Apple iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max aren’t exactly incremental upgrades

Cupertino, California: Apple iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max, successors to last year’s iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max, aren’t what we had logically expected. The list of upgrades and new features allow this to be certainly filed in the category of an extensive annual upgrade, and not an incremental one. For starters, Apple has finally made for a more deliberate differentiation between the iPhone 14 Pro series, and the non-Pro iPhone 14 models. The headline changes include a new A16 Bionic chip, while the iPhone 14 series still run last year’s A15 Bionic, albeit with improvements including for the image signal processor. That means the iPhones are yet to make the switch to the Apple Silicon, the M series chips that now power the iPads and MacBooks, for instance. This is also the first time the iPhone has moved on from the 12-megapixel primary camera, which has done the duties for many years now, to a more in tune with the times 14-megapixel camera. There are more algorithm improvements too. The displays in both phones are the newer Super Retina XDR, in 6.1-inch and 6.7-inch sizes respectively. In terms of the footprint and the overall shell, the two iPhone 14 Pro models aren’t dissimilar to the iPhone 13 Pro phones they succeed. Even the new 48-megapixel camera finds itself a new home within similar camera module contours, as the outgoing 12-megapixel troika. However, it is the notch replacing pill cut-out at the front which catches your attention. Apple calls this Dynamic Island, because there’s usable display all around it (including at the top). This means the notch, which spilled over from the top bezel, is now relegated to the non-Pro iPhone 14 models. The way Apple envisions it, and has developed its own apps in iOS 16, is to be able to use this space for active widgets. It’ll be the quick access to background tasks and notifications for instance, without having to switch apps every time. App developers will play a critical role, to get their apps ready to utilise this dynamic space more efficiently. How many do, in the coming weeks and months, remains to be seen. One example of the utility is that while you may be working with some other apps as music plays in the background, simply tap on this island to bring up music controls. Without having to leave the current app. This is a significant convenience aspect, if all apps can start to use it better. Always-On display has been on Android phones for a while now, and finally makes its way to the Apple iPhones too. Albeit, Apple has a different take on it. Unlike Android phones which use a dark background with some information overlays, the iPhones will continue to show a wallpaper in the background. It’ll be darkened, of course, and if the wallpaper happens to have a person on it, the skin tones will likely be maintained too. The big one, however, must be the 48-megapixel camera. It’s been years, and Apple has proved its point with the 12-megapixel cameras over the years. We had called out the need for more megapixels for the software smarts to work with more photography data, and the iPhone 14 Pro models are the first (and only) to get this much needed upgrade. It is a quad pixel sensor – this means the data from a cluster of 4 pixels is combined into one large pixel. The photos you finally get will still be 12-megapixel, but there will be more data to work with for the algorithms. One of them is the new Photonic Engine upgrade, which now steps in to start processing images for output, from the uncompressed stage itself. That will likely mean more actual data for the final image, in terms of detailing and colour accuracy. The iPhone 14 Pro series displays are now at par with the latest generation iPad Pro displays. The peak rated outdoor brightness is 2000 nits – that’s significantly more than the latest generation Samsung Galaxy phone displays, which top out around 1500 nits. The iPhone 13 Pro displays had a ceiling of 1000 nits in similar use cases. The US models of iPhone 14 will not have a physical SIM slot. That means eSIMs only. Multiple eSIMs are possible on the same device. Globally, SIM slots remain, but the hints are there, for an eventual change. The iPhone 14 series gets satellite connectivity too, for Emergency SOS. This will be useful in situations where users require assistance but aren’t in the coverage area of any mobile network (and of course, a Wi-Fi network). The phone will tell you which direction to point to a satellite, and once connected, will allow users to send a message or connect with a helpline. Messages that are sent in emergencies, will be compressed before sending, to reduce size and thereby the time sent for transfer. This service goes live in US and Canada for now – no word yet on global availability. Two years of subscription is bundled with new iPhones. How much will it cost later, will be revealed in due course. The iPhone 14 series, just like the Apple Watch Series 8, have the Crash Detection feature. New hardware, which includes a dual-core accelerometer capable of detecting G-force measurements of up to 256Gs and a new high dynamic range gyroscope, will be able to detect if the iPhone user has been in a car accident. The barometer will detect cabin pressure changes while GPS data will be used to calculate speed changes. The iPhone will let users manually call for help, or automatically notify authorities. Apple says the algorithms have been trained on 1 million crash data sets, to understand different accident scenarios and vehicle movements and responses. The Apple iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max go on sale from September 14, with pre-orders beginning September 9. India, as has been the case in the last few years, is in the first wave of countries where the new iPhones will be launched. The iPhone 14 Pro prices start at Rs1,29,900 while the iPhone 14 Pro Max price tags are Rs1,39,900 onwards. Deep Purple is the new colour, though Silver, Gold and Space Black are the familiar carry overs.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Vishal Mathur is Technology Editor for Hindustan Times. When not making sense of technology, he often searches for an elusive analog space in a digital world.
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