iPhone 15: Top 10 Takeaways from the September 2023 Apple “Wonderlust” iPhone 15 Event

iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Pro and Apple Watch. Top 10 Takeaways from the September 2023 Apple “Wonderlust” Event

It is fall. However, it is technically still summer. But an Apple iPhone announcement event, like Pumpkin Pie at Costco, signals the waning days of summer, if not with astronomical precision. Apple announced several updates in its iPhone 15 line and some major changes for Apple Watch as well.

Apple continues to offer features that are compelling enough that upgrades make sense even when a current iPhone is perfectly fine being an iPhone. This round it was spatial video for me. It is brilliantly simple, but it eliminates any question about creating basic 3D memories for the new Apple Vision Pro.

This event included announcements about the iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Pro, Apple Watch Series 9, and Apple Watch Ultra 2.

1. iPhone Pro Chip. The iPhone 15 will continue to sport the same A16 chip as its predecessor. The iPhone Pro, however, will sport the 3nm A17 Pro with its 19 billion transistors and 6-core CPU. The 16-core neural engine will crunch 35 trillion operations a second. ProRes, the AV1 decoder, and the Pro display engine get dedicated silicon. The customer shader in the GPU ups the iPhone Pro’s graphics game, including for gaming. The new chip supports Wi-Fi 6E for improved connectivity.
2. Apple Watch Chip. Apple S9 chip includes 5.6 billion transistors. The updated neural cores remove the need for connections when, for instance, talking to Siri. No longer will owners need to stand at the BBQ and wait while Siri tries to connect with a phone on a nightstand to start the countdown. The neural engines are also key to the new Thumb and Index Finger Double Tap (no. 6). The new chip will also make itself known more easily by the FindMy app with updated ultra-wideband support.
3. The iPhone 15 Pro Camera. The iPhone 15’s 48MP main camera and other optical features, like build-it depth capture (eliminating Portrait Mode), would have been a big breakthrough, except that Apple also makes the iPhone Pro, which has an even better camera. The iPhone 15 Pro camera includes 5x telephoto and 0.5 Ultra wide macro, seven total lenses to cover various photo and video needs.
4. Spatial Video. The iPhone 15 Pro also supports spatial video. Flip the phone horizontally, and video in 3D capture becomes available just in time to create content for Apple Vision Pro.
5. The arrival of USB-C on iPhone. While Apple made it sound like USB-C was its idea, and to be fair, it has migrated the iPad to USB-C already, the European mandate had plenty to do with timing. This was the smart choice; it should not have required a mandate. While it may hurt those who make Apple-specific peripherals and cables, it will open the iPhone market to a wider range of connectivity options. If, at some point, the iPhone gains features like Thunderbolt, found in the iPad Pro, the choices will be even more powerful. The world should now be close to the point where no one will hear about lost charging cables. Wired AirPods will also receive a USB-C update, as will current-gen AirPod cases. With USB-C, the iPhone also can act as a power bank for other USB-C devices.
6. Thumb and Index Finger Double Tap. Gestures lose some of their magic when made against a surface. The new Thumb and Index Finger Double Tap for Apple Watch Series 9 elevates this simple gesture to a primary on-the-fly interface tool that brings up Siri, answers calls, and other actions. The gesture sensing leverages several Apple Watch neural engines onboard to work together to determine when the gesture occurs. Apple onboard neural engines on the Series 9 chip transform sensor inputs into actions.
7. Price. There was some pre-launch speculation that Apple would be raising prices on base units and that promotions would be slowing. Both were wrong. Apple kept prices consistent with iPhone 14, and they also announced an up to $1,000 credit for phones starting with iPhone 11 (the older the model, the lower the credit).
8. Ceramic Shield. Along with the Lightning cable after-market, screen protector firms will also be challenged with Apple’s built-in Ceramic Shield, which will likely eliminate the need for a screen protector for most people. Those working in very harsh conditions may still want to explore additional protection across the device, including the screen.
9. Titanium. iPhone 15 incorporates all kinds of cool glass. iPhone 15 Pro, however, is titanium, the alloy of aerospace. Since it won’t bend much, Apple owners won’t need to worry about the brittleness of titanium—they will just enjoy the lightness of carrying a phone where the case doesn’t contribute much to the device’s weight. This also justifies my continued use of David Guetta’s Titanium ft. Sia as a member of my headphone and earbud testing suite.
10. FineWoven. Apple had a visit from Mother Nature in the form of Octavia Spenser, who grilled them about what she assumed was their greenwashing environmental agenda. Of course, Apple was better than the other companies visited by Mother Nature to see if they were complying with their sustainability commitments. During the conversation, we learned about Apple’s use of water and electricity and its abandonment of real leather in favor of FineWoven, a new material made of mostly recycled yarns. Apple has also managed its supply chain to ship most of its products via sea rather than air. Watch the entire skit below.

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