We never get the luxury of reviewing Apple products for some reason. Not since the so-called “curvy” Mac (that apparently was “cuddly” according to some reviewers) back in 2004 or something we have never even been asked to.
So again all we can do is parrot the company’s press release for those that are interested …
PS: We STILL think any decent camera will outgun ANY smartphone in a head to head. And if you wonder why, read this.
PS: We think it is “an iPhone” not an entity in its own right.
Apple today announced a new yellow iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus, adding even more colour choices to the lineup this autumn. Beautifully designed and built to last, iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus have a durable Ceramic Shield front cover, an updated internal design for better sustained performance and easier repairs, and amazing battery life — with iPhone 14 Plus offering the longest battery life of any iPhone ever.1 Both models include a dual-camera system for stunning photos and videos, the powerful A15 Bionic chip, and innovative safety capabilities including Emergency SOS via satellite and Crash Detection. The new yellow iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus will be available to pre-order this Saturday, 11 March, with availability starting Tuesday, 14 March.
“People love their iPhone and rely on it every day for all that they do, and now there’s an exciting addition to the lineup with a new yellow iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus,” said Bob Borchers, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “The extraordinary battery life, lightweight design, pro-level camera and video features, groundbreaking safety capabilities like Emergency SOS via satellite, and all iOS 16 has to offer make iPhone 14 a great option for anyone in the market for a new iPhone.”
A Beautiful and Durable Design with Amazing Battery Life
The 6.1-inch iPhone 14 and 6.7-inch2 iPhone 14 Plus feature a durable aerospace-grade aluminium design that is water- and dust-resistant,3 with a Ceramic Shield front cover that is tougher than any other smartphone glass, protecting iPhone from common spills and accidents. An updated internal design provides better sustained performance — great for heavy workloads and high-powered gaming — while improving ease and affordability of repairs. Both models include a gorgeous Super Retina XDR display with OLED technology that supports 1200 nits of peak HDR brightness, along with support for Dolby Vision. The larger display of iPhone 14 Plus is fantastic for watching content, streaming Apple Fitness+ workouts, and playing games, while boasting the longest battery life of any iPhone ever.
A Powerful Dual-Camera System to Capture Every Moment
With iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus, users have an advanced dual-camera system right in their pockets. The system features an impressive new pro-level Main camera with a larger sensor for gorgeous photos and videos, as well as an Ultra Wide camera to capture unique perspectives. Both iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus include the new front TrueDepth camera that automatically focuses on multiple subjects at different distances for sharper close-ups and beautiful group selfies. And the larger aperture captures brighter colour and finer detail in low-light scenes.
The iPhone 14 lineup introduced Photonic Engine, improving mid- to low-light performance for photos across all cameras compared to the previous generation: up to 2x on the TrueDepth and Ultra Wide cameras, and 2.5x on the new Main camera. Photonic Engine is able to preserve subtle textures, provide better colour, and maintain more information in a photo through a deep integration of hardware and software.
Video features like Action mode and Cinematic mode are available across the iPhone 14 lineup to help users unleash their creativity. Action mode enables smooth-looking video that adjusts to significant shakes and motion — even when video is being captured in the middle of the action. Cinematic mode supports 4K at 30 fps and 4K at 24 fps, enabling a beautiful depth-of-field effect that automatically changes focus in a simple and intuitive way to capture cinema-style moments.
Groundbreaking Safety Capabilities for Peace of Mind
iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus offer critical safety capabilities that can provide emergency assistance when it matters most. Emergency SOS via satellite allows users to message with emergency services when cellular and Wi-Fi coverage are not available through a combination of custom-designed components and deeply integrated software. Additionally, if users want to reassure friends and family of their whereabouts while off the grid, they can open the Find My app and share their location via satellite. This service — which has already helped users in emergency situations in the U.S., Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, and the U.K. — will come to Austria, Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Portugal later this month.4
Crash Detection on the iPhone 14 lineup can detect a severe car crash and automatically dial emergency services if a user is unconscious or unable to reach their iPhone. Apple-designed motion algorithms trained with over a million hours of real-world driving and crash record data combine with motion inputs from the new accelerometer and gyroscope, GPS, barometer, and microphone5 on iPhone to bring this innovative safety feature to life. When paired with Apple Watch, Crash Detection seamlessly leverages the Powered by A15 Bionic with 5-core GPU
Powered by A15 Bionic with 5-core GPU
A15 Bionic brings powerful, pro-level performance to iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus. The 5-core GPU enables faster speeds for demanding workloads and even smoother graphics for video apps and high-performance gaming. A15 Bionic also powers camera features like Photonic Engine, Action mode, and Cinematic mode — all while delivering extraordinary battery life and protecting critical privacy and security features like data encryption using the Secure Enclave. The 6-core CPU with two performance and four efficiency cores handles intensive tasks with ease, and the 16-core Neural Engine is capable of 15.8 trillion operations per second, enabling even faster machine learning computations for features in iOS 16 and third-party app experiences.
Featuring iOS 16
iOS 16 features the biggest update ever to the Lock Screen, with a multilayered effect that artfully sets subjects of photos in front of the time, widgets that offer information at a glance, and a new wallpaper gallery for inspiration. Focus gets even more powerful with a new way to connect to the Lock Screen and create Focus filters within apps. Live Activities help users stay on top of things that are happening in real time, such as a sports game or ride-share, right from the Lock Screen. In Messages, users can edit a message, undo send, and mark conversations as unread.7 Browsing in Safari gets even safer with passkeys, a next-generation credential that can’t be phished or leaked. Live Text adds the ability to interact with text in video, quickly convert currency, and translate text. Users can also tap and hold on the subject of an image to lift it from the background and place it in apps like Messages. iCloud Shared Photo Library offers a new way to seamlessly share photos with up to six family members. And with Apple Music Sing, users can sing along to their favourite songs with adjustable vocals and real-time lyrics.8
iPhone and the Environment
iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus are designed to minimise their impact on the environment, including antenna lines that use upcycled plastic water bottles that have been chemically transformed into a stronger, higher-performance material. In addition to featuring a re-architected internal design that offers improved repairability, iPhone 14 models also use 100 percent recycled rare earth elements in all magnets, including those in MagSafe, and 100 percent recycled tungsten in the Taptic Engine. Both models also include 100 percent recycled tin in the solder of multiple printed circuit boards, and 100 percent recycled gold in the plating of multiple printed circuit boards and in the wire of all cameras. Fiber-based packaging does not use outer plastic wrap, bringing Apple closer to its goal of completely removing plastic from all packaging by 2025.
Today, Apple is carbon neutral for global corporate operations, and by 2030, plans to be 100 percent carbon neutral across its entire manufacturing supply chain and all product life cycles. This means that every Apple device sold, from component manufacturing, assembly, transport, customer use, charging, all the way through recycling and material recovery, will have net-zero climate impact.
Pricing and Availability
- iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus are currently available in midnight, starlight, (PRODUCT)RED,9 blue, and purple, and will be available in yellow in 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB storage capacities, starting at RRP A$1399 inc. GST and RRP A$1579 inc. GST respectively.
- Customers in Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, South Korea, the U.K., the U.S., and more than 60 other countries and regions will be able to pre-order iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus in yellow beginning at 12.00 a.m. AEDT this Saturday, 11 March, with availability beginning Tuesday, 14 March.
- Customers could get credit towards iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus directly from apple.com/au/store when they trade in an eligible smartphone. Terms apply. For eligibility requirements and more details, see apple.com/au/trade-in.
- Emergency SOS via satellite and Find My via satellite are currently available in Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, the U.K., and the U.S., and will be available in Austria, Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Portugal later this month. The service will be included for free for two years starting at the time of activation of a new iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus.10
- Apple Fitness+ is free for three months for new subscribers. A$14.99 per month after trial. Only one offer per Apple ID and only one offer per family if you’re part of a Family Sharing group, regardless of the number of devices you or your family purchases. This offer is not available if you or your Family have previously subscribed to Apple Fitness+. Offer good for three months after eligible device activation. Plan automatically renews until cancelled. Restrictions and other terms apply. Apple Arcade is free for three months for new subscribers. A$7.99 per month after free trial. Plan automatically renews until cancelled. Offer not available if you or your family have previously accepted the Apple Arcade three-month free offer. Offer is good for three months after eligible device is activated. Plan automatically renews until cancelled. Restrictions and other terms apply. Apple Arcade requires a subscription.
- iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus Silicone Cases will be available in four new colours: canary yellow, olive, sky, and iris.
Footnotes
- All battery claims depend on the cellular network, location, signal strength, feature configuration, usage, and many other factors; actual results will vary. The battery has limited recharge cycles and may eventually need to be replaced. Battery life and charge cycles vary by use and settings. Battery tests are conducted using specific iPhone units. See apple.com/au/batteries and apple.com/au/iphone/compare for more information.
- The display has rounded corners that follow a beautiful curved design, and these corners are within a standard rectangle. When measured as a standard rectangular shape, the screen is 6.06 inches (iPhone 14), or 6.68 inches (iPhone 14 Plus) diagonally. The actual viewable area is smaller.
- iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus are splash-, water-, and dust-resistant, were tested under controlled laboratory conditions, and have a rating of IP68 under IEC standard 60529 (maximum depth of 6 meters for up to 30 minutes). Splash, water, and dust resistance are not permanent conditions. Resistance might decrease as a result of normal wear. Do not attempt to charge a wet iPhone; refer to the user guide for cleaning and drying instructions. Liquid damage is not covered under warranty.
- Emergency SOS via satellite was designed for use in open spaces with a clear line of sight to the sky. Performance may be impacted by obstructions such as trees or surrounding buildings. iPhone will continue to operate under normal temperature conditions.
- The microphone is turned on only when driving is detected; this can be triggered by Bluetooth, CarPlay, or speed. All data is processed on the device and discarded after a crash event has been detected, unless a user has opted into sharing their data to improve Crash Detection. Only the sound level is shared with Apple, not the raw audio.
- Crash Detection is designed for four-wheel passenger vehicle crashes with certain mass, G-force, and speed profiles consistent with severe, life-threatening crashes. Requires a mobile network connection or Wi-Fi calling. It was designed for severe, life-threatening, high-impact front and rear, side-swipe, T-bone, and rollover crashes. Crash Detection is available worldwide on iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone 14 Pro Max, Apple Watch Series 8, Apple Watch SE, and Apple Watch Ultra.
- Users can edit a message for up to 15 minutes after sending it and can unsend a message for up to two minutes after sending it. Users can make up to five edits to a given message, and recipients will be able to see a record of edits made to the message.
- Some features may not be available for all countries or all areas. For more information on iOS 16, visit apple.com/au/ios/ios-16/features.
- A portion of the proceeds from every (PRODUCT)RED purchase goes to the Global Fund to fight AIDS and mitigate the impact of COVID-19 with (RED). See apple.com/au/product-red for more information.
- Users who purchased an iPhone 14 model before the availability date of Emergency SOS via satellite will receive two years of the service free starting from the service availability date.
