You probably already know that leaks got the fundamentals right: four new iPhone 14 models, with no “mini” among them this year, but a new large-screen “Plus” model at a cheaper price than the Pro Max.
Here is a quick run-down:
- iPhone 14 — $800 starting price, 6.1” 60Hz screen, A15 chip, dual camera
- iPhone 14 Plus — $900 price, 6.7” 60Hz screen, A15 chip, dual camera, big battery
- iPhone 14 Pro — $1,000 price, 6.1” 120Hz screen, A16 chip, triple camera
- iPhone 14 Pro Max — $1,100 price, 6.7” 120Hz screen, A16 chip, triple camera, big battery
With this out of the way, let’s explore the 10 wild cards and how Apple resolved our earlier expectations around those.
1. Battery life
Apple kept the iPhone 14 battery life a secret, with no substantial leaks about that, but the reason might have just been that… there is practically nothing new about it!
Last year’s iPhone 13 battery life was a surprisingly huge jump, and that was mostly thanks to Apple increasing battery sizes from anywhere between 6% and up to 20% on the Pro Max model.
This year, battery life numbers are the same on the Pro models compared to their last year counterparts, the regular 14 gets a very slight battery life increase, while the one surprise is that the new Plus model actually has the longest battery life of any iPhone, as per Apple.
2. Price increase
The rumors are for prices to go up by $100 in the United States, and… that did NOT happen. The iPhone 14 Pro still starts at $1,000 as before, and the Pro Max starts at $1,100.
But at the same time, prices for the new iPhones in other countries are actually much, much higher. In Europe, we have the following price increases: 150 euro, or nearly 15% higher price for the 14 Pro, and 200 euro, an even bigger price increase for the 14 Pro Max model. These prices are just insane, and chances are they will actually hinder iPhone Pro model sales in Europe in the future.
3. What happens to older models?
The one mystery that no rumors talk about is what will happen to the existing iPhone lineup!
Well, here is the current lineup:
- iPhone 14, 14 Plus, 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max
- iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini — from $600
- iPhone 12 — from $600
- iPhone SE 3rd gen — from $430
The iPhone 11 is no longer available via the Apple Store, which means you no longer have a $500 iPhone option. The iPhone 12 64GB model remains at the same $600 price point it was before that.
So this year, the only bargain happening is that prices for the iPhone 13 and 13 mini get slashed by $100, but that’s about it.
4. Double the storage in Pro models?
Another mystery around the iPhone 14 Pro series was the amount of storage they will have.
Some rumors claimed base storage will double to 256GB on the Pros, but after the event, we now know that this is not happening. Base iPhone Pro models still start at 128GB of storage.
A recent poll we ran showed an overwhelming majority of people think that 256GB of storage is actually the sweet spot for their devices, so keep that in mind.
5. Satellite connectivity
Mysterious satellite connectivity that gives your iPhone signal even in the most remote location! That sounds like a dream come true, and while it sounded exciting, we had our doubts it would actually happen. Well, it has!Apple’s partner in this endeavor, satellite operator GlobalStar, had acquired 17 new satellites in early 2022 to provide “continuous satellite services” to a “potential customer,” and obviously putting them to good use now.
6. Charging speeds
I don’t know about you, but I hate charging devices over night.
Some companies like Xiaomi and Oppo have shown that super fast charging that is safe for the battery is very much possible. Apple, on its part, however, has not adopted any of that opting for slower “safe” charging speeds for the iPhone 13 family.
The iPhone 13 Pro Max was the fastest in that lineup with 27W supported speed and the 13 Pro could charge at up to 23W, but we see Xiaomi and OnePlus phones now charging at 150W or faster.
Will Apple change that in the iPhone 14 series? We doubted that and for a good reason. There are no changes to charging speeds this year.
7. Actual physical size of the Pro models
Another mystery we were waiting to see resolved was around the actual physical size of these new iPhones, and more specifically the Pro models.
Early mockups of the Pro versions showed noticeably smaller borders around the screen, and in addition to that, a slightly different screen aspect ratio (narrower 20:9 vs 19.5:9 before). It turns out, the thinner borders came true, but the physical size of the new iPhones is only marginally different:
8. 5G Connectivity
iPhones entered the 5G era two years ago with the iPhone 12 family, but the current iPhone 13 series use an older Qualcomm X60 modem, while the iPhone 14 is likely to switch to the newer and more capable Qualcomm X65 modem. This is the same radio chip used in many other Android phones like the Galaxy S22 series and it comes with a promise for better signal reception.This is not confirmed just yet as we have to wait for teardowns, but we would bet it’s the case. Also, no, the iPhone 14 family does NOT support Wi-Fi 6E, but it does come with newer Bluetooth 5.3 connections.
9. What’s the real performance difference?
One thing leaks have been very clear about is that only iPhone 14 Pro versions will get the newer Apple A16 processor, and that is indeed the case, but this chip was a bit of a wild card in terms of actual performance.
And what do you know, Apple preferred to talk about how much faster the A16 is compared to Android phones rather than the preceding A15 chip, which tells us the difference is not all that big.
The highlights of the A16 include 4nm manufacturing process, nearly 16 billion transistors (up from 15 billion on the A15), faster 6-core CPU, 50% more memory bandwidth for complex graphics, and a power efficient performance.
Another mystery surrounding the new iPhone series is whether they will make the switch to faster LPDDR5 type RAM, and we’d need to see the teardowns to confirm that.
10. Cinematic Mode, 8K video and Audio Quality
There are two features in the camera department that remain a wild card: Cinematic Mode and 8K video.
8K video was what everyone expected, but it has not happened. Apple obviously does not say why, but if you were to ask us, few people would actually need 8K video and recording sizes would have been super large.
Last but not least, we are curious to hear if the iPhone 14 models will receive improved speakers. Last year, Apple did not even mention the speakers at its event, yet there was a massive improvement in the sound quality out of them. We are yet to test that.
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