Apple introduces iPhone 15 with USB-C, Apple Watch with ‘double-tap’

By Tim Biggs

Updated September 13, 2023 — 5.24am

Apple has announced its first smartphones with USB-C ports, more than 10 years after introducing its proprietary Lightning connector, as it unveiled the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro at an event in California overnight.

The phones, which were introduced alongside the Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2, now use the same charging cable that can power iPads, Macs, Android phones and many other devices. Apple said it was also bringing the connector to its wired earbuds and AirPods Pro, and will let iPhones charge certain accessories when connected. But you’ll only get the highest USB 3 speeds on the iPhone 15 Pro, with an appropriate cable.

The connector switch comes after new European laws were introduced last year, which force Apple and others to adapt the USB-C standard for all smartphones by 2024.

At the event at Apple Park’s Steve Jobs Theatre in Cupertino, Apple announced that the standard iPhone 15 and larger iPhone 15 Plus would inherit some features from last year’s Pro devices; namely the thinner screen borders, “dynamic island” display notch and the A16 Bionic chip.

The iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Max will be available from September 22, starting at $1500 and $1650 respectively in Australia, an increase from last year’s prices.

The phones also have better voice isolation for phone calls and a new 48MP main camera, allowing for sharper shots and a clearer 2x zoom, alongside the returning ultra-wide camera.

It’s a changing of the guard for Apple’s iPhone charger.Credit: SMH

The new iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max models feature a titanium finish and rounder corners, while the standard mute switch has been replaced by a new button which can be programmed for a range of functions. For example, it could launch the camera or begin a voice recording.

The Pros feature a new generation of chip called the A17 Pro, with significantly expanded graphics processing. Apple said it will allow console video games like Resident Evil Village and Assassin’s Creed Mirage to run natively on the device.

The three Pro cameras can simulate a range of lenses, and create spatial video for playback on Apple’s upcoming Vision Pro headset, while the Pro Max exclusively has a 5x optical zoom.

The Pro phones will also be available on September 22, for $1850 and $2200, which is a more significant price jump. Last year’s iPhone 14 Pro Max launched at $1900.

Apple also introduced the Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2, which work with a new gesture the company calls “double tap”, where users can bump their thumb and forefinger together twice to activate an app’s main function. Some examples Apple gave were answering or ending calls, or starting timers. The watches have much brighter displays, up to 2000 nits on Series 9 and 3000 nits on Ultra 2, and an ability to find nearby (new) iPhones with much greater precision.

The Apple Watch Ultra 2 has a screen three times as bright as last year’s Series 8.Credit: Tim Biggs

The new watches’ system-on-a-chip processes machine learning tasks twice as fast as the Series 8, according to Apple, meaning many simple Siri requests are now processed on the device rather than needing to go to the cloud. Later this year Siri will also gain the ability to access health data on-device, so users can ask about their data, or add new details with their voice.

The Series 9 will be sold in Australia starting at $650, with the Ultra 2 starting at $1400.

Apple also announced that the watches were its first carbon-neutral products, and that it would no longer use leather on any of its products as part of its environmental commitments, introducing a new textile for its watch bands and phone cases it calls FineWoven.

The author travelled to California as a guest of Apple.

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