iPhone 14 and 14 Plus: Disappointment

dhruvtalksstech
Sep 24, 2022
4 min read

I have never had such an unfavourable view of any iPhone since the iPhone 5C and SE. At least those still had the latest chips of their times. I have always thought that Apple does not copy-paste phones over years despite the flurry of memes that flood that social media after every Apple event claiming that iPhones do not change year-over-year. This is one of the times I have to agree with the memes. iPhone 14 is such a disappointment. Apple is already stagnant on their design and there's no way to tell the 13 apart from the 14 except for the new colour. You are still able to tell apart the 13 Pro and 14 Pro because of the new always-on display and Dynamic Island.

You would have a hard time distinguishing the 13 from the 14. It's almost as if Apple has reskinned the iPhone 13 with new colour and claims that it is a completely new phone. On the one hand will probably be overkill to count the number of changes in the 14 over the 13 - Crash detection, SOS via satellite, improved cameras and a very lightly more powerful chipset. Don't get me wrong. It's the same A15 Bionic chip as last year but with 1 extra core of GPU and like the 13 Pro. It still has only 4 gigs of RAM and not 6 but I trust Apple's optimization. You can cross out the SOS via satellite because it's only available in the US and Canada and is free for only the first 2 years of purchase. Let's be honest - very few of us are going on hikes without cell coverage. It is not going to be useful for most of us.

Let's hope none of us ever get to use the crash detection feature. It is a worst-case scenario feature which would go unused. Although it is a very notable safety feature addition, it is not something that will prompt people to buy the iPhone 14 solely. I am more interested to talk about the iPhone 14 Plus. If you don't have the use case scenario of the Pro models and want a big screen, the 14 Plus is your best bet for a very long time. It has a very big battery and the display is not power hungry. It is fast enough to handle most of the incessant Instagram scrolling which is of no use. It can handle all gaming tasks such as COD. It has a big screen and a peak brightness of 800 nits.

There are a few improvements in the camera department such as a photonic engine and better low light performance with up to 2X improvements. I am actually in a fix to even know what to write as there is nothing to write about. There is absolutely nothing I can possibly talk about this phone that's new. I can only say that the phone is a step in the right direction. It improves upon the 13 with incremental changes that have trouble even showing up on the surface. If you are going with the 14s, I would highly push you to get the 14 Plus. There's one thing I have observed in particular about iPhone batteries - they have gotten a lot better in the past and are almost consistently on top charts now but they still degrade faster than their Android counterparts.

So, the legendary iPhone 13 Pro Max battery would last a lot less than did a year ago. Spending $100 extra to get the Plus variant is worth it as it gives you headroom. Also, assuming that you are going to hold onto your phone for at least 4 years, 6.7 inches will feel fresh and modern all along as the "standard" phone size is only set to marginally increase every year and we've got to ride the tide. There are 5 colours for the 14s - Black, White, Product Red, Purple and Blue. The Blue one's my favourite and it's very close to the Sierra Blue that was featured on the 13 Pro Max.

The US models will not feature a physical sim tray anymore as Apple seems to completely transition to eSim and this is going to be a huge concern for you if you are a frequent international traveller. It's better to have a non-US model as you would technically be able to have 3 sims function at the same time - 1 physical sim and 2 eSims. The best part about the 14 Plus is the battery and that is something you can really capitalize on. I think it may not be as popular as people thought it would be before the launch. That's because of the futuristic Dynamic Island on the Pro models. The Pro models are definitely very enticing this year and Apple hopes to sell as many of them as possible.

It is going to be a hard choice amongst all as there's only $100 separating each successive model. You may be enticed to spend more than you planned because the stretch isn't AS MUCH AS it was earlier. So, I will say this - if don't want the Pros, get the 13 or the 14 Plus. Don't buy the iPhone 14. It is a serious waste of $800. Also, if you have an iPhone XS or earlier, now is the time to upgrade because you would truly notice a big jump and also simply because your phone is nearing or has already elapsed its software support.

iPhone 14 - $800 (80,000Rs)

iPhone 14 Plus - $900 (90,000Rs)