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

Whether or not we’re speaking in regards to the iPhone 14, the iPhone 14 Professional, or the iPhone 14 Professional Max, this 12 months’s replace focuses on the cameras.

Sure, the Professional fashions have always-on shows and an oh-so-very-Apple method to changing the controversial display screen notch. However as nifty as these perks are, they shouldn’t be the explanations you purchase these telephones.

The cameras are actually so outstanding—within the Professional fashions particularly—that it’s beginning to really feel like we must always name these gadgets “smartcameras” slightly than smartphones.

The smartphone has been kind of perfected through the years; there aren’t many new frontiers to discover in that house. However in methods each massive and small, Apple (together with its rivals) retains discovering new methods to enhance the newbie digital pictures expertise.

In consequence, the iPhone 14 fashions are among the greatest smartcameras you should purchase—though they don’t seem to be a revolutionary improve over the gadgets that got here earlier than them.

In regards to the iPhone 14

As a result of the iPhone 14 is such a modest year-over-year replace, we’ve lumped it in with the 14 Professional on this assessment. Many of the assessment will talk about the 14 Professional and 14 Professional Max, however we’ll talk about the common 14 briefly in its personal part right here, and we’ll assess the telephones collectively within the efficiency and cameras part of the assessment.

The iPhone 14 is barely a step up over 2021’s iPhone 13. It has the identical design and, at the least at launch, the similar function set. It additionally has the identical system-on-a-chip (SoC), the A15, so it affords similar efficiency, although the thermals are reportedly a little bit higher for sustained efficiency, and there is a tweak that ought to barely enhance graphics efficiency, too.

The iPhone 14’s most essential benefits over the iPhone 13 are in battery life and picture high quality. Whereas the iPhone 13 advertises as much as 19 hours of video playback, the iPhone 14 guarantees as much as 20. It’s not a lot of a leap (and we did not discover it) however hey, we’ll take what we are able to get since few issues are extra essential than battery life.

As for picture high quality, we’ll have a look at some comparability pictures within the digicam part of this assessment, however right here’s the short rundown: there’s a brand new front-facing, TrueDepth digicam with a sooner aperture and help for autofocus. The primary sensible profit from these enhancements is that the digicam ought to have higher low-light efficiency.

The wide-angle digicam on the again of the iPhone 14 has a bigger sensor and a sooner aperture, and it guarantees 49 p.c higher low-light picture efficiency than its predecessor. Apple has expanded the software program suite for the digicam considerably to supply improved low-light efficiency throughout all of the cameras on the telephone. In different phrases, the common iPhone 14 is getting some perks that had been seen in final 12 months’s Professional fashions.

When restore store/publication iFixit tore down the iPhone 14, it found one thing Apple hadn’t marketed: the iPhone 14 is simpler to service and restore than different latest iPhones—together with its Professional brethren—due to a detachable again glass panel. For many customers, that received’t matter a lot, however for some, it might enhance the longevity of the system and lower your expenses on repairs do you have to skip AppleCare+, Apple’s restore service subscription.

On October 7, Apple plans to launch a brand new iPhone 14 mannequin referred to as the iPhone 14 Plus. It can probably be similar to the iPhone 14, simply with a 6.7-inch display screen (the identical measurement because the iPhone 14 Professional Max) as an alternative of 6.1 inches.

This 12 months, the iPhone 14 Plus replaces the a lot smaller 5.4-inch iPhone 13 mini within the flagship lineup, although Apple continues to be promoting the iPhone 13 mini for customers preferring one-handed telephones at the price of display screen measurement and battery life.

In no way would we advocate upgrading from the iPhone 13 to the iPhone 14. We wouldn’t even advocate going from the 12 to the 14, actually—there have been iterative enhancements, however even over a few generations it hasn’t added as much as something radical, particularly within the non-Professional fashions.

However if you happen to’re on an XS or earlier, there are some substantial upgrades right here; for extra on these, take a look at our iPhone 13 and 13 Professional assessment from final 12 months. Just about all the pieces stated there in regards to the 13 applies right here, too.

Specs

The iPhone 14 Professional and iPhone 14 Professional Max are the primary gadgets to make use of Apple’s new A16 SoC, the primary iPhone chip constructed on a 4 nm course of.

The A16 has the identical variety of cores as its predecessor—that’s, it has a six-core CPU with two efficiency and 4 effectivity cores, a six-core GPU, and a 16-core NPU referred to as the Neural Engine—however Apple says it ought to provide as much as 10 p.c sooner efficiency. The A16 has 50 p.c extra reminiscence bandwidth than the A15, which issues an excellent deal for 3D video games and a little bit bit for computational pictures options.

So the A16 is not an enormous efficiency leap ahead, other than the reminiscence bandwidth half. However this chip’s updates weren’t actually targeted on velocity. Quite, they’re about facilitating new options. Most significantly, the chip has a brand new ISP, which allows among the new digicam options and extra constancy. It additionally has a brand new show engine. The show engine tweaks make the 2 flashiest new options potential: the always-on show and the performance of the notch-replacing Dynamic Island.

Just like the iPhone 13 Professional, the iPhone 14 Professional has 6GB of RAM.

In the meantime, the iPhone 14 sticks with final 12 months’s A15, which continues to be sooner than some other telephone SoC available on the market at most duties. It will get a bump from 4GB of RAM to 6GB.

The display screen sizes and show resolutions for all three telephones are the identical as final 12 months: 6.1 inches and a couple of,556×1,179 pixels for the iPhone 14 Professional, 6.7 inches and a couple of,796×1,290 for the iPhone 14 Professional Max, and 6.1 inches and a couple of,532×1,170 for the iPhone 14. When it comes to pixel density, all three clock in at 460 ppi. And all three use OLED tech, which is anticipated for nearly any high-end flagship smartphone nowadays, and for good purpose.

The iPhone 14 affords 800 nits of typical max brightness and 1,200 nits of peak HDR brightness—the identical because the iPhone 13.

The iPhone 14 Professional and its larger sibling provide a searing 1,000 nits of typical max brightness and 1,600 nits of peak HDR brightness, in addition to a brand new capacity to succeed in 2,000 nits in sunny, outside situations. That is higher than even the easiest high-end HDR TVs, and higher than any pc monitor besides {hardware} utilized by video professionals. Actually, the 1,600 nit peak HDR brightness matches Apple’s $5,000 Professional Show XDR.

Our checks largely bore these claims out, which is kind of spectacular. These are most likely going to be the highest-quality screens you’ve ever owned, no matter what kind of system we’re speaking about.

Final 12 months, Apple launched ProMotion to the iPhone, enabling dynamic refresh charges from 10 Hz to 120 Hz. That is nonetheless on provide right here, however the function can now go right down to 1 Hz to help the always-on show. (Extra on that quickly.)

There’s additionally an added gentle sensor on the telephone, bringing the depend to 2.

Lastly, there’s an up to date sensor suite to allow a brand new crash detection security function. If it detects a crash, it is going to immediate to see in case you are okay and name for assist if you happen to’re not. This function requires the up to date sensors, so it will not be obtainable in older iPhones, nevertheless it’s obtainable throughout the iPhone 14 line in addition to new Apple Watch fashions launching this 12 months.

Apple plans another security function: sending easy textual content messages and placement information to emergency responders through satellite tv for pc once you’re off the grid and need assistance. That function received’t roll out till November, although.

One factor we want Apple had improved is quick charging. All of those new iPhones nonetheless cost lots slower than some Android flagships, each wired and wi-fi, which is a pity. That is the type of little factor that may make a sensible distinction in customers’ every day lives. Here is hoping we’ll see some enchancment subsequent 12 months.

As all the time, there’s only one port: Apple’s proprietary Lightning port. Like a lot of the remainder of the world, we want Apple would transfer on to USB-C.

In any case, Apple guarantees modestly improved battery life within the iPhone 14 Professional and iPhone 14 Professional Max. We’re nonetheless operating formal battery checks, however anecdotally it felt like the brand new telephones provide about the identical, or perhaps even simply barely worse, battery life.