Reviews of Apple iPhone 14 Plus, price, technical specifications, design, screen, software, hardware, battery life and charging and other features of the new iPhone 14 Plus.

Reviews of iPhone 14 Plus, price and technical specifications

Introduction

Get out of the iPhone mini  , enter the iPhone Plus! Indeed, the rumors turned out to be true, and this year Apple released a larger non-Pro model instead of the Mini. We can only guess what Apple has in store for the mini model, but today’s review is about Apple’s newest addition to the iPhone lineup – the iPhone 14 Plus.

We  thought the iPhone 13 would go down as the most trivial iPhone update in history, but the iPhone 14 stole that title. You see, the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus are built on the same Apple A15 Bionic chipset as the iPhone 13 models, and even the screen specs remain the same – OLED with around 460ppi, 800 nits brightness and 60Hz refresh rate.

In fact, compared to the iPhone 13, there are only four notable upgrades in the iPhone 14 – a new main camera (carried over from the iPhone 13 Pro), an updated selfie camera with a new lens and AF, 2GB more RAM, and SOS Emergency via satellite feature.

The new iPhone 14 Plus adds a few extras – a bigger screen and a bigger battery. The Plus model brings a max-sized screen to the regular series – even if it’s only 60Hz.

The selfie camera, while retaining its 12-megapixel sensor, has a new lens with a brighter aperture with optical stabilization and autofocus. We’ve always wondered why Apple didn’t introduce autofocus capabilities sooner, as Face ID technology is there to give it a huge boost, but alas, it’s finally here.

Like all recent iPhones, the iPhone 14 Plus is waterproof – it can last 30 minutes in up to 6 meters of clean water. And it should be a desirable smartphone for its large screen and at the same time thin and light design. It’s also touted as the iPhone with the best battery life, and we’ll definitely put it to the test.

Check the specifications of Apple iPhone 14 Plus at a glance

Body:  160.8×78.1×7.8mm, 203g; Glass front (Corning glass), glass back (Corning glass), aluminum frame; IP68 dust/water resistant (up to 6 meters for 30 minutes), Apple Pay (Visa, MasterCard, AMEX certified).

Display: 6.70-inch Super Retina XDR OLED, HDR10, Dolby Vision, 800 nits (HBM), 1200 nits (peak), resolution 1284×2778 pixels, aspect ratio 19.47:9, 458ppi.

Chipset: Apple A15 Bionic (5nm): Hexa-core (2×3.23 GHz Avalanche + 4×1.82 GHz Blizzard); Apple GPU (5-core graphics).

Memory: 128GB 6GB RAM, 256GB 6GB RAM, 512GB 6GB RAM; NVMe.

OS/Software: iOS 16, upgradable to iOS 16.0.3.

Rear camera: Wide (primary): 12MP, f/1.5, 26mm, 1/1.7in, 1.9µm, dual-pixel PDAF, sensor-switching OIS; Ultra Wide Angle: 12MP, f/2.4, 13mm, 120°.

Front camera: Wide (main): 12MP, f/1.9, 23mm, 1/3.6in PDAF; Depth: SL 3D.

Video recording: Rear camera: 4K@24/25/30/60fps, 1080p@25/30/60/120/240fps, HDR, Dolby Vision HDR (up to 60fps), Cinema mode (4K@30fps), Stereo sound recording; Front camera: 4K@24/25/30/60fps, 1080p@25/30/60/120fps, gyro-EIS.

Battery: 4323mAh; Fast charging, 50% in 30 minutes (advertised), USB Power Delivery 2.0, MagSafe fast wireless charging 15W, Qi wireless charging 7.5W.

Other Features: Face ID, Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Proximity, Compass, Barometer. NFC; stereo speakers; Support ultra-wideband (UWB), emergency SOS via satellite (Send/Receive SMS).

You can also see materials about best affordable smartphones 2023, buying guide

Just  like the iPhone 13 and iPhone 14, the iPhone 14 Plus has one glaring omission – support for high refresh rates. And the size of the notch is a problem you’ll apparently have to put up with for a few more years. At least, it feels mentally smaller on this big screen.

We’re happy that the non-Pro iPhones also have new software features like Action Mode for the video camera, improved Cinema Mode and satellite connectivity.

iPhone 14 Plus unboxing review

The eco-friendly iPhone box  includes a USB-C-to-Lightning cable and iPhone 14 Plus. There’s also a SIM eject pin, some paper, and an Apple sticker.

Apple was one of the first manufacturers to remove headphones and chargers from their boxes.

If you have a USB-PD+ 20W power adapter with a USB-C port, then you definitely have the right box.

Checking the design and build quality of the iPhone 14 Plus

iPhones remain one of the most rugged non-rugged smartphones out there, and the new iPhone 14 Plus is no different. It was one of the last popular manufacturers to use the waterproof tool, and years later, it still retains the feature to protect against breakage and intrusion.

Thanks to its flat design, two Corning glass panels, aluminum frame, and proper insulation and sealing, the iPhone design still excels in protecting mainstream phones. In addition, Apple uses an oleophobic coating for less smudges on the glass, and finally the balanced weight throughout the body also helps.

While the exterior looks the same, there is a massive interior redesign. Apple has done some major redesigns this year, essentially changing the internals 180 degrees. In short, Apple’s engineers have gone to great lengths to make the iPhone 14 Plus just like the iPhone 14, which is much easier to repair than its predecessor. The back glass panel has been one of the most difficult parts to replace in several iPhone generations. On the iPhone 14 and 14 Plus, it’s no longer firmly attached to the interior and instead detaches as a separate piece like the screen (with a bit of heat and a bit of “push”). This makes it very easy to replace. You can check the breakdown on the iFixit website.

So, the iPhone 14 Plus looks like any pre-Dynamic island iPhone – flat panels, flat bezels and a big screen notch. Thanks to the new 6.7-inch OLED screen, it’s bigger, the same size as the iPhone Pro Max models. But unlike the Maxes, the iPhone Plus is very light for its size at 203 grams. This makes it lighter than the 14 Pro, let alone the 240g 14 Pro Max. It is also lighter than the Galaxy S22 Ultra and the Xiaomi 12S Ultra.

The front is covered with a piece of Apple’s ceramic protector – a glass that’s already proven to deliver on its shatterproof promises. The back panel is made by Corning and is marketed as the toughest smartphone glass, but we have to give Apple credit for that. And between these glass sheets is the matte-coated aluminum frame, the only part visible from the phone’s chassis.

Apple has not supported making the iPhone as water resistant as possible. The iPhone 14 Plus is IP68-rated for protection against dust and water, but it actually goes beyond that spec and can survive in 6 meters of water instead of the usual 1.5 meters.

And just like most other flat iPhones, the iPhone 14 Plus can stand on its own, in case you were wondering.

Now let’s take a closer look at the iPhone 14 Plus, not that you haven’t seen similar details in the past year or two.

The front is occupied by the new 6.7-inch Retina XDR OLED display. It has equally thin bezels and a wide notch, housing a new 12-megapixel selfie camera with OIS and AF, proximity and ambient light sensors, and a 3D Face ID scanner and IR emitter.

There’s a small headphone jack that’s actually a full-fledged speakerphone, and it’s quite loud and rich and deep when playing multimedia.

While Apple has moved the proximity sensor behind the glass, something other manufacturers have been doing for years, giving rise to the dynamic island on the Pro models, regular iPhones are stuck for another cycle with the infamous big notch.

The back is quite familiar – it’s made from a single piece of glossy Corning glass, with the Apple logo a tiny mirror amidst a sea of ​​(in our case) purple.

The square camera island  gently lifts off the back panel and the whole thing is actually one piece, even though the island itself has a different matte finish. There are two cameras on it with protruding metal rings – a 12-megapixel primary camera and a 12-megapixel ultra-wide camera, both of which are protected by a sapphire crystal lens cover. A dual-tone LED flash and a microphone for video recording are also around, placed in an almost symmetrical fashion.

We know we’ve written this before, but we’re still going to issue this warning – sapphire covers on cameras have these little corners that extend beyond the metal rings and scratch any glass on contact. So be careful and don’t put the iPhone 14 Plus on glass tables or worse, on top of another phone.

The case of  the iPhone 14 Plus has a color matching the back panel, but it has a matte finish. It’s flat, outlasts the iPhone 12 series, and provides enough grip.

The upper part of the iPhone 14 Plus is completely bare.

The bottom has the Lightning port, the mouthpiece and the second stereo speaker.

The volume mute, volume keys and SIM card slot are all located on the left side of the frame.

The side key used to lock and turn on the iPhone 14 Plus is on the right side alone.

The iPhone 14 Plus is actually one of the lightest 6.7-inch phones we’ve ever worked with. It feels superior and is built to meet flagship standards. Even better, it provides enough grip for frameless use. We had no problems playing games, taking photos, browsing, or watching videos.

The oleophobic coating helps with fingerprints and smudges – they stick longer and then you can clean them with a tissue.

Overall, the iPhone 14 Plus scores very well across the board as far as design, build, and shipping are concerned.

Checking the screen of Apple iPhone 14 Plus

The iPhone 14 Plus model  introduces a 6.7-inch Super Retina XDR OLED display, the same size as the 14 Pro Max and with the same resolution – 2778 x 1284 pixels or 458ppi.

It’s the big old notch in place of the dynamic island, and like all recent iPhones, it’s protected by a ceramic shield.

The panel supports HDR10 and Dolby Vision, wide color gamut, True Tone and is claimed to have a maximum brightness of 800 nits and a maximum brightness of 1200 nits. The only downside, just like the iPhone 14, is the fixed refresh rate at 60Hz.

We’ve completed our display test and the new panel lives up to Apple’s claims – we recorded 797 nits of maximum brightness. It’s on par with the iPhone 14 and close to the iPhone 14 Pro Max.

But unlike the Pro models, the 14 and 14 Plus don’t offer sunlight boost, and their maximum outdoor brightness remains at 800 nits. While this is still bright enough for good readability, it’s nowhere near the excellent performance that the Pro models can offer.

In terms of color accuracy, the iPhone 14 Plus targets the sRGB color space in most apps, including the one we used for testing purposes. And just like other iPhone panels, this panel has excellent color calibration. Even at the lowest possible brightness, i.e. only 1.2 nits, the color remains accurate!

The iPhone 14 Plus display has HDR10 and Dolby Vision certification. As you’d expect, the iPhone has all the necessary DRM certifications, allowing non-native services like Netflix or YouTube to offer HDR streams.

There’s one more thing worth noting – Apple handles its HDR video playback in a very flexible way, as the content doesn’t have to be full-screen for HDR to work. It can only work on the part of the screen where the video is playing, which is a bit of a surreal experience the first time you encounter it.

Check the battery life of Apple iPhone 14 Plus

The iPhone 14 Plus has one of the largest batteries Apple has ever put in an iPhone — it’s 4,323 mAh, the same as the 14 Pro Max. And while Apple has touted the Plus model as the best for battery life, the Pro Max model is actually listed as more durable on the official spec pages, likely due to the Pro Max’s more energy-efficient display.

We’ve completed our battery life test, and the results are pretty impressive for an iPhone. The Plus model achieved 102 hours of total endurance. It handled screen tests with ease – lasting 16 hours of web browsing and 19 hours of full-screen video playback. The duration of the conversation was nearly 24 hours.

The endurance rating  could be better, but just like other iPhones, the 14 Plus has average standby performance (matching the iPhone 14 Pro Max’s 270-hour standby). It scored lower in the on-screen tests compared to the iPhone 13 Pro Max with the same battery, helped by the energy-efficient ProMotion panel.

Checking the charging speed of Apple iPhone 14 Plus

Apple’s iPhone  14 Plus comes without a charger. This phone supports USB-PD 2.0 fast charging with a maximum power of 20 watts. Any USB-PD 20W Plus charger should do the job for the iPhone, but we paired it with Apple’s original 20W power adapter for this test.

Apple advertises all iPhones, regardless of battery capacity, to charge up to 50% in 30 minutes with its 20W adapter. And the iPhone 14 Plus is no different. By connecting to Apple’s 20W charger, the iPhone 14 Plus battery went from 0% to 47% in half an hour. which corresponds to the iPhone 14 Pro Max.

A full hour with that charger gave us 80% charge and an hour and a half – 95%.

And typically for Apple, the last 5% takes another 30 minutes to recharge, making the full charge time 2 hours. It should be noted that this test was performed without optimal charging, which usually prolongs the charging process.

The iPhone  14 Plus supports wireless charging up to 7.5W with Qi-compatible charging pads, although the last iPhone listed on the WPC (Governing Body for Wireless Charging) is for the iPhone SE (2022) – there’s no entry to number. iPhone models after 11. By the way, starting with the 12th generation and including this 14 Plus model, iPhones have MagSafe wireless charging. They can draw up to 15W from the magnetically attached device, which you can buy separately for $39/€49 (you’ll need an adapter to power it, though, and it should be powerful enough).

On the software side, there’s an Optimized battery charging button in Settings that allows the iPhone to adapt its charging curves to your charging patterns (mostly related to nighttime charging and your sleep routine), thus minimizing battery time. delivered It charges 100% fast (well, iPhone fast) up to 80% and just finishes before it thinks you need the phone.

Checking the speakers of Apple iPhone 14 Plus

It has a hybrid stereo speaker system found in many iPhone models – a dedicated speaker on the bottom and an earpiece that acts as a second speaker. The top speaker is very loud. Its volume is about the same as the bottom one. This creates an outstanding balance.

The top speaker  acts as the right channel when playing music in vertical orientation, while in horizontal orientation, the output adjusts according to the orientation of the phone. Either way, each speaker will still play some of the “opposite” channel, but at a much lower volume.

The iPhone 14 Plus, just like the 14 Pro Max, scored “Very Good” for loudness. And it delivers the same sound quality – great output with clean vocals, bass you can hear, and rich treble.

Review of software and performance of Apple iPhone 14 Plus

All new iPhones come with Apple’s iOS 16. As usual, this isn’t a groundbreaking update over iOS 15, but it does improve the lock screen, notification management, messaging app, and privacy options, among others. And in typical Apple fashion, some features are left for a later date.

Now let’s take a closer look at iPhone 14 Plus iOS 16. Its user interface is still based around home screens full of apps and widgets, an app library for your less important apps, and notification and control centers.

The lock screen  in iOS 16 is the first to be overhauled, although it still follows the same logic – it’s the same screen as the notification center. It houses your notifications (privacy options available), plus shortcuts to the torch and camera. If you’ve selected secure unlock, you can bypass the lock screen via Face ID or PIN.

You can customize your lock screen by choosing some cool wallpapers and adding a row of widgets (up to four). There cannot be more than one row of widgets. The neat thing is that you can make multiple different lock screens and change them on the fly (tap and hold, then swipe). This way, you can easily change the appearance of the home screen/notification center depending on your mood or work.

    

Another change  here is that notifications are now displayed from the bottom of the screen. Browsing them is easier. There are different options to display notifications such as stack, list or just a count.

     

You can also pair your home screen appearance with your lock screen and change both at the same time.

  

Your apps usually populate your home page(s) and widgets. There are two special pages – the leftmost page is the Today page, while the rightmost page is the App Library.

You can hide specific home screens – you might have a screen full of games and hide it while you’re working, or hide a screen of work/school apps when you’re on vacation. However, you cannot opt ​​out of Today and App Library.

    

Apple iOS 16  has improved focus mode – now, you can assign a focus mode to any lock screen preset you create. And in addition to other ways to switch between focuses, switching between lock screens now also changes the focus mode.

Various focus modes such as work, personal, driving, gaming, do not disturb, among others, are highly customizable. And of course you can create and automate your own.

     

The new iOS 16  also introduces focus filters that can affect different apps, and a dedicated API is also available for developers. Using these filters, applications such as messaging and email clients can automatically filter their content as predefined by the user in focus mode.

   

Widgets can be placed on any of the home screens and the Today screen, and can coexist with app icons. Three widget sizes are supported by iOS – 2×2, 4×2, and 4×4. You can stack widgets of the same size, and they can rotate automatically if you want.

    

The app library  is an app drawer that is always on the far right of your home screen. After installation, apps are automatically added to the app library. Sorting is also an automatic process and you cannot edit categories or move apps within different categories. The sorting of the app depends on the tags that the developer has used when uploading the apps from the App Store.

 

The page is still live today. You can place the same widgets and stacks as you can on your home screen. Here you can use old non-native widgets that are not yet optimized for new iOS versions. Of course, if you use new widgets, the old widgets will come immediately after the new widgets. Too bad this page can’t be disabled today, as we found it mostly useless.

The notification center is summoned with a swipe from the left horn or the tablet itself. This screen was integrated with the lock screen in iOS 11, which is why you can have different wallpapers on your home screen and notification center.

Control Center, which has customizable and (some) expandable toggles, is called up by swiping from the right horn. You can use touch to access additional controls. And here is the battery percentage.

    

Other key improvements coming with iOS 16 include an improved Mail app, options to edit and unsend messages in the Messages app, a completely redesigned Home app, and a fitness app for everyone, even those without an Apple Watch.

FaceTime is also improved with a better Hand-off feature across devices – now, it includes your wireless headphones.

The Photos app has an option to detect duplicate photos. Hidden and deleted albums now require Face ID/Touch ID.

The wallet app and functionality have been greatly expanded. In addition to the variety of keys you can store here, the app now supports detailed receipts and tracking information.

The functionality of digital keys and digital ID through the wallet has also been expanded. Various apps can now use basic information from here to verify your identity or that your age is known. It is also possible to share car and house keys between family members.

Finally, the Health app now supports medication tracking in addition to a variety of important medical and fitness information.

Multimedia is handled by default Apple apps – Photos, Music, TV.

The Photos app library has four different views – Year, Month, Day and All Photos. As usual, an AI-powered search option and powerful photo and video editing modes are available.

The TV app is part of iOS 16 and is your default video player for locally saved movies and shows you’ve added through iTunes. It’s also the digital store for movies and TV shows, and it’s also where you’ll find the Apple TV+ streaming service. A bit overwhelming, but eventually you get used to it.

    

Music is the default player and relies heavily on Apple Music. But even if you decide not to use the streaming service, if you have a few minutes to add your songs through iTunes, it can still do a great job.

    

Books are here for your documents, PDFs, and eBooks. Stock and news are available. Safari is your default web browser and Apple Maps is your default map client.

   

Finally, Visual Lookup has been a part of iOS for a year now, but it’s much improved in iOS 16. It now works on both photos and videos and supports advanced machine learning. It can easily recognize texts in photos and allows one to search them instantly. What’s more interesting is that you can now select an object from a photo/video, tap and hold on it, and then copy it or just drag it and use it wherever you like – Photo Editor , video editor, messages, emails, anything else. 

   

And these are the basics of Apple iOS 16 running on the latest iPhone 14 series.

Emergency improvements

All new iPhone 14 models support this new feature called Emergency SOS via satellite. It required the design of completely new custom hardware and custom software to make it possible to send messages to the satellite without bulky antennas. The service is text-only and will be used mainly for emergencies, but it does support two-way communication, so you’ll be notified when help is on the way. Find My can also share your location with friends so they can track you.

   

You can write custom messages to explain your situation, but when speed saves your life, several built-in special questions let you send an accurate SOS in just a few taps. In places with a clear view of the sky, a message can be transmitted in about 15 seconds, but if there are treetops, it may take several minutes. The satellite service will launch in November for US and Canadian users, and iPhone 14 buyers will receive a free 2-year subscription.

Crash detection is also available on all iPhone 14 models thanks to a new accelerometer that can detect up to 256G. If such an emergency occurs, the phone will automatically call emergency services. This setting is in the Emergency SOS menu called Call After Serious Crash. You can turn it on or off. There are no other settings.

Checking the performance and benchmarks of Apple iPhone 14 Plus

iPhone 14 Plus uses Apple’s latest generation A15 Bionic chipset. Specifically, it’s a “top-tier” variant with five GPU cores, as found in the iPhone 13 Pro models. Therefore, we can probably expect a small increase in graphics performance compared to the iPhone 13 and its four graphics cores.

Another thing that distinguishes iPhone 14 and 14 Plus from iPhone 13 models is RAM. The new models have 6GB of RAM instead of 4GB, which means the internal storage should be somewhat similar to the iPhone 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max.

And while we’re at it, it makes us wonder why new software features like the Photonic Engine and Action mode, available on the iPhone 14 and 14 Plus, aren’t on the iPhone 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max. There is no nearly identical either. We guess Apple is Apple again.

Back to the A15, the 5nm A15 Bionic has a hexa-core processor (2 x 3.23 GHz Avalanche + 4 x 1.82 GHz Blizzard) – same as last year. And as we noted, it has an Apple 5-core GPU.

So, physically, the iPhone 14 Plus may be a copy of the iPhone 13, but internally it borrows from the iPhone 13 Pro/Max. While you’re not getting the latest and greatest A16 Bionic, it’s still a small bump in hardware.

Even though the A15 Bionic is a year older, it’s still an incredibly powerful chip. It excels in CPU tests, bested only by the newer A16 Bionic.

Apple’s 5-core GPU  performs very well, and while it’s not at the top of the charts, it’s still among the best in class. Obviously, phones with HRR displays offer more on-screen frame rates, while the iPhone 14s is limited to a standard 60Hz refresh rate.

The more complex AnTuTu benchmark  is also very favorable to the iPhone 14 Plus. It has the same performance as the iPhone 13 Pro Max and is superior to the iPhone 14 Pro Max.

We made sure to test the stability and heat shrink properties of the iPhone 14 Plus as well. The phone degrades performance with long loads, but it does so quite gradually without sudden drops, which is nice to see.

Thus, the iPhone 14 Plus maintained 81% of its maximum CPU performance when using all cores for up to 30 minutes. The 3D Mark stress test scored 67% stability, which isn’t bad.

  

In practice, the iPhone 14 Plus gets quite hot after long-term charging. And even then, the A15 Bionic still has enough to offer a smooth experience.

Overall, we had no issues with the performance of the iPhone 14 Plus. Its year-old chipset performs exceptionally well with a super-smooth general UX, and it also handles all the tasks we throw at the phone, from productivity to gaming. You should have no doubts about the performance of the iPhone 14 Plus.

Apple iPhone 14 Plus camera review

The iPhone 14 Plus has three cameras, just like the iPhone 13 and iPhone 14. There are two cameras on the back – a primary 12-megapixel wide-angle camera and a secondary 12-megapixel ultra-wide camera. There is also a 12-megapixel front-facing camera for selfies. And while nothing seems to have changed from the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13, the main and selfie cameras have been upgraded.

The main 12-megapixel camera  has been removed from the iPhone 13 Pro. This means it now has a larger sensor compared to the iPhone 13 with 1.9µm pixels and a brighter f/1.5 aperture for the 26mm lens. This camera relies on sensor stabilization.

Then there is a 12-megapixel ultrawide camera with a 120-degree field of view and f/2.4 aperture. It appears to be the same as the ultrawide iPhone 12 and the vanilla iPhone 13, so we expect similar performance.

The 12-megapixel selfie camera is undoubtedly the biggest improvement over the vanilla iPhone’s camera setup, thanks to the addition of phase-detection autofocus and optical image stabilization. The 23mm lens has been improved with a new, brighter f/1.9 aperture.

Camera app and features

The viewfinder has remained mostly the same from iOS 13 and the iPhone 11 – you can see outside the viewfinder thanks to the precise calibration of the three cameras, which allows you to see what remains outside the frame in real time.

Apple’s image processing includes all the old features (Smart HDR, Night Mode and Deep Fusion), but the important thing is the Photonic Engine. It’s just a fancy name for Apple’s latest stacked HDR technology, and it promises a 2x improvement in medium to low light conditions.

Instead of Smart HDR and Night Mode, Deep Fusion  is activated when the lighting conditions are not ideal, but it is not yet dark. Deep Fusion uses frames before you hit the shutter, once you do it uses more frames and a long exposure shot. The neural engine selects the best frames and creates a high-quality HDR photo that is more accurate, clear and natural. The neural processor’s machine learning process analyzes the captured image and processes them differently depending on what’s in the frame—for example, the sky, foliage, or skin tone. Meanwhile, the texture and color tone are based on the proportions obtained by the neural unit in Apple’s CPU.

The night mode icon will automatically appear when displaying a low-light scene, and you’ll see the suggested seconds next to the night mode icon. You can choose a longer exposure or disable night mode altogether.

As usual, all the cameras are connected to each other, so when you switch between them, they already know the correct exposure and tone mapping settings. This applies to both photos and videos.

The camera interface is mostly unchanged unless you count the new 2x shift between 1x and 3x. If you are close enough for such a shot, the macro key will appear automatically.

You can swipe between modes, and you have a few settings you can swipe up to open – flash, night mode, live photo, photo aspect, exposure compensation and filters. In video mode, you can change the resolution and frame rate from the viewfinder.

     

Portrait mode is available on the main, telephoto and selfie cameras.

There’s a feature called Photographic Styles that automatically edits a photo one element at a time (for example, applying different corrections to the subject and background). You can choose between standard, rich contrast, vibrant, warm and cool. You can customize any of these modes and set your favorite mode as the default. It’s like a filter but more permanent.

     

Cinema mode  is available and now supports 4K HDR at 24 and 30 fps. The rack does auto focus, but the phone records a depth map alongside the video, so you can manually change the focus point after the fact. Editing of such videos is possible in iMovie and Clips programs.

Finally, there’s Action mode, which is intended for use with the ultra-wide camera at 2.8K@60fps, though you can use any rear camera at any resolution and frame rate. The camera makes heavy use of stabilized 4K footage to mimic action camera output.

Photo quality

The photos we took with the iPhone 14 Plus’ 12-megapixel primary camera are the same as those we took with the iPhone 14 Pro, as well as all iPhones after the iPhone 11 or later. There is plenty of detail, no noise, accurate white balance and color rendering, and high contrast.

Dynamic range is good in all scenes, but not excessive, as Apple’s camera tends to produce high-contrast photos. This means there will be underdeveloped highlights or shadows, but these are arguably more realistic.

And while the image quality is consistent regardless of the sensor used, this means that the unpleasantness is also inherited. Yes, we’re talking about over-processing complex details like foliage and people. While more detail is resolved from the sensor, over-sharpening everything is not the right approach.

   
   
   
   

Ultra-wide photos  are impressively wide with expert distortion correction. Their resolution of detail is excellent for such a camera and lens, and noise is kept remarkably low. Processing is similar to the original camera – accurate if slightly unexciting colors, high contrast, and enough but not excessive dynamic range. Noise is also kept low.

Foliage and people issues are also present here, but less obvious due to the wider field of view. Foliage is still sometimes oversharpened or oil-like, but looks better.

   
   
   
   

12MP portrait shots  from the main camera offer excellent subject resolution and lovely blur. One is well exposed, with natural colors and accurate colors. The contrast is excellent.

HDR often gets in the way and loses fine detail because subjects aren’t very sharp. But we’re glad the noise reduction is milder, because it could have been worse. But we’re not fans of an implementation that oversharpens or smudges random details like hair, eyebrows, and beards.

   
   

The main camera of the iPhone 14 Plus takes great photos with the help of automatic night mode, which usually selects 1s exposure. Photos have good exposure, great detail, clean of noise and excellent color saturation. Their contrast is high, just like daylight shots, and their dynamic range is reasonable, although there are highlights and low shadows.

Overall, good performance for the main camera and flagship-class photos that aren’t too bright as some competing night mode solutions offer.

   
   
 

You can opt out of night mode, which reduces color saturation and adds a bit more noise. Shadows also become slightly darker as the dynamic range decreases slightly. While low-light photo quality is still excellent, we’d definitely stick with the automatic night mode.

   
   
  

12-megapixel photos  taken with the ultra-wide camera are usable with automatic night mode. Exposure is good, as is dynamic range, while color saturation is excellent. But all photos are soft and noisy, which makes them serviceable but not really anything special.

   
   
 

These last batch of photos were taken with the ultra-wide camera but without night mode. They’re pretty bad—soft, smeary, and noisy, with little detail, low dynamic range, and desaturated colors. You can hardly see what is on them.

   
   
  

You can also take a look at our photo comparison tool and see how Apple’s iPhone 14 Plus stacks up against other phones in the controlled environment of our test lab.

  
Apple iPhone 14 Plus vs. Samsung Galaxy S22+ and the Xiaomi 12T Pro in our Photo comparison tool

selfie camera

The selfie camera  quartet on the iPhone 14 has received a huge upgrade over the iPhone 13 – it now supports autofocus and has a brighter lens with an aperture of f/1.9. However, the size of the sensor and the field of view of the lens remain the same.

The camera still offers two FoV settings in the viewfinder – a 7-megapixel low-zoom crop that equates to a 30mm field of view, and a full 12-megapixel mode that has a 23mm-equivalent FoV.

If you hold the phone vertically, selfies are cropped to 7MP for tighter framing, but turn the phone horizontally, and you’ll get more of the scene as the phone automatically switches to a wider 12MP mode. You can also switch between these two modes manually by tapping the arrows near the shutter button.

The 12MP selfies we took on the iPhone 14 Plus are excellent – ​​there’s sharp detail, low noise, high resolution and impressive dynamic range. White balance with true colors is very clear. Contrast is high as usual.

Autofocus also works great, and we never had an out-of-focus shot.

Apple’s processing is once again in class-leading photo quality with over-sharpening of various facial features (hair, beard). And then comes the smoothing algorithm which may make some parts more smeary.

Don’t get me wrong, selfies are good, but we expected stronger processing.

   
   

Selfies are also great. The front camera is assisted by a 3D scanner with structured light. Thanks to the accurate depth map, subject separation and out-of-focus background are some of the best you can see in a selfie today. Photo quality is in line with regular selfies – very good, but not the best, as sometimes the processing is not enough.

Just like before, these portraits are shot at 7MP resolution, meaning the camera crops a portion of its available FoV to reveal a zoomed-in photo. Unfortunately, there is no option to shoot 23mm 12MP selfie portraits.

   
   

Video quality

iPhone 14 Plus can record up to 4K60 video with all three cameras. 4K24 is also available across the board if you’re looking for a more cinematic look. All video is stabilized digitally (all three cameras) and optically (all but ultra-wide) – Apple calls this Cinematic Stabilization.

All modes, including 4K60, have wide dynamic range thanks to Smart HDR. The slow options are a maximum resolution of 1080p at 240 fps. There’s a new option called Enhanced stabilization that improves upon the default EIS and crops a bit more to deliver more stabilized footage. We took pictures with this new option and without it and honestly, we did not see any difference besides the promised low output. The new iPhone 14 Plus supports cinematic mode (focus rack) up to 4K at 30 frames per second. HDR is also an option.

There is a new mode called Action mode. It’s been around on many other phones for years, and it’s supposed to shoot 60fps with the ultra-wide camera. It’s a sharp departure from 4K footage (hence the 2K resolution) and delivers incredibly smooth and superbly stabilized video.

It’s available for all rear cameras and can shoot at any resolution and frame rate, but as we mentioned, the main hardware is the 2K@60fps ultra-wide camera. You can record HDR video directly in the Dolby Vision format up to the same maximum 4K60 (the previous generation was limited to 30 frames per second). You can edit these videos on the go on your phone, you can upload them to YouTube or any other popular platform or even send them to your friends. Dolby Vision information is stored outside of the video stream, so the video looks normal to any non-HDR player/screen and is color enhanced on any Dolby Vision compatible player and display.

You can also choose between H.265 HEVC and H.264 video encoders. The high-performance mode uses H.265 and is mandatory for 4K60 and HDR videos, while the more compatible mode (H.264) provides easier playback on different devices.

The iPhone 14 Plus, just like previous iPhones, records wide stereo sound for movies at 190 kbps.

iPhones are known for their class-leading video quality and stabilization capabilities, and the iPhone 14 Plus is no different. Even with the always-on electronic stabilization, which tends to soften other videos, the iPhones still deliver excellent video quality.

The main camera  captures class-leading 4K30 videos with plenty of resolved detail and natural reflection without any effects of over-sharpening. Videos are noise-free, dynamic range is excellent, and so is contrast.

The colors in the clips remain vivid and true. Whether you decide to shoot at 24fps or 60fps – you’ll get the same quality. Due to the difference in the video bitrate, the size of the videos will be smaller or larger.

Videos  from the main camera are also excellent in low light, with plenty of detail and natural sharpness. Exposure is good and noise is well low. We liked the vibrant color saturation and above-average contrast, while the dynamic range makes movies look realistic.

The iPhone’s ultrawide camera  captures the best 4K videos, and that’s the case with the iPhone 14 Plus. It offers high definition detail, outstanding processing and color rendering.

Ultra-wide videos are noise-free and high-contrast. There’s also no visible distortion around the corners, and yet the field of view is impressively wide.

4K low-light videos  from the ultra-wide camera are usable because they provide adequate exposure and color reproduction. However, detail is a bit lacking and noise is visible. The videos are rather dark but still usable.

Action mode  works as promised, delivering lovely 60fps videos at 2816 x 1584 pixels resolution, great action-like stabilization and great fluidity. Details, colors, contrast and dynamic range are also commendable.

You can also  shoot action videos with the main camera. And while it offers the same image and stabilization quality, the narrower field of view makes it look a little awkward.

Finally,  the 4K videos from the improved selfie camera are great. The background is naturally out of focus thanks to the new f/1.9 aperture lens and, of course, autofocus. Subjects are sharp and well exposed, colors are superb, and so is contrast. The dynamic range is also quite normal.

Looking closely, subjects are still a little over-processed like in regular selfies, but that’s not an issue here, and videos are among the best you can get from a selfie camera today.

You can also  take a look at our video comparison tool and see how the iPhone 14 Plus stacks up against other phones.

  

Review of competitors of Apple iPhone 14 Plus

The iPhone 14 Plus makes perfect sense in Apple’s grand design – the manufacturer has turned the SE model into a special edition iPhone mini, which is why the mini was forced out of the flagship series. In fact, the vanilla iPhone 14 is so compact and light you could say it’s been a mini all along.

Meanwhile, the lack of a larger iPhone for the masses has been stark for the past few years, and it was only about time Apple answered the call. And he did it in his own way.

iPhone 14 Plus is basically a big iPhone 14 and nothing else. What you get is a max-sized screen with non-professional quality and better battery life thanks to the larger battery.

Now, all those Apple users who want a large iPhone that doesn’t weigh too much and is “oh so premium” can get the iPhone 14 Plus.

But, if you’re still worried about this new Plus model, perhaps because of its €1,150 price tag, we can understand why you’d want to check out more options.

For example, you can get the iPhone 13 Pro Max, which is pretty much the same phone, but with an extra zoom camera, a better ultra-wide camera with autofocus, and a 120Hz ProMotion display. It can be bought for €1,200 – which is quite an offer to consider. Yes, it’s heavy due to the stainless steel frame and extras like LiDAR and telephoto, but that’s a tradeoff many make.

As we’ve noted, the iPhone 14 is the most compact iPhone around right now, and that’s pretty cool despite the 60Hz display. It has the same specifications as Plus. It’s just smaller and super pocket size. Oh, and it’s €150 cheaper.

Finally, Apple also sells the older iPhone 12, which is essentially an iPhone 13 and so on, starting at €800 for the 64GB model in the Apple Store or around €650 from third-party retailers. So, if you want the cheapest premium iPhone officially available, this is it.

  
Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max • Apple iPhone 14 • Apple iPhone 12

Of course,  there are cheaper deals you can consider for their big screens outside of Apple’s lineup. The €780 Xiaomi 12T Pro impressed us with its screen, charging speed, all-round performance and camera quality. The same goes for the Motorola Edge 30 Ultra – a phone with a 144Hz OLED display, one of the first 200MP shooters, a 60MP selfie camera and 125W fast charging. Finally, the Samsung Galaxy S22+ 5G has a large 120Hz OLED, one of the fastest Android chips and three great cameras on the back, including a zoom camera.

  
Xiaomi 12T Pro • Motorola Edge 30 Ultra • Samsung Galaxy S22+ 5G

Summary

The iPhone  14 Plus is, as usual, one of the best iPhones Apple has ever made. It does exactly what it’s supposed to do – deliver a non-professional experience on a larger screen. A big plus of the new size is the larger battery capacity and hence – better battery life.

iPhone 14 Plus is one of the lightest 6.7-inch smartphones with flagship-level design, display, speakers, battery life, performance and video quality. Meanwhile, its new cameras, including the autofocus selfie camera, are as controversial as ever – as if their quality hasn’t changed in generations due to heavy processing and excessive resolution.

However, despite not having a high refresh rate screen or a zoom camera, the iPhone 14 Plus finds its way into people’s hearts and pockets. Many users will not be upset by this.

Its price tag might be too close to the Pro Max 13 for its own good, but last year’s flagship model is officially discontinued, so you’ll have to get it from an independent retailer, but it’s definitely the better of the two.

That doesn’t make the iPhone 14 Plus a bad smartphone, and it’s worth it if you don’t need the extra features that the Pro models offer.

Source: GSMARENA.COM