A collection of alleged iPhone 15 mockups have been tested with iPhone 14 cases to see if you'll once again have to shell out for protection when you upgrade.
The dummy handsets have been 3D printed from what is thought to be CAD files for the iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro, and iPhone 15 Pro Max. They were bought from "Alibaba sources" and show the placements of different elements on each handset - such as the camera bump and side buttons.
Mac Otakara, which acquired the mockups, then tested them with cases for their respective current models to see which might fit without needing a replacement. The bad news is that only one seems to be compatible.
The Japanese website found that the standard iPhone 15 struggled to fit into an iPhone 13/14 case as, while the camera unit in the rear is similar and in roughly the same position, the housing size of the phone itself is 1mm thicker so cannot fit exactly. There are issues with both the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max models too.
They technically fit into their respective cases but the 15 Pro's camera unit seems a little too high up so cannot sit flush inside the hole of a 14 Pro case. In addition, the volume buttons do not fit in the cases for neither the Pro or Pro Max.
The only model that does seem to fit a current generation case is the iPhone 15 Plus.
Of course, as these are 3D printed mockups, made from printable material, the measurements might not be exact to a production model, so the 1mm here or there might be slightly out. Still, it wouldn't be too far a stretch to imagine that cases won't be compatible between different generations of Apple devices - they often aren't.
Interestingly, Mac Oktakara also suggests that the displays on the Pro and Pro Max will be slightly smaller, so screen protectors might be incompatible too. We'll have to wait for further leaks to find out more.