iPhone 15 and 15 Plus: Outdated after just one year
Anyone who has purchased the standard iPhones of the current generation will not get all the features with iOS 18. This causes frustration.
![An iPhone 15 is in the box](https://heise.cloudimg.io/width/610/q85.png-lossy-85.webp-lossy-85.foil1/_www-heise-de_/imgs/18/4/6/5/4/7/4/3/tre_iPhone-15-7cee10d5b3486d35.jpeg)
An iPhone 15 is on the box: Fast Old aluminum?
(Image: Sebastian Trepesch)
No longer recommended: If you buy the iPhone 15 or 15 Plus today, you will have to live with the fact that you will no longer be able to use Apple's AI system Apple Intelligence. The reason: The devices contain the Apple A16 SoC, which is no longer supported by the technology and originally comes from the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max. The devices also lack sufficient RAM: Apple only installs 6 GB of LPDDR5, but at least 8 are required. This means that the two standard iPhones from 2022 are likely to be the fastest technically obsolete iPhones of all time.
Hope for "Super Cycle"
Apple phones are normally supplied with software updates over a longer period of time. This goes on for five or more years. This is likely to remain the case with the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus, although key functions will be missing. It is unlikely that Apple will lower the requirements for Apple Intelligence, partly because the company wants to generate a new "super cycle" for the iPhone in which as many users as possible purchase a new device.
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Apple Intelligence is only coming onto the market gradually. Initially, the service will only be available in U.S. English and key new functions such as a greatly improved Siri will only be offered over the coming year. However, buyers are unlikely to buy a new device today if the latest technology is not supported - interest in the AI features is high. Apple is less stingy when it comes to Macs and iPads: all devices from the M1 SoC onwards are supported - Macs were equipped with this for the first time in 2020.
Will the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus remain in the range?
It will be interesting to see what Apple does with the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus when the iPhone 16 is launched in September. All of these models will then be compatible with Apple Intelligence. The same applies to the "iPhone SE 4", which is now expected next spring. It would then be logical for Apple to only keep the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max (or one of the two) on the market, which support Apple Intelligence from the start, and to make the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus cheaper or take them off the market.
However, observers do not expect this to happen. This is because Apple always uses older models as new entry-level variants. In addition to the four iPhone 15 models, you can currently also buy two versions of the iPhone 14 (standard versions, by the way) and the iPhone 13 (also standard). In future, keep an eye out when buying devices, unless you can do without Apple Intelligence.
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(bsc)