Apple is a trendsetter and even non-techies tune in to see big new announcements like the one we had this week. The iPhone 14 series is official and has been on pre-order since this Friday. Lucky early adopters will get their hands on one next week.
We’ve got extensive coverage of the event and relevant news that emerged around it (some of which revealed things Apple didn’t). Here we wanted to share some thoughts on the new models now that the dust has settled.
Subtle and not-so-subtle price hikes
Apple has subtly raised the price of iPhones a few times and has done so again this year. In 2021, the cheapest iPhone (not SE) was the mini, which started at $700, now the cheapest member of the premium line is the iPhone 14 at $800.
Yes, the iPhone 13 cost $800, too, and Apple is pointing that out, hoping you won’t notice that the price of entry went up as the mini left. We have detailed pricing information for the new models if you want to take a look. The mini itself was part of a subtle price hike: the vanilla iPhone 11 started at $700 in 2019, the base iPhone 12 was also $700 in 2020. However, this was the mini recently introduced, the 6.1-inch iPhone 12 (which was the actual successor to the vanilla iPhone 11) went up to $800.
There was another piece of fiction during Wednesday’s event: Apple showed the US price of the iPhone 14 models, suggesting that it is the same as the 13 series. And it is, although there is a “but”. The new models cost the same as the old ones in several countries (including the US, Canada and China), but have risen considerably in Europe, parts of Asia and other regions.
iPhone 14
iPhone 14 Plus
iPhone 14 Pro
iPhone 14 Pro Max
WE$799 $899 $999 $1,099
UK£849 £949 £1,099 £1,199
Germany999 EUR 1,149 EUR 1,299 EUR 1,449 EUR
IndiaINR 79,900 INR 89,900 INR 129,900 INR 139,900
chinaCNY 5,999 CNY 6,999 CNY 7,999 CNY 8,999
Japan119,800 JPY 134,800 JPY 149,800 JPY 164,800 JPY
Waiting may have been a mistake
We’ll talk about the Plus and the mini, but while we’re on the subject of pricing, we wanted to cover the older models as well. Like every year, Apple is discontinuing the old Pro series and keeping the vanilla models at a discount.
It did this year too: the iPhone 12, 13 and 13 mini are still available at a discounted price. Well, not quite, the reduction is relative to the iPhone 14 series and since these prices increased in some regions, the cost of older models remained the same in several countries.
Even worse, the price of the iPhone SE (2022) increased in some places. We know some of you have been waiting for the new generation to launch so you could pick up one of the older models at a discount, but this year that strategy didn’t work as well as it should have.
The Plus is a welcome addition to the family
Apple resurrected the “Plus” name for the new iPhone 14 Plus. It’s the same size as the 14 Pro Max (off by just fractions of a millimeter) and claims the same 6.7-inch screen diagonal. In fact, it also has the same pixel density (458 ppi), which allows for a nice and sharp image.
However, that’s where the similarities between the Plus and Pro Max end. For starters, it’s still a 60Hz panel and doesn’t support Always On Display (new to Pros). Also, the Pro panels are brighter, with the Plus and vanilla iPhone 14 maintaining typical brightness at 800 nits and 1,200 nits peak (compared to 1,000 nits typical and 2,000 nits peak for the 14 Pro duo ).
There are a couple of other big differences between the Plus and the Max: the chipset and the cameras, but we’ll get to those later.
The iPhone 14 Plus is a welcome addition to the Apple family. Not everyone cares about having the best cameras, even fewer demand peak performance these days, but some want a bigger screen and battery than the vanilla 6.1-inch iPhone has to offer. Previously, their only option would have been the iPhone 14 Pro Max model at $1,100, now they can pick up the Plus at $900.
The iPhone lineup needed a Plus model, and we think it will be quite successful. But did his birth require the death of the mini? Probably not and it doesn’t matter, anyway. According to sales figures reported by analysts, the mini died on its own due to a lack of consumer interest.
A new mini mini wasn’t really necessary
We know some people will protest the above statement, so let’s address that before we move on to the updates (and sometimes lack thereof) in Series 14.
The mini still exists in the form of the iPhone 13 mini. Given the incremental upgrades to the camera, chipset and display of the base 14 series, a hypothetical iPhone 14 mini wouldn’t have been that different. If you want a small (properly small, not small Android) phone with premium build and performance, the 13 mini is still a good choice.
An exciting camera update for professionals
Like Google, Apple optimized the camera settings and was reluctant to make major changes. It achieved great results for several years, but it was time to leave the 12 MP resolution and standard Bayer filter behind.
Apple did a great job explaining the benefits. The new 48MP sensor delivers a high-quality image with a 2x zoom, which bridges the gap between the main camera and the 3x telephoto camera. In daylight it can take detailed 48MP RAW images, in the dark it uses pixel binning to reduce noise. It might also have enabled 8K video recording, but maybe next year.
Either way, the new iPhone Pro camera is much more versatile. The other side of the stable has less to do. The iPhone 14 and 14 Plus cameras bring a larger sensor and brighter aperture for the main camera, and benefit from the new Photonic Engine. However, now they’re starting to feel really dated, having been nothing more than iterative improvements since 2019.
The vanilla models have a larger sensor (1.9 µm vs. 1.7 µm) • All four have AF on the selfie cameras
One change we applaud is the addition of autofocus to the selfie camera, this can (and usually does) have a major impact on the quality of selfies. But how long will we have to stare at notches and pill-shaped holes before in-display cameras make their way to the iPhone?
AOD and Dynamic Island
The iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max displays are some of the best OLED panels on the market: 1-120Hz LTPO, crisp, remarkably bright, HDR10 and Dolby Vision support, tough glass, and now with Always On mode to boot . It’s hard to find fault with the screens themselves.
That’s not the case with the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus, which basically bring no updates from the 13 series and aren’t really that different from what the iPhone 12 has.
Let’s go back to the pros to see the first major redesign of the TrueDepth camera. It’s the biggest hole we’ve seen so far, but Apple dressed it up with a so-called dynamic island.
The Dynamic Island displays app icons that want your attention, displays indicators (for example, showing that the camera or microphone is active), and can even expand to show a new notification.
We have to give it to Apple, the animations are smooth and the marketing is slick, but the Dynamic Island doesn’t do anything that a typical status bar can’t. Of course, with such a wide pill, there’s no room for a proper status bar.
Apple’s relentless progress in chipsets is slowing down
Apple stood out not only for having the best mobile chipsets, but also for using them in every smartphone of a given generation, even the iPhone SE (2022) has an Apple A15 chip. There was a slight difference as the A15 had two tiers, one with a 4-core GPU (used in the iPhone 13, 13 mini and SE) and one with a 5-core GPU (used in the Pros) .
There is now a much bigger difference between the Vanilla and Pro models, as the iPhone 14 and 14 Plus still use the A15 chipset. It’s the more powerful 5-core GPU version (which Apple says will deliver 18% more GPU performance), but we’re not sure it’ll make much of an impact when aiming for 60fps.
We suspect one change Apple didn’t talk about will be much more beneficial: All iPhone 14 models have 6GB of RAM (no change for Pros, but the 13 and 13 mini only had 4GB). Even moderate multitaskers should have an improved experience.
As for the new Apple A16 chipset, Apple compared it to a three-year-old A13, but that was mainly to flex how fast it is (the company claimed that the A13 is faster than the best chipset Android chips from 2022, but that could only be true with lots of fine print). Early reports show that Apple increased the CPU’s maximum clock speed (to 3.43GHz, its the fastest core in a smartphone), but actual performance improvements are scarce.
While it’s true that Apple has the fastest mobile chipset, the competition isn’t far behind, and the A16 is about to go head-to-head with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, which is coming in a couple of months .
T-Mobile and SpaceX stole Apple’s satellite thunder
This sounds a bit like science fiction: a small, pocket-sized phone with no external antenna can connect to a satellite and send an SOS. There’s no arguing that it will be invaluable if the worst happens and you find yourself in trouble far from rescue.
However, Apple left a few things unsaid. iPhone 14 buyers will get a free 2-year subscription, but only in the US and Canada, which is where the beta test begins. But how much would it cost after that? Will it be a monthly subscription or pay-as-you-go? In addition, search and rescue insurance is required in some regions. They will still save you even if you don’t, it will just cost a lot.
Apple’s Emergency Service and SOS Location…