Technologies

iPhone 15: Apple’s Latest Rumors, Product Predictions and More

The rumor mill is buzzing about a significant upgrade to the iPhone. But don’t expect a foldable device from Apple this year.

Apple is weeks away from its annual fall event, where the next iPhone, which we’re unofficially calling the iPhone 15 series, is set to be unveiled. Although we don’t expect to see a foldable from Apple just yet, the rumor mill is buzzing about the next iPhones departing from their traditional design in a meaningful way.

Some of the big questions people are asking are: Will the iPhone 15 get a USB-C port? Will the iPhone 15 series have slimmer bezels? Will Apple increase iPhone prices in 2023? Will the Pro models receive bigger upgrades?

We won’t know for sure until Apple throws the next iPhone event, which will probably be in September. But here are some of the biggest and most credible rumors to give you an idea of what to expect from the iPhone 15 series.

iPhone 15 design: Hello USB-C, goodbye Lightning

This one has been circulating around the rumor mill for years now, but in 2023 the switch from a Lightning Port to a USB-C port could finally happen. That’s likely driven by pressure from the European Union, which has been pushing for a common charging standard for years. In 2022, the bloc managed to pass legislation requiring Apple to equip its iPhones with USB-C ports by 2024 if it wants to sell them in the EU.

If that happens, the question is whether Apple will switch all iPhone models to USB-C or just those sold in the EU. Apple already modifies iPhone models regionally, as it has done with the iPhone 14: The US version has an electronic SIM, while other variants retain the SIM slot. However, there are good reasons to move all iPhones to USB-C moving forward, according to Avi Greengart, analyst at Techsponential.

«There are larger ecosystem, security, and accessory considerations with the power/data connector, so I think it is more likely that Apple moves all iPhones [globally] to USB-C in the iPhone 16 timeframe to comply with European regulations,» he told CNET in an email.

According to seasoned Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman, only the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max models will receive USB-C ports this year. Perhaps a complete transition could happen next year with the iPhone 16.

iPhone 15 design: Dynamic Island expands to all models

Apple is likely to continue selling four iPhone models with the iPhone 15 lineup. Rumors point to a generally similar design across the board, except that the iPhone 14 Pro’s shape-shifting cutout, known as Dynamic Island, is set to make its way across all models.

That rumor comes from display analyst Ross Young, who also said in a September tweet that he’s not expecting base iPhone 15 models to have a higher refresh rate like Apple’s Pro iPhones because the supply chain can’t support it. Gurman also still expects this to pan out as indicated by the Jun. 30 edition of his Power On newsletter.

iPhone 15 design: Skinnier bezels

According to Gurman, Apple’s expected to use a new manufacturing technology called «low-injection pressure over-molding» to make the Pro iPhones. This is the same method that’s used for some Apple Watch models. It will help Apple reduce the size of the bezels by fractions of a millimeter, which would in turn allow for an ever-so-slight increase in screen real estate.

iPhone 15 design: Easier repairability

The interiors of the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max are also slated for a redesign that will make them easier to repair, according to the latest edition of Gurman’s Power On newsletter. Gurman says the inside parts have been changed to match the ones in the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus, which received the internal changes last year.

«This is the iPhone 14 reborn as a beautiful butterfly — a midframe in the middle, accessible screen on the left, and removable rear glass on the right,» iFixit wrote in a post last September after the iPhone event.

Interestingly, Apple didn’t discuss this internal redesign in its keynote, but the change was spotted by repair experts at iFixit, who said it was evident that Apple went back to the drawing board to rework the internals and integrate them seamlessly into its iPhones.

iPhone 15: Upgraded ultra wideband

According to noted Apple analyst Ming Chi Kuo, the iPhone 15 will run on an upgraded Ultra Wideband processor, which Apple calls the U1 chip, to better integrate with the company’s new AR headset, the Vision Pro. UWB is a short-range wireless communication standard often used to track down the location of objects. It can pinpoint your Apple AirTag or unlock your car as you walk up to it with your phone. In a recent post on Twitter, Kuo said this is all part of Apple’s broader strategy to «build a more competitive ecosystem for Vision Pro.»

iPhone 15: Wireless charging upgrade

According to a May report by ChargerLab, a power specialist website with a steady track record, all iPhone 15 models will support 15-watt wireless charging using the Qi2 open standard. If this turns out to be true, it’ll mean the iPhone 15 could open up a whole new world of wireless charging devices that can replenish the device at its full speed. Apple had previously limited open wireless charging standards to 7.5W, leaving the full 15W charge speed for Apple MagSafe licensed accessories.

iPhone 15 camera: Periscope-style telephoto lens arrives

Noted Apple observer Ming-Chi Kuo, an analyst with TF International Securities, forecasts that the iPhone 15 Pro Max will receive a periscope-style telephoto lens. This sort of telephoto lens allows for higher optical zoom levels, with Kuo forecasting a 6x optical zoom could arrive in the iPhone 15 Pro Max. The optical zoom on the iPhone 14 Pro Max is limited to 3x, which lags rivals such as the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra’s 10x optical zoom. This rumor was recently bolstered by well-known leak source and Twitter user Unknownz21, who stated that the Pro Max model will come with the special lens.

Read more: iPhone 14 Pro Cameras Are a Major Upgrade

An iPhone 7 Plus with Lightning port sits atop a Google Pixel 2 XL with USB-C port.

iPhone 15 design: Solid-state buttons come to pro iPhone 15 models

Kuo expects Apple to differentiate further between its base and Pro models in the coming years. One way he’s expecting that to happen is by way of solid-state volume and power buttons of the iPhone 15 Pro models instead of the standard keys present on today’s devices.

(1/6)
My latest survey indicates that the volume button and power button of two high-end iPhone 15/2H23 new iPhone models may adopt a solid-state button design (similar to the home button design of iPhone 7/8/SE2 & 3) to replace the physical/mechanical button design.

— 郭明錤 (Ming-Chi Kuo) (@mingchikuo) October 28, 2022

The solid-state buttons, which Kuo says will be similar to the home button found on the iPhone SE and iPhone 7, mimic the tactile feel of pressing a button with the help of haptic feedback. The apparent advantage of this type of button is that it also protects against water ingress.

iPhone 15 Power: Increased RAM for pro models

According to Taiwanese research firm TrendForce, Pro models of the iPhone 15 lineup will get a bump up in RAM to 8GB from 6GB to complement the anticipated A17 Bionic chipset. Base models will continue to receive 6GB RAM, according to TrendForce. This rumor is also apparently backed up by a research report from analyst Jeff Pu of Haitong International Securities, according to a MacRumors article, which referenced Pu’s report.

iPhone 15 price: Up, up and away?

iPhone 15 prices are tipped to increase in the US for the first time in years. Last year, Apple already increased prices in select countries outside the US.

According to a MacRumors report, citing Barclays analyst Tim Long, the iPhone 15 Pro could cost $100 more than the iPhone 14 Pro, while the iPhone Pro Max price hike could be in the range of $100 to $200 more. A similar claim has been made by Jeff Pu, of investment firm Haitong International Securities, who explicity said the iPhone 15 Pro Max specifically is due for a price increase, according to another MacRumors report. This is based on the assumption that Apple will add more features and components to the Pro models, such as a new periscope camera, a titanium frame and a 3nm A17 Bionic chip.

US prices currently range from $829 for the entry-level iPhone 14 model (128GB) all the way up to $1,599 for the highest-end iPhone 14 Pro Max with 1TB of storage.

Another possibility is the upper limit of the price range could be pushed higher if rumors about a luxe iPhone 15 Ultra turn out to be true. The rumored Ultra model could potentially replace the iPhone 15 Pro Max next year, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman wrote in September last year. This falls in line with predictions from Kuo, who expects Apple to differentiate further between the iPhone Pro and iPhone Pro Max models. However, in his June 30 newsletter, Gurman made no mention of the iPhone 15 Ultra. Other rumors suggest that the iPhone 15 Ultra will be a step up from the iPhone 15 Pro Max.

iPhone 15 Ultra camera: Variable zoom

According to tipster Revengus, the iPhone 15 Ultra will feature a telephoto camera with a variable zoom lens, which is the camera setup rumored to feature on Samsung’s Galaxy S24 Ultra. Variable optical zoom (continuous zoom) cameras aren’t commonly found on smartphones for a variety of reasons, including the fact that the size and design of phone cameras restricts the type of lenses that can be used.

iPhone 15: Launch and release timeline

Apple holds its annual iPhone event in September almost every year, so we’d expect the timeline to remain the same for the iPhone 15. New iPhones typically get released shortly thereafter, usually the Friday of the following week. Sometimes Apple will stagger release dates for specific models, especially when introducing a new design or size. So it’s possible that the iPhone 15 lineup will have more than one release date.

Here’s what we know:

Apple tends to hold its events on Tuesdays or Wednesdays. Apple’s iPhone 14 event was held on Wednesday Sept. 7, while its iPhone 13 event was held on Tuesday, Sept. 14.
iPhone release dates are typically a week and a half after Apple’s announcements.
In general, new iPhones are released on a Friday, around the third week of September. For the iPhone 13, preorders began Sept. 17 and the phones went on sale Sept. 24.

Looking for more iPhone advice? Check out our iPhone upgrade guide, our list of the best iPhones and our roundup of the best cases for your iPhone 14 or 14 Pro.

Technologies

A New Mini Game Boy Collectible That Just Plays Pokemon Music? What a Tease

A surprise collectible on Pokemon Day looks just like a tiny Game Boy and plays music on swappable cartridges. Give us the real Game Boy again, come on.

Nintendo sure does love teasing us with Game Boy things. First, a collectible Lego Game Boy model last year that almost looked like a real Game Boy (but wasn’t). Now, for the 30th anniversary of Pokemon, Nintendo and the Pokemon Group are selling a collectible music player that looks like a tiny Game Boy and plays authentic original Pokemon Red/Blue songs on swappable cartridges, one per song. The Game Boy Jukebox is being sold on the Pokemon Center site later today, for a price that hasn’t yet been listed.

This level of absurdity is standard issue for Nintendo: Just in the last 18 months we’ve had Alarmo, a talking Super Mario flower and a Virtual Boy recreation. This new collectible is so tempting precisely because it looks like a little, even more pocketable Game Boy. Except it isn’t a Game Boy at all. It’s just a music player. Even the dot-matrix «screen» is fake — it’s just an overlay that the cartridges display when they’re slotted in.

The music this thing plays is Game Boy-accurate, down to the little boot-up ping. It just makes my skin itch for a new Game Boy (that isn’t one already made by several other companies).

But come on. Make a real Game Boy collectible, with actual preloaded games on it. You know you want to, Nintendo. It’s only a matter of time.

In the meantime, if you’re desperate for all 45 Pokemon Red and Blue songs on a little Game Boy music player, now’s your chance.

Technologies

Pokemon Winds and Waves: First Mainline Games for the Switch 2 Are Coming in 2027

Following the recent release of Pokemon Legends: Z-A, The Pokemon Company announced its first mainline games exclusively for the latest Nintendo console.

Pokemon Winds and Waves, the first mainline games in the series to come to the Nintendo Switch 2, were launched on Friday, the franchise’s 30th anniversary, on a special Pokemon Presents livestream. They will be released in 2027 exclusively on the Switch 2.

Following the precedent set by Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, the new games seem to be set in a fully explorable open world. The new playable region is scattered across multiple islands, with wide swaths of ocean between them.

The distinct split between water and land harkens back to cherished gameplay mechanics from generation-3 Pokemon games Ruby and Sapphire, which were released in 2002.

As tradition dictates, we got our first look at the three new starter Pokemon, which are powerful pals that serve as the player’s first partner in an unfamiliar new place.

The grass-type starter, Browt, is a chickadee with a head that’s bulbous enough to invoke the Brain. The water-type, Gecqua, is a quadrupedal gecko with a cool attitude. And the fire-type starter, Pombon, is a super cute orange kitty with a mane that eclipses its body. (I suspect Pombon will quickly become a fan favorite.)

Fan-favorite Pokemon from previous games were also shown off. So far, we can confirm that Pikachu, Tympole, Wailord, Tropius, Carnivine and Frillish are in the cast of monsters to be caught in the next mainline Pokemon games, among other older creatures. Many of the returning Pokemon seem to fit into the island theme, residing in volcanic caves, marshy swamps and underwater coves.

It’s been four years since the last mainline Pokemon games — Pokemon Scarlet and Violet — were released for the Nintendo Switch.

While those games were lauded by some fans for their open world and more freeform approach to telling a Pokemon story, they were held back by poor performance and game-breaking bugs on Nintendo’s first hybrid console. Nintendo will hope that Pokemon Winds and Waves — games built for, and exclusive to, the more powerful Switch 2 hardware — will fare better when it comes to in-game performance.

Pokemon Winds and Waves may be the first traditional Pokemon games for the Switch 2, but they aren’t the first ventures into the world of pocket monsters in recent years.

The recently released Pokemon Legends: Z-A introduced a whole new battling system, moving away from the turn-based mechanics the franchise has been known for since 1996. Pokemon Pokopia, an Animal Crossing-style game that will be released next month, is also primed to bring pocket monsters to cozy gaming spaces.

Both games will tide fans over until they can dive into the watery world of Pokemon Winds and Waves next year.

Technologies

Dance Like No One’s Watching With the Beats Studio Pro, Now $150 Off in a Best Buy Exclusive Color

This color is only available at Best Buy and you can grab it for just $200 if you’re quick.

Best Buy is offering the Beats Studio Pro in gold and black for $200, knocking $150 off the usual $350 price tag. That’s a significant discount on this stunning pair, so if you’ve had them on your wishlist, now is the time to make the move.

The Beats Studio Pro headphones earned a CNET review score of 8 out of 10, and offer two distinct listening modes: Active Noise Cancellation and Transparency mode. In his detailed review, our audio expert David Carnoy appreciated the effectiveness of their noise canceling. According to him, the ANC mode comes close to what you’d get from top-tier models from Sony and Bose, while the Transparency mode lets outside sound in naturally.

These play nicely with Apple and Android devices, and one-touch pairing makes it easy to connect within minutes. Battery life lasts up to 40 hours on a single charge and a quick 10-minute top-up gets you an extra four hours of listening time to keep the music going.

Voice calls get a boost, too. The pair comes with voice-filtering mics that cut out background noise, so you won’t just hear clearly; you’ll be heard just as well.

HEADPHONE DEALS OF THE WEEK

Sony WH-1000XM5 Wireless Noise Canceling Headphones (Black):

$248 (save $152)
Beats Studio Pro Wireless Noise Cancelling Headphones (Black):

$170 (save $181)
Sony WH-1000XM6 Wireless Noise Cancelling Over-Ear Headphones:

$398 (save $62)
Bose QuietComfort Wireless Noise Cancelling Headphones (Twilight Blue):

$179 (save $170)
Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless ANC Over-Ear Headphones (Black):

$200 (save $250)

Deals are selected by the CNET Group commerce team, and may be unrelated to this article.

Why this deal matters

The Beats Studio Pro are excellent headphones that deliver immersive sound and a comfortable fit. This deal knocks $150 off the regular $350 price, so you can grab them for just $200 today. In our experience, deals this good don’t last long, so it’s best to act fast if you want to snag a pair.