We’ve seen a lot of leaks about the iPhone 15 Pro. Assuming the leaks are accurate, the 15 Pro model will come with a new rear design, eliminating uncomfortable flat and sharp edges.
Sharp edges are uncomfortable to hold, leaving dents in your hand. We’ve seen these squared-off designs on iPhones since the 12, and these designs are visually excellent.
Apple is finally planning to change this design. They’re moving to more comfortable round edges. Curved, round edges aren’t new, but Apple adopts different designs every year, either on the front or the rear, to make the phones appear different from the previous generation.
Update 24/02/2023: The iPhone 15 Pro will have a new dark red color option. Here is the first look at the special edition color for iPhone 15 Pro via 9To5Mac.
Ian Zelbo, a popular 3D render creator, in collaboration with 9To5Mac, says that the 15 Pro will have a thicker design with really thin screen bezels. These are in line with earlier rumors.
The screen size will remain at 6.1″ for the Pro model, and you’ll see slightly more screen estate due to visibly slimmer bezels. There’s still the intrusive Dynamic Island cutout on the top, though, and it’ll still interfere with content if Apple doesn’t provide a software solution.
According to the render, the volume and power buttons also look different. The mute switch is still present. We can’t say for sure, but it’s probably because Apple will probably have haptics-based solid-state buttons on the new iPhones.
The 3D renders also showcase a camera module that is slightly thicker and more protrusive if you compare it to the previous ones. The camera module on the iPhone 14 Pro is already huge, and this will be even larger, and you’ll see a lot of table wobbling.
Besides the round edges and thin bezels, the phone follows a similar design identity to previous iPhones. There are triple cameras on the back, all neatly aligned, and there’s the Apple logo at the center.
The transition to the frame is now much more seamless. Ian Zelbo also claims that there’s a slight curve to the display.
If that’s true, then it’s somewhat surprising coming from Apple. Apple sticks to safe flat displays, and they never made a phone with a curved display to date.
The curve is subtle since 2.5D glass isn’t the waterfall-style design we see with some Android flagships.
Moving away from the renders, we also have what’s allegedly a real-life image of the bottom of the new iPhone 15 Pro. There’s one significant change there. Apple is moving away from the slow and outdated lightning port. We see USB Type C.
The USB-C port will probably have the typical Apple restrictions. It’ll only charge with accessories that have the MFI certification. We don’t have information about the charging wattage yet, but it’s probably not super fast, maybe 25 or 27W.
Also, Apple could limit the speeds of data transfer. USB-C Type 2.0 for the vanilla models, and maybe Thunderbolt or Type 3.2 for the Pro models. The sudden move to USB-C is probably because of pressure from the EU.
While the image is probably not a final retail unit, we can assume it’s close to what we’ll see on store shelves in September 2023.
We’ll mostly see the A17 Bionic chip with TSMC’s 3nm processing. The screens could go even brighter, up to 2500 Nits. Many rumors floating online attribute the thicker camera module to a periscope lens, a welcome addition.
Of course, much of this is pure speculation from existing info with some renders and alleged images. There’s a good chance the leaks are accurate, but early CAD renders aren’t final design confirmations.