SMARTPHONE TEST
This year’s large-screen flagship has the longest zoom yet seen on an iPhone, but is it worth your cash? Amy Davies finds out more
This year’s iPhone 15 Pro models have a slight variation between their two camera systems, with the larger iPhone 15 Pro Max reviewed here being the first in the line to include a 5x zoom lens. By comparison, the smaller iPhone 15 Pro has a 3x zoom.
Other than the zoom lens, the other camera specifications are the same between the two models. That means the other main feature which may be something to think about, is how big a screen you’d like to have.
Features
The iPhone cameras have been impressing us for several years, and while the latest iterations don’t represent a big evolution from previous generations, the overall set-up is still excellent.
Two of the three cameras for the iPhone 15 Pro Max appear to be more or less the same as those found on last year’s iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max. We’ve got the same 48MP main sensor, with its 24mm equivalent f/1.78 lens. We’ve also got the same 12MP ultra-wide camera with a 13mm f/2.2 lens.
A big difference however is the telephoto lens, which departs from the iPhone 14 Pro/15 Pro as it now offers 5x optical zoom, thanks to its ‘tetraprism’ design. That’s a 120mm equivalent f/2.8 lens that includes 3D sensor shift stabilisation. Just as we saw last year, there’s also a ‘2x lens’ on offer, but this is actually just the phone using the central part of the main camera’s sensor. A new introduction is the addition of 1.2x and 1.5x options which are quickly accessible from the main screen. That means the main camera can shoot at 24mm, 28mm or 35mm equivalents, and thanks to the large pixel count, not lose any resolution compared to standard shooting. There are also apparently new coatings on the lenses designed to combat flare. Another new feature is that the standard output from the main sensor is now 24MP, compared to last year’s 12MP.
13mm ultra-wide (0.5x)
Improvements have also been made to the portrait mode. The big difference is that the phone can automatically recognise when a portrait subject is in front of it, even in the standard shooting mode. Essentially, if a person, dog or cat appears in the frame, the phone will capture all the necessary information to create a blurred-background portrait shot. This is potentially useful for grabbing quick portraits, especially o
