iPhone 15 price speculation

With the iPhone 14, there was strong speculation that we would see a 15% price increase, but this turned out to be incorrect — if you live in the United States. Other regions saw a substantial increase, but in the US the only change in pricing was the elimination of the cheapest ‘mini’ model.

That means that prices currently go from $799 for the 128GB entry-level iPhone 14 all the way up to $1,599 for the 1TB iPhone 14 Pro Max. We would expect something similar this time around, but it’s entirely possible that the iPhone 15 will see the price rise that the US missed out on in 2022. If so, expect an increase of $100 or so.

iPhone 15 possible models

This year, Apple killed the iPhone mini, and introduced the iPhone 14 Plus instead. That simplified the choice: whether you wanted to go Pro or not, you could get either a 6.1- or 6.7-inch screen.

It’s extremely likely that this will continue into next year. It was obvious within months that the iPhone 12 mini was not selling well, but Apple had to persist with the iPhone 13 mini because plans were fixed and couldn’t be changed.

That means that in the unlikely event that the iPhone 14 Plus bombs, we will probably still see next year’s lineup mimicking this year’s: the iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max. A recent TrendForce report used these names to highlight expected iPhone 15 features, so keeping the same naming conventions seems like a real possibility.

But there could be one addition to this list — an iPhone 15 Ultra. Reliable tipster, Mark Gurman recently tweeted(opens in new tab) that after the Apple Watch Ultra that was launched this year, we could “expect” the variant for iPhones in the future — something he later reiterated in his newsletter. Could this mean a completely new iPhone 15 Ultra? Or will the Pro Max simply get rebranded as the Ultra? We will have to see.

iPhone 15 design rumors

The only real iPhone 15 design rumor so far is that 2023 is the year when Apple finally abandons the Lightning port on its phones. This isn’t wholly surprising: not only has the company adopted the connection for its laptops and tablets, but the European Union has officially mandated that all phones will have to use USB-C by 2024.

While Apple could keep the Lightning port elsewhere in the world, it would be adding complexity and expense for no real gain.

While rumors of a portless iPhone persist, the analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reckons that it’s USB-C for at least some of Apple’s handsets. If a portless one does come next year, our guess is it could be a Pro feature. Mark Gurman also reported that the iPhone 15 will have UCB-C, and that a portless model will arrive at some point — he just didn’t specify when.