Today Apple announced the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max at its “Far out” event. The Pro models feature a bounty of updates, including the long-awaited elimination of the notch, which debuted on the iPhone X in 2018.
The new front-facing camera module is the most noticeable change, but there are considerably more updates under the hood for 2022.
The iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max continue a trend Apple started with the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max last year, distancing the upper tier from the standard iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus.
Perhaps the biggest news though is that there is no price bump for the Pro models as was rumored. The iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max start at the same $999 and $1,099 as their predecessors.
The change to the front-facing camera introduced what Apple is calling the "Dynamic Island," which expands out from that central capsule with notifications activities and other updates.
That isn't the only update to the display, of course, the rumored always-on display update is here automatically dimming your display while still presenting the notifications and other glanceable information you may need. That dimming is also joined by a brighter display than ever before with a claimed max brightness of 2000 nits. Apple's ProMotion 120Hz panel is also better than ever with the ability to drop all the way down to 1Hz when viewing static content, which could lead to a battery life boost, we'll need to see once we have them in for review.
Speaking of battery life, Apple's A16 Bionic consumes 20% less power than the A15 Bionic and Apple claims it uses 1/3 the power of its competitors. But it isn't all about efficiency, a 50% boost to memory bandwidth should deliver even smoother gaming performance.
Apple's new Pro camera system introduces a 48MP wide-angle camera with an f/1.78 aperture. Apple claims it will deliver a 2x improvement in low light versus iPhone 13 Pro. That aperture may jump out as a step down from the f/1.5 wide-angle on last year's Pro models, but thanks to pixel binning and computational photography it should net out as a boost overall.
While standard photos will still come out as 12MP, making them more manageable for editing and sharing, Pro photographers will appreciate the ability to shoot in Pro Raw at the full 48MP resolution. It's not the 100MP in some of the Android flagships, but it's a massive leap for iPhone owners.
The new ultra-wide offers a 3x improvement in low light over iPhone 13 Pro and improved macro mode.
The upgraded 9 LED flash offers twice the brightness and superior results across all three lenses.
iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max preorders start on September 9 with the phones shipping and available in stores starting on September 16.
