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

Whether we’re talking iPhone 14the iPhone 14 Proor iPhone 14 Pro Maxthis year’s update focuses on the cameras.

Yes, the Pro models have always-on displays and a very Apple approach to replacing the controversial display notch. But as nice as these perks are, they shouldn’t be the reason you buy these phones.

Cameras are so popular now – especially on Pro models – that we’re starting to feel like we should call these devices “smart cameras” rather than smartphones.

The smartphone more or less improved over the years; there aren’t many new frontiers to explore in this space. But in ways big 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 models are some of the best smart cameras you can buy, even though they’re a revolutionary improvement over their predecessors.

About iPhone 14

Since the iPhone 14 is a modest year-over-year update, we’ve paired it with the 14 Pro in this review. Most of the review will discuss the 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max, but we’ll briefly discuss the regular 14 here in its own section and evaluate the phones together in the performance and cameras section of the review.

iPhone 14 is a step ahead of 2021 iPhone 13. It has the same design and at least the same features at launch. It also has the same system-on-chip (SoC), the A15, so it offers the same performance, although thermals are slightly better for sustained performance, and there’s a tweak that slightly improves graphics performance as well.

The most important advantage of iPhone 14 over iPhone 13 is battery life and photo quality. While the iPhone 13 advertises up to 19 hours of video playback, the iPhone 14 promises up to 20 hours. It’s not much of a leap (and we didn’t notice it), but hey, we’ll take what we can get after a few things. more important than battery life.

As for photo quality, we’ll look at some comparison shots in the camera section of this review, but here’s the quick summary: there’s a new TrueDepth camera with a faster aperture and autofocus support. The main practical benefit of these improvements is that the camera should have better low-light performance.

The wide-angle camera on the back of the iPhone 14 has a larger sensor and faster aperture, and it promises 49 percent better low-light photo performance than its predecessor. Apple has slightly expanded its camera software suite to offer improved low-light performance across all of the phone’s cameras. In other words, the regular iPhone 14 gets some of the benefits seen in last year’s Pro models.

When repair shop/publication iFixit tore down the iPhone 14, it discovered something Apple didn’t advertise: the iPhone 14 is easier to service and repair than other new iPhones, including its Pro siblings.thanks to the removable rear glass panel. For most users, this won’t matter much, but for some, skipping AppleCare+, Apple’s repair service subscription, can improve the longevity of the device and save money on repairs.

On October 7, Apple plans to introduce a new iPhone 14 model called iPhone 14 Plus. It will likely be identical to the iPhone 14, with a 6.7-inch (the same size as the iPhone 14 Pro Max) screen instead of 6.1 inches.

This year, the iPhone 14 Plus replaces the smaller 5.4-inch iPhone 13 mini in the flagship lineup, although Apple still sells the iPhone 13 mini for users who prefer one-handed phones at the expense of screen size and battery life.

Under no circumstances do we recommend upgrading from iPhone 13 to iPhone 14. We don’t even recommend going from 12 to 14, indeed there have been iterative improvements but not even added for several generations. to something radical, especially on non-Pro models.

But if you’re on XS or earlier, here are some significant improvements; Get to know us for more information about these iPhone 13 and 13 Pro review from last year. Almost everything that was said about 13 is also valid here.

Features

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, meaning a 6-core CPU with two performance and four efficiency cores, a 6-core GPU and a 16-core NPU called the Neural Engine, but Apple says. It should offer up to 10 percent faster performance. The A16 has 50 percent more memory bandwidth than the A15, which is a bit significant for 3D games and computational photography features.

So the A16 isn’t a huge performance leap forward, except in the memory bandwidth part. But updates to this chip weren’t really focused on speed. Rather, they are about facilitating new features. Most importantly, the chip has a new ISP that provides some new camera features and added fidelity. It also has a new display engine. The display engine tweaks make two of the most brilliant new features possible: an always-on display and Dynamic Island functionality that replaces the notch.

Like the iPhone 13 Pro, the iPhone 14 Pro also has 6 GB of RAM.

Meanwhile, the iPhone 14 follows last year’s A15, which is still faster than any other phone SoC on the market in most tasks. It gets an increase from 4GB RAM to 6GB.

Screen sizes and display dimensions for all three phones are the same as last year: 6.1 inches and 2556×1179 pixels for the iPhone 14 Pro, 6.7 inches and 2796×1290 pixels for the iPhone 14 Pro Max, 6.1 inches and 21537×21 inches. For iPhone 14. In terms of pixel density, all three clock in at 460 ppi. And all three use OLED technology, which is expected of almost any high-end flagship smartphone these days, and for good reason.

The iPhone 14 offers the same 800 nits typical maximum brightness and 1200 nits peak HDR brightness as the iPhone 13.

iPhone 14 Pro and its bigger sibling offer 1,000 nits of typical maximum brightness and 1,600 nits of peak HDR brightness, as well as the new ability to reach 2,000 nits in sunny, outdoor scenarios. That’s better than even the best high-end HDR TVs, and better than any computer monitor except for equipment used by video professionals. In fact, 1,600 nits of peak HDR brightness matches Apple’s $5,000 Pro Display XDR.

Our tests largely confirmed these claims, which is pretty impressive. Regardless of what type of device we’re talking about, these will probably be the highest quality screens you’ll ever own.

Last year, Apple introduced ProMotion on the iPhone, which provides a dynamic refresh rate of 10 Hz to 120 Hz. It’s still offered here, but the feature can now drop down to 1Hz to support always-on display. (More on that soon.)

The phone also has an additional light sensor, which brings the number to two.

Finally, there’s an updated set of sensors to enable the new crash detection safety feature. If it detects an accident, it will check to see if you’re okay and call for help if you’re not. This feature requires updated sensors, so it won’t be available on older iPhones, but it’s available on the iPhone 14 line as well as new Apple Watch models launched this year.

Apple is planning another safety feature: Pro models can send simple text messages and location information to emergency responders via satellite when you’re off the grid and need help. This feature won’t be available until November.

One thing we wish Apple would improve is fast charging. All these new iPhones still charge much slower than some Android flagships, both wired and wireless charging, which is unfortunate. It’s a small thing that can make a practical difference in users’ daily lives. We hope to see some progress next year.

As always, there’s only one port: Apple’s dedicated Lightning port. Like the rest of the world, so do we I wish Apple would switch to USB-C.

In any case, Apple promises modestly improved battery life on the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max. We’re still running official battery tests, but anecdotally, it felt like the new phones offered about the same or maybe even worse battery life.