Apple iPhone 14 Line-Up: What You Need To Know
September 8, 2022Apple introduced 4 new iPhone models this year, the lower tier iPhone 14 & iPhone 14 Plus as well as the more powerful iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max. The Mini version, which was available with last year’s iPhone 13, has quietly disappeared. This proved the rumors true; Cupertino saw no economic sense to keep a phone that appealed to a small niche of users.
iPhone 14 Pro & Pro Max
We were expecting a major redesign to happen this year, but unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. Apple chose to refine the overall look with surgical-grade stainless steel and textured matte glass design. What’s new however is the variable refresh rate display (goes down to 1Hz), with a shrunken down notch which is now referred to as the Dynamic Island.
The Pro gets the 6.1-inch screen and the Pro Max gets a 6.7-inch one. These are Super Retina XDR displays with ProMotion. They’re Always-On displays, which means you’ll get better access to notifications, widgets and Live Activities on the Lock Screen.
Apple says that it offers the same peak HDR brightness level as Pro Display XDR, and at peak brightness, which is 2000 nits, it’s twice as bright as what the iPhone 13 Pro could deliver. They are both protected by the Ceramic Shield front cover, which is supposed to be the toughest in the industry.
The Dynamic Island is the result of making the TrueDepth camera smaller. The smaller gap blends better with the software to show more immersive alerts, notifications and other activities. Background activities like Maps, Music, third party apps and other interactive features are able to remain visible and provide information on demand.
Photonic Engine offers improvement to mid to low light performance in photos for all cameras. up to 2x on the Main camera, up to 3x on the Ultra-Wide camera, up to 2x on the Telephoto camera, and up to 2x on the TrueDepth camera. It allows the improvement in quality by applying Deep Fusion in the imaging process to preserve subtle textures, provide better color, and maintain more information.
The main rear camera is a 48MP quad-pixel unit that features second-generation sensor-shift optical image stabilization. For most photos, it combines every four pixels into one large quad pixel equivalent to 2.44 µm, resulting in better low-light shots while keeping the photo size at 12MP.
The 2x Telephoto uses 12MP of the quad-pixel sensor to capture high-resolution photos and 4K videos with no digital zoom. There’s also a new machine learning model that helps produce better results. The iPhone now shoots ProRAW at 48MP, which is something that wasn’t possible before.
Other Upgrades Include:
- A new 12MP Ultra Wide camera with 1.4 µm pixels
- An improved Telephoto camera that offers 3x optical zoom.
- A new front TrueDepth camera with an ƒ/1.9 aperture.
- A new Adaptive True Tone flash with an array of nine LEDs that change pattern based on the chosen focal length.
- Computational photography benefits like Night mode, Smart HDR 4, Portrait mode with Portrait Lighting, Night mode Portrait photos, Photographic Styles and Apple ProRAW.
- A new Action mode for recording smooth-looking video that adjusts to significant shakes, motion, and vibrations.
- Cinematic mode, now available in 4K at 30 fps and 4K at 24 fps.
- Pro-level workflows for video, including ProRes3 and end-to-end Dolby Vision HDR.
Both phones get the latest A16 Bionic chip, which consists of a 6-core CPU and 5-core GPU (50% more memory bandwidth). The CPU has 2 high-performance cores and 4 high-efficiency ones. Apple says the chip is responsible for its improved video and photo taking ability.
iPhone 14 & iPhone 14 Plus
There are now two versions of the lower tier iPhone. The 14 has a 6.1-inch display while the Max gets a 6.7-inch one. Unlike the Pro, they don’t get the new screen or Always-On display, which means they look very similar to last year’s devices. They have an aerospace-grade aluminum design.
The phones are both powered by the A15 Bionic, which has a 6-core CPU and 5-core GPU. The same chip can be found in last year’s iPhones 13. It’s understandable that the lower-end devices would have to make do with lesser hardware in the name of cost savings.
- Photonic Engine improves mid- to low-light performance for photos across all cameras: up to 2x on the Ultra-Wide camera, 2x on the TrueDepth camera, and 2.5x on the new Main camera.
- Applying the computational benefits of Deep Fusion earlier in the imaging process to deliver better detail, and preserve subtle textures, provide better color, and maintain more information in a photo.
- A new Main camera with a larger ƒ/1.5 aperture and 1.9 µm pixels, enabling photo and video improvements for better detail and motion freezing, less noise, faster exposure times, and sensor-shift optical image stabilization.
- A new front TrueDepth camera with an ƒ/1.9 aperture that enables better low-light performance for photos and video. Using autofocus, it can focus faster in low light and capture group shots from farther away.
- A new Action mode takes smooth-looking video that adjusts to significant shakes, motion, and vibrations, even when video is being captured.
- The Ultra-Wide camera, offering a unique perspective for wider shots and improvements to low-light photos with Photonic Engine.
- An improved True Tone flash that is 10 percent brighter and has better uniformity for more consistent lighting.
- Cinematic mode, now available in 4K at 30 fps and 4K at 24 fps.
- End-to-end Dolby Vision HDR, available only on iPhone.
All iPhone 14 models get the new emergency assistance feature, which relies on an accelerometer to measure G-forces and a gyroscope to detect when you’ve fallen down and in need of assistance. The new Crash Detection feature can detect a severe car crash and automatically calls for help.
There’s also a barometer that can detect cabin pressure changes, GPS for additional speed information and a microphone that can recognize loud noises associated with a car crash. They work together to provide accurate data on crash detection.
Available for free to users for two years, is the Emergency SOS via satellite. The point is to accurately position your phone directly to a satellite to enable messaging with emergency services when you are outside of cellular or Wi-Fi coverage. First, the iPhone asks a few questions to assess the user’s situation, then tells them where to point the phone.
These questions and follow-up messages are then relayed to Apple-trained specialists who can call for help on the user’s behalf. This feature also lets users manually share their location over satellite with Find My when there’s no data or Wifi connection.
Apple will make this service available to users in the US and Canada in November. There’s no word yet on whether the coverage will be expanded to other countries, but at this point, it’s highly doubtful.
iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max will be available in deep purple, silver, gold, and space black in 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB storage capacities. Customers can get the iPhone 14 Pro for $999 (US) and iPhone 14 Pro Max for $1,099 (US).
iPhone 14 retails for $799 (US) and iPhone 14 Plus for $899 (US). You can have it in midnight, blue, starlight, purple, and (PRODUCT)RED1 finishes.
