This year's iPhone 15 could be a little frosty

A new report says that the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus will look a lot more like the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max

iPhone 14 Pro camera close up
(Image credit: Apple)

One of the many things I like about my iPhone 14 Pro (shown above in its Purple variant) is the frosted glass on the back; it looks classier than plain old glass, and it's a strong visual differentiator between the Pro models and the more affordable iPhone 14 models. But a new report says that difference is going away with the launch of the iPhone 15: its future's bright, and its future's frosty.

That's according to a Weibo social media post, as reported by MacRumors. The same source previously leaked the existence of the yellow iPhone 14 model, so while they don't have a long track record of leaks it's worth taking this one without a huge pinch of salt: frosted glass looks nice and we already know that the Pro models in 2023 will be visually different in other ways.

What to expect from the 2023 iPhone 15 range

We're still some months away from the iPhone 15 launch date, which is likely to be September 2023. But that hasn't stopped the leak factory from churning out lots of rumours and predictions, some of them appearing multiple times from multiple credible sources.

Based on what we know so far, it's likely that the Dynamic Island of the current iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max will make its way into the other iPhone models, of which we expect there to be four: iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max. As ever the Pro and Pro Max will have the fastest processors and the most impressive cameras, and the iPhones will come in two sizes: 6.1 inches and 6.7 inches, with no Mini in the range. We don't expect the ProMotion displays to make their way into the standard and Plus versions just yet. 

The most interesting phone in the 2023 iPhone range appears to be the iPhone 15 Pro. Most of the rumours we've heard so far – the A17 Bionic 3nm processorrecord-breaking bezels, a titanium frame, a high-speed USB-C portcapacitive buttons and the action button and more – are Pro-specific, so Apple appears to be continuing its strategy of putting all the fun stuff in the Pros and then having it filter down the range each year. That means if you want the best iPhone for photography and sheer power, you'll need to go Pro, Pro Max or possibly Ultra.

Carrie Marshall

Writer, musician and broadcaster Carrie Marshall has been covering technology since 1998 and is particularly interested in how tech can help us live our best lives. Her CV is a who’s who of magazines, newspapers, websites and radio programmes ranging from T3, Techradar and MacFormat to the BBC, Sunday Post and People’s Friend. Carrie has written more than a dozen books, ghost-wrote two more and co-wrote seven more books and a Radio 2 documentary series. When she’s not scribbling, she’s the singer in Glaswegian rock band HAVR (havrmusic.com).