iPhone 14 review: A great upgrade for old iPhone users
Apple's iPhone 14 is fairly similar to last year's iPhone 13. But that shouldn't deter those who want to upgrade to it from an older iPhone or from a mid-range Android phone. As we find in the iPhone 14 review, it is a phone worth buying.
iPhone 14 review
Pros
- Compact
- Full-day battery
- Good screen
Cons
- No fast charging
- Low-light front camera
In Short
- The iPhone 14 has been launched in India at the price of Rs 79,900.
- The iPhone 14 looks similar to the iPhone 13 and has similar hardware.
- For people using old iPhones, the iPhone 14 offers a good upgrade path.
Earlier this month Apple launched the iPhone 14 along with the iPhone 14 Pro. And immediately one thing was clear: the iPhone 14 Pro was a bigger update with a new chipset and Dynamic Island. We have reviewed the iPhone 14 Pro separately and you can read it here. So, why is the iPhone 14 Pro the bigger update and not the iPhone 14? Well, that is because the iPhone 14 not only shares looks with the iPhone 13, but also the core hardware, including chipset. Now, don't let all this prejudice your feelings for the iPhone 14. Because we find in this review that the phone might be just an iterative update -- some say Apple should have called it the iPhone 13S -- it is still a good enough phone to be a great upgrade for anyone using a three or four-years-old iPhone or a mainstream Android phone.
In India, the iPhone 14 has been launched at a starting price of Rs 79,990 for the base 128GB model. There are two other variants -- 256GB at Rs 89,900 and 512GB at Rs 1,09,900. But as a part of the launch offer, Apple is offering up to Rs 6,000 instant cashback on shopping with an HDFC credit card.
So, if you are stuck on one of the old iPhone models, say the iPhone X or even iPhone 11, this review is for you.
iPhone 14 design and build
If you are coming from an old iPhone, in the iPhone 14 you get a totally new design. But if you compare it to the iPhone 13, it is the same. It is the same boxy design and includes a similar looking camera module with a lens placed diagonally. The iPhone 14 comes in fresh colour options, including - blue, purple, midnight, starlight, and (PRODUCT) red.
Apple has moved to a dynamic and smaller notch -- called Dynamic Island -- in the Pro iPhones this year but the iPhone 14 retains the regular notch. I find the build quality of the iPhone 14 solid. Compared to the older iPhones, its boxy design makes it easier to handle and use. The size of the phone is perfect, and if you are someone who doesn't like the trend of large phones, you will appreciate the iPhone 14.
Personally, I do not like big phones, so the size of the iPhone 14 is perfect in my opinion. It is compact, fits inside the jeans pocket easily and is comfortable to use with one hand all through the day.
iPhone 14 display
The screen of the iPhone 14 is similar to what we saw in the iPhone 13 (you will hear me say this a lot) but compared to what you have iPhone 11 and older, you will notice a nice change in your screen experience.
The iPhone 14 comes with a 6.1-inch liquid retina display with an OLED panel, and although its brightness on paper doesn't reach the high-figures that Apple advertises for the screens of the Pro models, it is more than adequately bright. The iPhone 14 offers a great viewing experience under all lighting conditions, including the scorching Delhi sun. Indoors, I found that a brightness level around 50 per cent was sufficient. I was hoping to see a screen with a faster refresh rate on the iPhone 14, considering that Apple introduced a 120Hz display last year in Pro models. But that is not the case. Instead, the screen of the iPhone 14 remains at 60Hz.
iPhone 14 battery life
While iPhones, over the years, have offered top-notch performance and camera experience, the battery has been an issue, particularly on the smaller iPhones. But I believe that last year with the launch of the iPhone 13, the company fixed it. With the iPhone 14, I feel the battery life has gotten even better.
In the last one week or so, I have used the iPhone 14 on daily basis to play some games (I am not too much into gaming), browse internet, scroll through Twitter and Instagram (I watch a lot of Reels), watch tons of YouTube videos and, of course, click lots of photos. Everyday the iPhone easily lasted me a full working day, that is to say around 14 to 15 hours.
One disappointing factor, though, is there's still no fast charging support, which has become really common on Android phones. Just like iPhone 13, the new iPhone 14 comes with MagSafe wireless charging up to 15W. Again, there's no charging adapter in the box. The retail box includes a USB-C to lightning cable.
iPhone 14 camera performance
Not much has changed in the iPhone 14 camera if you compare it with last year's iPhone model. But, for old iPhone users, a lot has changed, especially in the low-light photography bit. Daylight camera experience has also improved drastically, colours have gotten much better if we compare it to something like the iPhone 11. So, if you use an iPhone model that's around 2-3 years old, upgrading to the latest iPhone 14 totally makes sense.
The iPhone 14 has two rear cameras: main camera and an ultrawide camera. Both use 12-megapixel sensors. The phone offers a bunch of camera features to help users capture different kinds of photos. Some of these features include -- Deep Fusion, Portrait mode, night mode, Burst mode, and many more. The two cameras cover a zoom range that can be described as 2X, although the phone doesn't have a separate telephoto lens that we see in the Pro models.
I compared the iPhone 14 and the iPhone 13 cameras and didn't really find much of a difference. Even the low-light shots were kind of the same. You can check out these shots clicked with the iPhone 13 and 14 below side-by-side.
But, to repeat, the iPhone 14 is not for iPhone 13 users. It is for old iPhone users, and for them I believe the iPhone 14 offers a lot of camera improvements. The phone clicks well-detailed shots in good light and the colours are captured really well. Similar is the situation for pictures clicked in low light. It is as good as any other phone out there, and in some cases -- for example, twilight scenes -- it is better. Though the Pixel 6a, which we reviewed recently, is a little bit more consistent with its camera -- and only camera -- compared to the iPhone 14.
The ultrawide camera also does a good job and shows even some of the minute details in distant buildings. But, sometimes when zoomed into the photo, details are seen missing in edges and corners. One thing that I continue to miss here is a little bit of versatility. Most Android phones in this price segment come with dedicated telephoto and macro cameras. Even Apple has been putting them in the Pro models for a couple of years now but the iPhone 14 still doesn't have them.
While the iPhone 13 and the iPhone 14 rear camera performance is similar, I found some improvement in selfies that the iPhone 14 clicked, especially in the details they have. The camera setup in both phones is the same but it is possible that Apple has made some software tweaks to fine-tune the front camera experience. The iPhone 14 clicks well-detailed selfies in good lighting, but the low-light selfies still have a lot of room for improvement.
iPhone 14 performance
Another big upgrade, if you are coming from an older iPhone, that you get with the iPhone 14 is the performance. The phone is powered by an A15 Bionic chipset, which also runs last year's iPhone series. But Apple says the chip used to run the iPhone 14 offers around an 18 per cent improvement in terms of performance when compared to the iPhone 13. In terms of specifics, the iPhone 14 gets the same A15 chipset but with an additional 5-core GPU for boosted gaming performance.
Also one important bit here, which is significant: The iPhone 14 has 6GB RAM compared to 4GB RAM in the iPhone 13.
The A15 Bionic chip is a powerful chip and handles multitasking, gaming and everything one does in the iPhone very well. So, you will not have any issues using the iPhone 14 when it comes to performance. I used the iPhone 14 for lots of browsing, watching Reels on Instagram, playing videos on YouTube, checking and responding to emails and a lot more stuff. The phone manages all of it really well. One of the best things is, despite running the phone through so many activities, the iPhone 14 never feels warm. Not even during charging.
iPhone 14 review: who should buy?
Now, the question is - who should actually buy the iPhone 14?
The iPhone 14 is not for people who already have the iPhone 13. And Apple knows that. The iPhone 13 is already a really good phone and now, with the price drop, it is an even better deal. But, people who are still using some of the old iPhone models, say the iPhone 11 or the iPhone XR, should definitely go for the iPhone 14. Now, you may ask why not go for the iPhone 13 instead? Well, that's because the iPhone 13 is already more than a year old. In the world of iPhones, the way it works is like this: Get the latest iPhone you can afford. Use it for four years. Then get the latest iPhone you can afford. If you buy the older gen iPhone, you will have to upgrade a year sooner. So, in the end it works out the same.
The iPhone 14 starts at a price of Rs 79,900 in India but Apple is offering a Rs 6,000 instant discount to consumers shopping with an HDFC credit card. That brings down the price of Rs 73,900. At this price, I feel the iPhone 14 offers a lot of value to users upgrading from a phone like iPhone XR or older, or from a mainstream Android phone.