iPhone 14 release date, price, specs and latest news. Apple has unveiled the new iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus. The iPhone 14 Plus offers a large 6.7-inch display for those who want a bigger screen, and the iPhone 14 offers a more compact 6.1-inch display.
Here's a quick rundown of all the new features on the iPhone 14, which include an improved camera, more robust eSIM support and the new SOS emergency call feature via satellite.
Here's a quick overview of the new iPhone 14 and its features, as well as our first hands-on video with the iPhone 14. And when you're done here, be sure to check out our hands-on review of the iPhone 14 Plus and iPhone 14 Pro Max.
New features of iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus: cheat sheet
- The iPhone 14 features a 6.1-inch OLED display and the iPhone 14 Plus grows that to 6.7 inches. Yes, the iPhone mini looks dead.
- The iPhone 14 starts at $799 (AU$1,399) and the iPhone 14 Plus costs $899 (AU$1,579).
- The iPhone 14 Plus promises the best battery life ever on an iPhone
- Emergency SOS via satellite functionality can be used to communicate when you're out of cellular range. Launches in November and will be free for two years.
- There are five colors, including midnight, starlight, blue, purple and product red
- The A15 Bionic chip is borrowed form the iPhone 13 Pro and gives you a 5-core GPU for 18% faster performance.
- The new 12MP main camera has a bigger sensor (1.9 microns and 49% low-light improvement.
- Front camera is 12MP with faster f/1.9, autofocus for first time and better low light.
- Photonic Engine: Enhanced image pipeline to deliver better low light photos. 2x improvement on front camera, 2x on ultra wide and 2.5 on main camera., so you'll get much better detail and color.
- Big improvement to video: advanced stabilization mode, Action mode is new and can be toggled on for smooth video. No gimbal required.
- Bad news? The iPhone 14 support eSIM only, so there's not SIM card tray
- The iPhone 14 offers crash detection, just like the new Apple Watch 8.
iPhone 14 release date and price.
The iPhone 14 will be released on September 16, with pre-orders available from September 9. The iPhone 14 Plus will be sold from October 7.
Prices for the iPhone 14 start at $799 (€1,399) and for the iPhone 14 Plus at $899 (€1,579).
iPhone 14 design
Apple didn't reinvent the wheel with the design of the iPhone 14. In fact, it looks basically the same as the iPhone 13. The rear camera module is still placed diagonally, which isn't a bad thing - it looks pretty good. The notch is the same one that was introduced last year.
One improvement can be found under the hood. Apple claims to have improved the iPhone 14's thermal performance, which means you can use the phone longer (while gaming, for example). Apple has also done away with the physical SIM tray, which means the iPhone 14 is a pure eSIM phone.
Another new feature for the iPhone 14 is the SOS emergency call with satellite. This is the rumored satellite connection we've been hearing about for a while, and it allows you to get help in an emergency even if you don't have normal cellular reception. That's ideal for people traveling in the wilderness or rural areas. With iPhone 14, you get two years of free SOS emergency calling with satellite.
Fall detection, introduced with the Apple Watch Series 8, is also on the iPhone 14. It can detect if you've been in a car accident and automatically contacts emergency services if you can't respond.
The iPhone 14 comes in five great colors: Midnight, Starlight, Blue, Purple and Product(RED).
The big news is the iPhone 14 Plus, a 6.7-inch iPhone without the Pro. You can find all the information about it in our iPhone 14 Plus Hub.
iPhone 14 displays
The iPhone 14 comes in two screen sizes, as in previous years, but the new one is the larger iPhone 14 Plus at 6.7 inches. The iPhone 14 is 6.1 inches, but both phones feature Apple's Super Retina display XDR OLED with peak HDR brightness of 1200 nits.
Both feature a Ceramic Shield on the front for added durability.
iPhone 14 cameras
The iPhone 14 has received some major camera upgrades. The main sensor is much larger and has more pixels (1.9 microns). With a faster f/1.5 aperture and sensor-shift image stabilization, the iPhone 14 offers a 49% improvement in low-light performance. Even the night mode has been improved, as the exposure is now twice as fast.
Apple didn't reveal much about the specs of the Ultrawide model, which leads us to believe that it's the same model as the iPhone 13. (Meanwhile, the iPhone 14 Pro received a major Ultrawide upgrade.) However, the front-facing camera (f/1.9) received an update with a hybrid focusing system thanks to TrueDepth and autofocus.
Adjustments have also been made to Deep Fusion. This is a technology from Apple that combines several pictures with different exposures into a single picture in situations with medium to low light. On the iPhone 14, Deep Fusion is applied at an earlier stage with uncompressed images.
Apple has also introduced Action Mode for the iPhone 14, which offers much more advanced video stabilization, with the phone maker stating that you may not even need a gimbal. That's a lofty claim, but Action Mode looks really cool. Situational, much like last year's Cinematic mode, but cool nonetheless. In fact, the first real video of the Action mode is here and it looks very impressive.
iPhone 14 specs and battery
As rumors suggested, the iPhone 14 wasn't equipped with the new A16 Bionic chipset, which is exclusive to the Pro model this year. Instead, the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus will get the higher-end A15 Bionic that we saw in the iPhone 13 Pro last year. That means it's the same 6-core CPU 16-core Neural Engine, but the iPhone 14 now enjoys a 5-core GPU for increased gaming performance.
We don't yet know how much RAM the iPhone 14 has, but perhaps Apple will reveal that information soon.
As for battery life, Apple advertises "all-day" runtime for the iPhone 14, which is nebulous at best. Fortunately, the iPhone 13 had pretty good battery life, so we're not too worried.
More interestingly, though, Apple claims the iPhone 14 Plus has the best battery life of any iPhone to date, which is a bold claim. We'll see. We also didn't learn anything about the wattage during charging, which we found odd.
iPhone 14 and iOS 16
We already know everything we want to know about iOS 16, but the iPhone 14 will get to enjoy all the new features, including the new lock screen, changes to Mail and Messages, and more. The iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus will ship with iOS 16 in the coming weeks.
You'll also be able to take advantage of the new iCloud Shared Photo Libraries and the improved Live Text and Visual Lookup.
iPhone 14 outlook
It seems that many of last year's rumors about the iPhone 14 have come true. In fact, it differs little from the iPhone 13. The biggest change is the iPhone 14 Plus, which replaces the iPhone mini.
It looks like the iPhone 14 isn't a big upgrade over the iPhone 13, but certainly a good one for those who own an iPhone 12 or older. With the iPhone 13 Pro's A15 Bionic chipset, better cameras, and longer battery life, the iPhone 14 looks like a modest offering for 2022.