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jhwalk84

macrumors newbie
Nov 6, 2020
3
3


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.


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.

Article Link: Review: Six Months With the iPhone 15 Pro
I love my 15 Pro! Battery life is 100% and 127 cycles. I use the Action button for shortcuts. Love it!
 

steve09090

macrumors 68020
Aug 12, 2008
2,151
4,139
Bear in mind, for those that don’t know, Cycles does not equal how many times we charge (I’m sure most know that). Cycle = full battery charges. (0-100)

I have had my iPhone 15 Pro for 171 days, and charge to 80% optimised. I have only 90 cycles and 100%. I’d say the battery usage and efficiency is pretty darned good for my experience.
 

mrat93

macrumors 68020
Dec 30, 2006
2,263
2,966
Almost 300 cycles after +/-180 days? You do realize you can put your phone down once in a while, right? Like my quote profile quote says, "if your phone's battery is constantly about to die, maybe the problem isn't with the battery." I can't imagine using my phone so much, that I have to charge it every day, and sometimes multiple times per day.
lol yeah, I felt some shame reading everybody else’s numbers and not seeing any higher than mine.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 

mprime_17

macrumors member
Oct 5, 2018
89
81
Damn, there's a lot of folks that REALLY use their phones ALL day.
Mine is at 56 cycles with a steady average of 3hrs sot since I got it in October. I can't imagine using it for 8hrs to reach 150-200 cycles like the others.
 

steve09090

macrumors 68020
Aug 12, 2008
2,151
4,139
lol yeah, I felt some shame reading everybody else’s numbers and not seeing any higher than mine.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I don’t know that it was shaming. 300 cycles means going from 100% down to 0% almost twice a day. Thats a lot of cycles.
 

Marty80

macrumors 6502
Sep 17, 2015
416
388
Melbourne
I still am disappointed that the aluminium frame is gone. Hopefully by polishing the titanium frame in iphone 16, it will make it stronger.
 

steve09090

macrumors 68020
Aug 12, 2008
2,151
4,139
I still am disappointed that the aluminium frame is gone. Hopefully by polishing the titanium frame in iphone 16, it will make it stronger.
Wasn’t his point that the titanium was better than the aluminium? The aluminium frames use to crack and his only scuffed when dropping it. Either way, going without a case on a phone, whilst nice looking is asking for trouble.
 

Darragh83

macrumors newbie
Oct 4, 2019
8
15
Limerick, Ireland
my favourite feature is being able to charge my garmin watch via the usb-c port on the phone, also i use the action button for the camera but was unaware that it works from any screen, so that is cool.
 
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citysnaps

macrumors G4
Oct 10, 2011
11,918
25,868
I've had my 15PM since November. 100% capacity. I constantly use my phone, and typically get 2 to 3 days of use before needing to charge.

Totally pleased with the above. It's a great phone! I especially like the suggestions offered when writing text - it's uncanny how accurate it is.
 
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Aquaporin

macrumors 6502a
Jun 27, 2005
514
219
USA
I upgraded to the 15 Pro because I has having frustrating lag with my keyboard on my iPhone 12 Pro. But my 15 Pro also has painful lag when typing emails. The worst is when the iPhone knows what letter you want to press but it's the wrong one. So you delete and try to press the correct one quickly and it again selects the adjacent wrong one. It makes me want to throw my iPhone in the trash.
 

The_Martini_Cat

macrumors 6502
Aug 4, 2015
289
329
That sounds great. However, I'm on a brand new iPhone 15 Pro with iOS 17.3.1 and when I use Safari on the phone for 45 minutes, I find the 15 Pro battery is down around 80% already. What's going on?
Why aren’t you on 17.4.1? Update & re evaluate 🍸😺
 
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lindros2

macrumors 6502a
Mar 21, 2011
834
493
The weight and balance way better than 14 pro.
USB-C is a lot better than I thought it was going to be.
Battery is a little better. I’m at 124 cycles / 100% capacity, including 7-8 trips on the road since I got it. I work at home, and try to keep it charged above 80%. Which I know is bad.

13 pro is still a great phone - in order, I like the 15 pro (me), 13 pro (wife), …
with 14 pro (daughter) and 12 non-pro (son) tied.

The 14 pro was a disaster.
And I do not use the action button … ever.
 
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Kaze9

macrumors newbie
Oct 30, 2020
22
31
NYC
Battery is at 98% with 219 cycles and it's been set to 80% charging since I first turned it on which is a little disappointing.

Ironically I'm on iOS 17.5 and the optimized charging screen is messed up and only showing developer variables for the different charging settings.
 

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steve09090

macrumors 68020
Aug 12, 2008
2,151
4,139
USB-C is a lot better than I thought it was going to be.
I definitely like the USB C, but the cable connection is really buggy compared to Lightning. The lightning cable was certainly a better physical connection. Unplugging and plugging back in about 50% of the time with Anker cables is annoying. Maybe it's Apple, and maybe it's Anker... It shouldn't be this way.
 

trschin

macrumors newbie
Oct 19, 2010
3
3
iPhone 15 pro. 98% with 226 cycles. I’ve been pretty happy with it but it does seem that the battery drains a lot quicker than my old iPhone 12 did not sure why
 

thejadedmonkey

macrumors G3
May 28, 2005
9,184
3,345
Pennsylvania
A pretty badly degraded battery has 80% of its original capacity left. Like heavy duty use or lottery unlucky.

You've enabled a setting that simulates the experience of having an old worn battery from day one.

I get it, in theory, if you sometimes disable it for like must-have long-days. Question is.. do you?
A degraded battery will also limit the CPU speed, to prevent power spikes that cause a reboot. Keeping the battery at an 80% limit and 100% health will prevent that.
 

lindros2

macrumors 6502a
Mar 21, 2011
834
493
iPhone 15 pro. 98% with 226 cycles. I’ve been pretty happy with it but it does seem that the battery drains a lot quicker than my old iPhone 12 did not sure why
Always on. 120hz. More crap. Mail bug. Larger photo size/sync. Cellular drain. Home screen widgets.
 

lindros2

macrumors 6502a
Mar 21, 2011
834
493
Battery is at 98% with 219 cycles and it's been set to 80% charging since I first turned it on which is a little disappointing.

Ironically I'm on iOS 17.5 and the optimized charging screen is messed up and only showing developer variables for the different charging settings.
This is why clean energy and 80% are BS.
It’s a phone not a car.
Keeping 80-100% does better job than maxing at 80%. Period.
 

Aerisdies

macrumors member
Oct 9, 2021
52
28
Kiel Hyre Academy
100% and 171 cycles on my 15 Pro Natural Ti with 80% charge limit turned on since day 1 in September. Battery life is very good, considering I'm not using 100% it still lasts quite a while and is a big upgrade from my 13 mini. I typically charge it while I'm away from home anyway, as our cars and my desk at work all have chargers, so I have never even gotten below 20% that I can remember.
Very same with yours but coming from iPhone SE 2020!
I'm a heavy user and I charge like x2/x3 a day on 80% limit (I charge when the battery is around 40%) since day 1 (Feb 21).
Still at 32 cycles @ 100%.

I have my "play sound when battery rises above 75% when charging" etc and also "auto low-power mode and reduce white point on battery 35% below", maybe that helps too.
 

Gnomeo86

macrumors member
May 3, 2016
53
64
Amsterdam
100% battery health after 102 cycles. I have the 80% limit on since day one and until a few days ago I used to keep it in low power mode perpetually. After I discovered that that was capping the refresh rate at 30, I disabled the shortcut and am enjoying the motion smoothness 😊
 

Egregius

macrumors member
Jul 6, 2023
80
65
Beitem, BE
I would totally add it to my action button menu, but I don’t think it is possible in Shortcuts to toggle it.
True, you can't toggle it, but you can get directly into the battery settings. Then you're really close to the battery heath option.
Code:
prefs:root=BATTERY_USAGE&path=BATTERY_HEALTH
 
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