First iPhone 15 real-life photos reveal Dynamic Island and USB-C port

(Image credit: Luke Filipowicz / iMore)

iPHONE 15: What you need to know

Teaser image for Apple Wonderlust event — (Image credit: Apple)

- Apple Event - LIVE updates
- iPhone 15
- iPhone 15 Pro /iPhone 15 Pro Max
- Apple Watch Series 9 / Ultra 2
- iOS 17
- watchOS 10

Apple is expected to announce the iPhone 15 lineup this September, and a new leak claims to show the base model in photos for the first time. This leak follows a similar one for the iPhone 15 Pro a week ago.

Shared by the same leaker, these new images claim to show the iPhone 15 in all its glory. If that's the case, this is the first time we've seen a real photo of the base model device. And it appears to confirm something that we'd seen rumored previously — the Dynamic Island.

It was already rumored that this 2022 major upgrade to Apple's best iPhone, the iPhone 14 Pro, would make the move from the Pro models all the way down to the standard ones. Now we appear to have the closest thing to proof that we've seen yet.

Who needs half-baked renders when you have the real thing?Here’s an early base model iPhone 15.(More info exclusively via @MacRumors, for now 😊) pic.twitter.com/LKPzJ8YwfEFebruary 22, 2023

The images were shared by Twitter user @URedditor and while in exceedingly low quality (to protect the source), they do seem to confirm a couple of things. Starting with that Dynamic Island.

The Dynamic Island allows for Live Activities and notifications to appear at the top of the screen without getting in the way of what people are doing with their phones, and it's a big addition to the non-Pro iPhones in 2023. Assuming the rumors, and this photo, turn out to be true.

The other photo shows a USB-C port, something that we were pretty certain was already a thing thanks to the EU's common charger mandate. With that in place all phones must use USB-C starting in 2024, with Apple getting ahead of the game with the iPhone 15 lineup.

MacRumors reports that the leaker informed them that this is an early iPhone 15, which suggests that things might change before shipping, although it seems unlikely given this matches all the rumors we've been hearing.

If Apple follows its usual release schedule we can expect it to announce the iPhone 15 lineup in the early part of September 2023, with the phones themselves going on sale around ten days later.

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.