Everything about the iPhone 14 Pro feels effortless. The design is professionally judged and modern, the software is simple to use, and the camera takes better photos than its predecessor.
Design
If you’ve seen iPhone 12 Pro or iPhone 13 Pro, then the iPhone 14 Pro will be very familiar. It has the same flat, square chassis that still feels a little too sharp in your hand, but it's made of stainless steel and is very nice. Apple's Ceramic Shield is above the screen and has tempered glass on the back. IP68 Waterproof rating adds confidence as the phone is protected from damage caused by accidental water leaks.
On the back, the camera module is large and stands out when the iPhone 14 Pro is not in a case, but with the three cameras clearly protruding, the phone never sits flat on any surface. It all adds up to a smartphone that is unmistakably iPhone. It's not a groundbreaking design, and there's nothing particularly flashy about it, but it's elegant and cool and fits every situation. It doesn’t require attention but will still catch the eye, especially if you choose purple.
Always-on screen
The new 6.1-inch Super Retina XDR screen has a 2556 x 1179 resolution and a 460ppi pixel density, with a few tricks up its sleeve. Before we get into the big changes, it's worth mentioning brightness. It typically hits 1,600 nits, but can be boosted to 2,000 nits outdoors in sunlight, and the difference is noticeable. There's an extra "bump" on startup, and the screen does get brighter and easier to read when the sun is shining.
However, the biggest and most obvious new screen feature is the always-on display. For years, Android phones have had always-on screens that show the time, battery, and notification icons on a black screen. Apple's always-on screen is essentially just a dimmed version of the lock screen, full color, with dynamic widgets and notification alerts. This is the Apple Watch always-on screen, right on your phone. It's also much more detailed than we've seen on any other phone, with the time and date highlighted in bright white font on your chosen wallpaper, and notifications clearly displaying icons and basic details for each notification.
Apple's 120Hz ProMotion feature is back and should be considered a strong reason to choose the Pro model over the standard iPhone 14. The higher refresh rate provides smoother scrolling and less jarring animations without causing as much eye strain. It becomes "invisible" quickly, but you'll definitely notice it's gone. When watching videos on iPhone 14 Pro, the screen delivers stunning colors, deep blacks, and perfect contrast. Even the stereo speakers are some of the best in the business. The sound was clear, powerful, and lifelike, and I could happily watch videos and listen to streaming music for long periods of time.
iPhone 14 Pro has a great screen that is sure to be more immersive and enjoyable to watch on the larger 6.7-inch iPhone 14 Pro Max
iOS 16 and Dynamic Island
Dynamic Island is Apple A colloquial name given to the replacement for the expanded pill-shaped notch at the top of the screen, is definitely a work in progress . For now, it's relatively simple, showing information about Bluetooth connectivity, screen and recording, face unlock alerts, and timers. Apple's Live Activities feature isn't ready yet, and developers haven't been given access. When these things happen in the near future, the usefulness of dynamic islands will increase.
iPhone 14 Pro comes with iOS 16 pre-installed. In addition to the new battery percentage display and nice tactility, a lot of work has been done on lock screen customization in iOS 16, and the new A16 Bionic processor powers it all with aplomb, and while I didn't encounter performance issues at any point, I'm not sure I can see any real difference between it and the A15 Bionic in the iPhone 13 Pro.
There is one key software advantage that makes living with an iPhone an enjoyable experience over many other phones, and that's software updates. Although Apple has not set a timetable for how long it will take for smartphones to officially support major iOS updates, the latest iOS 16 software can be traced back to for the iPhone 8 released in late 2017. There's reason to expect that the iPhone 14 Pro will continue to receive updates for another five years.
Camera
The iPhone 14 Pro’s camera is an improvement over the iPhone 13 Pro’s camera. It's not a lot, but the enhancements do make a difference. The main camera has 48 megapixels, while the wide-angle and telephoto cameras have 12 megapixels. We've compared the iPhone 14 Pro to the iPhone 13 Pro and Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4, taking a deep dive into its capabilities in different environments and how the new Photon Engine improves low-light zoom images.
iPhone 14 Pro can take 2x or 3x optical zoom photos, or extend to 0.5x wide-angle photos; for video, it can record up to 4K resolution at 60 frames per second (fps). It's versatile and satisfying, and while some might like to see the larger optical zoom of and , the 3x setting gets you pretty close. For this reason, I find the new 2x zoom more useful than the 5x zoom Apple added.
Face recognition is almost instant when using the rear camera, the app instantly recognizes and perfectly isolates text to copy and paste into other apps or messages, plus Siri Knowledge is very good at identifying plants and animals. The image editing suite is powerful, but the layout is cluttered, it's not particularly quick to use, and I found that the pre-made filters rarely enhanced my images. Samsung does a better job with filters, but its editing suite is less intuitive and I still often turn to apps like Snapseed to enhance my photos.
is probably enough for most people in most cases. For extra pro-style features you might not use often, the iPhone 14 Pro's camera is great. It captures exciting and vibrant photos in sunlight and detailed and balanced photos in darkness.
Battery and charging
The iPhone 14 Pro's battery performance has been poor compared to , but there are signs of improvement. Initially, the battery life never lasted more than a day, and with moderate use (around three to four hours of screen time), it dropped to less than 30 percent by the early evening—which made me crawl into it with some anxiety. A lot of use and charging is required at this point. This is also mostly connected to Wi-Fi, with no gaming at times - just GPS, camera, apps, a smattering of video, and a few hours of streaming music.
The arrival of in iOS 16.0.2 may also help optimize the system. While there's no specific mention of its benefits, the first version of iOS 16 also significantly reduced the battery life of my iPhone 13 Pro — suggesting software may be a factor in the relatively poor battery performance.
Apple doesn’t provide a charger with the iPhone 14 Pro, but it does include a USB Type-C to Lightning cable in the box. If you have Apple's 20-watt charging brick, you can expect the battery to charge to 50% in about 30 minutes.
Conclusion
If you already own an iPhone 13 Pro, there's not much new here unless you're really attracted to the always-on screen and Dynamic Island, and the same goes for anyone who owns an iPhone 12 Pro. Anyone who owned a iPhone prior to 12 will find this to be a sizable and worthwhile upgrade.
