That’s not to say it’s a bad phone, but with a glimpse at the future of the standard iPhone being offered by the iPhone 14 Pro, there are plenty of reasons why the iPhone 14 feels like a stop gap before the iPhone 15 you should actually buy.
Why you should skip the iPhone 14
Put simply, the changes made here are just not worth it. But let’s go into more detail. The iPhone 14 offers an identical design to what Apple has used for its main line of phones for the past two years, the same cameras (except for a wider aperture on the main camera and selfie snapper, similar to iPhone 13 Pro), the same display and a minor upgrade to the existing A15 Bionic processor. These elements all combine to make what will be a strong phone. iPhones are almost always great smartphones — that much is obvious, but it’s not the point I’m making. My argument is based on looking to the future and looking more specifically at what the iPhone 14 Pro has to offer. With its updated cameras, refreshed design (specifically the move from a notch to a pill atop the display with a cool Dynamic Island intergration), the A16 Bionic chip and that smoother display refresh rate, But as we’ve seen in previous features, things that are introduced in Pro phones eventually trickle down to the standard phones, such as Sensor Shift optical image stabilization making the jump from the iPhone 12 Pro Max to the iPhone 13. With that in mind, I’m pretty confident that we’ll see a refreshed aesthetic language in the iPhone 15 and some other features like a 120Hz refresh rate display. Some may say that’s not important to most consumers, but when you see just how many cheaper Android phones benefit from this, it’s starting to become an unacceptable omission.
Outlook
The writing was always on the wall about this happening — rumors flew about the iPhone 14’s progress being stifled for all kinds of reasons, from keeping the price down due to inflation, to making the iPhone 14 Pro seem more worthwhile. The iPhone 14 is not a bad phone, but it feels like a half-hearted entry into the lineup, given its very minor upgrades. To say this is an “S” entry into the lineup would be a bit of an understatement, which means one thing: bigger upgrades for next year. So sure. If your heart is set or your upgrade cycle has arrived, the iPhone 14 is a good phone with some good deals (opens in new tab). But this phone does have a whiff of being a stop gap before some real updates in next year’s iPhone 15.
