Today’s flagship phones are capable of handling pretty much any task you can throw at them. But that doesn’t mean you can leave your battery at home.
A new Geekbench benchmark claims that the iPhone 15 will have a lot more juice than its predecessors. If true, that could be a big boost to performance.
Optimized Power Management
In recent years Apple has made a push towards thinner and lighter devices. This required smaller batteries with less capacity. These batteries degrade faster because of this and often dip below peak rated voltages sooner. To combat this issue iOS 10.2.1 introduced safeguards that automatically slow down a device’s CPU power draw. This helps extend battery health for as long as possible and prevents inadvertent shutdowns caused by aging batteries.
This feature is known as Optimized Battery Charging. It allows your iPhone to learn your daily charging routine and adjusts how fast it charges based on that. For example, it will charge at a slower rate when first plugged in and then schedule to finish charging by your normal wake-up time. It will also keep your phone at a trickle charge during the day to avoid overcharging.
If your battery is healthy enough to avoid throttling, a new toggle will appear in the Battery Settings that lets you disable performance management. While this is highly unadvisable, it does let you use your phone normally without the throttling features in effect.
Camera Slow Sync Flash
Apple’s iPhone 15 series will get the latest in camera technology, according to fresh rumors. A new report from Nikkei Asia claims that the Pro and Pro Max will feature sensors that double the saturation signal in each pixel to capture more light, which should reduce under- or overexposure in pictures. These will be particularly useful for portrait modes and night photography, according to the report.
Other rumored improvements include an upgraded 3-nanometer A17 chip and 5G Qualcomm modem chip for connectivity, a new Ultra Wideband chip for nearby interactions and a rumored titanium frame. Apple is also said to be making changes to the iPhone’s display, with both the Pro and Pro Max expected to get thinner curved edges and a Dynamic Island cutout.
Another rumor claims that the iPhone 15 will feature a USB 3.2 or Thunderbolt 3 port, which would significantly increase wired data transfer speeds. This could make for a much faster and more convenient experience when transferring backups or sharing files between devices. If true, this upgrade will be the icing on the cake after a slew of exciting leaks in recent weeks.
Ultra Wide Angle Lens
Apple has been relatively slow to adopt new camera features over the last couple of years. But the iPhone 15 rumors suggest that it may bring some big changes to its flagship lineup.
The most significant change might be the addition of a periscope camera, which could offer up to 6x optical zoom. This advanced lens system combines multiple lenses and uses an angled mirror or prism to reflect light toward the image sensor at a 90-degree angle. This means that it can fit more lens components in a much smaller space than traditional cameras with a single image sensor.
This periscope-style camera is also known as a “telezoom-in-a-box” and would help the iPhone 15 iphone 15 Pro Max compete with smartphones that feature two telephoto lenses and can optically zoom up to 3x, like Samsung’s Galaxy S23 Ultra. It’s worth noting, however, that such a lens will take up internal space and push down towards the battery or to the side of the mainboard.
This might explain why Apple is sticking with a 7P lens solution in its Pro models instead of moving to 8P, which would require more glass elements and potentially lead to more light distortion. Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo agrees that an 8P lens is unlikely to arrive on the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Ultra next year.