Best iPhone 15 deals: Preorder the all-new iPhone to get it on release date (Image: APPLE • GETTY • EXPRESS NEWSPAPERS )
Want the best iPhone 15 preorder deal? We’ve scoured the latest preorder deals from the biggest UK mobile networks, including EE, O2, Vodafone, and Sky Mobile to find the lowest price today.
Preorders for the all-new iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus are now available in the UK, with the release date for both new handsets scheduled for September 22, 2023.
You’ll need to place a preorder as soon as possible to be in with a chance of getting your hands on the latest phone from Apple on Friday. Those who preorder an iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus will be able to schedule a delivery on launch day or arrange to collect the handset in-store – useful if you need help transferring apps and data from your old device to the new one.
Looking for the best iPhone 15 Pro deals? We’ve put them together in a separate guide.
iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus preorders are available from the biggest UK mobile networks, like Sky Mobile, EE, Vodafone, and O2, as well as online retailers like John Lewis & Partners, Very.co.uk, Currys, Amazon, Argos, and AO.com. Of course, you’ll also be able to place an order from the Apple Store, which the only place to benefit from free engraving.
As always, the arrival of the new iPhone models means we’re seeing some generous price drops for older generations. We’ve rounded up the best iPhone 14 deals and best iPhone 14 Pro deals for those who don’t mind missing out on the latest and greatest features to save a little money.
Below, you’ll find a complete rundown of the best iPhone 15 deals, as well as a list of the latest innovations coming to this handset, how you can secure a £715 discount on this all-new iPhone ahead of release date, and answers to some of the most commonly-asked questions around the launch of the new iPhone 15 Plus series. Scroll down for our comprehensive guide, or click the links to jump to a relevant section.
iPhone 15 – What’s new?
iPhone 15 arrives with some of the biggest innovations introduced with the (much pricier) iPhone 14 Pro last year, but wrapped in a colourful package. It’s also £200 cheaper, so that’s a bonus too.
What’s borrowed from iPhone 14 Pro? For starters, the A16 system-on-a-chip is now powering the standard iPhone series, promising faster performance, especially for those who push the silicon to the limits with graphics-intensive mobile games. Apple also brought the peak brightness – a whopping 2,000nits – that was exclusive to the pricier Pro models to iPhone 15, which should make it more visible outdoors in bright sunlight.
And the similarities don’t end there. iPhone 15 also arrives with a 48MP main camera – that’s the same humongous sensor that was introduced with the iPhone 14 Pro last year. Using its clever computational photography, Apple combines multiple images at different exposures into a single file. Apple does this to find the perfect balance between light capture and pixel-packed detail.
All of this complex machine learning happens in the blink of an eye and the final image is a more manageable 24MP, so you shouldn’t run out of storage too quickly.
Apple is relying on that 48MP sensor to offer a new lossless zoom feature on the iPhone 15. Until now, lossless zoom was exclusive to the Pro version of the iPhone, which shipped with a dedicated telephoto lens in its trademark triple-camera system. That all changes with the iPhone 15, which crops into the 48MP image for a crisp 24MP at 2x zoom.
This will appear alongside the 0.5x ultra-wide and 1x main sensor at the bottom of the viewfinder. The 2x zoom can be used in a rebooted Portrait Mode, which now lets you pick between multiple faces as the focal point after the photo has been taken. Apple has also reworked the algorithms that power Portrait Mode so that it works better with animals.
Finally, iPhone 15 enjoys the clever Dynamic Island notch introduced with the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max. This clever feature adds shortcuts to apps running in the background to a small window that surrounds the cut-out for the front-facing camera and Face ID system.
So, if you’ve got a timer running in the background, it will count down in the corner of the Dynamic Island window. Music and podcasts you’re playing will be displayed in the Dynamic Island, while third-party apps can be updated to take advantage of the feature, with some airlines now adding your Departure Gate into the small preview window. Press-and-hold on the icon to see a detailed preview, or tap to launch the app.
Apple has tweaked its clever SOS via Satellite feature from the iPhone 14 and 14 Pro, which allowed users without signal to call for help via satellite, with Roadside Assistance via Satellite. As the name suggests, this allows iPhone 15 owners to reach roadside assistance companies, starting with AAA in the United States, with details of car trouble – even when they’re stuck somewhere without mobile signal or Wi-Fi.
iPhone 15 also ditches the Lightning port that’s been used to charge iPhones since 2012 in favour of USB-C.
This is the same connection found on the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iPad Air, and iPad Pro. Of course, it’s also found on most Android smartphones, as well as gadgets like the Nintendo Switch, Kindle e-readers, and much more. Apple has been forced to move away from its proprietary connector to comply with a new EU law that requires all phones to charge via USB-C from autumn 2024 onwards.
In our iPhone 14 review last year, we praised its “life-saving new features, including sending texts to emergency services when you don’t have any phone signal or are unconscious after a car crash” as well as its “oodles of power”, “tough design” and “fuss-free camera that snaps great images no matter how much of an amateur photographer you are”.
However, we noted that it was a “shame that it feels identical to the (now much cheaper) iPhone 13. In fact, it even looks pretty similar to iPhone 12.” And that the biggest upgrades – like the 120Hz ProMotion display, always-on screen, A16 processor, Dynamic Island notch design, and telephoto camera – were all still reserved for the pricier iPhone 14 Pro series.
Although we’ll reserve final judgment until our iPhone 15 review, it seems like Apple heard our grumbles and ticked off almost all of our complaints about the standard iPhone missing out on those Pro features.
Release date and UK price
iPhone 15 starts from £799. Like last year, those who want a larger screen (6.7-inch) can plump for the pricier iPhone 15 Plus, which starts from £899. Both handsets will be available in a choice of Pink, Yellow, Green, Blue, and Black.
Both new handsets will be available to preorder from 8am on Friday September 15th, with the first handsets dropping through letterboxes (or available to pick-up in-store) on September 22nd.
Latest iPhone reviews
Unsure which iPhone model is right for you?
We’ll have an in-depth review on the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro later this month, but in the meantime, you can read through our comprehensive thoughts on the rest of the line-up.
Last year, Apple shook-up its formula by releasing an iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus alongside the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max. The iPhone 14 Plus replaced the pocket-sized “mini” and offers the same expansive screen size as the iPhone 14 Pro Max at a more affordable price for the first time. This is also the approach used with the iPhone 15, suggesting the “mini” form-factor won’t be coming back anytime soon. However, the Californian company has also kept a number of its older handsets around too.
We’ve tested all of these iPhone models, check out our definitive verdicts below:
Best iPhone 15 deals
You can preorder the iPhone 15 from several online retailers, as well as the biggest UK mobile networks.
For a limited time, Apple has increased the trade-in value of its older handsets to make the upgrade to the new models a little easier on your current account. There’s a maximum trade-in value of £715 available that will be redeemed against the price of your new Phone 15. Of course, the exact discount you’ll receive from Apple depends on the model that you’re looking to trade-in.
Sending an iPhone 13 Pro Max back to Apple will unlock a £560 discount on your new handset, while an iPhone 13 Pro will result in £500 off your new phone. The regular iPhone 13 can return up to £390, while the iPhone 13 mini will net you £345.
If you decide to take advantage of the iPhone trade-in scheme, you’ll have two weeks to send off your current iPhone. That means you’ll have plenty of time to transfer photos, videos, and apps to the new iPhone 15 before you have to package up your old phone.
Retailers like John Lewis & Partners and Amazon UK have also started to take preorders for the new handsets.
Those who want to take out a new pay monthly contract or upgrade their existing mobile plan can switch to the all-new iPhone 15 today with networks like EE, O2, and Sky Mobile opening up preorders.
Of course, this is just a tiny taster of the hundreds and hundreds of deals available. However, to make the comparison between different networks as fair as possible, we’d aimed to pick deals with roughly the same monthly allowance of speedy 5G data (between 20GB – 30GB).
In our experience, that’s enough data that you’ll be able to comfortably take advantage of some of the best features of the handset (streaming music, turn-by-turn directions, FaceTime video calls, backing up photos to the cloud) without paying ludicrous monthly bills for unlimited usage.
It goes without saying that your usage will be different – and those with sluggish Wi-Fi speeds at home, or who spend hours bingeing Disney+ and Netflix on the train every day might need to plump for pricier monthly plans. If you’re unsure how much 5G data you’ll need, check with your current mobile network and ask them to provide your previous month’s total data usage – and use this as a guideline when picking out your new iPhone 15 deal.