Apple iPhone 14 Pro Review – You Don’t Need This Upgrade

The Apple iPhone 14 Pro brings a new chipset, better cameras, and a Dynamic Island. Now that’s not a lot of improvements as we all expected, but still better than the base variants, which brings…umm… almost nothing new.

The iPhone 14 Pro comes with a beautiful 120Hz OLED display with a pill-shaped cutout on the top and features an always-on display mode. The new 48MP camera lets you take some amazing shots, especially in low light.

I have got my hands on the latest iPhone 14 Pro and here’s my detailed review on the same. So let’s start without any further ado.

The Apple iPhone 14 Pro comes at a starting price of Rs. 1,29,900 in India for the 128GB variant. There are three other variants – Rs 1,39,900 for the 256GB storage variant, Rs 1,59,900 for the 512GB storage variant and Rs. 1,79,900 for 1TB storage variant.

The phone will be available in four colour options: Deep Purple, Gold, Silver and Space Black. You can buy the phone directly from Apple’s official website or other e-commerce platforms like Amazon and Flipkart as well as Premium Apple Resellers.

Checkout: Recycle Your Old Phone Now! Get Rewarded

The Apple iPhone 14 Pro packs the following items inside the box:

• Handset
• USB-C to Lightning Cable
• Documentation

Before we talk in detail about the Apple iPhone 14 Pro, let’s see what the on-paper specs look like:

• Display: 6.1-inch Super Retina AMOLED display
• Chipset: A16 Bionic
• RAM & ROM: 6GB RAM | 128 GB, 256GB, 512GB, 1TB Storage
• Software: iOS 16
• Rear camera: 48MP + 12MP + 12MP
• Selfie camera: 12MP
• Weight: 206 grams
• Dimensions: 147.5 x 71.5 x 7.85 mm

Starting off with the design, the Apple iPhone 14 Pro gets some major changes. You will notice a new pill-shaped cutout on the front at first glance. The iPhone 14 Pro is the first Apple phone to get a pill-shaped cutout on the front side, which Apple calls ‘Dynamic Island’.

It really looks fresh and innovative, something we all wanted from Apple for a long time. More on that later in this review. Flipping the phone over, you’ll see a glass back with a matte finish which feels good in the hands. The next change is the triple camera setup on the back, which is slightly bigger in size with a new primary lens.

Check Out: Apple iPhone 14 Review – Almost The Perfect iPhone

It is also a bit thicker than the last year, owing to the bigger battery cell inside. The iPhone 14 Pro has typical flat edges with curved corners, which have a glossy finish. I have the Space Black colour option of the iPhone 14 Pro, which looks amazing. Other than that, there are the usual Pro lineup colour options like Silver, Gold and the all new Deep Purple.

Coming to ports and buttons, the phone features the power button on the right side. Whereas the left side holds the volume keys, SIM card tray and Mute switch. The bottom side houses the speaker grille and microphone, along with a lighting port for charging the phone.

You also get to see the IP68 rating for water and dust resistance. All in all, the latest Apple iPhone 14 Pro doesn’t look much different from last year. If fact the only noticeable change is the new Dynamic Island.

The camera is where the Apple iPhone 14 Pro gets major changes. The iPhone 14 Pro comes with a triple camera setup, as is the case with the previous year’s Pro model. However, the new 14 Pro packs an upgraded 48MP primary sensor rather than the 12MP lens which has been there for a while now.

The other two lenses are a 12MP ultra-wide lens and a 12MP telephoto lens. The front houses a 12MP TrueDepth camera for taking selfies.

Read More: 10 Easy Tips and Tricks For Better Smartphone Photography

The new 48MP camera takes some really impressive shots. The images were clear and sharp and packed with details. The dynamic range is just amazing, with accurate colours. You also get a 2X zoom which takes great shots. Overall, you can expect some great photos in daylight.

Even the shots taken in low light were really good and detailed. The portrait shots were just amazing, with precise edge detection and nice background blur. They had excellent detail, contrast and colours.

The ultra-wide lens and telephoto lens are pretty much the same as last year. They do a good job of taking ultra-wide shots and zoom shots, respectively. Honestly, you won’t notice much change in the quality of images if you compare it with iPhone 13 Pro.

Coming over to the front, the selfies taken with the 12MP camera had plenty of details and clarity. Thanks to autofocus, the subject stays well in focus and the result is bright, stable selfies with natural skin tones.

Now coming to video recording capability, nothing changes here. You can record 4K videos at 24 fps, 25 fps, 30 fps or 60 fps from both back and front cameras. With the iPhone 14 series, Apple also introduces a new Action mode which lets the users take some amazingly professional-looking stable videos.

The cinematic mode can record video at 4K/30 fps, while the Action mode is capped at 2.8K/60fps.

The Apple iPhone 14 Pro packs a 3200 mAh battery, as per some experts. We are getting a minor upgrade from iPhone 13 Pro (review), which had a 3,095 mAh battery. Now, yes, it might seem a bit less than what other android phones offer, but we all know how Apple optimises its phones to deliver great battery life.

The same can be seen in the iPhone 14 Pro, as it offers an all-day battery life. A light user can even expect the phone to last another day, but casual users like me would need to charge the phone by the end of the day.

Read More: Top 10 Tips To Keep Your Smartphone Battery Healthy

Note that always-on display mode can slightly reduce the battery life but again, it depends on how the user uses the device.

Talking about charging, Apple has still decided to offer 20W of fast charging support, which is truly disappointing. The 20W fast charger takes about an hour and a half to fully charge the phone from 0 to 100 per cent. The iPhone 14 Pro also supports MagSafe and Qi-compatible wireless charging support.

The Apple iPhone 14 Pro features a 6.1-inch OLED display, which is the same size as the vanilla model. However, the standout feature of the Pro model is the 120Hz refresh rate panel which is the first to happen in an iPhone.

The display comes with 1,600 nits of peak brightness while consuming HDR content which can go up to 2,000 nits in outdoor environments. This is the brightest display I have ever seen on a smartphone. I could easily use the phone under direct sunlight with no issues at all.

Read More: Best Mobile Phones Under 30,000

The 120Hz refresh rate makes everything extra smooth, especially the scrolling experience. In addition to that, it can go as low as 1Hz. The display quality of the iPhone 14 Pro is just stunning, the OLED panel is vibrant and the texts on the screen are crisp.

Not to forget, you get to see an all-new pill-shaped cutout on the top, which Apple refers to as Dynamic Island. It’s a great change from the same old notch that we have been seeing for almost half a decade.

To be honest, even though the image quality is just amazing, the viewing experience is not due to the pill-shaped cutout. It somewhat hampers while watching a video or a movie, maybe cuz my eyes are used to the punch-hole cutout. It’s not a major distraction and definitely not a deal-breaker.

In addition to that, Apple has finally decided to offer an always-on display feature with the iPhone 14 Pro. The Ceramic Shield protects the display from minor scratches and accidental drops.

The Apple iPhone 14 Pro is powered by the latest A16 bionic chipset which is paired with 6GB of RAM and up to 1TB of storage. This chipset is only available in Pro models, whereas the base models arrive with the previous year’s chipset.

The iPhone 14 Pro runs through everyday tasks without breaking a sweat. RAM management is amazing and the apps stay in the background for a long time. Multitasking is also super smooth and I did not experience any issues.

Check Out: Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 Review – High On Productivity

However, the new chipset isn’t much of a big upgrade from the last year. Honestly speaking, you won’t even notice any difference while using the phone for everyday activities. But, when we compare it to any other Android flagship smartphone, the iPhone 14 Pro just kills the competition.

Coming over to gaming, I played a couple of demanding games like Call of Duty Mobile, Asphalt 9 and Apex Legends Mobile. All the games ran smoothly in their highest graphic settings, as I expected. I did not notice any kind of lag or frame drops even after playing for an hour.

The Apple iPhone 14 Pro runs on the latest iOS 16, which comes along with a handful of new features and customisation options. Some of these are a battery percentage indicator, always-on display mode, a new health app and more.

The iOS 16 offers two new stand-out software features – Dynamic Island and always-on display. Let’s begin with the new Dynamic Island and how Apple has smartly integrated it with software to offer an amazing UI experience. It can extend itself on the right and left sides to show certain information like the timer, events, music playing and more.

You can tap the animation to open the respective app or tap and hold to open a small pop-up screen. It’s nothing revolutionary but a nice touch to offer more multitasking functionality.

Check Out: iQoo Z6 Lite Quick Review – Best Gaming Phone Under 15K

Next is the always-on display. It is a dimmed-off version of your lockscreen, which shows the time, date and notifications. You just have the option to turn it off/on from the settings, nothing else.

With iPhone 14 series, Apple has brought in an Emergency SOS connectivity feature. This feature allows users to send emergency texts and make calls during an emergency if there is no cellular connectivity with the help of a satellite.

Another safety feature with the new iPhone is the Crash Detection feature, something I wish you would never need to use. It detects when a car crash occurs and automatically informs the emergency services.

The Apple iPhone 14 Pro comes with a stereo speaker setup, one of which is located at the bottom while the earpiece acts as the other. The sound quality of these speakers is just amazing. The audio gets pretty loud without any noticeable distortion. It offers a balance and rich audio experience.

Talking about connectivity, the iPhone 14 Pro comes with 5G connectivity with support for 22 5G bands. These include n1, n2, n3, n5, n7, n8, n12, n20, n25, n26, n28, n30, n38, n40, n41, n48, n53, n66, n70, n77, n78, and n79. Other connectivity options are Wi‑Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.3, NFC and GPS.

Check Out: Vivo V25 5G Review – Style Meets Camera

Coming over to biometrics, the iPhone 14 Pro comes with a Face ID setup, which is housed in Dynamic Island. The Face ID unlocks the phone quickly, even at night, as expected.