The Brand New Iphone 14 Is the Ultimate Phone To Have
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There’s more to the new iPhone 14 than meets the eye. The iPhone 14 features an improved camera system that delivers better low-light performance and a faster and brighter TrueDepth camera with autofocus. On the video front, there’s a new Action mode for super steady footage.
Add in some handy safety features like crash detection and Emergency SOS via satellite, and you have a formidable flagship. But should you buy the iPhone 14 or wait for the bigger iPhone 14 Plus? Or you should splurge for the more advanced iPhone 14 Pro?
The iPhone 14’s 6.1-inch Super Retina XDR display remains one of the best screens in thi price range in terms of quality, even though there are no upgrades over last year. The biggest missing feature is a 120Hz refresh rate, which the Galaxy S22 offers, so you don’t get the same super smooth scrolling or animation in supported games.
Nevertheless, I enjoyed watching the colorful trailer for Cobra Kai season 5 on the iPhone 14’s panel, as it delivered vibrant colors and wide viewing angles. Viewing photos on the iPhone 14 is also a pleasure, as I could make out droplets of water on a flower petal.
The iPhone 14’s main camera doesn’t get the bump to 48MP that the iPhone 14 Pro series does, but it does feature enhanced cameras in its own way. The main 12MP wide camera has a larger sensor than the one in the iPhone 13, with 1.9 micrometer pixels and a faster f/1.7 aperture. As a result, you should expect better action shots and low-light performance.
The iPhone 14 also packs an ultrawide camera that’s rated to capture 4x more of a scene and deliver 2x better low-light performance. And the TrueDepth camera offers autofocus for the first time along with a faster f/1.9 aperture. To help capture brighter images across the board, there’s a new computational photography feature called Photonic Engine.
Performance
The iPhone 14’s chip is new and old at the same time. It’s the A15 Bionic from last year’s iPhone 13 Pro, so you get a slight step up in graphics performance with its 5-core GPU.
In my testing, I was impressed with the console-like visuals offered by Oceanhorn 2 (a Zelda-like adventure title). I marveled at the water near a dock and the undulating light reflecting off the ripples.
NBA 2K also delivered dazzling graphics, including a realistic looking Giannis Antetokounmpo looking downtrodden after I failed to score. Another plus, the iPhone 14 didn’t get too warm while playing for 30 minutes, and this is likely thanks to a new internal design that’s optimized for dissipating heat.
On Geekbench, which measures overall performance, the iPhone 14 scored 1,727 in single core and 4,553 in multicore. That’s just slightly higher than the iPhone 13 (1,668/4,436) but well above the Galaxy S22 (1,204/3,348).
We saw a bigger boost in graphics performance, where the iPhone 14 turned in a score of 11,531 and 69 frames per second on 3DMark Wild Life Unlimited. The iPhone 13 mustered 9.331 and 51 fps. The Galaxy S22 was behind once again at 9,976/59 fps.
We didn’t see an improvement in our video editing test, which involves transcoding a 4K video clip to 1080p in the Adobe Premiere Rush app. It took the iPhone 14 28 seconds compared to a slightly faster 25.9 seconds for the iPhone 13. Still, the Galaxy S22 needed 47 seconds.
iOS 16
The iPhone 14 runs iOS 16 by default, and there’s a lot to like in this new software update. You can customize the lock screen with widgets, photos and more. Other highlights include the ability to unsend texts and edit them, a replacement for passwords called Passkeys, a new Fitness app and (finally) the return of the battery percentage indicator.
As of October’s iOS 16.1 update, iCloud Shared Photo Library makes it easier to share photos with family members. And Live Activities for third party apps are now here, showing things like sports scores and the real-time progress of your food order or rideshare. The latest iOS 16.2 update adds more features like a Freeform collaboration app and support for a karaoke mode for Apple Music subscribers.