The iPhone 14 line is in the focus of attention of customers and investors and is expected to be an evolutionary proposition after the end of 2020 iPhone 12 provides the possibility of 5G connection for the first time, offers higher download speed, attractive for streaming of video and video games.
Apple has officially announced the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max. Both phones have a new small notch that replaces the distance and can be adjusted dynamically, which is the first major display redesign since Apple introduced the iPhone X in 2017. Both devices also have a faster A16 Bionic chip and an always-on display.
Apple CEO Tim Cook calls the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max „the most innovative professional line yet.“
The first notable change in the design of the iPhone 14 Pro model is a display. While Apple will offer the usual 6.1- and 6.7-inch variants, the notch has been replaced with a pill-shaped notch that will house the Face ID components and a second circular notch for the front-facing camera.
Apple has moved the proximity sensor behind the display, and notifications will now pop out of the notch in animation. Apple calls this system „Dynamic Island“. Notifications and alerts will adapt and move around the notch, and Apple is really aiming to animate and use the system for new notifications while the rest of the display remains off.
Apple’s A16 Bionic chip is built into the iPhone 14 Pro models. With its new chip, Apple has focused on energy efficiency, display and camera. The hexa-core processor includes two high-performance cores that use 20% less power and four efficient cores.
This new A16 chip helps smooth animations in the Dynamic Island feature and will power Apple’s new camera system. For the first time in history, the iPhone switches from a 12-megapixel sensor to a 48-megapixel one. The new main camera has up to a two-fold improvement in low-light shooting, all using a quad-core sensor with an aperture of f/1.78 and a focal length of 24mm.
For most photos, the sensor will take 12-megapixel photos to capture the maximum amount of light. This allows Apple to crop the sensor in different ways to provide a true 2x zoom at 48mm focal length. This should make for some impressive photos, and the new sensor even optimizes detail in Apple’s ProRAW format.
Both the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max will include an always-on display that works with the new lock screen widget in iOS 16. It will support information like reminders, calendar events and the weather without having to wake up the iPhone to show it.
The iPhone 14 Pro arrives after modest improvements to last year’s iPhone 13 Pro models, which switched to a 120Hz ProMotion display with a high refresh rate and three all-new cameras. On the Android side, Samsung introduced the Galaxy Fold 4, which combines a tablet and a phone in one device, and the Galaxy Flip 4, which folds in half.
Apple announced the iPhone 14 and 14 Plus, which retain much of the iPhone 13’s design — including the notch for the selfie camera and Face ID sensors — completely in line with rumors that suggested only the 14 Pro models would ditch the notch. Either way, at first glance the iPhone 14 looks an awful lot like the 13, with the same flat display.
The main models of its iPhone 14 line are a version with a 6.1-inch display and a new larger Plus model with a 6.7-inch display. Both have extended battery life and come in five colors.
On the photography front, there’s an ultra-short-throw and new 12-megapixel primary camera with f/1.5 aperture and sensor-based stabilization. Apple claims a 49 percent improvement in low-light image quality, and says Night Mode is now twice as fast. There’s also a new 12-megapixel TrueDepth camera with autofocus on the front. Apple says it’s also applying its Deep Fusion image processing at an earlier stage, improving low-light performance and color reproduction – a technology it calls the „Photonic Engine“. Video recording also gets a new stabilization mode called Action Mode, which uses the entire stability sensor, similar to those on so-called gimbals.
The iPhone 14 models have two features aimed at user safety: the ability to recognize a car accident and satellite connectivity for sending emergency messages. This will be sending emergency messages via communications satellites when you are out of cellular signal range – a feature called Emergency SOS. The phone’s antennas can connect to satellite frequencies. Apple claims that sending a message can take less than 15 seconds with a clear view of the sky, and the interface guides users to point their phone in the right direction as well as step through the steps to contact emergency service providers. It is also possible to use the Find My app to share the location without sending a message. It’s free for two years with iPhone 14 models.
These base models have the A15 chip that was used in the iPhone 13 models. The company also announced that the phones will have eSIM, a feature that will allow users to connect to carriers without a SIM card. It will also facilitate the transfer from one operator to another. US iPhone 14 models also ditch the physical SIM slot, switching entirely to eSIM.
The price of the standard iPhone 14 model starts at $799, and the 14 Plus starts at $899.
The debut of the iPhone 14 comes at a unique time: inflation is driving up the prices of absolutely everything — including consumer technology — and household budgets are tight.
The company has bucked the industry-wide decline in smartphone shipments over the past year, though iPhone sales fell 9% in the latest quarter from a year earlier, according to researcher International Data Corp. According to analysts, the base iPhone 14 models are expected to improve Apple’s margins by continuing to use the older A15 chip.
Demand for the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 series has helped Apple post record profits and sales over the past two years. IPhone revenue rose 39% in fiscal 2021 and is expected to rise another 6.7% to a record $205 billion this fiscal year, which ends later this month.
„Year-to-date iPhone sales results have been impressive and are the biggest reason the company has largely weathered the economic downturn,“ said Gene Munster, managing partner at Loup Ventures. „Sustaining momentum in this segment during the holidays in the face of stressed consumers will be paramount for investors in the introduction of new models”.
Apple is bucking the industry-wide decline in smartphone shipments, which fell nearly 9% in the latest quarter from a year earlier, according to research firm International Data Corp. In the first half of the year, smartphones priced over $900 were a bright spot on the market, according to data from Counterpoint Research.
Last year, the iPhone 13 with a 6.1-inch display and 128 gigabytes of storage debuted at $799, and the Pro version of the same size, with a better camera system and other improvements, starts at $999. The larger iPhone Pro started at $1,099 last year.
Average iPhone selling prices rose to $954 in the June quarter, compared to $783 in the September 2019 quarter, when the iPhone 11 was introduced, estimates from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners’ survey of consumers showed.
Some analysts have predicted in advance that Apple may increase prices with the iPhone 14 as the company faces increased pressure to cut costs. „IPhone pricing is the main focal point for investors,“ Wamsi Mohan, an analyst at Bank of America Global Research, wrote in a note last week. Well, it turns out the company is keeping prices unchanged.