Any iPhone with Ultra in the name was always going to be expensive, so it's no surprise to hear that the rumored iPhone 15 Ultra could cost even more than the iPhone 14 Pro Max.
This is according to LeaksApplePro, a filter with a respectable history, which writes about HowToiSolve (se abre en una nueva pestaña), confirmed that the iPhone 15 Ultra will start at € 1,299. Pricing for other regions was not provided, but Apple is currently selling the 14GB iPhone 512 Pro at this price, and it costs €1 / AU$429 elsewhere, so these prices would likely apply here también.
For comparison, the iPhone 14 Pro Max starts at $1099 / £1199 / AU$1899, which would mean a starting price bump of £200 / £230 / AU$350.
That might not be too bad though, with a starting price as low as €1,199 (probably translates to £1,309 / AU$2,099) mentioned as the most optimistic possibility, but even that's significantly higher than the starting price of the iPhone 14 Pro Max. a.
So how would Apple justify this price increase? Part of the reason is simply inflation, according to LeaksApplePro, but on top of that, this phone could get a number of upgrades not seen on the rest of the iPhone 15 lineup, including a titanium frame, dual-lens selfie camera and a boot storage capacity of 256 GB.
All of this would result in production costs that are roughly €90 higher than the iPhone 14 Pro Max.
Interestingly, the source also claims that the iPhone 15 Ultra can only come in one color – the same shade of silver as the Apple Watch Ultra. They claim there could be other shades as well, but so far they haven't seen any evidence of that.
We'd add the usual caveat to all of this - that leaks should be taken with a grain of salt, especially ahead of the iPhone 15's likely September 2023 release date - but we'd be frankly surprised if something were called the iPhone 15 Ultra doesn't cost more than all the others. current models.
Analysis: The price does not increase as much as it seems
Although the iPhone 15 Ultra looks very expensive here, one detail worth noting is that it will apparently come with more than 256GB of storage, which is double the initial 128GB capacity of the iPhone 14 Pro Max.
Pick up a 14GB iPhone 256 Pro Max and the price jumps to $1,199 / £1,309 / AU$2,099, the same price as the lower estimate for the iPhone 15 Ultra here, and £100 / £120 / AU$150 less than the highest estimate.
So for comparable amounts of storage, the iPhone 15 Ultra might not cost more than the iPhone 14 Pro Max; and if so, the increase might not be as great as it seems at first. Either way, it's likely to be one of the most expensive non-folding phones of 2023.