iPhone 15 Pro vs iPhone 11 Pro: What are the expected changes?

Intro

What has changed in the four years between the iPhone 15 Pro and the iPhone 11 Pro?

And is finally time for those still holding on to their old iPhone 11 Pro models to finally upgrade to the new iPhone 15 Pro?

The 15 Pro make its official debut in September, but even now we know most of the new features thanks to a myriad of leaks and analyst reports. The major improvements include one of the most impressive chips ever on a new iPhone, the A17 Bionic. This chip will be built using 3nm cutting edge manufacturing and should be significantly faster than the aging A13 Bionic on the 11 Pro.

iPhone 15 Pro vs iPhone 11 Pro expectations:

Design and Size

All new design and new titanium finish on the 15 Pro

The iPhone 11 Pro is the last iPhone with the old design styling and the smaller, 5.8-inch screen size. Many people love this more petite size and the curved sides, but the iPhone 15 Pro design has its advantages too. The flat sides make the phone easier to pick from a table and plain look cool to many people.

One exciting new feature on the 15 Pro is the Action Button that replaces the Mute Switch. This is a programmable button that you can use to set a custom action, and it’s a neat little addition that many people will enjoy.

On the bottom, you will find a Lightning port on the iPhone 11 Pro, while the 15 Pro finally makes the jump to a USB-C port, same as on most other gadgets. Such a welcome change!

Both phones have IP68 water and dust protection, so nothing much has changed on that front. The 15 Pro does use a slightly newer generation of the toughened glass on the back and front of the phone, though, so it should theoretically have better chances of surviving a drop.

Display Differences

When it comes to the screens, you have a 5.8-inch display on the 11 Pro and a larger, 6.1-inch one on the 15 Pro.

Both are OLED panels so colors look nice and vibrant with those typical deep blacks and excellent contrast. However, the 15 Pro is much newer and has improvements all around.

Another one is just the sheer size of the borders around the screen. At merely 1.5mm, this is said to be the thinnest bezel ever used on a phone and it makes for one impressive and futuristic styling.

Also, the notch from the 11 Pro is now replaced with the so called Dynamic Island, which is a cool little feature. It’s not quite the game-changer many were hoping it to become, but nice nonetheless.

The iPhone 15 Pro screen can also hit much higher peak brightness, which makes the phone so much easier to use outdoors on a sunny day.

No big difference in biometrics though. Both phones rely on Face ID for authentication and it works very well on both.

Performance and Software

The A17 Bionic is faster, but it’s also nice to have 128GB of storage in the base model instead of 64GB

Under the hood, the iPhone 15 Pro is powered by the new A17 Bionic chip, the world’s first to be made on the cutting edge 3nm manufacturing process. In comparison, the iPhone 11 Pro runs on the A13 Bionic, an excellent chip for its time, but not merely as fast as this new one.

And then there is the upgrade in RAM: you have double the RAM in the iPhone 15 Pro! It comes with 8GB of fast LPDDR5 RAM, compared to merely 4GB of the slower type LPDDR4 RAM on the 11 Pro.

We are yet to see benchmarks of the new A17 Bionic chip, but chances are it will be multiple times faster than the 11 Pro, and the switch to 3nm manufacturing should help it get much better power efficiency too.

In terms of software, both phones will run on the same iOS 17 version with the same features, and that’s great.

Apple updates its iPhones for at least five years and it has the best track record in the industry in that regard, so the iPhone 11 Pro likely has one or two more updates to come still, but of course the 15 Pro is more future-proof in that regard.

As for connectivity, the iPhone 11 Pro does not support 5G which is not much of a problem currently, but might be an issue in the future.

The 15 Pro also has the cool new Emergency SOS via satellite feature, which might be a lifesaver in critical situation where you have no cellular coverage.

Camera

48MP magic and new features like Cinematic Mode make a difference

On the back of both the 15 Pro and the 11 Pro you find a triple camera system, but just look at the size difference: those cameras on the newer 15 Pro are so much bigger.

That’s because of the larger sensors used, but essentially, the systems are similar: you’ve got a main, an ultra-wide and a zoom camera.

The zoom focal range is 2X on the 11 Pro, and 3X on the 15 Pro, but with the newer iPhone you also have a 2X sensor crop mode, so it’s still a win-win situation.

The big upgrade for most users however is that 48-megapixel main camera. The higher resolution and support for ProRAW allows you to get some insanely good looking images with a lot more detail than the 12-megapixel shooter of the 11 Pro.

Portrait Mode works better and you can shoot 3X portraits on the 15 Pro, which you cannot do on the 11 Pro.

You have Cinematic Mode that blurs the background in videos and actually works very well on the 15 Pro. Again, not available on the 11 Pro.

You can zoom further and better, and even the selfie camera is vastly improved and so much sharper on the newer iPhone.

Rumors even claim we might get 8K video recording on the 15 Pro, up from the 4K supported on previous iPhones, but we are not yet sure about that.

Audio Quality and Haptics

Apple has made huge leaps in audio quality with the last few generations of iPhones and those switching from the iPhone 11 Pro will definitely notice.

The loudspeaker setup is still practically the same with a bottom firing main speaker and a helper speaker in the earpiece, but the quality you get out of it is improved with richer, boomier sound on the newer generation with a lot better coverage of the lower frequencies.

As for the haptics, no changes! The Taptic Engine might be old, but it is still the industry standard for pleasing, well-balanced vibration feedback on a phone.

Battery Life and Charging

Both still require overnight charging, but we expect noticeable improvements in the 15 Pro

The larger size of the iPhone 15 Pro allows Apple to use a larger battery and expectations are that the battery size will be around the 3,200mAh mark, while the iPhone 11 Pro comes with a roughly 3,050mAh battery, so we’re talking about a 5% increase in battery size.

However, we also have to take into account the expected big boost in power efficiency on the new A17 Bionic chip, and with that, we can safely assume very solid battery performance on the 15 Pro.

Speaking of charging, you’ve got the new USB-C port on the iPhone 15 Pro, a welcome change as most other electronics also use the very same port. However, currently we don’t expect huge changes in charging speeds, so we’re looking at 23W rate top-ups on the 15 Pro, only slightly faster than the 18W speeds on the 11 Pro.

Both phones also have wireless charging support, but the 15 Pro is much faster and more convenient with MagSafe that goes to 15W speeds compared to half that on the 11 Pro.

Specs Comparison

Curious about every individual spec of these two phones? Check out our in-depth iPhone 15 Pro vs iPhone 11 Pro specs comparison, or just look at the quick highlights in the table right below.

Summary and Final Verdict

At the end of the day, the iPhone 15 Pro is clearly a massive upgrade, but at the same time the essence of the iPhone experience remains roughly the same and it has a welcome familiarity to it.

iPhone 11 Pro users should probably upgrade, but if you really want a powerful long-range zoom camera, well in that case, you should know that’s coming in the iPhone 16 Pro. But that’s about the only thing that might hold you up.

So… what’s the one feature you are most excited about in the iPhone 15 Pro?