iPhone 14 Pro

A significant makeover, that’s mostly skin deep

Outwardly, the new iPhone 14 Pro (and iPhone 14 Pro Max) share a lot in common with last year’s iPhone 13 Pro model, though there are some key differences that set them apart, and a lot of these can be found in the 14 Pro’s upgraded display. The first, and perhaps most obvious of these, is the new Dynamic Island which replaces the old, and somewhat universally–unloved notch. Dynamic Island is probably the biggest visual change to the way the front of the iPhone looks, but it’s much more than just a prettier way of hiding the iPhone’s front–facing camera and sensors, because, like a chameleon, it also changes and adapts to what’s currently happening on your iPhone. For instance, if you’re playing music, charging your device or connecting your AirPods, the bar will change size and display information specific to what’s going on. It also reacts to your finger presses: if you tap the pill–shaped notch it’ll take you to the app that’s in focus, and if you hold down it’ll shift size and shape to reveal more info about that app, and provide enhanced on–screen controls. It all sounds pretty in–your–face, but trust us — in action it’s subtle enough to not be distracting, providing the right amount of feedback to make using your iPhone just that bit easier and more intuitive. If you don’t want to interact with it, it doesn’t get in the way.

Another area of the iPhone 14 Pro that gets a significant upgrade over the previous iPhone is the introduction of an Always–On display. As the name suggests, when this mode is active, the display is always on, though dimmed, revealing basic information without having to turn the display on each time you want to check it. This includes the date, time, any widgets you’ve installed, and notifications. Apple says the display uses very low power thanks to the ability to refresh as low as 1Hz. Indeed, we found the Always–On display to make no discernable difference to our overall battery life during the day. The only slight issue you might find is getting used to the idea of always having your lock screen active — if like us you’d glance at your iPhone when the lock screen lights up, then you might find it difficult to stop checking the iPhone 14 Pro every few seconds. Alternatively, if you don’t like it, it’s possible to turn it off in Settings.

Continuing the theme of display upgrades for iPhone 14 Pro, the last of these is the ability to boost the brightness up to 2,000 nits when you’re outdoors — handy when the sun is shining on the screen and it’s harder to read. Apple says this is twice as bright as the iPhone 13 Pro. We tested it in the direct sun of midday, and found it to be effective enough. Peak brightness has also been upped to 1,600 nits (from 1,200 in the 13 Pro), which is the same as in the Pro Display XDR, and this results in a truly stunning screen to look at, whether you’re watching movies or playing games, with excellent contrast and vibrant colors.

Mega Pixels, Mega Results

The 6.1–inch iPhone 14 Pro remains unchanged otherwise, at least aesthetically, with the same Ceramic Shield front and stainless–steel surround. In terms of size, it’s slightly longer, thicker and heavier than the 13 Pro. It certainly feels hefty to hold, but it’s not that different in reality. It also has the same IP68 rating for splash–, water– and dust–resistance, and is available in 128GB, 256GB, 512GB and 1TB capacities.

For US customers, one pretty significant difference is the removal of the SIM slot. Instead, the iPhone 14 lineup is eSIM–only, which looks cleaner, for sure, but it remains to be seen how easy it will be to digitally transfer your existing SIM and number. One of the most notable changes to the iPhone 14 Pro’s feature set is a substantial upgrade to the Pro camera system. The 14 Pro features the same three–camera setup (with a Main, an Ultra Wide and a Telephoto lens), but both the Main and Ultra Wide lenses feature a larger sensor, aiding low–light performance.

The headline–grabbing feature is undoubtedly the 48MP quad–pixel main sensor upgrade, which combines every four pixels into one large quad pixel, resulting in better low-light performance. The 48MP sensor also allows you to shoot full–resolution RAW images, allowing for more flexibility for image editing and the ability to print large photos. This setting is only available when you enable ProRAW in the Camera settings, and can easily be toggled on or off while taking photos, simply by tapping the “RAW” button in the Camera menu. Unless you really need the flexibility, it’s probably a function that’s best left alone — the ProRAW file sizes are about 20 times bigger than the standard HEIF ones, so you’ll quickly eat into your storage if you shoot in RAW all the time.

Though the 3x zoom on the Telephoto lens remains the same, Apple has given the iPhone 14 Pro camera system another string to its bow, courtesy of the 2x optical zoom that’s actually employed by the main camera, by using the middle 12MP section of the sensor at full resolution — it’s ideal for portrait shots where you just want to get in a bit closer.

When you want to get in really close, the Ultra Wide camera comes into play, switching to Macro mode, with even sharper photos that have better lighting, making for better close–up images than the 13 Pro.

In terms of video on the Pro camera system, Cinematic mode has received an upgrade to either 4K @ 24fps, or 4K @ 30fps, making for even more “cinematic” results. The most exciting new feature is Action mode. Activated by tapping the icon of a moving runner, it serves to stabilize moving video, and it works really well. It’s not quite up to the level of a hardware gimbal, and it maxes out at 2.8K rather than 4K, but it’s certainly worth using in the right situation.

The front–facing camera has received the least upgrade of all, with a small spec bump — Cinematic mode now features 4K @ 30fps.

All iPhone models get the new Photonic Engine, which is said to improve mid– to low–light performance, by 2x on the Telephoto and Ultra Wide lenses, and 2.5x on the Main lens. Apple is able to do this by applying Deep Fusion — Apple’s machine learning feature that optimizes images in low light by taking a number of shots and fusing them together to get the best available shot — earlier in the process. Overall, there’s a definite visual improvement to photos and videos, but it might not be quite enough to sway you away from your iPhone 13 Pro.

Safety first

What may be the clincher in deciding whether to upgrade is the new Crash Detection feature, which is available on all iPhone 14 models (as well as all new Apple Watch models). Using a new dual–core accelerometer which is capable of detecting G–force measurements of up to 256G, and a new high dynamic range gyroscope, the iPhone 14 can tell when a person has had a car crash. When it does, it automatically triggers Emergency SOS if you don’t respond in time. Clearly, this is huge — a feature that could potentially save your life.

Another possibly life–saving feature is the new Emergency SOS with Satellite mode. You might recognize this from before, as Emergency SOS was already available on the iPhone 13, but it isn’t much good if you’re somewhere so remote that it’s out of cellular range. The new version is able to lock onto nearby satellites, allowing emergency services to get to you, no matter where you are (in theory). The only sticking point is you’ll haveto pay to take advantage of this. Sure, you get two years free with your new iPhone, but thereafter it’ll cost — and Apple hasn’t specified how much yet. A comparable service, such as that offered by the satellite tracking device Spot Trace, costs $9.95/month for 12 months (fixed), but the company also allows you to flex, so you can sign up for just a single month for $12.50/month, which makes more sense if you’re only going to be occasionally heading into the wilderness.

More powerful and efficient

Powering all these upgrades is the new A16 Bionic chip, replacing the A15 Bionic in the previous year’s iPhone. It’s still a 6–core CPU, with a 5–core GPU, and 16–core Neural Engine, but is now built on a 4–nanometer process with 16 billion transistors (one billion more than the A15 Bionic). It also features 50% more memory bandwidth, greater power efficiency, a new display engine (which powers all the new display technologies), and a new image signal processor.

Benchmarks iPhone 14 Pro 3.46GHz A16 Bionic 2022

Geekbench 5 Single–Core Test: 1877

3DMark Wild Life (2560X1440): 59.1fps

PerformanceTest Mobile (PassMark): 1587MB/s (write) / 705MB/s (read)

Looking at the benchmarks, you can see there’s a respectable improvement across the board, with the iPhone 14 Pro maxing out in the 3DMark Wild Life test. The 14 Pro simply flies along in every day tasks, whether you’re multi–tasking, gaming or video editing. It’s a power–user’s dream, but thankfully, due to the A16’s excellent power efficiency, the 14 Pro actually manages to improve on the 13 Pro, with an extra hour battery life in video playback (for a total of 23 hours). As with the previous model, we were able to use the 14 Pro all day long without worrying about running out of juice. As we mentioned already, the Always–On display doesn’t seem to affect battery life.

Overall, the iPhone 14 Pro is a solid upgrade over last year’s 13 Pro, with plenty of exciting new features. If you’re planning to consume a lot of media on a daily basis, then you should seriously consider the bigger iPhone 14 Pro Max, which is essentially the same phone but with a larger 6,7–inch display, and a much bigger battery, offering 29 hours video playback (six more than the 14 Pro). Apart from being slightly thicker, there’s little to no physical difference between the 14 Pro Max and 13 Pro Max.

Features: 6.1–inch Super Retina XDR display with ProMotion and Always–On display, 460ppi, Dynamic Island, A16 Bionic chip, 128GB / 256GB / 512GB / 1TB storage, IP68, Pro rear camera system with 48MP Main, Ultra Wide, Telephoto cameras, 12MP TrueDepth front camera with autofocus, Photonic Engine, Emergency SOS via satellite, Crash Detection, 7.27 ounces

Price: $999(128GB); $1099(256GB); $1299(512GB); $1499(1TB);