iPhone 14 drops the mini adds the Plus

Apple’s first iPhone announcement in the Steve Jobs Theatre since Covid-19 and the company has made a shift in it’s product lineup, dropping the “mini” and adding the “plus” model to allow for two large screen and two standard sized iPhone 14’s to hit the market within weeks.

The 2022 iPhone range will feature the iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max, with two of them rocking 6.1 inch screens and the two larger (Plus and Max) models the 6.7 inch screens.

Design follows the path of the iPhone 12 and 13 before them with squared edges, though new colours will be offered across the range including Midnight, Starlight, A light blue, Light purple, and Product Red.

The iPhone 14 Pro will come in Space Black, Gold, Silver and Deep Purple.

Differentiating the standard and Pro models of the iPhone 14 is the processor and camera performance. While it’s not the same processor as last year, the iPhone 14 is using the A15 Bionic with just some tweaks to the GPU cores – something that was previously seen on the iPhone 13 Pro models.

However, the new iPhone 14 Pro models has an all-new A16 Bionic chip. This is a clear differentiator between the standard and Pro models.

iPhone 14 Pro Camera

Deserves it’s own heading really, because the camera is king in smartphone world and it’s the true battleground between the two big players if not three in the flagship smartphone space.

Apple comes at the iPhone 14 with a 48 megapixel main camera, with a sensor that is more than 60% larger.

This enables a new 2x zoom shot that is actually a crop of the main lens, along with the existing 0.5 and 3x zoom options.

It’s all under the hood, with a dramatic improvement in low-light performance across all the lenses. Videos will be better than ever with improved Cinematic mode, and a new Action mode which aims to replace the need for a Gimbal.

Farewell to the Notch, hello “Dymanic Island” on the iPhone 14 Pro

The much maligned “notch” at the top of the screen of iPhones since the very first “full screen” iPhone undergoes a radical change this year, with the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max making way for a hole punch in the screen for the cameras and sensors as opposed to the notch protruding from the top.

This gives a greater sense of a full-screen and a larger screen to body radio.

Apple call it the “Dynamic Island” and they’re making use of this little black oval, by making new alerts and notifications that appear to expand out from the “island” with things like Music notifications, AirPod pairing, even FaceID pop up appearing there.

It’s a smart use of a strange looking feature of many phones today. Instead of just accepting that’s where the camera is – Apple have chosen to highlight this area.

Always-On Display

On the iPhone 14 Pro models, a new Always On display means you can glance at your phone at any time to see the time and widgets on your screen.

Satellite Emergency SOS

Apple announced a new Satellite Emergency SOS service, but don’t get too excited – its only launching in the USA and Canada initially.

But it’s a game-changer – allowing SOS alerts to be sent where there is no Mobile Service at all. It’s an advanced system, allowing you to use satellites to send an emergency message and get help. We can only hope it rolls out globally.

Crash Detection

The new iPhone 14 features Crash Detection, allowing your phone to know you have had a serious car accident and call emergency services, share your location and alert your emergency contacts – this is the same feature also coming to the new Apple Watch Series 8

iPhone 14 Price in Australia

The iPhone 14 goes on sale on September 16, while the iPhone 14 Plus is a few weeks later on October 7. iPhone 14 Pro models go on sale September 16

Prices start at $1,399 for the iPhone 14, the iPhone 14 Plus starts at $1,579.

iPhone 14 Pro prices start at $1,749 for the Pro and $1,899 for the iPhone 14 Pro Max.