With the launch of the iPhone 14 Pro, Apple’s flagship iPhone raises the bar for what the iPhone family can do. Is it enough to satisfy Apple fans? Is it enough to attract users from other smartphone manufacturers? Or is it enough to keep the momentum going without disrupting Apple’s ecosystem of software and services?
Ahead of its public sale, Apple provided a number of reviewers with the iPhone 14 Pro. What have they done with the latest iOS smartphone? Let’s take a look at the highlights of the new smartphone and how they were received.
iPhone 14 Pro press photo
Apple news
The dynamic island
The biggest talking point is probably the dynamic island. Apple presents this as a brand new way to work with your smartphone. For the more cynical, it’s a big notification popup that tries to hide the display cutout needed for the cameras and Face ID. As always, the truth is somewhere in the middle. Nilay Patel for The Verge:
“The simplest way to understand the island is that it’s basically a new widget system built on the Live Activity API, and widgets can have three views: the main island view, an expanded view, and an ultra-minimal icon when I have two things going on at the same time. If you have more than two things, Apple has an internal priority list to put the two most important things on the island.”
Will this work? Much depends on how widgetized the approach is by third-party developers. If new content and new ways of working are adopted then it will be stunning. But if the job of coding both the original notification system and the new island system is too complicated or expensive, the iPhone might as well have just made its own Touch Bar.
A16 Performance
Apple’s latest system-on-a-chip is the A16 Bionic, and it’s limited to the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max (creating a noticeable performance gap between the vanilla and pro iPhone models in the process). It certainly hits the big numbers on a presentation slide and in benchmarking tests. Lance Ulanoff for TechRadar:
“It’s an upgrade from the A15 Bionic… with 16 billion transistors and a 4-nanometer process, which means the size of each of those transistors is shrinking. Benchmarks and real-world performance seem to prove the power of this new Apple silicone, which reaches nearly every corner of iPhone 14 Pro Max performance (photos, always-on display, and Dynamic Island). Between the new display technology, more efficient A16 Bionic and the size of the 14 Pro Max, we expected more than the 13 hours of mixed-use battery life we got.”
Ulanov notes the relatively short battery life for a smartphone at this price, but notes that he increased the screen’s brightness to make the phone readable outside. Pull it back when you’re indoors, and you’ll get close to Apple’s stated 20 to 25 hours of battery life; Florence Yohn of Gizmodo:
“The battery drain test is usually the last thing I test for any review, so I’ll have to track the final numbers of the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max in our video playback test. So far, I can say that the iPhone 14 Pro Max streams a 24-hour YouTube video at 200 nits for almost 16 hours. Still managing 29%.”
Rendering
Apple may have loaded up the camera presentation with “Photonic Engine” and “Action Mode,” but the difference between 13 Pro photos and 14 Pro photos isn’t as big as the branding suggests. The main sensor has reached 48 megapixels and for the first time includes pixel grouping, a feature popular on Android devices.
To many eyes, the comparison shows a cooler color temperature and less saturation in 14 Pro photos compared to last year’s model. Taking the Pixel 6 Pro by comparison, the 14 Pro still comes out with less vibrancy, and Engadget’s Cherlynn Low calls Google’s aging flagship the better smartphone for low-light photography:
“A similar story can be told for low-light cameras. In one example, the iPhone 14 Pro’s photos had the most accurate color and cleanest detail, beating the Pixel 6 Pro at capturing the individual lines of a leaf. But Google’s flagship managed a better job with a photo of a bright bar in a dark restaurant. It clearly captured individual leaves of a potted plant on a shelf, while the same part of the photo was shrouded in shadow when shot with the iPhone 14 Pro.”
Emergency SOS via satellite
This feels like an edge case for the vast majority of users, but the ability to send an SOS via a network of satellites is game-changing for Apple’s ability to deliver. In an unusual move, Apple is first to market here, but will soon join the service as T-Mobile with Starlink. Myriam Joire for PocketNow:
“T-Mobile USA and Starlink, SpaceX’s satellite high-speed Internet service provider, recently announced a partnership to provide low-bandwidth satellite communications to the carrier’s subscribers. But unlike Apple’s implementation, which requires additional hardware in compatible devices, T-Mobile and Starlink’s service works with any phone that already supports mid-range 5G, and is not limited to emergencies.”
iPhone 14 Pro press photo
Apple news
Some thoughts
There’s no doubt that the iPhone 14 Pro is an improvement over the iPhone 13 Pro (as well as the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro Max over their respective 2021 models). Whether it’s enough for anyone but the incredibly faithful to update last year’s model remains to be seen, but put it next to the iPhone 11 or iPhone 12 and it’s a worthy replacement.
For those outside the Apple ecosystem, the iPhone 14 Pro’s hardware is on par with flagship Android devices. There are some areas where it wins in the Top Trumps comparison; there are others with Android that have the edge and some where it’s basically neck and neck.
The difference is in the software, and the eternal “Android vs iOS” shows no signs of calming down. Apple continues to simplify as many options as possible while providing more graphical prompts and different ways to do existing things. Android continues to remain flexible for multiple manufacturing partners and offers more customizations to users. There is no magic bullet in the iOS 16 / iPhone 14 Pro combo that makes switching a necessity.
Apple delivered a solid update to the iPhone, making small gains in many areas. It’s an improvement over the previous models and existing users will certainly feel the difference. But it doesn’t seem to have built enough of an edge over Android to tempt the masses.
Now read the latest iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch headlines in Forbes’ weekly Apple Digest…
Add Comment