iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus Hands-on: Bigger display and minor camera upgrades

With the new iPhone 14 line, Apple has gone big.

The iPhone mini is dead — though the iPhone 13 mini is still available for now — and in its place is a new 6.7-inch iPhone 14 Plus that measures in at the same 6.7-inch display size as the iPhone 14 Pro Max.

Despite people clamouring for the mini, several reports indicate it didn’t meet Apple’s sales expectations. Apple is a company that doesn’t do anything unless it’s extremely calculated, so it likely has data indicating that people want a bigger, cheaper iPhone.

Beyond the size change, the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus look similar to last year’s devices, including the squared-off sides and notch. Only the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max are ditching the notch in favour of the very interesting cutout called the  ‘Dynamic Island.’

That said, the iPhone 14 does feature the same always-on display as the Pro variants. Apple makes some pretty lofty claims about the always-on screen not significantly affecting battery life that I’m not entirely sure I believe. Still, I’m looking forward to testing them out for myself.

This year, the iPhone 14 isn’t getting the upgrade to the new A16 chip and is instead sticking with the A15, though it does feature an extra GPU core, giving it a minor power boost.

On the camera side, the 12-megapixel sensor now features a larger 1.9-micro sensor, and the front shooter offers autofocus. There’s also still the same 12-megapixel wide and ultra-wide shooter. I know it will likely never happen, but I wish Apple would bring a telephoto lens to the base-level iPhone since I find it more useful than the ultra-wide. I briefly tested the camera out in Apple’s hands-on area, and it seems to focus more quickly when taking selfies, but more testing is required.

There are also new colours, including a new variant of ‘Product Red,’ ‘Purple,’ and ‘Blue.’ While they look cool, I prefer the more pastel hues Apple has gone with in the past for its standard iPhone.

Beyond the above changes, not much else is new with the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus. Apple’s new devices are an incremental update over their predecessors when it comes to hardware. It will be interesting to see if Apple’s bet that people want a larger, cheaper iPhone will pay off.

The iPhone 14 Plus starts $1,250 and the iPhone 14 costs $1,099. Pre-orders start on September 9th, and the iPhone 14 releases on September 16th, while the iPhone 14 Plus drops on October 7th.

For more on the iPhone 14 line, check out my hands-on with the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max.