Technologies
Is the Apple iPhone 15 Pro Worth it Compared to iPhone 15? Here’s Our Take
Beyond the camera, here’s what each phone offers.

On Tuesday at its «Wonderlust» event, Apple unveiled the latest batch of iPhones alongside updates to the Apple Watch. The iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro are here, and you may soon be facing a decision whether to shell out the extra money for a Pro model when the phones hit stores on Sept. 22.
On last year’s models, the new Dynamic Island was the main differentiator between the iPhone 14 and 14 Pro, but this feature has now trickled down to the regular iPhone 15, leaving the entire iPhone 15 line notchless. Still, there are important differences to consider when deciding between the iPhone 15 and 15 Pro. Bear in mind we’re yet to review the new iPhones, so this analysis is based on our hands-on impressions and their specs — let’s get to it.
More from the Apple event
iPhone 15 vs. 15 Pro: Display and enclosure
Both the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro feature the same size screen — a 6.1-inch Super Retina XDR display with a 2,556×1,179-pixel resolution. The Pro’s display, however, features ProMotion technology, which is Apple’s way of saying it has a variable refresh rate between 10Hz and 120Hz. It should result in smoother motion in videos, games and just scrolling through web pages compared with the fixed 60Hz refresh rate of the iPhone 15. When you aren’t watching YouTube or gaming on your phone, the Pro will lower the refresh rate to conserve battery life.
The iPhone 15 Pro also has an always-on display that keeps it on and dimmed when charging so you can use StandBy mode. You don’t get an always-on display with the iPhone 15.

The iPhone 15 and 15 Pro are made from different materials. The iPhone 15 has an aluminum enclosure with a color-infused glass back, and the iPhone 15 Pro is made from titanium with a textured matte glass back.
More colorful options are available for the iPhone 15, where you can get it in pink, soft yellow, light green, pale blue or black. The iPhone 15 Pro is available in more staid hues: black, white, dark blue and natural titanium that looks beige.

In terms of overall size, the iPhone 15 is ever-so-slightly larger but lighter than the iPhone 15 Pro. Titanium is lighter than aluminum, but the iPhone 15 Pro weighs more than the iPhone 15, in large part because it has a third camera. The iPhone 15 weighs 6.02 ounces (171 grams), and the iPhone 15 Pro weighs 6.6 ounces (187 grams). The iPhone 15 Pro has ultrathin bezels and shaves a millimeter off the width and height of the iPhone 15’s dimensions while also being a fraction of a millimeter thinner.
One last difference between the two enclosures is the introduction of the Action button on the iPhone 15 Pro. It replaces the mute switch that’s still on the side of the iPhone 15. By default, a long press on the Action button will mute and unmute, but you can customize it to trigger a number of shortcuts like turning on the flashlight, recording a voice memo or opening the camera app and snapping a photo.

iPhone 15 vs. 15 Pro: Cameras
As with previous iPhone lines, the iPhone 15 features two cameras on the back, and the iPhone 15 Pro has three. You get a 48-megapixel wide lens and a 12-megapixel ultrawide lens with either model, and the iPhone 15 Pro adds a 12-megapixel telephoto lens that has a 3x optical zoom that lets you get closer to your subject.
Both models support night mode, but only the iPhone 15 Pro lets you take night mode shots in portrait mode.

iPhone 15 vs. 15 Pro: Components
Inside, the iPhone 15 has an A16 Bionic chip, while the iPhone 15 Pro has an A17 Pro chip. Both models ought to be plenty fast; each processor is a six-core CPU with two performance and four efficiency cores. The iPhone 15 Pro is better suited for graphics and gaming; the A17 Pro Bionic processor has a six-core GPU to the A16 Bionic’s five-core GPU.
Both models are available in 128GB, 256GB and 512GB capacities, and the iPhone 15 Pro offers a 1TB option.
iPhone 15 vs. 15 Pro: USB-C speeds
The new models introduce USB-C charging, but only the iPhone 15 Pro supports the faster 10Gbps speeds of USB 3. You’ll need to supply your own USB-C 3 cable for a 15 Pro since Apple ships a USB 2 cable with both phones, but the iPhone 15 supports only USB 2 speeds of 480Mbps.

iPhone 15 vs. 15 Pro: Price
Finally, we arrive at the difference in price. No surprises here: As in past years, Apple charges an extra $200 for the iPhone 15 Pro compared with the iPhone 15. The iPhone 15 starts at $799 (£799, AU$1,499), while the iPhone 15 Pro starts at $999 (£999, AU$1,849).
Apple iPhone 15 vs. Apple iPhone 15 Pro
iPhone 15 | iPhone 15 Pro | |
---|---|---|
Display size, tech, resolution, refresh rate, brightness | 6.1-inch OLED; 2,556×1,179 pixels; 60Hz refresh rate; 1,000 nits | 6.1-inch OLED; 2,556×1,179 pixels; 120Hz adaptive refresh rate; 1,000 nits |
Pixel density | 460 ppi | 460 ppi |
Enclosure material | Aluminum with color-infused glass back | Titanium with textured matte glass back |
Dimensions (inches) | 2.82 x 5.81 x 0.31 in. | 2.78 x 5.77 x 0.32 in. |
Dimensions (millimeters) | 71.6 x 147.6 x 7.8 mm | 70.6 x 146.6 x 8.25 mm |
Weight (grams, ounces) | 171 g (6.02 oz) | 187 g (6.6 oz) |
Mobile software | iOS 17 | iOS 17 |
Camera | 48-megapixel (wide), 12-megapixel (ultrawide) | 48-megapixel (wide), 12-megapixel (ultrawide), 12-megapixel telephoto (3x optical) |
Front-facing camera | 12-megapixel | 12-megapixel |
Video capture | 4K | 4K |
Processor | A16 Bionic | A17 Pro |
RAM/storage | 128GB, 256GB, 512GB | 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, 1TB |
Expandable storage | None | None |
Battery/charging speeds | Undisclosed; Apple claims up to 20 hours of video playback (16 hours streamed) | Undisclosed; Apple claims up to 23 hours of video playback (20 hours streamed) |
Fingerprint sensor | None (Face ID) | None (Face ID) |
Connector | USB-C (USB 2.0) | USB-C (USB 3.0) |
Side button/switch | Mute switch | Action button |
Headphone jack | None | None |
Special features | 5G (mmw/Sub6), IP68 rating, MagSafe (up to 15W), Qi wireless charging to 7.5W, Dynamic Island | 5G (mmw/Sub6), IP68 rating, MagSafe (up to 15W), Qi wireless charging to 7.5W, Dynamic Island, 3x optical zoom |
US price off-contract | $799 (128GB), $899 (256GB), $1,099 (512GB) | $999 (128GB, $1,099 (256GB), $1,299 (512GB), $1,499 (1TB) |
UK price | £799 (128GB), £899 (256GB), £1,099 (512GB) | £999 (128GB), £1,099 (256GB), £1,299 (512GB), £1,499 (1TB) |
Australia price | AU$1,499 (128GB), AU$1,699 (256GB), AU$2,049 (512GB) | AU$1,849 (128GB), AU$2,049 (256GB), AU$2,399 (512GB), AU$2,749 (1TB) |
Technologies
Camera Champions Face Off: iPhone 16 Pro vs. Galaxy S25 Ultra
When photo quality is a top consideration, the best phones from Apple and Samsung are amazing. But which is better? It’s time to find out.

When you’re looking for the best camera to carry in your pocket, you need to consider today’s top-tier phones. The imaging capabilities of the iPhone 16 Pro and Galaxy S25 Ultra are among the best money can buy. And with travel season ramping up, carrying a phone may be the most convenient camera. But for photo details how do these two mobile titans compare?
To find out, I shot hundreds of photos using both phones in a variety of conditions to see which phone takes the best-looking images. What’s «best» is often down to personal perspective so while I’ll be giving my personal take on each test as a professional photographer and giving my reasons why I prefer one over the other, you may well find that you prefer the other. So have a look through the range of examples here and see if you come to a different conclusion.
Read more: Best Camera Phone of 2025
All images shown have been taken using each phone’s default camera mode using default settings, unless otherwise stated. While images from the Galaxy S25 have been uploaded as taken, the iPhone’s images have had to be converted through Adobe Lightroom as our publishing platform doesn’t support Apple’s default HEIF image format. This process doesn’t affect the image in any way.
Ready? Let’s dive in.
Starting out with an easy outdoor scene. Both phones have done a great job capturing an even exposure here and both images are packed with detail. It’s difficult to choose between them, but the iPhone has the edge for me as it’s achieved a slightly warmer image with more natural-looking tones. The S25 Ultra’s image looks too saturated, especially in the blue sky, which I find quite distracting.
It’s much the same story when we switch to the ultrawide lenses on both phones. I prefer the warmer tones in the iPhone’s shot, which makes the S25 Ultra’s look quite cold by comparison. I also prefer the lighter shadows on the iPhone’s image, making it an easy win for the iPhone here. Notably, both phones are doing a good job of compensating for the ultrawide lenses at the edges (a function turned on by default on both phones); the railing remains straight in each shot and not curving as you’d typically see using a lens this wide.
There’s almost no difference between these two outdoor scenes. The blossom looks crisp on both images, with excellent overall exposure. The iPhone’s image is again slightly warmer in tone but it’s negligible.
The Galaxy S25 takes an easy win with this image of bluebells. The colors are much more vibrant, especially in the greens on the blades of grass, which look quite washed out on the iPhone’s image. It actually looks like the S25’s camera lens is slightly polarized to reduce reflections and increase saturation, but I don’t know if that’s the case. Either way, Samsung takes the win here.
At 5x zoom things get worse for the iPhone. Despite the bluebells being reasonably far away, the phone seemed unable to achieve a sharp focus on the flowers. The S25 Ultra, meanwhile, managed to achieve a sharp image with richer colors.
I prefer the iPhone’s image here though. It’s brighter and the warmer colors on the bricks on the surrounding buildings look much more true to life.
The iPhone’s image is again brighter here and I prefer its colors too. The Galaxy S25 Ultra does have the edge in fine detail, though. You really need to zoom in to see it but the tiny lines on the building are slightly sharper on the S25.
The S25 Ultra does have a physical advantage over the iPhone with its 10x optical zoom lens, which allows it to zoom in even further while still maintaining a pin-sharp image.
You can still digitally zoom in with the iPhone to 10x, and the results aren’t bad. I prefer the colors of the S25 Ultra’s shot here, but the difference in detail isn’t that noticeable.
Zooming in close to see the fine details, the S25 Ultra’s optical zoom image definitely has a bit more clarity but the digital upscaling on the iPhone’s shot has done a great job here, as the difference isn’t immense.
iPhone 16 Pro vs. Galaxy S25 Ultra: Night modes compared
At first glance, the only real difference between the iPhone’s 5x shot and the S25 Ultra’s 5x shot is the color balance. And honestly, I don’t have a preference between the warmer tone of the iPhone or the more magenta bias of the S25.
However, when you zoom in close to the details, the iPhone has produced a sharper image here, with an odd sort of digital blurring around the lamp post in the S25 Ultra’s image. So sometimes the S25 Ultra’s zoom is sharper, other times it’s the iPhone’s. I’m glad they’re making this easy for me.
Again, the only real difference here is in the color balance and I don’t really know which I prefer. The exposure, noise levels and amount of detail are practically identical.
Things changed when I switched to the ultrawide lenses, though. The S25 Ultra’s shot is definitely brighter, capturing more detail in the cobblestones in the foreground and in the buildings in the distance. The iPhone’s image is much darker overall.
Just to confuse things further, the iPhone’s nighttime image with its ultrawide lens is noticeably brighter than the S25 Ultra’s in this example that I shot in the Arctic. I actually had to double-check the image metadata to make sure I hadn’t mixed these up, but I haven’t. The iPhone’s image has captured more light information here and produced more detail on the ice door to the right.
The iPhone’s nighttime image is again slightly brighter here but it’s also kept the bright highlights on the pub sign under control. On the S25 Ultra’s image, those highlights are almost lost to pure white but the lovely green and yellow tones have been retained in the iPhone’s image. The colors overall are noticeably warmer on the iPhone’s shot, however, which may not be to your taste. Here, I think they work well.
But in this example, the iPhone has produced a weirdly warm-looking image that I really don’t like. Those warm colors were not present at the time of capture and it doesn’t work for the scene, especially not with such strong orange tones in the sky. The S25 Ultra’s image is much more balanced overall and it’s a slightly sharper image too. It’s a very easy win for Samsung here.
Things don’t improve for the iPhone when using the ultra-wide lens. Its image is again plagued by overly warm tones, while the S25 Ultra’s shot is both more color-accurate and brighter.
iPhone 16 Pro vs. Galaxy S25 Ultra: Which takes better selfies?
While the Galaxy S25 Ultra’s selfie is slightly brighter, I don’t like what it’s done with the colors. My face has been made a weird shade of orange and my denim jacket is a much deeper blue than it really is. The skin tones on the iPhone’s shot are much more accurate, and its shot is sharper as well.
Both phones have a wider-angle mode for the selfie camera, although the iPhone’s seems to be a lot wider. That’s definitely worth keeping in mind if you frequently like to cram lots of friends into your group pics. You could probably squeeze at least one or two extra friends in if you used the iPhone, or have to decide who you like least and leave them out of frame if you used the S25 Ultra. Otherwise, the image differences are the same as before.
iPhone 16 Pro Vs Galaxy S25 Ultra: Which camera is better?
I’ve written many of these comparison pieces on various generations of phones in my 14 years at CNET and I don’t remember having done one that’s felt this close. The problem is that neither phone excels consistently in one area; the iPhone 16 Pro’s ultra-wide shots aren’t as bright as the S25 Ultra’s, except on those occasions when they actually are, confusingly. I’ve taken many more images not included here that both support some of my conclusions and argue against them. Go figure.
But there are some takeaways I can give with confidence. Generally speaking, the iPhone’s colors are more natural than the S25 Ultra’s, which can sometimes look overly saturated. This has been the case with almost every Samsung phone since the company started putting cameras in them and it’s still the case today. Those looking for a more natural base image to apply your own filters and effects over will be better suited with the iPhone 16 Pro.
But that’s less the case at night, when the iPhone more consistently delivers warmer tones that look less natural than the S25 Ultra’s. So, if night photography is important to you, the S25 Ultra may be the better option. Overall, its night mode images from all lenses were brighter and sharper.
Sure, the S25 Ultra has the extended zoom range but you’d really need to know you’ll make the most of a 10x zoom to justify picking one over the other. Personally, I find the 5x zoom level a perfect sweet spot and here the phones are pretty much on par. And on those rare occasions you may want to push things further, the iPhone’s digital zoom can still deliver sharp results.
There are other things for photographers to consider too: Apple’s ProRaw is superb and while the company’s Photographic Styles can be good for adding a creative look to your images, Samsung’s new tool for mimicking the color grade from example photos you feed it works surprisingly well — I actually think I might get more use out of that overall. I haven’t even gone into video quality either, which is a whole other article, especially when you consider both phones shoot Log video, although only the iPhone uses ProRes.
Deciding between the phones based solely on the cameras is nigh on impossible. Which one you should get will instead come down to the bigger question of iOS versus Android; which platform you’re already using and which one will work best with other pieces of tech in your life. But for simple picture quality, you may as well toss a coin.
Technologies
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Technologies
Apple, I’m (Sky) Blue About Your iPhone 17 Air Color
Commentary: The rumored new hue of the iPhone 17 Air is more sky blah than sky blue.

I can’t help but feel blue about the latest rumor that Apple’s forthcoming iPhone 17 Air will take flight in a subtle, light-hued color called sky blue.
Sky blue isn’t a new color for Apple. It’s the featured shade of the current M4 MacBook Air, a shimmer of cerulean so subtle as to almost be missed. It’s silver left too close to an aquarium; silver that secretly likes to think it’s blue but doesn’t want everyone else to notice.
Do Apple employees get to go outside and see a real blue sky? It’s actually vivid, you can check for yourself. Perhaps the muted sky blue color reflects a Bay Area late winter/early spring frequent layer of clouds like we typically see here in Seattle.
«Who cares?» you might find yourself saying. «Everyone gets a case anyway.» I hear you and everyone else who’s told me that. But design-focused Apple is as obsessive about colors as they are about making their devices thinner. And I wonder if their heads are in the clouds about which hues adorn their pro products.
Making the case for a caseless color iPhone
I’m more invested in this conversation than most — I’m one of those freaks who doesn’t wrap my phone in a case. I find cases bulky and superfluous, and I like to be able to see Apple’s design work. Also, true story, I’ve broken my iPhone screen only twice: First when it was in a «bumper» that Apple sent free in response to the iPhone 4 you’re-holding-it-wrong Antennagate fiasco, and second when trying to take long exposure starry night photos using what I didn’t realize was a broken tripod mount. My one-week-old iPhone 13 Pro slipped sideways and landed screen-first on a pointy rock. A case wouldn’t have saved it.
My current model is an iPhone 16 Pro in black titanium — which I know seems like avoiding color entirely — but previously I’ve gone for colors like blue titanium and deep purple. I wanted to like deep purple the most but it came across as, in the words of Patrick Holland in his iPhone 14 Pro review, «a drab shade of gray or like Grimace purple,» depending on the light.
Pros can be bold, too
Maybe the issue is too many soft blues. Since the iPhone Pro age began with the iPhone 11 Pro, we’ve seen variations like blue titanium (iPhone 15 Pro), sierra blue (iPhone 13 Pro) and pacific blue (iPhone 12 Pro).
Pacific blue is the boldest of the bunch, if by bold you mean dark enough to discern from silver, but it’s also close enough to that year’s graphite color that seeing blue depends on the surrounding lighting. By comparison, the blue (just «blue») color of the iPhone 12 was unmistakably bright blue.
In fact, the non-Pro lines have embraced vibrant colors. It’s as if Apple is equating «pro» with «sophisticated,» as in «A real pro would never brandish something this garish.» I see this in the camera world all the time: If it’s not all-black, it’s not a «serious» camera.
And yet I know lots of pros who are not sophisticated — proudly so. People choose colors to express themselves, so forcing that idea of professionalism through color feels needlessly restrictive. A bright pink iPhone 16 might make you smile every time you pick it up but then frown because it doesn’t have a telephoto camera.
Color is also important because it can sway a purchase decision. «I would buy a sky blue iPhone yesterday,» my colleague Gael Cooper texted after the first rumor popped online. When each new generation of iPhones arrive, less technically different than the one before, a color you fall in love with can push you into trading in your perfectly-capable model for a new one.
And lest you think Apple should just stick with black and white for its professional phones: Do you mean black, jet black, space black, midnight black, black titanium, graphite or space gray? At least the lighter end of the spectrum has stuck to just white, white titanium and silver over the years.
Apple never got ahead by being beige
I’m sure Apple has reams of studies and customer feedback that support which colors make it to production each year. Like I said, Apple’s designers are obsessive (in a good way). And I must remind myself that a sky blue iPhone 17 Air is a rumored color on a rumored product so all the usual caveats apply.
But we’re talking about Apple here. The scrappy startup that spent more than any other company on business cards at the time because each one included the old six-color Apple logo. The company that not only shaped the first iMac like a tipped-over gumdrop, that not only made the case partially see-through but then made that cover brilliant Bondi blue.
Embrace the iPhone colors, Apple.
If that makes you nervous, don’t worry: Most people will put a case on it anyway.
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