The new iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus have been announced. The iPhone 14 Plus delivers a big 6.7-inch display to those who want a larger canvas, and the iPhone 14 offers a 6.1-inch display.
Here’s a quick overview of all of the new iPhone 14 features, which includes major camera improvements, more robust eSIM support and new Emergency SOS via satellite functionality.
Here’s a quick overview of the new iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 features. And when you’re done here, be sure to check out our iPhone 14 Pro hub.
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 that to 6.7 inches. Yes, the iPhone mini looks dead.
- 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, including midnight, starlight, blue, purple and product red
- The A15 Bionic chip is borrowed form 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.
- Front camera is 12MP with faster f/1.9, autofocus for first time and better low light.
- Photonic Engine: Enhanced image pipeline to deliver better low light photos. 2x improvement on front camera, 2x on ultra wide and 2.5 on main camera., so you’ll get much better detail and color.
- Big improvement to video: advanced stabilization mode…Action mode is new and can be toggled on for smooth video. No gimbal required.
- Bad news? The iPhone 14 support eSIM only, so there’s not SIM card tray
- The iPhone 14 offers crash detection, just like the new Apple Watch 8.
Developing story…original article follows. Stay tuned for updates.
iPhone 14 release date and price
The iPhone 14 has a release date of September 16 and pre-orders start September 9. The iPhone 14 Plus goes on sales October 7.
The iPhone 14 starts at $799, and the iPhone 14 Plus is $899.
iPhone 14 design
Apple didn’t reinvent the wheel with the iPhone 14’s design. In fact, it looks basically the same as the iPhone 13. The rear camera module is still in the diagonal layout, which isn’t a bad thing — it looks pretty good. The notch is the same slim one introduced last year.
One improvement lies under the hood. 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.
The iPhone 14 comes in five fun colors: Midnight, Starlight, Blue, Purple, and Product(RED).
The big news is the iPhone 14 Plus, which is a 6.7-inch non-Pro iPhone. Be sure to check out our iPhone 14 Plus hub for all of the information on that.
iPhone 14 displays
The iPhone 14 comes in two screen sizes like 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 brightness of 1200 nits.
Both feature Ceramic Shield on the front glass for added durability.
iPhone 14 cameras
The iPhone 14 received some big camera upgrades. The main sensor is much larger with bigger pixels, 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 big ultrawide upgrade.) However, the front camera (f/1.9) received an update with a hybrid focusing system thanks to TrueDepth and autofocus.
We also got to hear about adjustments to Deep Fusion, which is 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 images.
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. That’s a lofty claim, but Action mode sure looks cool. Situational, much like Cinematic mode last year, but neat all the same.
iPhone 14 chipset and battery life
A suite of rumors thus far have the iPhone 14 tipped to stick with the A15 Bionic chip, while the iPhone 14 Pro modes are expected to get a new A16 chip (something the iPhone 15 series may also do too).
If you’re interested in how much extra power the A16 could offer, there have been some leaked benchmarks that could give us a clue. However, we’d argue that the A15 Bionic is so powerful that having it in the iPhone 14 is going to be no bad thing, and you should dismiss the standard iPhone 14 models just because they ay lack a silicon upgrade.
The rumors so far claim that all four iPhone 14 models will have 6GB RAM, a boost from 4GB on the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini. However, the base models would use LPDDR4X RAM like the current iPhone 13 range, while the Pro models will allegedly get faster and more efficient LPDDR5 RAM.
On the storage side, we’d expect Apple to continue with the options it has for the iPhone 13 range, which start at 128GB and go up to 1TB for the Pro models.
Apple could also launch an eSIM-only variant of the iPhone 14, according to claims by analyst Emma Mohr-McClune of GlobalDate. The move would bolster the iPhone’s appeal among users who need dual SIM capabilities, such as business users and overseas travelers.
Mark Gurman has backed up claims of boosted battery life for the iPhone 14 Pro models. But despite claims that the battery capacities of the iPhone 14 family will increase other than the iPhone 14 Pro Max, Gurman makes no mention of improved battery capacities for the standard iPhone 14 models, though they could have a battery life improvement with a boost in software and operation efficiency.
Both iPhone 14 Pro models are expected to get a boost to 30W charging, while the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Max would stick with 20W charging.
With all this discussion around battery life and charging, we’ve chewed over how long we think the next iPhones will last. We’re hoping for not only a longer battery life but notably faster charging, even if it just comes to the iPhone 14 Pro models.
Future iPhones are in line to include an Apple-made 5G modem, following Apple’s acquisition of Intel’s modem business. This would presumably give Apple more control over both the 5G performance and battery life impact. However, that’s not expected until the iPhone 15 next year; for now, we’re looking at Qualcomm’s X65 modem as the iPhone 14’s way of connecting to 5G and LTE networks.
While we’re on the subject of connectivity, an old iPhone 13 rumor has resurfaced — that the iPhone will gain the ability to connect to satellite networks so that users can send text messages to emergency services when cellular networks aren’t available. That feature didn’t make it to the iPhone 13, but now tipsters say that the iPhone 14 models could add satellite connectivity, as Apple looks to bolster the emergency features of its phones. Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says the hardware work is done for the iPhone 14, and all that’s standing in the way of this feature is Apple striking deals with a satellite provider.
For more, check out our full iPhone 14 specs (opens in new tab) preview with details on all four models.
iPhone 14 Max to replace iPhone 14 mini
It’s looking like it’s game over for the iPhone mini, with pretty much every rumor tipping the smaller phone to be replaced by a larger 6.7-inch iPhone 14 Max/Plus.
The iPhone 12 mini and iPhone 13 mini failed to be runaway successes for Apple with people seemingly preferring the larger-screened phones.
Nevertheless, if you are looking for an smaller phone then we’ve got a rundown of the best iPhone 14 mini alternatives, with the iPhone SE 2022 leading the pack.
Now the iPhone 14 Pro models are set to have headline-grabbing upgrades, but we feel it would be wrong to ignore the iPhone 14 Max. A bigger screen without a big price tag could be exactly what iPhone fans are after, to the extent that the iPhone 14 Max could be the most exciting Apple phone of the year and the phone to beat come the fall.
Having said that, display analyst Ross Young claims that based on display shipments the iPhone 14 Max will be the phone Apple produces in the smallest quantities. This means Cupertino could end up testing the waters to see if a non-Pro iPhone with a large screen is indeed what the people want.
Our iPhone 14 vs. iPhone 14 Max comparison looks at how the two phones could differ.
Be aware that the iPhone 14 Max may debut under a different name. Leaker Lanzuk claimed Apple will call its 6.7-inch entry level phone the iPhone 14 Plus, which seems to be backed up by some leaked iPhone case packaging. Ditching the iPhone 13 mini isn’t the only big change expected versus the iPhone 14. See our iPhone 14 vs iPhone 13 comparison for all the biggest rumored differences so far.
iPhone 14 outlook
Thanks to all the rumors and leaks ahead of the Apple event today, we now have a fairly good idea of what to expect from the iPhone 14 range.
Both standard and Pro models will be an evolution over what’s come before, with the iPhone 14 Pro likely being the one to get all the standout upgrades; check out our early rundown of the iPhone 14 Pro Max vs. iPhone 13 Pro Max.
But iPhones are made to last and the standard iPhone 14 models aren’t to be dismissed either, given they are still likely to offer a stellar iOS experience.
For what it’s worth, we’d advise you don’t buy an iPhone 13 now, and instead wait to see what Apple could reveal today. It’s very likely Apple will have another iPhone range that’ll see it look to top our best phones list.