Apple launched its high-end iPhone 14 Pro models, each of which received an A16 processor as well as an improved rear camera. The bangs that have been in use for years finally got a major change to a pill-shaped black area called Dynamic Island, but there’s a big mystery here.
The new iPhone 14 Pro is the centerpiece of Apple’s September 7 “Far out” event, the biggest difference between the two high-end models since the iPhone 13 series in 2021. As expected, only the Pro model gets the new A16 Bionic processor 4nm process, with nearly 16 billion transistors, and the new chip brings performance gains in three important areas, power efficiency, display and camera.
The most obvious difference between the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max compared to the 2021 model, and the new iPhone 14, is that the bangs have disappeared, replaced by a pill-shaped area, also known as the “Dynamic Island”, for displaying various notification animations, with the black area being expanded to show reminders and background activity in a variety of clear and coherent forms.
From the demo, it looks like Apple is trying to eliminate the impact of the pill opening on the experience, and Lingering Island adjusts in a fun way when there are multiple background active processes.
LTPO technology improvements with refresh rates as low as 1Hz. 6 core CPUs, 2 high performance cores – using 20% less power and 4 energy efficient cores – using 1/3 the power of competitor chips, neural engine boosted to 16 cores, new display engine for better display / animation effects.
The new display engine enables 1Hz refresh, always-on and anti-aliasing effects, the latter of which makes Dynamic island look silky smooth.
The iPhone 14 Pro’s rear-facing primary camera has been upgraded to 48 megapixels at f/1.78 with a 24m focal length and a sensor that supports quad-pixel aggregation (quad-pixel).
The Quad pixel sensor is able to provide different sensor modes for different photos. Most of the time, it does a 12-megapixel binning of the photo to capture the maximum amount of light.
The new ultra-wide angle camera has 1.4 micron pixels. There is a 3x improvement in low light, better macro results, and the “Photon Engine” brings significant improvements in low light conditions.
Pixel binning can crop the sensor differently to provide true 2x zoom at a 48m focal length. iPhone 14 Pro can shoot ProRAW with 48MP resolution, the new sensor has different pixel modes, and new machine learning algorithms can be used to optimize it.
Pro models will also receive technical support for emergency satellite assistance.
For video, Movie mode now supports 4K @ 24 / 30 fps, and the newly introduced Action mode is for “professional filmmakers”. If Action mode is as good as Apple says it is, then it will be the most meaningful upgrade for many creators and filmmakers on these phones.
The iPhone 14 Pro / Pro Max models will be available on September 16 and will be available for pre-order starting at $999 / $1099 this Friday.
At the same time, Apple has lowered pricing for older iPhone models, starting at $429 / $599 / $599 for the iPhone SE / 12 / 13 respectively.
