iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max Review: Tons of Upgrades, Same Price

Speaker 1: This is the new iPhone 14 pro and 14 pro max. Now from the back, they look nearly identical to the 13 pro, but when you see the screen, that's when you start to notice that there is something different and wonderful going on. Hi, I'm Patrick Holland, and this is my review of the iPhone 14 pro and 14 Promax. I've had review samples of each phone on loan from apple for five days, and I'm gonna cover the design, the screen improvements, [00:00:30] including dynamic island, the cameras, the processor, software battery, and more. I got chapters enabled in the description. So peruse around the video at your will. Also, there are links to the iPhone 14 pro that you can check out for yourself. Now with all that out of the way, let's talk about the iPhone 14 pro and 14 pro max Speaker 1: Right off the bat. The new iPhone 14 pro looks just like the iPhone 13 pro, which looks [00:01:00] just like the 12th pro, but don't let that sameness fool. You nearly every aspect of the new iPhone has been upgraded in large and small ways. And yet the price is the same as it's been since the iPhone 11 pro the new 14 pro starts at 9 99 and the 14 pro max at 10 99. And in my time with them, you're getting a foam that's worth every penny, the new pros come in space, black gold, silver and deep purple, which depending on the light and how you're holding the foam either looks [00:01:30] Dred almost like a gray color or like prince 1989, Batman purple Speaker 2: Welcome Speaker 1: To dynamic island from the outside. There are three ways. The iPhone 14 pro is different than previous iPhone models. It lacks a SIM card tray cutout. The camera bump is a SCO chunkier, and the notch has morphed into a pill shaped display, cutout that houses an upgraded and smaller, true depth camera system. The cutout on its [00:02:00] own will make some people happy though. There are apps like YouTube that need to be updated to compensate for the cutouts lower screen position, but it's what apple did around the cutout. That's one of my favorite features. The screen area surrounding the trued up camera is used to show system alerts. Like when you receive a call or your AirPods are connected, it can also show the progress of background activities like music playback or screen recording controls, apple calls, this functionality, dynamic [00:02:30] island. Look, I know not the best name, but it's truly one of the best features on the 14 pro. Speaker 1: And the more time I spent with these phones, the more delightful I found dynamic island to be. It works in numerous ways and situations, and it's easy, intuitive, and a quick way to see what's going on without pulling your attention away from whatever else you're doing on your phone. You can interact with it. For example, if I'm on a FaceTime call or playing music, I can tap and hold to bring up controls. If I just [00:03:00] tap on it, it brings me back into the app and you can tap anywhere on the dynamic island, directly on the cameras or off to the sides. And in my days using it, I, I didn't notice any problems with smudges or fingerprints accumulating over the front facing camera or affecting face ID. Now, if you have more than one background activity in progress, like maybe you're listening to music and have a timer on the dynamic island splits into two parts, like a sideways lowercase letter. Speaker 1: [00:03:30] I, the 14 pro and dynamic island are an example of apple doing what they do best. And that's packaging a powerful tool into what delightful to use interface. Also, the animations are excellent. It will take a little time for third party apps to adapt to dynamic island, but some like Spotify, Instagram and WhatsApp already supported as amazing as dynamic island is it's [00:04:00] a shame it's only available on the 14 pro and 14 Promax, but it's one of many features that separates the pro models from the regular iPhone 14, by the way, I did an entirely separate review video for the iPhone 14, which you should definitely check out, Speaker 1: But there are more upgrades to the screen, which is now brighter, outdoors under sunlight. The 14 pro runs iOS 16, which gives you a ton of ways to customize your lock screen. You [00:04:30] could even have multiple lock screens set up and quickly switch between them. There's also a new always on display, which shows essential information on your lock screen. When your phone it's asleep, the always on display is like a dimmer version of your lock screen wallpaper, but it shows the time date, your widgets and notifications. But depending on how you have your lock screen set up, it can look vastly different. In fact, it's been so entertaining, trying out different lock screen combinations to see how [00:05:00] they appear as an always on display. Also seeing my iPhone 14 pro have it screen on when it's just sitting on a table, took a little getting used to, I kept thinking, Ooh, I forgot to lock my phone. Speaker 1: And then to wake it up, you just tap on the screen or you unlock your phone. When the iPhone 14 pro is face down in a pocket, in a bag near another apple device that you're using the always on display doesn't turn on. Also, there is an option in settings to turn it off completely. When the always [00:05:30] on display was active, I had a timer going and it only showed the minutes, which struck me as kind of odd. I do wish there was an option to make the always on display, look more discreet. And for example, just have the date and time and no wallpaper, even though it's using minimal power visually, there's a lot going on, which can be distracting if you have it faced up next to you on a table taken in total, the dynamic island, the new lock screen layout, and the always on display make the iPhone [00:06:00] 14 pro the most approachable iPhone when it comes to managing alerts and notifications. Speaker 1: And I imagine the experience will only get better once live activities for the lock screen are available in full in just a quick reminder. Live activities, displays realtime updates from apps on your phone's lock stream. So you can track the progress of a ride share you're on. Or if you're watching a sporting event, get the most up to date score. The iPhone 14 pro has three rear cameras, a [00:06:30] main wide angle camera, a three times optical tele photo camera, and an ultra wide. The main camera has gotten the most significant hardware changes. For example, its focal length is wider going from a 26 millimeter equivalent on previous iPhones to a 24 millimeter one. It's not a drastic difference, but it definitely allows you to get a little more into your frame. The main camera gets a larger 48 megapixel center. Now, while more megapixels doesn't necessarily mean you're gonna get better photos. Speaker 1: It's how apple uses those extra [00:07:00] pixels. When you take a photo groups of four pixels are combined into one big pixel, the result is a 12 megapixel photo. That's brighter has less image noise and better detail. And in use the main camera takes excellent photos. Image quality in details are great, especially for a phone, but really where I see improvement is in medium and low light situations. Colors look good. Textures are great. I mean, check out this photo. I took in San Francisco on a very foggy morning. [00:07:30] Notice the textures in the bricks, on the buildings and the gradual way. The 14 pro captured the fog engulfing the sales force tower building. Take a look at this photo of a Palm tree. Now this was part of a group of Palm trees and under the canopy, it was very dark. The 14 pro did a solid job of capturing the different textures and the leaves and the bark, but also helped boost the brightness. Speaker 1: And if you're so inclined, you can capture 48 megapixel full resolution [00:08:00] photos using pro raw. I, I should warn you that the files are big, but with good lighting like this photo I took of the bay bridge at sunset, you can capture a lot of detail. I mean look closely at the cars on top of the bridge and those support cables. The ultra wide camera also gets a boost. It gets a new sensor with more focus pixels and a step down F 2.2 aperture lids. All this adds up to much sharper ultra wide photos. The [00:08:30] sensor combined with Apple's revamped photo processing, that's called photonic engine means you get better photos, even in less ideal situations. Photos and videos are still a step down compared to those from the main camera. But these improvements are very welcomed and macro photos also get a boost. Macro mode is still triggered when you try to take a photo with the main camera and you're close to a, a subject, the iPhone 14 pro switches to the ultra wide camera and [00:09:00] crops in to mimic the same framing as the main camera, but allows you to get the closer focus from the ultra wide camera. Speaker 1: The results are better. Macro photo image quality, especially in medium and low light. Then there's the telephoto camera, which is basically identical to the one on last year's 13 pro, but does get a little boost from that photonic engine processing like the ultra wide camera images from the telephoto camera in terms of image quality, especially in dimmer environments, it's still a step [00:09:30] behind the main camera, but take a look at all these photos and videos that I shot with the iPhone 14 pro and 14 Promax with its rear cameras. Speaker 1: [00:10:30] In terms of videos, there are several improvements. The new lenses and sensor give video image quality, a boost though in low lighting, the 14 pro still suffers from light source reflections. Um, it's better than previous iPhone models, but it's still there. Cinematic mode can now record 4k video at 24 frame for second. There's also this new super video image stabilization tool called action mode. When you go to shoot a video, [00:11:00] you can toggle it on and the phone crops in a bit to help keep the image centered and the horizon level, if you're shooting in 4k action mode drops the resolution to 2.8 K, but the results are impressive. Also you can shoot in pro res if you really wanted to also in, in trying to do some comparison test with action mode, it's just worth acknowledging how good the image stabilization is for regular video mode. But take a look at this action mode video of me riding [00:11:30] a bike over speed bumps. I mean, what speed bumps am I right while other phones have similar stabilization modes, it's wonderful to see this come to the iPhone and it works across all three rear cameras. And then there's the true depth camera that gets an upgrade. The lens is brighter with an F 1.9 aperture. And for the first time ever, there is auto focus on the iPhone selfie camera, which works great for group selfies. Speaker 1: Driving all of [00:12:00] these performance upgrades is the new a 16 bionic chip. The 14 pro and 14 Promax are not only faster than any iPhone we've ever tested, but these are the fastest phones we've ever used in everyday. Use. Everything feels pep on the 14 pro gaming is an absolute delight and the several things like animations into and out of dynamics island are super smooth in terms of the battery, the regular 14 pro had no problem making it through [00:12:30] a day. I typically got six hours of screen on time and with the 14 Promax I was able to consistently get a day and a half on the stick of charge and charging is okay, our charge, the 14 Promax for 30 minutes. And the battery went from 14% up to 15, 9%. And that's using the included lightning to USBC cable, but a 20 wat wall charger that I had to buy separately. Since it doesn't come with one. Now, if you have last year's iPhone [00:13:00] 13 pro, I don't think you should upgrade while the improvements and new hardware and features are a lot of sizzle. You aren't getting a drastically different experience, upgrade your 13 pro to Iowa 16 and enjoy. But if you have a 12 pro and having it to upgrade, the 14 pro is a pretty sizable step up in terms of performance, battery, life, camera quality, and features like dynamic island. And if you're rocking an iPhone 11 pro or older, the iPhone 14 pro is a giant upgrade [00:13:30] all around Speaker 1: The iPhone. 14 pro is my favorite iPhone. And most of that is because of the revamped block screen, always on display and that new dynamic island, I still have more testing to do with these phones. So make sure you're subscribed to all things seen at for more stories and videos about the 14 pro and 14 pro max. But now I want to hear from you, what questions do you have about the 14 pro and 14 pro max? Let [00:14:00] me know in the comments, lastly, if you've enjoyed this video, please give it a like, and thank you for watching.