iPhone 14 Pro Review: Apple’s Flagship Device Unveiled
Apple has announced four new smartphones iPhone 14, iPhone 14 plus, iPhone 14 pro, and iPhone 14 pro max. But unfortunately, this year there will be no iPhone 14 mini.
Between a 48MP main photo sensor featuring ProRAW format, state-of-the-art screen brightness, Dynamic Island, A16 Bionic chip and the Neural Engine, the iPhone 14 pro is full of new amazing features hidden behind an almost unchanged design overall. And in this article, we break them down for you in detail.
Design
Without moving away too far from the iPhone 13 Pro, the iPhone 14 Pro is full of new innovations in terms of design. Indeed, on the iPhone 14 Pro, Apple pulled out the heavy artillery by equipping it with a Super Retina XDR screen of 6.1 inches, whose resolution is 2532 by 170 pixels at 460 dpi, and a Gorilla Glass that protects the screen against violent shock or scratches.
It weighs just 172 g, has a stainless-steel case available in four colors: black, silver, gold and intense purple. The stereo speaker and a microphone are located at the bottom edge next to the charging socket and the buttons are on the side.
Apple has also removed the notch from its screen. This is the novelty of the iPhone 14 pro, and it is directly visible. Indeed, the notch becomes a small black pill around the photo sensor, and this pill has been wrapped in a fully integrated interface that is called the dynamic Island, representing a paradise island in the middle of this ocean of infinite screen which is iPhone 14 pro.
As you can see, there are a lot of stylish and interesting little animations that have been created around this pill that make the screen of the iPhone 14 pro completely alive. It will really make you want to have fun with this little dynamic Island.
It’s true that it’s almost the same size as the notch on the iPhone 13 pro, the iPhone 14 pro has just recovered a little bit of the screen above to form the pill, and we think it’s very clever of Apple to keep this pill format in the middle of the smartphone at the top, it’s very distinctive and it allows them to sell the dynamic Island that you won’t get on the iPhone 14.
Because the iPhone 14 keeps the notch of the iPhone 13. And if you buy the iPhone 14, you won’t be able to take advantage of this new and stylish feature.
Of course, this cutout is only part of the Super Retina XDR screen that can now reach a brightness of up to 2,000 nits for better visibility in bright light.
On this phone, there is also a very interesting new feature thanks to the new screen, the Always on display mode. In this regard, Apple takes advantage its OLED screen, whose consumption is well controlled by adding the LTPO. This technology offers a dynamic refresh rate.
Now, the refresh rate varies between 10 and 120 hertz when the smartphone is in use and can be reduced to 1 Hz when the screen is in standby mode. 1 Hertz means that the screen is refreshed every second, which reduces power consumption. As a result, Apple indirectly introduces a screensaver that displays information continuously, even when the smartphone is locked.
Camera
On this model, the front camera and Face ID sensors are positioned in the dynamic island we mentioned earlier so they don’t ruin the design.
On the backside, we immediately notice it’s huge photo module that features three camera sensors including a wide-angle sensor which is most interesting to us, because it’s a 48-megapixel sensor.
The main 48-megapixel camera module is therefore the biggest photographic improvement between generations of iPhone for quite some time. Because with up to 4,000 billion photographic calculations achievable per shot, they have the juice to make the most of those 48 million photosites in this new sensor.
Even more, with the iPhone 14 pro, Apple also introduces the pixel binning, which means you can use all those megapixels to get excellent and more pronounced photos even in low light. But we’re still on a smartphone, so the heart of the work is the algorithm and here, Apple really use its software expertise through its ProRAW format.
Indeed, all high-end Android smartphones such as the Galaxy S22 Ultra use a similar technique, but Apple is the only player at the moment with a RAW format that makes it possible to shoot 48-megapixel pro RAW files. So, this would allow photographers who are more experienced to get a lot of data from the RAW files in order to retouch them more in depth.
Another interesting improvement here is the availability of the Cinematic mode in 4K-30p in addition to the 4K-24p of the previous generation. A good plus for productions that are intended for web-TV and not for cinema.
We also like to emphasize the fact that an ultra-wide-angle sensor of 12 Mpx is also present on this Pro model. The other bonus of the iPhone 14 pro comes from the stabilization, and Thanks to its Action Mode, you can take advantage of the sensor’s superior image definition to produce a very well stabilized 4K video stream, a kind of HyperSmooth from GoPro, which means you can do without a gimbal in certain scenes.
Overall, the camera section of the iphone 14 pro includes, a 48MP main camera, f/1.78, a 12MP telephoto, f/2.8, 12MP ultra-wide, f/1.8, and 12MP front camera (f/1.9, autofocus).
Hardwares and Softwares.
Under the hood, everything runs on a new chip called the A16 Bionic, it is a new chip that is more powerful, or performance 40% higher than the competition and consume substantially less energy. This chip succeeds the A15 Bionic of the iPhone 13 and the brand reserves a surprise here by offering this new SoC only on the “Pro” models.
Moreover, compared to the iPhone 13 pro, the bandwidth memory of the iPhone 14 pro has been increased by 50%. Apple also mentions having equipped this jewel with a new AI technology called Neural Engine. With its 16 cores, it can handle 17 trillion operations per second, and Apple emphasizes the importance of this chip in taking pictures. On the memory side, the iPhone 14 Pro is available in 128 GB, 256 GB, 512 GB, and 1 TB.
Security features.
When it comes to security, the TrueDepth sensor is available on iPhone 14 Pro, and it also supports the new car accident detection features developed by Apple, as well as satellite communication for emergency messages.
iOS 16 is also a whole bunch of other features aimed at protecting your personal data better than the solutions offered on Android. Among them, the Locate app finds your lost iPhone, iCloud+ can hide your email address and the iMessage format encrypts your exchanges from end to end.
The water resistance of the iPhone 14 Pro is amazing, it can last around 30 minutes under water at a depth of up to 6 meters.
Battery and connectivity
As far as autonomy and recharge are concerned, the iPhone 14 Pro can last up to 23 hours in video playback and about 20 hours in video streaming, and you will have 50 % full battery after 30 minutes of charging with a 20W adapter.
It is true that we would have liked to switch to USB C, but no, we stay on traditional Lightning port. Indeed, the Lightning port remains limited if you want to transfer large files because of its slow speed.
The iPhone 14 pro also offers 5G connectivity, the most advanced generation of Bluetooth, as superfast Wi-Fi, files transfer with the AirDrop technology and a Lightning port remains.
Conclusion
Every year, Apple offers special features that are only available on its Pro models. Most of the new features are thus concentrated in this iPhone, such as the new notch less design of the screen and the 10 to 120 Hz screen with its Always on-screen mode, a new powerful A16 Bionic chip, the 48-megapixel camera; and it’s also the first phone of the manufacturer that offers a screen of 2,000 nits.
The case is made of stainless steel with four colors available, Silver, Black, Gold and Deep Purple. Even more, among the small software novelties, there is the Dynamic Island which is quite the trend now. It is a small black pill around the selfie photo sensor that gives you access to the most important notifications.
