Review: Six Months With the iPhone 15 Pro (2024)

Wednesday April 10, 2024 10:53 am PDT by Juli Clover

It's been a bit over six months since the iPhone 15 lineup came out in September, and MacRumors videographer Dan Barbera has been using an iPhone 15 Pro Max sans case since launch. Over on our YouTube channel, Dan did a long term review to demo how his phone has held up and his thoughts on the Action button, battery life, and camera features.

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The ‌iPhone 15 Pro‌ and Pro Max are Apple's first iPhones with a titanium shell instead of a stainless steel or aluminum shell, and titanium is supposed to be more durable. After suffering from several drops without a case, Dan's iPhone is scuffed and chipped, but there are no scratches. As for the screen, it has a minor scratch or two.

Battery health is at 98 percent and 174 cycles, and there have been some fluctuations in battery life with software updates. It's a little hard to get a solid read on battery because of day-to-day differences in usage.

Some people have had trouble finding a use for the Action button, but assigning it to the camera is one way to ensure that it gets used. With the camera setting, a quick press on the button launches the camera so there's no need to press on the Home Screen or open up the Camera app. Apple is rumored to be adding a dedicated Capture button for the camera with the iPhone 16 models, so the Action button might get less useful at that point for those who use it for the camera.

For ‌iPhone 15 Pro‌ owners, how's your battery life, and do you use the Action button? Let us know in the comments below.

Related Roundup: iPhone 15 Pro

Buyer's Guide: iPhone 15 Pro (Neutral)

[ 143 comments ]

Top Rated Comments

mrat93

3 days ago at 10:59 am

100% capacity with 293 charge cycles and 80% limit enabled. I just wish there was an easy way to disable that mode for a day or week, rather than digging through settings.

Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)

3 days ago at 11:14 am

Long time lurker, first time poster ?
My 15 Pro Max's battery is also at 98% after 178 cycles. It's been fluxing most days for me as well, but just recently (literally yesterday and today) for some unknown reason, the battery has been really excellent and more on par with battery life I'd expect from a Max series iPhone. I can't recall changing any of my usage habits or anything, I usually use it as my virtual key to get into where I work, photo taking, web browsing/video, calls/FaceTime and reading (as well as a disgusting amount of Youtube shorts) and have LTE turned on instead of 5G. infact the only thing I turned on was battery percentage haha. I came from a 13 Pro so I did want the bigger screen and battery of the Max lineup. Overall I've been really happy with the 15 Pro Max, but for a while I was getting battery life that was only slightly better than my old phone. Thermals can be a pain even after the 17.0.3 update. Sometimes it'll just heat up completely out of nowhere on the left side below the volume buttons. I haven't really pinpointed the cause.

Action button is pretty neat. Since launch I've been using Action Button 2.0, which starts the camera, video or triggers silent mode depending on orientation.

Natural Titanium is the best color hands-down!

Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)

dadiy

3 days ago at 10:57 am

Battery is 98% after 269 cycles. I’m looking forward to a battery that can last all day on one charge.

I wish the action button was just a press and not a hold.

Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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