It was finally something meaningful.
In the past, an iPhone Pro has meant a number of things, including a more premium steel frame, an extra telephoto lens in the rear camera, “pro” shooting modes such as ProRAW and ProRES, a display with ProMotion refresh rate, and larger storage options.
Most people don’t need to get an Apple’s top-of-the-line phone because of the minor differences between a pro and regular one. The “pro” in the iPhone 14 Pros was put by Apple. The iPhone 14 Pros are really tempting even if the regular iPhone 14 / 14 Plus is enough.
The new main lens in the triple-lens camera is more pro than the 12-megapixel shooter in the iPhone 14s; there is also an “Action mode” that captures seemingly impossibly shake-free videos. The display is more pro, too, with a very clever “Dynamic Island” that replaces the notch and an always-on display mode that pairs nicely with the new lock screen. For the first time, the pro models have a more powerful chip than the non-pro ones.
The iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max are the same price as the iPhone 13 Pros, and even more so if you trade in an old device.
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Design
Since the beginning of the “iPhone brick era”, the thickness and weight of the iPhone Pro has increased. The iPhone 14 Pros are sleek, but they’re still bricks. It’s time for the iPhone to go on a diet, I think it’s time for Apple to prioritize function over form. I don’t think Apple should make the iPhone 15 as bendable as the iPhone 6 because it would hurt my hand less.
The Pro version of the iPad.
- iPhone 12 Pro: 7.4mm / 189 grams
- iPhone 13 Pro: 7.65mm / 204 grams
- iPhone 14 Pro: 7.85mm / 206 grams
The phone Pro Max:
- iPhone 12 Pro: 7.4mm / 228 grams
- iPhone 13 Pro Max: 7.65mm / 240 grams
- iPhone 14 Pro Max: 7.85mm / 240 grams
The huge triple-lens camera on the iPhone 14 Pro makes it more top-heavy, and I feel like the extra heft from the iPhone 12 Pro makes it more top-heavy. The weight of the iPhone 14 Pro Max is the same as the weight of the iPhone 13 Pro Max, but it is a little heavier. The iPhone 14 Pro / Pro Max are not the lightest iPhones of Apple’s past, with a case on.
The review unit on my phone is black. I really like it. Compared to the black and Jet Black iPhone 7, the glass back and the steel frame are noticeably darker. It’s a dark purple that sometimes looks gray or black, and it’s my review unit for the iPhone 14 Pro Max. Both look sleek in person, but they are still fingerprints. You can get them in silver and gold.
In the U.S., there’s one feature change that has been controversial since the iPhone 14 Pros were announced: the lack of a physical mini sim card. The tray was removed by Apple. The change has caused quite a stir with people who frequently switch between phones, like people like me who review tons of phones for a living. It will be an initial hassle for most people, and they will forget about it after a while. More carriers and phones will adopt eSIM once they replace the iPhone 14 Pro.
eSIMs are the future. If you have two of them active at the same time, you can store eight of them in your iPhone 14 Pro. You would need a wallet or case to hold your phones, and then pray you don’t lose them. I wish Apple would give consumers the option to use a sim card on the phone. It could be made an option for the people who want it. The models are sold outside of the us.
Another year has passed by for the Lightning port. The clock is running for Apple to make the switch to the new device. 50 percent charge in 30 minutes with a 20W (or higher) adapter is what Apple is sticking with. I am all in on MagSafe wireless charging, but I am not the only one who wants to see faster wired charging in the iPhone.
Display
The 14 Pro has a 6.1 inch display and the 14 Pro Max has a 6.7 inch display, both with 120Hz ProMotion refresh rates. Both models have “Ceramic Shield” protection. The thoroughly scratched and dropped display on the launch day of my phone is proof Ceramic Shield works. The screen size is just one part of the story.
The Pro version of the iPad.
- iPhone 12 Pro: 2,532 x 1,170 (460 ppi)
- iPhone 13 Pro: 2,532 x 1,170 (460 ppi)
- iPhone 14 Pro: 2,556 x 1,179 (460 ppi)
The phone Pro Max:
- iPhone 12 Pro Max: 2,532 x 1,170 (460 ppi)
- iPhone 13 Pro Max: 2,532 x 1,170 (460 ppi)
- iPhone 14 Pro Max: 2,556 x 1,179 (460 ppi)
Dynamic Island
Dynamic Island is the most significant display upgrade. Hardware and software work together to shapeshift the pill-shaped cutout. Inside of the Dynamic Island is the TrueDepth camera hardware, which is combined with software to make a pill. The Dynamic Island is cool and makes the iPhone Pros feel alive. Face ID now pops out from the black bar instead of filling the center of the screen, audio apps use the Dynamic Island to display album art and a waveform, phone calls show duration and a waveform, connected AirPods briefly appear in it, and audio apps use the Dynamic Island to display album art When you have a timer and music playing, the Dynamic Island can split into two.
The Dynamic Island is more than just a menu bar, it’s also a way to access shortcut or return to an app, giving the device another layer of multitasking. A single tap on the Dynamic Island brings you to the app, and a long press can open up more options.
The Dynamic Island will work with all the apps that support the NowPlaying and CallKit APIs. When Live Activities rolls out via an update later this year, the Dynamic Island will be able to display at-a-glance info for things like food deliveries, sports scores, and ride sharing. This could be the beginning. The Dynamic Island could get more features in the future, thanks to a new Apple APIs.
The Dynamic Island is really friggin’ cool and makes the iPhone 14 Pros feel alive.
There is no shortage of strangeness on the Dynamic Island. When it’s too wide, vital icons like the wi-fi are pushed off into control center.
Whenever Apple describes a new feature, it’s always “magical”. It is deserved in the case of the Dynamic Island. The pill continues to delight on a daily basis after a week of testing.
Always-on Display
Is it possible that we can get a finally? Apple is adding an AOD to the iPhone 14 Pros as an exclusive feature, which is different from the AOD found on other phones. Is there a possibility that Apple could update older phones with an AOD? Absolutely, in theory. Apple’s implementation of an AOD uses the adaptive refresh rate of the iPhone 14 Pro, which drops down to 1hertz for low impact on battery life. The energy efficient refresh rate of the iPhone 13 Pros isn’t enough to support Apple’s AOD.
Late as the iPhone is to the AOD game, I think it is better. Unlike on other phones where the AOD is black and only certain features are visible, the iPhone 14 Pros’ AOD dims the lock screen wallpaper, leaving the time, calendar, and lock screen buttons visible. The Apple Watch’s always-on clock is similar. Being able to see my wallpaper is nice. I haven’t seen much impact to battery life with the AOD. The only way to have an AOD that doesn’t show the wallpaper in a dim state is to use a black wallpaper for the lock screen. The black is not as dark as it could be.
When the screen is face down, when the device is in your pocket, and when you walk away from it for a period of time, the always-on display will turn off. If your phone has a sleep focus on, the AOD will also turn off.
Increased Brightness
I don’t think I’ve ever wished for my display to be brighter, it has 800 nits of max typical brightness and 1,200 nits of peak HDR brightness. The brightness on the iPhone 14 Pros has been increased, and it’s very, very bright.
- iPhone 12 Pro: 800 nits max / 1,200 nits peak HDR
- iPhone 13 Pro: 1,000 nits max / 1,200 nits peak HDR
- iPhone 14 Pro: 1,000 nits max / 1,600 nits peak HDR / 2,000 nits peak (outdoor)
I don’t think anyone needs the 1,600 nits of peak brightness forHDR content, but the 2,000 nits for outdoors is game-changing. I have not had to run into the shade to see important messages because of the clearer displays in the iPhone 14 Pros.
Performance
This year Apple did something interesting. The pro models of the iPhone 14s and 14 Pros were only given the new A16 Bionic chip, which is the most powerful chip in the A-series. The A15 Bionic chip used in the iPhone 14s is the same chip used in the 13 Pros.
The Geekbench 5 scores show how far the iPhone 14 Pros are from the 13 Pros, 12 Pros, and the S22 Ultra.
A16 Bionic vs. A15 Bionic vs. A14 Bionic — CPU test
- iPhone 12 Pro: (A14 Bionic): 1,586 / 3,937
- iPhone 13 Pro: (A15 Bionic): 1,725 / 4,722
- iPhone 14 Pro: (A16 Bionic): 1,875 / 5,495
- Galaxy S22 Ultra: (Snapdragon 8 Gen 1): 914 / 3,039
The performance of the CPUs is up. That’s positive! The iPhone 14 Pro is 9 percent faster than the iPhone 13 Pro and 18 percent faster than the iPhone 12 Pro for single-core processor tasks. The iPhone 14 Pro is 16 percent faster than the 13 Pro and 39 percent faster than the 12 Pro. The iPhone 14 Pros are 105 percent faster on single-core and 80 percent faster on multi-core than the S22 Ultra, which I used.
A16 Bionic vs. A15 Bionic vs. A14 Bionic — GPU test
- iPhone 12 Pro (A14 Bionic): 9,499
- iPhone 13 Pro: (A15 Bionic): 14,419
- iPhone 14 Pro: (A16 Bionic): 15,344
- Galaxy S22 Ultra: (Snapdragon 8 Gen 1): 5,907
The graphics performance on the iPhone 14 Pro is 6 percent faster than on the iPhone 13 Pro and 62 percent faster than on the iPhone 12 Pro. The S22 Ultra has a slower graphics card than the iPhone 14 Pros’. That’s not a spelling mistake.
I wrote in my iPhone 13 Pros review that no other phone came close to the performance of the iPhone. The iPhone 14 Pros still holds up. The S22 Ultra is one of this year’s best phones, but the two-year-old iPhone 12s destroy it.
The speed in the iPhone 14 Pros is due to all of this power. People will look at these increases and wonder why anyone needs it. You don’t realize how much computing power the simplest of tasks on iPhone require. The processor is talking to all of the components that make up an Apple device when the operating system just flies. When more and more graphically intensive 3D games just run smoothly, without any dropped frames, that is theGPU doing the heavy lifting. The power of Apple’s Chipset is when things just work, and not getting enough credit.
Battery life
There isn’t much to report here. The iPhone 14 Pro / 14 Pro Max has an extra hour of battery life compared to the iPhone 13 Pro / 13 Pro Max. There’s a big leap in the battery life of the iPhone 12 Pro / 12 Pro Max. The iPhone 14 Pro / 14 Pro Max will last longer for people like me who purchase an Apple device every two years or more.
The Pro version of the iPad.
- iPhone 12 Pro: 17 hours (video) / 11 hours (video streamed) / 65 hours (audio)
- iPhone 13 Pro: 22 hours (video) / 20 hours (video streamed) / 75 hours (audio)
- iPhone 14 Pro: 23 hours (video) / 20 hours (video streamed) / 75 hours (audio)
The phone Pro Max:
- iPhone 12 Pro Max: 20 hours (video) / 12 hours (video streamed) / 80 hours (audio)
- iPhone 13 Pro Max: 28 hours (video) / 25 hours (video streamed) / 95 hours (audio)
- iPhone 14 Pro Max: 29 hours (video) / 25 hours (video streamed) / 95 hours (audio)
I am seeing a longer battery life on the 14 Pro since I am moving from the 12 Pro. The battery health of my phone is at 80 percent after two years of heavy daily use and the phone has a bigger battery.
The all-day battery life of the iPhone 14 Pros isn’t affected by features like Dynamic Island, always-on display, and a larger main camera sensor. The 14 Pro Max can be used for 1-2 days depending on usage, which is the same as past pro phones. I only got 3-4 hours of screen time on my older phone, but I have been seeing about 6-7 hours of screen on time with the new phone. The long-lasting battery of the iPhone 14 Pros is going to blow away older owners of the device.
Cameras
Every year, the cameras on the iPhone get more complicated. There is a lot to digest. It may be too much for the lay person. You like getting nerdier because you’re reading Input. Let’s get really serious.
The first thing to know is that both the Pro and Max cameras are identical. They both have a larger main lens sensor. The ultrawide and telephoto are still 12 megapixels, but they are improved in various ways. This is the first time that Apple has differentiated the cameras on the Pro version of the phone. The dual-lens camera system on the iPhone 14 / 14 Plus should be comparable to the one on the iPhone 13
Here are the cameras used by the 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max.
Triple-lens cameras
The phone is called the 12 Pro or 12 Pro Max.
- Main: 12 megapixels f/1.6
- Ultrawide: 12 megapixels f/2.4
- Telephoto: 12 megapixels f/2.0
The 13 Pro Max is an Apple device.
- Main: 12 megapixels f/1.5
- Ultrawide: 12 megapixels f/1.8
- Telephoto: 12 megapixels f/2.8
The phone is called the 14 Pro Max.
- Main: 48 megapixels f/1.78
- Ultrawide: 12 megapixels f/2.2
- Telephoto: 12 megapixels f/2.8
There is a new main lens with a smaller f/1.78. The ultrawide lens is not as wide. Low-light performance is usually worse for real DSLR/mirrorless camera lenses. That isn’t the case in the Pros of the iPhone. 65 percent larger main lens sensor and nearly twice the size of the ultrawide sensor are what Apple says the image sensors for both the 48 and ultrawide lenses are. When the lighting is poor, these larger sensors let in more light, which creates brighter images with more detail. The claim is at least that.
Apple says it has improved the image of the iPhone 14 Pros with something called the ” Photonic Engine”. When images are processed right after they’re clicked, Deep Fusion kicks in, which takes better images in mid-level luminance to produce sharper images ( here’s proof it really works). Apple claims the Photonic Engine improves the image quality. By what amount? You will find out about it in a second.
There is a lot to digest for the iPhone 14 Pro camera.
By default, the camera on the iPhone 14 Pros takes 12 photos. If you own a phone with a high-resolution camera, you know how the process works. Here’s the download for iPhone users, and you can think of it as a super pixel, because of the four-ply combo. It can do two things, one of which is to produce a really good 12-megapixel photo, especially for low-light photography, and the other is to create an image with more resolution.
The big sensor can mimic 2x telephoto images by zooming in on the center of the picture frame.
An “Adaptive True Tone flash” that Apple claims can blast out different amounts of light at different focal lengths and an improved 3x telephoto lens are some of the still photo upgrades in the iPhone 14 Pros.
It is a lot to digest, like I said.
I turned off the camera’s auto macro mode the very first thing I did after setting up the iPhone 14 Pro / 14 Pro Max. The new cameras were to be tested by hitting the streets of New York City.
Main lens
I had high expectations for the default images of the iPhone 14 Pro. The reality is not the same as it was. Photo details are sharper, with less image noise in almost all types of lighting, but they are very similar to photos taken with an iPhone 13 Pro. Is there any differences in image quality in this outdoor comparison? Unless you do a side-by-side comparison and zoom in, it’s not really possible.
The outdoor photos were almost indistinguishable between the 13 Pro and 14 Pro. It was difficult to tell them from each other.
It’s the same thing for indoor shots. If you do comparisons, the photos from the iPhone 14 Pro are a tad sharper.
You want to know if the higher resolution photos that the iPhone 14 Pro is capable of taking are legit or not. The answer is yes, yes!
They have always underwhelmed in some way, even though I have tested more of their phones with high-megapixel camera sensor. The ProRAW DNG for the iPhone 13 Pro and 12 Pro was not as good as it should have been. The amount of detail you can get with a phone is borderline nuts if you have a 48-megapixel ProRAW file. For yourself. There are two images in this picture. I forgot to turn off HEIC for JPEG in the left one, but that doesn’t matter. The image on the right is converted to a full-resolution JPEG using ProRAW.
In order to give you an idea of the amount of detail a 48-megapixel image has compared to a 12-megapixel one, I share with you the below two images, both opened on my Mac at full resolution.
The full-size crop can only see so much in the photo. You can see how close you can get with the 48-megapixel file below. The detail is amazing. It is impressive for a camera. It’s usually high-megapixel photos from the phones. The Photonic Engine is magic and whatever Apple is doing with it is.
The guy who buys the largest iPhone Pro storage model because he takes way too many photos is a camera junkie and there is no going back to 12-MP photos for him. From now on, I’m going to be shooting ProRAW 48-megapixels. It’s just too good.
There are some things that can be done to shoot ProRAW. While it works for outdoor photos, it doesn’t work with night mode or flash photography photos, and the iPhone 14 Pro camera spits out a 12-megapixel RAW in both cases It’s a minor letdown since low-light is the kind of photography whereRAW can save an image in post.
Ultrawide lens
The iPhone 14 Pro has a 12-megapixel ultrawide lens that captures less noise in photos. You have to look at the clarity, but it’s there.
Telephoto lens
The faux 2x telephoto of the iPhone 14 Pro really caught my eye. I said earlier that the 2x telephoto images are taken from the full 48-megapixel sensor. The photos are very nice. In low-light, 2x telephoto photos look even better because they get all of the benefits of the larger quad-pixel sensor and larger f/1.78 aperture.
Low-light / night
The low-light photography on the iPhone 14 Pro is improved. The white balance is more accurate than the yellow balance. Compared to the S22 Ultra and the iPhone 12 Pro, there’s less image noise. The picture from the latter camera has more details than the one from the iPhone 14 Pro.
For low-light ultrawide photography, the iPhone 14 Pro takes better shots with slightly more definition and less visible flaring. The S22 Ultra has a brighter, but blurrier photo, and it is miles better than the iPhone 12 Pro.
The low-light photography of the iPhone 14 Pro is not perfect. Some of my close-up low-light comparisons had longer lens flares coming off bright objects and colors could come out flatter, with less contrast, compared to the same image taken with the iPhone 13 Pro. The main camera of the iPhone 14 Pro can sometimes expose more shadow details at the expense of color vibrance. It can be fixed with a few edits within the Photos app, but it did give me pause.
Portrait mode
Portrait mode photos look the same to me. The machine learning models on the iPhone 14 Pro are able to blur out the background with the 2x digital crop-in portrait mode. The iPhone 12 Pro has an optical 2x telephoto portrait.
The 3x optical portrait mode comparison between the 13 Pro and 14 Pro is the same thing. They are both pretty similar in their depth of field. The differences aren’t obvious. In the 13 Pro portrait, James’ skin tone was red, but in the 14 Pro portrait, it was less red. You can see how the balls are rendered differently in the background There are red and orange exit sign lights in the background of the iPhone 13 Pro picture, compared to the red and orange exit sign lights in the iPhone 14 Pro picture.
Selfie camera
It is hard to believe that the iPhone 14s is the first one with a camera that can focus on selfies. We are here now. The image quality is the same in good lighting and slightly better in darker scenes, but the autofocus does a better job of locking onto your face. If you shoot a lot of selfies, you’re gonna appreciate it because I’m not the biggest one.
- iPhone 12 Pros: 12 megapixels f/2.2
- iPhone 13 Pros: 12 megapixels f/2.2
- iPhone 14 Pros: 12 megapixels f/1.9 with autofocus
100 percent of my face is for you people who want to see my face.
The best videos in a phone can be seen on the iPhone 14 Pros. There is no end to it. The iPhone is still the best device for video capture, even though it has 8K video recording and stabilization modes.
The resolution for cinematic mode on the iPhone 13 Pros has been increased from 30 to 30 frames per second. That’s nice! The “rack focus” thing can leave a lot to be desired. If you were turned off by the limitations of Cinematic mode, you won’t find much improvement here. The background blur is still rough, but a little cleaner.
Video stabilization mode should be turned on action mode. It’s good at capturing smooth video. I understand that it only records at a max 2.8K resolution at up to 60 frames per second, compared to the regular video mode’s max 4K / 60 frames per second. But holy cow, the stabilization is incredible. In this video, you can see a comparison between the iPhone 13 Pro and the iPhone 14 Pro.
A video comparison between the action mode of the iPhone 14 Pro and the regular video mode of the iPhone 13 Pro.
There’s no need for a gimbal with action mode turned on. It’s just that great.
Should you buy the iPhone 14 Pro?
They’re so addictive they’re like candy. Even if they don’t need it, people want the latest version of the phone. You’ve read my thoughts on the Dynamic Island, the A16 Bionic chip, and the battery life. Crash detection and emergency SOS via satellite are features that I didn’t get to test, so I hope you never need them. At Apple Park, I was given a real demo of the emergency feature. Without a direct line of sight, it can be difficult to get satellite internet.
Long story short, the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max are the winners. Everyone should spend their money wisely as we are in a recession.
If you’re like me, you’ve got an older version of the phone, and you’re sticking with it, the iPhone 14 Pros are great. You’ll love all of its new features and have no fear because you’re getting Apple’s best phone.
Maybe the people who use the iPhone 13 are also the people who use it. The Dynamic Island, better camera system, and always-on ProMotion display are what you get if you have a regular iPhone 13 or 13 mini. If you don’t make it another year, you will not be able to upgrade to the iPhone 15. The Dynamic Island is nice, but not a must-have, and unless you want to shoot a lot of video with Action Mode on, the iPhone 13 Pro camera is still up there.
The iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max are winners.
Maybe it’s time to move on with your life if you have a Touch ID home button. The only other option is to get a third-gen Apple device. You can do what you want. The new lock screen is compatible with iOS 16.
Yes, no, maybe, but users of the operating system on the phone. If you want a phone that has one of the best camera systems available and will be supported with software updates for many years to come, then yes, you can. If you’re a fan of Android and refuse to submit to Apple’s less flexible platform, you might be able to get a camera zoom that goes beyond 3x optical. And perhaps? You could be a two-phone guy if you buy or don’t buy, you probably already have an idea.