Iphone 15 vs Iphone 15 pro | Which should you choose?

The Price Difference

The price of these handsets may vary depending on your phone supplier, whether you purchased the phone outright or using a contract deal which allows you to purchase the phone on finance.

However, if you are to purchase the phone outright there is a £350 price difference. When we looked at contracts with Tesco Mobile, there was a £10 difference per month on contract (for identical services and storage).

In total, based on prices on the Apple website, the iPhone 15 will cost £1,069.87 ($1299) and the iPhone Pro at £1358.13 (£16949).

Is the iPhone Pro worth it? We going to look into this in more detail.

Size and Materials

There are very slight differences in the size and casing of the iPhone 15 and 15pro, however, neither of them make very much difference to the user.

Both have Super Retina XDR display1 which is 6.1 inches is size and while the 15 pro is very slightly smaller (Height 146.6mm - Width 70.6mm) compared to the standard 15 (Height 147.6mm - Width 71.6mm), the size difference makes very little difference to the way the phones handle and feel. If anything, the Pro feels slightly heavier than the standard 15 handset.

There is a difference in the casings too, with the iPhone 15 is made from Aerospace-grade aluminium while the 15pro is produced using Aerospace-grade titanium. The 15 has several more colour options, while the Pro only currently has two.

Both are waterproof up to 6m for 30 minutes and have identical glass scenes.

In reality, these differences are extremely small, and most people will apply a case and screen protector. In both cases, most users will not find any benefit in the upgraded phone in terms of the size or technology used to create the 15pro.

Chip and Processing Speed

One major advantage that the 15pro has over the 15 is its processing power, and ability to handle significantly more load on its CPU. This is very handy if you're regularly taking high-quality videos and images, and uploading them for work or play.

The iPhone 15 contains an A16 Bionic chip which with a 6-core CPU, 5-core GPU
and a 16-core Neural Engine. The 15pro contains a A17 Pro chip, 6-core CPU, 6-core GPU and the same 16-core Neural Engine.

Apple claims that there is a 20% increase in speed with the new A17 Pro chip. They also claim that the high-performance cores are 10% faster, they have wider decide and execution engines, and their processors are 3x more energy efficient than previous models. Apple claims that the Pro has 20x faster transfers compared to the standard 15.

This all counts to making the phone faster, and more powerful and extending the battery life just a fraction more.

If you care about the minutiae of technical performance, then you'll be impressed by the upgrade. But on a daily basis, the speed will not make that much difference for everyday users.

When using the phones, there is a notable difference in the speed in which the phone performs actions (like loading up apps) and the experience of scrolling through social media is almost seamless.

The iPhone Pro really comes into its own with high-performance usage. Its ability to take HD videos and photos is amazing, and these actions do not drain the battery as much as previous models.

So, if you are going to be using the phone intensely, then the Pro upgrade may be worth the extra money.

Battery Life & Storage

Another perk you'll enjoy with the iPhone 15 pro is its extended battery life and the potential of a 1 terabyte storage capacity (both handsets come with128GB
256GB & 512GB storage facility as standard).
Apple claims that on average the 15 Pro can out-perform the iPhone 15 by three hours during video playback. That is quite a significant difference.

We have not yet been able to fully test this and compare the two phones from fully charged but anecdotally there is a difference in how long it takes to both charge and run down the battery on either phone.

The real test, however, will be in 2 or 3 years time. Apple is known for the rate at which their handsets depreciate, specifically the phone's battery life and charging connection. Whether the 15pro will retain its 3-hour lead on the 15 will take a few years to know for sure.

The Camera (the biggest difference)

By far, the biggest, and most obvious difference, is the iPhone 15 pro's camera. It is not only visibly different but also different in terms of the way it performs.

Let's start with the camera for the iPhone 15. It has an Advanced dual-camera system with a 48MP Ultra Wide capacity and the ability to take Super-high-resolution 24MP and 48MP photos. Each has the newest version of the Apple portrait photo technology with smart focus and depth control.

The camera can only zoom up to 2x, which is very similar to the previous iPhone models.

The pro, very obviously, has three camera points which hugely extend the zoom to 5x. The website does quote 3x zoom, but the handset does go 5x on it's settings. Otherwise, the iPhone Pro 5 uses Telephoto technology yet identical specifications.

In terms of the video, the pro has several other features that the standard 15 does not have. This includes the ProMotion technology with adaptive refresh rates up to 120Hz (brings the subject closer), ProRes video recording up to 4K at 60 fps with external recording,Log video recording, Academy Color Encoding System and Macro video recording (which includes) slow motion, time‑lapse and a suite of video editing tools (colour correction and effects etc..).

Unless you're a professional user of the video function, these are unlikely to make a huge difference to your experience.
To compare the two, the quality of the photos is quite obvious. The iPhone Pro clearly has a significantly better camera and takes much clearer, more colourful photos. Below is the same leaf, but photographed by the two different phones.