iPhone 14 Pro
MSRP $999.00
“The iPhone 14 Pro’s outstanding performance, easy and powerful software, versatile camera, and high-quality design make for an easy ownership experience.”
Pros
- Camera improvements mean great photos
- All the time-on display looks unbelievable
- Powerful A16 Bionic processor
- Vibrant screen and clear speakers
- Long-term software support
Cons
- One-day battery life
- Modest charging speed
Every thing in regards to the iPhone 14 Pro feels entirely effortless. The design is expertly judged and modern, the software is incredibly easy to make use of, and the camera takes even higher photographs than its predecessor. But effortless may be taken one other way, too, in that it’s not exactly essentially the most daring update over its predecessor.
Let’s talk intimately about whether the iPhone 14 Pro is definitely worth the effort in your part to either make the leap into Apple ownership or upgrade from an existing iPhone. Should you’re in search of the non-Pro iPhone 14, try our review.
iPhone 14 Pro design
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Should you’ve seen an iPhone 12 Pro or iPhone 13 Pro, the iPhone 14 Pro can be very familiar. It has the identical flat, squared-off chassis that also feels barely too sharp in your hand, but is beautifully produced from chrome steel. Apple’s Ceramic Shield is over the screen and there’s toughened glass on the back. An IP68 water-resistance rating adds confidence, because the phone will avoid damage from accidental water spills. The quantity controls and power button are still in place on the side, and if you happen to buy an iPhone 14 within the U.S. you won’t discover a SIM tray, as that is the primary iPhone to only accept an eSIM.
The 6.1-inch Pro is beautifully balanced in your hand, and it’s usable with one hand too. It’s no featherweight at 206 grams, but it surely never feels ungainly at 71mm wide and seven.8mm thick, plus I even have not had any fatigue from holding it for long periods of time. It could be a slippery thing, though, and protecting it with a case will help keep it from making an unwanted break for freedom. There are several odd colours (black, silver, or gold), but go for the beautiful latest Deep Purple and select a transparent case. It looks almost black in some situations, but get it in the correct light and the purple absolutely pops. Even the chassis has a purple hue. I feel it looks excellent.
Andy Boxall/Digital Trends
Andy Boxall/Digital Trends
Andy Boxall/Digital Trends
Andy Boxall/Digital Trends
On the back, the camera module is large and makes a daring statement when the iPhone 14 Pro isn’t in a case, but since the three cameras protrude considerably, the phone never lays flat on any surface. All of it adds as much as a smartphone that’s unmistakably an iPhone. This isn’t a groundbreaking design, there’s nothing especially flashy about it, yet it manages to be classy and funky, fitting in with every situation. It doesn’t demand attention, but it would still get admiring glances, particularly if you happen to select the purple one.
Would I even have liked to see a design that wasn’t almost the exact same because the last two models? Yes, that may have been good. Does it strictly have to look any different? No, in no way. Apple has got the Pro formula right — classy looks, just the correct size and weight, high-quality materials, and stellar construct quality — so it could actually’t be blamed for not making dramatic changes with the iPhone 14 Pro. The one thing I’d have liked to see is more color options, but I expect those will come later to maintain the range fresh.
iPhone 14 Pro always-on screen
Andy Boxall/Digital Trends
The brand new 6.1-inch Super Retina XDR screen, with its 2556 x 1179 resolution and 460ppi pixel density, has some tricks up its sleeve. Before we get into the large changes, it’s value mentioning the brightness. It reaches 1600 nits normally, but can boost to 2,000 outdoors in sunlight, and the difference is noticeable. There’s a “bump” when the additional kicks in, and the screen really does grow to be brighter and easier to read when the sun is thrashing down.
Nonetheless, it’s the always-on display that’s the most important, most blatant latest screen feature. Android phones have had always-on screens for years, showing the time, battery, and notification icons against a black screen. Apple’s always-on screen is actually only a dimmed version of the lock screen, in full color, and with dynamic widgets and notification alerts. It’s the Apple Watch’s always-on screen, just in your phone. It’s also so rather more than we’ve seen on some other phone, with the time and date highlighted in a shiny white font over your alternative of wallpaper, and notifications clearly showing the icon and basic details about each.
Controls for music and audio apps also stay on-screen and a fast tap wakes them up, able to pause or change tracks. I’ve found the entire lock screen experience to be sharper and faster to react than before. I take advantage of the phone in my automobile for music, and where before it took multiple taps to make anything work, it’s a single tap and an fast response on the iPhone 14 Pro. The always-on screen is gorgeous, useful, and a step above implementations we’ve seen elsewhere when it comes to design. But it surely will not be helping battery life, which we’ll come back to later.
All the time-on display on the iPhone 14 Pro Andy Boxall/Digital Trends
Apple’s 120Hz ProMotion feature makes a return and ought to be considered a robust reason to decide on the Pro model over the usual iPhone 14. The upper refresh rate provides smoother scrolling and less-jarring animations, and doesn’t cause as much eye-strain. It quickly becomes “invisible,” but you’ll absolutely notice its absence. Watching video on the iPhone 14 Pro, the screen comes alive with stunning colours, deep blacks, and pitch-perfect contrast. Even the stereo speakers are a few of the most effective within the business. There’s clarity, power, and actual presence to the sound, and I can happily watch videos and take heed to streaming music through them for long periods of time.
The iPhone 14 Pro has a wonderful screen, and it’s sure to be much more immersive and pleasurable to view on the larger 6.7-inch iPhone 14 Pro Max … if you happen to can bare the additional weight and price of the device.
iPhone 14 Pro iOS 16 and Dynamic Island
Andy Boxall/Digital Trends
Andy Boxall/Digital Trends
Andy Boxall/Digital Trends
Dynamic Island, Apple’s cringey name for the expanded pill-shaped notch substitute at the highest of the screen, is most definitely a piece in progress. In the meanwhile, it’s relatively easy, showing details about Bluetooth connections, screen and voice recordings, face unlock alerts, and timers. Apple’s Live Activities feature isn’t ready yet, and developers haven’t been given access either. When this stuff occur within the near future, Dynamic Island’s usefulness will skyrocket.
For now, what you see is potential. The Dynamic Island never feels intrusive, and the functionality it does provide is useful. Music controls are the most effective example, as a brief tap takes you on to the app that’s playing, and an extended press reveals a set of quick controls. Although these features may be found elsewhere in iOS, it’s undeniably fast and intuitive to make use of the Dynamic Island, and it bodes well for the long run when more apps make use of it. It’s also a seamless thing of beauty, because the software morphs and shifts across the hardware component so slickly that you simply really can’t tell where one begins and the opposite ends.
The iPhone 14 Pro comes with iOS 16 installed. Along with the brand new battery percentage display and the superb haptics, much has been made about customizing iOS 16’s lock screen, and I remain unconvinced it’s needed or useful. Even the brand new Settings page to vary the wallpaper and add widgets is needlessly complicated and reasonably confusing. I’ve personally seen no on a regular basis profit to adding more clutter to the lock screen, but understand others may feel in another way. The brand new A16 Bionic processor powers all this with aplomb, and while I’ve had no problem with performance at any time, I’m undecided I can see any real difference between it and the A15 Bionic within the iPhone 13 Pro.
Andy Boxall/Digital Trends
Andy Boxall/Digital Trends
Andy Boxall/Digital Trends
Andy Boxall/Digital Trends
The notification system in iOS has also been demonized for a while, but it surely’s a private thing. I’ve used iOS for years and have seen the system evolve into what it’s today. No, it’s not perfect, but it surely’s higher than ever before, and I don’t consider it the hateful thing some others do. Notifications sit at the underside of the lock screen in a stack, which may be expanded when Face ID sees you. Some may be interacted with or further viewed, or tapped to open the corresponding app. To me, it does what I would like, and is on no account higher or worse than most Android notification systems. Siri even (surprisingly competently) reads my messages after I’m using my AirPods.
Negatives? Muscle memory means I often pull down on the left of the screen when the phone’s unlocked to raised see notifications I could have missed, but this once-helpful feature has been reduced to a replica of the lock screen and does make notifications slower to view and interact with. I also dislike the Search widget being permanently stuck to the underside of every home screen, which just duplicates functionality and causes visual clutter.
There’s one key software advantage over many other phones that makes the iPhone such a joy to live with, and that’s software updates. Although Apple doesn’t put a time-frame on how long it officially supports its smartphones with major updates to iOS, essentially the most recent iOS 16 software works way back to the iPhone 8, released at the tip of 2017. It’s reasonable to expect the iPhone 14 Pro to proceed getting updates for an additional five years.
iPhone 14 Pro camera
Andy Boxall/Digital Trends
Yes, the iPhone 14 Pro’s camera is an improvement over the iPhone 13 Pro’s camera. It’s not by much, however the enhancements do make a difference. The principal camera has 48 megapixels, while the wide-angle and telephoto cameras have 12 megapixels. Now we have compared the iPhone 14 Pro to the iPhone 13 Pro and to the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 already, providing a deep dive into its abilities in numerous environments, and the way the brand new Photonic Engine improves lowlight zoom images.
What in regards to the app and the photographic experience? The iPhone 14 Pro can take 2x or 3x optical zoom shots, or expand to a 0.5x wide-angle photo; for video, it could actually record as much as 4K resolution at 60 frames per second (fps). It’s versatile and satisfying, and while some will want to see a greater optical zoom, the 3x setting gets you in pretty close. For that reason, I even have found the brand new 2x zoom more useful than if Apple had added a 5x zoom.
Face recognition is near-instant when using the rear camera, the app immediately recognizes and perfectly isolates text to copy-and-paste into other apps or messages, plus Siri Knowledge is great at recognizing plants and animals. The image-editing suite is powerful but confusingly laid out and never particularly fast to make use of, and I find that the premade filters rarely enhance my images. Samsung does a greater job with its filters, but its editing suite is even less intuitive, and I often still turn to apps like Snapseed to present photos a lift.
Stills may be shot in Apple’s ProRaw mode, providing more potential for editing by those that know learn how to get the most effective from the format. But beware, as ProRaw photos take up a number of space, with single images coming in at around 60MB or more. It gets even worse if you desire to experiment with the ProRes feature for video, as Apple estimates a single minute of ProRes video will take up an enormous 1.7GB of cupboard space,. It also estimates that the 100GB remaining on my 256GB iPhone 14 Pro will let me record ProRes for just 19 minutes.
ProRes and ProRaw are area of interest features that the majority people won’t feel the necessity to experiment with, and it feels similar for the returning Cinematic Mode (which now shoots in 4K resolution at 24fps or 30fps) and the brand new Motion Mode. This adds a gimbal-like level of stabilization to videos where you and the goal are moving around. The iPhone 13 Pro already had great stabilization for video (see the comparison with the gimbal-equipped Asus Zenfone 9 for evidence), and it’s great on the iPhone 14 Pro too, plus the smoother transition between zoom levels could be very welcome.
Yes, the iPhone 14 Pro’s camera is an improvement over the iPhone 13 Pro’s camera.
Shooting photos and video in the traditional modes at an affordable resolution, and with the stock stabilization, will likely be enough for most individuals in most situations. The extra pro-style features may not get used fairly often, and positively not by everyone who buys an iPhone 14 Pro, but they’re implemented well, and may you have got the knowledge and proper additional software to properly try them out, they’re undoubtedly powerful.
The iPhone 14 Pro’s camera is unbelievable. It takes exciting and vibrant photos within the sun, detailed and balanced photos at nighttime, and has good enough versatility for me to experiment. There’s more technical expertise hidden inside than ever before and features which might be beyond me without delay, but could prove useful and enjoyable in the long run.
iPhone 14 Pro battery and charging
Andy Boxall/Digital Trends
The iPhone 14 Pro’s battery performance hasn’t been great, but there are signs of improvement. Initially, the battery was never going to last greater than a day, and with moderately hard use (around three to 4 hours of screen time), it could be right down to lower than 30% by early evening — and that saw some anxiety begin to creep in. Heavy use and a visit to the charger were needed by this point. This was also mostly connected to Wi-Fi, and sometimes with no gaming — just GPS, camera, apps, a brief amount of video, and a couple of hours of streaming music.
The battery life and charging technology are the least impressive facets of the iPhone 14 Pro.
Since those dark, early days, the iPhone 14 Pro seems to have settled down into my very own use patterns. While the battery isn’t going to suddenly last for 2 days, it has definitely improved. The arrival of iOS 16.0.2 may additionally have helped optimize the system. Even though it’s not mentioned specifically as a profit, the very first version of iOS 16 also dramatically cut the battery life on my iPhone 13 Pro — suggesting software could also be a consider the relatively poor battery performance.
Andrew Martonik / Digital Trends
Apple doesn’t supply a charger with the iPhone 14 Pro, but it surely does put a USB Type-C to Lightning cable within the box. Should you own Apple’s 20-watt charging block, expect the battery to charge to 50% in about half-hour. I take advantage of Apple’s 29W charging block, and this takes it to full in only over an hour. It’s acceptable performance, but can’t match the fast charging times provided by the OnePlus 10T, or many phones from Oppo or Xiaomi. It’s consistent with Samsung’s phones, though.
The battery life and charging technology are the least impressive facets of the iPhone 14 Pro. Other brands, particularly a few of those not sold within the U.S., have made significant advancements in fast-charging technology, and it’s reasonable to expect nearly all of Android phones to last two days on a single charge with normal use. Apple falls behind this, and if you happen to demand loads out of your phone, then be prepared to hold a battery pack or make emergency charging stops through the day to avoid any anxiety.
There may be some anecdotal evidence from people testing beta versions of iOS that battery life has been further prolonged, and it’s something we are going to proceed to watch on the iPhone 14 Pro.
iPhone 14 Pro price and availability
The fundamental iPhone 14 Pro with 128GB cupboard space costs $999, or 1,099 British kilos within the U.K. The value increases each time you add more cupboard space, right as much as $1,499 or 1,429 kilos for the highest 1TB version. All iPhone 14 Pro models are that can be purchased now through Apple’s online store and most networks within the U.S.
The little things make an enormous difference with the iPhone 14 Pro
Andy Boxall/Digital Trends
Certainly one of my favorite things in regards to the iPhone 14 Pro is how easy it’s to live with, and this begins from the moment you get it out of the box. It doesn’t take long to set the phone up, and if you happen to’re coming from one other iPhone, Apple provides every little thing from extra temporary iCloud storage and fast account transfer to make it really easy. Should you’re trading in your old iPhone, just a little notification pops up that essentially automates the method required to get it able to be sent back. It’s effortless and an awesome introduction to your latest, expensive phone.
It goes far beyond those first moments. I take advantage of each AirPods Pro and AirPods Max, which connect immediately and have unbelievable Bluetooth range, plus I can swap between different devices with none of them getting confused. I also commonly use Sony’s WH-1000XM3 headphones with the iPhone, and the accompanying app makes keeping it up thus far easy, and the Bluetooth connection is equally as stable.
I’ve connected the Apple Watch SE 2 and the Apple Watch Ultra to the iPhone 14 Pro, and again, it’s very easy, and the connection absolutely flawless. My Oura Ring also connects without issue, and the app works thoroughly. My podcasts download when I would like them, Apple Pay is accepted in every single place, the alternative of cases to guard the phone is big, and even resale value is often stronger than some other device. There are also two latest safety features: a automobile crash detection system that I haven’t any intention of testing, and an emergency satellite calling feature that I can’t test since it’s not out until November. I hope to never need it.
Andy Boxall/Digital Trends
I don’t want the phone I own and use every single day to be an effort. It’s certainly one of the explanations needy software like Oppo’s ColorOS and OnePlus’s OxygenOS frustrates. The iPhone 14 Pro works with me, providing all of the functionality and quality I expect from a phone that costs $1,000, plus a wealth of features that hide from view yet enhance my ownership, whether that’s the 120Hz ProMotion screen or crash detection.
That is what I would like, much more so than any visual change for change’s sake, and the iPhone 14 Pro delivers it. Buy with confidence, and revel in the best possible smartphone ownership experience you may have. Nonetheless, if you have got an iPhone 13 Pro already, then there’s not much latest here unless you’re really taken by the always-on screen and Dynamic Island, and it’s really the identical story for anyone with an iPhone 12 Pro too. Anyone with an iPhone before the 12 will find it a substantial and worthwhile upgrade.
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