Today, we will see the iPhone 15, Apple Watch Series 9, Apple Watch Ultra 2 and, maybe, an iPhone 15 Ultra.
Apple’s Wonderlust event is today at the Steve Jobs Theater, and we expect to see the rumored iPhone 15 and new Apple Watches announced. This will be the first event since Apple unveiled the Vision Pro at WWDC earlier this summer. The annual fall iPhone event has become a cultural touch point heralding the end of summer, right up there with pumpkin spice.
For months, a seemingly endless flow of iPhone 15 rumors have circulated online. Some hint at a rather straightforward round of year-over-year upgrades, while others point to the possibility of a rebranded larger Pro model called the iPhone 15 Ultra. As the anticipation builds, here’s everything you can expect from Apple’s fall event. You can watch the Wonderlust event stream starting at 10 a.m. PDT/1 p.m. EDT.
Wanderlust or wonderlust?
The event’s invite is characteristically enigmatic, showing an Apple logo made up of tiny, dustlike particles. The logo has grooves carved out of it, a bit like the forms you see on windswept sand dunes.
The tagline, “Wonderlust,” is of course a play on the word “wanderlust,” which means a strong longing for or impulse toward wandering. Does wonderlust mean a strong longing for or impulse toward wondering? Like everyone else, we’re trying to read something into the invite and wondering what it has to do with Apple’s upcoming announcements. Could the grooved cutouts in the logo refer to a less boxy iPhone design? Could the particles refer to improved cameras capable of capturing more detail? Could the colors — metallic shades of gray, blue and even gold — be a reference to the colors of the new iPhone or Apple Watch?
Or is this all just Apple acknowledging the fleeting nature of existence? No idea. But I expect the iPhone 15 Pro will be the headliner.
The iPhone 15 and 15 Plus
As in the iPhone 14 series, there will likely be four models in the new iPhone lineup: the iPhone 15, 15 Plus, 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, who has a solid record when covering Apple leaks, the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus will basically be a repackaged iPhone 14 Pro without the telephoto camera or stainless steel body.
The new phones would inherit a 48-megapixel main camera and the A16 chip from the 14 Pros. On the outside, the two phones will trade their display notches for the Dynamic Island cutout that also debuted on the 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max.
Despite the addition of the Dynamic Island, don’t expect any other changes to the screen. Display analyst Ross Young said in a September 2022 post on X, formerly known as Twitter, that he isn’t expecting base iPhone 15 models to get a high refresh rate like Apple’s Pro iPhones.
And according to a May report by ChargerLab, a battery and charging specialist website with a steady track record for rumors, all four iPhone 15 models will support 15-watt wireless charging using the Qi2 open standard announced earlier this year. If this turns out to be true, it could mean the iPhone 15 would open up a whole new world of wireless charging devices that don’t necessarily need to be licensed Apple MagSafe accessories