1-minute news: Apple iPhone 15 announced with Dynamic Island, USB-C, and 48MP camera

Apple iPhone 15 lineup on a white background

(Image credit: Apple)

What's the story?

Apple has announced the iPhone 15 at its 'Wonderlust' Apple September event in Cupertino – check out our ongoing Apple event 2023 live blog for the latest news. It's the successor to the iPhone 14, and comes with improvements including a Dynamic Island, a USB-C connector, and a more powerful processor. It starts at $799 / £799 / AU$1,499.

What do I need to know about it?

The iPhone 15 is the latest version of the company's standard smartphone, and comes with an all-new design including the Dynamic Island, which replaces the notch and brings it in line with Apple's Pro devices.

It also gets a major upgrade on the camera front, with a 48MP main sensor on the rear, up from 12MP on the iPhone 14. It will also use the infrared True Depth camera, used for face unlock, to help with selfie portraits, which stay at 12MP.

The display is also improved. Though the screen stays at the same 6.1-inches, it now has a peak brightness of up to 2,000 nits, twice that of the iPhone 14.

One new feature that might count as an upgrade – depending on your perspective – is that it will charge with USB-C, rather than Apple's propriety Lightning cable.

It's also getting Apple's A16 processor, the same one that's in the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max – that's a step below what's in the iPhone 15 Pro, but it's a powerful chip nonetheless.

The iPhone 15 will be available in pink, yellow, green, blue, and black.

What do we think of it?

The iPhone 15 is a relatively minor update over the iPhone 14, which was itself a minor update over the iPhone 14. Those small updates do add up over time, however, and if you've got an iPhone 13 or older, there's certainly going to be some benefit to upgrading this year.

That camera is promising on paper, USB-C is very practical, and satellite messaging will hold appeal for hikers. Hold on for our iPhone 15 hands-on review to get a deeper overview of this new smartphone – but we can't imagine that the iPhone 15 isn't going to be one of the best phones you can buy.

Marc is TechRadar’s Global Editor in Chief, the latest in a long line of senior editorial roles he’s held in a career that started the week that Google launched (nice of them to mark the occasion). Prior to joining TR, he was UK Editor in Chief on Tom’s Guide, where he oversaw all gaming, streaming, audio, TV, entertainment, how-to and cameras coverage. He's also a former editor of the tech website Stuff and spent five years at the music magazine NME, where his duties mainly involved spoiling other people’s fun. He’s based in London, and has tested and written about phones, tablets, wearables, streaming boxes, smart home devices, Bluetooth speakers, headphones, games, TVs, cameras and pretty much every other type of gadget you can think of. An avid photographer, Marc likes nothing better than taking pictures of very small things (bugs, his daughters) or very big things (distant galaxies). He also enjoys live music, gaming, cycling, and beating Wordle (he authors the daily Wordle today page).