Apple iPhone 14 Pro. Deception and disappointment.
The iPhone 14 Pro is a car crash.
With the dust now settled, and the social media euphoria of the new iPhone duly subsiding, it is time to take a look at what we have got here from Apple in this 14 Pro range, when put side by side with the iPhone 13 Pro range and other devices.
I have my views on the iPhone 14 Plus too, but that’s another bombshell that deserves its own story.
There are features in the iPhone 14 Pro range that are absolutely what I was expecting, and have been saying in my previous articles and videos. In a world where leaks are coming out a year before the product is launched, there was little left to the imagination anyway.
But there is a couple of things that have surprised me already, when comparing it with the iPhone 13 Pro range.
The question is, is that going to be enough to warrant an upgrade?
Is the iPhone 14 Pro overhyped?
You’ve probably seen a lot of videos and read some articles by now with people getting completely over-excited about this device, making it sound like it’s the best thing since sliced bread.
I attribute some of that to Apple taking some of the influencers to the launch in Cupertino and providing them with free units, which makes it hard for consumers to see through what is real and what is… well, biased.
But it’s also possible that I am missing something.
I appreciate that the iPhone 14 is an amazing piece of technology, when I look at it in isolation. But for me this is a very minor upgrade covered in glory by the Marketing machine, and by some detracting features (I am trying really hard to avoid the term gimmick) such as the Dynamic Island.
An objective view between the 13 Pro and 14 Pro range.
Now with some cynicism put to one side, this comparison between the 13 Pro Max and the 14 Pro Max has some objective elements that will hopefully help you out if you are undecided.
And I should warn you, that there is an underlying feeling in my positioning which you could argue, is subjective…
Which is the feeling that, the iPhone 14 Pro range should really have been an iPhone 13 ”S” Pro. Remember the S years?
Minor cosmetic upgrades of the 14 Pro range are to me exactly what “3D Touch” and “Live Photos” were on the iPhone 6 S.
I just really think that coming from the 12 Pro Max to the 13 Pro Max, did feel like I was getting an upgrade, albeit still small.
Now from the 13 Pro Max to this 14 Pro Max, I really haven’t got that sense of it being an upgrade. And compounded with the Android options available, I am starting to wonder… Is Apple giving up on this form factor?
Or are we meant to accept that we reached ‘peak smartphone’ as Marques Brownlee suggested last year, and go about our lives?
Is this new display with Dynamic Island, and the new cameras enough to warrant an $1100 dollars starting price?
Let’s take a look at the more objective factors to consider.
Call quality and 4G/5G reception
This may actually surprise you because I am not starting with the camera quality or display in this article.
I wanted to talk about the ability to make phone calls and have decent data connection, especially in rural areas. It is a telephone, after all.
There are places where I live where I know I rarely get a good signal on any mobile device so I was pleased to know that not only I was getting a mobile signal, but enough 4G connectivity to be able to work or watch content without issues.
5G here in the UK, especially in the countryside is still not ‘a thing’ so 4G is my benchmark.
If you want to hear my call quality test, head over to the YouTube video after this article, the link should take you to the exact segment.
I was using the same SIM card, and I didn’t move between tests with the 13 and 14 Pro Max.
Better sounding speakers?
There is actually a noticeable improvement on the audio quality, when you put someone on speaker. Callers sounded more natural on the 14 Pro Max, less “digitised” as I mentioned in the video.
It is worth noting that if you are in the US, the hardware is completely different over there… as you get a different antenna component to us plebes here in Europe. It’s also worth noting I am still on physical SIM.
eSIM is available here in the UK, I just haven’t changed my plan to eSIM yet.
I made some phone calls even when I had just one bar of reception, typically when I am driving through poor reception areas, and that was working flawlessly, so there are some positives there when it comes to the ability to make good ol’ phone calls.
The noisy Island
When it comes to display there is a lot of noise out there about the Dynamic Island.
Is the Dynamic Island… a deal breaker if you are not sure between the 13 and 14?
Absolutely not. It should never be, in my opinion.
But I’d be interested to hear if there is a real benefit in having the Dynamic Island that makes it worth it to choose between the iPhone 13 Pro and the 14 Pro. Please do let me know because after a month, I am still not convinced.
Where the difference actually matters
The real difference between the displays, is the brightness. And yes, the display is brighter now but I’ve been trying to capture an example of the 13 Pro Max and 14 Pro Max outside whilst watching content.
And honestly, I had to look really hard to distinguish between the two here. Without looking for the dynamic island, could you tell straight away which is which?
The 14 Pro Max is definitely brighter, and you can tell this just when you are using the phone, even indoors sometimes. It is noticeable.
Have we reached a plateau in display innovation?
I believe we have reached a level of resolution on smartphones that anything beyond it, is no longer that noticeable to our human eyes. I think this is due to the concept of diminishing returns.
The technology has reached a level of maturity and it kind of reached a plateau now.
Which explains why I thought the 13 Pro Max felt more like an upgrade. The big difference we saw on the 13 Pro Max was the better refresh rate. It was a big jump and noticeable when reading and scrolling.
I truly believe that, unless you’re coming from an older iPhone like the iPhone 12, 11 or older, you’re really not going to notice much of a difference, apart from it being a bit brighter when using it outside.
I can’t ignore the “Pro” aspects of this phone however. I do appreciate that for true professionals, having those slight improvements are key to their businesses. My viewpoint sits more towards a typical consumer’s perspective.
The battery-gate
When it comes to the battery on these two models, I really don’t think there’s been enough time for anyone to really be able to say definitively, which of these perform better.
Ultimately these are very different devices now, due to the Always on display and increased brightness.
My “rule of thumb” based on these first few weeks is that these are both incredible and will last all day and well into the next day which is more than what I can ask for.
Taking a pragmatic approach here, I charge my devices overnight in any case so as long as I get my iPhone to the end of the day, I am happy.
But I appreciate some people may wish to go two full days on a single charge. Which is possible with both phones, depending on the usage of course.
The iPhone 13 Pro Max right now feels like it can go full 2 days on a single charge. The 14 Pro Max, not so much. Time will tell, it’s still fairly early days and iOS16 has been a car crash (no pun intended).
Could iOS16 be the culprit or do we have battery hardware issues?
Once iOS16 is more stable, we should be able to see how the iPhone 14 Pro battery really behaves. It is entirely possible that there is a hardware issue, but I haven’t done enough research into this.
Is there any point comparing the cameras of the 13 and 14?
For most people, the camera comparison is pointless.
The photos are pretty much identical from a quality perspective.
Both iPhones can shoot ProRAW and both can do 4K videos and ProRES videos, if you’re crazy enough to manage the file sizes it generates.
Action mode is the dark horse of the iPhone 14 range.
The main difference I noticed was actually using the new camera modes. And more specifically, Action Mode. This takes stabilisation to a complete new level.
Given my low expectations, I went into testing this mode with a mindset of it being another “gimmick”.
But I have to give credit to Apple here. I’ve been quite vocal about the stock camera app on iOS for a few years now.
Mainly because when I look at Android devices, that may not even have the same colour science or quality of videos, I am always impressed at how much is possible within the stock camera app.
I honestly thought Action mode makes it more fun to use and adds another tool to the stock camera that a lot of people will appreciate. Especially if you are trying to capture sports, pets, or toddlers running around the house!
We need more of that. Features that is, not toddlers around the house. Just to be clear!
It will be interesting to see how the iPhone 14 Pro Action Mode compares with something like Super Steady mode on Samsung phones for example.
The disappointment of Cinematic mode continues
Action mode ended up surprising me but Cinematic mode didn’t. It didn’t land for me on the 13 Pro Max and based on my quick tests so far, it needs more work.
It feels a bit more responsive, but AI still makes some mistakes in detecting the background, detecting edges, and unless it’s recording something really obvious like a person, and the background is clearly defined, it still struggles and wouldn’t be a deciding factor when picking between these two, in my opinion.
The “real” cinematic mode
What would be a deciding factor, in my opinion, is the new 4K 24 frames per second video mode.
It’s a subtle difference and we already had this mode on the 13 Pro range but this subtle difference made video look more natural and less sharpened, or digitally processed if you know what I mean.
I really… really like this mode and will record an entire video for YouTube on this. It’s that good.
I can see this feature alone being the reason I will be using the 14 Pro Max more than any other device for video recording.
In comparison here with the 13 Pro Max and the colours look better to me, and the movement feels more natural.
Audio quality in video recording
Good video without good audio is a terrible video, and I am pleased to say that the audio recording sounded amazing too.
If you are someone who cares about video quality then this is definitely a worthy upgrade.
The other upgrade that is noticeable is the speakers. Actually I don’t even know if the hardware is actually upgraded…
A quick search didn’t return anything so I will need to do more research on this. Apple always do a great job on speakers anyway, and it does sound better. But this is not saying that the 13 Pro Max speakers were bad, not at all.
Hard hitting truth
I know this is probably not what you may want to hear, but this is my genuine reaction so far. I wanted to love the iPhone and I wanted it to be amazing.
But I can’t fake being over excited about what I’ve seen so far.
So I couldn’t ‘hand-in-heart’ recommend the iPhone 14 Pro Max to anyone who is considering the iPhone 13 Pro Max.
Unless you really care about those one or two features that I mentioned here, where I think the 14 Pro makes a big difference.
If you are really settled on getting a new iPhone but can wait, I’d recommend saving a few hundred dollars and going for the iPhone 15 next year instead, as rumours indicate that this is when we will see a bigger upgrade.
