The iPhone 14 Pro has been on the market for a long time. Let’s see if it’s worth buying.
The iPhone 14 Pro has a sleek and elegant appearance that comes in four colors: deep purple, silver, gold, and space black. It has a stainless steel frame and a textured matte glass back that are durable and resistant to scratches and fingerprints. It also has a 6.1-inch OLED display that covers almost the entire front of the phone, except for a small cutout at the top center that houses the Dynamic Island. This year, the iPhone 14 series comes equipped with 6GB of memory. In scenarios with heavy usage, such as frequent photography, large 3D games, or switching between multiple apps, the 6GB of memory provides a more stable background and multitasking performance compared to the previous iPhone’s 4GB of memory.
The A16 chip used in the iPhone 14 Pro delivers impressive performance, with single-core and multi-core scores around 1800 and 5500 respectively. This is roughly 8% higher in single-core performance and about 12% higher in multi-core performance than the A15 chip used in last year’s 13 Pro Max. Although the A16 chip itself has a higher processor frequency than the A15 chip, with one big core operating at up to 3.23 GHz and another at 3.45 GHz, the architectural improvement this time is relatively small. Overclocking the CPU part will yield a slight improvement in peak performance.
Despite the impressive A16 chip, the most talked-about feature of the iPhone 14 series is the new animation design after the notch is replaced by a pill-shaped hole. In terms of hardware, the 14 Pro is similar to previous leaks, with a face ID and sub-shot module shaped like an exclamation mark. Apple connects them through software, allowing for some direct visibility of light and the ability to clearly see the boundary between the exclamation mark and the big pill. However, in outdoor sunlight, the boundary will be more noticeable.
The Dynamic Island animation is very smooth, with features such as the blur effect when moving up to the island, long press to show card messages and screen corners, and consistent body corners that are pleasing to the eye. If there are more than two tasks, the top navigation is split into a large exclamation mark shape, such as when navigating while listening to music. The left side displays navigation bar information, while the right side displays music playback small cover. This can be understood as a small task bar at the top that can display two applications on the island simultaneously. However, many third-party software adaptations still need optimizing.
The camera hardware upgrade in the iPhone 14 Pro series is quite apparent. The main camera has a 48MP sensor with a larger 1/3 inch base. With the high-pixel sensor added, 2x mode can use high-pixel cropping to achieve relatively good resolution in 2x digital cropping mode. The resolution improvement is quite noticeable compared to the 13 Pro’s 12MP 2x cropping. While the daily photography experience is good, the night scene algorithm is the same as the previous generation. Upgrading mainly reduces image waiting time rather than improving static image quality. There is still a gap compared to Android flagships.
Overall, there are many changes in the iPhone 14 Pro, such as the removal of the notch screen and new lively interaction playability. However, this interaction is meant to reduce the big pill’s abruptness feeling rather than a functional pain point. Many third-party applications are not yet adapted, leading to some experience issues. Dynamic Island compared with the notch has the biggest improvement in front recognition, making it obvious at a glance that this is a new iPhone. In addition to the screen shape, the Pro version also supports 1Hz screen off display, higher screen brightness, and stronger cameras, further widening the gap with the standard version.
Come to the end, do you think iPhone 14 pro is worth buying?