4 little-talked-about features on the new iPhone 15 series that you should know about

Apple doesn’t reveal all of the new bells and whistles on their phones, and there are some novelties that have gone almost unnoticed

Here are some of the lesser-known features to know about before buying an iPhone 15 model. (Apple)

Apple recently enabled the presales of its new line of smartphones, which includes the iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, opening up the door for hundreds of thousands of Apple fans to reserve the latest mobile technology from the company.

Fans are of course excited for some of the highly-publicized features the new phones bring, which were announced last month at Apple's event in Cupertino, California, at the company's headquarters. Some notable updates included the A17 Pro chip, which will be the processor for some of the models, as well as the new USB-C charging port, which will standardize Apple's charging along with its competitors.

However, as is customary with big product launches, Apple doesn't reveal all of the new bells and whistles on their phones, and there are some novelties that have gone almost unnoticed, but are still worth checking out.

Not sure which
mobile to buy?

Here are some of the lesser-known features to know about before buying an iPhone 15 model.

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A new UWB chip that is quite useful

Apple announced an improved ultra-wideband (UWB) chip, which is really cool for users as it facilitates communication (in the form of location) between two devices with the same chip, but now with even greater distance between them.

The upgraded chip will allow the iPhone 15 series to perform much better in several scenarios where location comes into play. For example, finding friends in a crowd (e.g. at concerts and sporting events or crowded airports or train stations), as well as locating lost objects with AirTags.

Apple first showcased this technology in its Apple Watch Series 9 during an event on 12 September. A video they played showed how the watch could function very precisely to guide a user to their lost iPhone 15, demonstrating amazing geo-location capabilities even across long distances.

Support for Thread Network (iPhone 15 Pro models only)

Another thing that stands out is that iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max models will arrive as the first smartphones on the market to include support for Thread, a low-power mesh networking protocol that has been labeled the backbone of the connected home, as it enables integration and communication between different smart home devices and is being integrated into a wide variety of smart devices such as motion sensors, lights, door locks and more.

While it's not entirely clear at the moment why Apple decided to include this feature in the iPhone 15 Pro models, the move signals that the company could be moving to allow direct control of home automation devices that are compatible with the Thread protocol.

Surely Apple's Home app will have a major update to take advantage of this, considering that Thread has already been incorporated into Apple products such as the HomePod mini and Apple TV.

DisplayPort: Screen mirroring now up to 4K

A new feature that was updated on Apple's support page is the ability to project the screen of all iPhone 15 models onto external displays such as TVs or monitors with improved image quality.

Thanks to the arrival of USB-C, the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro support DisplayPort for screen mirroring with 4K and HDR video. Although, at the moment, there is no way to test whether the difference between the USB-C of the base models (USB 2.0 up to 480 Mbps) versus that of the "Pro" models (USB 3.2 up to 10 Gbps) can influence the DisplayPort capability.

While that will be confirmed when the devices reach the market, the good news is that an adapter is no longer needed to connect the devices to a monitor or TV. To date, connecting a monitor to an iPhone required a Lightning to HDMI or VGA adapter and video quality was limited to 1080P. It has also been possible via AirPlay but this only works with compatible devices.

Thus, to use DisplayPort, users will only need a USB-C to HDMI cable, helping them avoid buying Apple's USB-C Digital AV Multiport, which retails for around USD $60.

Battery, an almost imperceptible improvement

A major issue smartphone manufacturers such as Samsung, Huawei, Realme and others always highlight during product presentations is battery capacity, and their wired and/or wireless fast-charging power.

The opposite has been true for Apple, which generally doesn't mention these details in company statements and limits the figures it releases surrounding charging times for its smartphones.

However, since this information must be shared with regulatory bodies, it is not easy for the company to hide these details from the public.

Regarding the new iPhone 15 series, the devices have been spotted in a Chinese regulatory database, and according to the document discovered by MySmartPrice, the iPhone 15 has a battery capacity of 3,349mAh and power of 12.981Wh; the iPhone 15 Plus arrives with 4,383mAh battery and 16.950Wh power; the iPhone 15 Pro comes with 3,274mAh and 12.70Wh; and finally the iPhone 15 Pro Max has a 4,422mAh battery and 17.109Wh power.

If we look at the data of the previous models, there is a slight improvement, but truly, it is almost negligible. The iPhone 14 Pro Max has a battery of 4,323mAh, the iPhone 14 Pro 3,200mAh, the iPhone 14 Plus 4,325mAh and the Phone 14 stays at 3,279mAh.

Despite the slight improvements in the four new models over their predecessors, consumers should keep in mind that the newly launched series includes more powerful processors than the iPhone 14 line, therefore, their power demand will be greater, and the slight increase in charging capability could actually get offset.

Still, Apple claims on its product website that the iPhone 15 Pro Max has up to nine hours more (29h) of video playback than the iPhone 12 Pro Max, while the iPhone 15 Pro has up to six hours (23h) more video playback than the iPhone 12 Pro.

In the case of the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus, they offer 26 and 20 hours of playback respectively.

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