Verdict
The iPhone 14 Pro is a grand phone that can contain its own in 2023 , even if it ’s not necessarily a huge upgrade from the iPhone 13 Pro .
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
The iPhone 14 Pro packs legion in high spirits - terminal features to make it a worthwhile acclivity over the received iPhone 14 .
These let in theA16 Bionic microchip , Dynamic Islandfeature , ProMotiondisplay and a great camera array , but the flagship telephone ’s time in the Lord’s Day looks to be coming to a last .
The at hand launch of theiPhone 15series will likely make the iPhone 14 Pro a less compelling purchase . The base iPhone 15 is have a bun in the oven to gain feature film such as A16 Bionic and Dynamic Island at a more low-cost price , while the iPhone 15 Pro has been touted to have a new titanium plan , USB - Ccharging , a more powerful A17 Bionic central processor and aperiscope lens .
So with all of that in thinker , is the Apple iPhone 14 Pro still deserving a buy in 2023 ? Here are my thought process .
Screen and Design
Place the iPhone 14 Pro next to the13 Proand there ’s one now obvious deviation – the mountain pass . While it continue , it ’s no longer attach to the top bezel , instead allowing the display to enfold around . In typical Apple fashion it has named this pass theDynamic Island .
I am certain we can all concur it ’s a silly name , but in actual enjoyment it ’s a self-aggrandizing improvement . Apple has make do to take one of my biggest issues with the previous model and made it a selling item of the iPhone 14 Pro .
The Dynamic Island comprises the elements of the True Depth camera system required for the very agile ( and equally reliable)Face IDunlocking arrangement and a new software layer that make it seem like certain UI element are seem out of the notch .
come out a song playing in Spotify and channelise back to the dwelling house screen and that song will jump to the Dynamic Island , becoming always visible whatever app you ’re in . bulge out a timer now and the Dynamic Island will split in two , allowing you to well keep an center on what medicine is playing in the background and how long is left on the timekeeper . You ’ll get a dad - up in the Dynamic Island when you connectAirPodsor when your shelling is lowly , notifications that before never really had a right place to go .
The Dynamic Island also operate with the Live activity API to allow apps to habituate it and show selective information . Deliveroo , for example , could show you the location of your dinner party without you need to launch the app , or a sportswoman app could leave the score of a couple to be always seeable , though nearly six calendar month after spillage , most apps are yet to make employment of it .
I am a big devotee of the way the Dynamic Island works and the mind behind it , and it adds an extra interaction stratum to the earphone . You wo n’t interact with it a lot , at least not until more apps can take advantage of it , but tricks like being able to quick shift the song are helpful . It does still feel a little undercooked though , even in 2023 , with app developer not give the feature enough attention for it to understand its potential .
I find oneself it unpaired that tapping on the Dynamic Island assume you back to an app , whereas a foresightful insistency brings up warm controls – for me , the other way around makes more sense . There are also times when the stock notice system and the Dynamic Island system lap , create me question why they were n’t unite together .
Elsewhere , the iPhone 14 Pro retains the visual way of the iPhone 13 Pro , and aside from being able-bodied to go brighter in sure instances , the screen is the same too . It ’s a very flat sound , with shiny untarnished steel side that smudge easily and a frosted chicken feed back . It ’s stillIP68 ratedfor protection against water and dust and there ’s a Ceramic Shield coating for lend drop protection . I do wish the screen was a short more insubordinate to scratches though , as they seem to appear with increasing frequence .
The Pro I am reviewing is the smaller of the two available with its 6.1 - column inch display . There ’s also the iPhone 14 Pro Max , which ups the ante to 6.7 - in . It ’s expectant that Apple continue the only sword out there pack top - end tech into a phone that can be grasped well in my hand . It is a hard phone though and at 206 gibibyte , the iPhone 14 Pro weighs 38 g more than theGalaxy S23with the same screen door sizing . This is expected to be rectified with the next generation , with Apple moving onto a swooning titanium fabric for the chassis of the iPhone 15 professional .
The smaller phone suit the boxy , industrial design a lot more than the bigger poser . With the Pro Max , I often discover it digging into my palms if I ’m using it without a cause – but that ’s not an issue with the Pro . I ’d still recommend the Pro Max if you watch a bunch of videos or dally a lot of games on your phone , as the spare material estate is very welcome in those task .
I ’ve have it off the display on Apple ’s earphone since it switch toOLEDpanels and once again it ’s grotesque here . The 6.1 - inch venire is sharp and gets seriously shining . No other phone I have review is as operable in verbatim sunlight as the iPhone 14 Pro and you ’ll notice those extra nit of luminance in HDR telecasting too .
Even though the screen is reasonably little , I was still immerse in an installment of Andor playing inDolby Vision HDRfrom Disney Plus . Colours popped , especially in hopeful scenes , and the OLED jury countenance for perfect mysterious and inky-black blacks .
The presentation retains theProMotionskills first add together with the iPhone 13 Pro . This allows the panel to rage up ( and down ) how many times per second it refreshes . Scrolling and swiping is smooth than on the iPhone 14 as a result , and as the screen can now drop to 1Hz ( refreshing once a secondment ) there ’s now the option to enable an always - on display .
Anyone familiar with thebest Android phoneswon’t be too surprised to see this characteristic , but this is the first time it ’s been summate to an iPhone .
The always - on display here works as well as it does on an Apple Watch . When the gadget is locked , the wallpaper and clock fade into the scope – they ’re still visible , but the screen is dimmed . If the phone is on a desk you may peek at it to see the time ( and any widgets on the whorl screen door ) without unlock it .
Most speech sound I have review that have a similar feature enable it by use organic light-emitting diode ’s power to twist off all but the pixel being used , showing just the clock . But the iPhone 14 Pro actually keep the whole filmdom on , wallpaper include , and just slow the refresh pace down to 1Hz to essay and bring through battery .
As a result , whatever your lock screen is , is represented by the always - on alternative and you ca n’t alter it . You ca n’t , for example , only have the clock showing unless you set a manifest black wallpaper . You also ca n’t alter the brightness , think that at times I felt the always - on covert was a little too brilliant and distracting . In this respect , it can feel restrictive .
If you ’re wearing anApple Watchthe always - on display should reverse itself off when it have sex you ’re away from the phone and it will also turn off mechanically when it ’s in Sleep style to avoid any distracting gleam at nighttime .
I do really like how thealways - on displayhas been handled here , but it needs a little more customisation to make it really worthwhile . There is also a obtrusive strike on electric battery life with it on – jump to the Battery Life part for more on that – so I can guess many merely turning it off .
Camera
The iPhone 14 Pro is just about the best camera phone you’re able to buy today . It ’s not without its way out , I will dive into them below , but on the whole , it put up a various array of sensor , lenses and options that should please those who need to extract every detail out of a snapshot just as much as those who just desire to shoot and share on Instagram .
The standout spec from the new rearward camera array is the 48MP sensor pose behind the wide lens . This is the first time Apple has gone above 12MP and the first time it ’s used thepixel binningtechnique so common on Android phones .
Essentially , unless you manually tack to theProRawmode , the headphone will stay on to shoot 12MP images , but it ’ll combine four picture element into one hand you an efficient large pixel size of it . The benefits of this include improvement to low - light snaps among others .
tack to ProRaw way and the camera will enchant full uncompressed 48MP images that are huge in size of it ( around 80 MB each ) and ideal for editing in apps like Lightroom or Photoshop , either on the phone itself or on a computer . For most people , shooting in ProRaw is unnecessary and the figure that bin down to 12MP are ordinarily excellent , but having the option is neat for those who need to really tweak and monkey with the shot .
I ’ve been shoot with the iPhone 14 Pro for over a calendar week and it churns out fantabulous nip whatever the conditions are . It ’s observably faster kicking into Night Mode than the iPhone 13 Pro and conquer more details when it ’s dark . Apple also apply the eye 12MP of the 48MP sensor to offer up a new 2x rapid climb , and the results from this are surprisingly great and idealistic if you want to get a little unaired to a topic .
Shots look at in daylight conditions are also strong , although I often establish it hard to distinguish between a landscape charge on the iPhone 13 Pro and one on the iPhone 14 Pro unless you zoom mightily in .
The results were excellent before , and they remain so now . Get up close to a plant or an item of food though and the bigger sensor urinate itself known , with far greater natural depth of area for a lovely bokeh backcloth .
Apple has tweak some of the mail service - processing on photograph this year , notably up the sharpness to often frustrating degree , with busy indoor pictures the big culprits . Usually though , color in images are rich and pop with just the veracious amount of saturation . Forest greens look natural for instance , while the red on the gravy holder propeller came across just as burnished in real life . tegument tones see mostly natural , thoughGoogle ’s Pixel 7 Prodoes a practiced caper portraying skin in general .
The sensor is bigger on the ultrawide television camera too , although that has led to a slightly wide aperture . The tweaks to the software seem to appease this change in low - visible light situations and the results from this tv camera are great in good light and tolerable when it gets darker . There are no such changes for the 12MP telephoto camera , and while the zoom is on par with earphone that do n’t utilise a periscope arrangement , it does n’t do anywhere close to contend with theSamsung Galaxy S23 Ultraonce you promote past the 3x range , with images turn very blurry .
There ’s now autofocus on the selfie camera which avail ascertain detail is in the correct places and the video skills remain the expert out there . A raw Action Mode steadies television of truehearted movement – at the expense of 4 G firmness of purpose and any low - lighting carrying out – while the background fuzz - focussedCinematic Modenow shoot in 4 K , pretend it far more useable . The background fuzz can still be very hit - or - lose , though .
Performance
Every yr I look back the iPhones and every year it seems like I say the same thing – it ’s the fastest phone you may buy . That ’s once again the case here , at least until the A17 Bionic arrives in the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max .
The A16 Bionic chipset and companion 6 GB RAM inside the iPhone 14 Pro remains a tempting combination , well playing anyApple Arcadegame with ease and making wakeful piece of work of even heftyProResvideo exports and edits . There ’s almost too much power here for anything you’re able to do today and plenitude of headroom for what ’s to come in the futurity .
The tangible upgrades over theA15 Bionicfrom the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 14 are heavy to spot in benchmark and even in actual use . There are minor melioration in the array of benchmarking apps we use at Trusted Reviews , though only fairly pocket-size numbers , and even using the two chip side - by - side on two different earphone the benefit are modest . I opened up a telephone number of games on both and they only open mildly quicker on theA16 Bionic .
Of course , the novel splintering does have other benefit . It ’s construct on a more efficient process , so should n’t use as much juice in more demanding tasks and it ’ll likely be defend by Apple with software update for longer . Judging by my experience with erstwhile iPhones , this should last a upright turn of years before it start to slow .
As I am reviewing a UK model of the headphone it comes with sub-65Gonly , though considering there ’s no mmWave web here yet , it scarcely seems an issue for it to miss the support for that . If you buy the US exemplar there will be documentation for mmWave , but there wo n’t be a physical SIM slot on the headphone – advertise everyone towardseSIM .
As my co-worker Hannah has direct out , the shift toeSIMcould be a costly one for some – but it should n’t be too much of an issue if you ’re an iPhone user and project to be for year to come . eSIM is far less wide adopted in the UK – Three , for case , does n’t yet support it – so it ’ll be interesting to see if we keep the SIM slot for the iPhone 15 or whether this will be the last model with it .
There are another twosome of features touted for the iPhone 14 Pro that you ca n’t necessarily see , or would possibly ever expend . railway car collapse espial is a feature you ’ll never need to utilise – and one I ca n’t say I have test for this review – but the idea is that it ’ll alarm the local pinch services if you ’re ineffectual to after a crash .
The iPhone 14 Pro also supports Apple ’s Emergency SOS via satellite feature . This will allow the phone to reach emergency services even if you ’re out of web reach .
These are both interesting addition to a phone . Neither would make me hurry out and kick upstairs , yet expanding what we expect from a phone is a strong proposal , specially as it becomes harder and harder to offer famed operation and television camera upgrades year over twelvemonth .
Call tone is fantabulous , as is Wi - Fi functioning ( although there ’s noWiFi 6Esupport ) and thehaptic responseremains the best of any phone I have reexamine .
Battery Life
Switching from aniPhone 13 Pro Max , I was initially a little disappointed by the survival of the 14 Pro . But that ’s more to do with my personal expectations after spending most of the past year with Apple ’s bigger phone . However , after my near two workweek with the phone I do n’t opine battery life is a weakness – even if it ’s not take any capital stride forward .
Throughout a distinctive daylight with the always - on display enabled , the screen set to automatic brightness and C of notifications coming through I got from an 8 am alarm clock to midnight bedtime with about 10 - 15 % go forth . call on the always - on display off and it was more like 15 - 20 % calculate on how busy the day was . That ’s utterly acceptable survival if you ’re felicitous to consign the phone up every night and slightly better than the results I got with the 13 Pro .
There are factors that massively impact the battery life , though . push the screen full - blast with HDR cognitive content can eat through 15 % an hour , more than I have noticed on an iPhone before , and if the brightness is being pumped in A-one - bright conditions it ’ll run out even faster . Tone thing down though , and you ’ll be nearer 10 % per time of day for video streaming .
On a couple of very busy days , notably the ones with scads of euphony streaming to a connected distich ofAirPods professional 2and some gaming , I felt the need to commit the telephone up a bit once I had got home from work .
There ’s no charger included , but a 20w plug mate with the included USB - C to Lightning line got me a 50 % armorial bearing in 32 second and to 100 % in 99 minutes . Those resolution are nearly the same as the iPhone 13 Pro . This will be the last loop that uses Lightning , with Apple require to move onto aUSB - Cpower connector for the iPhone 15 .
Wireless charging remains the slower option . Apple’sMagSafecharger top out at 15w , while a received Qi domiciliation will max out at 7.5w . None of these speeds are groundbreaking , especially compared to some of the telephone , like theOnePlus 11which can go from 0 - 100 % in less than half an minute .
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Should you buy it?
The Dynamic Island turn the pass into a raw way to interact with the phone . Once developer start building it into their apps , this could be a Brobdingnagian sack in how we use an iPhone .
There are a lot of gracious upgrades here , though nothing stands out too much if you upgraded to theiPhone 13 Proin the past class . You ’re safe off waiting to see what Apple has in store for 2023 .
Final Thoughts
The iPhone 14 Pro is an splendid phone , even if it ’s not needs a Brobdingnagian upgrade from the iPhone 13 Pro . If you ’re coming from an Old model – maybe an 11 Pro or one of the non - Pro phone – then the differences can be stark .
The Dynamic Island is a silly name but turns an annoying design crotchet into something useful , while the camera are very powerful if push them to the demarcation is of interest . The display remain gorgeous , while the performance boosts might not make themselves known for a few years yet .
However , it ’s impossible to ignore the at hand arrival of theiPhone 15 Pro , which will be packed with even more fancy features such as USB - C charging , a more powerful central processor , Modern titanium design and more . If you want the best possible iPhone , then it ’s deserving waiting for the unexampled model .
That ’s not to say the iPhone 14 Pro will no longer be a good option . We ’re hoping for a toll dip following the reveal of its heir , allowing you to get one of thebest camera phonesat a reduced rate .
Trusted Score
How we test
We examine every peregrine phone we review thoroughly . We use industry - stock run to compare features properly and we employ the headphone as our chief gimmick over the review full stop . We ’ll always evidence you what we come up and we never , ever , accept money to review a product .
FAQs
There is no charging wad in the box , just a USB - C to Lightning cablegram . If you ’re buying a new plug , attend for one that supports 20w charging .
The Pro good example lark a better screen , faster chipset and an extra camera .
Four colours are available : Deep Purple , Space Black , Gold and Silver .
