed with their performance. However, we also noticed that the devices can get hot during extended gaming sessions.

The iOS 17 operating system is a significant upgrade over its predecessors, with a cleaner interface, improved widgets, and custom stickers from photos and live photos. We love making custom stickers and using them to communicate with our friends and family. Autocorrect on the keyboard also works remarkably well for us, and we're no longer terrible at typing on our iPhones.

In terms of battery life, both devices performed impressively. The 15 Pro Max lasted throughout the day without any issues, and we were able to get through a full day with moderate use. When charging, the devices deliver fast speeds using the new USBC cables that come with the phone. We tested a 30-minute charge test with a 20-watt wall plug, and the iPhone 15 Pro went from four percent to 66 percent in just 30 minutes.

There are also some features that will be released later, such as spatial video and the Journal app, which we're excited to test. Overall, the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max are excellent smartphones that offer significant improvements over their predecessors. Whether you're upgrading from a 12 Pro or 12 Pro Max, or deciding between the pro and pro Max models, these devices are definitely worth considering.

**Final Thoughts**

If you like this review, give it a thumbs up and please subscribe to see more content like this. We'll be posting our full written review on CNET soon, so be sure to check that out as well.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthis is the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max and they are filled with improvements refinements and some significant additions like having a USBC port instead of lightning Apple gave the Pro Models a minor glow up with a refreshed lighter build new cameras including one with a longer zoom and support for console tier video games now I've reviewed and tested the iPhone for years but the iPhone 15 Pro Max is the first time I've been disenamored and at the time I'm recording this video I've been using the phones for three days and most of the time was spent with the 15 Pro Max but if you want to know more about either phone please check out my full written review on CNET so with all that out of the way let's Jump Right In thank you I'm here at the Cal Academy of Sciences and I thought this would be a great place to spend my first day with the iPhone 15 Pro 15 Pro Max test out the cameras get a feel for the phone and take a lot of photos of fish and dinosaurs let's get to it bone is one of the toughest materials known on the face of the Earth but one of the other toughest materials is titanium and that's what the new iPhone 15 pro and pro Max are made of the last three generations of Pro Models were made out of stainless steel and they felt very durable but they also felt very bulky this still feels as durable it feels like a solid piece but it's not as heavy there might be a lot of people who wouldn't want this big of a phone just to get that camera and I think it's a good trade-off with the lighter weight I think this looks really good I know people who are making fun of the fact that the 15 Pros colors really didn't have colors this titanium gray I think Apple calls it natural it looks slick this is going to sound odd but the volume buttons on these Pro Models feel a little different I don't know if it's a titanium or the redesigned interior they just got a little more pop to them it kind of reminds me of The Old Pro Models those volume buttons would be kind of like like those Nike Air shoes for the 90s versus like the ones today that have like that Crazy Foam in it that's what these are they're kind of like the foam soles on the sticker I was a big fan of the mute silent switch on previous iPhones in fact it largely has remained on all iPhone models up to now unchanged and this action button well it's curious on the action button there's a few ways you can tell that it's silencer switch one is if I tap I get a little message in the dynamic Island it let me know that I'm in silent mode and when I switch modes there's haptic feedback so I'm going to switch to ring there is a staccato vibration if I do it again to silent it's kind of like a wiggled vibration now the more if you use the phones The more I've discovered the action buttons potential I especially like having it open the camera which once it's open lets the action button double as a physical shutter button to take a photo but the fact that I can use the action button to trigger a shortcut multiplies the possibilities well to an extent I say that because the only way to change what the button does is to go into settings scroll down to the action button menu and change it there heck I I'd be happy with this even a control center button that's a shortcut into the action button menu but the action button isn't the biggest change that would actually be on the interior Apple said they redesigned the insides of the 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max to make them easier to repair so if the back glass is damaged it should be faster and more affordable to have it replaced and with that let's move on to the cameras because there's a lot to talk about Apple said that the 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max are the equivalent of having seven camera lenses in your pocket these photos were taken at the equivalent lens length of 13 millimeters 24 millimeters 28 millimeters 35 millimeters 48 millimeters and 120 millimeters and to switch between 24 28 and 35 I just tap the 1X magnification button and it changes to 1.2 times magnification 28 millimeters if I tap it again it goes to one and a half times magnification an equivalent of 35 millimeters it's a clever addition to Apple's camera interface and I like that it doesn't take up any more space because since 2020 the camera app has been getting a little crowded but let's get to the good stuff and look at some of my favorite photos and videos that I took with the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max oh man so if that wasn't enough to give you an idea just how versatile these cameras are don't worry I got you covered I decided to do a photo shoot with one of my favorite people to see just how different the iPhone 15 Pro's three times optical zoom is compared to the 15 Pro Max's five times optical zoom let's go start with the iPhone 15 Pro I'm going to use the telephoto camera to photograph a Brar this has the same three times optical zoom that we've seen on previous Pro Models I know I said that weird but trust me it works here we go great but what if I want to be farther away from my subject well that's where the iPhone 15 Pro Max comes in and it's five times optical zoom in fact in this scenario it allows me to be three feet farther away from a Brar so let's take a picture back here and look a little bit forward here there we go foreign one of the other neat features on these phones is now that they have a USBC Port that Port supports USB 3 speeds So eventually I'll be able to plug these phones into a computer and use software like capture one for Studio capture of live photos sadly it won't be out until later this year iPhone 15 Pro Max has a five times optical zoom camera and I thought it might be fun to compare it against the Google pixel 7 Pro which has a five times optical zoom camera and the Galaxy s23 Ultra that has a three times optical zoom and a 10 times optical zoom let's see what happens thank you now taking these photos challenged all three phones we had a cloudy sky and lots of fog but even with that the Galaxy s23 Ultra was at a disadvantage while the pixel 7 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max both have five times optical zoom in order for Samsung to match it I had to set it to five times digital zoom and well as you can see the results weren't great the pixel fared better but notice the detail in the trees looks muddy compared to what the iPhone grabbed now none of these photos are great but the iPhone snap is the best of the three but wait Samsung has something the other phones don't and that's a 10 times optical zoom it gets much closer but the quality isn't great but it does look better than the 15 Pros Max's 10 times digital Zoom also if you're like me and you're wondering what that building is it's the University of San Francisco but at the time I didn't know that so I used the iPhone's visual lookup tool to find out now while the iPhone did identify it as a landmark it couldn't actually tell me what it was in fact it shared a photo of the sayat tower in Iran so I hopped on my pixel use Google lens which gave me the correct answer portrait mode now lets you change the focus after the fact I mean check out my 90s grunge band style poses with my pal beatrum I can change the focus after I've taken the photo from me to him and this is gonna be a killer feature for parents then there's portraits and photo mode which lets you take a regular photo and change it to a portrait mode pick after the fact with certain subjects so here's a photo I took of KitKat the bodega cat in photo mode I can turn portrait mode on and adjust the aperture to keep his whiskers in focus and even apply portrait lighting effects I mean that's pretty cool also I'm happy to say that the new lens coating on the 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max help reduce light source Reflections on the whole if there is a reflection or lens flare it's minimal at best and usually just a single point but in night mode I did get some strange light streaking when using the five times telephoto camera on the 15 Pro Max like in this night mode photo with string lights and this one with a lamp inside a bar now I wonder if it has something to do with the prisms used for the lens but to be clear out of the hundreds of photos I've taken with these phones only a handful had these light streaks and in terms of video recording I'm going to keep this short because this video is already quite beefy video recordings look good and I'm very excited about being able to record in log and I can see using log for videos like this review that I'm doing as well as films where you're using multiple cameras from different brands the log footage looks flat when you record it but does give you a little more leeway to make the iPhone videos match the color with footage from other cameras that you use let's move on from the cameras to the new a17 Pro chip the brain behind everything you do and that's best shown off with video games and I'm not talking about Candy Crush the 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max support full console games like Resident Evil Village which I got to test well at least the beginning of it Resident Evil Village looks phenomenal on the 15 Pro Maxes screen especially in terms of lighting and shading in my time and through my casual Gamer's eyes I was impressed and it speaks volumes that games like this can come to the iPhone last if the a17 pro chip is the 15 Pros brains then iOS 17 is its Soul the new OS is filled with lots of small quality of life improvements all throughout standby mode has won me over I love being able to have my lock screen show widgets like the time or photos while it charges the interface is clean and contemporary and breathes new life into the iPhone I also love making custom stickers from photos and live photos and messages it makes communicating with my friends and my family even more expressive and very personal autocorrect on the keyboard works so well for me I'm usually horrible at phone typing which is shocking because I'm a phone reviewer but this new autocorrect just gets me and I don't even curse that much at the end of the day I am impressed with the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max I still have more tests to run for performance benchmarks and Battery which will be in my written review but in terms of battery life so far the 15 Pro Max has been making it through a day no problem on one day it started with a full battery at 7am and after a heavy day of use filming videos taking photos playing video games having the screen on at full brightness it was at seven percent at 10 pm also in terms of USBC and charging on the phones the only changes that I now plug in a USBC cable which comes with the phone instead of a lightning cable I mean it's largely the same charging speeds as prior iPhones which might be a little disappointing for some but in a 30 minute charge test the iPhone 15 Pro went from four percent to 66 with a 20 watt wall plug and the 15 Pro Max went from seven percent to 56 in the same time with the same plug now there are other features that will come out later to these phones like spatial video and the journal app which I am excited to test so should you upgrade well I recommend the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max for anyone coming from a 12 Pro 12 Pro Max or older and if you're trying to decide between the pro and the pro Max and that five times telephoto lens while it's extremely compelling if you don't take a lot of zoomed in photos it might be best to stick with the smaller Pro size last please make sure to check out my full written review on CNET if you like this video give it a thumbs up and please subscribe to see that thank you for watchingthis is the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max and they are filled with improvements refinements and some significant additions like having a USBC port instead of lightning Apple gave the Pro Models a minor glow up with a refreshed lighter build new cameras including one with a longer zoom and support for console tier video games now I've reviewed and tested the iPhone for years but the iPhone 15 Pro Max is the first time I've been disenamored and at the time I'm recording this video I've been using the phones for three days and most of the time was spent with the 15 Pro Max but if you want to know more about either phone please check out my full written review on CNET so with all that out of the way let's Jump Right In thank you I'm here at the Cal Academy of Sciences and I thought this would be a great place to spend my first day with the iPhone 15 Pro 15 Pro Max test out the cameras get a feel for the phone and take a lot of photos of fish and dinosaurs let's get to it bone is one of the toughest materials known on the face of the Earth but one of the other toughest materials is titanium and that's what the new iPhone 15 pro and pro Max are made of the last three generations of Pro Models were made out of stainless steel and they felt very durable but they also felt very bulky this still feels as durable it feels like a solid piece but it's not as heavy there might be a lot of people who wouldn't want this big of a phone just to get that camera and I think it's a good trade-off with the lighter weight I think this looks really good I know people who are making fun of the fact that the 15 Pros colors really didn't have colors this titanium gray I think Apple calls it natural it looks slick this is going to sound odd but the volume buttons on these Pro Models feel a little different I don't know if it's a titanium or the redesigned interior they just got a little more pop to them it kind of reminds me of The Old Pro Models those volume buttons would be kind of like like those Nike Air shoes for the 90s versus like the ones today that have like that Crazy Foam in it that's what these are they're kind of like the foam soles on the sticker I was a big fan of the mute silent switch on previous iPhones in fact it largely has remained on all iPhone models up to now unchanged and this action button well it's curious on the action button there's a few ways you can tell that it's silencer switch one is if I tap I get a little message in the dynamic Island it let me know that I'm in silent mode and when I switch modes there's haptic feedback so I'm going to switch to ring there is a staccato vibration if I do it again to silent it's kind of like a wiggled vibration now the more if you use the phones The more I've discovered the action buttons potential I especially like having it open the camera which once it's open lets the action button double as a physical shutter button to take a photo but the fact that I can use the action button to trigger a shortcut multiplies the possibilities well to an extent I say that because the only way to change what the button does is to go into settings scroll down to the action button menu and change it there heck I I'd be happy with this even a control center button that's a shortcut into the action button menu but the action button isn't the biggest change that would actually be on the interior Apple said they redesigned the insides of the 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max to make them easier to repair so if the back glass is damaged it should be faster and more affordable to have it replaced and with that let's move on to the cameras because there's a lot to talk about Apple said that the 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max are the equivalent of having seven camera lenses in your pocket these photos were taken at the equivalent lens length of 13 millimeters 24 millimeters 28 millimeters 35 millimeters 48 millimeters and 120 millimeters and to switch between 24 28 and 35 I just tap the 1X magnification button and it changes to 1.2 times magnification 28 millimeters if I tap it again it goes to one and a half times magnification an equivalent of 35 millimeters it's a clever addition to Apple's camera interface and I like that it doesn't take up any more space because since 2020 the camera app has been getting a little crowded but let's get to the good stuff and look at some of my favorite photos and videos that I took with the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max oh man so if that wasn't enough to give you an idea just how versatile these cameras are don't worry I got you covered I decided to do a photo shoot with one of my favorite people to see just how different the iPhone 15 Pro's three times optical zoom is compared to the 15 Pro Max's five times optical zoom let's go start with the iPhone 15 Pro I'm going to use the telephoto camera to photograph a Brar this has the same three times optical zoom that we've seen on previous Pro Models I know I said that weird but trust me it works here we go great but what if I want to be farther away from my subject well that's where the iPhone 15 Pro Max comes in and it's five times optical zoom in fact in this scenario it allows me to be three feet farther away from a Brar so let's take a picture back here and look a little bit forward here there we go foreign one of the other neat features on these phones is now that they have a USBC Port that Port supports USB 3 speeds So eventually I'll be able to plug these phones into a computer and use software like capture one for Studio capture of live photos sadly it won't be out until later this year iPhone 15 Pro Max has a five times optical zoom camera and I thought it might be fun to compare it against the Google pixel 7 Pro which has a five times optical zoom camera and the Galaxy s23 Ultra that has a three times optical zoom and a 10 times optical zoom let's see what happens thank you now taking these photos challenged all three phones we had a cloudy sky and lots of fog but even with that the Galaxy s23 Ultra was at a disadvantage while the pixel 7 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max both have five times optical zoom in order for Samsung to match it I had to set it to five times digital zoom and well as you can see the results weren't great the pixel fared better but notice the detail in the trees looks muddy compared to what the iPhone grabbed now none of these photos are great but the iPhone snap is the best of the three but wait Samsung has something the other phones don't and that's a 10 times optical zoom it gets much closer but the quality isn't great but it does look better than the 15 Pros Max's 10 times digital Zoom also if you're like me and you're wondering what that building is it's the University of San Francisco but at the time I didn't know that so I used the iPhone's visual lookup tool to find out now while the iPhone did identify it as a landmark it couldn't actually tell me what it was in fact it shared a photo of the sayat tower in Iran so I hopped on my pixel use Google lens which gave me the correct answer portrait mode now lets you change the focus after the fact I mean check out my 90s grunge band style poses with my pal beatrum I can change the focus after I've taken the photo from me to him and this is gonna be a killer feature for parents then there's portraits and photo mode which lets you take a regular photo and change it to a portrait mode pick after the fact with certain subjects so here's a photo I took of KitKat the bodega cat in photo mode I can turn portrait mode on and adjust the aperture to keep his whiskers in focus and even apply portrait lighting effects I mean that's pretty cool also I'm happy to say that the new lens coating on the 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max help reduce light source Reflections on the whole if there is a reflection or lens flare it's minimal at best and usually just a single point but in night mode I did get some strange light streaking when using the five times telephoto camera on the 15 Pro Max like in this night mode photo with string lights and this one with a lamp inside a bar now I wonder if it has something to do with the prisms used for the lens but to be clear out of the hundreds of photos I've taken with these phones only a handful had these light streaks and in terms of video recording I'm going to keep this short because this video is already quite beefy video recordings look good and I'm very excited about being able to record in log and I can see using log for videos like this review that I'm doing as well as films where you're using multiple cameras from different brands the log footage looks flat when you record it but does give you a little more leeway to make the iPhone videos match the color with footage from other cameras that you use let's move on from the cameras to the new a17 Pro chip the brain behind everything you do and that's best shown off with video games and I'm not talking about Candy Crush the 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max support full console games like Resident Evil Village which I got to test well at least the beginning of it Resident Evil Village looks phenomenal on the 15 Pro Maxes screen especially in terms of lighting and shading in my time and through my casual Gamer's eyes I was impressed and it speaks volumes that games like this can come to the iPhone last if the a17 pro chip is the 15 Pros brains then iOS 17 is its Soul the new OS is filled with lots of small quality of life improvements all throughout standby mode has won me over I love being able to have my lock screen show widgets like the time or photos while it charges the interface is clean and contemporary and breathes new life into the iPhone I also love making custom stickers from photos and live photos and messages it makes communicating with my friends and my family even more expressive and very personal autocorrect on the keyboard works so well for me I'm usually horrible at phone typing which is shocking because I'm a phone reviewer but this new autocorrect just gets me and I don't even curse that much at the end of the day I am impressed with the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max I still have more tests to run for performance benchmarks and Battery which will be in my written review but in terms of battery life so far the 15 Pro Max has been making it through a day no problem on one day it started with a full battery at 7am and after a heavy day of use filming videos taking photos playing video games having the screen on at full brightness it was at seven percent at 10 pm also in terms of USBC and charging on the phones the only changes that I now plug in a USBC cable which comes with the phone instead of a lightning cable I mean it's largely the same charging speeds as prior iPhones which might be a little disappointing for some but in a 30 minute charge test the iPhone 15 Pro went from four percent to 66 with a 20 watt wall plug and the 15 Pro Max went from seven percent to 56 in the same time with the same plug now there are other features that will come out later to these phones like spatial video and the journal app which I am excited to test so should you upgrade well I recommend the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max for anyone coming from a 12 Pro 12 Pro Max or older and if you're trying to decide between the pro and the pro Max and that five times telephoto lens while it's extremely compelling if you don't take a lot of zoomed in photos it might be best to stick with the smaller Pro size last please make sure to check out my full written review on CNET if you like this video give it a thumbs up and please subscribe to see that thank you for watching\n"