What I Think About The iPhone 14:
A waste of money?, Or worth the buy?
The Apple corporation is here yet again to prove to us why they’re believed to be at the forefront of revolutionizing the phone industry and perceived as one of the best in the field of technological advancement. They announced at their recent annual Apple ‘Far Out’ event on 7th September 2022, about the soon-to-be release of the iPhone 13 successor the ‘iPhone 14’.
Since the release of the first iPhone on June 29, 2007, the Apple industry has produced a total of 14 series of the iPhone which is currently among the top-selling phone brands in the world. The reasons why they have such an impressive sales track record are not hard to imagine. Due to how secure and exclusive their operating system is, most users that decide to change their iPhone usually end up swapping or upgrading it to a better or newer iPhone, unlike android where users would often end up switching from one android brand to a different android brand due to their generalized operating system. Besides, let’s face it, holding an iPhone in modern society has become more or less like a “power statement” that depicts class and lifestyle, so who wouldn’t want one? iPhone has often faced public criticism, especially concerning how there is usually very little difference between a preceding iPhone to its succeeding iPhone.
This article is not intended to bore you with too much “techy mumbo jumbo” as I intend to make this article as simple to understand as possible in a way that will aid you to understand the new and pre-existing features of this latest Apple product to ultimately help in guiding you in deciding whether you should go for it or not.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FT3ODSg1GFE
Dynamic Island display
The dynamic island display is an upgrade from the previous notch display in other series. This feature optimizes the notch area, making it more interactive by introducing new functions such as-
•Live updates: an aspect of the feature that shows live updates of currently running apps e.g stopwatch, weather, media playback, etc.
•Notification: it includes a new interactive way of alerting users to messages and notifications.
This feature certainly comes with the advantage of being able to multitask and juggle other app activities without having to leave the app you’re currently on. A major issue with using the dynamic display stems from the many apps that are yet to be optimized to adapt to the new display style. This feature which is only available in the iPhone 14 pro and iPhone 14 Pro-max models, does not seem to be ‘one hand’ friendly for the larger-sized ‘Pro’ models of the iPhone 14 series.
Always on display
Apple arrived ‘fashionably late’ with the adoption of this feature as it has been existing in androids for quite a long time. Just as the name implies, it allows users to keep their screen on at all times with little impact on the battery life whilst still allowing the user to perform some basic activities on his/her iPhone. This feature is only available in the iPhone Pro and iPhone14 Pro max models of the iPhone 14 series.
Is IOS 16 compatible?
Yes, all members of the iPhone 14 series are compatible with the IOS 16. The IOS 16 which is an updated version of the IOS 15 comes with some cool new features such as;
•Edit and delete iMessages: for up to 15 minutes after sending an iMessage, you can choose to delete or edit the message. This feature works best when both the sender and receiver have IOS 16 on their iPhone. If the receiver hasn’t updated to IOS 16, the edited or deleted message will not reflect in the chat room.
•Live object: this feature allows users to directly lift an object out of a photo by long tapping to copy and paste to another location on their phone
•Webcam: this feature also known as the ‘continuity camera’ allows users who have the IOS 16 update together with the Belkin mount to substitute their iPhone camera as their webcam. It also allows users to have full access to the camera features of their iPhone with the addition of other features such as the ‘Desktop view’ which allows users to shoot or record videos from an aerial point of view.
•Customizable Lock-screen: this is probably the most obvious change that comes with the IOS 16. By simply long tapping on the lock-screen background, users can now customize any aspect of how their lock-screen appears, they can also save the template when finished and assign each template to a focus mode. It also has a particularly interesting multi-layering effect that seamlessly aligns the subject of the photo in front of the time widget.
•Bug fixes: the IOS 16 comes with new bug fixes to help combat security threats to keep your iPhone safer from hacks.
Other iPhone series that is also compatible with the IOS 16 are the iPhone 8, iPhone X, iPhone 11, iPhone 12, and iPhone 13.
E-sim
With the introduction of the electronic sim ‘E-sim’, we say bye-bye to physical SIM cards and sim trays. The E-sim feature is available on all the iPhone 14 series but only available in the US models of the iPhone 14. Other iPhones are also capable of supporting e-sim such as iPhone- SE(2020 version), XR, XS, XS Max, 11 series, 12 series, and 13 series. All members of the iPhone 14 series offer 5G connectivity to users for better and faster uploading, streaming, and downloading experience. Other iPhone series namely the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 also comes with a 5G connectivity feature.
Camera Quality
The iPhone 14 boasts of it having the most impressive camera quality of any iPhone product invented so far. The camera comprises some new features such as:
•Low light: this aspect of the camera which is available in all the models of the iPhone 14 series, allows users to capture and take videos in any light situation including for night shots or in less-bright conditions thanks to their image processing AI ‘Photonics engine’.
•Adaptive flash: this cool feature enables the camera’s flashlight to be able to measure how far away the subject of the photo is and adjusts the intensity of the flash accordingly.
•Cinematic mode: this is an upgraded version of the pre-existing ‘Cinematic mode’ present in the iPhone 13 as users can now shoot videos in 4k resolution quality at 24 frames per second(film industry standard). Though we’d all be happier if Apple had also implemented a “pause and resume” video recording feature which is already available in androids.
•Action mode: this feature helps to stabilize and maintain video footage stability especially for hand-held users that are filming in bumpy conditions.
The iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus still retain the 12mp main camera feature from the previous series while the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max come with an all-new 48mp camera with a quad-pixel sensor which has 4 times the resolution than last year’s iPhone 13 Pro. All models of the iPhone 14 series also come with a new True-depth feature and auto-focus feature that elevates the quality of the front/selfie camera.
A16 Bionic chip
The A16 Bionic chip is only available in the iPhone 14 pro and iPhone 14 pro max while the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus still retain the A15 bionic chip that’s also available on the previous iPhone 13 series. The A16 bionic chip serves as a support system for necessary functions such as camera capability, dynamic island display, and power consumption. The A16 chip comprises a 6-core CPU just like the iPhone 13 and a transistor count of 16 billion(4nM) unlike the iPhone 13 which has a 15 billion transistor(5nM) count. The A16 chip offers a- 20% low power consumption, a 7% increase in CPU speed, and improved memory bandwidth by up to 50%.
Technically, there’s not a world of difference between the A16 and A15 bionic chip considering the components and capabilities of each of them but having the A16 certainly does give you “bragging rights” of using the phone with the fastest CPU in a smartphone, at least not until Apple or another company releases a better version.
SOS Via Satellite
This security feature comes in handy in emergencies where users who lack cellular or WI-FI connection would be able to send signals and messages using satellite connectivity which is non-dependent on the cellular strength of the iPhone. This feature works best when the user has a clear view of the sky and can inform the user of the direction of the closest satellite to point at. This feature of the iPhone is currently only available in the US and Canada. This feature is only free for 2 years after which it will become a paid service, the subscription fee is yet to be disclosed.
Crash Detection
This is another innovative safety feature that sets the iPhone 14 series apart from other iPhone series. This feature relies on in-built sensors such as; a gyroscope and accelerometer to measure up to 256 G-Force to detect high-impact collisions experienced by the user while in motion e.g driving, then immediately alerts emergency services nearby of the accident. The crash detection feature is available in all models of the iPhone.
Size and Space
The sizes of the iPhone 14 series are- iPhone 14 comes with a ‘6.1’ inches display, iPhone 14 Plus comes with a ‘6.7’ inches display, iPhone 14 pro comes with a ‘6.1’ inches display, iPhone 14 pro max comes with a ‘6.7’ inches display. The only significant difference in this series from the other series is that the ‘Pro’ models are not the largest as, this time around the iPhone 14 Plus and iPhone 14 Pro Max are of the same size. it’s not bigger or smaller than the previous iPhone series
Battery life
There seems to be only a small difference in the battery capacity of the Phone 14 series compared to other series especially compared to its previously released iPhone 13 with only a 3% upgrade in battery life. The iPhone 14 series has a battery capacity of- 3,279mAh in Phone14, 4,325mAh in iPhone 14 Plus which has the best battery capacity in this series, 3,200mAh in iPhone Pro, and 4,323 in the iPhone 14 Pro Max. In terms of charging speed, .all models of the iPhone 14 series can reach up to 50% charge in 30 minutes just like with the iPhone 13, 12, and 11 series. The iPhone 14 series also includes the option of wireless charging and is compatible with MagSafe accessories.
Price
The price of iPhone 14 series comes with a higher cost than the previous iPhone series. The iPhone 14 costs $799, the iPhone 14 Plus goes for $899, the iPhone 14 Pro costs $999, and the iPhone 14 Pro Max costs $1099. The silver lining of the iPhone 14 series launch is that the prices of the former iPhone series will automatically decrease.