iPhone 14 Review A few yet worthwhile improvements

While the iPhone 14 is more than a year old, it is still available for purchase at Apple and many other retailers, making it perhaps the finest value option in the iPhone lineup right now.

Some may prefer the larger iPhone 14 Plus if they desire a larger screen and a longer battery life. The iPhone 14 Pro or iPhone 14 Pro Max, as well as the current iPhone 15 series, include more intriguing features such as an always-on display, Dynamic Island, 120Hz refresh rate, and telephoto lens. However, the iPhone 14 still includes nice changes such as a new design and enhanced display, camera, and performance. My iPhone 14 review outlines all of the benefits and drawbacks, allowing you to determine whether this is the correct phone for you.

The new iPhone 14 falls within this group of products. Just sort of, since Apple has altered the internals significantly to promote simpler repairability, among other things. In addition, you get new cameras and a few additional functions. Externally, the iPhone 14 is virtually the same as the iPhone 13, as is the main experience these smartphones provide. If Apple still used “s” models in its naming scheme, the iPhone 14 would most likely be called the iPhone 13s.

Price when reviewed: $465.25 | Check price at Amazon

iPhone 14 KEY FEATURES

The iPhone 14 is the best iPhone for most people, but it isn’t particularly thrilling. The iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max receive the most significant changes this year, including always-on displays, a smart substitute for the notch, and a 48MP main camera.

The 6.1-inch Super Retina XDR design is nearly comparable to that of the iPhone. The iPhone 13 Pro features the A15 Bionic chip, with a 12MP main camera and an ultrawide lens on the back. Enough juice for a full day.iOS 16 is one of Apple’s most significant platform improvements in recent memory. A nice if familiar phone at, thankfully, the same price.

APPLE IPHONE 14 UNBOXING

Before we go into the iPhone 14 and see how much different and perhaps better it is, let’s start with the retail box. Apple established the new benchmark for the “bare minimum” accessory package and is unlikely to suddenly become more generous in that regard.

We have the normal Apple affair: minimal in and out. The two-piece white cardboard box is extremely compact in all dimensions. The packaging includes a 1-meter USB Type-C to Lightning connection, a SIM ejector tool (outside the United States, the iPhone 14 is e-SIM only and has a physical SIM tray), and some pamphlets. That is it. Nothing more. Nothing less.

CAMERA

• Familiar 12MP main camera + ultrawide on the rear.
• New sensors across the board.
• Photonic Engine enhances image quality.
• New action mode.

These are good cameras, having improved sensors and general low-light performance over their predecessors. The 12MP front camera now supports autofocus, which could make group selfies easier.

All of the cameras benefit from redesigned imaging processing. The Photonic Engine prioritizes Deep Fusion neural image processing earlier than before, allowing it to deal with uncompressed images.

Photography on the iPhone 14 is nice, but after testing the iPhone 14 Pro, we miss having optical zoom and macro capabilities at our fingers. Nonetheless, this degree of photographic power and high-quality output should be sufficient for the majority of consumers.

This model, like the rest of the iPhone 14 series, can record up to 4K video, and Cinematic Mode has been upgraded to accommodate 4K at 30fps.

Active Mode is a new feature that can be enabled by selecting the running person icon in the top right corner of the camera app’s viewfinder. This is a fairly effective method for reducing most of the tremors from action videos. No, the iPhone 14 does not have a new gimbal; instead, Apple uses over-scan and enhanced roll detection, which is a fancy way of stating that the video is cropped quickly and on the fly to keep the center (typically a subject) more smoothly in-frame.

This technique discards some video information (resulting in a cropped frame), but the results are GoPro-like. I’m not sure how beneficial this is, but if you enjoy action, it could be a blessing.

DESIGN AND SCREEN

The iPhone 14’s design is not what I would call innovative. It is essentially an identical replica of the iPhone 13, replete with the notch.

Don’t get me wrong, the aluminum and glass shell is strong and visually appealing — and you get the same durable (removed) Ceramic Shield front and back, as well as IP68 water resistance. The iPhone 14 Pro’s Dynamic Island, which replaces the notch with a smaller and more engaging cutout for alerts and live activities, will most likely make you jealous.

The iPhone 14 comes in six colors: midnight, starlight, blue, purple, red, and yellow. We examined the milder blue variant, which has an appealing cornflower blue hue. Apple unveiled the iPhone 14 in yellow on March 7.

The iPhone 14 remains tiny and lightweight, weighing 6.07 ounces and measuring 5.78 x 2.82 x 0.31 inches. That’s somewhat lighter than the iPhone 13’s 6.17 ounces, even though the latter was 0.30 inches narrower.

In a somewhat controversial decision, Apple deleted the SIM Card slot from the iPhone 14, depending solely on eSIMs. Fortunately, it’s simple to add a line of service in the Settings app, and you may have up to eight SIM cards on your phone, with two active at any given moment. Some smaller and international carriers don’t yet support eSIM, however, the technology is gaining popularity.

Despite no enhancements from last year, the iPhone 14’s 6.1-inch Super Retina XDR display remains one of the greatest screens in its price range in terms of quality. The main missing feature is a 120Hz refresh rate, which the Galaxy S22 has, therefore you won’t get the same incredibly smooth scrolling or animation in supported games.

Nonetheless, I appreciated watching the bright Cobra Kai season 5 trailer on the iPhone 14’s display, which provided vibrant colors and wide viewing angles. Viewing images on the iPhone 14 is particularly enjoyable since I could discern beads of water on a flower petal.

In our laboratory tests, the iPhone 14 covered 117.4% of the sRGB color gamut and 83.1% of the more demanding DCI-P3 color space. In Natural mode, the Galaxy S22 scored 110% and 77.9%, respectively, while in Vivid mode it scored 210.4/149.1%.

The iPhone 14 Pro has a superb Delta-E accuracy score of 0.25 (where 0 is perfect), while the Galaxy S22 scored even higher at 0.22.

HOW’S THE PERFORMANCE?

• Uses the A15 Bionic chip from the iPhone 13 Pro.
• The new heat dissipation system provides the processor with more breathing room.
• Good performance for the price.

Oh, it’s last year’s mobile CPU! We need to start by emphasizing that there is nothing wrong with the A15 Bionic. It’s a powerful chip that has routinely outperformed the best Qualcomm has to offer, and it has enough headroom, so mobile games like Asphalt: Legends and PUBG run well. You can edit 4K films, browse the web, and do everything you can with the quicker and more efficient A16 Bionic featured in the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max, with the real-world difference most likely becoming obvious after years of use.

What Apple did here, transferring the improved A15 chip from the iPhone 13 Pro to the iPhone 14, was rather clever. It’s a smart cost-cutting move that will leave no one hungry.

The A15 Bionic, which sits within the new iPhone 14, has a revised internal architecture for improved heat dissipation. This, Apple maintains, improves repairability, but a cooled chip should also perform better.

While benchmarks were roughly in line with the A15 Bionic we tested in the iPhone 13 Pro, this iPhone promises longer battery life (20 hours of video streaming versus 19 hours for the iPhone 13), despite having a slightly larger battery, implying that Apple’s efforts with the cooling system are to blame for this increased efficiency.

FINAL THOUGHTS

The iPhone 14 is the best iPhone for most people, but it isn’t particularly thrilling. The iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max receive the most significant changes this year, including always-on displays, a smart substitute for the notch, and a 48MP main camera.

The iPhone 14 has undergone a significant internal overhaul, making it easier to repair, particularly a back panel or display swap, which is no longer as difficult. The iPhone 14 has a little larger battery pack, but significantly longer battery life and faster charging. The chipset is the same as last year’s A15 Bionic, but it has five GPU cores, 6GB of RAM (50% more), Bluetooth 5.3, a more energy-efficient Qualcomm 5G modem, enhanced satellite connectivity for SOS messages, and Crash Detection. The photography department features a new larger 12MP main camera with a 1/1.65″ sensor and 1.9-micron pixels, a new 12MP ultrawide, and a new 12MP, f/1.9 selfie camera with autofocus. There is also a new Action Mode video stabilization, a 4K Cinematic mode at 30 frames per second, and a new Photonic Engine for improved low-light photography.

When you get down to it, the list of adjustments isn’t minor. Some are clearly more significant than others, and it will be up to the individual user to choose what makes a compelling justification for an upgrade. According to our analysis, anyone using an iPhone 13 has little to no reason to abandon ship. Unless you truly require focusing on your selfie camera, all of the other camera upgrades will simply result in faster capture times in poor light. We’d even go so far as to argue that iPhone 12 users shouldn’t be lured by the 14 and can put off upgrading for at least a year.

Buy it if...

• Major internal change to improve repairability.
• Bright OLED screen with HDR10, Dolby Vision, and superb color accuracy.
• Good battery life.
• Loud stereo speakers with high output.
• Great overall performance from an older but still reliable chipset.
• Excellent photo and video quality across all three cameras.
• Autofocus on the selfie camera and Action Mode are excellent camera enhancements.
• Every iPhone includes at least five years of iOS updates.

Don't buy it if…

• A minor enhancement over the iPhone 13.
• The 14 Pro has a wider feature gap: no 120Hz refresh rate, A16 Bionic, zoom camera, or ultrawide AF.
• The notch is still a divisive design feature.
• The fast charging isn’t that quick, and the charger isn’t included.
• Apple’s iOS restrictions can be discouraging to newbies to the ecosystem.

FULL SPECIFICATION