As Apple announced at its September 7 event, the iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 14 Pro, and iPhone 14 Pro Max are finally here. And we’ve got answers to all your questions.
Here’s all you need to know about iPhone 14:
iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus new features: Cheat sheet
- The iPhone 14 features a 6.1-inch OLED display, and the iPhone 14 Plus grows to 6.7 inches.
- The iPhone 14 starts at $799, and the iPhone 14 Plus costs $899.
- The iPhone 14 Plus promises the best battery life ever on an iPhone.
- Emergency SOS via satellite functionality can be used to communicate when you’re out of cellular range. Launches in November and will be free for two years.
- There are five colors: midnight, starlight, blue, purple, and product red.
- The A15 Bionic chip is borrowed from the iPhone 13 Pro and gives you a 5-core GPU for 18% faster performance.
- The new 12MP main camera has a bigger sensor (1.9 microns and 49% low-light improvement.
- The front camera is 12MP with faster f/1.9, the autofocus for the first time, and better low light.
- Photonic Engine: Enhanced image pipeline to deliver better low-light photos. 2x improvement on the front camera, 2x on ultra-wide, and 2.5 on the main camera., so you’ll get much better detail and color.
- Significant improvement to the video: advanced stabilization mode, Action mode is new and can be toggled on for a smooth video. No gimbal is required.
- The iPhone 14 supports eSIM, so there’s no SIM card tray.
- The iPhone 14 offers crash detection like the new Apple Watch 8.
iPhone 14 release date and price
The iPhone 14 has a release date of September 16, and pre-orders start on September 9. The iPhone 14 Plus goes on sale on October 7.
The iPhone 14 starts at $799, and the iPhone 14 Plus is $899.
iPhone 14 design
iPhone 14 looks the same as the iPhone 13. The rear camera module is still in the diagonal layout. The notch is the same slim one introduced last year.
However, Apple claims to have improved the iPhone 14’s thermal performance, meaning you can push the phone for longer (such as with gaming). Apple has also done away with the physical SIM tray, meaning that the iPhone 14 is an eSIM-only phone in the US.
Another new feature for the iPhone 14 is Emergency SOS with Satellite. This satellite connectivity lets you get emergency help even when you don’t have a standard cell signal. This is ideal for people out in the wilderness or rural areas. With the iPhone 14, you get two free years of Emergency SOS with Satellite.
Crash Detection, introduced with the Apple Watch Series 8, also appears on the iPhone 14. This can detect when you’ve been in a car crash, and it will automatically contact emergency services if you can’t respond.
The iPhone 14 comes in five fun colors: Midnight, Starlight, Blue, Purple, and Product(RED).
The big news is the iPhone 14 Plus, a 6.7-inch non-Pro iPhone.
iPhone 14 displays
The iPhone 14 comes in two screen sizes like in previous years, but the new one is the larger 6.7-inch iPhone 14 Plus. The iPhone 14 clocks in at 6.1 inches, but both phones feature Apple’s Super Retina XDR OLED display with a peak HDR of 1200 nits.
iPhones 14 and 14 Plus feature Ceramic Shield on the front glass for added durability.
iPhone 14 cameras
You have three cameras on Apple’s iPhone 14, the 12MP wide and the 12MP ultrawide on the back, and the 12MP TrueDepth camera on the front.
The iPhone 14 received some significant camera upgrades. The primary sensor is much larger with bigger pixels (1.9 microns), and with the faster f/1.5 aperture and sensor-shift image stabilization, the iPhone 14 enjoys a 49% improvement in low-light performance. Night mode even gets a bump with the exposure now twice as fast.
As for the ultrawide, Apple didn’t share too much on its specs, leading us to think it might be the same as the iPhone 13. (Meanwhile, the iPhone 14 Pro got a significant ultrawide upgrade.) However, the front camera (f/1.9) received an update with a hybrid focusing system thanks to TrueDepth and autofocus.
We also heard about adjustments to Deep Fusion, Apple’s technology that combines multiple frames at different exposures into one image in mid to low-light situations. With iPhone 14, Deep Fusion is applied earlier in the process with uncompressed photos.
Apple also introduced Action mode for the iPhone 14, which offers much more advanced stabilization for video, with the phone maker stating you may not even need a gimbal.
iPhone 14 software and battery
The iPhone 14 did not get the new A16 Bionic chipset, a Pro exclusive this year. Instead, the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus get the higher-end A15 Bionic we saw in the iPhone 13 Pro last year. That means it has the same 6-core CPU and 16-core Neural Engine, but the iPhone 14 now enjoys a 5-core GPU for boosted gaming performance.
Apple never advertises the amount of RAM in iPhones, but MacRumors can confirm that all four iPhone 14 models are equipped with 6GB of RAM.
Apple never talks about battery size, but it did say the iPhone 14 has the best battery life ever on an iPhone. We’ll have to assume that means at least 15 hours, but it could mean a day or more of video playback.
The phone still supports MagSafe wireless charging but did not, it seems, get any fast-charging bump.
iPhone 14 and iOS 16
The iPhone 14 will enjoy all iOS 16 new features very soon, including the new lock screen, changes to Mail and Messages, and more. The iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus will ship with iOS 16 in the next few weeks.
You can also take advantage of the new iCloud Shared Photo Libraries and more vital Live Text and Visual Lookup.
