Apple did a killer job showing off the iPhone 14 lineup but they conveniently left out 29 things both good and many not-so-good. Now some of these will affect which model you should buy and for some be a good reason to buy an iPhone 13 instead along with ways where you can save some money.
Things Apple DIDN'T Tell You: iPhone 14
So make sure to pay attention as I go through everything we found scouring their site and the web. Let's start with some simple ones and then get into the juicy details that you need to know.
#1
The first is that the iPhone 14 can now have a mac like a startup chime when turning on instead of being silent. So it's a nice little confirmation for those that want it. As far as colors they announced only two new ones for the pro but they didn't mention that the silver one is also updated because the glass on the back is now a true white instead of being off-white.
#2
Now the new space black color looks to be very similar to the old graphite on their website but in reality, it is way darker which I like. With that, we have new colors for cases as well as apple's wallets. But unfortunately, the white silicon case that was very popular they are now completely gone.
#3
Now if you're somebody that hates camera bumps the iPhone 14's bump is not only larger but it sticks out way more than ever because of the new 48-megapixel sensor. So these things are going to wobble like crazy. Now apple spent a lot of time on the new cutout dubbed dynamic iland which now looks super cool because of the new UI features that they created for it.
But if it looks a bit too big for you. There is a reason from an image that apple now took down from their website you could see in IPHONE 14 that the visible pill is larger than the cutout that is made for the camera and the sensors that is because they are going to anti-alias the edge of the pixels that they turn off on the screen to make it look perfect.
Even if there is a manufacturing defect it is a good thing because they sometimes had issues with the original notch not being perfectly cut out. With that unlike the rumors, wi-fi is still the same as the three-year-old iPhone 11 were even bigger android phones like the pixel 6a have way faster wi-fi 6e.
#4
On the positive side, the new iPhones finally have updated Bluetooth 5.3 after being stuck with 5.0 ever since the iPhone 8 and this is great because of the new lc3 codec for better audio quality and lower power usage as well as better call quality. So if you're gonna pair it with the new AirPods pro it's gonna be nice.
Apple said that the new iPhone 14 plus has the best battery life of any iPhone ever but that is a bit misleading because that is only the case for audio playback rated at 100 hours compared to 95 on the iPhone 14 pro max and for video playback it gets beat by 4 hours.
In general, the new iPhones are only one hour better than the 13s, and if you're streaming it is the same as before which likely means that the two-year-old x60 5g modem has not been updated to the new four nanometer x70 which is both 33 faster while saving battery life.
#5
And apple didn't mention if the batteries got any larger but since they got rid of the sim card you would think that they would but the 14 pro is the only one that got a small bump while the pro max got a smaller battery. As far as charging they sell you a 20-watt adapter but the 14s can use up to 27 watts.
so if you're gonna buy one get Anker's smaller 30-watt. One bummer for me personally is the e-sim on the 14 pro and max.
#6
They mentioned that the 14s will be ECM only but they didn't say anything about the pro models. So I hoped if you're paying more you will still get that slot but no it turns out they don't have it either which is a bummer for those that travel or they swap sims with an android phone.
Now if you're like me and you thought that was for better water resistance nope it is the same as the iPhone 12, unlike our partner vesey which is 100 waterproof and will change your life. Vessies are made from dymatex which is a dual climate knit material that can be submerged and keep your socks completely dry while at the same time keeping you cool in the summer.
So they are amazing for year-round use they are extremely lightweight and comfortable. So they don't feel like they should be waterproof but they are I love how mine look and vessy has a bunch of styles to choose from. So I can get some that look great for work while being ready for any unpredictable weather.
They're comfy for traveling and when I go camping I don't have to bring my boots with me and when I did in the past I oftentimes wouldn't even put my boots on because they're uncomfortable and then my feet get hot. So I'd wear my regular shoes and then just deal with my feet getting wet and soaked and that is just annoying and in the past.
Now bessies are the ultimate all-around shoes.
#7
Another major downside with e-sim that apple didn't mention is that not everybody will be able to use it only the seven major carriers. So you have to know about this before buying with that the pros can hold up to eight e-sims at once while for some reason the 14s are limited to six. But of course, you can only have two activities at a time.
#8
Now there were rumors that Apple was finally going to upgrade the ram to 8 gigabytes on the pro models but they didn't mention ram at all at the event and we now know why we didn't get that upgrade to 8 gigabytes of ram. So we're still stuck with 6 just like the iPhone 12s but at the same time the regular iPhone 14s also now has six gigabytes.
#9
As far as performance some people were upset that for the first time apple is reusing an older chip in a new high-end iPhone and only the pros are getting the new a16 but in reality, it doesn't matter because there isn't that much of a difference apple told us how much better it was compared to the competition but unlike all of the previous launches they didn't compare it to the previous chips they were replacing.
#10
Now the first performance benchmark showed a slight increase in single-core but practically the same multi-core performance which was a bummer but it looks like somebody else ran it today and the multi-core performance is up 17% compared to the a15.
#11
Now one detail that many missed is that the identifier is different meaning that the 14 pros might perform the same as the 14 but the 14 pro max gets that boost because it could dissipate heat better. We also just got a graphics performance score and it is up eight percent compared to last year but once again this is from the 14 pro max.
Now I wish that apple talked more about thermal performance and how they compare different models on stage.
#12
What they did mention is the lower power usage because of the four-nanometer design but unlike the iPhone 14, they didn't say that the 14 pros have improved cooling. So there's still a chance that we might have to deal with screen dimming as we did on the 13 pros especially if you'll be using that 2000 nit brightness for the outdoors that really will heat the display.
That is one thing that we will have to put to the test once we get all four of the iPhone models that we're buying.
#13
Apple showed off the full iPhone lineup on stage with the mini being canned but it turns out that they are still selling the 13 minis and it is now $100 cheaper. So if you still want a mini it is now 599 bucks but better yet if you recently bought it they can do a price adjustment to get you a hundred dollars back.
So make sure you take advantage of that diving into prices more everybody was happy that apple didn't raise them until they started looking at the order page and found out that the 14 pro max is 150 euros more expensive.
#14
Now and the 14 is a hundred years more expensive while the 13 is still available at the same price. So if you're outside of us yes these did get more expensive and even crazier is that the iPhone se3 went up by 30 euros after the event for no reason at all just you know maybe inflation money other stuff same phone.
#15
So if you wanted to buy one of those hopefully you did now apple marketed the iPhone 14 but in reality, it is the brains of the 13 pros but with things like promotion disabled it has five GPU cores in the a15 and it has some of the cameras as well which also makes it weird that the 13s aren't getting the software upgrades for the photonic engine. Even though the hardware fully supports it touching on cameras.
#16
Now the 48-megapixel camera looks great on the pros and the upgraded ultrawide does as well but if it seemed like apple completely skimmed over the three-times telephoto camera they did so much. So they didn't even have a spec graphic for it that is because it is the same one as the 13 pros.
So won't be able to keep up with many of the android phones and the focus will still miss at times with that the iPhone 14 still cannot use night mode for portraits. So just like the iPhone 12 series portraits and darker lighting will still look bad. The new action mode they showed off does look super smooth but apple didn't mention that the video quality is worse because of the heavy cropping and it will not be able to shoot in 4k.
So keep that in mind that you are not getting the best quality so if you're not doing things like running like crazy you might not want to use it. For those of you that buy apple care plus they also didn't mention that it has been upgraded with unlimited repairs as long as you keep paying. So if you're somebody that breaks their phone often and you want to keep your phone for a long time this will be great.
#17
One of the most game-changing features is satellite connectivity for emergencies. Now you may have missed it but apple snuck in that it's free for two years. So at some point, it will be paid now Globalstar apple's provider charges 12 bucks a month for the service if you're using their spot x which you have to buy.
Now let me know if you'd be willing to pay that much once your free coverage runs out.
#18
A new feature that will come alongside the new iPhones is counterfeit airport detection built into ios 16 which is great for those of you guys that want to buy a used set because some people do buy knockoffs for super cheap and then resell them for way more pretending that they're just used ones or maybe new.
So that will put a stop to it and help you know that you're buying genuine ones but it won't block them out if you want to buy a pair of knockoffs and save some money.
So there you guys go we have a bunch of things that apple did not mention. Let me know down below which ones stood out to you or which ones matter and we will be getting these new phones and doing a bunch of comparisons and tests to see if the cameras are that much better than the previous generations.