The iPhone 14 Pro models are now available and this year Apple have been some interesting changes to their flagship devices. The most obvious is the notch getting the axes and Apple going for a cut out shape. As the rumours confirmed, the actual cut out is technically an i shape, which in itself is hilarious. The camera’s are getting a bump, the displays are brighter, and finally, yes finally, Apple are offering Always on Display mode. Let’s dive right in and take a look at the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max.

Design and Display 

While the base model iPhone 14 is very difficult to tell apart from last years iPhone 13 (through specs and design). The iPhone 14 Pro devices have some design changes that make it obvious, and certainty more specifications changes that do so as well.

Overall the displays from Apple haven’t gotten a massive change, their are the same sizes, coming in at 6.1-inches for the Pro, and 6.7-inches for the Pro Max. Resolutions have the tiniest change having an extra 216 pixels (yeah we counted them). The iPhone 14 Pro comes with a resolution of 1179 x 2556, with the iPhone 14 Pro having 1,290 x 2,796. The main different specification wise is the increase peak brightness up to 2,000 nits – coming from 1,200 on the iPhone 13 Pro. The iPhone 14 Pro models can also drop refresh rate all the way down to 1hz, but this is reserved for the AOD mode that Apple have included (more on that below). Both display’s can still refresh all the way up to 120hz for buttering smooth ProMotion.

Dynamic island

It needs a title all on its own. The notch on the iPhone is almost legendary. While other phone makers have been doing tiny selfie cut-outs for awhile now, and other offering under-display cameras to completely hide them. Apple have been forced to keep the tech for Face ID front and center, and as such the notch was part of the iPhones essences for sometime now.

Finally Apple have made a change, Not a massive change, but a unique one for sure. Apple made the Face ID a cutout, but not just any ordinary cut out; They wrapped the entire area in software and dubbed it Dynamic Island. Yes, Apple made the cut-out/notch a feature.

Apple no longer wanted their notch or now cut out to be just another thing on a phone, they wanted to jazz it up and throw some dynamic content in the mix. Now the area surrounding the cut-out will show contextual information based on what your doing or running in the background. The above video demonstrates that well. Think of this area as Dynamic Notifications (this should have been the name).

Apple’s level of integration is already very impressive, with their usual now playing API providing information directly to the Island already. Furthermore Apple have integrated support into their SDK for developers to add functions as well. The Dynamic Island is definitely one of the biggest new features for the iPhone 14 Pro models, but does it do enough to warrant an upgrade for anyone.

A16 Bionic chipset

The iPhone 14 Pro models are the only new phones to get the latest and greatest from Apple. The A16 Bionic chipset takes the crown for the best performing SoC on a smartphone. The SoC includes a Hexa-core CPU with 2 x 3.23 GHz cores+ 4 x 1.82 GHz cores and 5-core GPU. This is along with 6GB of RAM.

While performance improvement isn’t as massive as the A15 was vs the 13, and this coincides with Apple showing comparisons against the A13 instead of last years A15. Mostly because the gains were bigger. None the less, performance is not going to be anything but top level on the Pro models again this year.

iPhone 14 Pro cameras 

The camera’s on the Pro Models are finally getting their first MP bump in years.  The main shooter is now a large 48MP/1.22µm sensor with f/1.8, aperture and 24mm lens. This also includes dual-pixel PDAF and sensor-shift OIS. The second camera is an ultra-wide with 12 MP/1.4µm sensor with f/2.2 aperture and 13mm lens (120˚ fov). Lastly the telephoto camera is 12 MP sensor with f/2.8 aperture and 77mm lens (120˚ fov).

Lastly the selfie camera offers a 12MP sensor with f/1.9, aperture and 23mm lens. It now supports auto focusing and is not fixed focus as before.

Much like the iPhone 14 models, Apple is including their Photonic Engine. The new image processing is stated to provide another level of quality and detail be processing the image in new ways, bump While all cameras do this, Apple has been refining their process, and this is another evolution that.

Video support is also including action-mode, an aggressive crop based recording for stabilizing video recording when called for. The recording is limited to 2.7k resolution., but early demos showed promising stabilizing. Cinamatic mode is also getting support bumped up to 4K@30fps.

AOD

Apple have finally invented the technology to allow users to have their display stay on when locked and display information certain information. Sure this same feature was available for years on other devices , but this is the first time an iPhone has had the feature.

Joking aside, AOD on iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone Pro Max is Apples take on the popular feature. The transition between Lock screen and AOD is rather impressive, but on the face of it it looks like the information is very controlled and not as customizable regarding information being displayed. That being said they do include your wallpaper as well. Initial impressions are noting the AOD brightness as being a tad on the high side and again not controllable, in some cases illuminating an entire room at night for example.

The LPTO display that can refresh down to 1HZ has this important battery saving feature tied into AOD directly. Sadly Apple didn’t see fit to have it work entirely OS wide. They do include some features to save it from being on in places where it wouldn’t help. If your phone is in your pocket, or if you have an Apple Watch and leave the phone behind, it will turn of the display.

Sadly early reports are showing that battery life is taking a decent hit when having AOD turned on, so users should be aware that it does impact battery life more than you might think.

Battery life

The iPhone 14 Pro comes with 3,200mAh battery and the iPhone 14 Pro comes with 4,323mAh battery.. The battery sizes have gotten tiny bumps compared to last years pro models, but with the increase peak brightness on the display. its likely battery life will be similar or slightly worse compared to last years iPhone 13 Pro models. This is doubly true if using AOD. That doesn’t negate the fact the iPhone 13 Pro had some of, if not the best battery life of any smartphone, so we don’t see anyone being disappointed.

iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro shared features

Below are the same features shared across the iPhone 14 base models and Pro models.

Emergency SOS via satellite

Yes, the iPhone can communicate with satellites directly. However, its a safety/emergency feature aimed at saving lives, rather than for making calls, or sending texts to your friends.

Typically phones do not have the antennas to reach satellites orbiting the planet, but with a special antenna and some serious reaching and directing, you can establish a very limited connection to get your location and a message to emergency services. The software included guides the user towards pointing their phone at the nearest satellite to establish single and from there send on the message, which are all pre-filled questions before hand. The service is extremely limited and only available for emergency situations and not for data or personal use, it also require some time to get the messages sent, so users need to hold their phone in the position indicated as shown on the app.

While this feature has some serious limitation, it absolutely has the protentional to save lives and could be unbelievably valuable in certain situations.

Crash detection

Another potentially live saving feature is crash detection. The iPhone 14’s use the gyroscope/accelerometer and other sensors to detect when phone is involved in a crash (sudden stop) and trigger emergency SOS. It does this be creating a countdown timer and if the user doesn’t reposed within a certain time, it will trigger emergency SOS.

eSim for the U.S

One of the most significant changes in the iPhone 14 is removal ofthe sim card slot for customers in the United States. This means you will no longer be able to use a physical sim card with your iPhone. Instead, you will need to use an eSim. While their can be obvious benefits to shedding the physical sim card, mostly the saving of internal space. The lack of sim card will certainty effect a lot of customers, since not all networks support eSim and some charge a premium for such function. Furthermore, any US owners traveling may run into issues picking up a local sim card for data use.

All other benefits of eSim were already previously available on the iPhone 13 since it also supported eSim, but it still had normal sim card support as well. It remains to be seen just how much of an issue this will for iPhone 14 users. Since Apple did not make this a global move, it’s clear the world simply isn’t ready for an eSim only phone. International models of the iPhone 14 will come with Dual-Sim support with 1 physical sim card and 1 eSim. The US model still supports dual sim, but both sims must be eSim.

Availability

The iPhone 14 Pro is now available to order with pricing starting at €1,339 for the 128GB model and rising to €1,469.00 for the 256GB, €1,729.00 for the 512GB and finally €1,989.00 for the 1TB option. The iPhone 14 Pro Max starts at €1,489 for 128GB model, €1,619.00 for the 256GB model, €1,879.00 for the 512GB and finally €2,139.00 for the 1TB option. The colours available are Deep Purple, Gold, Deep Black and Silver.