Apple released a few different iPhone models back in September 2023, including the flagship iPhone 15 and the iPhone 15 Plus.
Despite being very similar, these two phones do have some differences between them that affect your decision making between the two.
Keep reading to learn more about the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus and see how they compare on key points, including their design, performance and battery life.
Pricing and availability
Both the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus launched in September 2023. The iPhone 15 is the cheaper of the two, starting from £799/$799, whereas the iPhone 15 Plus starts from £899/$899.
Design
The main difference between the design of the two iPhones is that the iPhone 15 Plus is larger, with the screen measuring up at 6.7 inches compared to the smaller iPhone 15’s 6.1-inch panel.
The iPhone 15 Plus also has a 2796×1290 resolution compared to the smaller model, but unsurprisingly so. The iPhone 15 has a 2556×1179-pixel resolution. This means that the iPhone 15 Plus is the same size and has the same resolution as the iPhone 15 Pro Max.
Otherwise both the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus have a pretty similar design, with the same five colour choices and the glass black and aluminium design.
Camera
There aren’t any differences between the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus when it comes to the cameras. Both have a new 48MP main camera that enables super-high resolution photos, and a 12MP Ultra-Wide camera.
From our reviews, both the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus excelled at shooting in low light. Our Mobiles Editor, Lewis Painter, said “low light is one area where the iPhone 15 Plus has seen a considerable improvement year-on-year, delivering shots not that far off what you’ll get from the iPhone 15 Pro. It was quickly able to capture images in even extremely dim situations, like a moonlit lawn.”
However, our Editor Max Parker noted that the iPhone 15 “still has a very reflective lens that makes itself too often known when shooting in darker situations with lots of streetlights.”
Performance
Similarly, there isn’t much of a difference between the performance of the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus. Both run on Apple’s A16 Bionic Chip which was unveiled with the iPhone 14 launch back in 2022.
Although this isn’t Apple’s most up to date chip, as they have since released the A17 Bionic Chip into the iPhone 15 Pro models, we have found the A16 to remain a great option for its price and still find it to be powerful and can easily outrank multiple Android alternatives.
In our Benchmark tests we found that the iPhone 15 actually had a higher fps for gaming than the iPhone 15 Plus, 60fps compared to 49fps. It’s surprising to see there was a difference in performance here, given both phones share the same chip.
Both models are also paired with 6GB memory and are available with either 128GB, 256GB or 512GB of internal storage too.
Battery life
On paper, the iPhone 15 Plus seems like a better choice if you want a phone that has a longer battery life, as Apple claims up to 26 hours of video playback compared to just 20 hours with the iPhone 15.
In our benchmark tests, we found 60 minutes of Netflix ate 8% of the iPhone 15’s battery compared to just 6% of iPhone 15 Plus’ battery. After 30 minutes of light gaming, the iPhone 15 lost 8% of battery compared to iPhone 15 Plus’ loss of 7%.
The battery life of the iPhone 15 Plus impressed our reviewer, Mobiles Editor Lewis Painter, who noted that “the iPhone was used for around 18 hours with a combination of 6 and a half hours of screen-on time and another 2 hours of screen-off usage listening to music, and I still had 34% left in the tank when I went to plug it in at around midnight.”
Finally, both iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus support wireless charging and have seen shifts from Lightning to USB-C charging for wired charging.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
