The iPhone 11 Pro was launched in September 2019, and I bought mine about 6 months after that. So now, four years later, I am considering replacing it with an iPhone 15 Pro.
First, the specs:
| Component | iPhone 11 Pro | iPhone 15 Pro |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | A13 | A17 Pro |
| GeekBench 15 Single-Core | 1329 | 2147 |
| RAM | 4 GB | 8 GB |
| Dims | 144x71.4x8.1 mm | 146.6x70.6x8.25 mm |
| Weight | 188g | 187g |
| Display | 5.8", 60Hz, 8bit, 800-1200 nits max | 6.1", 1-120 Hz, 8 bit (?), 1000-2000 nits max |
| Wi-Fi | 6 | 6E |
| Price | $1,149 (256GB) | $1,300 (512GB) |
| Camera | iPhone 11 Pro | iPhone 15 Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Main | 12 MP | 48 MP |
| Ulta-Wide | 12 MP | 12 MP |
| Telephoto | 12 MP, 2x zoom | 12 MP 3x zoom |
What has happened in iPhone land in the four years since I bought my 11 Pro?
First of all, I've used up 1/2 of my 256 GB of storage, which is my personal heuristic for when it's time to double my available storage. That means I'll want a 512 GB iPhone 15 Pro. The 256 GB iPhone 11 Pro was $1,150 in March 2020 dollars which the BLS says is the same as $1390 in March 2024. By that reckoning, the 512 GB iPhone 15 Pro is actually cheaper than the 256GB 11 Pro in real terms, since it only costs $1,300 nominally. (I was a grad student in March 2020, so my salary has gone up since then in real terms too.)
Just like the storage the amount of RAM available at the same price point has also doubled, from 4GB to 8GB.
The CPU is about 50% faster for single-threaded operations (2147 vs 1329) which seems roughly consistent with industry trends over that time.
The display technology has taken a major leap, from a fixed 60hz to a variable 1-120hz display. That's a nice quality of life improvement - I have an M2 Mac Pro with a 120hz display and it's very noticeable.
The largest leaps seem to be in the camera performance. It's hard for me to capture in a table because I don't know anything about cameras, but my understanding is that especially the low-light performance has improved dramatically. Unfortunately for Apple, I'm a complete camera ignoramus and I am perfectly satisfied with how my 11 Pro's camera already performans, so much of this effort is probably lost on me.
There's an assortment of other improvements (magsafe, USB-C) that I appreciate, and changes (dynamic island, always-on display, action button) that I don't feel very strongly about.
My largest concern is that the 15 Pro was really designed before the current generative AI and langauge model hype really got ramped up. Especially the CPU design probably started 4 or 5 years ago, well before most people were thinking about LLMs. If Apple is really going to introduce some on-device LLM technology, the iPhone 15 may not have been designed for it. and if Apple's history is any indication, they'll withhold features from the 15 rather than release something shoddy. It would be a real bummer to buy this phone today, only to have improvements to Siri or on-device AI be withheld when iOS 18 and iPhone 16 come out.