Why the iPhone 15 Plus is my Apple product of the year

Although an entire iPhone 16 series was released this year, the iPhone 15 Plus is still my Apple product of the year. This is why.

The iPhone 15 Plus is my Apple product of the year

I purchased my iPhone 15 Plus in February 2024, as the first Apple product of the year. It was a switch from an iPhone 12 to an iPhone 15 Plus. The advantages of the iPhone 15 Plus that I immediately noticed were the better camera and the much better battery life. At the same time, I thought the Plus was a bit on the large side.

For part of the year I wondered whether it might not have been better to opt for an iPhone 15 Pro. Then I would have had an even better camera, but also a slightly shorter battery life. Furthermore, I would probably have been happy with the smaller dimensions. But the large size of the iPhone 15 Plus also turned out to be just a matter of getting used to.

The iPhone 16 Pro was a bit disappointing

When an iPhone 16 pro arrived at the newsroom at the end of September, I had the opportunity to try it out for a while. A beautiful device! I especially liked the extra zoom lens with 5x optical zoom. The iPhone 16 Pro was smaller than the 15 Plus, but not as small as the iPhone 15 Pro (6.7 inches, 6.3 inches and 6.1 inches respectively).

The iPhone 16 Pro also has a faster processor (A18 Pro) than the 15 Plus (A16) and also more RAM (6 GB compared to 8 GB). But in terms of speed, I didn’t actually notice any difference in practice. Both devices are lightning fast. This will of course be different when Apple Intelligence becomes available in the Netherlands. Suddenly an iPhone 15 (Plus) is no longer of any use to you.

Ultimately, I was a bit disappointed with the iPhone 16 Pro: I found the slightly smaller dimensions to be almost negligible, especially because the weight is almost the same. An always-on screen is nice, but I can also do without it. The battery life of both devices does not differ much, although you can listen to 100 hours of audio with the 15 Plus and 85 hours with the 16 Pro. The only real plus for me is the extra zoom lens. I just don’t have a lot of extra money for that, because there is nothing wrong with the camera of the iPhone 15 Plus!

Conclusion

The recent Pro models haven’t really convinced me to spend more money on an iPhone. In my opinion, they don’t offer enough extras for that. This also applies to the iPhone 16 Plus. The only thing that extra has to offer is support for Apple Intelligence. And that’s something we’ll just have to wait and see when it becomes available here.

That’s why the iPhone 15 Plus is my Apple product of the year. For me, the Plus also beats the regular iPhone 15 because of the longer battery life. That’s something I’m willing to pay a little more for. The price difference between the iPhone 15 (€ 764) and the iPhone 15 Plus (€ 819) is not very small, but not very large either.