The iPhone 11 was my first iPhone, but I decided to upgrade last week since I need more storage and assumed I'd be getting a better camera. I am a professional videographer/photographer and I produce social media content and videos for work, I film myself using my phone and professional cameras often. But I'm not someone who has unrealistic phone camera expectations. I have not been happy with my iPhone 11--mainly I was constantly running out of space and never able to clear it. I decided I would give being stuck in the Apple ecosystem another shot and get a 1TB iPhone 15 Pro, imagining that between 4 iterations there would be improvement.
My 1TB iPhone 15 Pro arrived today, I immediately want to return it. It makes my iPhone 11 Pro look like a dream. Look at this:
Front-facing camera
On the left is my iPhone 11 Pro which I got in 2019. You can see that my skin has color (not as much IRL, but still). When I turned on the iPhone 15 Pro camera, which literally just arrived hours ago today... I started laughing. I look like a vampire. I look like I should be strapped to a hospital bed. Different lighting conditions don't fix this. This is the front-facing camera, and some people say I shouldn't use it. But how else am I supposed to tell I'm in frame? And regardless, this is unacceptable when the phone 4 generations older is producing such a better image.
Some might say "there's clearly a filter." There is no filter. There is something that brightens shadows on faces to reduce contrast and make you look better on both phones. It can even look extreme on the 11 at times. You can't turn it off on either phone.
Some might say "use the new Photographic Styles," which I've done: it barely changes things to start, and it also doesn't affect video.
I've tested the back, and credit where credit is due, the back is as good as the 11. This is a screenshot of video, to be clear.
Back-facing camera
There is still a very clear difference: the 15 Pro is bluer. In the video I've captured my skin is more magenta and the overall picture is too cool. But it is comparable to the 11 Pro, which I didn't realize was even good.
So what is happening here with the front-facing? Well, I think it's the exposure curve. I think I am being overexposed, and I'm honestly shocked that after 4 years, the iPhone isn't able to expose darker skin properly. Even my 11 Pro overexposes my skin. When skin is overexposed, it loses it's color saturation. wWhen we significantly lower the highlights in that image, the color is almost completely restored:
iPhone 15 Pro original
iPhone 15 Pro with Highlights brought down
But now I have to do this for every image? I didn't have to before. Can this be fixed? Do I just keep the phone and wait keep my fingers crossed for a firmware update? Because Apple is so great at listening to feedback. "Just edit your images. You're a photographer, you should be used to that." I literally did not have to do this before, and there is NO other camera I've used (unless I'm shooting sLog-3) where I have to return color to my skin because I look so unnatural.
This is absolutely laughable. It is so disorienting to look at myself in the mirror and then look at the mirror in my phone and to be so (I'm gonna say it) whitewashed! The 11 Pro even does this but not so much. It is difficult for me to relay to you all just how much I do not look like this, but I hope this comparison is clear.
If you have brown skin, I would not recommend getting the iPhone 15, or really any iPhone ever at this point, if you plan on using the front facing camera. The Apple ecosystem, the group texts, the blue bubble... I really don't think it's worth this: marginal "improvements," frustrating storage, and it's difficult to see THIS as anything other than overlooking people with dark skin tones. I ain't even that dark! But I ain't this pale. I keep seeing phone companies using dark skin tone rendering as a selling point, and I hear from black people that NOPE! Worse than they're old phone. It's all a marketing ploy at this point.
I am returning this phone tomorrow, and hoping I can just get an 11 Pro with more storage. If I can't, I might switch to Android, which I'm not excited by. I told myself I'd give Apple one more chance, "I actually don't hate the camera, I just hate how storage works." This was an immediate slap in the face.
