iPhone 14 and 14 Pro review: A picture is worth a thousand dollars

Whether you’re talking about the iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Pro, or iPhone 14 Pro Max, this year’s update focuses on the camera.

Yes, the Pro model has an always-on display and a very Apple approach to replacing the controversial screen notch. Perks shouldn’t be a reason to buy these phones.

The cameras have become so prominent, especially on the Pro models, that I’m beginning to feel that these devices should be called “smart cameras” rather than smartphones.

of smartphone It has been more or less perfected over the years. There aren’t many new frontiers to explore in that field. But large and small, Apple (along with its competitors) continues to find new ways to improve the amateur digital photography experience.

As a result, the iPhone 14 model is one of the best smart cameras you can buy. However, it’s not a revolutionary upgrade for the device that came before it.

About iPhone 14

The iPhone 14 has a very modest year-over-year update, so we lumped it in with the 14 Pro for this review. Most of our review will cover the 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max, but we’ll cover the regular 14 briefly in a separate section and rate the phones together in the performance and camera sections of our review.

The iPhone 14 has come a long way from 2021’s iPhone 13. It has the same design and has the same feature set, at least at launch. It’s also powered by the same system-on-chip (SoC), the A15, so it offers the same performance, but reportedly has slightly better thermals to keep up with performance, and slightly better graphics performance should improve to

The most important advantages of the iPhone 14 over the iPhone 13 are battery life and photo quality. The iPhone 13 advertises up to 19 hours of video playback, while the iPhone 14 promises up to 20 hours of video playback. More important than battery life.

As for photo quality, we’ll take a look at some comparison shots in the camera section of this review, but I’ll briefly touch on it here. There is a new front-facing TrueDepth camera that supports faster aperture and autofocus. The main practical benefit of these improvements is improved low-light performance of the camera.

The wide-angle camera on the back of the iPhone 14 has a larger sensor, faster aperture, and promises 49% better low-light photography performance than its predecessor. Apple has slightly expanded its camera software suite to improve low-light performance across all of the phone’s cameras. In other words, the regular iPhone 14 gets some of the perks we saw on last year’s Pro model.

When repair shop/publication iFixit took the iPhone 14 apart, we discovered something Apple hadn’t advertised: The iPhone 14, thanks to its removable back glass panel, has been replaced by recent others, including its Pro siblings. It’s easier to service and repair than the iPhone. While it’s not a big deal for most users, for some, skipping AppleCare+, Apple’s repair service subscription, can extend the life of your device and make it easier to repair. Potentially save money.

On October 7th, Apple will launch a new iPhone 14 model called the iPhone 14 Plus. It will most likely be the same as the iPhone 14, just by having a 6.7-inch screen (the same size as the iPhone 14 Pro Max) instead of 6.1 inches.

This year, the iPhone 14 Plus will replace the much smaller 5.4-inch iPhone 13 mini in the flagship lineup, but Apple will continue to offer the iPhone 13 mini for those who prefer one-handed calling at the expense of screen size and battery life. for sale.

We never recommend upgrading from iPhone 13 to iPhone 14. I also don’t recommend going from 12 to 14. In fact, there have been iterations of improvements, but they haven’t been added for several generations. Down to the very basics, especially on non-Pro models.

However, if you’re on XS or older, here are some significant upgrades. For more on those, check out our iPhone 13 and 13 Pro reviews from last year. Almost everything written there about 13 applies here as well.

specification

Spec List: iPhone 14, 14 Pro, 14 Pro Max
screen	2532×1170 6.1 inch OLED (14), 2556×1179 6.1 inch OLED (14 Pro), 2796×1290 6.7 inch OLED (14 Pro Max)
OS	iOS16
CPU	Apple A15 (iPhone 14), Apple A16 (14 Pro and 14 Pro max)
sheep	6GB
GPUs	Apple A15 (iPhone 14), Apple A16 (14 Pro and 14 Pro max)
depository	128, 256, or 512 GB for 14. 128, 256, 512GB, or 1TB (14 Pro/Max)
networking	Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5, 5G
port	Thunder
camera	14 two 12 MP rear cameras (Wide, Ultra Wide). Three rear cameras for 14 Pro/Max (48 MP Wide, 12 MP Ultra Wide, 12 MP Telephoto). 12MP front camera.Dolby Vision HDR 4K video capture
size	146.7 x 71.5 x 7.8mm (14), 147.5 x 71.5 x 7.85mm (Pro), 160.7 x 77.6 x 7.85mm (Promax)
weight	172g (14), 206g (Pro), 240g (Max)
starting price	$799 (14), $999 (Pro), $1,099 (Max)
Other benefits	MagSafe, Face ID, Dynamic Island (Pro model), always-on display (Pro model)

The iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max are the first devices to use Apple’s new A16 SoC, the first iPhone chip built on the 4nm process.

The A16 has the same number of cores as its predecessor. That means it has a 6-core CPU with 2 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores, a 6-core GPU, and a 16-core NPU called the Neural Engine, but Apple says: It should provide up to 10% faster performance. The A16 has 50 percent more memory bandwidth than the A15, which is very important for 3D games and a little more for computational photography features.

So, aside from the memory bandwidth part, the A16 isn’t a huge performance boost. Rather, it is meant to promote new functionality. Most importantly, the chip contains a new ISP. This gives some of the new camera features and better fidelity. It also features a new display engine. Tweaks to the display engine enable two of the flashiest new features. It features an always-on display and dynamic islands that replace the notch.

Like the iPhone 13 Pro, the iPhone 14 Pro comes with 6GB of RAM.

The iPhone 14, on the other hand, sticks with last year’s A15 and is still faster than any other phone SoC on the market for most tasks. RAM increased from 4GB to 6GB.

The iPhone 14 Pro is 6.1 inches with 2,556 x 1,179 pixels, while the iPhone 14 Pro Max is 6.7 inches with 2,796 x 1,290 pixels and 6.1 inches with 2,532 x 1,170 pixels. For iPhone 14. In terms of pixel density, all three clock in at 460 ppi. And all three use OLED technology. This is expected in almost all high-end flagship smartphones these days, and for good reason.

The iPhone 14 offers the same 800 nits typical maximum brightness and 1,200 nits peak HDR brightness as the iPhone 13.

The iPhone 14 Pro and its siblings deliver 1,000 nits at typical maximum brightness and 1,600 nits at peak HDR brightness, offering new capabilities that reach 2,000 nits in sunny outdoor scenarios. It’s better than even the best high-end HDR TVs, and better than any computer monitor except for the hardware used by video professionals. In fact, 1,600 nits of peak HDR brightness is comparable to Apple’s $5,000 Pro Display XDR.

Our tests largely support these claims and are quite impressive. Regardless of what type of device you’re talking about, these are probably the best quality screens you’ll ever own.

Last year, Apple introduced ProMotion to the iPhone, allowing dynamic refresh rates from 10Hz to 120Hz. This is still offered here, but this feature now allows him to go down to 1 Hz to support always-on display. (More on that in a moment.)

There’s also a light sensor added to the phone, giving it a count of 2.

Finally, there is an updated sensor suite that enables new collision detection safety features. If a crash is detected, it will prompt you to check if everything is okay, and ask for help if not. This feature requires an updated sensor, so it’s not available on older iPhones, but it’s available on the iPhone 14 line, as well as new Apple Watch models launching this year.

Apple is planning another safety feature. Sending a simple text message and location data via satellite to emergency responders when they’re off the grid and need help. However, this feature won’t roll out until his November.

One thing Apple would like to see improved is fast charging. It’s a shame because all of these new iPhones, both wired and wireless, still charge slower than some of his Android flagships. It’s the little things that can make a real difference in a user’s daily life. Hopefully next year we will see some improvement.

As usual, there is only one port. Apple’s proprietary Lightning port. I hope Apple moves to USB-C, as many other countries in the world do.

In any case, Apple promises a slight improvement in battery life for the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max. We’re still doing formal battery testing, but anecdotally, it felt like the new phone’s battery life was about the same, or just slightly worse.