The iPhone 15 Pro builds on the strengths of the iPhone 14 Pro, offering key features that can improve your overall experience.
While it keeps the familiar design, the iPhone 15 Pro introduces a customizable Action button, USB-C port, and a powerful camera system that puts pro-level photography at your fingertips.
But these aren’t the only cool features! Whether you just got an iPhone 15 Pro or bought it from launch, we will show you 3 things to do to optimize your experience and truly get the most out of your phone.
1. Set Up the New Action Button
The Action button, which is an upgrade from the long-standing ring/silent switch tradition since the inception of the iPhone, offers a dynamic range of functionalities beyond mere toggling.
Whether it’s illuminating your surroundings with the flashlight, capturing a spontaneous voice memo, or initiating a personalized shortcut, the Action Button lets you use your iPhone in completely new ways.
To customize your Action Button experience, navigate to Settings > Action Button, where you will find a plethora of options.
As of now, here are the available actions and what each do:
- Silent Mode: Mute your phone (default).
- Focus: Turn on Do Not Disturb or another main focus mode.
- Camera: Opens the Camera app.
- Flashlight: Turn on the light on the back of your phone.
- Voice Memo: Record a voice message.
- Translate: Open the translate app.
- Magnifier: Use your camera to see things closer (like a magnifying glass).
- Shortcut: Run a Shortcut you set up.
- Accessibility: Use a helpful feature for people with disabilities.
- No Action: Do nothing (no action).
You’ll notice up/down arrows under certain Actions—such as Focus and Camera—which means more choices are available. To use these, tap those arrows and choose an action from the popup menu.
As you can see, there’s a “No Action” action, which kinda defeats the whole purpose of this button.
If you prefer not to use the Action button, you can use the “No Action” action to deactivate it. So when you press it, nothing will happen.
2. Change the Default Camera Lens When You Open Your Camera
Unlike its predecessor, the new iPhone 15 has a much better camera. It comes with a powerful 48-megapixel camera on all models, offering lots of exciting options for people who love taking photos.
What sets the iPhone 15 apart is its ability to seamlessly switch between three different camera resolution modes: 12-megapixel, 24-megapixel, and the impressive 48-megapixel resolution.
The default setting takes photos at 24 megapixels out of the box. However, you now have the flexibility to adjust your camera settings, which is handy if you want to save storage or take higher-resolution pictures.
To tailor your iPhone’s camera resolution to your preferences, go to Settings > Camera > Formats.
Under Photo Mode, you can toggle between the 12-megapixel or 24-megapixel modes.
You might notice the 48-megapixel is not listed there because you should enable it first.
- Go back to Settings.
- Select Camera.
- Choose Formats.
- Then, enable Resolution Control for iPhone 15 or ProRaW & Resolution for iPhone 15 Pro.
If you tap the Pro Default option, you’ll be able to select a default pro format.
It’s important to note that HEIF Max images consume significantly less storage than ProRAW Max images, ensuring you strike the perfect balance between image quality and storage efficiency.
Once configured, open the Camera app and check if you see the RAW Max option within the Camera app at the top right corner, as shown in the image above.
3. Limit How Much Your Battery Charges
In our iPhone battery-saving guide, we recommend keeping the battery level between 20% and 80% to enhance its longevity and mitigate damage from regular usage.
However, implementing this advice has been somewhat cumbersome. Apple addressed this concern by introducing Optimized Battery Charging alongside iOS 13.
This feature is designed to defer charging beyond 80% to minimize the time the iPhone remains at full charge.
Nevertheless, even with this feature in place, your iPhone often charges at 100% battery until disconnected from the charging cable.
The iPhone 15 has fixed this. It brings a new Charging Optimization feature, which steadfastly maintains the battery level at 80% at all times.
To activate it, follow these steps:
- Navigate to Settings.
- Select Battery.
- Tap Charging Optimization.
- You can choose between “Optimized Battery Charging,” “80% Limit“, and “None.”
With 80% Limit on, your iPhone will only charge up to 80% to reduce battery aging. It will start charging again when it drops to 75% to keep you going.
You might want to use the “Optimized Battery Charging” option and rely on your iPhone to learn from your daily charging habits to improve the lifespan of your battery.
I know this feature might take some time to activate as your phone recognizes and memorizes your charging habits.
But I’ve been using my iPhone 15 Pro for 5 months now, and I’ve found that “optimized charging” lets my phone charge to 100% almost every time I keep it plugged in.
So I’ve chosen 80%, and honestly, it’s more than sufficient to last me a full day with normal usage (mainly reading the news, listening to music, and messaging/calling).
Let me know in the comments below if you have any questions or suggestions.
