Apple marches to the beat of its own drum, introducing hardware features when it sees fit and doesn't feel inclined to play the specs game with itsANDROID counterparts It's one of the reasons why Apple's phones take so long to get features like high refresh screens and wireless charging that are popular on the other side of the world.
An always-on screen is a feature that has been present on the operating system for six years. The implementation of Apple's products is different from that of most other phones. Dynamic Island, a smaller cutout for Face ID, a brighter screen, and a new crash detection feature are just some of the new features in the iPhone 14 Pro.
There's a new 48MP camera at the back with a new software processing engine, as well as Apple's latest mobile platform, the A16 Bionic. Let's take a look at how these features hold up in real-world use.
The phone went on sale around the world on September 16. There are lots of trade-in deals for carriers in the U.S., and the unlocked model is the same price as its predecessor. The phone is more expensive in other countries than it is in the U.S.
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You will have to pay a certain amount to get your hands on the device in various global markets.
The base 128GB model of the iPhone 14 Pro is $92 more expensive in India than it is in the US.
Apple doesn't change its design language very often, so the iPhone 14 Pro looks the same as its predecessor. The camera housing has large rings around the three modules, a matt finish over the glass back, and the same flat sides.
The overall design aesthetic hasn't altered, but the smaller notch is a welcome addition.
The smaller size of the iPhone 14 Pro makes it easier to hold and use than the larger iPhone 13 Pro Max did. The purple variant of the device is interesting, but it's not as bold as the standard iPhone 14 and 14 Plus.
While the design at the back is the same, the same isn't true up front, as the notch has made way for a smaller cutout. There is a pill-sized cutout that houses Face ID and a round one for the front camera, but you won't notice this in daily use, as the dots in the middle are blackened to create a seamless cutout called Dynamic Island.
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Most brands would leave it at that, but not Apple, because it turned the cutout into an interactive element. It's a great way to turn unused real estate into something useful. The feature allows for relevant information to be shown without leaving the home screen.
If you set a timer and go back to the home screen, you don't need to use the app to see the information on the Dynamic Island. A long press on the card will allow it to be turned into a pop-up that has more options.
There are lots of areas where the Dynamic Island makes a difference in daily use, and if two activities use the island, the second is minimized to an icon that sits to the right. The island also provides notifications for things like calls, Face ID, battery and charging, and more.
I would change one thing. Pressing on a card in Dynamic Island will pull up the app, but you need to hold the card to get the pop-up options.
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The iPhone 14 Pro has a nice heft and good weight distribution, and it's made out of the same material as the previous model. The device doesn't have a sim card slot in the U.S., with eSIM being the only option. Thankfully, that isn't the case in other countries, and while eSIM use is gaining more ground, I don't think it's a good idea. It's easier to lock devices to a specific region when going this route.
The lightning port should have changed. The iPhone 14 Pro still relies on the Lightning port to charge, despite the fact that the iPad air M1 and MacBooks now use the standardUSB-C port. The port should be changed next year. The iPhone 14 Pro has the latest glass protection and comes with dust and water resistance.
The 6.1-inch screen of the iPhone 14 Pro has a resolution of 2556 x 1179 and a refresh rate of 120Hz. The screen can hit up to 2000 nits in auto mode under the sun. The panel is among the best you can find, and there are no issues with the brightness levels.
This is among the best OLED panels around, and while we finally get an always-on mode, it isn't quite useful.
The screen has True Tone tech that adjusts the color balance based on ambient light, and it has great contrast and color accuracy. The stereo sound makes a big difference, and it's well-suited for streaming videos and playing games. The phone can go from 120Hz all the way down to 10Hz with the help of the tech.
When using the always-on mode, the screen can now hit 1hertz, which is a feature that's finally making its way to iPhones. You don't get the clock face and icons for unread notifications when you use Apple's always-on mode. The only difference between the screen and the background is that the brightness is lowered.
It was a distraction to have the full album art on the screen in always-on mode. There is not much in the way of customizability. I turned off the feature after a few days because I didn't like how it worked.
The new generation of Apple Silicon is what makes the iPhone 14 Pro different. The phone is powered by the A16 Bionic and has a new Neural Engine. The A16 Bionic is similar to the Dimensity 9000 and the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 in that it's made at TSMC's 4nm node.
| Category | iPhone 14 Pro |
|---|---|
| OS | iOS 16 |
| Display | 6.1-inch XDR OLED (2556x1179), 1 - 120Hz, 2000 nits max brightness, HDR10, Dolby Vision, Ceramic Shield |
| Chipset | Apple A16 Bionic, 2 x 3.46GHz Everest + 4 x 2.0GHz Sawtooth cores, 5-core GPU, 4nm |
| RAM | 6GB |
| Storage | 128GB/256GB/512GB/1TB |
| Rear camera 1 | 48MP f/1.8, 1.22um pixels, sensor-shift OIS |
| Rear camera 2 | 12MP f/2.2 wide-angle, 1.4um pixels, 120-degree FoV |
| Rear camera 3 | 12MP f/2.8 telephoto, OIS, 3x optical zoom |
| Front camera | 12 MP f/1.9 autofocus, 4K at 60fps video |
| Connectivity | Global 5G bands, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.3, NFC, UWB, Emergency SOS (NA) |
| Ingress Protection | IP68 dust and water resistance, 6 meters for 30 minutes |
| Security | Face ID |
| Audio | Stereo sound, Lightning jack |
| Battery | 3200mAh battery, 20W wired charging, 15W MagSafe |
| Dimensions | 147.5 x 71.5 x 7.9mm, 206g |
There isn't much missing with the iPhone 14 Pro, it has all the features you'd expect from a premium device. The vibrating motor is on par with the best phones on the market. You can get up to a 1 terabytes of storage with the Pro models.
I'm testing the 8+ Gen 1 on the Zenfone 9 because it has the most consistent scores out of all the phones I've tested.
| Category | iPhone 14 Pro | iPhone 13 Pro Max | ASUS Zenfone 9 |
|---|---|---|---|
| CrossMark (Overall) | 1328 | 1171 | 1008 |
| Productivity | 1299 | 1170 | 967 |
| Creativity | 1517 | 1292 | 1042 |
| Responsiveness | 950 | 875 | 1036 |
| Geekbench 5.1 (single-core) | 1882 | 1729 | 1311 |
| Geekbench 5.1 (multi-core) | 5400 | 4717 | 4286 |
| 3DMark Wild Life Extreme (score) | 3371 | 2842 | 2801 |
| 3DMark Wild Life Extreme (FPS) | 20.2 | 17.2 | 16.75 |
The A16 extends Apple's lead in the field of single-core workloads. The A16 pulls ahead of the A15 in the single-core Geekbench test by 9%.
The A16 Bionic is the first mobile platform to hit the 5,000 mark in Geekbench, and it has a 20% increase in multi-core scores. It will be interesting to see what Qualcomm does next year, but it won't be able to offset the huge differential.
The A16 delivered the best scores out of any phone I've tested so far. There are no slowdowns when using the Apple device. overheating wasn't an issue, even during extended gaming sessions, because the phone feels incredibly fluid in daily use and holds up just as well.
There have been instances of the iPhone 14 Pro overheating, but that has not been the case with my device, and the iOS 16.0.2 build should fix that.
The iPhone 14 Pro continues to be the leader in mobile performance.
When combined with the efficiency gains with the A16 Bionic, that should have led to better battery life for the Apple device. That isn't the case in daily use. You will need to plug the phone in at night if you want it to last a full day.
There is a larger battery here, but you won't notice any tangible gains.
The best phones in this area have made huge gains over the last year, and the iPhone is on the back foot.
That is possible with the always-on mode on. The difference between getting to the end of the day with a 10% charge left over and the phone switch off is that you can turn off the feature.
The charging tech hasn't changed this year, and you won't find a charge in the box. The 20W over the Lightning port and 15W via MagSafe is still enough for the phone to charge. It takes just over 30 minutes to get a 50% charge, but a full charge takes over an hour.
The camera is a big area of focus this year, as evidenced by the fact that the iPhone 14 Pro uses three cameras at the back as last year. The 48MP f/1.78 main camera is joined by a 12MP f/2.2 wide-angle lens and a 12MP f/2.8 telephoto lens that deliver 3x optical zoom.
Thanks to the Photonic Engine and a new 48MP camera, the iPhone 14 Pro takes fantastic photos.
The 48MP lens uses four-to-one binning to produce 12MP shots, and there is an option to shoot full-res 48MP photos, and the main camera is now used to shoot 2x mode. A 12MP camera is up front.
Video recording is one of the things that the iPhone 14 Pro is good at. The back cameras can shoot 4K video at 60 frames per second, and the Cinematic Mode that was limited to 24 frames per second is now capable of shooting 4K video at 30 frames per second. There is a new Action Mode that is ideal for recording scenes with a lot of motion.
The interface of the camera hasn't changed, and you can use the shooting modes laid out in a ribbon at the bottom. When you're close to a subject, there is a macro mode that uses the wide-angle lens.
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Excellent color accuracy and high levels of contrast can be achieved with the larger sensors. There is no visible noise in the shots, and the dynamic range is great. In a similar way, the wide-angle lens and 3x zoom module take images of the same caliber as the main lens, and this is something that the iPhone 14 Pro does very well. A range of lighting options makes a big difference to portrait shots.
Night mode kicks in automatically when the iPhone 14 Pro is used in low-light situations. Excellent detail, little to no noise levels, and accurate colors are provided by you. You get usable shots even though the wide-angle lens doesn't measure up to the main camera.
It's not as good as the iPhone in most areas, but it's better than the Pixel 6 Pro. It doesn't have the same dynamic range that it has in challenging situations. The phone does a better job of controlling the exposure than the Balrog scales do.
The difference between the S22 Ultra and the iPhone 14 Pro is closer than it has been in the past.
There are a number of exciting features on offer in the iPhone 14 Pro. There are changes to notification management and a few new privacy-focused additions in the lock screen customization that is the first thing you will notice.
Dynamic Island steals the show on the iPhone 14 Pro has a lot to offer with iOS 16, including lock screen customization and Focus Filters.
The Dynamic Island is the main attraction of the show. It's great to be able to control music or see a timer on the home screen with the new feature. You don't get much in the way of third-party app integration at the moment, but all of those will go live in the coming months.
You get the usual home screens, an App Library with all installed apps, a split notification shade with notifications in one pane, and Control Center with all the settings in one place.
You can change the look of your lock screen by adding up to four different things. The best part is that they work in conjunction with the new focus mode, and you can set several lock screens and cycle between them. You can cut out distraction notifications and assign a focus mode to a lock screen with the feature.
There is a new feature called Focus Filters that hides content in an app. If you choose a Focus mode for work, you can filter your mail accounts or calendars so that only your work related mails and events show up in that mode, and this is a great way to prevent distraction.
If you're in the wilderness and can't access cellular service, the Emergency SOS feature on the iPhone 14 Pro will send you a message. The feature requires custom hardware and is limited to text messaging in the US and Canada. It is designed to be used in emergencies, and you can send custom messages or use the questionnaire to share all the relevant information in a single message.
On a clear day, a message takes 15 seconds to transmit and goes up to a few minutes if there is a cloud cover. All iPhone 14 Pro purchases will get the feature for free for two years, even though Apple hasn't said how much it will cost.
Crash Detection uses a built-in accelerometer to detect the G-force, which will alert emergency services.
There is a lot to like about the new operating system, but it's not as stable as previous versions. I had to reset the iPhone 14 Pro a few times before I could get the data from the 13 Pro Max. The 16.0.2 bug fix build was rolled out after the device's launch because of the overheating issue.
The iPhone 14 Pro will get more platform updates than any other phone at the moment. Apple is the leader in long-term software updates, and I don't think that will change soon.
The iPhone 13 Pro has a lot to offer if you're not sold on the latest-gen Apple device. The screen is as bright as ever, the camera is amazing, and the battery lasts longer. There's real savings to be had if you go with last year's flagship, the iPhone 13 Pro, because it's picking up attractive discounts at the moment.
I would recommend the S22 Ultra to you. The battery lasts much longer, the camera is better, and it has a great screen. The S22 series was the best of the bunch, and with the S22 Ultra being on sale for the better part of 2022, it's down to $1,000.
The cameras on the Pixel 6 Pro allow the phone to take amazing photos, which is one of the reasons I still like it. It has a beautiful design, a vibrant screen, fast hardware, a huge battery, and no bloatware. If you can find a good deal on the Pixel 6 Pro, I would recommend it.
If you're looking for something a little different, you should check out the GALAXY Z FLIP 4. The flip 4 is a delight to use, as foldables have gotten a lot of traction. The screen is great, the camera is good, and the battery lasts over a day. It's the same price as the iPhone 14 Pro.
If you want to buy this, you should do it.
If that's the case, you shouldn't purchase this.
The annual releases bring a lot to the table. As we see more third-party apps work with the mode, the smaller cutout with the Dynamic Island will get much more usable. The 6.1-inch screen is the right size for a phone, and the phone has a great in-hand feel thanks to the steel construction.
Crash Detection and Emergency SOS are useful in their own way, and the A16 Bionic is the best mobile chip because of it. The 48MP camera and the new hardware combined with the Photonic Engine deliver outstanding photos in just about any situation. The iPhone 14 Pro is the leader in video recording, and it doesn't have a parallel on the other side.
The phone has problems. The phone doesn't deliver on the battery front and there isn't a sim card slot in the U.S. It is much more expensive outside the U.S., and that will be a problem for many countries.
It isn't enough to upgrade if you're already using the iPhone 13 or 12. The iPhone 14 Pro has a lot to offer if you want to switch to another phone. If you want to get the best value, you might want to wait for a good deal on the phone.
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