“Everyone wants to learn from Apple, but everyone is not like Apple.” Apple’s fall conference was officially held on September 8 at 1 a.m. Apple announced the new iPhone 14 series of phones, Apple Watch 8/Apple Watch Ultra and the second generation of AirPods Pro. The real focus in this one and a-half hour or so conference was not the hardware, but the experience.
Image source: Apple official website
Experience is the real core of digital products, Apple has been constantly weakening the hardware update, emphasizing the upgrade of the experience. On the contrary, other domestic cell phone manufacturers, or constantly in the hardware “than to compare”, the two are difficult to compare in the same dimension, and this is the fundamental Apple can not fall.
For example, the long-standing Android phones on the hole-dig screen, pill screen, and bangs screen. So many years have passed, and the major manufacturers are still blindly pursuing screen ratio, so far no manufacturer in improving the full-screen “loophole” on the experience, the entire status bar at the idle state, and occasionally a manufacturer in the lens around the display a ring power is boasted out.
So how should the “full screen” be done in the end? This time Apple really gave a “full answer”.
Image source: Apple official website
That’s right, I’m talking about the iPhone 14 Pro/Max.
iPhone 14 Pro/Max
Apple’s product information, the closer to the launch, the more accurate the revelation.
For example, this time the iPhone 14 Pro/Max hole-dig screen explosion, is almost all correct.
The iPhone 14 Pro/Max features a new front camera design, similar to the “pill” design, which is close to the same as the online exposé. This time Apple stuffed the original deep camera system in the front hole, which is commonly known as Face ID, and reduced this component by 31% to free up more screen space.
In addition, in this “pill” there is a distance sensor and front camera used to sense the distance and front shooting.
Source: Apple official website
However, the news guessed the right hardware, but not the right software.
The front “pill” is not terrible, how to make people forget the “pill”, is the key. Apple in order to let consumers forget about the front digging hole, for its exclusive software optimization, so that it and the phone are completely integrated.
This optimization is called by Apple: Lingering Island.
As the name implies, Lingering Island is flexible enough to blend it with functionality in a different way. On iOS 16, many notifications are designed to be presented as bubbles. For example, connected headphones, caller ID, silent notifications, bicycle navigation, etc. On iPhone 14 Pro/Max, Apple blends it with the front camera module, displaying it separately on the left and right of the module, and adding more features by zooming in and out of this module.
Image source: Apple official website
For example, the taxi app can show the app icon on the left side and how long the vehicle will arrive on the right side. Another example is that if the app is broadcasting a game between two teams, the team logo and the score can be displayed separately on the left and the right, so as to see the real-time game situation more intuitively.
This is all based on Apple’s massive transition animation, from the official screen demo, the whole process is very silky smooth, whether it is the alert screen and notification, are extended by the front camera module, in line with the name of “Lingering Island”.
This small component not only displays real-time information but also supports deeper interaction. All the buttons on the island can be called out and pressed, such as connect, hang up, and pause, and if we touch them gently, we can expand them to see the details.
Behind the vividness of the “pill”, Apple has upgraded its new display algorithm, touching and sliding on the module, and the Lingering Island can respond quickly. In terms of animation, Apple has also used hardware and software co-operative anti-aliasing technology to make the animation effect more fluid.
The front “pill” makes the leap from “dead” to “alive”, and Apple has given it life, which is what I mentioned in the previous article. This is the “full answer” I mentioned earlier.
In addition, the overall performance of the iPhone 14 Pro/Max has been improved, starting with an upgraded screen that still supports ProMotion adaptive refresh rate, which can save power while making the whole experience more fluid.
This screen can reach a maximum brightness of 1600nit when viewing photos and HDR videos, far exceeding the screen brightness of the previous generation iPhone 13 Pro. In outdoor brightness, the peak local brightness can reach 2000nit, which is the highest record of iPhone screen brightness.
Image source: Apple official website
This screen uses the same technology as the Apple Watch’s screen, which can be displayed at a 1Hz refresh rate at rest. Now Apple has used this technology for the 24/7 display (rest screen display), which looks more like a darkening of the screen as a whole, rather than just displaying individual information as Android manufacturers do.
In terms of imaging, the iPhone 14 Pro/Max upgrades the main camera to a 48-megapixel quadruple main camera with 24mm focal length, ƒ/1.78 aperture, 7P lens, and adds second-generation displacement sensor optical stabilization technology.
In addition, there is a 12MP ultra wide-angle lens and a 12MP telephoto lens that supports 6x optical zoom and 15x digital zoom. The previously well-received movie effect mode has also been upgraded, finally from 1080p 30fps to 4K HDR 24fps.
Source: Apple official website
Performance is naturally the new A16 processor, based on a 4nm process, with a six-core architecture, 2 large cores and 4 small cores, with 16 billion transistors, integrated display chip, 20% lower power consumption compared to A15 and 50% higher memory bandwidth. It’s worth mentioning that Apple also compared its friends at the launch, pointing out that it is still catching up with Apple’s A13 processor from a few years ago ……
iPhone 14 Pro/Max added two more features this time: car accident detection and satellite communication. Car accident detection is based on the newly added high g-value acceleration sensor, which senses whether the user needs help by changing the direction of the gyroscope in the car and the change of air pressure in the car. The satellite communication function is required in open areas, according to the cell phone instructions to move in the direction of sending messages.
The satellite communication feature is currently only available in the U.S. and Canada, and is free for the first two years, with paid services likely to follow.
The iPhone 14 Pro/Max series is available in gold, silver, dark purple and deep black. iPhone 14 Pro is priced from RMB 7,999, while iPhone 14 Pro Max is priced from RMB 8,999. It will go on sale on September 16.
iPhone 14/Plus
After a series of “consumer backstabbing” sessions, Apple finally stopped offering consumers a true small-screen flagship.
Although the iPhone 14 mini was canceled, Apple also brought the same new product to fill the position, that is, the iPhone 14 Plus, from the product point of view, the iPhone 14 is more like the previous small screen positioning, iPhone 14 size 6.1 inches, iPhone 14 Plus for 6.7 inches. I have to say, Apple’s name is getting more and more argumentative, rather than the iPhone 14 Max to the convenience.
Image source: Apple official website
The iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus are basically the same in terms of other parameters except for the different battery capacity. iPhone 14 video playback can reach 20 hours and iPhone 14 Plus video playback can reach 26 hours, which is a very good battery life performance.
In terms of performance, iPhone 14/Plus uses the previous generation of the 6-core A15 chip, the same as the iPhone 13 Pro series (not the neutered version of iPhone 13), and does not use the latest A16 series chip, probably due to Apple’s confidence in its own performance, the performance of the A15 chip is still at the flagship level, and can maintain sufficient in daily use. The A15 chip is still at the flagship level of performance and is able to maintain sufficient smoothness in daily use.
In terms of imaging, the iPhone 14/Plus is still a minor fix, with a 12MP main camera and a 12MP ultra-wide angle lens with a maximum F1.5 aperture, which doubles the shooting speed in dark light situations. The front-facing camera is 12MP with autofocus support.
Image source: Apple official website
The iPhone 14/Plus also has a built-in high g-value acceleration sensor, supports crash detection, and also has satellite communication (US and Canada). In short, the iPhone 14/Plus is more like a performance upgrade of the iPhone 13, or iPhone 13S.
The iPhone 14 series comes in five colorways: Midnight, Star, Blue, Purple and Red. iPhone 14 is priced from RMB 5,999 and iPhone 14 Plus is priced from RMB 6,999. iPhone 14 will go on sale on September 16, while iPhone 14 Plus will go on sale on October 7.
I predict that the iPhone 14 Plus will probably be the best-selling model of this generation.
Apple Watch and AirPods Pro
Apple WatchApple Watch Series 8 has also undergone its normal update this year, with just a few routine upgrades and no changes to the ID design.
The Apple Watch Series 8 has a new temperature sensor that helps users measure their body temperature. The sensor can also track a woman’s biological cycle based on her body temperature. The watch also adds a new crash monitoring function to detect whether the user has been in a serious car accident and automatically alerts the police to provide information on the location of the accident to the responding officer.
Image source: Apple website
The Apple Watch Series 8 also retains useful features such as fall detection, Fitness+, and emergency contact.
The Apple Watch Series 8 will be available on September 16, starting at RMB 2,999 for the GPS version and RMB 3,799 for the cellular version. Apple is also introducing the simpler Apple Watch SE, which will start at RMB 1,999 for the GPS version and RMB 2,399 for the cellular version. It will go on sale on September 16.
The Apple Watch lineup also includes a new series: Apple Watch Ultra, a product designed for professional users.
It retains many of the features of the Apple Watch Series 8 and has a longer battery life of 36 hours in normal use and up to 60 hours in low power consumption, while the Apple Watch Ultra has a more rugged titanium case to suit more environments. Apple Watch Ultra supports L1+L5 GPS and is optimized for compass and GPS functionality. It also supports diving and is WR100 waterproof.
Image source: Apple official website
The Apple Watch Ultra has three bands and is priced at RMB 6,299 (GPS + cellular) and will go on sale on September 23.
Apple AirPods Pro, a product that has been tested over the years, is now also receiving an upgrade with the more powerful H2 chip, which has a substantial upgrade in performance compared to the H1.
The hardware is equipped with a low distortion driver and custom amplifier driver to support spatial audio functions. With active noise reduction mode, the noise reduction capacity is doubled. New touch operation, you can adjust the volume by sliding the headphone stalk.
The new AirPods Pro has a battery life of 6 hours and up to 30 hours with the charging case.
In addition, the charging case adds a speaker beeping function, which makes it easy to find the charging case alone, in case the headphones are taken out.
In terms of charging, the new Airpods Pro supports both Magsafe and Apple Watch chargers for wireless charging, and adds lanyard holes for easy portability.
Figure source: Apple official website
The new AirPods Pro is priced at RMB 1899 and will go on sale on September 23.
In the past two years, Apple may have lost the ability to innovate in the eyes of consumers, and every year’s products are small fixes, or add features that others have long used. However, Apple has time and again told consumers with the fact that experience is the core of the product, and the polished product can really occupy the market.
If you have any ideas about the above products, welcome to leave a message in the comments section, discussion, the future we will also be the first time to hands on these products for you to present a detailed review, welcome friends to our continued attention, thank you.
