Recently, I wrote about my struggles with my iPhone 15 Pro. Long story short, battery issues and a cracked display led to a leaking battery. After a trip to the Apple Store, I now have a new iPhone 15 Pro and more thoughts.
Better, but not great
It's hard to truly put into words how bad the battery of my old iPhone 15 Pro was. Every little aspect of operating the device would create a thermal hotspot in my pocket. I would go hours on end without ever touching the device, then pick it up at the end of the day or before a commute, and it would have dropped 40%. Miraculously, the settings showed nothing, and the maximum charge was still listed at above 85%.
Flipping over to the new iPhone, things are certainly better. Battery life is a lot better; I can get through the entire day without needing to charge, though I still end up charging occasionally. Part of that may be PTSD from the old 15 Pro.
I'm still having very spotty cell‑phone reception, and the phone still gets very warm, which I truly think is a design flaw in either the 15 Pro or a characteristic of the titanium iPhones. I remember when the 15 Pro was announced and released, a software update was shortly released to address some of the overheating concerns. I haven't had any overheating when charging in my car like I used to with the old 15 Pro, but the phone does certainly get warm.
Other things I noticed
Going from iPhone 15 Pro to iPhone 12 Pro and then back to iPhone 15 Pro is an interesting experience. I wrote about it in my iPhone 15 Pro review, but switching from a high‑refresh‑rate ProMotion display to a device that lacks it as a daily driver is very difficult. It’s one of the first times I’ve truly understood what MKBHD was talking about.
Another thing I didn’t expect to care about as much was the Lightning charging situation. Over the last three years, I have slowly but surely eliminated Lightning from my life, except for my Magic Trackpad, and having to rework everything around that, especially with One Thirteen development stuff, was tricky.
Lastly, the most unthought‑of thing in the world: MagSafe. The magnets on iPhone 12 Pro, where MagSafe was first introduced, are truly terrible. For a company like Apple, where haptics and magnets are normally pretty solid, iPhone 12 Pro really struggles with MagSafe chargers and wallets. iPhone 15 Pro, on the other hand, has legit magnets. My MagSafe wallet doesn’t move at all on a MagSafe charger, even without a MagSafe‑compatible case.
It really makes you appreciate all of the smaller refinements year over year. You don’t notice them if you upgrade every single year, but if you’re like me and upgrade every two to three years, those small updates really compound by the time the device reaches your hand.
Where this leaves iPhone 15 Pro
My plans for iPhone 15 Pro have always been fairly simple. I'd like to pursue iPhone filmmaking, and the camera system on iPhone 15 Pro is pretty solid and more than capable of producing high‑quality video. I recently decided not to pursue iPhone filmmaking, and that was solely because my original iPhone 15 Pro was defective and unsafe for use.
Now, with my new iPhone 15 Pro that is free of any issues, and with iPhone Duo on the way, the possibility of utilizing iPhone 15 Pro as a production camera is back on the table. There's also the possibility that iPhone Duo isn’t for me, and I don’t really like it. In that case, I can switch back to iPhone 15 Pro, return iPhone Duo, and be on my merry way.
Unfortunately, this doesn’t change my opinion on iPhone 15 Pro as a generation. The device has too many flaws to truly be a consistent and reliable daily driver. The design is stunning, and Natural Titanium will always remain a top‑5 color/finish for me. But iPhone 15 Pro will not share that sentiment. Maybe iPhone Duo will break the curse.
Until next time, Nick out.