Technology

iPhone 14 and 14 Pro leaks live Q+A and dissecting whether you should upgrade

Are you ready for the iPhone 14 launch?

Good morning – or afternoon, depending on where in the world you are. It’s so nearly iPhone 14 launch day (which is September 7, if you’ve managed to forget and are desperately pawing at the walls hoping to guess when it’s coming).

The thing is… there’s a lot happening. The iPhone 14 will be the star, probably backed up by the iPhone 14 Pro Max. Then there’s the Apple Watch 8, the Watch 8 Pro… and maybe even the AirPods Pro 2 as well.

In short, there’s a bumper amount of stuff happening, and if you’re just wondering whether the new iPhone is going to be the one for you, then that’s what we’re (well, I’m) here for today: telling you the key leaks that you should be thinking about, and welcoming any thoughts you might have on Twitter – catch me on @Superbeav and I’ll add your thoughts to the discussion.

08:11:53

Hello again – we’re still here and still talking about what the new iPhone 14 and 14 Pro will bring, digging into our years of iPhone coverage and expertise to discern what might be coming and whether it’ll be worth your time to upgrade.

Let’s start today with this handy Tweet from Raquel:

It’s a great question and one that’s pretty easy this year (in my opinion): no, no you probably won’t need to upgrade.

If we’d been talking this time last year, I’d have said there’s a good chance that you’ll enjoy the impending battery improvement that was mooted, but I wasn’t aware just how good it would actually be.

There is talk that the iPhone 14 Pro Max will have the larger battery, but it’s mostly to allow for the new always-on display… so I think the battery life will end up being similar to the iPhone 13 Pro Max, which was already pretty good.

I’ve been using the 13 Pro Max for a while now and I’m totally fine with the battery life, and when it comes to deciding whether to buy the 14 Pro Max in September, I’m not sure I’d go for that model.

Sure, always-on displays are useful (no tapping to just see the time) and I like the sound of the enhanced camera, but at this stage, if I had to commit I’d say no… especially with the heavily-rumored price hike.

23:16:27 – September 05, 2022

(Image credit: OneWeb)

The other thing that the ‘Far Out’ invite to the Apple event could be is a reference to satellite connectivity – and this is one that intrigues me.

In reality it’s about as useful as a watch with unactivated cellular connectivity allowing you to call emergency services – handy, but not changing your life daily (unless you often happen to be lost and need to call life-saving numbers when you have no cellular service).

It’s a nice-to-have, sure, but would Apple hang a whole event around it? It’s something that could happen, if Apple decided to make a big enough deal about it, but we’ll have to see when the event rolls around.

19:21:24 – September 05, 2022

This image came up when I searched for ‘A15’ in our image library, so I’m using it. Imagine they’re all holding Apple silicon and it’s more relevant. (Image credit: Warner Bros)

We’re pretty certain that one of the key differences between the iPhone 14 and the iPhone 14 Pro will be the processor inside, with Apple sticking to the A15 chipset inside the 14 and 14 Plus, and going all-out with the new A16 Bionic chipset in the Pro models.

(There’s a rumor that the A15 will be rebadged to the A16, and the new chip being called the A16 Pro… but that’s a bit too much Pro).

Either way, the new chip is set to be much better at thermal management, which means that it’ll be able to punch harder in terms of raw performance without coming at the cost of battery life – and anything that extends the battery further would be an excellent thing.

But that’s what’s upsetting me there – if only that chipset was being put in the massive iPhone 14 Plus without all the extra performance needed to be powered. 

It could last for ages…

17:52:50 – September 05, 2022

Whoa, whoa, whoa… wait a minute before you get involved like the rest of the internet did and think this is a real image of the iPhone doing a funny thing to mask the link between the notch and the pill.

It’s since been debunked, and quite clearly isn’t of an iPhone anyway – there are many random phones like this that come out of Asia, and it’s an easy thing to create.

That said, it’s an interesting talking point. Remember when Apple launched the iPhone XS and it did some funny imagery for the wallpaper to hide the notch on the promotional materials? Could it do the same with this notch, making it able to separate?

I can’t see it happening, but it might possibly allow for a more immersive experience. Then again, within five minutes of using the iPhone X in portrait I found that I stopped seeing the notch anyway, so maybe it’s not an issue…

16:06:52 – September 05, 2022

Great Tweet has come in from SunriseToSunset – and it’s put me firmly in my place:

This is a debate that’s been going on for a while now, ever since smartphone manufacturers starting making more powerful or larger versions of the ‘main’ phone.

To me, the iPhone 14 will still be the ‘star’ of the show in terms of popularity. It’ll still be the most searched-for device, and the it’ll probably garner the most sales.

But I’m personally most interested in the 14 Pro Max and the 14 Plus (should it arise) – the bigger phones with the better battery are right up my alley, and probably many others’ too.

Will the Pro steal the show? In terms of upgrades, I think they certainly might… but otherwise I still think the iPhone 14 will be the one that most will want to know about.

15:21:17 – September 05, 2022

OK, so this isn’t strictly about the iPhone 14, but the new Lock Screen in iOS 16 looks set to be a big part of what will make the iPhone 14 Pro look so good in always-on display mode.

The fact that portrait shots will slip behind and above the clock and other widgets looks pretty cool – I kind of agree with Marques Brownlee in this respect:

(Image credit: TechRadar)

OK, so this isn’t strictly about the iPhone 14, but the new Lock Screen in iOS 16 looks set to be a big part of what will make the iPhone 14 Pro look so good in always-on display mode.

The fact that portrait shots will slip behind and above the clock and other widgets looks pretty cool – I kind of agree with Marques Brownlee in this respect:

But modern phones will get this update as well from Apple, so perhaps it’s not the iPhone 14 win… but there will be a big focus on this at the event, I’m sure.

14:23:54 – September 05, 2022

(Image credit: Future / Apple)

Here’s an interesting question from our phones writer Tom Bedford: what does that Far Out invite really mean?

I won’t ruin his piece, but basically he suggests that Apple is finally going to get involved with astrophotography… as in, able to take better pictures of the moon.

That will require some good computational photography, AKA Apple using the iPhone engine to improve the pictures, but the brand is in love with saying how good its Neural Engine is at things like this… and that’s just the kind of thing I can see happening.

It’s a good analysis, especially when you look at the invite. Then again, it feels like Apple just picks a picture and set of words out of two separate bags and then sends out invites for the world’s media to conjecture over…

13:37:44 – September 05, 2022

(Image credit: Future)

Wait there Gareth – is that not a picture of the Galaxy S10 5G from 2019? Well, yes… yes it is.

Why is it relevant? Because that’s the expected shape of the notch on the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max when they appear in a couple of days’ time.

Most of the leaks in the build up to this launch have suggested that Apple will have a pill-shaped hole for the sensors, with the punch-hole camera flanking alongside.

That really upset me, as you can see that its asymmetrical nature would have really grated.

(Image credit: Ark Click/Weibo)

But the latest leaks suggest that it’ll be a single lozenge shape in the center of the screen, which will be a lot more aesthetically pleasing. I’m not saying that it will look good, because the chatter suggests that the icons left and right of it will still push up against the sides as if it were a notch.

Will it look good? I’ll hopefully be holding one in a jam-packed testing area in 52 hours… I’ll let you know. 12:01:27 – September 05, 2022

While we’re talking about battery life, let’s look at this little nugget from Mark Gurman, a well-respected journalist whose Power On newsletter always has interesting updates on what’s coming from Apple.

This time, he talks about how the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max will have larger batteries, because of the new Always-On displays that Apple is almost certain to bring to these phones.

Yes, these are features that Samsung and many other Android rivals have had for years and years – but this is rumored to be achieved through Apple adding a new feature to the OLED displays it uses, bringing the refresh rate down to 1Hz (as in, one update per second) as it does with the Apple Watch 7.

This is a good move to allow battery life to not be massively downgraded (Samsung believed its always-on display took 1% per hour more battery, but I think that will be even more efficient in Apple’s version) and yet still add in a really valuable new feature.

11:04:25 – September 05, 2022

(Image credit: Getty Images)

The thing that’s really getting to me about that ‘leaked’ listing is that it shows the battery sizes. If this truly was a leak from Apple itself – perhaps one that was sent out as embargoed marketing material – then it wouldn’t have that info on.

Apple will obviously collaborate with key third-party vendors on things like cases and such, ahead of launch. But it would never release the iPhone 14 battery size as it wouldn’t make a difference – so I feel like this document is an aggregation of the leaks published online at the moment.

That said, the battery sizes are dovetailing with what we’re expecting: the iPhone 14 Pro to have a larger power unit that the 13 Pro, adding in an extra 200mAh, but the iPhone 14 Pro Max to stick with something similar to the iPhone 13 Pro Max.

And while, again, we shouldn’t read this leak as gospel, I really do hope that the iPhone 14 Plus does match the battery size of the iPhone 14 Pro Max – that’s a phone that will be cheaper but will still have the gargantuan longevity that appeared with the new iPhone 13 range last year.

10:54:24 – September 05, 2022

(Image credit: applepriceleak)

OK – I’ve got a hot-off-the-press ‘leak’ to talk you through from TimesNowNews in India… and I’ll warn you, there are many things here that are making me question how legit this is.

However, the listing – which doesn’t have a source other than applepriceleak (and it’s not clear which forum that user name is from) – does touch on a lot of things that we’re expecting, so it’s an excellent kicking off point.

The first thing you’ll notice there is that the iPhone 14 Plus is being mentioned over the iPhone 14 Max… that’s the strong rumor at the moment, that Apple will split the naming to avoid confusing things between this larger phone and the iPhone 14 Pro Max.

But that’s not what I’m confused about…

10:39:56 – September 05, 2022

(Image credit: Apple)

Right, let’s get to it. What’s the number one thing you’re interested in with the new iPhone 14?

Are you angry about the battery life? The sharp sides too steep? Are you hoping for bigger screens or less notch? We’ve spent the last 15 goshdarn months looking at rumors regarding this muthaflippin’ phone, and we’ve got a pretty good idea of what’s going to be coming. 

But, as I said in the intro – this is all about you. Tweet me any questions and I’ll answer them, based on TechRadar’s analysis, right here and now.

By Gareth Beavis

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