Apple was never going to just announce an iPhone 14. There’s a new iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max coming to market and it’s Apple’s best smartphone ever. Again. We’re almost tired of the company being this right about itself.
The phone’s design is familiar enough — it’s got a stainless steel chassis, a toughened display that uses the company’s Ceramic Shield tech, and arrived in a few shades. There’s a new Space Black (which is just… black), Silver, Gold, and then something called Deep Purple. Because Uncle Tim’s been revisiting Smoke on the Water, apparently.
Island living
You’ll also notice a new, wide-ass notch at the top of the phone. Apple’s stashed the True-Depth camera, selfie cam, and proximity sensor under there, but it’s also turned that area into a functional gap. It’s called Dynamic Island, but it reminds us of the helpful sort of AI system that kinda creeps you out a little.
Still, it’s multifunctional, showing notifications for apps in use, media players, and phone calls, among other things. It’s actually a novel idea, which should keep your iPhone’s screen clear of missives that you click by accident while trying to do something actually useful. We wonder if anyone will actually use it, though. Probably.
Oh, yes, and that whole always-on display thing? Yeah, that’s happening. Apple’s iPhone 14 headliners will automatically dim screens (while retaining shades to a certain extent) and drop to as low as 1Hz. It should let you check notifications and widgets without actually lighting up your display.
Sweet. 16 million transistors.
The iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max feature a 4nm processor which follows a familiar pattern. There are two high-performance cores, four high-efficiency cores, a sixteen-core neural engine, and obligatory GPU upgrades. Apple reckons the result is better battery life, improved performance across the board, and enhanced photography. You know, the usual. There’s also a new addition — the Display Engine. That runs the Dynamic Island and always-on display because, apparently, they had to dedicate part of the processor to those features.
Picture this: The iPhone 14 Pro
The regular features are all present, all with a subtle increase in their capabilities. Apple’s Sensor-Shift optical image stabilisation returns and is improved, as is the camera’s low light performance. What’s new is a 2x optical zoom mode that sits between 1x and 3x. It’s supposed to be awesome but we’re going to have to play with it to find out exactly why. Telephoto something or other. But at least it’s not 300x digital zoom or something else equally loopy.
Video killed…
Joining the new 48MP main sensor is a new 12MP ultrawide, which also gets a computational upskill. That’s something Apple calls its Photonic Engine, a made-up word (they’re all made up, we know) for how its Neural Engine helps dumbass photographers look good. Only now it’s really good. Allegedly. The flash in the Pro and Pro Max is more adaptive. Because AI, obvs.
You want one of these, of course. Well, we can’t tell you when they land. Yet. When they do, they’ll be more expensive than the announced American prices. The iPhone 14 Pro starts at R17,300 ($1,000), and the Pro Max at R19,000 ($1,100). But, again, that’s American pricing. Odds are, we won’t see these until early October at the soonest. And they’ll do more than a little to hurt your wallet when they turn up.