IPhone 14 Pro Review // IPhone 14 Pro Full Details // IPhone 14 Pro

When it comes to premium smartphones, few can hold off Apple's Pro iPhones. And this year we saw more of the same, with the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max both offering incremental upgrades over their predecessors and standing out in a tough crowd.

However, with competition coming from Samsung, Vivo, Xiaomi, OnePlus, Google and Oppo, do the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max stand out from the crowd? Come find out in our in-depth iPhone 14 Pro review. Before we move on, let's take a brief look at the prices of the iPhone 14 Pro models. First of all, the only difference between the iPhone 14 Pro and the iPhone 14 Pro Max is that the latter has a bigger screen and battery.

Apple iPhone 14 Pro price in India

The price of iPhone 14 Pro in India has been set at Rs 1,29,900 for the base 128GB variant. Additionally, the iPhone 14 Pro comes in 256GB, 512GB and 1TB models that will set you back Rs 1,39,900, Rs 1,59,900 and Rs 1,79,900 respectively in India. The price of iPhone 14 Pro Max in India has been fixed at Rs 1,39,900 for the base 128GB variant. Additionally, the iPhone 14 Pro comes in 256GB, 512GB and 1TB models that will set you back Rs 1,49,900, Rs 1,69,900 and Rs 1,89,900 respectively in India. Now, back to the review.

Design and Manufacture

When it comes to build quality, the iPhone 14 Pro follows the same design language as its predecessor, albeit with a new notch and larger camera bump. For the iPhone 14 Pro, Apple has retained the stainless steel frame with matte textured glass at the back. The iPhone 14 Pro also features a Ceramic Shield coating on the screen to provide an extra layer of protection. In my experience the materials used here are extremely durable and some of the toughest on the market.

The iPhone 14 Pro also has the same elegant design formula as its predecessor. The phone is quite heavy, it weighs 206 grams and is 7.85mm thick, although the differences are not noticeable. The button, port, and slider placements are nearly identical. Apple continues to opt for the Lightning port instead of the USB-C port, although this may change sometime in the future.

Significantly, customers in the US do not get a SIM slot. There's no fingerprint reader on the iPhone 14 Pro, but Face ID is as efficient as ever, ensuring quick unlocks every time. Overall, the iPhone 14 Pro is one of the best-built smartphones in the market, but I would still recommend using a case, although I found the phone less ergonomic due to the sharp edges. But the case took care of that minor setback. Although the phone feels great when used without a case, I would advise against doing so.

Display

The iPhone 14 Pro has opted for a 6.1-inch LPTO Super Retina XDR OLED display. The panel features 1179 x 2556-pixel resolution and 460 ppi pixel density. Like its predecessor, the iPhone 14 Pro uses Apple's ProMotion display, which is capable of upscaling between 10Hz to 120Hz. The screen supports Dolby Vision, HDR10 and HLG, providing a great viewing experience for shows, videos and movies. It gets pretty bright, with 1,600 nits of peak HDR brightness and 2,000 nits of peak outdoor brightness. The iPhone 14 Pro is also the first to feature an Always-on display, an area where the LTPO technology will help save power.

Apart from the specifications and features, the iPhone 14 Pro has one of the best displays I have seen on a smartphone. The screen gets extremely bright and can be seen clearly in any environment, while colors look punchy but accurate. Additionally, Apple also uses True Tone technology to automatically adapt the display's color and intensity to match the lighting in your environment. Other than that, it was an absolute delight gaming on the screen of the iPhone 14 Pro. Despite only ever introducing Always-On Display on the iPhone, I think Apple's adaptation is one of the best yet, revealing a dimmed version of the lock screen with notifications and widgets.

The display of the iPhone 14 Pro easily stands out even among premium smartphones. However, excellent display aside, the biggest highlight on the iPhone 14 Pro is the addition of the new notch. Apple calls this a "Dynamic Island", which goes above and beyond the traditional waterdrop and hole-punch camera cutouts. The dynamic island is the pill-shaped notch that houses the new front camera and Face ID sensor, but it can do a lot more.

Dynamic Island can be used to view notifications and alerts. You can also extend the island to certain apps and host first-party services that you can interact with using Dynamic Islands. YouTube, Spotify, Apple Maps, SharePlay, Apple's Media Player, Apple Play and many more can be used with Dynamic Island. I think the Dynamic Island is an excellent addition to the iPhone 14 Pro, although it just doesn't rise to the level it needs. But there's a lot more room for improvement.

Performance

There are zero compromises as far as performance is concerned. Apple's A16 Bionic chip is the fastest in smartphones and easily beats the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipsets. The A16 Bionic is built on the 4nm process and features a 6-core CPU, 5-core GPU, and 16-core neural engine. The A16 Bionic also has a billion more transistors than its predecessor. And the powerful chip is not without its perks as it makes the navigation experience extremely smooth, while the gaming experience was top-notch. No matter what title I threw at it, the iPhone 14 Pro handled every game with ease, able to run Diablo Immortal, Call of Duty: Mobile, BGMI, Apex Legends Mobile, and Asphalt 9: Legends with little effort. with.

We also ran a few benchmarks to put the A16 through its paces. Our testing showed that Apple's A16 Bionic chip had a huge edge over the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset. In Geekbench, the chip managed a single-core score of 1865 points and a multi-core score of 5445 points. In AnTuTu, the iPhone 14 Pro achieved an aggregate score of nearly one million, scoring 983848 points. When it comes to benchmarks, it becomes easy to differentiate between the A16 Bionic and its Android counterparts. However, this difference in performance is less pronounced during gaming and may only be visible to experienced gamers.

Cameras

If you are going to pay more than Rs 1 lakh on a phone, expect some great cameras. And it's safe to say that the iPhone 14 Pro doesn't disappoint, offering a massive camera upgrade over the iPhone 13 Pro. The star of the show is the 48MP primary sensor, which is 65 percent bigger than the iPhone 13 Pro. The main camera is accompanied by an advanced 12MP ultrawide unit and a 12MP telephoto shooter with 3x optical zoom.

You also get second-generation sensor-shift optical image stabilization to aid with focusing. Additionally, the iPhone 14 Pro also benefits from software tweaks and a new Photonic Engine that comes courtesy of that A16 Bionic chip. The Photonic Engine promises even better details and colors in all lighting conditions. Lastly, the 12MP front camera has also been updated and now features autofocus. But enough of the specifics, let's look at the real world results. Also, the phone took pictures with very little shutter lag.

In daylight, the 48MP primary camera looks great with some of the best results we've seen on a smartphone. Shots in daylight retain a lot of detail, while the Photonic Engine helps improve dynamic range delivering excellent results. The camera also reproduces natural looking colours, while maintaining a nice vivid look. There were no signs of over-sharpening or over-saturation, while exposure was well controlled even in difficult situations. The new 48MP sensor is Apple's first pixel-binning sensor and captures images in 12MP, although you can take full 48MP shots in ProRaw mode to get even more detail in shots. Raw images are uncompressed and better suited for editing.

The 12MP ultrawide unit in the main camera maintains its color consistency. It also captures a lot of detail and good exposure, though we noticed a bit of oversaturation in some images. The ultrawide camera also doubles as a macro unit and benefits from the sensor's ability to capture more light. Macro mode automatically activates when moving too close to a subject, although this can be disabled via the settings. Apple has upgraded the telephoto camera with a larger sensor and 3x optical zoom. The 3x zoom on the telephoto camera retains plenty of detail with accurate colours.

Overall, the three lenses do an excellent job of maintaining consistency in terms of both color and detail. As far as shots from all three lenses go, it's about as consistent as it gets. Furthermore, the three cameras capture lifelike images in all lighting scenarios, even complex scenarios. However, the 3x optical zoom pales in comparison to the zooming capabilities of the Galaxy S22 Ultra, Pixel 7 Pro, and Vivo X80 Pro, which is the iPhone 14 Pro's Achilles heel. The portrait mode of the iPhone 14 Pro is also quite impressive, capturing natural skin tones and accurate edge detection. You also get multiple portrait lighting modes including Natural, Studio Light, Contour Light, Stage Light Mono, High-Key Mono and more.

The main camera on the iPhone 14 Pro takes excellent shots at night, capturing detailed shots with great dynamic range and minimal noise. I found that images looked clear, with vibrant colors and good exposure. The iPhone 14 Pro also took pictures with warmer tones, which in some cases looked better than the cooler temperatures of the Pixel 7 Pro. The ultrawide camera can't keep pace with the main camera at night. While the ultrawide unit captures bright images at night with a good amount of detail, darker areas in the scene aren't represented as well.

The main camera on the iPhone 14 Pro takes excellent shots at night, capturing detailed shots with great dynamic range and minimal noise. I found that images looked clear, with vibrant colors and good exposure. The iPhone 14 Pro also took pictures with warmer tones, which in some cases looked better than the cooler temperatures of the Pixel 7 Pro. The ultrawide camera can't keep pace with the main camera at night. While the ultrawide unit captures bright images at night with a good amount of detail, darker areas in the scene aren't represented as well.

The iPhone 14 Pro can shoot 4K video at 60fps in ProRes, while Apple's Cinematic Mode has support for 30fps and 4K HDR video at 24fps. Apple has also added a new Action mode that can record video in HD or 2.8K resolution (supporting ProRes and Dolby Vision) at up to 60fps. This mode offers an extreme level of stabilization, which Apple claims is an alternative to a gimbal. I recorded a video running with this mode on and off and the difference was night and day. The level of stabilization offered by this mode is excellent, but whether it can replace a gimbal is anyone's guess.

Additionally, Action Mode also requires little illumination and is ineffective at night. The footage also looks great when in Cinematic mode and adds a Hollywood movie effect. Additionally, standard video taken on the iPhone 14 Pro is excellent as ever, with footage that looks detailed and vibrant during day and night. The front camera on the iPhone 14 Pro can also record 4K footage at 60fps, although the video quality is not as good as the rear camera, especially indoors.

And since we're on the subject of the front camera, you'll be pleased to know that it too has received a major upgrade and now supports autofocus. Apple says that the fast aperture of the new TrueDepth camera also helps in taking better selfies in low light. Selfies captured in daylight have a lot of detail and look sharp with vivid colours. Portrait selfies look good with natural skin tones, accurate edge detection and subject separation. Apple continues to be one of the best when it comes to overall photography and videography. And the iPhone 14 Pro is Apple's best effort yet, and it shows.

Battery

Apple doesn't mention the size of its batteries, but the information is fairly readily available. Rumors suggest that the battery size of the iPhone 14 Pro is slightly larger than that of its predecessor. Additionally, the iPhone 14 Pro can get from 0 to 50 percent in 30 minutes if you buy a 20W charger from Apple as there is no adapter included in the box. The phone supports 15W MagSafe wireless charging as well as Qi wireless charging. In terms of charging, nothing worth mentioning here. However, I started with the bad as a prequel to the great. And that's battery life.

The iPhone 14 Pro offers the best battery life of any compact smartphone and runs alongside the Galaxy S22 Ultra, OnePlus 10 Pro and Pixel 7 Pro, all of which have significantly larger batteries. During my time with the iPhone 14 Pro, I got a full day of battery life and more on a single charge. It held up under heavy usage, which included using the camera app, gaming, watching videos, browsing the net, and spending time on social media. Not to mention, the Always-On display was on the entire time and even then, the iPhone 14 Pro's battery showed no signs of waning.

iOS 16

The iPhone 14 Pro runs on iOS 16 with Apple's class-leading software and security support. iOS 16 brings a number of new changes to the operating system by enabling lockscreen customization, new ways to share uploaded content with family, a new focus mode, and enhancements to Messages. Users can now fine tune and customize their lockscreen using a variety of wallpapers, clock styles and real-time widgets.

The customizations here are endless and each lockscreen can also be linked to a focus setting. The iPhone 14 Pro also has satellite SOS and crash detection features. iOS 16 is one of Apple's biggest OS updates in some time and goes a long way towards making the experience more convenient and customizable than ever.

Verdict 

So let's come to the main question, which is 'Should you buy the iPhone 14 Pro'. The plain and simple answer would be 'yes'! But plain and simple is so boring, so let us tell you 'why' and maybe, 'why not'. First of all, if you are looking for the best smartphone in the market with 'zero' compromises, then don't think twice about getting the iPhone 14 Pro. The only difference between it and the 'Pro Max' model is that the latter has a bigger screen and battery. That being said, the iPhone 14 Pro has better battery life than almost every Android smartphone out there and if you don't mind a smaller display, there's no reason to choose the 'Pro Max' model.

The vanilla iPhone 14 is a great option for new Apple users. But the iPhone 14 Pro offers a ton of upgrades over its vanilla counterpart. The iPhone 14 Pro has a brighter and more vibrant display along with a massive camera upgrade at the back and a higher refresh rate. It is safe to say that both the cameras and the screen of the iPhone 14 Pro are class leading. Coming from an Android phone, it is safe to say that the iPhone 14 Pro offers great camera performance across all lenses. Furthermore, iOS 16 brings a lot of optimizations to improve the user experience, while continuing to guarantee Apple's incredible software support.

Then the excellent design and top-notch durability of the iPhone 14 Pro are standard. Lastly, the iPhone 14 Pro has several firsts. In addition to the new high-resolution 48MP camera, the iPhone 14 Pro also features a new Dynamic Island Notch and Always-On Display. Dynamic Island is not your ordinary pedestal and can do a lot more with lots more future possibilities. And even though, Always-on display has been on Android for many years, Apple's first attempt will force a lot of OEMs to re-add the feature. On the other hand, the iPhone 14 Pro is not without its flaws, the most obvious of which are its slow charging and the lack of an adapter in the box.

Additionally, the cameras lack in zooming capabilities when compared to the Galaxy S22 Ultra, Xiaomi 12S Ultra, Vivo X80 Pro, and Google Pixel 7 Pro. And then there's the fact that you get a lot in terms of storage, with the base model offering just 128GB of space for Rs 1,29,900. Lastly, apart from the notch, very little has changed in terms of the design of the iPhone 14 Pro. However, the 'pros' on the iPhone 14 Pro largely outweigh its 'disadvantages'. So if you are looking for a premium smartphone in 2022, you will not regret choosing the iPhone 14 Pro, it is without a doubt the best smartphone I have used till date.