Why the iPhone 15 is a Better Buy Over the iPhone 15 Pro in India

While for most people the iPhone 15 Pro Max and its smaller Pro sibling were the stars of the Wanderlust Apple event, I'm hedging my bets towards the standard iPhone 15 model which to me is the better and bigger iPhone announcement. Here's why:

1. They are much cheaper. And not just by a bit - but a country mile in India. The iPhone 15 starts at Rs 79,990 while the iPhone 15 Pro starts at Rs 134,990 and the Pro Max starts at Rs 159,990. The iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus haven't seen a price hike while the Pro model sees a Rs 5,000 price bump and the Pro Max sees a Rs 10,000 price bump. In India, price always matters and this game favours the standard iPhone 15 models.

2. The display is now 2 times brighter. It also gets the dynamic island so if you have the phone in a case no one will be able to tell if your phone is the iPhone 15 Pro or iPhone 14 Pro. The display going up to 2000 nits is a big deal which makes it so much more usable. This is a higher brightness level than even the Xiaomi 13 Pro or Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra.

3. Apple is using an all-new 48-megapixel sensor for the primary camera. So you are not getting iPhone 14 Pro hand-me-downs. It has a 26mm focal length and is married to the 2nd generation sensor shift stabilisation system. There is a wide f/1.6 aperture. Apple has updated the photonic engine pipeline and the smart HDR. It now defaults at 24-megapixels but 48-megapixel shots can also be taken. Apple has dramatically improved portrait mode which now engages automatically and you can just point and shoot and change a photo to a portrait in post. You can change the depth and focus as well. The portrait mode now works with zero shutter lag, detects pets, and just works better. The night time portraits are even better as is night photography. You also get a 2x lossless zoom thanks to the 48-megapixel camera just like on the iPhone 14 Pro Max.

4. USB-C connectivity is the big talking point of the iPhone 15 and while on the standard models it is restricted to USB 2 speeds, now you can use the one cable to rule them all. It also gets better satellite phone connectivity and the 2nd generation ultra wide band chip for better location tracking. Call quality is also going to be improved using the new AI-based noise cancellation technique that Apple has now baked into the iPhone 15.

5. The subtle design changes are very neat on the iPhone 15. The edges are not as sharp and neatly bevelled and the back doesn’t have the smudge magnet of a gloss finish but gets a classier matte finish. The colours are very nice as well — black, mint blue, mint green, pink and yellow.

Sure these are not game-changing feature updates, and many features have been seen before on Android smartphones. The A16 bionic chip also means that this phone remains faster than all Android phones in the market which speaks volumes of how far ahead Apple is on the silicon side of things and how well its vertical integration works. When all things are accounted for this makes the iPhone 15 a more relevant update than the iPhone 15 Pro models or even say an older iPhone 14 Pro.