The iPhone 14 is a relic from 2021 that also begins at $799 within the U.S. and prices considerably extra elsewhere, regardless of the dearth of upgrades.
Apple isn’t a very beneficiant model relating to treating smartphone patrons with {hardware} upgrades regardless of charging a good-looking sum, however the iPhone 14 stretches that streak somewhat too far. By itself, one can argue that the iPhone 14 is an efficient cellphone for its asking value. The chip inside continues to be mightier than Qualcomm’s finest inside Android flagships, battery life can be among the many finest within the section, and iOS 16 continues to paved the way with updates, software program fluidity, and privateness. Plus, if the iPhone 13’s digital camera efficiency is something to go by, the iPhone 14 goes to be yet one more reliable shooter.
Whereas the iPhone 13 lacked the innovation of Android flagships in the identical value bracket, it was a well-received cellphone for its price ticket. Naturally, the iPhone 14 shouldn’t have any drawback out there carrying an an identical price ticket. It’s all the time nice to see a model launch an upgraded model with out climbing the value. However for all of the strong reputation amassed by the iPhone 13, the iPhone 14 simply appears to be like like a duplicate with a special badge in 2022, as an alternative of the significant generation-over-generation improve it was destined to be. Apple is retaining the iPhone 13’s design for one more era, which is certainly lazy, however now not a cardinal sin within the smartphone trade as Android OEMs have additionally began following in the identical footsteps these days. Apple is barely including a recent coloration to jazz issues up.
However the iPhone 14 can barely be known as an improve. Quite the opposite, the iPhone 14 is serving virtually the identical cellphone because the iPhone 13. Let’s begin with probably the most pure improve that patrons count on from a next-gen flagship — the silicon. In a baffling flip of occasions, Apple has armed the iPhone 14 with the identical A15 Bionic chip because the iPhone 13 sequence. The one factor that’s altering right here is that the iPhone 14 makes use of the identical 5-core GPU variant of the A15 Bionic because the iPhone 13 Professional fashions, as an alternative of the variant with 4 GPU cores. That further GPU core is barely going to make any distinction in real-world utilization. One would possibly argue that Apple saved cash by skipping the silicon improve, selecting to focus its assets elsewhere. However that’s not likely the case.
Improve? What’s That?
Other than a processor, the opposite two areas that patrons consider earlier than splurging on a brand new cellphone are cameras and battery life. Apple continues to be serving the identical twin 12-megapixel digital camera array on the again and has solely widened the aperture of one of many lenses. There’s no user-facing digital camera characteristic improve, both. It’s a disgrace {that a} cellphone beginning at $800 nonetheless doesn’t provide a devoted zoom digital camera and sticks with a 60Hz display. Coming to the battery capability, there’s solely a distinction of 52mAh between the Li-ion cells fitted contained in the iPhone 14 and iPhone 13. Evidently, it isn’t going to make an enormous distinction. There is no such thing as a surge within the charging pace both, which maxes out at a painfully outdated 20W. Evaluating it to the competitors on the Android facet, the iPhone 14 is wherever between 4 to 6 instances slower at filling up the tank. Oh, there isn’t any charger within the field, both.
iPhones typically evade the spec comparability criticism vis-a-vis Android telephones, and the main protection is sort of all the time arguments siding with longer software program help, a wealthy app ecosystem, dependable cameras, and so forth. However in 2022, Apple has straight up served a year-old relic as a next-generation cellphone with the similar aspirational price ticket. And that’s only for the U.S. market. In abroad markets like Europe and Asia, Apple is charging a fats era over era improve price. iPhones had been already a hard-to-swallow capsule for smartphone customers that care about specs, innovation, and the general aggressive worth of their buy. The iPhone 14, then again, is a take a look at of persistence and it’s stretching Apple’s overpowering market affect to its limits.
Supply: Apple