iPhone 14 Pro Is Better Than The Previous Generation In Many Aspects, But Not Enough To Justify An Upgrade From The iPhone 13 Pro. Stay With Us By Reviewing The iPhone 14 Pro Max.
2000 nits screen, more powerful and optimized chip than ever, 48-megapixel Camera, accident detection capability, satellite connection for sending emergency messages, always-on screen capability, and of course, a dynamic island (!); On paper, the iPhone 14 Pro has many small and large improvements compared to the previous generation.
Despite all the improvements and improvements of the iPhone 14 Pro, Apple’s new flagship should replace a smartphone that will hardly challenge even the powerful Android devices of 2022. Can the iPhone 14 Pro persuade users of the iPhone 13 Pro or older devices to upgrade? Can this expensive phone tempt die-hard Android fans to migrate to iOS?
Design and build quality of iPhone 14 Pro
Long before the introduction of the iPhone 14 Pro, we were almost sure that Apple was going to say goodbye to the notch in its professional iPhone family and thus place the selfie camera and FaceID equipment inside a capsule-shaped cavity; But no one knew that Apple wants to introduce a new way to interact with the phone based on this, and most importantly, call it Dynamic Island; dynamic island!
Unlike the notch, which disappeared in the middle of the content after a short period and the user’s mind got used to its existence, by the way, with the new iPhone design, Apple asks you to constantly pay attention to the Dynamic Island and make interaction with it part of your phone usage routine; At least that’s what comes out of iPhone promotional videos; Big and small windows that keep coming out of the capsule-shaped hole of the iPhone and involve you in a way.
Dynamic Island consists of two separate holes; One of the holes is circular and has the selfie camera in its heart, and the other, with its capsule form, hosts the Face ID system equipment. The Cupertino natives have placed a static image in black between the two holes to make the Dynamic Island collection look unified.
Since the iPhone 14 Pro’s panel is OLED, which effectively turns off pixels to display black, you won’t be able to tell the gap between the holes unless there’s an intense light shining on the phone’s surface. Note that the presence of this gap is necessary to enable interaction with Dynamic Island.
Depending on the application you are running, the Dynamic Island interface may take one of the following three states:
- When an application like Camera accesses the phone’s microphone or Camera, the dimensions of Dynamic Island do not change; But in the gap between the two holes, a green dot appears;
- When certain information or announcement is to be displayed, the Dynamic Island becomes more extensive and takes the shape of the letter i. When running two applications simultaneously, each icon will move to a corner of Dynamic Island.
- With a short touch of Dynamic Island, you will be transferred to the corresponding application. Still, with a long touch, the dimensions of the Dynamic Island window will increase, and some limited features for controlling the app will be available to you, such as stopping the timer or pausing the music.
- In situations such as receiving a call, the information and keys related to the call will be displayed in a small window that comes out of Dynamic Island.
Currently, Dynamic Island supports limited apps and features. Still, Apple has made a long list of APIs available to developers so that in the future, more apps will use the new interface of Cupertino residents to interact with the phone; For example, we can refer to the API related to living notifications, which allows us to view the status of an event such as a football match or an internet taxi request life from within the Dynamic Island window.
If we leave aside the removal of the notch, the iPhone 14 Pro has no other visual differences from the previous generation; We see the same design, rounded corners, and extremely high quality of construction in the new generation; With the difference that due to the use of a larger 48-megapixel sensor, the rear camera assembly has become larger and thicker, causing the phone to wobble heavily when used on a table surface.
If we want to look a little deeper, the iPhone 14 Pro Max is 0.5 mm narrower, 0.2 mm thicker, and 0.1 mm shorter than the previous generation. Thanks to the reduced width of the phone, several colleagues found the iPhone 14 Pro Max to be more comfortable to hold than the iPhone 13 Pro Max.
Just like what we expect from Apple products, the iPhone 14 Pro conveys an excellent feeling to the user; Of course, if you always have a microfiber cloth in your hand and wipe the stains on the steel and shiny phone frame. The back of the phone is matte and easily captivates you with its soft texture.
In a situation where we expected the pending bills to be approved by Europe, Apple would be forced to accept USB-C; But it didn’t happen this year, and the iPhone 14 Pro still uses the 10-year-old Lightning port with the thread-like and very slow USB 2.0 standard.
Apple has also changed the colors of iPhones this year; no more green, blue and gray colors, and dark purple and black colors have taken their place. iPhone 14 Pro does not experience any improvement in terms of water and dust resistance, and with the IP68 certificate, on paper, it can withstand water pressure at a depth of 6 meters for up to 30 minutes.
iPhone 14 Pro screen and speaker
The screen of the iPhone 14 Pro Max is 6.7 inches as before, But now, due to the removal of the notch, its resolution has increased slightly and is equal to 2,796 x 1,290 pixels. The iPhone display uses an OLED panel and now achieves much higher brightness; The residents of Cupertino state that the maximum brightness of the iPhone panel in very bright environments is 2000 nits, which is 250 nits more elevated than the 1750 nits of the Galaxy S22 Ultra.
The pixel density of 460 pixels brings an extremely high resolution for displaying texts and images, So that it is difficult to separate the pixels with the naked eye. iPhone 14 Pro screen supports HDR videos with HDR10 and Dolby Vision standards; Therefore, the iPhone panel must be at least 10-bit or capable of inducing the sense of colors with 10-bit depth (8bit + FRC). DCI P3 broad color space support is another prerequisite for HDR support.
Unlike Android phones that allow the user to choose between different color profiles, the iPhone automatically switches between the sRGB and DCI P3 color spaces; Therefore, in Zomit, we could not measure the level of coverage and the accuracy of DCI P3 color production in Apple’s flagship; But the iPhone 14 Pro Max works excellent in the field of sRGB color coverage; Balanced color temperatures and the highest accuracy of any phone we’ve reviewed so far on .
Under normal sunlight in Tehran, we achieved an automatic brightness of 1,388 nits, which is about 30% higher than the brightness of 1,065 nits obtained in the iPhone 13 Pro Max review; But when playing HDR10 video with a 50% raster pattern, the device’s brightness reached an incredible 2049 nits, which by a significant margin of 22% exceeds the brightness of 1682 nits achieved in the Galaxy S22 Ultra review.
| Nubia Red Magic 7S Pro display performance against competitors | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Product parameters | Minimum brightness | Manual maximum brightness | Automatic maximum brightness | Native contrast ratio | Average color error | |||||
| white | Black | white | Black | white | Default mode | The most accurate mode | ||||
| iPhone 14 Pro Max | ۲/۱۶ | ۰ | ۱۳۸۸ | ۰ | ۲۰۴۹ (HDR) | ∞ | 0.8 (sRGB space) | 0.8 (sRGB space) | ||
| iPhone 13 Pro Max | ۲/۰۷ | ۰ | ۱۰۶۵ | ۰ | ۱۴۴۹ (HDR) | ∞ | 1.1 (sRGB space) | 1.1 (sRGB space) | ||
| iPhone 13 | ۲/۰۵ | ۰ | ۹۹۹ | ۰ | ۱۳۷۹ (HDR) | ∞ | 1.5 (sRGB space) | 1.5 (sRGB space) | ||
| Galaxy S22 Ultra | ۲٫۵ | ۰ | ۰ | ۱۶۸۲ | ∞ | ۳٫۲ (Vivid) | ۱٫۷ (Natural) | |||
| Xiaomi 12 Pro | ۲٫۰ | ۰ | ۵۸۲ | ۰ | ۱۳۷۷ | ∞ | ۳٫۶ (Vivid) | ۱٫۰ (Original) | ||
| Red Magic 7S Pro | ۴ | ۰ | ۵۷۱ | ۰ | ۸۸۴٫۵ | ∞ | ۴ (Vivid) | 2 (sRGB space) | ||
| Edge 30 Pro | ۲٫۴ | ۰ | ۶۸۰ | ۰ | ۹۶۵ | ∞ | ۳٫۲ (Saturated) | ۱٫۵ (Natural) | ||
| OnePlus 10 Pro | ۲٫۱ | ۰ | ۶۰۵ | ۰ | ۹۷۵ | ∞ | ۳٫۵ (Vivid) | ۰٫۸ (Natural) | ||
| Galaxy Z Flip 4 | ۱٫۱۸ | ۰ | ۶۴۲ | ۰ | ۱۱۸۷ | ∞ | ۳ (Vivid) | ۱٫۴ (Natural) | ||
| Galaxy Z Fold 4 (original) | ۰.۹۶ | ۰ | ۶۳۵ | ۰ | ۱۳۷۰ | ∞ | ۶ (Vivid) | ۳٫۵ (Natural) | ||
| Pixel 6 Pro | ۲/۱ | ۰ | ۶۰۲ | ۰ | ۱۱۳۷ | ∞ | ۲٫۴ (Adaptive) | ۱٫۳ (Natural) | ||
All the obtained results are the result of Zomite tests in the same laboratory conditions.
The screens of both iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max models use ProMotion technology as before; In the sense that in the user interface environment and some applications, the refresh rate changes between 10 and 120 Hz depending on the content on the screen. Apart from the variable refresh rate between 10 and 120 Hz, the new iPhones also support a refresh rate of 1 Hz, although this rate is only activated in the locked state of the phone, and it sets the conditions for the new and expected feature of the iOS world, “always-on screen” . provides
As before, iPhone 14 Pro Max uses the combination of two speakers at the bottom of the frame and the top edge of the phone in the form of stereo speakers. Loudness and sound quality are no different from the iPhone 13 Pro Max and we see a very good balance between the sound intensity of the upper and lower channels. The iPhone performs much better in the low frequencies than the Galaxy S22 Ultra, producing punchier bass; But in the middle frequencies, it leaves a little of its competitor. In terms of volume, it is superior to Apple’s flagship.
iPhone 14 Pro user interface and software
iPhone 14 Pro uses iOS 16 operating system by default; Previously, Marjan Sheikhi reviewed iOS 16 in a comprehensive article and shared with you the fine and big improvements and changes of Apple’s new operating system compared to the past; Therefore, we invite you to refer to the mentioned article to read about the features of iOS 16.
Regardless of the software features of iOS 16, Apple’s new flagship device also packs a few special software features that older devices will not have access to when updating to iOS 16. These features include an always-on display, crash detection, and satellite connectivity to send emergency messages.
Unlike Android devices, the always-on display on the iPhone 14 Pro does not offer any customization and can only be enabled/disabled. iPhone AOD also behaves differently; Firstly, it doesn’t display much different content than the lock screen and keeps the whole screen bright, secondly, it can be very dark or very bright depending on the ambient light.
Since the brightness of the environment is variable, it is not possible to say exactly what effect AOD has on battery consumption; But based on ‘s tests in daylight and indoors, with AOD turned on in Idle mode, the phone consumes 0.7% of battery every hour, and in AOD disabled mode, this number reaches about 0.5%.
Performance, gaming experience and battery life of iPhone 14 Pro
This year, Apple made the border between the pro and normal iPhone models bolder; While the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus use the A15 chip used in the iPhone 13 Pro , the more expensive iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max devices are powered by the new A16 Bionic chip. The A16 chip has the same structure as the previous generation, combining 2 high-power cores and 4 low-power cores as CPU and 5-core graphics.
The A16 Bionic chip is produced based on TSMC’s 4nm manufacturing process, this process does not make a huge difference in terms of transistor density, therefore the number of transistors in Apple’s new chip has increased from 15 to 16 billion with a slight improvement of 6%.
The A16 central processor is powered by a combination of two high-power 3.46 GHz cores with the Everest code and four low-power 2.02 GHz cores with the Sawtooth code. Apple doesn’t put a number on the CPU performance improvement, just saying “high-powered cores faster than the A15 Bionic”; But it claims that high-power cores consume up to 20% less power, and low-power cores consume “one-third of the competitors’ power.” The Cupertino natives say their new chip’s CPU is up to 40 percent faster than the “closest competitor’s chip.”
Research shows that each of the powerful cores have 8 MB of L2 cache and 192 KB of L1 cache; While the set of low-power cores have access to 4 MB of common L2 cache. Apple Cash has reduced the A16 system chip, which all chip modules use, from 32 MB in the previous generation to 24 MB.
The A16 Bionic chip uses a 5-core graphics processing unit; But Apple is not talking about the amount of GPU performance improvement compared to the previous generation. The 16-core A16 neural processing engine, with a slight improvement of 7.5%, is now capable of 17 trillion operations. At the Far Out event, Apple spoke of a 50% increase in memory bandwidth in the A16 chip; A topic that implicitly refers to the DRAM upgrade from LPDDR4X-4266 to LPDDR5-6400.
Other key features of the A16 Bionic include an updated Image Signal Processor (ISP); A processor that comes from the main processing of images recorded with the 48 megapixel iPhone 14 Pro camera and Cinematic video recording with 4K resolution. Apple says that the new ISP, along with the CPU and GPU and neural processing engine, is capable of performing 4 trillion operations on photos.
| iPhone 14 Pro Max storage performance compared to the previous generation | ||
|---|---|---|
| Models, performance | Sequential Read Rate (MB/s) |
Sequential write rate (MB/s) |
| iPhone 14 Pro Max | ۱۶۵۷ | ۱۲۴۳ |
| iPhone 13 Pro Max | ۱۶۰۰ | ۱۲۴۸ |
*All the benchmarks mentioned in this table have been implemented by .
iPhone 14 Pro, like the previous generation, is sold in four versions with storage memory of 128, 256 and 512 GB along with a 1 TB model. Reviews show that Apple’s new flagship also uses 6GB of DRAM. As you can see, the performance of the storage memory of the new phone is no different from the previous generation.
iPhone 14 Pro is about 8% faster in single-core processing and 12% faster in multi-core processing than iPhone 13 Pro; Therefore, considering the 7% increase in frequency from 3.24 to 3.45 GHz, it seems that the architecture of the high-powered A16 cores is not much different from the previous generation. In terms of comparison with Android devices, the Apple flagship is about 50% faster than both the Exynos and Snapdragon Galaxy S22 Ultra versions, and about 28% faster than the Red Magic 7S Pro gaming phone with Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chip.
| iPhone 14 Pro Max performance against competitors | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name and performance of the benchmark / product | PCMark | Speedometer 2.0 | GeekBench 5 | GFXBench | ||||||||||
| Overall performance | browser | GPU | Central processor | Game simulator (frame rate) | ||||||||||
| Volcano/Metal | Single Core Multi Core |
Aztec Ruins Onscreen/1440p |
Car Chase Onscreen/1080p |
|||||||||||
| OpenGL | Vulkan | Metal | OpenGL | Metal | ||||||||||
| iPhone 14 Pro Max (ProMotion) |
— | ۳۸۶ | ۱۵۲۰۸ | ۱۸۸۷ ۵۴۱۳ |
— | ۵۴٫۵ ۴۱٫۶ |
— | — | ۵۹٫۹ ۱۰۹٫۸ |
|||||
| iPhone 13 Pro Max (ProMotion) |
— | ۲۴۷ | ۱۴۳۲۶ | ۱۷۴۵ ۴۸۱۳ |
— | — | ۵۴٫۷ ۴۱٫۴ |
— | ۵۹٫۹ ۱۱۴٫۸ |
|||||
| iPhone 13 | — | ۲۴۳ | ۱۰۷۸۵ | ۱۷۳۹ ۴۶۰۶ |
— | — | ۵۱٫۸ ۴۱٫۲ |
— | ۵۹٫۹ ۱۰۲٫۳ |
|||||
| Galaxy S22 Ultra (Adaptive 1080p) |
۱۴۲۴۱ | ۱۱۹ | ۵۸۳۵ | ۱۲۳۹ ۳۵۵۱ |
۵۸ ۳۸ |
۶۱ ۴۳ |
— | ۸۱ ۹۲ |
— | |||||
| Red Magic 7S Pro (120 Hz) |
۱۴۱۳۹ | ۷۴٫۲ | ۷۱۳۳ | ۱۳۳۹ ۴۲۳۶ |
۶۳ ۴۷ |
۶۵ ۵۱ |
— | ۸۱ ۱۰۳ |
— | |||||
| Galaxy Z Fold 4 (main display – Adaptive) |
۱۴۳۴۳ | ۱۱۳ | ۶۲۵۳ | ۱۳۲۷ ۳۷۶۰ |
۴۳ ۴۱ |
۴۰ ۴۲ |
— | ۶۰ ۹۶ |
— | |||||
| Xiaomi 12 Pro (Dynamic 1080p) |
۱۲۸۴۱ | ۷۹٫۶ | ۶۵۱۲ | ۱۲۴۶ ۳۷۱۸ |
۵۷ ۳۸ |
۵۸ ۴۱ |
— | ۷۷ ۸۹ |
— | |||||
* All the benchmarks mentioned in this table have been implemented by .
The effect of the huge bandwidth of DRAM and the extraordinary single-core performance of the iPhone 14 Pro can also be clearly seen in the web surfing experience; Where the iPhone outperforms the Snapdragon version of the Galaxy S22 Ultra by a gap of 200%.
In graphics processing, the gap between the iPhone and the rest of the phones, at least the devices equipped with the Snapdragon chip, becomes less. Apple’s graphics processing unit performs up to 160% better than the Galaxy S22 Ultra in general calculations such as HDR algorithm implementation; But in games, we see more or less the same performance or about 20% better than the iPhone.
iPhone 14 Pro also shows good performance stability in heavy and continuous use. In the 20-minute test, where the phone’s chip is subjected to heavy pressure and the body heats up, the iPhone 14 Pro Max had a performance drop between 16 and 23%; While the Snapdragon version of the Galaxy S22 Ultra experienced a performance drop of about 50% and the Galaxy Z Fold 4 by over 28%. After the performance drop, the iPhone 14 Pro Max shows more or less the same performance as the Z Fold 4; But it is 55-86% better than both versions of S22 Ultra.
Apple’s new flagship also performs very well in playing games. The heavy and open-world game Genshin Impact, which severely challenges any flagship phone, does not involve the device’s hardware resources even with the highest graphics settings on the iPhone 14 Pro Max, and runs at a frame rate of 55 to 60 frames per second without noticeable frame loss; While the Snapdragon version of the Galaxy S22 Ultra achieves an average rate of 45 frames per second in the same conditions.
The battery capacity of iPhone 14 Pro Max has not only increased, but with a decrease of 29 mAh, it is about 4323 mAh, which is not very impressive compared to the giant batteries used in Android devices. Apple says the iPhone 14 Pro Max can play up to 29 hours of video or 95 hours of music.
| iPhone 14 Pro Max battery performance against competitors | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Product, test | Display | battery | Time required for charging | Video playback | PCMark | |
| Dimensions and resolution | milliampere hour | minute: hour | minute: hour | minute: hour | ||
| iPhone 14 Pro Max (ProMotion) |
6.7 inches 2796 x 1290 pixels |
۴۳۲۳ | 1:49 with a 20-watt charger |
۳۱:۳۰ | — | |
| iPhone 13 Pro Max (ProMotion) |
6.7 inches 2778 x 1284 pixels |
۴۳۵۲ | 1:45 with a 20-watt charger |
۳۵:۱۷ | — | |
| Galaxy S22 Ultra (Adaptive 1080p) |
6.8 inches 3088 x 1440 pixels |
۵۰۰۰ | N/A | ۲۰:۴۳ | ۱۰:۴۹ | |
| Red Magic 7S Pro (120 Hz – no fan) |
6.8 inches, 2400 x 1080 pixels |
۵۰۰۰ | 00:41 with a 65-watt charger |
۱۷:۰۰ | ۱۱:۴۷ | |
| Galaxy Z Fold 4 (main display – Adaptive) |
7.6 inches 2176 x 1812 pixels |
۴۴۰۰ | 1:19 with a 25-watt charger |
۲۱:۱۵ | ۹:۱۹ | |
| Xiaomi 12 Pro (Dynamic 1080p) |
6.73 inches 3200 x 1440 pixels |
۴۶۰۰ | 00:18 with a 120 watt charger |
۳۱:۲۲ | ۷:۴۴ | |
* All the benchmarks mentioned in this table have been implemented by .
In ‘s laboratory conditions with 200 nit screen brightness, flight mode and speaker mute, the iPhone 14 Pro Max was able to play 31 hours and 30 minutes of benchmark video with 720P resolution. Therefore, charging the new Apple flagship while playing video is about 4 hours less than the previous generation; But with a difference of 8 to 10 hours, it is placed higher than the Galaxy S22 Ultra.
The residents of Cupertino have not made any changes in iPhone charging technology either, there is no news of USB-C charging port, nor do we see any trace of 10-watt charging technology. Apple’s new flagship can be charged with USB Power Delivery-based wired chargers with a power of up to 20W, a MagSafe wireless charger with a power of 15W, or a Qi charging pad with a power of 7.5W.
iPhone 14 Pro camera
The arrangement, type and number of rear cameras of the iPhone 14 Pro does not experience a noticeable difference compared to the iPhone 13 Pro; Again, we see the familiar triple combination with wide, ultra-wide and telephoto modules along with the ToF depth measurement module, but Cupertino residents have made significant changes in the iPhone camera both in terms of hardware and software. In the following, we will learn more about the details and technical specifications of each module.
The main (wide) Camera of iPhone 14 Pro / Pro Max experiences the most impressive changes compared to other modules; For the first time, Apple entered the game of megapixels and multi-ten megapixel cameras, several years later than its competitors. The main Camera uses a large 48 megapixel sensor with dimensions of 1.28/1 inch and 1.22 micrometer pixels; Thus, the iPhone 14 Pro’s wide camera sensor is 65% larger than the previous generation and 3% larger than the 108 megapixel sensor of the Galaxy S22 Ultra.
On the sensor surface of the main Camera is the Quad-Bayer filter; In the sense that four neighboring pixels see the same color and as a result the final photo is recorded with a resolution of 12 megapixels and large pixels measuring 2.44 micrometers. The sensor’s larger surface area and larger pixel dimensions allow the iPhone to take “up to 2x better photos in the dark,” according to Apple.
Apple says that the iPhone 14 Pro’s main camera uses the second generation of the Sensor-shift stabilization system (the neutralization of image vibration by moving the sensor instead of the lens). The iPhone’s wide-angle Camera uses a narrower f/1.8 lens instead of f/1.5 to compensate for the effect of the sensor’s large size on reducing the focus range, and relies on Dual-Pixel phase detection technology for autofocus.
The large size of the sensor reduces the depth of field of the main iPhone 14 Pro camera; In the sense that in photographing close subjects, you will see the natural bokeh around the subject.
Apart from the natural bokeh, the iPhone 14 Pro’s main camera also maintains focus in a smaller range; For example, in the two photos below, which were recorded with iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro, you can see that Shabnam Tavi’s face is more detailed in the iPhone 13 Pro photo.
iPhone 14 Pro focus range
iPhone 13 Pro focus range
iPhone 14 Pro allows the user to shoot with full resolution of 48 megapixels only when RAW photography settings are enabled. In this mode, you will record multi-10 megapixel photos in DNG format, which have more details and give you more freedom of action when editing the photo.
The difference between the details of the 12 and 48 megapixel photos of the iPhone 14 Pro
With the help of the large dimensions of 48 megapixel photos, Apple provides the user with the possibility of taking pictures with 2 times magnification. These photos are recorded by making a cut from the middle of the 48 megapixel image of the main Camera; Therefore, they have a lot of clarity and detail. Double zoom mode can also be used when shooting portraits.
2x portrait photo of iPhone 14 Pro
Crop the photo in real dimensions
The ultrawide Camera is 12 megapixels as before; But it uses a much larger 1/2.55-inch sensor with 1.4 micrometer pixels. This sensor is located in front of a lens with an aperture of f/2.2, and by using Dual-Pixel autofocus, it also provides the possibility of macro photography from very close distances. Relying on a 96% increase in sensor area, Apple says the ultrawide Camera can now take up to 3x better photos in the dark.
The telephoto camera is no different from the previous generation; Again, we see a 12-megapixel module with dimensions of 1/3.5 inches and 1.0 micrometer pixels, along with a lens with an aperture of f/2.8, optical zoom 3 times compared to the image of the main Camera, OIS optical stabilization and phase detection autofocus. Apple claims that the telephoto camera takes up to 2x better photos in the dark; An improvement that goes back more than anything to the improvement of the image processing algorithm.
The selfie camera uses the same 12-megapixel, 1/3.6-inch sensor, with the difference that it is now behind a lens with a wider aperture of f/1.9, and it also uses autofocus and OIS optical stabilization.
As before, the iPhone 14 Pro camera software uses Smart HDR, Night and Deep Fusion algorithms for daylight, darkness and non-ideal lighting, respectively.
- In medium to dark light conditions, the iPhone 14 Pro uses the Deep Fusion software algorithm with all of its cameras; An algorithm that records several frames and analyzes them at the pixel level and selects the best part of each, according to Apple’s claim, will produce clear photos with a lot of details.
- For daylight photography, the Smart HDR algorithm comes into play; An algorithm that uses the A16 neural processing engine to identify different parts of the subject and adjust the contrast, white balance, and exposure separately for each part to achieve realistic photos.
- Night mode , as the environment darkens, the phone records a number of frames at different exposure levels based on the available light intensity and combines the best part of each.
But what makes the difference now is Apple’s new Photonic Engine pipeline for the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max. Thanks to the Photonic Engine, the Deep Fusion algorithm can select the best parts of each frame from the earliest stages of the photography process and among several uncompressed frames to capture brighter and more detailed photos.
Comparison of iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro cameras
In order to understand how much the iPhone 14 Pro camera has improved, we compared its performance with the iPhone 13 Pro in various scenarios, from HDR photography to portraits and shooting in the dark.
HDR photography with iPhone
The iPhone 14 Pro is mostly close to the previous generation in terms of HDR and retrieving details from the bright shadows of the image; So you shouldn’t expect it to pull out the details of the clouds from the sunlight like the Pixel or Galaxy.
HDR iPhone 14 Pro photo
HDR photo of iPhone 13 Pro
In the photos above, the iPhone 14 Pro has a slightly wider dynamic range; But the higher contrast and more saturated colors of the iPhone 13 Pro have made the photo more pleasant.
Details of nearby subjects
The photos of the main Camera at reasonable distances from the subject are not much different from the previous generation in terms of details; But the colors seem to be a bit more realistic, with the iPhone 13 Pro recording more saturated and warmer colors.
Photo of iPhone 14 Pro from a close subject
Photo of iPhone 13 Pro from a close subject
Crop iPhone 14 Pro photo
Crop iPhone 13 Pro photo
Details of distant subjects
When we increase the distance from the subject, the iPhone 14 Pro appears slightly better than the iPhone 13 Pro; For example, in the photos below, if you pay attention to the slides, the new Apple flagship has slightly better details and better control over noise.
Photo of iPhone 14 Pro from a distant subject
Photo of iPhone 13 Pro from a distant subject
Crop iPhone 14 Pro photo
Crop iPhone 13 Pro photo
Details of ultrawide photos
With the help of its larger sensor, the ultra-wide Camera takes more detailed and less noisy photos than the iPhone 13 Pro.
iPhone 14 Pro ultrawide camera photo
iPhone 13 Pro ultrawide camera photo
Crop iPhone 14 Pro photo
Crop iPhone 13 Pro photo
Portrait photography with iPhone
As before, iPhone 14 Pro can take portrait photos with both wide and telephoto cameras. It seems that Apple’s new flagship separates the subject from the background more accurately than before. On the other hand, the details of the subject’s face are more and the skin texture is more natural; This also applies to telephoto cameras to a large extent.
iPhone 14 Pro main camera portrait photo
iPhone 13 Pro main camera portrait photo
Portrait photo of iPhone 14 Pro telephoto camera
Portrait photo of iPhone 13 Pro telephoto camera
Photography in the dark with an iPhone
In the completely dark environment of the studio, the ultrawide Camera of both phones takes unacceptable photos; But in comparison, the photo of the new phone is a little brighter and more detailed; Of course, definitely not as much as 3 times as Apple claims.
Photo of iPhone 14 Pro ultrawide camera in the dark
Photo of iPhone 13 Pro ultrawide camera in the dark
The superiority of the main iPhone 14 Pro Max camera is more noticeable in dark photography; Apple’s new flagship shows more attractive colors and a little more detail in this photo.
Photo of iPhone 14 Pro main camera in the dark
Photo of iPhone 13 Pro main camera in the dark
Unlike wide and ultra-wide cameras, the telephoto camera does not offer a significant advantage over the previous generation in dark photography.
Photo of iPhone 14 Pro telephoto camera in the dark
Photo of iPhone 13 Pro telephoto camera in the dark
Taking a selfie with an iPhone
The iPhone 14 Pro selfie camera records sharper and more detailed photos of the subject’s face; But the skin color in the iPhone 13 Pro photo looks a little more natural.
iPhone 14 Pro selfie
iPhone 13 Pro selfie
iPhone 14 Pro also experiences improvements in the field of filming; Cinematic Mode filming, due to which the focus was moved intelligently and the videos took on a cinematic mood, is now no longer limited to 1080p, and such videos can be shot with 4K resolution and 24 and 30 frames per second.
Action Mode, as the name suggests, is for filming moving subjects, this feature allows the user to create shake-free and bold videos with a resolution of 2.8K or 1584 x 2816 pixels by creating a crop on the 4K image of all three rear cameras. and get 60 frames per second.
iPhones have been the leader of the mobile world in the past few years when it comes to videography, and now this superiority has deepened with the iPhone 14 Pro.
Summary and comparison of iPhone 14 Pro
iPhone 14 Pro performs better than the previous generation in all areas; A more powerful chip, an excellent screen with extraordinary brightness and unmatched accuracy, more efficient cameras than before and Dynamic Island, which has the potential to create a trend similar to removing the headphone jack in the Android world; However, this feature has a long way to go.
With all this, it doesn’t seem like buying a new iPhone is a sensible decision, at least for iPhone 13 Pro users; Because the improvements and improvements of the phone are not so impressive as to justify the price difference of several million tomans; Unless spending an astronomical amount is really not an issue for you, in which case we envy you!
What do you think about the iPhone 14 Pro? Is Dynamic Island and the camera improvements enough to make it worth buying compared to the iPhone 13 Pro? Please share your comments with us.
Positive points
- Super bright and very accurate screen
- The fastest chip in the mobile world
- Dramatically improved performance stability
- Very efficient cameras
- Great filming experience
- Excellent charging
Cons
- Lack of USB-C port
- Charging speed lower than competitors
- Supplied without charger
- More weight than competitors
- Astronomical price