Apple iPhone 15 Pro Long Term Review: Brilliant Cameras, Frustrating Heating Issues

The Apple iPhone 15 Pro price in India is ₹75,900. This price is for the 1TB storage variant. I found this price on Jio Mart, but prices can vary across platforms. Additionally, most platforms show it as out of stock. So, if you are really looking to buy this phone, consider getting a refurbished Apple iPhone 15 Pro from Cashify for ₹62,799. This phone is available in Black Titanium, White Titanium, Blue Titanium, and Natural Titanium colors.

Also Read: Vivo V70 Review: Stunning Portraits With Solid Everyday Performance

The Apple iPhone 15 Pro packs the following items inside the box:

• Phone
• Type C cable
• SIM ejector tool
• Protective cover
• Documentation

Before we talk in detail about the Apple iPhone 15 Pro, let’s see what the on-paper specs look like:

• Display: 6.1 inches LTPO AMOLED screen
• Chipset: Apple A17 Pro (3 nm)
• RAM & ROM: 128GB 8GB RAM, 256GB 8GB RAM, 512GB 8GB RAM, 1TB 8GB RAM
• Software: iOS 17, upgradable to iOS 26.3
• Rear camera: 48MP, 12MP, 12MP
• Selfie camera: 12MP
• Battery: 3274 mAh
• Weight: 187 grams
• Dimensions: 146.6 x 70.6 x 8.3 mm

The Apple iPhone 15 Pro has a matte-finish glass back and body, with a titanium frame (grade 5) for strength. The issue with titanium is that it no doubt offers greater strength than aluminium, but also generates more heat.

That’s why Apple has now switched to aluminium in the iPhone 17 Pro to improve heat management, reduce device weight, and enable more vibrant color options. Literally, during my use, I never wanted to play games or shoot videos for a long time due to overheating issues.

It has the same body dimensions of 146.6 x 70.6 x 8.3 mm and weighs 187 grams. There is no issue grasping the phone in a single hand; it fits perfectly. Design is also likely to prevent slippery issues.

I never felt the phone could be dropped from my hand when using it without a cover. But I would suggest you use phones with a cover because anything can happen at any time.

The Apple iPhone 15 Pro has an IP68 rating for dust-tight and water-resistant performance, allowing it to be immersed up to 6m for 30 minutes. Moving on, ports that it has a power button on the right side, an action button, which is compatible, and a volume button on the left side.

Apple iPhone 15 Pro has an amazing camera setup with a 48MP wide, 12MP telephoto, and 12MP ultrawide lens. I clicked a lot of photos with this phone, and it delivers amazing results in perfect daylight.

I did notice a slight issue with the dynamic range, which sometimes feels a bit uneven in complex lighting scenes. However, the colour accuracy always remains natural, which photographers will really appreciate.

You can clearly see this in shots of the sky and flowers, where the colours look natural and mesmerising without appearing overly processed. At the same time, I was using the Google Pixel 9 Pro and noticed that it enhances images with AI, often adding extra saturation and brightness to make photos look more vivid.

In contrast, the Apple iPhone 15 Pro presents scenes much closer to what we see with our natural eyes, keeping the output more neutral and realistic. This matters a lot because, as a photographer, it gives you more flexibility to colour grade your images later without having to fight aggressive processing.

One thing that really stood out to me was the portrait mode. It delivers images with excellent edge detection, even when the subject is wearing glasses. I tested this with the Pixel 9 Pro as well, where the Pixel sometimes cut the edges of the glasses in the final image.

The iPhone 15 Pro, however, detected the edges more accurately and preserved details better, making the portrait shots look more natural.

It also has a 12MP front camera, similar to the base model, which delivers decent selfies with natural skin tones and good detail.

Where the iPhone 15 Pro truly shines is in video recording. Apple has always been strong in videography, and this phone continues that reputation. It supports 4K video recording at up to 60fps across all cameras, with excellent stabilisation, accurate colours, and reliable exposure control. The footage looks cinematic and consistent, which is something content creators will really appreciate.

The phone also supports Log video recording, allowing professionals to capture flatter footage and colour grade it later for more dynamic results. During my usage, videos looked smooth and detailed, with natural colours and minimal focus hunting, making the iPhone 15 Pro still one of the best smartphones for videography right now.

The Apple iPhone 15 Pro has a 3,290 mAh battery capacity. I’m using a phone with 88 percent battery health, which hardly lasts four hours of continuous screen time. Similarly, my personal Apple iPhone 15 has 89 percent battery health, which lasts around five to six hours of screen time on a single charge.

Overall, battery health is a concerning factor before considering buying this phone. Nowadays, brands are launching phones with 10,000 mAh batteries that act like power banks. In contrast, choosing a phone with four hours of battery life can be a dead call. It’s like riding a bicycle in the era of super bikes.

There is no issue in charging angle. During my Apple iPhone 15 Pro long term review, I used to charge this phone with a 20W Apple charger, which usually took almost an hour to fully charge. It also supports 15W wireless charging and 4.5W reverse wired charging.

The Apple iPhone 15 Pro has a 6.1-inch LTPO AMOLED display with a resolution of 1179 x 2556 pixels and a 461 PPI pixel density. It offers amazing colour and delivers a perfect deep black, making it the best choice for watching movies.

It also supports HDR10 to support HDR content on YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc., with Dolby Vision enhancing content consumption.

I did face some issues while using the phone in very bright outdoor conditions, even though the display offers up to 2000 nits of peak brightness (HBM). The screen remains readable for basic tasks like checking messages or notifications, but watching videos in direct sunlight is not very comfortable.

I noticed this while trying to watch YouTube videos outdoors during winter while getting some Vitamin D, and the reflections on the display made the experience slightly awkward.

That said, Apple has used Ceramic Shield glass on the front, which adds a strong layer of durability. It helps protect the display from accidental drops and scratches, making the screen more reliable for everyday use.

The Apple iPhone 15 Pro comes with the Apple A17 Pro (3nm) chipset. I could discuss many futuristic aspects of this chip and what Apple promised during its launch. However, I am not going to focus on past marketing claims or the specification sheet here.

During my Apple iPhone 15 Pro long term review, I was honestly disappointed with its performance in real-world conditions.

To be practical, I played several games like Battlegrounds Mobile India, and almost every time the phone heated up noticeably. Similarly, I faced heating issues during multiple scenarios, such as charging, photography, videography, running benchmark tests, and sometimes even during casual usage. One of my close friends is a video journalist and uses the Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max. He often removes the phone case while shooting videos because the device tends to heat up during long videography sessions.

To evaluate its raw performance, I conducted several benchmark tests on the iPhone 15 Pro. The phone scored 2597 in Geekbench single-core and 6015 in multi-core results. Moreover, its AnTuTu score reached 13,94,890. In the 3DMark Wildlife Extreme Stress Test, the device recorded an overall stability score of 72.7 percent.

However, because of the frequent heating issues at almost every step, I found it difficult to properly explore other performance aspects in my testing. Due to this experience, I honestly cannot fully justify telling readers that this phone delivers the best possible performance, despite the powerful chipset on paper.

The Apple iPhone 15 Pro comes with iOS 17 out of the box, but it can be upgraded to iOS 26.3.

Overall, the UI experience is smooth and enjoyable. I especially liked the liquid glass animations, which make the interface feel fluid and visually appealing.

Since I have already been using iOS for a long time, I am quite familiar with the ecosystem, and the overall UI experience feels polished and easy to navigate.

However, the latest update did not work well for my devices of 15 and 15 Pro. After updating, I noticed that the camera quality and battery performance dropped significantly. During the Apple iPhone 15 Pro long term review, it also started heating more frequently during normal usage, which was quite disappointing.

One strange issue I noticed was with the camera processing. When you open the camera preview, the colours look perfect and natural. But once you click the photo, the final image sometimes looks slightly worse in terms of processing and detail compared to what you saw in the preview.

Because of these issues, I would personally suggest that users of the iPhone 15 series avoid updating from iOS 26 to iOS 26.3 for now, especially if camera performance and battery life are important to them. Hopefully, Apple will address these problems in a future update.