On September 12, the main presentation of Apple 2023 ended. The company showed a new watch, iPhone 15 with an “island”, titanium iPhone 15 Pro and much more. We tell you in detail and without any fuss about all the new products.
Tim Cook went to the center of Apple Park and made a short recap of 2023: how the Mac was updated, how they showed “the best 15-inch laptop in the world” (and even quoted bloggers), and of course mentioned the Apple Vision Vision Pro headset, which will be released in 2024 . Without stirring up intrigue, Tim immediately listed the upcoming new products: a watch and an iPhone. It sounds rather weak, but suddenly surprised? Let’s see.
Apple Watch Series 9
The only external difference is the new pink color. It replaced the dark blue shade, the rest of the colors are the same. The display has also become twice as bright: 2000 nits versus 1000 nits in the Apple Watch Series 8. The minimum brightness of 1 nit saves your eyes from bright light in the dark.
There are more changes inside. The new S9 processor brought a big boost in performance. The video accelerator has become 30% faster, so animations are now super smooth (although there were no complaints before). New 4-core neuromodule — thanks to it, common basic requests to Siri are now performed on the watch, without being sent to the server. For example, “remind me to take my pills” or “set an alarm.” Speech detection is 25% more accurate than on Apple Watch Series 8.
However, the battery again lasts a day — no more. There’s zero progress here. But Apple Watch production is now completely “green”; it is the first Apple product with a completely zero carbon footprint. Electricity is taken only from renewable sources: solar panels, wind farms.
The second generation of the UWB (Ultra wideband) chip has also appeared: you can find the iPhone with an accuracy of up to a meter.
Another feature Apple featured in its patents a few years ago was gesture control. The new gestures are convenient, for example, when your hand is busy with coffee or you are walking your dog on a leash: you need to tap twice with your index finger and thumb. It will come in handy to receive calls, pause music, and scroll through widgets on the home screen.
Gestures use an accelerometer, a gyroscope, and monitor changes in blood pressure when tapping your fingers.
The price of Apple Watch Series 9 starts at $399, sales start on September 22.
Apple Watch Ultra 2
Apple called the second generation, although it is more likely a light update of the watches presented last year. Apple Watch Ultra 2 receives updates from Apple Watch Series 9: tapping gestures, UWB 2nd generation. The display brightness reached 3000 nits — the brightest display in Apple history. Other changes:
- new modular dial shows time, altitude, depth depending on scenarios;
- night mode is activated depending on the lighting — thanks to the light sensor;
- connection of Bluetooth accessories for cycling modes.
Otherwise, these are the same Apple Watch Ultra. The operating time has not changed: 72 hours of operation in energy saving mode, 36 hours in normal mode. Read our review of the first generation here .
The price of Apple Watch Ultra 2 will be $799. Sales start on September 22
iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus
Hurray, it’s done: iPhone 15 became the first iPhone with a USB-C connector. You can throw away your collection of Lightning accessories. The MagSafe magnetic mount also remains.
There are more changes in the iPhone 15 than in the iPhone 14. The most noticeable is the “Dynamic Island”. This is the cutout that houses the sensors and camera modules. The cutout adjusts to different scenarios, zooms in and out, and shows weather and taxi widgets.
The display has become significantly brighter. Peak brightness in HDR mode increased to 1600 nits, peak outdoor brightness increased to 2000 nits. This is twice as high as on the iPhone 14. The screen diagonal has not changed: 6.1 inches in the iPhone 15 and 6.7 inches in the iPhone 15 Plus version. The “plus” version is no different (except for the screen and a slightly larger battery).
Externally, the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus have undergone minor changes:
- The glass body is monolithic, but with a gradient overflow on the camera block.
- Rounded sides — now the iPhone does not dig into your hand.
- Nanocrystalline polishing of the back panel.
The most noticeable camera update is the 48-megapixel wide-angle module from the iPhone 14 Pro. It replaced 12 MP. Higher resolution, 2x zoom without loss of quality, powerful background blur even without using portrait mode — read about all this in the iPhone 14 Pro review .
They didn’t stop sharing the skin of the unkilled iPhone 14 Pro. The processor was also inherited from last year’s flagship Apple A16 Bionic – like in the iPhone 14 Pro. From a completely new one — the 2nd generation UWB chip. It works at a distance of up to 3 times longer. It will help you find friends at the market or at the train station.
Prices:
- iPhone 15 – from $799 for the version with 128 GB of memory;
- iPhone 15 Plus — from $899 for the version with 128 GB of memory.
6photosLive Photos of iPhone 15
iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro
Okay, USB-C: The iPhone 15 Pro finally has matte frames and a matte back. The best combination we’ve been waiting for. Jokes aside, we meet the new Titanium Design style: a frame made of titanium (grade 5), the thinnest among all iPhones, the lightest Pro-smartphone. Ceramic Shield protective glass on the front.
As always, there are two sizes: 6.1 inches in the iPhone 15 Pro and 6.7 inches in the iPhone 15 Pro Max.
The same titanium is used to produce parts for the Mars rover: strong, durable, lightweight. The frame is polished in such a way as to create the effect of a slight roughness and textured finish.
We say goodbye to the silent mode switch. Instead, there is an Action Button. In different applications, it performs different roles: it starts recording in the voice recorder, takes photos in the Camera, and much more.
The new processor is Apple A17 Pro. The world’s first 3nm chip, which means increased performance at reduced power consumption:
- 19 billion transistors;
- 2 powerful cores: 10% higher performance;
- 4 economical cores;
- Neuromodule: 35 trillion operations per second, the fastest in Apple history;
- ProRes codec support;
- USB 3 support — up to 10 Gbps, which is 20 times faster than the Lightning port (USB 2.0);
- The video accelerator is 20% faster — 6 cores, RTX support.
Camera. In 2022, Pro models received a new 48-megapixel module, this year the changes are mainly software — but not only. Now you can switch between focal lengths of 24, 28 and 35 mm by pressing the “1x” button — these are popular lens focal lengths among professional photographers.
The aperture of the optics also increased to f/1.78 — instead of f/1.9.
The iPhone 15 Pro Max now has the longest optical zoom – 5x. This will allow you to zoom in on objects without losing quality. The light is reflected four times inside the camera module and hits the sensor. This was done to make the module as small as possible and to prevent the camera from sticking out. It also has the most advanced stabilization: up to 10,000 movements per second — twice as fast as in the iPhone 14 Pro.
A total of 7 focal lengths, of which only 3 are achieved through optics, the rest is digital zoom and software processing.
The echoes of the Apple Vision Pro headset are already heard here: shooting stereo video on two cameras of the iPhone 15 Pro, so that you can then view volumetric video in virtual reality and immerse yourself in the past.
Prices:
- iPhone 15 Pro – from $999 (price unchanged) for the $128 GB version;
- iPhone 15 Pro Max – from $1,299 (price unchanged) for the $256 GB version. This is the minimum volume; there will no longer be a 128 GB version in the Pro Max series.
Pre-order starts on September 15, sales start on September 22. iPhone 14, iPhone 13 and iPhone SE (2022) will also remain on sale. The latter costs from $429.
Finally, Apple offered two additional options for iCloud storage: 6 TB and 12 TB. For those for whom the “cloud” was not enough.
