Apple iPhone 15 series goes on sale today, long queues outside store in Mumbai

Mumbai: Apple's much-anticipated iPhone 15 series went on sale in India on Friday.

Apple's much-anticipated iPhone 15 series (iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro, and iPhone 15 Pro Max) as well as the Apple Watch Series 9 and Watch Ultra 2 were announced on Tuesday (September 12) at their "Wonderlust" event.

Long queues of people were seen outside the Apple store at Mumbai's BKC - India's first Apple store. People were also seen standing outside the Apple Store at Delhi's Select Citywalk Mall in Saket.

Rahul, the first customer today at the Apple Store at Select Citywalk Mall in Saket, said, "It was a great experience. I was in the queue since 4 am and then purchased the phone. I have always had top phones with me. I have an iPhone 13 Pro Max and an iPhone 14 Pro Max. After the 15 series was announced, I wanted to get the iPhone 15 Pro Max - that too before everyone else."

A customer outside the Apple store at Mumbai's BKC shared, "I have been here since 3 p.m. yesterday. I waited in the queue for 17 hours to get the first iPhone at India's first Apple store. I have come from Ahmedabad..."

Another customer, Vivek from Bengaluru added, "I am happy I am getting my new iPhone 15 Pro. I am very excited..." Aan from Ahmedabad says, "I flew in yesterday. I was here at the store at 5-6 o'clock. I was at the store opening a few months ago where I was fortunate enough to meet Tim Cook for the second time."

iPhone 15 and the iPhone 15 Plus, both versions come up with the dynamic island feature that first debuted on the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max and the USB-C type charging.

As per The Verge, an American technology-based website, the iPhone 15 also has an OLED Super Retina display, which supports Dolby Vision content with 1,600 nits of brightness. The peak brightness of this display is 2,000 nits in sunlight, double that of the iPhone 14.

Apart from this, the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus also has an improved camera system.

The main camera sensor is moving to a 48-megapixel one, up from the 12-megapixel one found on the previous iPhone 14. There’s also a 12-megapixel telephoto and improvements to the portrait mode mean you won’t have to manually switch to portrait mode anymore, reported The Verge.

The iPhone 15 has a 6.1-inch screen while iPhone 15 Plus comes with a 6.7-inch screen.

Both versions will be available in pink, yellow, green, blue, and black colours.

The iPhone 15 is priced starting at USD 799 for a 128GB model and the iPhone 15 Plus starts at USD 899 for a 128GB version.

iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max

The 15 Pro starts at USD 999 with 128GB of storage, and the Pro Max at USD 1,199 with 256GB of storage. Both will be available for preorder this Friday and on sale September 22, as per The Verge.

Both are powered by the A17 Pro chip, which Apple says has the fastest performance in any smartphone and can even challenge some high-end PCs. Along with a redesigned GPU, Apple seems to think these devices could be poised to level up the kinds of games you can play on your phone. Also, both phones have a USB-C port on the bottom rather than the old Lightning port, reported The Verge.

Interestingly, the ring/silent switch is gone, replaced with an "Action Button". With the new, button that you can customize to run shortcuts, bring up accessibility features, open the camera, turn on the flashlight, and more.

The Pros both have Super Retina XDR displays with ProMotion and support both the always-on display and the new StandBy mode in iOS 17.

Camera functions have been improved. On the iPhone 15 Pro Max (but not the regular iPhone 15 Pro), there’s a new telephoto camera, with a new tetra-prism design, increasing the zoom up to 5x (the iPhone 15 Pro maxes out at 3x).

But the main, wide camera, as well as the ultrawide camera (which are the same on both the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max) have received significant improvements as well.