Iphone 14 and Iphone 14 Plus: Everything You Need to Know
After being officially released on September 16, iPhone 14 has become increasingly popular in the world. The phone, which has always carried a premium theme, has begun to be hunted by many fans.
These Apple product lovers are curious about the various new features and technologies embedded in it.
Since the launch of the iPhone 14 in the United States, people's enthusiasm is quite high. But as usual, iPhone 14 enthusiasts in other countries must be patient first, because to get this iPhone 14 you can only pre-order.
Then, what is this iPhone 14 like? What are the features? What new technologies are embedded by Apple in this new phone?
Overview
In this launch, Apple presents several iPhone models, namely iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, then iPhone 14 Pro, and iPhone 14 Pro Max.
But in this article, we will only talk about iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus. Although there are some "How to" tutorials that might also be valid for iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max models.
iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus are the latest iPhone models from Apple which were launched together with iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max. The difference is, iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus is sold at a more "affordable" price, compared to iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max.
iPhone 14 has a screen size of 6.1 inches, while iPhone 14 Plus has a 6.7 inch screen. And that is a fundamental difference between iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus.
After decades of product launches, this year Apple is making its "Plus" iPhone model back. This reminds us of the iPhone 8th generation where at that time the iPhone 8 Plus model was also available.
Meanwhile, Apple this year no longer includes the "mini" iPhone in its product launch. Also read After Apple September, Apple will Announce Next Product Releases in October
Design
The design of the iPhone 14 is similar to iPhone 13 which has a flat edge display, aerospace-grade aluminum enclosure, and a glass back to support wireless charging. This has also become a hot topic among iPhone users who think iPhone 14 is like iPhone 13, which only changed its name.
And that's the fact. Overall in design, iPhone 14 and iPhone 13 are identical. Apple just made iPhone 14 more colorful. It is made in several colors: blue, purple, midnight, starlight, and (PRODUCT) RED models framed by an aerospace-grade aluminum frame to match the model colors.
The dimensions of the iPhone 14 are 5.78 inches (146.7mm) in height, 2.82 inches (71.5mm) wide, and 0.31 inches (7.80mm) thick, very similar to iPhone 13 except in thickness.
iPhone 14 weighs 6.07 ounces (172 grams), slightly lighter than iPhone 13.
Meanwhile, iPhone 14 Plus measures 6.33 inches (160.8mm) in height, 3.07 inches (78.1mm) wide, and 0.31 inches (7.80mm) thick, and weighs in at 7.16 ounces (203 grams).
What about the "notch" previously available on the iPhone 13?
Apple still includes the notch on the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus, but not on the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max. This "notch" houses the TrueDepth camera, speaker, and microphone.
What about the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max? They don't have a notch anymore, but "Dynamic Island".
On the top and sides, there is a set of antenna bands. The power button is on the right and the volume button and silence switch is on the left. Below this power button is the mmWave 5G antenna, although this is limited to iPhone 14 models sold in the United States only.
The speaker and microphone holes are still located at the bottom, along with the Lightning port for charging. While the SIM Card slot has been completely removed because it uses eSIM technology (for outside the United States it may still exist).
Camera
What features are in the Front Camera?
According to macrumors.com, iPhone 14 has an updated 12-megapixel front camera with an aperture of /1.9 and is designed to let in more light than ever before for those of you who like selfies or FaceTime video calls. The camera also features autofocus – the first for an iPhone – which can also improve image quality, and selfies in low light are up to twice as good as before.
The front camera also has the same features as the rear camera, such as a night mode for selfies, Smart HDR 4, Dolby Vision HDR recording, Deep Fusion, and the new Photonic Engine, along with ProRes and Cinematic modes for shooting videos with depth-of-field like in the movie.
4K video recording, QuickTake video, Slo-mo video, Portrait mode, Portrait Lighting, and Photography Style features for selectively applying edits are also supported.
Rear Camera with Dual Lens
The iPhone 14 and 14 Plus are equipped with a dual-lens camera setup featuring a 12-megapixel Wide lens – what Apple calls a “Main” lens – and a 12-megapixel Ultra Wide lens.
On the iPhone 14, Apple has also updated the Main camera with an aperture of ƒ/1.5, an improvement over the ƒ/1.6 aperture used on the iPhone 13 camera. The new lens has a larger sensor, which allows more light for better enhancements under conditions of bad lighting though.
According to Apple, the new primary camera lets in 49 percent more light than the iPhone 13 camera.
Meanwhile, its Ultra Wide Camera hasn't been updated, and there's no Telephoto lens like the one on the 14 Pro and Pro Max. Both the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus are limited to 2x optical zoom out and up to 5x digital zoom.
Photonic Engine
What's new on the iPhone 14 is the Photonic Engine feature. Photonic Engine is a software feature in the iPhone 14 built on Deep Fusion. The Photonic Engine is applied early in the imaging process to provide more detail, maintain fine textures, and improve photo color sharpness.
According to Apple, this Photonic Engine offers a "giant leap" for photo performance in medium to low light intensity in photos and works well for both rear and Ultra Wide lenses. With the Photonic Engine, you'll get up to 2.5x better low-light photos with the Main camera and 2x better low-light photos with the Ultra Wide camera.
Video Capability
Both the iPhone 14 and 14 Plus offer video recording at up to 4K resolution at 24, 25, 30, or 60 fps. HDR recording, ProRes video, slo-mo video, and time-lapse are all supported too.
Apple added a new Action mode designed to deliver smooth-looking video that ignores shake, motion, and vibration. This action mode records up to 2.8K at 60 frames per second.
More Camera Features
There are also several other features on the iPhone 14 camera.
Smart HDR 4
This feature is capable of recognizing up to four people in a scene and will optimize contrast, exposure, and even skin tone for each person so that everyone looks perfect.
Photography Style
A feature that has smart filters and can be adjusted for things like enhancing or muting colors without affecting skin tone. This style applies selectively to a specific part of the image, unlike filters on other phones that are applied to the entire image.
These Photographic Styles include Vibrant (enhances colors), Rich Contrast (darker shadows and deeper colors), Warm (increases gold tones), or Cool (promotes blue tones). Tone and Warmth can be adjusted for each style, so you can get the exact look you want.
Night mode
This feature works by taking a series of pictures over a few seconds and combining them to improve the quality of photography in extreme low-light situations. Night mode exposure can be 2x faster with iPhone 14 Main camera.
Deep Fusion
Deep Fusion works in medium to low lighting conditions to bring out texture and detail in images.
Portrait Mode
A feature that functions to keep the camera's focus on the subject of the photo while blurring the background.
Portrait Lighting
This feature changes the lighting of Portrait mode photos with effects that include Natural, Studio, Contour, Stage, Stage Mono, and High-Key Mono.
True Tone Flash
True Tone flash is a built-in flash, designed to match the ambient lighting so it doesn't throw off the white balance of the photo when in use. This iPhone 14 flash is brighter and has a more consistent exposure.
Panorama
Feature to capture panoramic shots up to 63 megapixels.
Burst mode
The Burst Mode feature allows a series of images to be captured at once. This feature is especially good for high-action shots.
Face ID
Both the iPhone 14 and 14 Plus continue to use Face ID which is a facial recognition system that was first introduced in 2017.
This Face ID feature is used in iOS to unlock iPhones, allowing access to third-party passcode-protected apps. Face ID is also used to confirm app purchases, authenticate Apple Pay payments, and more.
Face ID works through a set of sensors and cameras. The Dot Projector projects tens of thousands of invisible infrared dots onto the skin's surface to create a 3D facial scan that maps the curves and planes of each face, and the scan is then read by an infrared camera.
Then the face depth map is passed to the A15 chip which is then converted into a mathematical model that the iPhone uses to authenticate identity.
Display
In terms of appearance, Apple did not provide an update on the iPhone 14 screen when compared to the previous generation iPhone model, the iPhone 13. iPhone 14 and 14 Plus still feature OLED Super Retina XDR displays with a 2,000,000:1 contrast ratio for deeper blacks and brighter whites, and a peak brightness of up to 1200 nits for HDR photos, videos, TV shows, and movies.
What about the screen resolution? The iPhone 14 has a resolution of 2532 x 1170 with 460 pixels per inch, while the iPhone 14 Plus has a resolution of 2778 x 1284 with 458 pixels per inch.
The iPhone 14's extensive color support offers more vibrant and true-to-life colors, and its True Tone feature matches the screen's white balance with ambient lighting for a more eye-catching viewing experience.
There's also a fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating and support for Haptic Touch, which is capable of providing haptic feedback when interacting with the screen.
The iPhone 14 screen is protected by a "Ceramic Shield" material made by adding nano-ceramic crystals to the glass. These ceramic crystals are manipulated to optimize clarity while maintaining the toughness of the display, and this technology is a collaboration between Apple and its partner, Corning.
According to Apple, the Ceramic Shield is tougher than any smartphone glass, as there is a dual ion exchange process that ensures protection against scratches and wears and tear from everyday activities.
Unfortunately, ProMotion screen technology is not available on the iPhone 14 because this feature is limited to the Pro model.
Processor
Meanwhile, Apple is also using the same A15 chip as the iPhone 13 Pro model for this iPhone 14 model, but there is an updated internal design that allows for better thermal performance. Fyi, the A15 chip offers a 6-core CPU, 5-core GPU, and a 16-core Neural Engine.Although the CPU performance is almost the same as the iPhone 13, there are actually some modest improvements to the GPU. Apple also uses an updated internal design that provides better thermal efficiency.
Neural Engine
The 16-core Neural Engine in the A15 chip is capable of up to 15.8 trillion operations per second and supports features such as Cinematic mode and Smart HDR 4.
RAM
The iPhone 14 and 14 Plus comes with 6GB of RAM, an upgrade from the previous generation model which was only 4GB.
Storage Space
All iPhone 14 models start with 128GB of storage, and the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus can be ordered with up to 512GB of storage space. That's half the maximum storage space of the iPhone 14 Pro models, which come with up to 1TB.
5G Connectivity
iPhone 14 is equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon X65 modem that supports 5G connectivity. For iPhone 14 owners in the United States, owners can connect to both mmWave and sub-6GHz networks, while in other countries it's limited to sub-6GHz only.
The mmWave 5G network is the fastest 5G network, but the disadvantages of mmWave are only short distances and signal intensity can be obscured by buildings, trees, and other obstacles, so its use is limited to large cities and urban areas along with places such as concert areas, airports, and other places where many people congregate.
Meanwhile, Sub-6GHz 5G is more widespread and available in urban, suburban, and rural areas across the United States and other countries. Generally, when you use a 5G network, you will use this Sub-6GHz 5G.
Fyi, Sub-6GHz 5G is usually faster than LTE, especially when mid-band spectrum is used, but not always.
5G Bands
The iPhone 14 models in the United States support more than 20 5G bands. The following bands are supported:
- Sub-6GHz 5G - Bands n1, n2, n3, n5, n7, n8, n12, n14, n20, n25, n26, n28, n29, n30, n38, n40, n41, n48, n53, n66, n70, n71, n77, n78 n79
- mmWave 5G - Bands n258, n260, n261
LTE Bands
The iPhone 14 models continue to offer Gigabit LTE with 4x4 MIMO for connecting to LTE networks when 5G is unavailable. The following bands are supported:
- FDD-LTE - Bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 32, 66, 71
- TD-LTE - Bands 34, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 46, 48, 53
Bluetooth, WiFi, NFC, GPS, and U1
The iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus already support WiFi 6 (802.11ax) with 2x2 MIMO, and Bluetooth 5.3. An NFC chip with reader mode and a U1 Ultra Wideband chip has also been embedded. Meanwhile, the U1 provides increased spatial awareness, which allows the iPhone 14 to precisely locate other Apple devices equipped with the U1 as well.
The U1 chip can be used for precise trackings such as when searching for AirTags. This chip is also used for directional AirDrop and interaction with the HomePod mini with the U1 chip. As for GPS, iPhone 14 supports location services such as GPS technology, GLONASS, Galileo, QZSS, and BeiDou.
MagSafe
The MagSafe magnet is also still used on the iPhone 14 which is located on the back of the cover. With these magnets, the device can connect to MagSafe chargers and other magnetic accessories.Apple's official MagSafe charger, as well as any other authorized third-party charger, can wirelessly charge your iPhone 14 at up to 15W.
Qi-based charging is also available but maxes out at 7.5W.
Water and Dust Resistance
Apple has also included IP68 waterproof certification, which makes the iPhone 14 able to withstand a depth of 6 meters for up to 30 minutes.
In IP68, the number 6 refers to dust resistance which means the iPhone 14 is resistant to dirt, dust, and other particulates, while the number 8 relates to water resistance.
Fyi, IP6x is the highest dust resistance rating available. With an IP68 rating, iPhone 14 can withstand accidental splashes, rain, and water exposure. However, intentional exposure to water should still be avoided.
According to Apple, water and dust resistance is not a permanent condition and can deteriorate over time as a result of normal wear and tear. Apple's standard warranty doesn't cover liquid damage, so you should still use caution when using your iPhone 14, especially when it comes to liquids.
Crash Detection
iPhone 14 features a dual-core accelerometer that can measure up to 256Gs, and a high dynamic range accelerometer and gyroscope to power the Crash Detection feature.Both the iPhone 14 and 14 Plus can detect severe car accidents and automatically call emergency services when the car owner is seriously injured or unable to reach his iPhone. Apple has provided motion detection algorithms on more than one million hours of real-world accidents and driving data for accuracy purposes.
Also read Apple Watch Series 8: Equipped with Temperature Sensor and Crash Detector
Apple also uses other sensors to support this feature, such as a barometer that detects changes in cabin pressure, a GPS watch for rapid changes in speed, and a microphone that can listen to the sound of a car crashing.
Emergency SOS via Satellite
Another new feature on this Apple phone is the addition of an SOS Emergency sending feature via satellite. Apple said it had designed a new Emergency SOS via satellite feature to allow iPhone antennas to connect to satellites operated by Globalstar.This satellite communication is available in emergency situations where you can't connect to WiFi or cell towers, and it's designed for use in open spaces with few trees so iPhone can connect to satellites.
Apple has equipped the iPhone 14 with a guide interface that contains instructions on how to hold the iPhone to connect to the satellite. Apple has also developed a compressed messaging protocol, as sending data via satellite can take up to several minutes. In areas without trees, for example, a short message to emergency services can be sent in as little as 15 seconds.
Emergency SOS via satellite provides a series of important questions that you must answer when activated in order to obtain the necessary details for emergency personnel to respond as quickly as possible. Also read Huawei: The First Phone That Can Send Messages Via Satellite
The answer you provide will be sent directly to emergency services if text communication is supported in your area, or sent to a relay center staffed by Apple-trained specialists who can call emergency services on the user's behalf.
This service is free for two years. Apple has not specifically provided details on how much it will cost in the following year and the feature is currently only working in the US and Canada.
In addition to emergency needs, the service can also be used to share your location with your friends or family while hiking or camping in remote areas. Also read How to Track a Lost Cellphone with Google Find My Device
Battery
The iPhone 14 has a battery with a capacity of 3,279mAh, and the iPhone 14 Plus has a battery with a larger capacity of 4,325mAh. The iPhone 14 offers up to 20 hours of battery life for video playback, up to 16 hours for streaming video playback, and up to 80 hours for audio playback.
While on the iPhone 14 Plus, the battery can last for up to 26 hours of video playback, up to 20 hours of streaming video playback, and up to 100 hours of audio playback.
Both the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus are capable of fast charging and can charge up to 50 percent in 30 to 35 minutes with a power adapter of 20W or higher.
Pricing and Availability
The iPhone 14 starts at $799 for the 128GB storage model, while the iPhone 14 Plus starts at $899 for the 128GB storage model. Additional storage is also available at a higher price.
How to set up eSIM on iPhone 14
As we know, Apple has ditched the physical SIM card slot for all versions of the iPhone 14 sold in the US. Meanwhile, iPhone models sold in other countries will have support for both physical and virtual SIMs, and Apple will eventually remove SIM slots in more countries depending on availability in those countries.
eSIM which is a replacement for a physical SIM embedded in the phone circuit so that users can easily swap between SIMs, allowing people to host more than two SIMs.
Reportedly, the iPhone 14 will be able to accommodate up to eight SIMs at once. To set up an eSIM on the iPhone 14 only takes a few easy steps.
Go to Settings > Cellular > Add Cellular Plan. Or in short, this setting can also be accessed at Settings > Cellular Data > Add eSIM.
You will see many numbers displayed to transfer the package. Otherwise, you can manually select the "Transfer from Nearby iPhone" option. Both iPhones must be on iOS 16 for this to work.
The instructions on older models will help you through this process. Enter the verification code — which will appear on the new iPhone — on the old iPhone.
Once you've transferred your plan to a newer iPhone, your carrier will send you a notification to complete the setup.
QR code support
If your carrier has issued a QR code, you can simply select "Use QR Code" when setting up your new iPhone or using the camera.
In some regions, you can find the "Use QR Code" option accessible in Settings > Cellular Data > Add eSIM.
Convert physical SIM
Some carriers may support quickly converting a physical SIM to an eSIM without having to visit a store. For that, you can go to Settings > Cellular and select Convert to eSIM then tap Convert Cellular Plan. After confirming the cellular plan you want to convert, tap Convert to eSIM and wait for it to activate.
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