So, Apple has just taken to the stage to announce its new set of iPhones for the year, the iPhone 14 series, and it comes in a total of four smartphones, namely the iPhone 14, 14 Plus, the iPhone 14 Pro, and the iPhone 14 Pro Max.
And today, we’ll be taking a quick look at these smartphones to see all the new specs and features they come with, and maybe some old specs that were rebranded as new and innovative, you know, in Apple’s usual tradition.
So, let’s start with the big ones first, the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max.
iPhone 14 Pro & 14 Pro Max
The iPhone 14 Pro models bring a handful of changes and improvements from the models they’re replacing, starting with the new hole punch cutouts on their displays dubbed the “Dynamic Island” (more of that in a bit), an entirely new set of camera system which brings a new 48MP primary sensor (first on an iPhone), and the usual yearly chipset upgrades that bring a new Apple A16 Bionic chipset which promises better performance and stability than the already good A15 Bionic found in the iPhone 13 series, and even better battery management.
So, the “Dynamic Island”.
The Dynamic Island is Apple’s own way of embracing the new hole punch cutouts, it basically means using software tricks and animations to make the hole punch cutouts more fun and interactive to use, making them stand out from their Android counterparts.
So, instead of just fitting their front-facing cameras and Face ID sensors in the cutouts and calling it a day just like most other smartphone manufacturers do, the hole punches on the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max can expand to show useful and interactive information like when you’re playing music on the device, when the Airpods are connected, stopwatches and timer, etc, and Apple has said this feature will be open to developers so they can utilize it in their apps.
Honestly, I’ll say it’s a very creative way of embracing the hole punch cutouts, and it’s something I really dig. Call it thinking out of the box.
Aside from the new hole punch cutouts, the rest of the display also got slight improvements from the iPhone 13 Pro models such as the ability to go down to 1Hz refresh rate (the iPhone 13 Pro’s could only do 10Hz), and this is currently the brightest display on any smartphone yet with the ability to crank up to 2000 nits when outdoors, even beating the once brightest smartphone display on the planet, the Galaxy S22 Ultra with its 1750 nits display.
And for the first time in an iPhone, Apple has introduced Always-on display with a twist.
So, instead of completely turning off the pixels, and leaving only the necessary ones needed to show useful information like the time and notification icons like you get on most Android smartphones with the feature, on the iPhone 14 Pro models, the display is only dimmed down to the minimum it can get to and set to 1Hz refresh rate.
What this means is, with the Always-on display turned on, you could still see your lock screen wallpaper and every other thing going on on the display.
Personally, I wouldn’t call this a true Always-on display, but we’ll have to wait to see how this affects the battery life of the phones.
And then coming to the cameras, the new iPhone 14 Pro models feature a new 48MP primary camera with an f/1.8 aperture, there’s also a new 12MP ultrawide camera with a larger sensor which Apple says will be able to take in 30% more light, resulting in overall better image quality, especially in low light.
You still get the 3x optical zoom telephoto camera, with OIS. And coming to the front and for the first time in an iPhone, the front-facing camera is now armed with Autofocusing abilities like you’d get on old and new Samsung flagships, which should result in sharper and better-focused selfies.
In terms of performance, the iPhone 14 Pro models come with the new Apple A16 Bionic chipset with 6GB of RAM, and surprisingly, during the Apple event, Apple didn’t compare this chipset with the last year’s A15 Bionic, but instead, compared it with the 2019’s A13 Bionic found in the iPhone 11 series.
This might hint that the new A16 chipset does not necessarily bring any huge performance boost from the A15 it is replacing, which is not a bad thing though as the A15 is already among the fastest and most efficient mobile chipsets you can find in any smartphone right now, and even the competition such as Qualcomm and MediaTek are still trying to catch up with it.
And to back up this claim, here is a benchmarking screenshot from Geekbench comparing the iPhone 14 Pro Max benchmark results to that of the iPhone 13 Pro Max, showing marginal gains in terms of single-core scores, and even a decrease in multicore scores.
But even without the huge bump in speed, we should still be expecting an overall more efficiency and stability from the new iPhones, and even more so, better battery life from the already excellent and unbeaten iPhone 13 Pro Max’s battery life.
Moving further, other new features that come with the new iPhones include Satellite connectivity, which gives the iPhone 14 models the ability to connect to a satellite outside the earth in order to send quick SOS messages in case of an emergency and there is no cellular network.
The other one is called “Crash detection”, and this gives the new iPhones the ability to detect when you’re involved in a car crash, and automatically try to contact the emergency services on your behalf.
The iPhone 14 Pro models also come in four color variants, three (Graphite, Silver, & Gold) of which it shares with the outgoing iPhone 13 Pro models, and a new hero color for the year, Deep Purple, where the 13 Pro’s had Sierra Blue as their hero colors.
The phones start at $999 and $1,099 for the Pro and Pro Max models respectively, matching the price of the iPhone 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max at launch.
So, that’s basically all the new things that came with the new iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max smartphones, now, let’s see if we can also say the same thing for the iPhone 14 and 14 Plus models.
The iPhone 14 & 14 Plus
Spoiler alert: If you have the iPhone 13, then there’s no need to upgrade to the iPhone 14, and even if you have the iPhone 11 or 12 and planning to upgrade to a newer iPhone, then you’re better off with the last year’s iPhone 13 as it’s basically the same phone as the iPhone 14, and even comes at a cheaper price.
So, what do we have here?
Well, basically everything we had with the iPhone 13 and 13 Mini with a new name and new marketing jargon to make you think it’s a new phone when it’s not.
The only thing new with the Non-Pro iPhone 14 models has to be the new iPhone 14 Plus with a 6.7-inch display, kicking out the iPhone 13 Mini, and matching the iPhone 13 Pro Max in terms of the display size.
So, it’s basically a case of, if you want the iPhone 14 in a larger size, just as the iPhone 14 Pro Max is basically a larger variant of the iPhone 14 Pro.
So, in terms of the display, well, the iPhone 14 and 14 Plus misses out on the new hole punch and Dynamic Island thing as they still retain the notch for one more year, they also miss out on the new LTPO panels on the Pro models, meaning they’re still stuck at 60Hz like the iPhone 13’s from last year, and you don’t even get the “wannabe Always-on display” from the Pro models, and again, you still miss out on the 2000 nits peak brightness of the Pro models.
Go Apple!! Lol…
And as if that isn’t enough downgrades to worry about, the iPhone 14 and 14 Plus also makes use of the A15 Bionic chipset from last year, and in Apple’s defense to this, they’re claiming the A15 Bionic chipset found in these phones is the ones found in the iPhone 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max models with a 5-core GPU and not the ones in the regular iPhone 13 and 13 Mini with a 4-core GPU.
Personally, I wouldn’t say this is really a downgrade if going by technical terms because like I already mentioned, the A15 chipset is already fast and efficient enough, and even the competition is still trying to catch up with it, but in a real-world setting, it feels like Apple doesn’t care about and takes people buying the regular iPhone 14 and 14 Plus as second-class individuals.
But again, not a lot of people buying the iPhone 14’s will be concerned about this though, so, they probably wouldn’t know about it.
And coming to the cameras, well, Apple is boasting of a new primary camera sensor on the iPhone 14 and 14 Plus models, but it’s still a 12MP sensor with a 12MP ultrawide, and yet again, no telephoto sensor.
But Apple being Apple claims the new 12MP camera with a larger sensor will be able to capture 30% more light which should help with low light shots.
And coming to the front, well, aside from the fact that you get a new and larger 12MP sensor, Apple has also given it the ability to Autofocus like on the Pro models, so, we should be expecting sharper and better-focused selfies, which should also help with portrait shots.
Other features include the ability to connect to satellites outside the earth, and the new crash detection.
The iPhone 14 and 14 Plus comes in a total of five colors, three (Midnight, Starlight, and Red) of which it shares with the iPhone 13 and 13 Mini, and two (Purple and Blue) of which are exclusive to them.
Though the iPhone 13(s) also have a Blue color variant, but theirs is in a different and darker shade.
In terms of pricing, the iPhone 14 starts at $799, while the 14 Plus starts at $899.
And that wraps it for everything old and new with the just announced latest Apple iPhones. Kindly leave a comment in the comments section if a question or contribution to make, and if you enjoyed reading this article, then kindly give a thumbs up by sharing it, and as always, I’ll see y’all tomorrow, #peace out.
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