A part of the method of writing a overview of an enormous product just like the Apple iPhone 14 is to check it with its predecessor. Is it higher than earlier than? Is it dearer? And, most significantly, is it value upgrading to?
Usually, with an iPhone replace, this can be a pretty settled process. Apple often both spruces up the design in an enormous means or it goes with an enormous know-how increase by both altering the show, upgrading the digicam or including a load of recent options. In recent times, it has stepped this up and even lavished the identical processor modifications throughout the complete vary.
This 12 months is completely different, nevertheless. Whereas the iPhone 14 Professional will get loads of new options, together with a small however vital replace to the bodily design, Apple has let the usual iPhone 14 stagnate by comparability.
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Apple iPhone 14 overview: What it’s essential to know
The iPhone 14 is the primary iPhone since Steve Jobs launched the very first mannequin again in 2007 that hasn’t had both a chipset improve or a design overhaul. The bodily design is an identical to the iPhone 13, the show nonetheless solely refreshes at 60Hz and there’s no signal of the iPhone 14 Professional’s modern Dynamic Island or All the time-On options.
What’s completely different this 12 months? Nicely, there are barely new colors as there all the time appears to be: a lighter purple, new blue and a brighter Product Purple to select from. That’s good however hardly an replace to set the world on fireplace.
The iPhone 14 additionally has an additional ambient mild sensor, which supposedly delivers extra responsive and correct adaptive brightness. Plus, there’s an up to date, dual-core accelerometer, which helps the iPhone 14 ship Apple’s new crash detection function and satellite tv for pc connectivity. Nevertheless, the latter is one thing us Brits are going to overlook out on given the function solely works within the US and Canada on the time of writing.
The one main change is to the iPhone 14’s digicam system. Right here, the primary digicam inherits the 12MP (f/1.5) digicam from 2021’s iPhone 13 Professional and Professional Max sequence of telephones whereas the selfie TrueDepth digicam on the entrance will get a brighter aperture and autofocus.
READ: Our decide of the very best smartphones accessible
Apple iPhone 14 overview: Value and competitors
For this gentle replace, Apple at the very least isn’t asking for the massive bucks this 12 months. Sure, the worth has risen, from £779 to £849 for the 128GB mannequin however that’s not solely stunning given the present financial circumstances and it’s, admittedly, £200 cheaper than the equal iPhone 14 Professional (£1,099). The 256GB mannequin will set you again £959 and the 512GB model prices £1,179.
Within the occasion you’d be completely happy to leap ship and transfer to an Android handset, there are many various choices to your £849. Prime of the checklist is the Google Pixel 6 Professional (£749). This has a far greater 6.7in AMOLED display that refreshes at a smoother 120Hz, the identical digicam depend and kind, comprising the primary digicam and an ultrawide module, and it at the moment prices lower than £700. You may wish to wait a couple of weeks, although, to see if the Google Pixel 7 is a fair higher possibility.
The Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus (£769) is one other good selection at across the identical worth because the iPhone 14 (£840-ish). It additionally has a bigger 6.6in 120Hz show however goes one higher on the digicam entrance than the Pixel, including a 3x telephoto digicam to important and ultrawide items.
After which we’ve the OnePlus 10 Professional (£699), one other flagship cellphone with three rear cameras (important, ultrawide and three.3x telephoto) and an even bigger 6.7in 120Hz AMOLED display. This was on sale on the time of writing for a really tempting £699 whereas its cheaper sibling, the OnePlus 10T, prices even much less at £629.
Apple iPhone 14 overview: Design and key options
You’re in all probability aware of the design of the iPhone 14 by now, on condition that it’s near-identical to that of the iPhone 13.
It has a flat entrance and rear, with a matte-finish aluminium body wrapped across the exterior. The again panel is completed in shiny glass with a raised, sq. digicam bump within the top-left nook, which homes the cellphone’s two digicam lenses, organized diagonally reverse one another. The entrance is topped with powerful, scratch-resistant Ceramic Defend glass and, similar to final 12 months, the cellphone is rated to IP68 for water- and dust-resistance. This implies it may be submerged in as much as 6m of water for as much as half-hour at a time.
The digicam housing is the one factor that’s completely different in comparison with the iPhone 13. It’s raised by a fraction extra from the physique of the cellphone, a change that’s pushed primarily by the improve to the primary digicam.
In any other case, all the pieces is similar because it was final 12 months. The truth is, that is now the third 12 months in a row Apple has saved the elemental bodily design the identical with solely the digicam bump altering the general look.
Considerably, this additionally means the notch is similar as earlier than, so there’s no Dynamic Island – solely the iPhone 14 Professional fashions get that function – and there’s no All the time on Show (which may present notifications, widgets and photographs when your cellphone is on standby), both. Nevertheless, the iPhone 14 does get the brand new crash detection function, which calls emergency providers for you should you’re ever concerned in a automobile crash.
And, within the US and Canada, the cellphone will also be used to alert emergency providers through satellite tv for pc should you occur to get into bother and end up exterior the vary of mobile service.
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Apple iPhone 14 overview: Show
Apple hasn’t even hung out upgrading the show this time round. It’s nonetheless good, although: it’s a 6.1in OLED show with a Retina-class decision of two,532 x 1,170 and quoted peak brightness figures of 800nits in on a regular basis use and 1,200nits in HDR playback. I recorded peak brightness of 827cd/m2 in day by day use and 1,194cd/m2 in HDR, whereas color accuracy versus sRGB was wonderful at 1.12 Delta E.
Nevertheless, with the Professional fashions pushing up and above 2,000nits in on a regular basis use and 1,600nits in HDR playback, it’s disappointing that the iPhone 14 didn’t get even a small improve right here.
Maybe essentially the most disappointing factor in regards to the iPhone 14’s show is that it’s caught steadfastly at 60Hz, one thing that makes the cellphone really feel sluggish, unresponsive and, frankly, old style. With most smartphones above £200 now coming with screens that refresh on the very least at 90Hz, this looks like one thing Apple ought to have up to date this time round.
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Apple iPhone 14 overview: Cameras
This leaves the one improve of any word this 12 months because the digicam array, and on paper it appears to be like like a worthy increase. Up entrance, the iPhone 14 will get a brand new TrueDepth selfie digicam with a brighter aperture and autofocus. The primary digicam, in the meantime, receives a hand-me-down from final 12 months’s iPhone 13 Professional, shifting to a barely brighter f/1.5 aperture (from f/1.6) and bigger sensor with sensor-shift stabilisation.
There are additionally enhancements to picture processing with the brand new “Photonic Engine”, which improves picture high quality throughout all three cameras, together with the ultrawide digicam, though this employs the identical 12MP f/2.4 {hardware} as final 12 months.
The end result, Apple says, is that picture high quality is improved considerably, particularly in low mild. How does it fare in real-world use? Nicely, I in contrast the iPhone 14 in back-to-back pictures with an iPhone 13 Professional and in most conditions, I discovered it inconceivable to inform the distinction. That’s to not say it’s dangerous. In good mild and low mild, it’s a really succesful digicam.
Solely in sure conditions did the Photonic Engine appear to exhibit advantages. Within the first shot beneath, for example, there’s treasured little distinction between the 2 images, whereas within the second low-light shot you’ll be able to see that the grass within the foreground is much brighter, greener and clearer on the iPhone 14 picture.
There are upgrades to the cellphone’s video capabilities, nevertheless, and these are extra vital. There’s the brand new “Motion mode” for video seize, which applies motion camera-style stabilisation to video (at 2.8K 60fps) and this works fantastically. A GoPro can nonetheless seize smoother video at larger resolutions and might be higher to be used in excessive environments however, for infrequent use, this does an ideal job.
The iPhone 14 can even seize Cinematic mode in as much as 4K – that’s the slightly gimmicky mode the place the cellphone applies pretend background blur to movies, a bit like portrait mode for photographs. The iPhone 13 and 13 Professional had been restricted to 1080p. And, lastly, it additionally has a lot smoother video zoom, which is a extra genuinely helpful improve.
Apple iPhone 14 overview: Efficiency
As highlighted on the prime of this overview, the iPhone 14 is powered by the identical chipset as final 12 months’s iPhone 13 – the A15 Bionic – which implies common efficiency hasn’t modified in any respect. That’s to not say this can be a gradual cellphone, nevertheless. Though now a 12 months previous, the A15 Bionic continues to be impressively speedy, so the iPhone 14 with its older CPU nonetheless stays a match for many present flagship Android handsets.
Listed here are some benchmark outcomes, proving simply that:
Whereas this isn’t one thing you’ll discover now, it is value mentioning that in the long run – maybe three, 4 or possibly 5 years into the longer term – it received’t really feel fairly as spritely as it could have if Apple had bestowed the A16 Bionic upon it.
This 12 months’s iPhone 14 does have a slightly greater 3,279mAh cell than the iPhone 13’s 3,227mAh battery, nevertheless, and it carried out higher in our exams, lasting a surprisingly lengthy 23hrs 9mins in our video take a look at (run with the display set to 170cd/m2 and flight mode engaged). Both means, the cellphone ought to final you thru the entire day with reasonable use however it is going to must be charged as soon as a day.
Apple iPhone 14 overview: Verdict
Regardless of some optimistic indicators, it doesn’t look good for the iPhone 14. Here’s a cellphone that, apart from its cameras and barely higher battery life, doesn’t actually transfer issues on from the iPhone 13 (£649) in any vital means.
The design is similar as final 12 months, the efficiency is similar and the display hasn’t moved on, both. An £779 cellphone with a 60Hz show in 2022 isn’t look, and amidst all this, the worth has risen by £70, placing the essential 128GB mannequin as much as a whopping £849.
This, finally, places the iPhone 14 in a slightly awkward place. On the one hand, it’s worse worth than the one-year-old iPhone 13 (which continues to be on sale, by the best way) and, on the opposite, it suffers by comparability to equally priced and cheaper Android handsets.
It’s not usually that I say this of an Apple smartphone however the iPhone 14 is just not an Apple handset you can purchase. In the event you’re determined to stick with Apple, stick to the iPhone 13 or transfer as much as the iPhone 14 Professional. And failing that, contemplate the transfer to Android the place you’ll get way more cellphone to your cash.
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