Apple·phone
iPhone 15 Pro
Based on 50 credible posts from Bluesky, Hacker News & YouTube. 25 filtered out as bot-like or off-topic.
Medium confidenceA solid sample; expect small shifts as more owners post. How we score
Scored September 27, 2026
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Owner reviews
Overall owner mood
Owners are split: 44% of 50 reviews are positive, 30% negative, and the rest mixed or neutral. Praise centers on controls & input. The most common complaint is camera (9 owners). Owners with 6+ months of use are more positive (56%), which suggests it holds up well.
What owners like
Controls & input praised by 3 owners
“The best action button shortcut I’ve found is setting up a shortcut to take a screenshot but automatically delete it without saving to your photos.”
What owners complain about
Camera raised by 9 owners
“The best action button shortcut I’ve found is setting up a shortcut to take a screenshot but automatically delete it without saving to your photos.”
Battery & charging raised by 6 owners
“I regret using a phone for most of my family photos for the last 10-15 years and should have just used my old D3100 instead.”
Build & durability raised by 5 owners
“The aluminum models might not be as durable.”
Display raised by 5 owners
“I’ve lost 5% of battery just reading two pages on the site and iOS dimmed my screen in an attempt to cool down the device.”
What owners talk about
- Camera3 praise · 9 complain
- Display4 praise · 5 complain
- Battery & charging2 praise · 6 complain
- Build & durability1 praise · 5 complain
- Controls & input3 praise · 3 complain
- Software & AI1 praise · 4 complain
- Price & value1 praise · 3 complain
- Performance1 praise · 2 complain
Built from the reviews themselves — every quote links to the owner who wrote it.
Full text of every credible post we scored. Bot-like and off-topic comments are hidden.
It makes a lot more sense to purchase one if you consider their residual value when you sell it to upgrade later. [...] My three-year-old iPhone 15 Pro is still worth $500 or more on the open market--about half of what I spent. [...] The downside is that you need more money up front to purchase it.
Agree and many more. I had an iPhone 15 Pro for about six months last year and one of the most infuriating things was that you can't get to Camera settings from Camera, you have to go out to Settings.
The benefit is that your battery will last longer. [...] I know that a friend of mine bought his iPhone 15 pro same time as me. He never charged past 80%. I always charged 100%. It’s now a little over 2 years and my battery condition is at 86% while his is at 96%.
I have a founders edition Clicks keyboard for the iPhone 15 Pro. Its really a fantastic piece of hardware; worked great since I got it, idk, maybe 14 months ago. Obviously this is a full device and much more complicated, but I wouldn't personally have any qualms taking a risk on it given that their track record for the other clicks devices is pretty solid IME.
My turn to complain about bugs. I used to balk at people when they complained about bugs on MacOS/iOS. My iPhone 7 which I used for 7 years straight, was more bug-free than my current iPhone 15 Pro. There’s no shortage of visual bugs with iOS 26, but that’s not my point. Recently I had to restart my phone (literally unheard of in Apple land) because I put it in Guided Access and it wasn’t possible to get it out without a force restart, which I had to learn how to do for the first time. That bug persisted for at least a month. A few days ago the camera app would just show a grey screen and the fix was to restart your iPhone. [...] If you have to restart your phone because of a bug, or core functionality like camera doesn’t work, you are not using an iPhone. [...]
Had my 15 pro since launch day in 2023, I still wouldn’t replace it.
Looking back on this phone after over two years, this is still the goated phone. Really, for 99.9% of people, not much has changed, unless you really care about a vapour chamber or JPEG lossy XL for photographers. Heck, I think this phone in the blue was the best-looking iPhone that came out in several years.
I started using cases after having a Pixel 2 XL shatter in a 1 foot drop onto a granite countertop, but started going case-less again with my most recent iPhone 15 Pro (ironically, after the horrible quality Apple case I mistakenly bought with it disintegrated). It's been a year so far of completely non-cautious use and my general take is: The screen still scratches; I leave my phone in my pocket or a bicycle saddle bag and it definitely has some damage. However, it is only visible with the screen off, and it turns out not to bother me a single bit. [...] Overall, the only functional issue I have had with going caseless has been the propensity for the protruding cameras to pick up dust and fingerprints. [...] I suspect that a case still would have been a net-positive fiscal investment, I'll probably have to sell this phone in "good" or "fair" condition rather than "factory new" like a phone with a case and glass screen protector for its whole life, so I'll lose $50-$100. [...] The side and action buttons finally function as they should and the size benefit is appreciated. [...] I think the need for cases is perhaps overblown and especially in a premium market like high-end iPhones where the consumer probably isn't as sensitive to aftermarket value, no-case isn't as rare or foolish as it would seem. [...]
It's been 13 months since I got the iPhone 15 Pro. Battery capacity is now at 92%. It's got two small scratches on the screen. I scratched it by spinning the phone face down on a desk. [...] I don't use cases or screen protectors btw.
[...] As such I have about the same finger length as the average woman, and when I used the iPhone 4S and 5S I had no problems, I was not able to comfortably use the 6 with one hand, and it came with that ugly camera bump, so I returned it and tried to go Samsung. (it was big, but the rounded edges helped a fair bit) - the software sucked. [...] Ever since then I've been looking for a phone -- the iPhone "Mini" was as large as the 6 which was too large (I did buy one though) -- I eventually bought an iPhone 15 pro, but honestly, I hate it. It is the heaviest thing I carry daily and it doesn't do anything more than my 5 did that i care about, and I can't comfortably operate it. I start really disliking mobile devices because of it- and the software is getting worse year on year too. [...]
I don't see the appeal of this or the Phone 18 for the matter. I have an (old) iPhone 15 Pro that just works so the upgrade just doesnt seem worth it. Also I think it would be quite bulky to carry the Duo in a pocket all day long.
Playing this on an iPhone 15 Pro, I was wondering — did the frame rate of dragging have to be so painfully low?
[...] iPhones have had always on display since the 14 Pro and 17, and they've had good water resistance since forever. [...] - iPhone 15 Pro with quadlock case - various Quadlock mounts - Quadlock mag charging mount with a USB C battery in the top tube bag for long rides - Apple Watch (paired to SRAM Powermeter on bike) - Record rides using Apple Fitness on Apple Watch - Apple fitness syncs to Strava and other services - Ride With GPS, Apple Maps, or Google Maps for turn-by-turn (when necessary)
iPhone 15 Pro is a reasonable size, in my opinion. Still large compared to years past.
Man, the iPhone 15 Pro is the absolute worst iPhone experience I had thus far, really makes me reconsider if I shouldn't just get a cheap android next time. Most definitely not worth the premium.
[...] I've also got an iphone 15 pro that has started on on the enschittification update path. [...]
Apple is usually pretty good at keeping older phones performant enough but, This is the first upgrade cycle that I upgraded in anger over an unusably slow and energy inefficient OS on an “older” model I was traveling in south / south east Asia and my iPhone 15 Pro was dying twice a day despite minimal use besides maps and taking some photos. My battery health was 86% so not perfect but surely it shouldn’t die twice a day. That coupled with the keyboard constantly lagging with every letter I typed made me realize Apple no longer cares about older models. [...]
[...] The bugs on apple products have hit a breaking point for me. [...] My iPhone 15 pro is borderline unusable. [...] You used to be able to count on the basics working smoothly, but stuff like the camera and messaging are frequently broken for me
As a bilingual/trilingual user (I have English, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, French and Chinese keyboards enabled, and use the first three on a daily basis), I have had surprisingly few issues with either swiping or pecking at the keyboard, perhaps because I automatically switch to pecking the instant I spot swiping going down the “wrong” decision tree. But I also think having this many keyboards enabled makes iOS basically throw up its tiny virtual hands in frustration and nullifies most fancy predictions. (This was mostly swiped in on an iPhone 15 Pro running iOS 26 with very minor hiccups)
[...] Also, I have the iPhone 15 Pro (iOS 26.0.1), never had the black screen on camera open yet. [...]
[...] They made the buttons across the UI far less space efficient, widening and making cartoonish random elements that worked fine before. They added animations that slow down my iPhone 15 Pro and have tanked its battery life (don’t tell me it’s indexing either it’s been weeks!). They completely broke my “dumb phone” layout for my home screen by adding these incredibly ugly borders to everything. [...]
[...] I use tools like Screen Time heavily with a setup that is not bypassable on a weak moment (I don’t know the PIN). Nowadays when waiting for something I might take my iPhone 15 Pro out of my pocket and unlock its boring-ass greyscale screen. There are no new notifications from any apps whatsoever, because I keep my phone on Do Not Disturb all the time. [...] There are no infinite content feeds on my phone. [...] Before implementing Screen Time restrictions on my phone, I was glued to the screen all day and night long. [...]
[...] I have an iPhone 15 Pro now, which I got both because it was lighter than previous equivalents, and was the first (?) with direct-to-satellite, which I definitely value. I know I can get 5 days of navigation (but not reading) out of it, which is one of the reasons I don't take a backup battery (the solar panel isn't a single point of failure; but of course the phone still is for nav, so still need a minimal paper map and a compass). I only spend a couple weeks a year backpacking so I wouldn't choose a phone purely based on that; but if I were in the market for an update this cycle I'd consider it. [...]
Never used a screen protector, have been using iPhones since iPhone 3G, never shattered or cracked a screen. I started using a silicone case with iPhone 6S as found it was slippy. Have a leather case for iPhone 15 Pro but considering going naked again.
The titanium iPhones, at least, are nearly impervious to scratches when dropped on concrete or asphalt from a reasonable height. [...] Because the iPhone 15 pro was significantly lighter than previous pro models, I wanted to avoid a case to get the most out of this improvement. [...] I’ve been surprised by the durability to the extent that I should probably discontinue the applecare+ plan. The aluminum models might not be as durable. [...]
[...] I too don't understand what's "awe dropping" about it, and have finally switched from an iPhone 15 Pro to the Android ecosystem, where a flip phone is somewhat "awe dropping". [...] Now the Air is for those who want premium feel (you might call it flashy, looks great, feels great, but has trade-offs), and now the Pro is an uncompromising set of features, at the expense of being bigger and having a comical camera bump plateau continent. [...]
[...] But you gotta work on the performance. My iPhone 15 Pro is practically burning my hand and I don’t even have the tab open anymore. I’ve lost 5% of battery just reading two pages on the site and iOS dimmed my screen in an attempt to cool down the device.
Hey! That’s how I use my iPhone 15 Pro! Mainly for reading web sites and my calendar, but it works one handed for that just fine.
My ancient Canon Rebel camera, I think a T3i, takes stunningly detailed photos against even my iPhone 15 Pro. But, I never have my Canon and it's too bulky to carry around everyday. [...] And so, the capabilities of my iPhone camera are more important. [...]
[...] I went on holiday at the start of this year and took my iPhone 15 Pro with me. I bought a mirrorless camera and went back because I was that disappointed with it. [...] I regret using a phone for most of my family photos for the last 10-15 years and should have just used my old D3100 instead.
[...] Looking various statics of sales, upgrade cycles, etc there are probably at between 500k of 1million iPhone 15 Pros (not 15, not 15 Pro Plus, just 15 Pro) Every iPhone 15 Pro will have the exact same fingerprint. [...] But, if I go to the Eff's site on my iPhone 15 pro it will falsely claim my fingerprint is unique. [...]
So I don't actually like shooting at 24mm (the iPhone 15 Pro 48MP FL). [...] All in, your simplistic approximation just highlights how much you've bought into the marketing instead of understanding how cameras work.
This phone is good, but I have had a few annoying problems. Firstly the battery life is not the best, I get 3-5 hours of use and 2 hours of playback use. So I have to charge at least 1-2 per day. [...] Which is extremly annoying and when taking videos the battery life is like 2-3 hours which is terrible.
I spent the last two days running comparison tests between my 1TB Blue Titanium 15 Pro and my new 1TB Black Titanium 16 Pro and have consistently averaged over a 12 hour period on my 15 Pro to have 47% charge remaining. [...]
Upgraded from an iPhone 8 to iPhone 15 Pro this year. [...] The camera is genuinely mind-blowing and that ending was brilliant. Also, for the action button, I have it mapped to turn on/off color filters so it's black and white -- helps me get off my phone when I know I'm wasting too much time on it lol
I think they should have the journal app on iPads and MacBooks. I wouldn't use the journal app because typing on your phone is not the best.
That close out “shot on iPhone” was actually pretty surprising, the things we can do with a little device from our pocket. Personally I use the different focal lengths all the time to get something just right, but I can understand someone not using it and just cropping in post.
[...] Action button, screen, 120hz, and Dynamic Island make this phone a joy to use.
The best action button shortcut I’ve found is setting up a shortcut to take a screenshot but automatically delete it without saving to your photos. The screenshot automatically copies to your clipboard and then you can paste without having to do any other actions. Seems simple but has been so nice.
Amazing, I was searching for something like this the other day. My one recommendation is to please use a virtual table and pagination / infinite scrolling instead of loading all the data into memory. It’s takes around 20sec to sort by one column on an iPhone 15 Pro
I have a Pixel 8 running GrapheneOS and it does most of the above: - slightly lesser build quality than my iPhone 15 Pro but comparable - doesn't funnel data to Google unless you explicitly let it, you can circumvent a lot of the Google Play stuff by restricting permissions and using Aurora Store - is backed by, well, Google and the Graphene team porting over security updated. [...] - can use any of the N backup services that already exist unlike the iPhone's silly restriction on background apps - don't notice performance differences between it and my iPhone 15 Pro in day to day use. If anything, biometrics are way faster on the Pixel since iOS 26 made FaceID slow as molasses for me - the default camera is pretty good (uses all the Pixel fancy processing hardware) but if it's not good enough you can just install the stock Google camera which works fine. [...] Photos are neck and neck with the iPhone but the iPhone is way better at videos, no Android phone has cracked that yet IMO. [...] The other issue is that Pixels are not a thing in a lot of countries, Apple really has the edge here but I'd take that risk over the UX shenanigans they pull nowadays with their latest updates (god is it awful)
I updated my iPhone 15 Pro yesterday. The only performance issue I noticed is when making a new wallpaper, with the "Dynamic iOS 26" wallpaper. It was lagging like crazy, it even froze at some point, and the phone got very hot. I have a feeling it hit the battery like a truck, too, but we'll see in time if it was just one incident or what. Running full animations and graphics, and glass icons, no performance issues. Just managed to click update on my iPad Mini 6th gen, we'll see how that goes. [...]
[...] My iPhone 15 Pro is fine and hopefully has much more life left in it, and I've gotten used to the size in general over the years, but I like to wear pants that are reasonably fitted and the "pocket bulge" outline of the phone still annoys me if I'm trying to deliberately look nice. [...]
I have an iPhone 15 Pro. [...] You don't know how to use Photos properly. [...] I use it for moving stuff around all the time. [...] All my photos are in real files in Photos.app on my desktop within seconds of me taking them. [...] And a total loss: Post processing on both devices for images is terrible so I use a dedicated camera.
I was thinking of upgrading my phone (currently use an iPhone 15 Pro), because I wanted to upgrade to 512gb & I want my phone to be not so fucking hot when I game on it ... but I think don't want it so badly. I think I actually enjoy NOT gaming on my phone
I had Fable one-shot the same demo from the same weights on an iPhone 15 Pro and it decides in 40ms.
If you want to use Apple Wallet while Guided Access is enabled, you have to enable the side button in Guided Access settings. I don't have that one (iPhone 15 Pro). [...]
[...] (At the moment, I'm in the situation where I trashed an older phone on a hiking trip so I'll probably upgrade my iPhone 15 Pro sooner than I otherwise would just so I have a usable backup while traveling again.)
I know my setup is pretty dumb and very specific to me, but I am using: iPhone 15 Pro Shortcuts app to schedule it to run on a timer Scriptable to process the returned data ChatGPT app as the brain
iOS 18.5, iPhone 15 Pro I have some accessibility settings on, like button shapes on, on/off labels on, reduce transparency on, increase contrast on, differentiate without color on. But surprisingly no changes to default font size or something that might be expected to cause that.
iPhone 15 Pro long-term: how it holds up
When problems show up
- Cameratypically around 1 year · 3 reports
- Build & durabilitytypically around 13 months · 2 reports
- Displaytypically around 4 years · 2 reports
The claims, and the evidence
Owners push back on 6 of 8 marketing claims.
What the brand claims
- Titanium design — the lightest Pro models everOwners disagreeBuild & durability: 1 of 6 positive
- A17 Pro chip with hardware-accelerated ray tracingOwners disagreePerformance: 1 of 3 positive
- Action buttonMixedControls & input: 3 of 6 positive
- USB-C with USB 3 speeds up to 20x fasterOwners disagreePerformance: 1 of 3 positive
- 48MP Main cameraOwners disagreeCamera: 3 of 12 positive
- 3x Telephoto cameraOwners disagreeCamera: 3 of 12 positive
- Always-On display with ProMotionMixedDisplay: 4 of 9 positive
- Up to 23 hours of video playbackOwners disagreeBattery & charging: 2 of 8 positive
What owners report
“It makes a lot more sense to purchase one if you consider their residual value when you sell it to upgrade later. [...] My three-year-old iPhone 15 Pro is still worth $500 or more on the open market--about half of what I spent. [...] The downside is that you need more money up front to purchase it.”
after 3 yearsView on Hacker News“The benefit is that your battery will last longer. [...] I know that a friend of mine bought his iPhone 15 pro same time as me. He never charged past 80%. I always charged 100%. It’s now a little over 2 years and my battery condition is at 86% while his is at 96%.”
after 2 yearsView on Hacker News“Agree and many more. I had an iPhone 15 Pro for about six months last year and one of the most infuriating things was that you can't get to Camera settings from Camera, you have to go out to Settings.”
after 6 monthsView on Hacker News“My turn to complain about bugs. I used to balk at people when they complained about bugs on MacOS/iOS. My iPhone 7 which I used for 7 years straight, was more bug-free than my current iPhone 15 Pro. There’s no shortage of visual bugs with iOS 26, but that’s not my point. Recently I had to restart my phone (literally unheard of in Apple land) because I put it in Guided Access and it wasn’t possible to get it out without a force restart, which I had to learn how to do for the first time. That bug persisted for at least a month. A few days ago the camera app would just show a grey screen and the fix was to restart your iPhone. [...] If you have to restart your phone because of a bug, or core functionality like camera doesn’t work, you are not using an iPhone. [...]”
after 7 yearsView on Hacker News
Common iPhone 15 Pro problems
Issues at least two owners independently report.
- Camera9 mentionsView on Hacker News
“Agree and many more. I had an iPhone 15 Pro for about six months last year and one of the most infuriating things was that you can't get to Camera settings from Camera, you have to go out to Settings.”
- Battery & charging6 mentionsView on YouTube
“This phone is good, but I have had a few annoying problems. Firstly the battery life is not the best, I get 3-5 hours of use and 2 hours of playback use. So I have to charge at least 1-2 per day. [...] Which is extremly annoying and when taking videos the battery life is like 2-3 hours which is terrible.”
- Build & durability5 mentionsView on Hacker News
“[...] The bugs on apple products have hit a breaking point for me. [...] My iPhone 15 pro is borderline unusable. [...] You used to be able to count on the basics working smoothly, but stuff like the camera and messaging are frequently broken for me”
- Software & AI4 mentionsView on Hacker News
“[...] As such I have about the same finger length as the average woman, and when I used the iPhone 4S and 5S I had no problems, I was not able to comfortably use the 6 with one hand, and it came with that ugly camera bump, so I returned it and tried to go Samsung. (it was big, but the rounded edges helped a fair bit) - the software sucked. [...] Ever since then I've been looking for a phone -- the iPhone "Mini" was as large as the 6 which was too large (I did buy one though) -- I eventually bought an iPhone 15 pro, but honestly, I hate it. It is the heaviest thing I carry daily and it doesn't do anything more than my 5 did that i care about, and I can't comfortably operate it. I start really disliking mobile devices because of it- and the software is getting worse year on year too. [...]”
- Display5 mentionsView on Hacker News
“My turn to complain about bugs. I used to balk at people when they complained about bugs on MacOS/iOS. My iPhone 7 which I used for 7 years straight, was more bug-free than my current iPhone 15 Pro. There’s no shortage of visual bugs with iOS 26, but that’s not my point. Recently I had to restart my phone (literally unheard of in Apple land) because I put it in Guided Access and it wasn’t possible to get it out without a force restart, which I had to learn how to do for the first time. That bug persisted for at least a month. A few days ago the camera app would just show a grey screen and the fix was to restart your iPhone. [...] If you have to restart your phone because of a bug, or core functionality like camera doesn’t work, you are not using an iPhone. [...]”
- Price & value3 mentionsView on Hacker News
“Man, the iPhone 15 Pro is the absolute worst iPhone experience I had thus far, really makes me reconsider if I shouldn't just get a cheap android next time. Most definitely not worth the premium.”