iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max – a little more, a little better and a lot more expensive

Tested product: iPhone 14 Pro / Pro Max
Award: iPhone 14 Pro Max costs SEK 16,490 at Amazon Sweden
Award: The iPhone 14 Pro costs SEK 14,490 at Amazon Sweden

We can start by stating that the iPhone 14 Pro basically looks the same as the 13 Pro. What sets them apart are the colors, which this year are purple, silver, gold and space black. Yep, you read that right. Space gray is now called space black and is actually black.

And of course it is not foldable either. The undersigned is betting that Apple won’t do it either until it’s possible to make sensible foldable phones.

So…what is new then? Well, a lot, above all it is Apple’s great advantage in producing hardware and software that matters. With the A16 Bionic, Apple can play with IOS 16 in new ways.

The dynamic island

The stylus that houses the Truedepth camera is now positioned a few millimeters below the top edge of the screen. It is now animated and has been named Dynamic Island. Either Apple has a sense of humor or they take themselves very seriously. We’re betting on humor.

Dynamic Island displays notifications, messages and activities on an interactive surface, providing easier access to information and better multitasking. Alerts and system notifications won’t interrupt you when you’re using another app, and it’s easy to get more information about what’s going on in the background.

Also read: Here is the cheapest iPhone 14 – we compare the operators

If you’re playing a song on Spotify, you can easily press and hold Dynamic Island to access controls without having to leave the app you’re currently in. If you start a timer at the same time, Dynamic Island splits and shows both separately – sweet!

Plus it looks flimsy as hell.

Razor sharp screen

The new Super Retina XDR display is an always-on display and the best implementation of this we’ve seen so far. You get much more information than just a clock, which makes the new lock screen more useful, where you have access to important information at a glance.

At first, it is difficult to get used to the always-on screen. It is easy to believe that the is on, but it isn’t. But the thing is that the screen turns off sometimes, even though you don’t notice it. If you have an Apple Watch and leave the room where the phone is, the screen turns off. If you place it face down on a table, the screen will turn off. Really clever thought and made by Apple. The phone then learns through machine learning when you use it and makes sure the screen turns off to save more battery.

Also read: Best cases for your new iPhone 14 (all models)

Brightness has been pushed even higher for both HDR and outdoor use, up to 2000 nits. The Promotion screen has adaptive frame rate refresh, up to 120Hz and lower rates, down to 1 Hz to preserve battery life, when you don’t need a high screen rate.

The iPhone 14 Pro Max has a 6.7-inch screen, while the 14 Pro has a 6.1-inch one.

According to Apple, the glass should be the strongest on the market. Nowadays, they use a technology they call “ceramic shield”. On the other hand, all smartphone manufacturers claim to have the strongest glass on the market and yet screens keep breaking…

Updated cameras

The iPhone 14 Pro has received new cameras. On the back there are three placed in the upper left corner. The new main camera is 48 megapixels while the others are 12 megapixels. Among the news is a new zoom mode, 2x, which means there are four zoom options. It is also possible to shoot 48 megapixel images in ProRAW, the images are big as hell, but you get more possibilities for editing. You can now also take portrait photos that have blurred foreground and background.

Also read: That’s how good Apple’s new iPhone 14 is

Click here for a high-resolution example of the image above.

The main camera’s sensor is also 65 percent larger than the one in the iPhone 13 Pro.

All cameras also perform better in low light thanks to the new “Photonic Engine”. According to Apple, the aperture lets in 49 percent more light. And of course there is a difference in dark photos taken with the iPhone 14 Pro compared to the 13 Pro. Above all, more details are captured by the new lens.

Click here for a high-resolution example of the image above.

Click here for a high-resolution example of the image above.

Apple has a new process for processing images. By applying “deep fusion” earlier in the process, images taken in dark conditions become better. We’re guessing sharing happens with a scoop of technology mixed with a little AI and black magic.

Cinematic Mode can now film in 4k at 24 frames per second. The new Action mode provides even more stabilized video during high-motion activities and, like Cinematic Mode, is filmed in Dolby Vision HDR.

The image stabilization mode in particular is insanely awesome. The undersigned jogged with the camera and the film was as steady as possible. Pretty impressive! Watch the film if you want to see for yourself what it looks like.

Click here for a high-resolution example of the image above.

With this phone in your pocket, you don’t need a camera. It simply handles most things you throw at it.

Selfie camera and Face ID

The front camera has also been updated with a new Truedepth camera that has a faster aperture and, for the first time, autofocus. It now handles group photos, has night mode and can handle close-ups. It can now film in 4k at 30 fps in Dolby Vision HDR.

Something that was extremely annoying before was that Face ID could not be used if the phone was in landscape mode. This has now been fixed.

Satellite calls

The iPhone 14 now supports satellite calls. Unfortunately, the service only works in the US and Canada at this time. When the function will be rolled out in Sweden is highly unclear. But if you buy an iPhone 14 in Sweden, it will be able to make emergency calls via satellite if you are in North America.

“Where are the satellites?” perhaps friend of order asks. In true Apple spirit, just point the phone at the sky and you’ll be guided in the right direction. If you are in North America.

Should you end up in a car crash, the phone detects it through Crash Detection and calls an ambulance. Let’s hope you don’t have to experience that feature.

Performance

The iPhone plays in a league of its own when it comes to performance. Take the Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro, for example, which was released in August 2022. It has Snapdragon 8+ gen 1, Qulacomm’s performance chip and is marketed as a performance monster. In most cases, it’s not even close to the iPhone’s A16 Bionic chip. In some benchmark tests, it doesn’t even beat the Iphone 13. ROG Phone 6 Pro beats the Iphone 14 Pro in Antutu Benchmark, but that’s about it.

The benchmark doesn’t say everything. How is the phone to use is a more relevant measure of how good the phone is. For starters, it doesn’t get red-hot á la Qualcomm when you play games. Even graphics-heavy ones. Graphics and the interface flow without hiccups and scrolling pages is a pleasure with the XDR screen.

If you want to play with apps like Polycam, which draws up advanced 3D images with lidar, it works just fine. And this is where the A16 Bionic really flexes its muscles. It runs significantly faster than the iPhone 13 Pro and the phone doesn’t even get hot!

In addition, iOS 16 is packed with exciting new features.

Oh so expensive

Due to the dollar price and the weak krona, the iPhone 14 Pro Max with 128 gigabytes of storage memory costs SEK 16,495. The model we tested has one terabyte of storage space and costs SEK 23,695. The iPhone Pro with a 6.1-inch screen and the same storage space costs SEK 14,995. That is SEK 2,000 more than what the iPhone 13 Pro cost.

Also read: Best price on iPhone 14 – we compare the operators

Is it worth it? Well, you get a phone that will receive system updates for years to come (the iPhone 8 with its five years on its neck gets the IOS 16 update) that takes incredibly good photos and ditto videos. Sure, the initial cost is high. But on the other hand, you get a phone that, with a little love, will last a long time.

Specifications

Product name: iPhone 14 Pro Max
Tested: September 2022
Manufacturer: Apple
System circuit: A16 Bionic
Memory: 6GB
Storage: 128/256/512GB – 1TB
Screen: 6.1 inch Super Retina XDR, 2796 x 1290 pixels, 460 ppi
Cameras: 48 + 12 + 12 megapixel ultra-wide-angle, wide-angle and telephoto. 12 megapixel selfie
Connections: Lightning
Communication: 2g, 3g, 4g, 5g, wifi 6, bluetooth 5.3, nfc.
Operating system: iOS 16
Other: Dual sim, Face ID, water resistant (ip68)
Battery: 29 hours of continuous video playback (Pro Max) and 23 hours iPhone Pro 14 respectively
Size: 16.07 x 7.76 x 7.85 centimeters (Pro Max) and 14.75 x 71.5 x 7.85 (Pro) respectively
Weight: 240 and 206 grams respectively for the Pro
Award: iPhone 14 Pro Max costs SEK 16,490 at Amazon Sweden
Award: The iPhone 14 Pro costs SEK 14,490 at Amazon Sweden

Benchmark
Antutu Benchmark: 961,428 points
Geekbench 5: 5,134 points
Geekbench 5, one core: 1,888 points
Geekbench Compute: 15,603 points
3dmark Wild Life Extreme: 3,360 points
3dmark Wild Life Unlimited: iPhone 14 Pro reaches maximum results, which is not measurable.
Read speed, storage: 787 MB/s
Write speed, storage: 1,584MB/s