At the recent #AppleEvent, our friends at Apple showed off their flagship iPhone 14. It gave us a serious case of Deja Vu and was, to say the least, underwhelming.
At the event, the price, release date, features, and everything else to expect from the iPhone 14 were revealed. If you missed the event or are still not sure what was said, stay tuned because we're about to get into it.
What new products were revealed at the Apple Event?
Just like the release of the iPhone 13, the flagship devices was announced alongside the Pro and Max series - the iPhone 14 Max, iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max but this time there won’t be a Mini.
Instead they introduced the iPhone 14 Plus. A slightly larger model coming in at 6.7inch compared to the iPhone 14 which is 6.1 inches.
We also saw the release of the new Apple Watch and an upgrade to the popular noise cancelling Airpods Pro, with the release of Airpods Pro 2.
Get yourself a pair of reboxed Airpods Pro from just £159 here.
When will the iPhone 14 go on sale?
Apple launched the iPhone 14 on 7 September at a live experience (as opposed to the virtual conferences of the last few years), with the models going on sale a few days later.
Pre-orders were open from 9 September.
Stores will have the new models from 16 September.
How much will the new iPhone 14 cost?
The starting price for the iPhone 14 is £849 for the base 128GB model. You can step up to 256GB for £959 or 512GB of storage for £1,179.
The iPhone 13 retailed at £779 back in 2021 with a bunch of new features which you can read about in our iPhone 13 Models and Colours article.
Today, you can get your hands on a refurbished iPhone 13 from as low as £570.
This year the price increase is caused by a number of things, including more expensive parts, especially the display, and a general rise in prices across the supply chain.
However, given the rising cost of living we are all experiencing, it feels a bit like Apple is missing the mark a bit.
How good is the iPhone 14 camera?
The main camera on the iPhone 14 doesn't get a boost to 48MP like the iPhone 14 Pro series does, but it does have other improvements. With 1.9 micrometre pixels and a faster f/1.7 aperture, the main 12MP wide-angle camera has a bigger sensor than the iPhone 13's. The sensor will have great image quality in low light thanks to quad pixel-binning, and level-up the iPhone 14's Night mode, which means easier and better pics on nights out, early morning hikes and dusk adventures.
The iPhone 14 also has an ultrawide camera that is said to be able to capture 4 times more of a scene and work 2 times better in low light. And for the first time, the TrueDepth camera has autofocus and a faster f/1.9 aperture. Photonic Engine is a new computational photography feature that helps you take pictures that are brighter all around.
The selfie camera is great on the iPhone 14 too. It is brighter and shows more detail.
Unfortunately, the iPhone 14 didn’t get the 8K upgrade we were all expecting. Instead the biggest upgrade to video is Action mode which is designed to deliver smooth and steady video when you’re in motion.
Design changes.
The iPhone 14 looks a lot (if not exactly the same) as the iPhone 13.
The biggest changes are the removal of the notch from the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max.
Instead, an "i"-shaped horizontal hole-punch cutout took its place aka a “Dynamic Island”.
The iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus, on the other hand, will still have the same narrow notches that the iPhone 13 series has.
Apple also introduced an always-on screen on the iPhone 14 Po and iPhone 14 Pro Max which was warmly welcomed by fans who’ve been requesting this feature for a long time. The bezels have been slimmed down too. Aside from that, it looks a lot like the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max, with flat edges made of stainless steel and a Ceramic Shield screen. But we don't have anything bad to say about that, and the design is still as sleek as ever.
What colours does the iPhone 14 come in?
As for colours, the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus comes in:
Midnight (black), Starlight (white), Blue, Purple, and PRODUCT(RED). Midnight, Starlight and RED are regular iPhone colours. The other two are new, with the blue being a lighter shade than the one we have with the iPhone 13.
And the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max come in:
Gold, silver, space black and purple.
What will the iPhone 14 Display be like?
Both the iPhone 14 and the larger iPhone 14 Plus have Apple's Super Retina XDR OLED display with a peak HDR brightness of 1200 nits. Ceramic Shield is put on the front glass to make them last longer. The iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max can get as bright as 1,600 nits and as bright as 2,000 nits when used outside. This is more than the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra can do.
Get your hands on a Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra from just £809 with reboxed.
Thanks to the always-on display feature on the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max, users can put customisable widgets with important information at the top of the iOS 16 lock screen alongside the clock - which will be a great way to save your battery.
To get the low down on which iPhone has the best battery life, definitely check out our Best iPhone for Battery Life article here.
iPhone 14 Specs and Hardware
The A15 Bionic chip in the iPhone 14 is the same as the one in the iPhone 13. Yes, that might be a bit of a letdown for people who were hoping for a performance boost, but it will add a 5-core GPU, which Apple says will improve graphics by 20%. Apple also says that it has improved the iPhone 14's thermal performance which is a nice step up for gamers.
Aside from that, the biggest changes are to the camera and the battery life. Apple says that the iPhone 14 can play videos for up to 20 hours and the iPhone 14 Plus for up to 26 hours. That would be the longest battery life an iPhone has ever had (claimed battery life for the iPhone 13 was 19 hours).
As for the iPhone 14 Pro and Max, they’ll have a new A16 Bionic chip with a 6-core CPU built on a 4-nanometer process. It has a GPU with 50% more bandwidth and a display engine for that Dynamic Island. The GPU has 5 cores. Apple says that the Neural Engine can handle 17 trillion operations per second when it comes to computational photography.
iPhone 14 Connectivity
As expected, the iPhone 14 will be able to connect to 5G networks, just like the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 models, meaning you’ll get a smoother and faster online experience, whether you’re streaming House of the Dragon or video calling your mum.
The most exciting connectivity update is the much-rumoured satellite connectivity. The new feature allows you to call Emergency SOS with Satellite even if you don't have a cell phone signal - a lifesaver for people living in rural areas. Users get two free years of the feature with a new phone.
iPhone 14’s New Features Summary
For starters, the iPhone 14 will have iOS 16 built-in which sports a bunch of new features.
There are almost too many to go through, so here are the reboxed team’s favourites:
- Satellite service calls
- “Action Mode” feature on the camera
- Always on lock screen to help save battery
- New force sensor that'll be used to sense when you're in a car crash
- Improved graphics
- Edit and Undo Send, Mark as Unread in iMessage
- Quick Actions with text captured from the camera
- Photos - lift subject from background with Siri Knowledge
- Share digital keys in Wallet
What is the iPhone 14 battery like?
The base iPhone 14 has a 3,279mAh battery, which is slightly more than the iPhone 13's 3,227mAh, but the difference is so small that it probably won't make a difference in battery life.
The iPhone 14 Plus has a 4,325mAh battery. We can't compare it to the iPhone 13 Plus because there wasn't one last year, but it's only 2mAh smaller than the 14 Pro Max, which has the same size screen.
The iPhone 14 Pro has a battery with 3,200mAh. The battery in the iPhone 13 Pro had 3,095mAh, so this is a step up and should make a bigger difference - but sadly it's not.
Journliasts and users across Twitter have ripped into the device's battery life blaming the ‘always-on’ screen display for sucking up more battery than its saving.
One writer from Digital Trends stated their “Home & Lock Screen” is reporting 20% or more of their battery usage - which is a lot. With no changes to widgets or average daily usage, one can only assume that the poor battery life is because the screen is constantly turned on.
The iPhone 14 Pro Max has a 4,323mAh battery, which is a bit smaller than the 4,352mAh battery it had last year. This 29mAh drop is so small that it's not really worth bringing up as a change that matters.
