The iPhone 15 and 15 Plus are Apple's latest non-pro smartphones, equipped with a number of new features. But are they worth the upgrade if you have an iPhone 13? Follow along for a more in-depth review of the iPhone 13 and 15 and everything that's changed, plus a buyer's guide.
Table of Contents
- iPhone 13 vs 15
- Screen sizes and design
- Performance – A16 vs A15 Bionic
- Battery life
- iPhone 13 vs. 15 cameras
- iPhone 13 vs. 15 inputs/outputs
- Security
- iPhone 15 colors
- Storage and price
- What's in the box?
- iPhone 13 vs 15: buyer's guide
We'll focus solely on the iPhone 13 vs 15 /Plus below, to compare the 13 Pro vs 15 Pro and 15 vs 15 Pro, check out our dedicated guides:
- iPhone 13 Pro vs 15 Pro: Is the upgrade change enough?
- iPhone 15 vs 15 Pro: here are all the differences
iPhone 13 vs 15
Screen sizes and design
The screen sizes of the iPhone 13 and 15 remain the same – 6.1 inches. However, the 15 Plus offers a 6.7-inch option that wasn't available in the iPhone 13 lineup without upgrading to the 13 Pro Max.
New to the iPhone 15 displays is Dynamic Island and open brightness up to 2,000 nits.
Here's a full overview of the iPhone 13 and iPhone 15 display specs:
| iPhone 13 | iPhone 15 | iPhone 15 Plus | |
| Size | 6.1 inches | 6.1 inches | 6.7 -inches |
| Resolution | 2532 x 1170 pixels | 2556 x 1179 pixels | 2796 x 1290 pixels |
| PPI | 460 pixels per inch | 460 pixels per inch | 460 ppi |
| Super Retina XDR OLED | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Dynamic Island | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| ProMotion – adaptive refresh up to 120 Hz | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Always on | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Typical brightness | max. 800 nits | 1000 nits maximum | maximum 1000 nits |
| HDR brightness | 1200 nits max | 1600 nits max | 1600 nits max |
| Outdoor brightness | – | 2000 nits maximum | 2000 nits max |
| True Tone | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Tactile touch | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Wide color (P3) | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Frames iPhone 15 is also thinner than iPhone 13, allowing for a slight increase in pixel count.
Size, weight, design
The overall appearance of the iPhone 15 remains very similar to the iPhone 13, but Apple has given the iPhone 15 more rounded edges. more comfortable feel.
And, as mentioned above, you now have a larger iPhone 15 Plus variant.
In terms of size, weight, and materials, here's the iPhone 13 vs. 15:
| iPhone 13 | iPhone 15 | iPhone 15 Plus | |
| Height | 5.78 inches (146.7 mm) | 5.81 inches (147.6 mm) | 6.33 inches (160.9 mm) |
| Width | 2.82 inches (71.5 mm) | 2.82 inches (71.6 mm) | 3.06 inches ( 77.8 mm) |
| Thickness | 0.30 inches (7.65 mm) | 0.31 inches (7.80 mm) |
0.31 inches (7.80 mm) |
| Weight | 6 .14 ounces (174 grams) | 6.02 ounces (171 grams) |
7.09 ounces (201 grams) |
| Durability | IP68 (splashes, dust, 6 meters of water up to 30 minutes | IP68 (splashes, dust, 6 meters of water up to 30 minutes | IP68 (splashes, dust, 6 meters of water up to 30 minutes) |
| Front with ceramic shield | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Back material | Glass | Glass | Glass |
| Edges | Aluminium | Aluminium | Aluminum |
Of course, the new iPhones also come in new colors, we’ll talk about this in detail below. Here are some options for protecting your iPhone 15:
- Nomad leather and sport cases.
- Mujjo leather cases.
- Clear and speckled hard cases.
- Transparent and hard cases ZAGG
- OtterBox Clear and Hard Cases
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Performance – A16 vs A15 Bionic
Here's a breakdown of the specs iPhone 13 and iPhone 15 chips:
| iPhone 13 | iPhone 15 | iPhone 15 Plus | ||||||
| SoC> | A15 Bionic | A16 Bionic | A16 Bionic | |||||
| CPU | 6-core processor: 2 performance + 4 efficiency | 6-core: 2 performance + 4 efficiency | 6-core: 2 performance + 4 efficiency | 6-core: 2 performance + 4 efficiency | 6-core: 2 performance + 4 efficiency | 6-core: 2 performance + 4 efficiency | 6-core: 2 performance + 4 efficiency | |
| GPU | 4-core | 5-core | 5-core | |||||
| Neural mechanism | 16-core | 16-core | 16-core | |||||
| RAM | 4 GB | 6 GB | 6 GB |
Both the A15 and A16 Bionic are powerful enough for almost everyone. But GeekBench offers a look at the performance difference between the A15 and A16 Bionic.
- Single-core results are 16% faster.
- Multi-core results are 21% faster.
- 29% faster GPU
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| iPhone 13 | iPhone 15 | iPhone 15 Plus | |
| One – main score | 2188 | 2546 | 2559 |
| Multi-core evaluation | 5181 | 6309 | 6371 |
| Metal Assessment (GPU) | 17390 | 22456 | 22504 |
Battery life
What Regarding battery life, the iPhone 15 has one hour longer battery life for video playback than the 13, and 5 hours longer for audio playback.
iPhone 15 Plus offers 7 hours more video playback time and 25 hours more. audio than on the iPhone 13.
| iPhone 13 | iPhone 15 | iPhone 15 Plus | |
| Video playback | 19 o'clock | 20 hours | 26 hours |
| Sound play > | 75 hours | 80 hours | 100 hours |
For comparisons up to iPhone 14 and later, read our full post on iPhone 15 battery life:
- iPhone 15 battery life: What you'll get and how it compares to iPhone 14 and later
iPhone 13 and 15 cameras
Rear cameras
iPhone 15 and 15 Plus feature a 48 MP main rear camera, a next-generation portrait camera with focus and depth control, Smart HDR 5 and many others.
The main camera of the iPhone 15/Plus is also equipped with more powerful sensors. and supports ultra-high-resolution photo shooting at 24 and 48 MP.
| iPhone 13 | iPhone 15 | iPhone 15 Plus | |||||
| Basic lens | 12MP, ƒ/1.6 aperture | 48MP, ƒ Aperture /1.6 | 48MP , aperture ƒ/1.6 | ||||
| Main lens sensor | Pixel 1.9 µm | 2 µm pixel | 2 micron pixel | ||||
| Ultra-wide lens | 12MP, ƒ/2.4 aperture | 12MP, ƒ/2.4| 12MP, ƒ/2.4 aperture |
12MP, aperture ƒ/2.4 |
12MP, aperture ƒ/2.4 |
12MP, ƒ/2.4 aperture |
|
|
| Telephoto | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ||||
| Stabilization | Sensor-shift optical image stabilization | Optical image stabilization with sensor shift | Optical image stabilization with sensor shift | ||||
| Optical zoom | 0.5x, 1x | 0.5x, 1x, 2x | 0 ,5x, 1x, 2x | ||||
| Flash | True Tone flash with slow sync | True Tone Flash | True Tone Flash | ||||
| Photonic Engine | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ||||
| Deep Fusion | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ||||
| Smart HDR 4 | ✅ | – | – | ||||
| Smart HDR 5 | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ||||
| Next generation portraits with focus and depth control | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ||||
| Portrait lighting with six effects | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ||||
| Night mode | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ||||
| Night mode portraits | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ||||
| Photo styles | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ||||
| Apple ProRAW | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
Video Recording
The main new video recording feature on iPhone 15/Plus compared to iPhone 13 is Action Mode.
Other new Video features are reserved for the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max this year.
| iPhone 13 | iPhone 15 | iPhone 15 Plus | |
| 4K recording | ✅ – at a frequency of 24, 25, 30 or 60 frames per second | ✅ – at a frequency of 24, 25, 30 or 60 frames per second | ✅ – at 24, 25, 30 or 60 frames per second |
| 1080p recording | ✅ – at 25, 30 or 60 frames per second | ✅ – at 25, 30 or 60 frames per second | ✅ – at 25, 30 or 60 fps |
| Cinematic mode | ✅ – up to 1080p at 30 fps | ✅ – up to 4K HDR at 30fps | ✅ – up to 4K HDR at 30 fps |
| Action mode | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| HDR/Dolby Vision recording | ✅ – up to 4K HDR at 60 fps | ✅ – up to 4K HDR at 60 fps | ✅ – up to 4K HDR at 60fps |
| Recording in ProRes format | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Video recording log | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Macro video recording | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Spatial video recording | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Slow-motion recording | ✅ – 1080p at 120 or 240 fps | ✅ –1080p at 120 or 240 fps | ✅ –1080p at 120 or 240 fps |
| Time Lapse with stabilization | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Night mode Time-lapse | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Quick video | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Stabilization | Sensor shift optical image stabilization for video | Sensor-shift optical image stabilization for video | Sensor-shift optical image stabilization for video |
| Audio zoom | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Stereo recording | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Selfie camera
Apple front camera TrueDepth on the iPhone 15 has received a number of updates to the main rear camera.
| iPhone 13 | iPhone 15 | iPhone 15 Plus | |
| TrueDepth front camera | 12 MP, ƒ/2.2 aperture | 12MP, aperture ƒ/1.9 | 12MP, aperture ƒ/1.9 |
| Retina Flash | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Photonic Engine | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Deep Fusion | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Smart HDR 4 for photos | ✅ | – | – |
| Smart HDR 5 for photos | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Next – generation of portraits with focus and depth control | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Portrait lighting with six effects | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Animoji and Memoji | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Night mode | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Photo styles | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| 4K recording | ✅ – at 24, 25, 30 or 60 frames per second | ✅ – at 24, 25, 30 or 60 frames per second | ✅ – at 24, 25, 30 or 60 frames per second |
| Cinematic mode | ✅ – up to 1080p at 30 fps | ✅ – up to 4K HDR at 30 fps | ✅ – up to 4K HDR at 30 fps |
| HDR/Dolby Image recording | ✅ – up to 4K HDR at 60 speed frames per second | ✅ – up to 4K HDR at 60 fps | ✅ – up to 4K HDR at 60 fps |
| Recording in ProRes | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Slow motion recording | ✅ – 1080p at 120 fps | ✅ – 1080p at 120 fps | ✅ – 1080p at 120 fps |
| Fast video | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Cinematic video stabilization | ✅ – for 4K, 1080p, 720p | ✅ – for 4K, 1080p, 720p | ✅ – for 4K, 1080p, 720p |
iPhone 13 vs 15 I/O
The main I/O change for the iPhone 15 is the move from Lightning to USB-C.
Unfortunately, only the 15 Pro and Pro Max offer much faster data transfer speeds, with USB 3 support up to 10 Gbps. The 15 and 15 Plus models have USB 2 speeds of up to 480 Mbps.
- iPhone 15 Pro supports USB 3 speeds of 10 Gbps and offers many cool features.
Two more differences between the iPhone 15 and iPhone 13 include Bluetooth and UWB updates.
| iPhone 13 | iPhone 15 | iPhone 15 Plus | |
| Lightning | ✅ – with speeds up to 480 Mbit/s | ❌ | ❌ |
| USB-C | ❌ | ✅ – USB 2 with speeds up to 480 Mbit/s | ✅ – USB 2 with speeds up to 480 Mbit/s |
| Face ID | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| WiFi | 6 | 6 | 6 |
| Bluetooth | 5.0 | 5.3 | 5.3 |
| Ultra Wideband | ✅ – generation 1 | substance – generation 2 | ✅ – generation 2 |
| NFC with read mode | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Cellular communication | GSM/EDGE, UMTS/HSPA+, DC-HSDPA | GSM/EDGE, UMTS/HSPA+, DC-HSDPA | GSM/EDGE, UMTS/HSPA+, DC-HSDPA |
| 5G | Sub-6 GHz and mmWave with MIMO 4×4 | Sub-6 GHz and mmWave with 4×4 MIMO | Sub-6 GHz and mmWave with 4×4 MIMO |
| GPS | GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, QZSS and BeiDou | GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, QZSS and BeiDou | GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, QZSS and BeiDou |
| Sound playback | Spatial Audio/Dolby Atmos | Spatial Audio/Dolby Atmos | Spatial Audio/Dolby Atmos |
| Video Playback | HDR with Dolby Vision, HDR10 and HLG | HDR with Dolby Vision , HDR10 and HLG | HDR with Dolby Vision, HDR10 and HLG |
| SIM card | Two active eSIM cards or nano-SIM and eSIM | Dual eSIM in US – physical enabled for most other countries | Dual eSIM in US – physical enabled for most other countries |
| MagSafe | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Qi and Qi2 | Yes, and I’m not sure | Yes and yes? | Yes and yes? |
Will the new iPhone 15 devices support Qi2, Apple says yes, but it's a little confusing:
- iPhone 15 supports Qi2 for wireless charging… but no one knows what that means
So it's also unclear whether the iPhone 13 will support Qi2.
Security
iPhone 15 has two more advanced security features than the iPhone 13 Pro:
| iPhone 13 | iPhone 15/Plus | |
| Emergency call | ✅ | ✅ |
| Failure detection | ❌ | ✅ |
| Road assistance via satellite | ❌ | ✅ |
iPhone 15 colors
iPhone 15 and 15 Plus included these five color colors are:
- Black
- Blue
- Green
- Yellow
- Pink
Storage and Pricing
iPhone 15/Plus comes with the following storage options:
- 128GB – $799/$899
- 256GB – $899/$999
- 512GB – $1099/$1199
What's in the box?
iPhone 15/Plus comes with iPhone and USB-C cable in the box.
If you need a power adapter, choose a power rating of at least 20W to ensure your iPhone charges quickly. Good options:
- Anker 20W Nano Pro (super compact)
- Nomad 20W power adapter (black and compact)
- Official Apple 20W adapter
iPhone 13 and 15: buyer's guide
Best comment from Nathan Lesman
I couldn’t bring myself to upgrade from iPhone 13 to 15. I wanted to, but with so little the number of distinctive features simply does not make sense. I would love to have USB-C, a dynamic island, and a crash satellite, but it's not enough. I think I'll upgrade to 16.
View all comments
The iPhone 15 and 15 Plus are fantastic smartphones, but whether you should upgrade from 13 will depend on how you want to use your iPhone and what features you consider important.
Reasons to consider upgrading to iPhone 15 or 15 Plus:
- More powerful and capable cameras
- Dynamic Island
- USB-C
- Faster chip and more powerful GPU for mobile gaming
- Collision detection and satellite roadside assistance
What do you think? Are there enough updates to upgrade to iPhone 15? Share your thoughts in the comments!
Thanks for reading our iPhone 13 and 15 guide!
