It’s been less than a month since the launch of the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max but the rumour mill is already buzzing about the next iPhone Pro models. Talk is that we will get an iPhone 15 Pro but instead of the 15 Pro Max we are bound to get an 15 Ultra.
“Ultra” seems to be the name that Apple uses to express a product being the greatest and the best. There is the M1 Ultra chip, which is where two of the M1 Max chips interconnected to make a single high end chip, and that turns out to be the most powerful chip the company has made yet. The new Apple Watch Ultra is the greatest Watch they have made. It was targeted at extreme athletes but if you look at the Apple Watch subreddit everyone seems to be wanting one or already having one. So why not make an “Ultra” iPhone? Sell it for an even premium price, and reap in the profits?
Below are some ways I can think of Apple having an “Ultra” iPhone in their lineup will help separate it from the rest:
- Give it an even better camera: The obvious one. Give it some hardware or software feature that the Pro does not have, make it exclusive to the Ultra.
- Give it a better processor : Also an obvious one. For the first time in the history of iPhones, this year, there is a difference of the processors of the 14's vs the 14 Pro’s — the 14 got the A15 from last year whereas the 14 Pro’s got the new A16. Assuming this trend continues, the iPhone 15 should get the A16 and the iPhone 15 Pro should get the A17. Why not give the Ultra the A17 but say, with a better GPU. And going back to the above point of cameras, now that the main lens on the Pro is 48megapixels, enable 8K video recording on the Ultra too. Some extra GPU performance will help.
- Give it a dedicated camera button: This would never have happened in the past, Jony Ive loved getting rid of physical buttons. The Apple Watch Ultra has an “action” button that the standard Apple Watch does not, this separates the Ultra from the rest. So why not give the Ultra iPhone a dedicated shutter button? The camera system is one of the prominent differences between the Pro and non-Pro iPhone lineups. The 11 battery case had a dedicated camera shutter button, bring something similar back the photographer in myself will always be grateful.
- Make it out of titanium: Drawing parallels with the Apple Watch lineup- The sport watches are made of Aluminium and the premium models are of Stainless Steel. The non-Pro iPhones are made of Aluminium and the Pro ones are made of Stainless Steel, the Ultra watch is made of Titanium. The main advantages of using Titanium is that 1. it’s still a premium material and 2. it can make the product much lighter. A common complain of the iPhone Pros is that they are hefty.
- Faster USB-C/Thunderbolt port: Looks like Apple will switch to USB-C and drop the lightning port, (not because they are being forced to — but this is another discussion). And there is also a rumour of a portless iPhone which I feel like will happen one day, but hopefully when that day is here data trasfer via AirDrop or MagSafe is faster than it is. Going back to this point about a faster USB-C port in the Ultra iPhone, would make sense the for the iPhone Ultra to have a Thunderbolt port. One common complaint about the ProRes video files that Apple introduced a few generations ago is they are really slow to transfer them on to a computer for editing. And if 8K video is a thing then a faster data port will definitely help.
Personally I am not a fan of Apple getting rid of the feature parity between the Pro phones. In the past few years (apart from 12 Pro and 12 Pro Max, where the bigger phone had a better camera system) both the Pro models had the same features, same camera system, same display technology, etc. You get the same phone, and you decide what size you want - You want a bigger display and lose a bit of portability? You can have it! You want a smaller phone but with the same great camera system and features as the bigger one (albeit a relatively worse battery life)? Here you go! I have always been the bigger phone person but I know one day I will prioritise portability and would want a smaller phone and its good to know I have the choice.
What I would prefer is two different sizes of iPhone 15s, two sizes of iPhone 15 Pro’s and a two different sizes of iPhone 15 Ultra’s, but with all the colour combinations and storage options, I don’t think Tim Cook will be a fan of adding in multiple more SKUs.
I do want the above features on the Pro phone, but iPhone prices haven’t changed much since the iPhone X in 2017. Apple would love to change that, and it’s looking an iPhone Ultra is the way for them to go.
