Apple unveiled a new line of iPhones at its “Far Out” event on Wednesday, but reserved the biggest changes for the higher-end iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max models. The new standout feature is that the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max lack a notch. In its place is a small, pill-shaped display notch that houses a revamped TrueDepth camera module for Face ID, selfies, and video calling. Instead of ignoring the interruption, Apple built a system of animated alerts and notifications called Dynamic Island that uses the black space around it. Weird name aside, the feature in person is exciting and looks cool. Dynamic Island, which isn’t present on the iPhone 14 or iPhone 14 Plus, is just one of the ways Apple has widened the gap between Pro and non-Pro iPhone models. Another way is price. The iPhone 14 Pro starts at $999, which is $200 more than the iPhone 14 which starts at $799. The 14 Pro costs the same price as previous Pro models and the iPhone X that debuted in 2018. But some people they’ll be put off by the price of the 14 Pro or 14 Pro Max starting at $1,099.
iPhone 14 display: Goodbye notch, hello Dynamic Island
From the back, the iPhone 14 Pro doesn’t look all that different from last year’s flagship, the iPhone 13 Pro. But from the front, the 14 Pro’s screen cutout looks modern and fresh compared to the notch on the 13 Pro. The first thing I noticed upon picking up an iPhone 14 Pro was that the famous notch was gone. The pill-shaped screen cutout is much smaller in comparison. Apple’s Dynamic Island interface also works so well. For example, it was playing a song on Apple Music. When I exited the app, there was a tiny waveform on one side of the cutout and a small thumbnail with album art on the other. When I clicked on Dynamic Island, I was immediately taken to the song in the Apple Music app. Of course the notch is only part of the Super Retina XDR display which can now reach 2,000 nits of brightness for better visibility in bright light. In contrast, the iPhone 13 Pro has a maximum brightness of 1,200 nits. The 14 Pro uses LTPO (low temperature polycrystalline oxide) technology to drop the refresh rate to 1Hz, which could help save battery and the Always-On display. The LTPO display of the 13 Pro reaches 10 Hz.
iPhone 14 Pro’s A16 Bionic: The new chip for 2022
Apple A16 Bionic chip. apple There’s also the new A16 Bionic chip which this year is reserved for Pro models only. The iPhone 14 and 14 Plus use the same version of the A15 Bionic chip found in last year’s iPhone 13 Pro. The A16 chip is more efficient and uses 20% less power than the A15 chip. The A16 chip has 16 billion transistors in a 4-nanometer process versus 15 billion transistors in the A15’s 5-nanometer. Aside from the added number of transistors in the new manufacturing process, the jump in computing power may not be as significant from the 13 Pro to the 14 Pro as it was from the 12 Pro to the 13 Pro. It’s also uncertain how much RAM the iPhone 14 Pro will have, as Apple historically doesn’t share how much RAM the iPhone has. The GPU also sees an upgrade, with 50% more memory bandwidth. The display engine on the A16 Bionic chip helps power the LTPO display as well as the Dynamic Island. Apple says the A16 Bionic’s neural engine is capable of 17 trillion operations per second, which are needed for computational photography. In my few minutes with the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max, system animations looked smooth and iOS 16 lively.
iPhone 14 Pro camera: Pixel binning comes to iPhone
The iPhone 14 Pro will have a 48-megapixel camera. The quad-pixel sensor uses pixel binning to group four pixels together and act as one large pixel for better light capture. Android phones, including the Galaxy S22 Ultra, use a similar technique with high-resolution megapixel camera sensors. The device’s Pro Raw mode allows photos to be taken at the full resolution of 48 megapixels. Apple developed a new computational image processing method to take advantage of the new pixel pattern for better accuracy and color detail. It’s called the Photonic Engine, which improves the iPhone Pro’s camera performance twice in low light compared to the iPhone 13 Pro. The 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max can also use the 48-megapixel sensor to “pierce” a photo, simulating a 2x zoom with the sensor’s middle 12-megapixels. Photonic Engine processing also benefits the ultra-wide camera with three times the improvement in low-light photos and two times better in telephoto and front camera photos. On video capture, Apple said the iPhone 14 Pro will feature Pro Video and Cinematic modes that can now record in 4K and 24 frames per second. Both Pro models also have Apple’s new video image stabilization called Action Mode. Basically when you shoot a video, in the top left corner of the camera preview is the Action mode icon. When I tried it, it seemed to work well and smoothed out handshakes. I noticed that if I had set the video resolution to 4K, this Action mode dropped to 2.8K. The iPhone 14 Pro camera bump and the new TrueDepth camera screen break. apple
iPhone 14 Pro vs. iPhone 13 Pro
With the launch of the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max, Apple also discontinued the iPhone 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max. Even though Apple isn’t selling last year’s Pro models it doesn’t mean it’s completely gone. Various retailers and third-party carriers may continue to sell the old Pro. But should you get an iPhone 13 Pro or an iPhone 14 Pro? In terms of features, hardware, and lifespan, the iPhone 14 Pro seems to outperform the iPhone 13 Pro in almost every way. However, sometimes there is no drastic difference between the two phones. If you have an iPhone 13 Pro, it seems that upgrading to the iPhone 14 Pro is unnecessary. But if you have an older iPhone and you’re trying to choose between the two, I’d probably push you toward the newer 14 Pro unless you’re getting an absolute discount on the 13 Pro.
iPhone 14 Pro: Battery life, price and other features
Apple said the iPhone 14 Pro will have all-day battery life, longer than previous models. It will also include the new features revealed in the base iPhone 14, such as Emergency SOS via satellite, a satellite communication system in cellular and Wi-Fi dead zones, and collision detection, which informs the device if I’ve been in a car accident.
The upcoming iOS 16 will be the operating system powering Apple’s iPhone 14 series out of the box.
The iPhone 14 Pro will start at $999 (£1,099, AU$1,749). The 14 Pro Max will start at $1,099 (£1,199, AU$1,899). Both of Apple’s premium devices are more expensive than the entry-level iPhone 14 and 14 Plus, which start at $799 (£849, AU$1,399) and $899 (£949, AU$1,579) respectively.
Pre-orders begin on September 9, with the phones launching on September 16.
Apple Event: Full coverage
iPhone 14 vs iPhone 14 Plus vs iPhone 14 Pro vs iPhone 14 Pro Max
iPhone 14 iPhone 14 Plus iPhone 14 Pro …
