8 Major Changes that the iPhone 15 Series may Have

The Charging Port will be Changed to USD-C

The European Union has passed a bill: All electronic products must use USB-C charging ports in order to be sold in Europe in 2024.

This bill forced Apple to change the charging port of iPhones sold in the EU to USB-C in the future. We think it is impossible for Apple to use two sets of molds for one product line. Therefore, it is very likely that all national versions of the iPhone 15 will be compatible with the USB-C charging port.

Benefit

1. The charging cable becomes universal. Now, most electronic products use USB-C charging ports. If the iPhone is also changed to USB-C charging port, one charging cable will be suitable for most devices in the future.

2. The charging speed will increase. Due to the limitations of the hardware itself, it is difficult to continue to increase the charging speed of the commonly used Apple Lightening charging head. After supporting the USB-C charging port, the iPhone will be able to reach the charging speed of most Android phones.

3. Data transmission speed will be improved. After the interface is changed to USB-C, the Thunderbolt 3 protocol will be supported. This will greatly increase the data transfer speed. Photos and videos in ProRes RAW format in the iPhone can be transferred to the computer faster through the data cable.

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At present, in Apple's products, both MacBook and iPad already support USB-C interface. However, the current AirPods series still uses the lightening interface. If Apple wants to continue selling AirPods in Europe, it will also have to use USB-C in the future.

Rounder Frame

On the iPhone 12, Apple changed the original arc-shaped frame to the same straight frame as the iPhone 4.

Some people think this design is more beautiful. But it is undeniable that the grip of the right-angle frame is far inferior to that of the curved frame. The reason why Apple has to do this is that it needs to be compatible with ceramic shield that cannot be made into curved surfaces.

The iPhone 15 is expected to adopt a half-right-angle, half-curved frame design. This will greatly improve the grip of the phone. Since the ceramic shield cannot be made into the shape of the previous 2.5D glass, the metal frame may cover more of the back of the phone.

Use Fixed Buttons

Some analysts broke the news that the volume buttons and power button of the iPhone 15 will become unpressable.

The new volume buttons and power button are just bumps on the phone's bezel. Apple will add two new Taptic Engines to the iPhone 15 to simulate the tactile feedback of pressing these buttons.

Benefit

Fixed buttons eliminate the gap between the button and the bezel. This could further improve the iPhone's water resistance. In addition, this design can also avoid mechanical failure of physical keys after long-term use. However, this design also poses new challenges to how to deal with the device crash.

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This similar design has already appeared in the home button of the iPhone 7 and the touchpad of the MacBook.

Periscope Lens (Only for Pro Series)

Some rumors suggest that the iPhone 15 Pro series will add a set of periscope lenses. Thus further widening the gap with the non-Pro series.

The principle of the periscope lens is shown on the right. This structure uses a prism to reflect light. This design allows the lens group to spread out horizontally, making it possible to use a zoom lens on a phone that is much thinner than a camera.

Benefit

Periscope lenses are already widely used in Android phones. Its advantage is that it can achieve 3~10 times optical zoom. No loss of quality when zooming in and out.

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As nice as the periscope lens looks, we think it's unlikely the iPhone 15 will adopt it. Due to the limitations of the thickness of the phone, the sensor of the periscope lens tends to be smaller. The picture quality may not meet Apple's requirements. However, it is not ruled out that Apple will use a double triangular prism structure to increase the area of the sensor.

iPhone 15 Pro Max will be renamed iPhone 15 Ultra

According to sources, the iPhone 15 Pro Max is likely to be renamed the iPhone 15 Ultra. At the same time, the gap between it and the iPhone 15 Pro will be even greater.

In addition to adding a periscope lens, the frame of the iPhone 15 Ultra will be made of titanium. This material is very strong, and at the same time can effectively reduce the weight of the mobile phone.

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Last year, Apple already adopted titanium alloy metal on the Apple Watch Ultra. So we think that the iPhone 15 Ultra is likely to be made of titanium.

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There have also been cases in the past where there were functional differences between small and large screen phones. For example, the iPhone 6 Plus has optical image stabilization compared to the iPhone 6, and the iPhone 12 Pro Max has sensor-shift optical image stabilization compared to the iPhone 12 Pro. Still, the appearance of the two models differs only in size.

All Models Use Dynamic Island

Dynamic Island is considered to be a very innovative design of Apple. We think iPhone 15 will use Dynamic Island on all models.

First of all, in terms of hardware, it is inefficient to use two sets of screen molds.

Secondly, in terms of software, it is unreasonable to use two sets of interaction logic at the same time.

We believe that Apple will uniformly use the interactive logic of the Dynamic Island in the future, and allowing more devices to use the Dynamic Island will also encourage developers to develop more features of the Dynamic Island.

A17 Chip Adopts 3nm Process.

The A17 chip is likely to adopt TSMC's latest 3nm process.

Compared with the A16 chip, its performance can be improved by 10% to 15%, and its power consumption can be reduced by 30%.

Lower power consumption will allow the iPhone to last longer. At the same time, it solves the problem of heating and frequency reduction of mobile phones.

The Running Memory will be Upgraded from 6GB to 8GB

The iPhone 15 may increase the running memory from 6GB to 8GB.

On the one hand, this may be to better support periscope lenses.

On the other hand, today's apps consume more and more memory when they are running. Even iPhones often experience frequent background clearing.

Many Android phones now have 12GB or even 16GB of memory. Even though Apple has managed memory more efficiently, the current 6GB is becoming less and less enough.

According to past experience, Apple may first adopt 8GB of memory on the Pro series. The use of 8GB of memory in the non-Pro series may have to wait until the iPhone 16.