There is still room in the mobile market for a compact smartphone with slight concessions from the flagship model. This is exactly what the iPhone 14 should be . In its new position, it should convince us that by betting on it, you will get a proven phone with great improvements compared to last year. But are there any at all?
The end of the mini model moves the iPhone 14 to the basic position
Already since 2020, Apple has kept its range of iPhones to a total of four mainline models and one SE model . It is no different in 2022, even though Apple removed the mini model from the offer . The cheapest iPhone of the new generation is therefore the iPhone 14 . It is this one that will compete in user preferences with its bigger brother, the iPhone 14 Plus .
Of course, the basic iPhone 14 offers a lot of better parameters compared to the cheapest iPhone SE, but in the review we are tasked with focusing on the new iPhone as a whole. We’ll talk about how Apple’s new product did, what it brought new, whether it keeps up with the competition and whether it’s actually worth thinking about buying it if you have, for example, the iPhone 13 .
Why change a proven look? The iPhone 14 retains its appearance
Apple continues with the proven construction with angular sides, which we could already see many years ago with the iPhone 4. The front and back are protected by durable glass , the sides are made of aluminum. The color variants of the iPhone 14 are slightly different compared to last year. While we could see the reviewed dark ink variant with the iPhone 13, as well as white and red, now we can also get the basic iPhone in purple and the new light blue.
We will look for further intergenerational changes in vain. It is even dimensionally identical except for a sixth of a millimeter in thickness. Apart from a possible different color and slightly larger lenses, you will not see the difference between them with the eye. Compared to the 14 Pro series , this year’s basic models retain the old form of the cutout, i.e. the so-called notch . The one with the iPhone 13 models brought narrowing, which helped to better concentrate the data displayed on its sides. On the matte sides, as a bonus, the physical silent mode activation button still remains.
With the absence of a mini model, the 6.1″ diagonal of the new iPhone 14 becomes the smallest in the main line. Only the 4.7″ iPhone SE is smaller . The OLED display covers most of the front side thanks to thin black frames. Its qualities are perfect – the high resolution ensures fineness of 460 ppi, it has a wide color gamut, great viewing angles and high brightness. But it lacks the high frequency of 120 Hz, i.e. the always-on display function from iOS 16 , and it is absolutely identical to that in the iPhone 13.
Brilliant endurance and interesting safety news of the iPhone 14
The iOS 16 operating system has been part of the phone since it was first taken out of the box. According to the manufacturer, no major performance improvements are needed for its smooth running. Therefore, the iPhone 14 retains the A15 Bionic processor with identical parameters, except for two. The graphics unit gained one more core and improved to a total of 5 cores. The camera and various applications will be served by the same 16-core neural unit for machine learning. The second novelty in the form of higher operating memory can please even more. With a 50% increase to 6GB, it matches the Pro models.
I have not witnessed any hesitation in the system. The chip is known to be so powerful that the iOS operating system itself makes good use of its capabilities. In reality, it is not a problem to torture the phone by launching many applications and then calling them up from the multitasking menu. Even the system itself seems to be problem-free in the initial public versions, not even a small glitch appeared during the testing period.
Another area where the operating system can play a role is battery life. Here I can happily state that the iPhone 14 is a joy to work with. The capacity has increased only slightly from its predecessor , but the actual test of use proved that almost 2 days of endurance is also realistic. However, the phone was not constantly connected to mobile data, rather I switched between data and WiFi. It’s a shame that you can still only charge 20 W by wire.
The iPhone 14 series brings more security, as the manufacturer has newly prepared a car accident detection mode. Fortunately, there was no opportunity to test this capability, but the iPhone has advanced its surroundings detection thanks to it.
For example, it newly integrates a gyroscope with a higher dynamic range and an overload-sensing accelerometer. Within the US and Canada, the function of sending emergency messages via satellite will also be launched soon in places where there is no regular carrier signal.
I have to praise Face ID face detection. Although it’s been largely unchanged for years, it still has an edge over the competition with its 3D facial mapping that boosts security, and unlocking works great even in the dark. You can also use Face ID for Apple Pay mobile payments . iPhone 14 gets Bluetooth in the new version 5.3 introduced in 2021 with a more stable connection.
