Just a few weeks ago on September 16, Apple released their long-awaited iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Pro, and Pro Max. While the last product of this line is yet to drop, the iPhone 14 Plus, we’ve had enough time with these phones in order to assess these products to determine if they’re worth your hard-earned money.

iPhone 14

The new iPhone 14 comes in purple, blue, midnight, starlight, and red. One positive about these products is that the price hasn’t moved a bit in the whole family. This means that you can get yourself the iPhone 14 for $799. Something very notable about the new phone is the A15 Bionic chip, the same as last year’s iPhone 13. 

This is sort of a letdown. The move by Apple is justified a bit however, as the 14 will have an extra GPU core. This means that your phone can take a heavier load in the graphics department. It will result in better results for gaming and photo/video editing and exporting compared to last year. 

Another controversial decision Apple made is moving towards in. Although most won’t ever worry about this, customers who travel are going to be unable to buy cheap sim cards in other countries to have cheap service elsewhere. This move by Apple though is speculated to be made in effort to make the iPhones more waterproof.

This year’s iPhone family does have some great upgrades as well though. All versions of the iPhone 14 will have an enhanced cinematic video mode. The cinematic mode will shine in action-heavy recording environments. It has an amazing image stabilization feature and beautiful colors to go along with it. 

The most well-known advancement to the iPhones is their new satellite connectivity. Before, if you were stranded somewhere without service, you were out of luck. Now, Apple has introduced a feature where your iPhone will help you locate and connect to a satellite to send an S.O.S signal. This, paired with the brand-new crash detector, will undoubtedly save the lives of many individuals.

iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max

Now, it’s time for the flagships. The new iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max come in four beautiful colors, deep purple, gold, silver, and space black. This follows the trend of the previous years where the pro models come in gold, silver, space black, and one more generation exclusive color.

Unlike the iPhone 14, the pro series both have a brand new chip, the A16 bionic. While the average user may not notice a difference in performance immediately, these newer chips have higher top-end performance and can go the distance much better than older models. Also, the pro lineup introduces something new and long-awaited for iPhones, the ‘dynamic island.’

The dynamic island is a small cutout on the top of the iPhone which houses both the selfie camera and the face id, processors. Instead of it just being the small cutout, however, Apple decided to make it functional. 

The cutout on the screen is very small. One thing it does is it can expand the dead space next to the cutout to have little app shortcuts. Let’s say you’re using Apple Music. If you’re listening to a song and are surfing on Instagram, the cover of the song you’re playing will appear and if you press on it, you’ll be taken straight to the music app.

Also, for the first time in years, the main iPhone camera has received a bump in megapixels. Instead of the old 12-megapixel sensor, the main camera hosts a 48-megapixel sensor. Not only does this allow you to gather more light to take better nighttime photos; but it also allows for a crisp 2x zoom function. This is accomplished by using the middle 12 megapixels of the large sensor.

Final Verdict

Personally, after having used the new iPhone Pro Max, it’s the best upgrade since the iPhone X. The always-on 120hz OLED display, brand new camera system, dynamic island, super powerful chip, and unmatchable UI make this the best phone in the market. While the iPhone 14 line may not necessarily be worth upgrading for if you have the 12 or 13, the pro line is hands down the best value.