After 2 Weeks - iPhone 14 Pro Review

When I reviewed the iPhone 14 Pro’s camera, there were many comments saying that it’s not really that much of an upgrade or a differentiator, not just in the camera department but also the Dynamic Island. Already, we are seeing some copies of it on Android, and while these copies aren’t official and Apple’s implementation is still better, it won't be long before other brands start having their own versions of Dynamic Island that could possibly work as well.

In this article, I want to talk about my personal experience after daily driving the iPhone 14 Pro and the pros and cons. Hopefully this review will help you make your decision whether to smash or pass the iPhone 14 Pro.

Display

First, I love the display. It’s fantastic. As somebody who uses multiple phones on Android, I’m so used to 120 Hz refresh rate, so this is kind of like a seamless transition to the iPhone 14 Pro. It has a very bright screen that goes up to 2000 nits, so even in harsh sunlight, I don’t have to max out the brightness.

I do think that Always-on display is nifty. Android has it for quite a while, and arguably Android executes it better because it doesn’t show the full screen so it sips less power than the iPhone 14 Pro, but I like that Apple’s making it possible now to see the info I need without waking the screen.

Camera

On the camera, I like that it shoots natural looking pictures. Now, I don’t shoot in 48MP much because it’s a bit of an overkill for me considering what I do, but it’s extremely close to what I get from the Sony Xperia 1 IV in that it doesn’t exaggerate the sharpness of the lines in my pictures, and it keeps a tight rein on the color contrast. So I am comfortable using this for my work.

I know I said the same thing about the Sony Xperia 1 IV, but if you don’t have much experience with photography or videography, you are going to have a much easier time with the iPhone 14 Pro because you don’t have to worry so much about things like exposure, white balance. It literally carries you to the land of beautiful pictures, which is not what the Xperia 1 IV does. For that phone, you’ll have to journey to that land yourself. But if you do need 48MP, this camera is definitely an upgrade even if you are currently using the iPhone 13 Pro. If you want to see the difference it makes, check out this video here.

Sound Quality

In terms of the sound quality of this phone, this is one of the best sounding phones I’ve heard. It’s spacious sounding with clear emphasis on the speech frequency range, yet the stereo speakers have a lot of body in it, so they don’t sound thin at all.

Dynamic Island

Now I’m going to talk about what I like about the Dynamic Island. The fact that Apple has not introduced this on the cheaper models show that they’re being cautious about it, but so far it’s looking pretty good. I like it because it displays useful information while being the closest thing to a taskbar ever on iOS. I use AirPods a lot now and there’s an indicator showing the AirPods being connected and its remaining battery life. It’s also a quick shortcut to the audio that’s playing with the relevant album art. And it does other things too like showing you the waveform when you’re recording a voice memo. And when during phone calls, if you jump out of the call screen, it minimizes into the dynamic island so you can still call up the controls anytime. It’s not game changing, and it’s quite limited now in what it can do, but it just makes the iPhone more easy to use.

The Cons

However this is a perfect segue into the cons because there is one thing about the Dynamic Island that I don’t really dig. As you know I watch a lot of YouTube. There are no problems when I’m watching in landscape or portrait because in 16:9 aspect ratio the video’s outside the Island. It’s only when you blow up the screen that you can see the crop-out of Dynamic Island. But if I’m watching a 21:9 aspect ratio video, in landscape mode the Dynamic Island cuts a little into the video. Now, it doesn’t really bother me much cause most channels don’t shoot in widescreen anyway, but I’m just hoping it could be less obtrusive.

If I’m playing videos and video games, doing productivity stuff it’s fine, it remains relatively chill. But if I’m using the camera, the iPhone 14 Pro gets hot pretty fast. It even gets hotter than the iPhone 13 Pro. I’m using it with no case or screen protector, so if it was wrapped in a case, it feels to me like it could have been a lot worse. So if you don’t often use the camera for lengthy periods, that probably won’t be an issue. But if you are using this for professional work, that’s not going to be good for the battery at all. Now, it probably isn’t a hardware thing. Could probably be fixed with a software update. We’ll have to see if there are any updates in future for the 14 Pro that addresses the thermals.

But what do you think? Will the Dynamic Island and its thermals when using the camera going to put you off from buying the iPhone 14 Pro? Leave your comments below!

In the meantime, check out my review of the Pixel 7 pro, possibly the closest competitor to the iPhone 14 Pro on Android. 👇🏻