Source: Xinzhiyuan

The “Science and Technology Spring Festival Gala” came to an end, and Apple brought another 100 million points of shock to the world.

The iPhone 15 Pro, which was named “the best and most Pro iPhone in history,” broke many records as soon as it was unveiled —

The first iPhone designed with aerospace-grade titanium alloy, is equipped with the world's first 3nm chip A17 Pro. It has the longest optical zoom ever, bringing console games to a smartphone for the first time!

When it comes to A17 Pro's support for Genshin and Collapse 3, even a segment of Chinese popped up like never before, and the lines of Chinese players instantly filled up.

Another shocking news is: Today, the iPhone is finally using the extremely “advanced” USB-C.

On the left is the iPhone 15 Pro series; on the right is the iPhone 15 series

But apparently, not everyone is satisfied with this wave of toothpaste squeezed by Apple.

iPhone 15 Pro: titanium alloy body, first 3nm chip

Like the previous generation, the iPhone 15 Pro series still offers two sizes: the 6.1-inch Pro and the 6.7-inch Max. The starting prices are 7999 and 9999 yuan, respectively, and the highest is 13,999.

This is how Apple introduced the new Pro lineup — the best, most professional iPhone ever.

The iPhone 15 Pro, on the other hand, is known as “the most professional iPhone so far.”

Although Apple only installed it on the iPhone almost 10 years after the USB-C specification was released, there are still some pioneers in the industry in other areas.

The first iPhone with an aerospace-grade titanium alloy design

The A17 Pro chip, which enables hardware-level light tracking on a mobile phone, can be called a game changer

Customizable action buttons

The most powerful iPhone camera system, 7 lenses in one phone

USB-C with USB 3, super fast transfer

A17 Pro hardware supports optical tracking

This time, Apple has developed a new generation of Apple chips for the iPhone 15 Pro, the A17 Pro, which can be said to mark a new chapter in iPhone performance.

Built on transistor technology, the A17 Pro is the industry's first 3nm chip!

These transistors use the most advanced extreme UV lithography technology, and the original is only slightly wider than 12 silicon atoms.

Whereas in the A17 Pro, there are 19 billion such transistors.

If I had to talk about the A17 Pro's breakthrough innovation, it would be a brand new GPU.

This GPU uses a new shader architecture and is the biggest design update for Apple GPUs so far.

It can be said that this Pro-grade GPU has further expanded the possibilities of the iPhone --

Significant improvements in performance and energy efficiency

Run more complex apps

Various rendering functions have been added

The new 6-core GPU increases peak performance by up to 20%.

And with the improvement in energy efficiency, the game's performance also continues to be stable.

The GPU has added multiple game features, such as grid coloring. The game uses less energy while creating more detail in the process.

In addition, for the first time, Apple also supports hardware-accelerated ray tracing, achieving the fastest optical tracking processing speed in history on a smartphone.

This is a scene without light tracking, using cube mapping to simulate reflection on a surface. The light reflected in the scene is inaccurate and therefore not realistic enough.

And with light tracking, it is possible to more accurately reproduce the behavior of light and the reflection of the environment.

Through hardware acceleration, the A17 Pro can run the following graphics smoothly, and the frame rate is much higher than software-based optical tracking.

What this brings is a more realistic and immersive game and AR experience!

Compared to the A16's software-based optical tracking, the A17 Pro runs 4 times faster.

Apple said it is quite confident that it will use this chip to revolutionize mobile gaming.

For the iPhone and iOS talented game developer community, A17 Pro takes the platform to a new level, laying the foundation for the birth of a new generation of mobile games.

The 0/4/4 KDA was unexpected

The following are all the new possibilities brought by the A17 Pro —

Higher resolution, more vibrant light, more fire and weather effects, more realistic waves and reflections, and more.

Here, Apple also specially cued Miha Tour's “Collapse 3: Orbit of the Star Dome” and “Genshin,” and customized an exclusive Chinese explanation for Chinese players.

Also, games like “Resident Evil 4” and “Assassin's Creed” that were only playable on consoles in the past can now be played on iPhones!

Arguably, this is the future of mobile gaming.

The A17 Pro chip has such powerful graphical performance, and the mobile phone industry can't find a rival at all. It also seems to have been announced ahead of time that Apple has already taken half of its place in the future arms race for VR equipment performance.

In terms of CPU, the A17Pro uses a 6-core design, 2 of which are performance cores and the other 4 are energy efficiency cores.

Through microarchitecture and design improvements, the performance core has been improved by up to 10%. Single-threaded performance is not only leading among smartphones, but is even comparable to some high-performance desktop PCs!

Similarly, the energy efficiency core is also a leader in the industry, bringing three times the performance/power consumption ratio of competing products.

The 16-core neural network engine can run machine learning models up to 2 times faster, and can perform up to 35 trillion operations per second.

Using device-side machine learning, the neural network engine can perform various functions without sending personal data to the cloud, such as automatic correction and extracting subjects from photo backgrounds.

At the same time, the A17 Pro is also equipped with multiple dedicated engines.

For example, the ProRes codec, which drives ProMotion's adaptive refresh rate technology and all-weather display, and a dedicated AV1 decoder, make the streaming video experience more sophisticated and of higher quality.

To support the new USB-C port, Apple has added a new USB controller to the A17 Pro, unlocking an unprecedented workflow.

This also made it the first iPhone with USB 3 speed, with a maximum transfer speed of 10Gb/s.

Of course, Apple has also very “thoughtfully” prepared a Type-C to Lightning converter, which “only” requires 243.

The industry's first titanium alloy case

In addition to chips, Apple has also put a lot of effort into materials this time.

Titanium is very strong and durable, yet at the same time it weighs much less, making the iPhone 15 Pro the lightest Pro model to date.

This beautiful new titanium design is the highest-end material used by Apple for the outer frame of the iPhone.

Furthermore, Apple has also designed a new curved edge, which has an outstanding texture. This is also the narrowest frame of the iPhone so far.

Specifically, the outer frame of the iPhone 15 Pro series is made of grade 5 titanium, which has higher compressive strength than pure titanium, and is the same model as the Mars rover.

It's both durable and lighter than stainless steel.

Within titanium, it is a newly designed aluminum metal substrate structure. Through solid-state diffusion bonding, this is the first of its kind in the industry.

The new thermomechanical process allows titanium and aluminum to be bonded at extremely high pressure to further dissipate heat and reduce weight.

The coating has reached nanoscale accuracy and took up to 14 hours to complete.

The exterior comes in four colors - titanium, black, white, and blue.

Netizens have acknowledged that it has forced Gramman.

As for the screen, the iPhone 15 Pro series still uses the strongest glass material in the industry—a super porcelain crystal panel.

After a wave of operation, the size and weight of the phone were also drastically reduced without affecting the screen at all.

New custom operation buttons

This time, another update in terms of appearance by Apple is that the iPhone 15 Pro series has removed the mute paddle and designed a new customizable action button.

By default, it's a ring/mute switch.

However, with a long press, you can switch between different functions, such as turning on the flashlight, camera, auxiliary functions, etc.

Every time you interact, there will be visual feedback on Lingdong Island.

Put the seven lenses in your pocket

Apple claims that the iPhone 15 Pro series has the best camera system ever, which is equivalent to having seven camera lenses in our pocket.

Especially with the support of a more advanced 48 megapixel main camera, the image experience of the new Pro is excellent.

The 4-in-1 pixel sensor allows the main camera to capture amazing details, such as every tiny scale on the lizard.

In addition to 48 megapixel ProRow photos, we can also take 48 megapixel HEIF photos, which have 4 times the resolution of the previous one.

24 megapixel photos also have the best low-light performance and detail capture.

The color of the eyes in the photo, the edge of the clothes, and the reflection on the table are all very clear.

The focal length can be selected from 24, 28, and 35 mm. This choice is very important for professional photographers.

What contrasts sharply with the subtle expressions of the characters in low-light shots is the background full of detail under dark details.

The effects of the night mode are also exquisite. The photographic engine allows us to capture more colors and details, such as the warm tones of a lipstick and the wrinkles of a white dress.

The lidar scanner also makes night mode portraits beautiful and eye-catching.

The smart HDR function not only preserves the bright light on the character's face and sunlight on the hair, but also preserves the blue of the sky.

And the latest 120mm focal length, perfect for close-ups, wildlife, and more.

The iPhone 15 Pro Max has the longest optical zoom to date, reaching a 5x optical zoom with a 120mm focal length.

To this end, Apple innovatively created a quadruple reflective prism. Let the light travel longer in a smaller structure.

Optical image stabilization and autofocus 3D sensor displacement modules are also among the first in a smartphone.

They are also essential for quadruple reflective prisms, and can perform up to 10,000 fine adjustments per second to obtain more perfect images.

Longer lenses also provide users with more choices.

The ultra-wide-angle camera upgrade also includes a new anti-reflective coating, a better night mode, smart HDR functionality, and macro photography.

With a USB 3 cable, anyone can quickly transfer pictures and videos directly to the Mac.

Additionally, the iPhone 15 Pro is also the world's first phone to support the ACES Academy color coding system.

Not only has the iPhone 15 Pro broken the limits of smartphone photography, it can also be linked to Vision Pro.

The precious memories you've recorded with your phone are even more impressive if you wear Vision Pro to enjoy them — real panoramic images that make you feel like you're in the middle of it.

It's worth mentioning that Apple has also designed a unique feature specifically for spatial computing:

The two rear cameras can directly shoot “spatial video” — the ultra-wide angle combined with the main camera can shoot videos with 3D effects.

Using Vision Pro to watch spatial videos taken with the iPhone 15 Pro allows users to feel that they have actually returned to the moment they were shooting the image!

So, with the iPhone 15 Pro and spatial video, it's only a Vision Pro.

Finally, a picture summarizes all the highlights of the iPhone 15 Pro.

iPhone 15: USB-C, but 2.0

As for the iPhone 15, it's still available in two sizes—6.1 inch and 6.7 inch.

First, compared to the previous generation, the most obvious change in the iPhone 15 is the addition of a smart island.

Through Smart Island, users can not only easily control music, but also display additional special information, such as boarding gates when waiting for a flight.

In terms of screen, it was upgraded to a Super Retina XDR screen.

Among them, the HDR peak is 1,600 nits, and the highest is 2,000 nits in the sun, which is twice that of the iPhone 14.

Compared to the slightly clumsier frame of the previous generation, the iPhone 15 uses a curved aluminum alloy frame, which is comfortable to hold.

The front glass uses a supercrystalline porcelain panel, which provides unprecedented strength and protection.

The glass on the back cover is durable tinted glass made using a special process.

By incorporating metal ions into the base material, we have obtained 5 different styles but all equally stunning colors.

New imaging system

In order for every user to be able to take beautiful photos, the camera of the iPhone 15 has gone to great lengths this time.

The iPhone 15's main camera was upgraded to 48 megapixels. Equipped with a 4-in-1 pixel sensor, the iPhone 15 can perform at the highest level of detail, photosensitivity, and photo size according to user needs.

The light imaging engine can restore the best light capture effect. Compositing with another high-resolution photo results in a picture where both light and detail tend to be perfect.

In default mode, the photo resolution will be increased to 24 megapixels.

The 48 megapixel camera not only increases resolution, but can also obtain a 2x telephoto option through the 12 megapixel area in the middle of the photo, which can obtain photos with the same perfect optical effects and 4K video.

Through intelligently integrated hardware and software, the additional 2x telephoto option provides users with three optical zooms for the first time on the iPhone dual camera system: 0.5x, 1x, and 2x.

It has the same f/1.6 aperture and sensor-shift optical image stabilization, so you can take amazing photos even in low light.

Video supports continuous zoom, and images with continuous zoom can be shot in 4K mode.

The next generation portrait mode has sharper details, more vibrant colors, and better low-light performance.

Users don't need to switch to portrait mode to take portraits: iPhone automatically captures depth-of-field information when there's a person, dog, or cat in the frame, or when the user taps to focus.

Users can later convert a normal photo into a portrait mode photo with a depth of field effect.

With the addition of focus and depth of field control functions, users can change the focus of the photo after the photo is completed to complete creative photography according to their own ideas.

A16 bionic chip

Advanced computational photography and ultra-wide-angle cameras all rely on Apple's powerful chips.

The A16 Bionic was first installed on the iPhone 14 Pro. The 6-core CPU has two high-performance cores and four energy-efficient cores. It is faster than the previous generation, can easily handle intensive tasks, and still provides ultra-long battery life.

The 5-core GPU has a 50% increase in memory bandwidth for smooth graphics when streaming video and gaming.

The 16-core neural engine can perform nearly 17 trillion operations per second, providing faster machine learning performance for functions such as real-time voicemail transcription and third-party app experiences in iOS 17.

Powerful connectivity technology

In addition to airborne video streaming and business card delivery to find keys in the couch, the iPhone 15 is equipped with a top second-generation Ultra Wideband chip, which can be connected and positioned from a distance with other devices, so users can find friends even in crowded places.

When there is an emergency situation and the phone has no signal, users can call for help through the satellite communication function.

In the following regions, all satellite services can be used free of charge on iPhone 15 for 2 years.

The Type-C interface also appeared on the iPhone 15 for the first time, but it is worth noting that the iPhone 15 supports the USB 2 protocol, and the maximum transmission rate is 480 MB/s.

Here's a summary of the iPhone 15's upgrades and highlights.

Apple Watch S9: Two fingers point to each other, the magic is here

Of course, in addition to the heavyweight “iPhone of the Year” upgrade, the highlight of the Apple Watch has also ushered in an update.

The new Apple Watch S9, and the top version of the Apple Watch Ultra 2.

This time, the most impressive feature of the Apple Watch series, and the most worth trying out is the iteration on “gesture control.”

Later, the standard gesture for apple fans: tap each other twice with your thumbs and index fingers, and respond as soon as you want.

As soon as the alarm goes off in the morning, I don't want to wake it up. Tap each other twice with both fingers, immediately postpone the alarm, and call me later.

While I was busy with my own business, I suddenly got a phone call. I tapped each other twice with both fingers, and just answered and hung up.

Treat yourself with a meal. You can time the baking time in the electric oven by tapping each other twice with both fingers.

Take a family photo without holding your phone; tap each other twice with both fingers to get it done.

Also, this gesture can directly summon smart stacking in the dial. If you tap each other twice again, you can swipe down to browse the widgets.

All the fancy tricks at your fingertips. Once you try it, you'll find it amazing.

The implementation of this new “double finger, double tap, double click” gesture relies on a powerful neural network engine.

It can process data from the accelerometer, gyroscope, and optical heart rate sensor in a new way.

The reason it is possible to add this two-finger kneading action is to detect the vibration distance of two-finger kneading through machine learning, so that this action can be accurately identified.

Furthermore, the Apple Watch uses machine learning to detect the characteristics of slight changes in movement and blood flow when two fingers touch each other two times.

As for the processor, the Apple Watch S9 uses the new Apple chip S9 SiP, which is equipped with 5.6 billion transistors. The number is 60% higher than the S8, and the GPU performance can be increased as fast as 30%.

At the same time, the S9 is equipped with a new quad-core neural network engine, which makes processing machine learning tasks up to 2 times faster.

This super powerful custom chip can keep the S9 battery life for 18 hours.

For everyone, wear an Apple Watch, raise your wrist, call Siri, send a message, check the weather, and all kinds of small cases can be solved.

With the new processing engine, Siri's various requests can be processed on the device side, not only quickly, but also more securely.

For example, “Siri, start outdoor walking in vitro training”, the S9 can be achieved without accessing the cloud. Even when the WiFi or cellular network signal is poor, the speed is not affected.

Since the neural network engine can run more advanced Transformer models, S9's dictation function is up to 25% more accurate than S8.

Also, with the Apple Watch S9, you can directly check your health through Siri. This feature will be rolled out later this year, with English and Mandarin support for the first time.

You can test with your watch and ask S9 “How long did I sleep last night?” “What is my average heart rate while walking?”

You can even let it help you keep track of your health data, such as weight, medication, etc.

Just open it!

Of course, another common application scenario for Apple Watch is to connect with surrounding objects, such as payment showing QR codes, smart locks, etc.

Whether at home or on the go, the watch can be connected to all kinds of devices, making many things easy.

This time, the S9 has a brand new feature, to search for phones.

With the support of a new second-generation ultra-wideband chip, you can accurately find iPhones that use the same chip.

The S9 will tell you how far and where your iPhone is from you. As you get close to the phone, tactile and audible feedback will guide you to the phone.

In terms of screen design, the S9 has a large all-weather retina display that extends to the bezel. The maximum brightness can reach 2,000 nits, which is twice that of the 8th generation.

In the cinema, or just getting up in the morning, the minimum brightness of the display is reduced to 1 nit, which is good enough to adapt to the dark.

Finally, in terms of color scheme, pink has been added to the S9 Lu metal case, as well as star color, silver, midnight color, and red. There are a total of 5 color schemes.

The stainless steel case is available in gold, silver, and graphite, in three colors.

Meanwhile, Apple has redesigned the S9's strap, a loopback sports strap, made of 82% recycled yarn, which goes without saying much about softness and comfort.

In addition, Apple has also developed a “finely woven twill” strap, which uses two styles: magnetic chain type and button type.

Highlights of the Apple Watch S9 overall update. The following image can be viewed in full.

Apple Watch Ultra 2: Exclusive New Watch

Next up is an upgrade to the most powerful Apple Watch Ultra 2.

Similarly, the Ultra 2 is equipped with a powerful S9 SiP chip, so you can also tap each other twice with two fingers, call Siri to complete interaction, and accurately find the phone.

The Ultra 2 is equipped with a new generation of advanced display architecture, and the maximum brightness soared to 3,000 nits.

You can see the display clearly even when you encounter harsh sunlight during an outdoor adventure.

At the same time, Apple also designed an exclusive new dial for the Ultra 2 — the Ultra module. Using the outermost source of the display, it can display real-time data such as height, depth, and seconds.

The Ultra module also supports customization, so you can view all information at a glance with just one scan.

Thanks to the ambient light sensor, night mode can be turned on automatically. Also, you can use Bluetooth accessories to detect data such as movement speed and power.

Ultra 2 is designed for extreme altitudes, from the lowest valley-500M to the highest mountain peak 9000M.

For battery life, the maximum standby time is 36 hours on a single charge, and up to 72 hours when using low battery power.

Different color combinations have also been added to the strap. The new colors of the alpine ring strap, the field loop strap, and the marine strap are as follows.

This is the new Apple Watch Ultra 2, which will go on sale on September 22nd.

edit/lambor