When it comes to iPhone the brand speaks for itself, with Apple products being synonymous with innovation, invention, and cutting-edge.
You'd be hard pushed to look at mobile phones without coming across an iPhone, and it's likely whoever you are you have a strong opinion on them one way or the other.
Whether you love them or hate them, iPhones have been around for a while now, and there have been so many iterations that the product itself is pretty polished.
When the iPhone 13 landed last year it did so to pretty wide acclaim, and the iPhone 14 is very similar. It comes in new colours (because is it an iPhone release if it doesn't come in new colours?), namely blue, midnight, (PRODUCT) red, purple, and starlight. I got my hands on the purple, and I have to say it is beautiful.
Not including the Pro models, the iPhone 14 comes in 2 models, standard and Plus. Unlike the 13 there is no mini, however, there is a 6.7-inch offering in the iPhone 14 Plus.
The standard iPhone 14 is the one we're looking at here, and it comes with a 6.1-inch OLED display, sporting a 2532x1170 at 460 PPI. It comes with 128GB, 256GB, or 512GB storage, and weighs just 172 grams.
It's an identical display to the iPhone 13, namely HDR, true tone display with a fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating.
The phone itself is rated IP68 (maximum depth of 6 metres up to 30 minutes), and carries the A15 chip that also found a home in the iPhone 13.
That's not to say the chip hasn't improved though - the standard iPhone 14 has one extra GPU core compared to the standard iPhone 13, making a total of 5 GPU cores (the ones responsible for graphics).
This is an upgrade that, in theory, offers better performance while gaming - in reality though, the A15 in the iPhone 13 was so competent it's hard to really notice a difference.
It handles most games with very limited stutter, including Call of Duty and Genshin Impact - a game known for pushing mobile devices to the edge of their performance.
The iPhone 14 runs iOS 16.0, which brings an experience Apple users will be familiar with. If you're not currently an Apple user however, you'll be interested to know that iOS 16 is extremely user-friendly and efficient.
The phone can be unlocked using face ID (which can be trained both with and without a mask on), and swiping down from the home screen brings up a search function that can be used to simultaneously search installed apps, the app store, and the web.
Need a calculator? Just search "Calculator" and it will bring up the app. Need to know about a subject? Search for it and click one of the "Siri suggestions" that pops up leading you to a web search.
The search function evening looks inside the submenus of the settings - searching for "Battery" for example takes you to that section of the settings. This makes it easy to find what you're looking for, even if you have no idea what it's called or where it is.
Everyday tasks like scrolling the web, messaging, emails, and notetaking are flawless on the iPhone 14. The phone is able to handle most things you might choose to throw at it without breaking a sweat.
What's more, it comes with a few additional features related to safety, although these aren't yet currently available outside of the US and Canada. These include Sattelite connectivity, meaning it can contact emergency services without the need for any phone signal, and advanced gyroscopes and sensors that will detect if you've been in a car accident.
There's also a new "Lockdown Mode", that comes with iOS 16, designed to protect you if you think you've been targeted by a cyberattack.
As previously stated, these features aren't yet available in the UK. That said, it's a great step forward in technology, and is something that presumably will be implemented here in the near future.
Aside from the above, the phone has the same button placement, antennas, speakers, dimensions, weight, and general features as the iPhone 13. It has a few extra pixels, and the thermal design and repairability have, at least according to Apple, been drastically improved.
Where it really shines though is the camera, which has seen a significant upgrade over its predecessor. The camera module on the iPhone 14 is slightly bigger, which is necessary to accommodate the wide-angle camera sensor and optics.
In layman's terms, this means that the main camera is now bigger, better, and captures significantly more light. The end result? Better images with significantly more information embedded in them, leading to much cleaner shots.
It has a more natural depth of field than its predecessor and when placed side-by-side the difference in well-lit conditions is reasonably obvious.
In low light conditions however the difference is night and day. The iPhone 14 integrates a new "photogenic engine" - an algorithmic piece of magic that leads to night-time photographs that are clearer and crisper than any taken on most other mobile devices on the market.
These improvements all translate to video too, which can be recorded in 4K at 24, 25, 30, or 60 fps.
If you're interested in the technicalities, the cameras are both 12MP, with the main camera being 26mm, ƒ/1.5 aperture, and the Ultra Wide at 13mm, ƒ/2.4 aperture, and 120° field of view.
The front camera is improved too, although arguably this just brings it up to par with other modern phones, as it now auto-focuses for the first time ever on an iPhone. The front camera also has a slightly better aperture than the iPhone 13, leading to more light which in turn means - you guessed it - better pictures.
Verdict: 4/5
If you're in the market for a new phone but don't want to blow your budget on a high-end Pro model, you'll be hard pushed to beat the iPhone 14.
It's compact, (I managed to fit it in comfortably in my pocket with another quite large phone for a good chunk of the day), efficient, and hassle-free - making it perfect for anyone who just wants a phone they can use casually without needing a lot of setup or technical knowledge.
It carries all the conveniences that iPhone offers, including shared and synced storage, Apple Pay, Facetime, and voice control (Siri).
That said, it doesn't really offer a whole lot over the iPhone 13, and it offers even less currently if you're outside of the US or Canada. Apple has a bit of a reputation for releasing things even when they have nothing to release, and from the most cynical point of view, some might argue that this is a perfect example of that.
On the other hand, you could just argue that it's a revamping of something that is already fantastic, making it even more polished and refined. Iteration, after all, is what leads to perfection.
The iPhone 14 is available now from Apple for £849.00, or from Vodafone as part of their Buy-Back Guarantee.
