What does everyone think of their new iPhone 15 and 15’s pro?

By Andy Lane, 22 September, 2023

Forum
Apple Hardware and Compatible Accessories

It’s the most wonderful time of the year, hopefully everyone who has been nice will be waking up to a delivery from the elves and you’ll all be having fun unwrapping your new toys. Sadly, I’ve been too naughty to get a delivery this year but I can’t wait to hear what you all think of the new Titanium body and action button on the new pro phones. What is everyone customising the action button to do? Hopefully I can be nice this year and get my hands on the action button next year but can’t wait to read everyone’s ideas of how to use this new feature.

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Comments

By Pax on Saturday, September 23, 2023 - 14:20

my mom wants my 14 pro and is buying 15 pro for me to replace it, great trade, huh?
my action button will probably allow me to post on mastodon if it will be possible to make it that way.

By Andy Lane on Saturday, September 23, 2023 - 14:20

I’m really happy your mum is providing such a nice service. Can you have a chat with her later. I have a 14 Pro Max I’d like to switch for a 15 Pro Max. I’ll send you my address so we can make the trade. I think when your mum buys me my 15 Pro Max, I’m going to set my new action button up for instant record on just press record. It will be like having an old fashioned dictaphone like in the olden days. Also tell her thanks, it’s a really nice thing she’s offering to do for us.

By Dominic on Saturday, September 23, 2023 - 14:20

Ill give my google pixel 7 for 15 pro256gb

I’ll give you my address

By Holger Fiallo on Saturday, September 23, 2023 - 14:20

Well if people are making request, I will give her my 13 pro. Want the 15 pro max. Say sugar with top on it.

By Travis Roth on Saturday, September 23, 2023 - 14:20

According to online reviews such as at The Verge the Action Button is kind of in jail right now and can only have one action assigned. Strange considering the power button has short press, press and hold, double press, triple press. I hope Apple lets the Action Button out of jail soon!

By Andy Lane on Saturday, September 23, 2023 - 14:20

I always hope the speaker quality will improve which it seems to every 3 years or so. It’s been the same from the 12 - 14’s so I guess it was due an upgrade. It makes such a huge difference to have slightly better speakers in a phone. How are you getting on with the action button? How does it feel to use? I wonder if you’ll miss the mute switch. I was thinking the titanium rails would make a difference to the phones feel through its rotational inertial mass. Glad to hear it does.

By Holger Fiallo on Saturday, September 23, 2023 - 14:20

Apparently if you select mute, you can not use the other actions. Maybe in iOS 18!! You probably will need shortcuts for it.

By Andy Lane on Saturday, September 23, 2023 - 14:20

I didn’t expect a huge difference in the speaker but any improvement is very much noticeable because I usually can’t be bothered to use a Bluetooth speaker. It’s interesting that they’ve moved the ear peace to the metal band, in the 14 they almost moved it there but stopped right at the very edge of the glass. How big and how much does the action button stick out of the phone? Can you use it reliably with your new leather case?

By Bruce Harrell on Saturday, September 23, 2023 - 14:20

Can anyone tell me how long the bluetooth transfer from old XS phone to new 15 pro phone is supposed to take? Or what happens if old phone in charged battery case is unexpectedly found to be at 20% percent in exhausted case and prompting if I want to turn on low power mode? Or if like an idiot I turn off bluetooth on old phone since it's still connected to my hearing aids, and 30 seconds later my eyes go wide in shock when I realize I may have just done a very stupid thing while the two phones are transferring via bluetooth? Or can anyone tell me what I'm supposed to do about language selection when my new phone was talking fine in English before I started the bluetooth transfer, and then both phones went silent, and I can't get either of them to talk, except for the old phone that's only letting SIRI talk?

How long is the transfer supposed to take? 387gb needed to transfer. I'm thinking it will take hours. I'm hoping I didn't mess things up badly. I'm praying nothing else goes wrong, but it always does.

I'm cursed.

By Andy Lane on Saturday, September 23, 2023 - 14:20

You can always reset the new phone and start again. There’s nothing to panic about. Apple released a 17.0.2 update to address a problem with transferring data from the old phone just yesterday. If you have a problem, you could set the phone up as new, install the update then restart the transfer. Remember, nothing to panic about. Everything can be fixed even if it doesn’t go exactly to plan. I think almost 400GB might take a good few hours though.

By Bruce Harrell on Saturday, September 23, 2023 - 14:20

Hi Andy,
Thanks for your reassurance. I'm not panicked, fortunately. Just resigned. Something like this always happens.

How do I reset the new phone? I've tried powering down. Remember, it's not talking. It does make sounds, though. I've tried pressing the power button three times to turn on VoiceOver. That's what I did in the beginning. Nothing. I have tried many times now. Nothing. I've tried turning power off. The new phone refuses. It's just happy to list all the languages. My wife has tried tapping on English, once, wait, twice, wait, three times. Nothing changes.

Meanwhile, about that 17.2 update? My old phone assures me 17.01 is the latest version and that with 17.01, my old phone is up to date.

As for my new phone, it's listing languages, and it isn
'speaking, it isn't turning off, it isn't doing anything else at all. I've even pressed the power button for 6 seconds with my wife looking on, and nothing changed.

So, I have a problem, as you put it, and I'm hoping you can tell me something new to try to set my new phone up as new so I can try the transfer again?

I am remembering everything can be fixed, just like you said. I'm remembering not to panic. I'm remembering I've tried everything I can think of. I'm remembering something always goes wrong.

I'm remembering I'm cursed.

Oh, I did managed to restart my old phone. allo mention of new phone and transferring is gone. Gone from settings. Gone from everywhere so far as I can tell.

Yeah, I know I'm being a downer. Happily, though, my wife came back, and we starterd a process on the silent new phone about setting things up like. wi fi connection, cellular code for the esim from my cell service company (which I don't have, a code that is), etc. Still no pseech. Yes I checked the mute button.

I'm going to see if my wife can help me do a software update on the new phone later this evening.

Thanks for being supportive.

Joy!

By Andy Lane on Saturday, September 23, 2023 - 14:20

To do this, Press and release the volume up button quickly followed by the volume down button quickly followed by holding the power button for about 10 seconds. That should restart any iPhone. I’m afraid I’m off to sleep now but you’ll be fine. Even if it takes a day. Try the reset and if that doesn’t work you can always plug the phone into a Mac or Pc with iTunes to do a DFU and re-install. I’ll talk you through that tomorrow if you need it but I think the hard reset will be all you’ll need. Good Luck.

By Holger Fiallo on Saturday, September 23, 2023 - 14:20

Press side button and ask Siri to turn voiceover on.

By Andy Lane on Saturday, September 23, 2023 - 14:20

It looks like Bruces phone has frozen. I think his wife is sighted and she’s trying to tap things on the screen but nothing is happening. Good thought though.

By Andy Lane on Saturday, September 23, 2023 - 14:20

Sorry Bruce I didn’t read that part. Looks like it’s just voiceover thats deserted you. If your wife is setting things up and its going fine, don’t worry about the hard reset, I’m sure voiceover will be back next time the phone restarts.

By Dominic on Saturday, September 23, 2023 - 14:20

If all your stuff is on the cloud set your device up of you and I’m pretty sure you can get all your stuff back via iCloud or Google

By Michael Hansen on Saturday, September 23, 2023 - 14:20

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

Hi Bruce,

What you describe sounds similar to a known issue that Apple addressed with the iOS 17.0.2 update. (The iOS 17.0.2 update is only for the iPhone 15 models, so it won't show up on your older phone.) According to this Apple Support article,, the solution to resolve this issue is to restore your iPhone using a computer. I have restored many an iPhone over the last 13 years, and the process is very doable without sighted assistance if necessary. Let us know how it goes.

By TamagotchiTune on Saturday, September 23, 2023 - 14:20

So far im enjoying my new iPhone 15 pro. Im not sure how dynamic island works so I havent played with it much. Love how my speakers sound normal again. My old phone I messed them up accidently. Im struggling using Braille screen input but I wonder if its because im used to having a case to hold on to if that makes any since. It does in my head. I dont know if this is just a new ios thing but tapping on apps I want is not reliable. So when I want to use twitter for example it takes me to safari or another random app. or when im in an app it randomly takes me to the item chooser. Im coming from a 11 pro so im guessing its a lot i just might need to get used to. Its only my first few hours with my 15 pro.

By Andy Lane on Saturday, September 23, 2023 - 14:20

I too have a notes folder full of probably meaningless meaningful thoughts and ideas. I’d be mortified if anyone read it. lol. Dictaphone seems like the ideal use for the action button, great to hear it stops as well as starts recording. A proper dictaphone in software. Such a shame only one action can be assigned so far. I think my ideal would be single press toggle mute, double press open Be My Eyes and take a photo in Be My AI which I don’t think exists yet but I know they have it on their list of features they’re working on and triple press dictaphone. Come on Apple give the people what they want, let the action button out of jail.

By Bingo Little on Saturday, September 23, 2023 - 14:20

can't believe someone hasn't said that yet! AS I've said elsewhere, I'm not about to get one of these bleeders this year - as I've also said elsewhere, trying to sell Bingo Towers and such projects tend to have a deleterious effect on the budget surplus - but I do have to admit to liking the voice memos action button interaction Oliver describes. If any of you gets to play with Point and speak on your new toys, I'd be interested to know how that goes. The review on Livving Blindfully was rather down beat.

By Andy Lane on Saturday, September 23, 2023 - 14:20

I’ve had a play with it on my 14 Pro Max but haven’t found myself going back to it. Partly because it’s buried in such a strange place that needs multiple interactions to enable and partly because it just wasn’t that affective for me. I can imagine it being great for someone with low vision. If you could see where the button label was but couldn’t read it, it might work well but with no sight at all. I couldn’t get it to work reliably. Also holding the phone and pointing shouldn’t be hard but for some reason I didn’t find it as easy as it sounds. It’s definitely not a reason to upgrade to a Pro phone with LIDAR for me. Non of the identification categories have been yet. What I’d love to see is identify chair and if it’s empty or not. For restaurants, shopping centres and obviously trains. That might well be the killer feature for me. If it worked well anyway.

By Bruce Harrell on Saturday, September 23, 2023 - 14:20

I offer my heartfelt thanks to all who reached out to me with helpful suggestions and support. Andy was first in line, suggesting I try a hard reset and giving instructions how to do it. Smile. In the end, after conducting a hard reset, when language selection came up, my wife, for the first time, noticed the instruction to swipe up when the preferred language appears, which she did, which in turn finished the language selection process and took us to the "put your old iPhone next to your new iPhone" process, which is running right now, not unlike this sentence which is also running, although I suspect this sentence will finish long before the bluetooth transfer from old phone to new phone has been completed, not that I'll know right away since the two phones are upstairs, and I'm downstairs, and my wife is about to walk a neighbor's dog for her, she being someone recovering from knee surgery, but, as you might just suspect by now, I digress.

Smile. Thank you! I'll post again if it actually words.

Joy!

Bruce

By Andy Lane on Saturday, September 23, 2023 - 14:20

It’s nice to help each other out and applevis is great for that. If the transfer doesn’t work this time though, you may need to go through a bit of a process. If it stops, try the hard reset again, if that doesn’t work you’ll need to plug it into your PC or Mac to update it. If the hard reset does work again then you will need to set the phone up as a new iPhone without transferring anything, once the phone is working you can go to settings, general, software update and you’ll find 17.0.2. Update to that then restart the phone and go back to settings then transfer or reset iPhone, erase all content and settings. You’ll be asked for your Apple ID password. This time when the phone restarts, you can do the transfer and it should work fine. Thats all if you have another problem but fingers crossed everything will be fine. I just wanted to leave instructions in case you needed them.

By Bruce Harrell on Saturday, September 23, 2023 - 14:20

Hi All,

I'm very happy to report that the iCloud backup restore worked! Unfortunately, even with the IOS 17.02 upgrade, the put the phones next to each other b bluetooth method never worked. Still, that's all in the past. Smile. Thank you again to all who offered advice and support.

Next, a few observations about the new iPhone 15 Pro:
1. The power button is easier to depress than my 10S power button, perhaps too easy.
2. The action button is pretty stiff, which is good, avoiding accidental depression.
3. The phone is snappy, fast, and seemingly quick to learn, which is a definite plus.
4. I still have a ton of exploring to do! Smile. So many bells and whistles! Lidar, for example, and the dynamic island (which the 10S didn't have), and more and more.
5. I like the more subtle haptic and tones. Less intrusive.
6. Hefty battery life compared to an old 10S! Almost double!
7. The speaking rate rotor doesn't change the speaking rate.
8. Drumroll please . . . NO FOCUS JUMPING PROBLEM!!! At least none so far. fingers crossed

Joy!

Bruce

By Andy Lane on Saturday, September 23, 2023 - 14:20

I’m so happy your phone is up and running. It’s amazing how quickly we forget the problems once everything is up and running. Wow, 10 s to 15 pro is a huuuuuuge jump. I’m not surprised you are enjoying the new phone. The longest I’ve gone is 11 pro max to 14 pro max. I noticed a massive improvement in those 3 years but I can only imagine how great updating from 5 years ago is. I hope you enjoy your new toy.

By Bingo Little on Saturday, September 23, 2023 - 14:20

I tried it in January 2022 and it was rubbish. Never again, folks; never again. Jolly old iCloud restore will be the route Bingo next takes, probably in the autumn of 2024. God willing, in the new Bingo Towers.

By Holger Fiallo on Saturday, September 23, 2023 - 14:20

FYI. Jonathan Mosen did a podcast on how to use the new features on iOS 17, including how to add widgets and hopefully wall papers on the lock screen. It should be out Tuesday. livingblindfully. Also regarding transfer from phone to phone no issues with it when I did it last Nov from my 12 pro to 13 pro or when I help a sweet lady going from her 6 to 12 pro.

By Holger Fiallo on Saturday, September 23, 2023 - 14:20

Works. Maybe he did it the wrong way. The person in AppleInsider mention that he use it to transfer to his 15 pro max. As I stated it work for me. You do not need WIFI for it. Is from phone from phone.

By Andy Lane on Saturday, September 23, 2023 - 14:20

Like you, I’m pretty sure it’s Bluetooth for the low bandwidth sharing of account detail then WiFi for the transfer but I’ve never had much luck with it. Waiting round for hours on end seems a bit pointless when we’ve got iCloud. I think the direct transfer probably sends everything whereas iCloud requires a bit of downloading of content etc but I’ve always got on better with it. Yeh chair detection would definitely cut down on those chance meetings we enjoy sitting in peoples laps but I still think it would be a genuinely useful feature even if it makes life a little less entertaining. Hehe. The point and speak feature is located in that strange magnifier app. It’s not a very intuitive interface but if you want to give it a go, triple tap with 4 fingers to launch then turn detection mode on and find point and speak. Good luck, I didn’t get much benefit from it but I hope you do better.

By Holger Fiallo on Saturday, September 23, 2023 - 14:20

It transfer also your passwords so you do not need to waist time having to sign in and put password for most of your apps. It was fast when I did so. I am sure now that Apple uses US C to US c you could do it in the future by connecting both phone together.

By Orlando on Saturday, September 23, 2023 - 14:20

Hi everyone,
I am upgrading from an iPhone SE 2020 edition to the new iPhone 15 standard. Yes, I am giving up my home button that I’ve gotten so accustomed to!! What are some things that I will have to learn to do differently without the touch Button? I know that Face ID is replacing touch ID. Is there anything else in terms of navigating that is different?
Thank you.

By Holger Fiallo on Saturday, September 23, 2023 - 14:20

Thomas did a podcast on how to use the new gestures. I think there is a podcast on setting face ID but not sure.

By Brian on Saturday, September 23, 2023 - 14:20

You will have to learn how to use the home screen gesture. I to have an iPhone SE 2020, but I have friends with both the iPhone 13 and 14. If I recall correctly, the default gesture is a slide upwards from the bottom of the phone, to about 1/3 up the middle of the screen. You can, of course, program a custom gesture within voiceover settings as well.

HTH.

By Julian on Saturday, September 23, 2023 - 14:20

I went from the SE-3 to the 15 Pro and using the phone to phone method worked for me. The only issue I ran into was going from the physical SIM to the E-SIM. I ended up skipping that part during the set up and continued it later via settings and it then worked flawlessly. In my personal opinion the phone to phone method is as good as the restoring from an encrypted backup via iTunes was back in the day.

By Andy Lane on Saturday, September 23, 2023 - 14:20

There aren’t many, As said above Tomas did a podcast you can find. Basically you’ve got swipe up from the bottom of the phone for home, swipe further up from the bottom for app switcher, put focus in the status bar and swipe down with 3 fingers for Notification Centre and focus in the status bar and swipe up for control centre. I personally assign 4 finger swipe up from anywhere to control centre and 4 finger swipe down from anywhere to Notification Centre. You’ve also got 4 finger swipe left and right to flick through the apps without going to the app switcher. Remember when using Face ID, don’t move the phone too close to your face. Maybe 12 inches should be the closest. I hope you enjoy your new phone. Let me know if you have any problems.

By Andy Lane on Saturday, September 23, 2023 - 14:20

Holgar, yes as I understand it, that and the fact it sends all your application data thats on the phone are the main advantages. It just takes too long for me, I want to play with my new phone. It also failed too many times for me to trust it. The only thing I don’t have backed up to iCloud is Audible library so it’s not too bad for me. I hope they enable USB C, that would get things done in minutes but I feel like they wouldn’t do that because they don’t put a high speed USB cable in the box and don’t like admitting that cables are better than wireless. Fingers very much crossed for next year though.

By Danny Norris on Monday, October 23, 2023 - 14:20

I went from a 12 Pro to the 15 Pro. Mine only took 20 minutes or would have had I remembered what my Apple App Store password was. I had to restart 2 or 3 times but finally decided to just continue without inputting the password. The transfer only took 20 minutes and you have ample chances to get the password to Apple App Store figured out. The password request will keep popping up for a while then you can go into settings to get that straightened out. The Apple apps will download automatically but the rest of the apps will say something like Downcast in iCloud. Just double tap it and it will download. You will need to do all the apps the same way.
Haven’t had much of a chance to see the Dynamic Island in action but will be very useful. iOS17 we can now have multiple timers and you can label them. I started 3 timers and they show up in the Dynamic Island. All you have to do is touch at the top of the screen and you will hear the timer with the least time on it. When you expand the Dynamic Island, you will see all 3 timers. I use Grubhub so that one is not utilizing the Island.
I have MFI hearing aids and sometimes have to reset the bluetooth to get rid of static, so I created a Reset Bluetooth shortcut a couple of years ago. I will tell Siri to reset bluetooth. I was able to assign that shortcut to the action button. But like all of the other complaints about it, that is all the action button will do. You have to go back into settings to switch it back to one of the other actions. Not all that difficult to do but would be nice to have multiple actions assigned to it.

Now that I’m thinking about it, I wonder that since I bypassed the inputting the Apple password, it went faster because the apps won’t download until the password is entered. All of my personal apps were labelled “in iCloud” until I tapped on them.
As someone above mentioned, when you do Phone to Phone all your app passwords will transfer over. Not all but most of them did.
It is snappier than my 12 Pro and yes the speaker system on the 15 Pro is very nice.and loud.

danny

By Jonathan Candler on Monday, October 23, 2023 - 14:20

Yall ain't having problems with your phones over heating no? It's all I been hearing about on tiktok and other sources hehehe. Oh and let's not forget that mentioning that these phones bend easily Lol. I won't be getting one just, ah... You know, wondering.

By Danny Norris on Monday, October 23, 2023 - 14:20

Although I”ve only used the magnetic charging system since I’ve gotten it. Not sure how those that are saying theirs is overheating are charging theirs.

By Andy Lane on Monday, October 23, 2023 - 14:20

I am starting to think people just go looking for new gates with iPhone releases. It’s a really compelling way to make people click like and subscribe so theres an obvious motivation to manufacture outrage. The problem is knowing whether that outrage is justified. I’m not convinced it is this year. Charging by MagSafe should produce the most heat as 30% is lost directly to heat before the phone even starts charging which produces its own heat. If there was a genuine problem it seems like MagSafe would reliably reproduce the problem. It’s at least possible that when people were installing all their apps and data that the processor was running a little hot and if the phone was charging at the same time I guess that could have made the phone overheat. Especially in a hot country. It just doesn’t seem to be the problem some are trying to make it look like but I guess thats easy for me to say when I don’t have a 15 pro to even have a chance of overheating.

By Bruce Harrell on Monday, October 23, 2023 - 14:20

I agree with Andy, of course.

Meanwhile, wholly aside, I hate it when people say, "I don't have that problem." Today, however, smiling, I don't hate it because I get to say it!

My wife thinks I went a little crazy buying accessories for my new iPhone 15 Pro. She is right, of course. I now have 4 transparent cases, 6 battery cases, and a wireless mag safe charger that magnetically attaches to the back of my phone. I think I went a bit nuts. Why, you ask? Because it turns out I am very happy with my phone. Looks like a keeper!

I sincerely hope everyone with a new 15 pro feels the same, or if not now, then soon.

Joy!

Bruce