Apple’s new iPhone 14 series is a bit different from previous versions when it comes to naming and sizes covered. We have the iPhone 14, and 14 Plus along with the 14 Pro and Pro Max; there’s a Plus model and no mini now. I tried the iPhone 14, and checked what has really changed and improved from the iPhone 13 and what hasn’t.
Design: By the looks of it, I would not really blame you for mistaking iPhone 14 for iPhone 13. There are a couple of new colours on offer. The iPhone 14 is slightly thicker and lighter (more pronounced camera setup), but that’s about it. It has the same aluminium design with glass on the back that attracts a lot of dust, smudges and fingerprints—something I noticed as soon as I started using the device. There is a ceramic shield on the front for protecting the display. The left features separate volume buttons and an alert slider near the top, while the SIM card slot sits near the bottom; the right side only has the power/lock button. The bottom houses the loudspeaker (along with the speaker in the ear-speaker grill), primary mic and the lightning port. The back has the familiar Apple logo and dual camera setup with the dual LED flash. The phone isn’t very slippery but, as mentioned, catches a lot of smudges on the back. It feels nice and premium and, as you would expect, no loose ends or anything such. The back glass is now removable for repair work. Oh, and it is still IP68-certified for dust and water resistance.
Display: The iPhone 14 sports a 6.1-inch XDR (2532x1170) OLED display with 60Hz refresh rate (yup, no upgrade there). The display is top-notch when it comes to sharpness and video output for high-resolution videos. It is a bit warmer in colour temperature by default—slightly brighter than before—though the difference isn’t huge but useful for HDR playback, usable under direct sunlight. Some folks would have liked Apple adding a higher refresh rate to its iPhone 14 series instead of just the Pro series this time, but if you haven’t used one, you may not really mind it.
Camera: The rear has a dual camera setup – 12MP (f/1.5) main camera and 12MP (f/2.4) ultra-wide camera – upgraded camera (same MP count) for a better output when it comes to low light performance, and it is pretty much where the main difference is. The photos are detailed and sharp in daylight most of the time. In low light, it seems to capture the subject a little better, though at times, it can boost the artificial brightness a little too much, so you might want to take two-three reshots, if you can. I found the portrait shots to handle the subject better in most conditions, though there are still some improvements to be made in terms of handling the background. The camera app in the iPhone is snappy, quite straightforward to use. Smart HDR seems to take nice shots, but at times found the result to be a little too exposed to highlights—taking the HDR effect too high, something Apple generally doesn’t with its camera processing. The front 12MP TrueDepth camera now supports autofocus and seems to capture details of your main subject better, even indoors when using lights. For video, the rear camera does a really nice job of 1080p videos including capturing the sound; you can shoot 4k videos at up to 60FPS and the output has sharpness and detailed shots if you aren’t moving much—making it perhaps the best among smartphone cameras for videos today.
Battery: The iPhone 14 has a 3,279 mAh battery unit (marginally bigger than the 13’s) and supports charging up to 20watts officially (15watt for wireless induction charging). The phone lasted just under a day, with brightness set at 30 per cent, two email accounts in sync, some videos and web surfing, with occasional calls. The phone does not heat up during day-to-day charging either, but it takes about 90 minutes to charge (no charger in the box, remember) the phone from one per cent to full, which isn’t quick by any smartphone standards today.
Software and performance: The device runs iOS 16.0.2 and comes equipped with the familiar A15 Bionic chipset (6-core CPU and %-core GPU) along with 6GB of RAM and neural engine. The chipset has better thermals and GPU performance, as per the company, though it is the same as last year (except for the extra GPU core). The phone is really snappy and smooth to operate, with apps closing and opening without any glitches. The phone is able to handle gaming just fine without any alarming heating issues. Regular performance is something you don’t need to worry about here. The new iOs version comes with several visual changes – starting with the tweaked lock screen, where you can change the clock style, add widgets to your lock screen and also choose from different fonts. You can now customise both the home screen and lock screen at once, in sort of a pair to be applied at once.
You can now also tie one lock screen to a Focus mode for getting rid of unnecessary notifications at a particular time. A big update is, iMessage allows for a message to be edited as well as unsend it. Another change is, you can now have large album art on the lock screen when playing some music.
FaceID now works in landscape mode, too, and battery status is visible without having to swipe down, though the aesthetics of the battery percentage left could have been done better. Clearly, there are quite a few additions and changes done to iOS this time, but this didn’t hinder the overall experience and performance on the device, which can sometimes be the case when a company brings more visual changes by sacrificing the underlying tweaks and performance improvements. The lightning port, though, is still USB2.0 and not 3—something that is outdated for a high-end smartphone.
Network connection: The call quality and network reception on the iPhone 14 are top-notch. I found WiFi speeds to be slightly better than some older models, and the phone also latched on to the network a little quicker than earlier models, which is nice to see. There’s now support for multiple eSIMs and the process to switch to one on your device is also smoother than earlier. On the other side of the table, network operators have made the experience more seamless, since you are no longer required to visit their physical store in order to have an eSIM on any compatible smartphone today.
Conclusion: The iPhone 14, as you would have noticed by now, has several things a little better or just about the same as its predecessor. A little better being the keywords here. It is an evolutionary update with the same chipset as before, a slightly better camera setup, a similar quality display (but still no 60Hz refresh rate) and a similar experience when it comes to its battery. If you have an iPhone 13 or even an iPhone 12, this may not be the moment for you to buy Apple’s latest iPhone 14 with its base price tag of Rs 79,900, but for those with an earlier iOS device, looking to upgrade this time, the iPhone 14 is a solid offering as an overall performer on most fronts.
