Apple announces iPhone 14 models, cheapest is 1019 euros

Apple has announced the iPhone 14 models at its own event. There will be four models. The 14 Pro uses the notch in the screen as an ‘island’ for displaying notifications and controls.

The iPhone 14 models will have a way to send emergency messages via satellite communications. Emergency SOS Via Satellite. That only works in the US and Canada and works by pointing the phone towards a communications satellite via the software. This is necessary to replace a large antenna. An emergency message can then be sent with pre-clicked options. The call is sent to emergency services via the ground station and possibly a call center. Sending a message takes between 15 seconds and a few minutes. The feature works with an additional subscription, which is free for iPhone 14 owners for the first two years. What the price will be after that is unknown.

Screen

The iPhone 14 and 14 Plus have OLED screens that go up to 1200 candela per square meter according to the manufacturer, but there is no option for a higher refresh rate. This keeps the phones at 60Hz.

The 14 Pro and Pro Max have a new screen with an elongated notch in the screen, and Apple uses that as a notification bar. The manufacturer calls this the Dynamic Island. It can get wider and narrower for notifications and showing controls and other information. When playing music, the album cover is on it.

The screens come up to 2000 candela per square meter. Increasing the brightness is something that can be seen in many expensive smartphones. The screen also has support for Always-On Display, to always show info on the lockscreen.

Cameras

The Pro and Pro Max have a 48-megapixel camera with a sensor of 71 square millimeters, a lot larger than the sensor of previous iPhones. The software combines four pixels into one pixel, as competing phones have been doing for years. Full resolution is available in ProRAW mode. Compared to Android phones, the sensor is medium in size, with an optical size of around 1/1.3″ and an f/1.8 aperture lens. Apple also uses the sensor to add a ‘2x’ option. in the software, which takes pictures with 12 megapixels.

The camera of the 14 and 14 Plus has a sensor measuring 44 square millimeters, larger than that of the 13 and 13 mini and the same size as that of the 13 Pro. The lens has an aperture of f/1.5.

The Pro models have an ultra-wide-angle camera with a sensor measuring 23 square millimeters, approximately 1/2.3″ and twice the size of the iPhone 13 Pro. The previous-generation autofocus for macro photos also returns. The 14 and 14 Plus get the same ultra-wide-angle camera as the iPhone 13. Nothing changes with regard to the camera with telephoto lens of the Pro models.

The software of the new iPhones contains Photonic Engine, a way to apply Deep Fusion to unprocessed photos. This should improve low-light photos from all cameras. The video app gets Action Mode, a way to apply extra stabilization to videos.

The iPhone 14s have a new front camera with a resolution of 12 megapixels and autofocus. It is the first time that the front cameras of new iPhones have autofocus. Until now, the front cameras have worked with fixed focus.

Hardware

Apple A16

The 14 Pro and Pro Max have the A16 Bionic with 16 billion transistors. It is a 4nm soc, made by TSMC. It is a hexacore CPU with two performance cores and four energy-efficient cores. There is a pentacore GPU and Neural Engine with 16 cores.

The 14 and 14 Plus have the A15 Bionic with pentacore GPU, like the 13 Pro and Pro Max. The 13 and 13 mini have a variant with quad-core GPU. This is the first time that an iPhone has the same soc as its predecessor.

The American version of the iPhones no longer have a SIM card slot. It was the first phone with nano-SIM in 2012 and the first with micro-SIM in 2010. Now it is the second mainstream phone to switch to e-SIM in a major market, after the Motorola razr from 2019.

Release and price

The iPhone 14 will cost 1019 euros. That is 210 euros more than the iPhone 13 mini last year. The iPhone 14 Plus costs from 1169 euros, which is about the same as the 13 Pro last year. The 14 Pro starts at 1329 euros, the Pro Max at 1479 euros. The higher prices are due to the exchange rate of the euro against the dollar: in the US the suggested retail prices are the same as last year.

Apple 14 Pro