Let’s recap the flurry of events that took place last week: the Queen II’s memorial service, New York Fashion Week‘s slew of shows and celebrity sightings and of course, the release of the iPhone 14 family—which hit stores worldwide to the delight of well, everyone with an online presence.
Unboxing videos populated our feeds, sharper than ever wallpapers came to life and it’s only safe to say that the iPhone 14 Pro, above everything else had everyone’s attention. It is after all, bagged as the most powerful smartphone right now. If you haven’t quite figured it out, revisit our live report of Apple’s fall Keynote during our visit to Apple Park in Cupertino. Here are 14 thoughts I had after a day with a unit of my own.
- The Deep Purple is an absolute beauty. Every year, Apple releases a new It colour for the season and 2022’s chosen hue might even tempt sticklers for the smartphone’s black aluminium, given the dark purple sheen, complemented with the pronounced ridges of the cameras.
- The black bar right smack in the middle, also known as Dynamic Island, might seem distracting at first, but after a while, your eyes will get used to the newfangled black space.
- Dynamic Island isn’t exactly life-changing, but what it is, is a lot of fun—even while coming down to the menial tasks of toggling between your Spotify while keeping an eye out for your food delivery on GrabFood. The haptic touch also complements the entire user experience.
- Everything is just faster—from loading speed to navigating between apps.
- Another new feature to get used to: the Always On function—that can either be a blessing or a curse, depends how you look at it. Some might prefer having the option to see all your incoming notifications without tapping on your phone, while others might take to the Raise to Wake function, just to set that bit of boundary between you and your handy device. I subscribed to the latter.
- The main camera, which is a whopping 48MP, is quite the star. Beyond the power it holds, the camera bags an additional edge, with a quad-pixel sensor, to adapt to the photo being captured as it is in low-light conditions. Photo size is also practically trimmed down to a 12MP, just so not to hog up storage space.
- A razor-sharp Portrait, just in time for Apple’s iOS 16 update—where you can customise the subject of choice (i.e. your handsome pooch) to be fitted atop the time displayed on your wallpaper.
- Ok, I feel invincible with Portrait mode—the camera’s sensors can snap a moving subject (i.e. a kid who simply can’t keep still) clearly even in Portrait, while keeping in line with the bokeh.
- The video’s option to go on Action Mode makes a world of difference while documenting on-the-go content. As part of my job, I capture moving objects and personalities in action and the output on the iPhone 14 Pro renders a smooth and seamless video, despite the shakes and vibrations that come along.
- The ProRAW function is a dream to maneuver, while editing your footage on your little device—with almost little to no time of processing and exporting.
- The above mention might mean using your iPhone for everything and anything, since I was eager to play around with my video edits. Yet battery life remained in the pink of health.
- What surprised me was the charging time. It only took me about a half hour to a full charge from 30%.
- It’s not something you would ever want to leverage on, but the iPhone 14 models now come with a Crash Detection feature that can call emergency services on your behalf should you be involved in a car accident.
- I might have some issues doing a digital detox for a while.
Order the iPhone 14 Pro here.
