Overview
Apple held its fall product event on September 13 (Beijing time). The company introduced seven new products, including four new iPhone 15 models and three new Apple Watch models. The headline announcement was the iPhone 15 Pro series, which uses the industry's first 3nm mobile chip, the A17 Pro.
Key highlights
- The iPhone 15 and 15 Plus: 6.1-inch and 6.7-inch displays; A16 Bionic; upgraded 48 MP main camera; improved battery life; new gradient glass back; Dynamic Island across the lineup; new USB-C port; starting at CNY 5,999 and CNY 6,999 respectively. Preorders from September 15, on sale September 22.
- The iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max: 6.1-inch and 6.7-inch displays; aerospace-grade titanium design; A17 Pro chip; up to 5x optical zoom on Pro Max; new Action Button replacing the mute switch; starting at CNY 7,999 and CNY 9,999 respectively. Preorders from September 15, on sale September 22.
- Apple Watch Ultra 2: new S9 SiP; second-generation UWB chip; peak brightness up to 3,000 nits; up to 72 hours in low-power mode; starting at CNY 6,499. Preorders from September 14, on sale September 22.
- Apple Watch Series 9: new S9 SiP; new double-tap gesture; 18-hour battery life; peak brightness up to 2,000 nits; second-generation UWB; starting at CNY 2,999. Preorders from September 14, on sale September 22.
01 iPhone 15 lineup
Design and display
The iPhone 15 family includes four models: iPhone 15 (6.1"), iPhone 15 Plus (6.7"), iPhone 15 Pro (6.1") and iPhone 15 Pro Max (6.7"). iPhone 15 and 15 Plus are available in black, blue, green, yellow and pink. The standard iPhone 15 uses an aerospace-grade aluminum frame with color embedded in the back glass. All iPhone 15 models adopt Dynamic Island, increasing usable screen area compared with previous generations. The displays support Dolby Vision, with typical peak brightness up to 1,600 nits and up to 2,000 nits in sunlight.
Performance (standard models)
The iPhone 15 and 15 Plus use the A16 Bionic chip—the same chip used in the 14 Pro series. The A16 is a six-core CPU and five-core GPU. The CPU includes two high-performance cores with 20% lower power per core and four efficiency cores, delivering faster performance and improved battery life compared with A15. The five-core GPU has 50% increased memory bandwidth for smoother graphics when streaming video and gaming.
Imaging and USB-C
The standard iPhone 15 has a 48 MP main camera with new portrait-focused rear autofocus. It can also output 24 MP photos using computational multi-frame and super-resolution processing: the image pipeline selects optimal pixel regions from a high-resolution capture and fuses that with a second exposure optimized for light capture to produce a 24 MP image.
All iPhone 15 models replace Lightning with a USB-C connector. The standard models support USB 2.0 speeds up to 480 Mb/s. The USB-C connector can also be used to charge AirPods or an Apple Watch directly from the iPhone. All models support MagSafe and future Qi2 wireless chargers.
iPhone 15 models include second-generation ultra-wideband (UWB) chips, extending connection range up to three times compared with the prior generation.
Pricing
Starting prices announced: iPhone 15 CNY 5,999; iPhone 15 Plus CNY 6,999; iPhone 15 Pro CNY 7,999 (256 GB configuration is priced higher than before); iPhone 15 Pro Max CNY 9,999.
iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max
Pro models use an aerospace-grade titanium frame, reducing weight by nearly 20 g compared with the previous generation. The iPhone 15 Pro Max weighs 221 g and the iPhone 15 Pro weighs 187 g. The Pro cameras use an upgraded 48 MP main sensor (equivalent to 24 mm, 2.44 μm after four-in-one pixel binning, f/1.78), which is larger than the sensor in the standard models.
The Pro and Pro Max differ in telephoto capability: the Pro has a 3x telephoto lens, while the Pro Max offers a 120 mm lens with 5x optical zoom for longer reach. The ultra-wide lens is 12 MP across Pro models.
A17 Pro chipset
The iPhone 15 Pro series uses the A17 Pro, described as the industry's first 3 nm mobile chip. It integrates 19 billion transistors and a six-core CPU. Apple claims CPU performance up to twice that of A16 and efficiency up to four times, plus a 16-core Neural Engine that is twice as fast as the previous generation and can process up to 350 trillion operations per second for accelerated machine learning tasks, including more accurate autocorrection and subject extraction from images. The A17 Pro includes dedicated ProRes and Pro display engines and an AV1 decoder.
The Pro GPU has been updated to a new 6-core design with about 20% higher peak performance and improved energy efficiency. It also adds hardware-accelerated ray tracing, claimed to be four times faster than software-based ray tracing.
The iPhone 15 Pro series ships with a USB-C port that supports USB 3 speeds up to 10 Gbps on A17 Pro models, about 20 times faster than USB 2. The physical mute switch is replaced by an Action Button located above the volume keys on the left side. Pressing and holding the Action Button toggles ringer and silent modes; the button provides haptic feedback and can be configured to launch actions such as recording a voice memo, opening the camera, or triggering shortcuts.
Pro models also include Apple's second-generation UWB chip for longer-range connections and direction finding among compatible devices. iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max add support for Wi?Fi 6E for higher wireless performance and are the first iPhones to support Thread for future smart-home integrations.
02 Apple Watch Series 9
The new Apple Watch Series 9 features the S9 SiP, which contains 5.6 billion transistors—about 60% more than Series 8—and a GPU claimed to be 30% faster. The S9 SiP includes a Neural Engine that doubles on-device machine learning speed versus the previous generation and improves Transformer model inference by about 20%. Series 9 achieves an 18-hour battery life under typical use.
Series 9 introduces a double-tap gesture that lets users control the watch with one hand without touching the screen. The gesture can answer or end calls, trigger the camera remote, and open and navigate stacked widgets from the watch face.
Series 9 includes a second-generation UWB chip for spatial awareness among compatible devices. For requests that do not require network access—such as starting a workout or setting a timer—Siri can process the request on-device without relying on Wi?Fi or cellular, improving speed and reliability. On-device dictation accuracy is reported to be 25% higher than Series 8.
Apple reports the Series 9 battery uses 100% recyclable cobalt and that Apple Watch production now uses 100% clean energy.
03 Apple Watch Ultra 2
The Apple Watch Ultra 2 starts at CNY 6,499 and is designed for extreme environments. It uses the S9 SiP with a 4-core Neural Engine, offering up to twice the machine learning speed of the first-generation Ultra. Ultra 2 also supports the double-tap gesture.
Ultra 2 has a peak brightness of 3,000 nits, about 50% brighter than the original Ultra. Typical battery life is up to 36 hours in normal use and up to 72 hours in low-power mode. The Ultra 2 is rated for use across a wide altitude range, from 500 meters below sea level to 9,000 meters above sea level.
Like other new Apple watches, Ultra 2 includes the second-generation UWB chip to enable precise location features with compatible iPhone models. The Precision Finding feature can provide distance and direction to a missing iPhone with visual, haptic and audio guidance.
Note: the satellite-based roadside assistance service announced for iPhone 15 is provided in partnership with a major assistance provider in the U.S. and is effectively unavailable in the Chinese market.
