In a world where even Android phones priced below Rs. 20,000 can do pretty much everything the average person might need, Apple’s Pro tier of iPhones, which all cost well over Rs. 1,00,000, have to push above and beyond. Each new model has to advance the state of the art, or has to at least seem fresh and fashionable. This is the route that Apple has taken for the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max – they don’t do anything drastically new and they don’t look much different, but there are a few updates that might make you decide to upgrade if you haven’t felt the need to before now.

We’re reviewing the iPhone 14 Pro, but its larger sibling, the iPhone 14 Pro Max, offers identical functionality for those who want a bigger screen or better battery life. In my review of the iPhone 13 Pro Max, I found it a bit too heavy and unwieldy for everyday use, and that hasn’t changed with this generation. After spending a bit of time with both at Apple’s big launch event, it was time to decide, and I think the iPhone 14 Pro offers the right balance for me. Read on for my full review.

iPhone 14 Pro price in India

Unfortunately, Apple has raised prices in India even though both these phones cost the same as their predecessors in the US. Both models are available with 128GB, 256GB, 512GB or 1TB of storage. The iPhone 14 Pro in each of these capacities costs Rs. 1,29,900, Rs. 1,39,900, Rs. 1,59,900 and Rs. 1,79,900. The iPhone 14 Pro Max costs Rs. 10,000 more for each, so the equivalent variants are priced at Rs. 1,39,900, Rs. 1,49,900, Rs. 1,69,900 and Rs. 1,89,900 respectively.

You still don’t get a charger or headset in the box; only a Lightning cable and a SIM eject pin. You’ll need to spend more if you want a 20W or higher USB Type-C adapter since even if you got one with an older iPhone, it won’t be quite as fast.

The Gold and Silver colour options are the same as before, but Graphite has been replaced with a darker Space Black option. The signature colour for this launch is Deep Purple, and this is what I have with me. Apple has released an additional colour option mid-cycle for the past two generations, so we might see something fresh around March next year if that continues to happen.

The Deep Purple colour is unlike anything Apple has released before, and looks different indoors and under sunlight

 

iPhone 14 Pro design

Of course the big news is the Dynamic Island, which, as Apple says, was developed as a combination of hardware and software capabilities to make the best use of the fairly massive camera hole. It also gives Apple something unique to market – while the Android world has been quick to try replicating it, it’s obvious that no other company had even thought about doing something along these lines before, and they might not achieve the same level of integration. We’ll talk more about this in a minute.

As for overall design, nothing much has changed for the past few years. Apple’s MagSafe accessory ecosystem requires a flat back, and we also still have a flat stainless steel band with rounded corners running around all four sides. The iPhone 14 Pro isn’t the easiest phone to hold, and the larger iPhone 14 Pro Max is even more awkward without a case. The two weigh 206g and 240g respectively. If you look closely, you’ll notice that the borders around the screen are slightly narrower than on previous models.

The Deep Purple unit that I have looks quite sober indoors – you might not even realise it isn’t grey. However, when the panel catches the light, you can see a rich plum colour with an almost metallic tone. The stainless steel band and the metal rings around the three cameras match the colour of the rear panel but are very susceptible to smudges. The raised camera island is made of clear glass, and if you aren’t using a case its edge can feel uncomfortable.

Apple continues to use its trademarked Ceramic Shield material for the display, and toughened glass on the back. All current-gen iPhones are IP68 rated for water and dust resistance. Units sold in the US do not have a physical SIM tray – Apple wants to transition to eSIMs only – but thankfully the ones sold in India still work with one Nano-SIM and one eSIM. There’s still a Lightning port on the bottom – ff you were hoping for a switch to USB Type-C, you might have to wait another year.

The iPhone 14 Pro’s stainless steel frame picks up smudges easily

 

iPhone 14 Pro Dynamic Island and always-on display

The biggest change to the iPhone 14 Pro siblings is their displays. The good news is that Apple has finally dispensed with the notch, which although instantly recognisable, has become a bit old-fashioned. The bad news is that the Dynamic Island, which takes its place, isn’t a huge improvement. In promotional videos, it looks superbly slick – and it is, visually at least. That’s because of Apple’s tight control over hardware and software, allowing it to do things like optimise animations with anti-aliasing, and make the homescreen seem to “flow” around it. The concept is also incredibly imaginative and feels fresh, in a world where so many phones are physically indistinguishable.

The idea of using the blank space between camera holes, and in fact expanding it rather than trying to make it blend in, took the entire audience at Apple’s launch event by surprise. Supply chain leaks gave us an idea of the hardware, and if you look at the front of the iPhone 14 Pro under strong light, you’ll see the borders of the pill-and-hole cutouts that we expected. It’s software that allows Apple to use space around and below these gaps, arranging information and icons so that it all still looks cohesive. You can even tap over the actual camera hardware – there are no dead zones for touch detection. This could lead to smudges over the lens, though.

What Apple has done, essentially, is lean on the fairly old concept of a second screen. LG Models such as the X screen (Review) and V20 (Review) from 2016 experimented with an extended screen area filling the lateral gap next to the front camera, used for background information and controls. What was missing back then was wider OS-level integration, and it will be interesting to see how Apple encourages developers to work with the Dynamic Island and what they come up with.

Up to two apps can show status information and you can tap either island to jump back into its app

 

There’s usually space for two small icons or text labels on either side of the front camera and Face ID hardware, and everything is enclosed in a single black oval. Long-pressing this can expand the “island” to show more context or controls. For example, if you’re playing music, you’ll see a small album art icon and an animated waveform, but tapping the island will bring up a full set of controls along with a progress bar, bigger thumbnail and artist/album information. Some indicators are simpler – a padlock when the screen is locked, a bright green icon when you’re tethering, and a bell plus text label when activating or deactivating silent mode, amongst others. You can also have a second app showing its status as a single icon in a secondary “island” to the right.

The ”island” itself is however very large and awkward, even when completely blank. Much like the notch, it requires that content and controls in most apps start below it, so it often feels as though there’s a thick band at the top of the screen doing nothing but occupying space. It took some getting used to the visual distraction of the island when using some apps, and yes, video as well as some games display all around it when stretched to full screen (though without any status icons).

In terms of utility, there were times during my review period when I really liked the dynamic island, but also times when I wished it could be turned off. It’s nice to be able to quickly change music tracks when scrolling through Reddit, for example, but on the other hand the animated waveform was constantly distracting and a skip button there would be more useful.

You can clearly see the hardware within the large “island”, which is what early rumours were based on

 

It’s easy to imagine the Dynamic Island in secondary screen use cases, like keeping an eye on real-time sports scores or situational updates while you’re doing something. I quite liked seeing a progress indicator ring when copying huge files over AirDrop. Conversely, I really didn’t need a huge, bright green tethering icon in my face all the time. Other system animations, such as when registering for Face ID recognition or connecting AirPods, don’t really need the island but just use it for design. More types of notifications could have been integrated here. In fact, the design could easily be adapted to work around and below the notches on the iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, and even older models, though it might not be as visually slick.

The other big exclusive feature is the always-on display mode. This is something the Android world has enjoyed for years (and even Symbian phones had more than a decade ago) – but of course Apple has done it differently. The company apparently waited for its SoC, display, and software to all be good enough, and you shouldn’t see too much of an impact in terms of battery life.

Instead of going off, your display now dims, but your lockscreen widgets and wallpaper stay put. Apple’s ability to tweak contrast and brightness mean that information and even details in your wallpaper image are still visible. The refresh rate drops, so some widgets and active notifications don’t refresh constantly. Apps might even be able to stay partially active when the phone is locked. The always-on display will turn itself off if the phone is still for a while or placed in a pocket, and of course when low power mode is active.

I found the always-on display to be a bit disconcerting, and given the fact that all modern iPhones unlock themselves automatically when your face is in the frame, even inadvertent taps on the screen can result in unintended interactions. It feels as though the screen is actually on. There’s also the matter of iOS 16 automatically collapsing notifications into a pile, so you don’t have as much information at a glance as you do on some Android-based implementations. Icons for apps that have generated notifications would have been useful. Overall, the always-on display was nice to have when the iPhone 14 Pro was lying on a table or couch as I worked, but it will take some time to get used to.

The always-on display (right) is the lockscreen itself (left), just optimised to consume much less power

 

iPhone 14 Pro specifications and software

In Apple’s world, specifications are less important than the overall user experience, but we still like to know what’s going on inside our devices. The new A16 Bionic SoC is exclusive to this year’s Pro iPhones, so there’s a bigger performance gap than ever. This comes to the fore with photo and video processing, graphics, and power efficiency. Apple says this SoC uses 16 billion transistors and is manufactured on an industry-leading 4nm process. For years now, Apple’s in-house silicon has been able to outperform competition from Qualcomm and MediaTek, and the company is claiming a 40 percent speed bump over today’s leading competitors.

The A16 Bionic has two performance cores and four efficiency cores, plus a five-core integrated GPU and a 16-core “Neural Engine” for on-device AI and machine learning acceleration. There are also dedicated blocks for image processing (now branded “Photonic Engine”), display handling, and various other subsystems.

The iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro both have 6GB of RAM across all variants, which Apple for some reason doesn’t disclose publicly. Battery capacities are also not specified, but third-party teardowns tell us that the two models have 3,200mAh and 4,323mAh units respectively. Battey life is described only in terms of time – up to 28 hours and 29 hours of local video playback with the two models respectively.

Charging speed is also not specified but has been pegged at 27W which is far below current norms in the Android world – maybe a switch from Lightning to USB Type-C, widely expected next year, will finally allow Apple to raise this. Also, speaking of Lightning, you’re still stuck with USB 2.0 speed for wired data transfers, which is a real shame when you might have up to 1TB of photos and videos to transfer. Wireless charging works at up to 15W with certified MagSafe accessories…