Apple’s iPhone 15 Plus is big and beautiful but doesn’t blaze any trails

The iPhone 15 Plus is one of the ‘big phones’ vying for your attention but is there enough to win the battle of the what used to be called ‘phablets’? 

For me, with the phone starting at £899, there’s a lot to love if you’re onboard with iOS. The display is gorgeous, the battery life is insanely good and performance is smooth. 

It’s not perfect though as there’s no telephoto lens and charging speeds are nothing to write home about so you can get some better hardware in the Android camp if that’s an option for you. 

Note: As the iPhone 15 Plus is so similar to the regular 15, I’m going to keep this review on the shorter side and you can check out most of the detail in that full in-depth review.

You can find out what we consider to be the 10 best handsets in our best smartphones chart.

Design & Build

• Big but easy enough to handle
• High quality build
• IP68 rated

It’s no surprise that the iPhone 15 Plus is simply a bigger version of the iPhone 15. 

While it’s still 7.8mm thick, it’s around 6mm wider, 13mm taller and 30g heavier. All primarily to fit in its larger screen and bigger battery. 

Apple offers it in the same five colourways – black, blue, yellow, pink and green – I have tested the latter which is a very pale pastel tone. It’s almost white on the back viewed in certain light. 

Chris Martin / Foundry

Chris Martin / Foundry

Chris Martin / Foundry

Typically I’m not a fan of larger phones – I was reluctant to move on from my iPhone 12 mini – but the 15 Plus surprised me in how easy and comfortable it was to handle. I was using it without a case which felt unnerving at times but it wasn’t anywhere near as slippery and slidy as many of the phones I’ve tested recently. 

Build is as high quality as you would expect from Apple and this lump of crafted metal and glass comes with an IP68 dust and waterproof rating which is the highest you can get (6 meters up to 30 minutes in water going by Apple’s small print). 

It’s also worth noting that not only does the glass rear cover with its frosted matt finish look nice, it has more grip that most and resists fingerprints very well indeed.

Screen & Speakers 

• 6.7-inch OLED
• 60Hz refresh rate
• Stereo speakers

At 6.7-inch, the display on the iPhone 15 Plus is 0.6-inch larger than the regular 15 and this is one of the two main reasons to ‘go large’. 

The specs are the same apart from a higher resolution to maintain the same 460ppi pixel density. 

The Super Retina XDR display with its OLED panel makes for a lovely screen and there’s lots to like including a crisp and colourful experience. Apple says it can hit a peak brightness of 2,000 nits outdoors, too. 

I measured it with autobrightness off at a more pedestrian 517 nits which jumped to 570 nits with True Tone switched off. However, I found the screen easy to use in all situations. 

Chris Martin / Foundry

Chris Martin / Foundry

Chris Martin / Foundry

One of the draws here is Dynamic Island which makes clever use of the pill-shaped area embedded in the screen for notifications and the like. It’s nifty and really useful at times. 

On the downside, Apple has stuck with a 60Hz refresh rate here so you have to get a Pro model to benefit from 120Hz which is a shame. Even 90Hz as a halfway house would be appreciated. 

The firm also forgoes any kind of fingerprint scanner so it’s all on Face ID. That’s still the best facial biometric system out there but you might want the option of either. 

There’s no headphone jack (a given these days) but the speakers on the 15 Plus are decent if you haven’t got any wireless cans to listen to your podcasts, games or video streaming. 

Specs & Performance 

• Year-old A16 Bionic
• Smooth performance
• Starts at only 128GB

There’s very little to worry about when it comes to core specs and performance. Apple’s A16 Bionic chipset is both powerful and efficient on its 4nm manufacturing process, even if it is a year old. 

I did not find any flaws with real-world performance in my testing and I used the 15 Plus for nearly three months. 

Chris Martin / Foundry

Chris Martin / Foundry

Chris Martin / Foundry

What I would point out is that the iPhone 15 Plus only comes with 128GB of storage for the cheapest model which is a shame. 

Granted, rivals like the Samsung Galaxy S24+ are £100 more and start with 256GB which is the same price as the 256GB 15 Plus but it’s worth choosing wisely what capacity you need as there’s no microSD card slot. 

Of course, you get features like 5G connectivity, GPS, NFC, Bluetooth 5.3, Wi-Fi 6 and more. 

Apple iPhone 15 Plus benchmarks

Cameras

• Same cameras as regular 15
• 48Mp main sensor
• 12Mp ultrawide and selfie cameras

The 15 Plus has the exact same camera setup as its smaller brother so the main thing here is that there’s no telephoto lens. You’ll need to get a 15 Pro for that. 

Still, the upgrade from last year’s 12- to a 48Mp (f/1.6) sensor makes a significant impact. One element being that it’s high enough resolution to crop in for what is the equivalent of a 2x optical zoom, according to Apple. 

Chris Martin / Foundry

Chris Martin / Foundry

Chris Martin / Foundry

Shots pixel bix down to 12Mp, though you can shoot in the full 48Mp if you like. Apple properly buries this in the main settings though and even when it adds ‘HEIF MAX’ to the corner of the camera app, it’s not clear what that means to most people. 

The main camera is accompanied by a 12Mp (f/2.4) ultrawide shooter with a 120-degree field of view. Around the front is another 12Mp camera with features such as autofocus and an f/1.9 aperture.

Overall, quality is good and the 15 Plus is versatile enough to cope well with most situations. On most occasions, detail is good and I like the natural, true-to-life colours. 

Having the ability to crop in to an effective 2x zoom on the main camera is handy but I did often find myself wanting a proper telephoto. You can get this on rivals including the cheaper Xiaomi 14. 

I also found, as per the regular 15, focusing a bit of an issue so some of shots came out blurry. The 15 Plus is also good in low light situations but a number of Android rivals are better for this. 

One area the 15 Plus excels is video with very high quality and lots of options and tools at your fingertips. 

Battery Life & Charging

• Outstanding battery life
• 20W wired charging with no charger supplied
• MagSafe and Qi2 wireless charging

One of my favourite things about the iPhone 15 Plus is the battery life. 

Apple doesn’t list the capacity but by all accounts, it’s 4383mAh. A lot smaller than similar-sized Android phones which are typically around 5000mAh but it’s what you do with it that counts. 

For me, the 15 Plus just kept going and going. On the day I flew out to Barcelona for MWC, my day started at 5:30am and I still had 25% battery left at midnight.  

This included listening to music over Bluetooth, playing games on the flight, using social media and using it as a 5G hotspot for my laptop. Insane behaviour (from the phone). 

Charging has not been exciting on an iPhone in forever and that doesn’t really change on the iPhone 15 Plus. 

Chris Martin / Foundry

Chris Martin / Foundry

Chris Martin / Foundry

Sure, the change to a USB-C port from Lightning is a welcome one but charging speeds are still behind much of the competition. 

Like Samsung, Apple doesn’t supply a charger in the box, just a cable. So, using my 30W MacBook Air charger, I got the iPhone 15 Plus to a paltry 12% in 15-minutes and 27% at the half hour mark. 

You can get faster speeds – as it must not be PD 2.0 – if you buy Apple’s 20W charger (£19/$19) where you should get 50% in ‘around’ 30-minutes. 

My colleague David Price from Macworld managed 55% in 30-minutes with his 67W MacBook Pro charger. 

The phone also supports 15W wireless charging over MagSafe or Qi2 as well as 4.5W reverse charging but only with a wire.  

Software & Apps

• iOS 17 unexciting but does the job
• Likely six years of OS updates

I won’t spend long talking about software because a) you probably don’t need me to explain iOS to you and b) there’s not a whole lot that’s new in iOS 17. 

As mentioned earlier, you can read my iPhone 15 review if you want more details. 

All that really needs to be said here is that the 15 Plus is a joy to use (assuming you’re not an Android loyalist anyway). Of course, the screen makes it tricky to reach the top section for some elements but this is a given with any larger phone. 

Chris Martin / Foundry

Chris Martin / Foundry

Chris Martin / Foundry

It runs smoothly, is easy to use, has a great range of apps and there are some useful features baked in such as floating windows for things like watching videos while doing something else. For example, watching BBC iPlayer while ordering a McDonald’s as you can see above.

You can also assume that the phone will be supported for a long time. Apple doesn’t have an official policy but most iPhones get six years of OS updates. 

That’s one year off what Google and Samsung promise on flagships but it’s perfectly long enough and ensures good value if you don’t want to upgrade your hardware every year or two. 

Price & Availability 

The iPhone 15 Plus starts at £899/$899 with two further models available if you want more storage: 

• 128GB: £899/$899  
• 256GB: £999/$999 
• 512GB: £1,199/$1,199 

That’s £/$100 more than the regular iPhone 15 and comparable to Android rivals such as the Samsung Galaxy S24+ and Google Pixel 8 Pro. 

If you’re keen to get your hands on the 15 Plus you can buy it directly from Apple as well as plenty of other retailers including Amazon, Currys and John Lewis. 

In the US, you can get it from Apple, Amazon (renewed), BestBuy and more.

There are also lots of options to get the iPhone 15 Plus on contract so here are the top deals right now.

View more options in our best smartphones chart.

Chris Martin / Foundry

Chris Martin / Foundry

Chris Martin / Foundry

Should you buy the iPhone 15 Plus? 

It’s perhaps no surprise that Apple has made another accomplished smartphone here and there’s plenty to like about the iPhone 15 Plus. 

At least, it’s one of my favourite ‘plus’ size phones I’ve ever tested and much of that has to do with the incredible battery life and ease of use. 

Apple does even undercut some Android rivals on price, but this only gets you 128GB of storage which might not be enough for some people. 

Those Android rivals will typically get you better hardware including higher refresh rate displays, newer processors and telephoto lenses. 

If that matters to you and you’re not set on iOS, then it’s worth having a browse and compare before taking the plunge. 

Otherwise, the 15 Plus makes for a very serviceable and good quality handset if the regular 15 is too small and your budget doesn’t stretch to this year’s Pro models. 

Specs

• iOS 17
• 6.7-inch 2796×1290 460ppi Super Retina XDR display
• A16 Bionic processor (6-core CPU, 5-core GPU)
• 128/256/512GB storage
• 48Mp f/1.6 Main
• 12Mp f/2.4 Ultrawide
• 12Mp f/1.9 front camera
• Estimated battery life: Up to 26 hours video playback
• Fast charge: Up to 50% charge in 35 minutes with 20W adapter
• Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.3, 5G
• USB-C charging/data connection
• IP68 dust and water resistance (maximum depth 6m up to 30 minutes)
• 6.33 x 3.06 x 0.31 inches (160.9 x 77.8 x 7.8mm)
• 7.09 ounces (201 grams)