Apple has this year done away with the iPhone Mini, instead returning to a large max size in its standard iPhone 14 line, dubbed the iPhone 14 Plus. Whilst it’s missing some of the newer, more innovative features of the iPhone 14 Pro line such as the Dynamic Island and Always-On display, the iPhone 14 Plus is an extremely capable device and one of the most polished iPhone releases to date.
Coming from an iPhone 13 Pro Max, I actually really like the glossy back design of the iPhone 14 Plus. I’ve been using the purple model, and I really love how understated it is, and also the fact that it carries the colour around to the sides of the device for a really well-thought out finish. The front glass now features a tough ceramic shield with the actual case made of aluminium which feels premium.
The display on the iPhone 14 Plus is absolutely stunning. It’s a 6.7″ Super Retina XDR OLED display with a peak brightness of 800 nits (1200 when viewing HDR content). It’s not quite as bright as the new 14 Pro, but if you’re just an everyday iPhone user, you’ll be more than thrilled with this display. The notch that that was featured on the iPhone 13 is still there on the 14 Plus with the new dynamic island and always-on display being reserved for the Pro line.
The massive display really brings iOS 16 to life with the plethora of new wallpaper options and widget functionality finally coming to iPhone really shining on that gorgeous new display.
When it comes to battery life, Apple says that this is the best battery life for an iPhone to date, and that was my experience too. Apple says that you can expect up to 26 hours of video playback with the iPhone 14 Plus, and I definitely noticed getting a full day (and a few more extra hours) to that of the iPhone 13 Plus. I can say without doubt that when it comes to battery life, you won’t be disappointed.
The other area where there’s still a big difference between the standard 14 line and the 14 Pro range are the cameras. There’s still two lenses in a diagonal formation, meaning that you get one rear 12MP main camera as well as an 12MP ultra-wide lens, but there’s some big improvement from last year’s model.
Whilst it’s not quite the 48MP lens of the 14 Pro, a new main camera sensor will let in 49 percent more light according to Apple resulting in up to 2.5x better low-light photos on the main camera and up to 2x better low-light photos on the ultra wide camera. There’s also a brighter True Tone flash lets in more consistent lighting.
Just like other iPhones in recent times, it’s really hard to take a bad photo with the iPhone 14 Plus due to just how well Apple brings hardware and software together to allow you to take gorgeous photos with ease. Whilst I’d maybe like to see a few more of advancements brought over from the Pro line, it’s still hard to fault the cameras in this iPhone.
Apple has gone big on safety innovations this year, and they’ve been rolled out to the iPhone 14 Plus as well. Features such Crash Detection which can tell when you’ve been in a car crash and automatically call emergency services as Emergency SOS (launching only in US at the moment) which lets you text with emergency services through satellite connection are just a few ways that Apple is looking to help you if you’re stranded in an unfortunate event.
The iPhone 14 Plus features the same A15 Bionic chip that was in the iPhone 13 last year, and whilst that feels like a bit of an odd decision considering this is somewhere we normally see parity across the entire line, it’s still an extremely capable chip, especially for gaming.
I know that Xbox Game Pass gets a great wrap, but Apple Acrade is just as good (from a mobile point of view), with a growing number of premium games both from recognisable franchises as well as new ones. Exclusive titles such as Shovel Knight Dig, NBa 2K23 Arcade Edition, Jetpack Joyride 2, Sonic Dash, Amazing Bomberman, Cooking Mama: Cuisine and Crossy Road Castle to name a few, but there’s honestly dozens if not hundreds of games that are worth playing that rival what’s on the Switch from a third-party/indie perspective.
There’s also a number of other free-to-play titles such as Genshin Impact, Apex Legends and Call Of Duty: Mobile which play fantastic on the iPhone 14 Plus thanks to the big display. Whether, you’re an hardcore gamer that just wants a quick fix on the go, or whether you’re playing exclusive on mobile devices, you’re really sorted across both Apple Arcade and the general App store.
All-in-all, the iPhone 14 Plus doesn’t hugely reinvent the wheel from what we saw last year, but improvements to battery life and cameras as well as some other iterative improvements really make for a great phone that will suit all iPhone users, both casual users and the high-end.
