The iPhone 14 series was launched globally at Apple’s ‘Far Out’ event on Wednesday. As suggested in several leaks and rumors over the past few months, the new series of smartphones from Apple consists of four models – iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max. The iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro are smaller models, while the iPhone 14 Plus and iPhone 14 Pro Max are for those who prefer larger screens. The series also includes the first series of iPhone Pro handsets to receive a redesign after the iPhone X. The famous notch has been replaced by a bullet-shaped hole-punch cutout that houses the front camera and advanced Face ID technology.
Moreover, the non-Pro models come with last year’s Apple A15 Bionic SoC, while the Pro models get the latest Apple Bionic A16 SoC under the hood. The latest smartphones come with e-SIM activation without Wi-Fi in the US. For the first time, iPhone models in the US will not have a SIM tray.
The smartphone also has satellite emergency communication technology that can be used to send SOS messages over satellite. The feature will launch in the US and Canada and will be free with the iPhone 14 for two years. All the phones also come with a crash-detection feature that will automatically dial emergency services when the user is unconscious or can’t reach their iPhone.
iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone 14 Pro Max Price in India, Sale Date
In the US, the iPhone 14 starts at $799 (roughly Rs. 63,700). Similarly, the iPhone 14 Plus starts at $899 (roughly Rs. 71,600). Both the phones will be available for purchase in Blue, Midnight, Purple, Starlight and (production) Red color options.
iPhone 14 pre-orders will begin on September 9. iPhone 14 will go on sale from September 16 and iPhone 14 Plus will go on sale from October 7.
In contrast, iPhone 14 price in India starts from Rs. 79,900 and iPhone 14 Plus price in India starts from Rs. 89,900.
In the US, the iPhone 14 Pro starts at $999 (roughly Rs. 79,555) and the top-of-the-line iPhone 14 Pro Max starts at $1,099 (roughly Rs. 87,530). Pre-orders for these models start from September 9 and they will be available for purchase from September 16. They will be available for purchase in Deep Purple, Gold, Silver and Space Black color options.
In contrast, the iPhone 14 Pro in India is priced at Rs. starts from 1,29,900 and the iPhone 14 Pro Max starts at Rs. 1,39,900. The phones can be purchased from the Apple Online Store and Apple Authorized Resellers.
iPhone 14 features
The iPhone 14 gets a flat-edge aerospace-grade aluminum frame, with a ceramic shield material on the front and an IP68 dust and water resistance rating — just like the previous generation. The handset features a 6.1-inch Super Retina XDR OLED display which is said to be better in terms of brightness and color reproduction than last year’s handset. It is said to offer 1200nits peak brightness and support for Dolby Vision.
Under the hood, the iPhone 14 gets last year’s Apple-proprietary A15 Bionic SoC that powered last year’s iPhone 13 series. Apple is offering Face ID technology as the only biometric security option for unlocking phones.
Apple doesn’t officially reveal the RAM and battery capacity of each model, however, a third-party teardown in the coming weeks could shed more light on this information. Apple claims that the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus will be able to offer more run time than last year’s iPhone models.
As far as the camera is concerned, the iPhone 14 gets a 12-megapixel wide-angle camera that combines a 1.9um sensor and an f/1.7 aperture lens. A 12-megapixel sensor is paired with an f/2.4 aperture ultra-wide angle lens with a 120-degree field-of-view. Apple says there’s a new 12-megapixel front TrueDepth camera with an f/1.9 aperture lens.
The company also highlighted some camera tricks up the handset’s sleeve, including improved video recording with a new stabilization feature called Action Mode. This mode uses the phone’s motion sensors to fine-tune videos. Cinematic mode is now available in 4K at 30fps and 4K at 24fps. Apple also mentions better low-light performance, thanks to a new photonic engine.
Low-light performance is claimed to be improved by up to 2x on the ultra-wide camera, 2x on the TrueDepth front camera and 2.5x on the main camera. It applies the computational advantages of deep fusion to the imaging process. There’s also an improved True Tone flash that’s 10 percent brighter, Apple says.
iPhone 14 Plus Features
The iPhone 14 Plus has the same hardware specifications as the iPhone 14, except for the larger screen size and battery backup. The handset gets a 6.7-inch Super Retina XDR OLED display and Apple claims that the iPhone 14 Plus has the best battery life ever in an iPhone. Under the hood is the A15 Bionic SoC that powers the vanilla iPhone 14, and the camera setup is also the same on both models.
iPhone 14 Pro details
As far as the Pro models are concerned, Apple has used surgical-grade stainless steel which is said to be scratch and corrosion-resistant. The iPhone 14 Pro gets a 6.1-inch Super Retina XDR always-on OLED display with Apple’s ProMotion refresh rate feature. Pro models can scale as low as 1Hz to provide a combination of smooth motion and power-efficient systems.
The display also offers the highest outdoor peak brightness in a smartphone: up to 2,000 nits, which is twice as bright as the iPhone 13 Pro. The iPhone 14 Pro comes with a Ceramic Shield front cover which is believed to be tougher than any smartphone glass.
As mentioned, the major difference in the display is the introduction of a bullet-shaped hole-punch cutout in place of the famous trend-setting notch. Apple is calling it the Dynamic Island, an “interactive space” that expands for notifications with other information such as a music player, calling interface, maps, etc. The company says the feature works with third-party apps.
Under the hood is Apple’s new in-house A16 Bionic SoC which is said to be the most powerful chip in a smartphone. It has two high-performance cores and four high-performance cores. The new 6-core CPU is claimed to be up to 40 percent faster than the competition. The A16 Bionic SoC also features an accelerated 5-core GPU with 50 percent more memory bandwidth and a new 16-core neural engine capable of nearly 17 trillion operations per second, Apple says.
The company says the CPU, GPU, neural engine and image signal processor work together to support the new camera hardware and perform 4 trillion operations per photo.
Now that we’re talking about the camera, for photos and videos, Apple has taken a step forward to refresh the camera hardware of the Pro models. There is a new 48-megapixel main camera with second generation sensor-shift optical image stabilization and a 12-megapixel telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom, f/2.8 aperture lens and optical image stabilization. The third is a 12-megapixel sensor with an f/2.2 aperture ultra-wide angle lens that has a 120-degree field-of-view.
A quad-pixel sensor combines four pixels into one pixel to capture maximum light. It also enables a 2x telephoto option and a new machine learning model allows the iPhone 14 Pro to shoot ProRAW. It also has a photonic engine that is claimed to offer better low-light performance – up to 2x on the main camera, up to 3x on the ultra wide camera, up to 2x on the telephoto camera and up to 2x on the TrueDepth front. The camera has a 12-megapixel sensor and f/1.9 aperture lens.
iPhone 14 Pro Max Features
Equipped with the same hardware as the iPhone 14 Pro, the iPhone 14 Pro Max is an option for those who prefer a larger display. The top-of-the-line handset gets a 6.7-inch Super Retina XDR OLED display that includes Apple’s ProMotion refresh rate feature. It gets the same triple rear camera as the iPhone 14 Pro and all-new machine learning and photography modes.
