Until this purchase I have always gone for the top end phones. I have had the pro max 13 and 14 as well as the Google Pixel Pro 8 and can honestly say the 15 Plus is easily on par with them all.

What I like: The larger screen is great and the display is more than I was expecting. The camera, in spite of not having all the bells and whistles you get with the pro models is more than most people will need and pictures/video are really quite nice. The Plus uses the A16 while the Pro has the A17 but having done numerous speed tests I can say the “slower” speeds are not noticeable. I still clock download speeds in the 200+ mbps range and upload speeds typically hover around the 175 range. The Dynamic Island (no weird notch) is nice and easier on the eyes as opposed to the notch on the older Plus models. The rounded edges look good and the phone feels better in hand. I was surprised how light it is and you can definitely feel that when holding the phone…it’s just more comfortable than its pro max predecessors. Moving on, the battery life is what really impressed me. When I took the phone out of the box it was at 74%. After set up, downloading all my apps, setting those up, and using my phone for 38 hours I still have 34% battery charge left. I should note my usage during that time isn’t what I would call heavy….moderate usage plus set up but still excellent battery drain vs usage. This is a phone you won’t have to keep charging all day. I would also note that in spite of my worries about all the reports of the pro models overheating, this phone has stayed perfectly cool even through the set up and downloading a ton of apps at once. I don’t notice much of difference in using this phone compared to past pro models and for me the user experience simply beats my Google Pixel Pro 8 and the Samsung Ultra. I have always loved how Apple has incorporated biometrics, specifically the Face ID. It makes using the phone so much more fluid when compared to Android’s Face ID and finger print ID. The C charger…all I can say there is FINALLY!!! Love that!

What I didn’t like: I got the blue phone and it is more white than blue. While I like the weight and hand feel of the phone it does feel a little less high end than the pro models. That’s being really picky and just posting it for the review purposes to try to give anyone reading this a complete picture. The Plus model has the 60 refresh rate while the pro has the 120. I am in cybersecurity and obviously work with tech daily so I do tend to notice things like that when using devices but again it’s so minor and I would suspect the average user to not notice it in the course of most of their daily usage….gamers on the other hand may notice it a bit more. The camera is probably the biggest difference next to the price. I mention that because the price and the camera features go hand in hand. The lack of pro camera features is probably the most noticeable user experience difference if you are thinking of switching from a pro model but truthfully (unless you use the camera in a professional capacity) it shouldn’t matter much. Comparable pictures look similar in quality but definitely a tier below the pro models and the zoom feature is significantly less on the Plus.

With all this being said, for the price difference at the cost of the pro features and the physical differences is a decision for the individual buyer, but for my review I feel there is more value in the Plus model unless you need the specific feature upgrades (or just want them) and don’t mind shelling out another $300+. This phone easily balance the features offered with a pretty good price for the average user and I highly recommend checking it out!

Firstly JL were excellent, the phone turned up on time, well packaged and of course plenty of emails /texts from DPD to let me know within the hour when they would deliver.
And thats where the pleasant-ness ends.

Having paid top prices for a high end gadget from Apple who market their premium brand as easy to use, it couldn't have been a more miserable, painful and downright frustrating experience (even for an ex IT manager like myself ) getting my new phone to work.

According to Apple you simply check your old phone is running IOS 18 and place your new phone next to your old phone and everything, data, apps and settings will be copied over in around a hour.

NOT SO

After 5hours of doing nothing, both phones decided to lock up. My old phone had to be re booted, my new iPhone wouldn't reboot, so I had to do a factory reset and this rolls the phone back to IOS 17.7
1.5 Hours installing the updates to firstly iOS 17.8, then iOS 18, then iOS 18.01

Having done a Google search there are literally hundreds of posts on numerous forums about this 'bug' - yes Mr Apple your software does have bugs - contrary to your slick PR dept.

Four hours later and after trying numerous 'fixes' suggested on the internet I gave up - once again factory resetting my new phone and decided to manually load everything back .....
So again 1.5 Hours installing the updates to firstly iOS 17.8, then iOS 18, then iOS 18.01

Gave up, went to bed at 1am after starting the copy over process in the afternoon

So as a consequence of not being able to copy over I lost all my watch faces and settings for my Apple Watch - that refused to connect to the iPhone 15, even after unpairing from my iPhone 12. Another hour hunting on forums for a work around

I've a couple of apps that saved data locally to the phone, not to the cloud - so all that historical data was lost. Lesson learned here - dont assume every app that comes from the App Store will save data to the cloud.

And now I'm looking at perhaps another half a day to finish loading all my apps back and setting up the phone to work like my previous model.

The only thing that worked well was iCloud - at least my diary, notes, passwords, photo's, files and documents did eventually sync across

I cant really comment much about the phone features / camera etc, as it's still being set up, it hasn't moved off the desk - my trusty iPhone 12 will be used for a next few days.

Moral of the story - make sure everything is backed up and if you are really lucky the copy over process may work.
But, if like me, you rely on a fully loaded and functional phone for work private/ life - DONT even attempt the copy over process unless you have AT LEAST half a day to sort out moving your stuff across manually when it fails.

Hugely disappointed in Apple......

The first iPhone 15 plus I purchased I had to return it after about ten days. It had lagging texting. It would randomly text my contacts with no message. And it did this once while I was on the phone with the person I was talking with. It also was very inconsistent with connecting with or recognizing my AT&T internet. Sometimes it would connect other times it wouldn’t and it was driving me crazy. I just got a secondary line on my iPhone 15 plus and the secondary line ate my primary line and I didn’t know this until I took it back in for the third time from on going problems within the first ten days. That’s when I said enough is enough. I want a new iPhone 15 plus this iPhone 15 plus is possessed. And received my current iPhone 15 plus and this also has an inconsistent lagging during texting. But I’m assuming this is supposed to be this way. However, the other problems I’m not having with this iPhone 15 plus. At least not yet. I’m thankful Verizon exchange my IPhone 15 plus. But I’ve never had an issue with any of them like this. And I’ve been purchasing IPhones ever since IPhone 8 and each year as they debut because it’s always around my birthday. So I get it as a gift to myself. Knowing that it’s usually in October or November and my birthday being 11/18.
This is the first year that I’m purchasing late because of the horrible inflation we are all going through. I wasn’t able to do it when it debuted this time. I absolutely love this product and this has been the first time I’ve ever been disappointed and/or let down by Apple and thank you Verizon for coming to the rescue.

Moving from an iPhone 8 to an iPhone 15 Plus has been wonderful. My vision is not great these days and the iPhone 15 Plus has been a great help; it is that much larger that my old phone. Whilst I still have a way to go to fulfil all the potential of this great piece of technology. I have already begun to make discoveries! The transfer from my old iPhone was very simple and a great help. I no longer have to worry about my finger print for security, just a look, and we're there! I am able to set the text size very easily which makes it much easier for instance to read emails & news, and to check on settings etc. I am slowly exploring the potential of the camera and photos. After a week's river cruising in Portugal, being able to use my phone when I did not have my camera was a great help with plenty of high quality photos. Here is a phone with great potential, great value and a 'friend' who will always be with me - a great help when my vision is now much more of a problem. I would recommend this phone - a well worth asset to my life!