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.
iPhone 14 Pro daytime camera samples (top-bottom): Ultra-wide, 1X, 2X, 3X (tap to see full size)
In real-world terms, photos taken with the iPhone 14 Pro in daylight came out looking excellent. Colours are natural without being overblown. 48-megapixel shots are huge in terms of file size but if you use Lightroom or any other post-processing tool, you’ll unlock a lot more detail and nuance. Close-ups are very finely detailed, but Apple still switches to macro mode automatically which can mess with attempts to frame a close-up subject. This can be disabled in the iOS Settings app. Macros are a little grainy but very usable.
Tricky exposures in the daytime were handled well, and you won’t be disappointed with any of the cameras. Ultra-wide shots preserved quite a lot of detail even in distant objects, and weren’t bad in terms of exposure, colour, or distortion at the edges. Using the 2X zoom level gives you an effective 48mm focal length so it can come in handy for portraits, and detail is impressive when it comes to things like the texture of animal fur. Depth of field is great with the primary and telephoto cameras. For objects at a distance, 3X will nearly always make more sense than 2X, but it’s nice to have the option.
Low-light shots are captured quickly and scenes are crisp, with excellent detail and vibrant colours. The telephoto camera’s 3X optical shots are a little weaker than the primary camera’s 2X cropped shots in terms of low-light detail and definition, but you do still get very usable shots and quite a lot of flexibility when it comes to framing and composition. The primary camera at 1X is excellent at night, taking detailed shots with remarkably good dynamic range, with very little lag and almost no motion blur.
iPhone 14 Pro low-light camera samples (top-bottom): Ultra-wide, 1X, 2X, 3X (tap to see full size)
Cinematic Mode is unchanged, except for a new option to shoot at 4K HDR at 30fps or 24fps. Action Mode is the main new video feature. It works on all cameras but with varying degrees of effectiveness. This seems far more likely to be useful to most people than Cinematic Mode, but it isn’t exactly new or pathbreaking for smartphones.
Standard video shot with all three cameras was also great, in the daytime and at night – the telephoto camera is of course the shakiest when walking and recording. Colours look natural and motion is smooth at 1080p as well as 4K.
Selfies had great detail and good depth of field. Exposures are weighted heavily towards your face rather than the background. Portrait effects are the same as with previous iPhones, using the 3D depth sensing hardware.
iPhone 14 Pro camera samples (top-bottom): Daytime selfie, low-light selfie, macro (tap to see full size)
Verdict
The iPhone 14 Pro is a solid iterative improvement over its predecessor. In the US, there hasn’t been any price increase, which makes sense. Unfortunately, we aren’t so lucky in India. What was already a luxury is now even harder to justify. If you’re looking for the best iPhone in terms of features, camera quality and overall performance, you’ll buy this phone (or its larger sibling) regardless of price, but for a lot of people, it’s simply too far out of reach. Many Android phones today (and even older iPhones) offer all the functionality that most people want, for much less money, though maybe not with quite the same level of polish.
The Dynamic Island is something you might want to show off, or at least play around with. For me, the novelty wore off soon enough and I found it less useful than I had hoped it would be, but I’ll see how I feel as Apple and app developers come up with new ways to use it. Crash detection and satellite-based emergency messaging aren’t relevant in India yet. A lot of the smaller quality-of-life improvements do add up though; I’m tempted by the low-light photo quality bumps across all cameras, and to a smaller degree, the always-on display.
For anyone with an iPhone X (Review) or older, it might be time to consider an upgrade, and the iPhone 14 series offers quite a lot. However, the iPhone 13 Pro is still available for now, and costs a fair bit less at each storage tier, especially with festive sales on. You wouldn’t really be missing out on much by choosing that instead. It’s also now more than likely that USB Type-C and fast charging will be coming with next year’s model, and you can’t be blamed for wanting to wait for that.
