In addition to new Apple Watches and AirPods Pro, Apple’s iPhone 14 hopes to be everything you need.
If you watched along with Apple’s Far Out event, you saw the numerous dramatic vignettes interspersed between announcements. While I felt perhaps a little too affected by one particular scene of a mother and her child getting rescued atop of a mountain—this was during the segment for the Apple Watch Ultra—I realized that it’s precisely the kind of thing that I’d want my gadget to do: get me out of a life-threatening bind. It’s these kinds of use cases that were on my mind when I went hands-on with Apple’s newly announced devices at yesterday’s event.
Granted, I don’t climb mountains. But the idea that the smartphone or smartwatch already on you is all you need when leaving the house resonated heavily. For every new specification bump Apple made to its iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro flagships, it also added a new utility. For the crappy moments in life, there’s car crash detection, which knows when you’ve had an accident and can call emergency services for you, and the retooled Emergency SOS, which now hooks you up to satellite connections you wouldn’t otherwise have access to in rural areas, either for when you’re in a jam or just want to share your location recreationally. For the thrilling moments, there is an Action mode on the iPhone 14’s camera app that helps stabilize the video the same way a gimble would, so you can live in the moment rather than worry about the gear that you have on your person.
These aren’t the only useful features introduced in Apple’s new lineup, but they’re a glimpse at where Apple is positioning its focus. After all, the iPhone is it. If you’re an iOS user, this is the only lineup (of new stuff) you have to choose from: the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus, and the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max. When we have the phones and other gear in our hands, we’ll have more of an assessment of how the new features perform in the real world. But in the meantime, here’s a peek at Apple’s latest hardware, including its new smartwatches and the AirPods Pro 2.
The iPhone 14, the “entry-level” tier of Apple’s smartphone line, features the same Apple Bionic A15 chip as the iPhone 13 and 13 Pro, though it is 8% faster. In addition to the new 6.7-inch screen size on the iPhone 14 Plus, it has a slightly upgraded chassis and internal design, allowing for better thermal performance. There’s still that signature ceramic shield on the outside, which Apple says is tougher than glass, in addition to aerospace-grade aluminum and water and dust resistance. Despite its fancy look—iPhones have a polish to them that Android phones don’t, and I’m saying this as a longtime Android user—Apple promises these are durable devices.
The cameras have been improved on the iPhone 14, too. Like its predecessor, there are two lenses on the back, including a 12-MP primary camera with a large sensor capable of an f/1.5 aperture. That will help immensely with low-light photography and capturing moving subjects. Apple says the new aperture helps aid in a 49% improvement in low light and that the night mode exposure capabilities are twice as fast as before.
