- Time for the iPhone 14,
can't wait to see what's new.
Oh, no, it looks just like the last one.
Huh, okay, A15 chip, all right.
Oh, come on, just the Pro gets that,
the regular 14 doesn't get it.
Okay, Always On display,
that's just the Pro too, I see.
I mean, why even call it a 14?
You could just call it a 13S.
- [Speaker] And that's just the first part of our-
- That's it, all right.
(upbeat music)
I'm gonna be blunt.
There's not a whole lot to get excited about this phone.
Later this fall,
Apple will release a bigger version
called the iPhone 14 Plus,
which we'll take a look at separately,
but here, we're just looking at the standard iPhone 14.
And it is extremely similar to the iPhone 13.
In fact, I'll just tell you now
that you certainly should not upgrade if you own a 13.
And you can make a really good case for just buying
an iPhone 13 and saving some money
if you do need a new phone right now.
But there are some decent camera upgrades
we can talk about, both hardware and software.
(upbeat techno music)
There's a bigger sensor in the main camera
and upgraded selfie camera,
and some changes to image processing
that are supposed to help with low light performance.
Let's get into the hardware upgrades first.
Compared to the iPhone 13,
the 14's 12 megapixel main camera lens
is a little faster,
F1.5 compared to F1.6,
and it uses a bigger sensor with bigger pixels.
It's effectively the same main camera
the iPhone 13 Pro had last year.
And that's all really good news.
A larger sensor and aperture can gather more light,
and more light means better pictures.
The selfie camera gets a faster F1.9 aperture
compared to F2.2.
And now it comes with autofocus.
And the Ultra Wide, well, no hardware changes to that one.
As for software, Apple's touting a new technology
called Photonic Engine on the iPhone 14
that moves Deep Fusion earlier
in the image processing pipeline.
I can easily see the effects on the Ultra Wide camera
in very low light.
Photos Look a lot less watercolory than the 13.
On the main camera,
I have a harder time seeing the difference.
Low light photos do look a little better on the 14
if you look close,
but I think that's more down to the faster lens
and the sensor size increase.
The camera can usually use a lower ISO
to get the same exposure,
so images come out a little cleaner.
I don't think Photonic Engine
is as responsible for the improvements here,
as much as good old fashioned physics.
The selfie camera is substantially better too.
Again, mostly because of better hardware.
Details look much cleaner.
I got a fairly sharp picture of myself
on a moving ferryboat at sunset
while the iPhone 13 struggled.
Even the processing looks a lot better here,
especially with the skin tones.
There's also a new stabilization mode
for video shooting called Action Mode,
that's designed to correct for more extreme movement
than the standard mode.
You can use it up to 2.8K resolution with HDR,
which is cool,
and it's really smooth,
but I have two issues with it.
The first is that it needs a lot of light.
Anything in moderate indoor lighting or lower
looks pretty bad.
There's a setting you can toggle
to boost the mode's low light capture
at the expense of some stabilization,
but even with it enabled,
I still got a low light warning in dim situations.
I can't really use it to film my toddler
as I chase them around the house,
which is kind of my primary form of exercise right now.
The second issue I have with Action Mode
is that, actually, iPhone's video stabilization
is already pretty good.
I can see a difference
when I look at footage shot side by side,
but I think for most people,
the regular stabilization mode will work just fine,
even if there is a bit of intense action.
Also new is that you can shoot cinematic mode up to 4K now.
Previously, it was capped at HD resolution.
It looks okay too.
It's still a little weird,
but the 24P frame rate kind of helps it pass
as more film-like footage a little better.
There's no change to the other video modes,
there's still slow motion, time-lapse,
and all the usual standard video recording options
plus 10 bit Dolby Vision.
This is one area where Apple can afford to stand still
because the iPhone's video is some of the best in the game.
So what exactly makes the 14 different from the 13?
For one thing,
Apple thinks it could save your life.
There's a new feature called Crash Detection.
Thank you, Google for pioneering that one.
And it uses data from multiple sensors
to detect when you've been in a car accident.
It'll contact emergency services for you
and your emergency contacts.
We decided not to test that feature yet.
There's also a new feature coming in November
that will allow you
to send an emergency message via satellite
if you're in an area without cell coverage.
The phone's UI walks you through some questions
to help first responders understand your situation.
And it shows you where to point your phone
to make contact with a satellite.
You can even see the satellite's position changing
as it moves across the sky.
If the emergency services in your area
don't support text communication,
you'll be messaging someone
at one of Apple's relay centers.
The service will cost extra,
though the 14 will come with two years free.
It's pretty appealing to a quasi serious hiker like me,
but I'm curious how much it'll cost.
So we've got new emergency features,
but there's one thing missing from the 14
that the 13 offers,
and that's a physical SIM card slot.
For the models sold in the US,
Apple is going all in on eSIM,
whether we like it or not.
I didn't have any trouble converting my physical Verizon SIM
on my iPhone 11 and loading it onto the 14,
but things might get trickier
if you're switching from Android to iPhone.
eSIM is kind of a polarizing topic.
It's either anti-consumer or pro-consumer
depending on how you talk to.
Either way, Apple adopting it
will push a lot of other manufacturers to do the same.
So get comfortable with the idea
of losing your physical SIM card sometime in the future,
even if you aren't in Apple's garden.
(upbeat music)
So we've got slightly better cameras,
emergency features, and a non-existent SIM tray.
That's basically the iPhone 14 right there.
It looks identical to the 13.
It uses an A15 bionic chipset like last year,
but with one more GPU core,
and it still has a 6.1-inch
standard 60 Hertz refresh rate display,
with the same storage options,
the same charging speeds.
You get the idea.
It's good, but that's because the iPhone 13 was good.
And this is more or less an iPhone 13S.
For the really interesting new stuff,
you'll have to step up to the iPhone 14 Pro.
It has a new screen feature called the Dynamic Island,
a high-res camera sensor,
a really cool Always On display
that shows you your wallpaper.
None of that is here,
and it really feels like Apple is putting more distance
between the standard iPhone and the Pro models this year.
There's also the iPhone 14 Plus,
which is coming in October.
Now, the standard iPhone will be available
in the 6.7-inch size
that's historically been reserved for the Pro series.
If there's one thing
that the great iPhone mini experiment taught us,
is that people love big phones.
And the 14 Plus is a very big iPhone
that's relatively affordable.
It also comes with a bigger battery,
and Apple says its battery life
is the best of any iPhone.
A bigger screen and better battery,
those are the kinds of upgrades
that a lot of people are looking for.
And it'll probably appeal to plenty of people
looking at the whole iPhone 14 lineup.
It also makes the standard iPhone 14
feel like even more of an afterthought,
especially while Apple is still selling the iPhone 13
at a lower price.
With the Pro's new display features
and next generation camera,
it feels like kind of a blueprint
for the future of the iPhone,
while the regular 14 just feels like it's stuck in the past.
Apple may have introduced it as far out,
but actually, it's pretty close to home.
Thanks for watching.
That was the regular iPhone 14.
If you haven't already,
head over and watch the 14 Pro review.
I know Neli and Becca have a lot to say about it.
It's a ton of new stuff to talk about.
I'm just, like, a little jealous.