7 details you might have missed about the iPhone 14 and 14 Pro

Now that you’ve read a dozen articles about the iPhone 14 and 14 Pro, and you’ve pre-ordered one of the new iPhones, here are some details you might have missed.

Apple has announced the new iPhone 14 and 14 Pro, and we’ve taken a look at some of the details you may have missed. While waiting for the full test, here’s what Apple’s technical sheets, tools, and other documentation have to teach us.

If you missed the Apple keynote, you can find all the new features in our roundup.

New accelerometer up to 256g

Among the changes, the iPhone 14s uses a new acceleration sensor designed to measure up to 256g. Its purpose is to detect accidents, among other things.

The so-called g-forces refer to loads due to strong variations in size and/or direction of velocity, for example, on the human body. 1 g (1 g = 9.81 m/s²) is the daily acceleration you feel on Earth due to gravity. As an anecdote, when Max Verstappen collided with Lewis Hamilton during the last Formula 1 season at the British Grand Prix, 51 g hit the pilot.

However, the iPhone determines not only the g-force, but also the barometric pressure via the gyrometer. This is what allows it to detect accidents effectively, and avoid – where possible – false alarms. Smartphones can also recognize loud noises resulting from accidents, which helps improve detection. Apple has developed a new custom algorithm that supports all variables and data.

Satellite SOS functionality is, for now, very limited

As the rumors claimed, the iPhone now has a satellite connection. Apple has partnered with the American company Globalstar. Like Elon Musk’s SpaceX, this American company has a constellation of satellites in low Earth orbit.

We know that 95% of the Globalstar network is dedicated to Apple, a more than $450 million investment from the iPhone maker. As a reminder, the current satellite connection only used for emergenciesto send messages to the call center, but also for the function Find if you lose your iPhone.

This function is available on all iPhone 14, however only accessible in the United States and Canada. This feature is only expected to be available with the iOS 16 update in November. Rest assured, it will indeed operate for foreign tourists traveling in North America. Therefore, you can explore America’s magnificent parks with peace of mind.

For Americans, the option is free for two years, then it pays out. When we look at the massive investment of several hundred million dollars, it seems plausible that we find this function all over the world. One can even imagine a real Internet connection in the long term. So there are still exceptions, iPhones sold in China, Hong Kong or Macao do not have this function. Political reasons, you can imagine.

Finally, Elon Musk hinted that there are “promising” discussions with Apple for the iPhone 14 and Starlink satellite technology. He recently explained that the Starlink network is ready to work with smartphones. Therefore, this function may evolve faster than expected.

We’ve had some promising conversations with Apple about Starlink connectivity. The iPhone team is brilliant.

To be sure, closing the link from space to cell phone will work best if phone software & hardware adapts to space based signals vs Starlink which just mimics cell towers.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 8, 2022

Bluetooth 5.3

Bluetooth 5.3 is on all new iPhone 14 models.

This new standard has been integrated to be fully compatible with the new 2nd generation AirPods Pro with H2 chip, which also offers Bluetooth 5.3.

The new standard supports Bluetooth LE Audio and the LC3 codec, which is already in the AirPods Max beta firmware. However, Apple has yet to officially comment on the use of the new standards and codecs.

(Almost) eSIM only

Another great novelty is the absence of a SIM slot on the iPhone 14s.

At least in the US, Apple is selling new iPhone 14 models with dual eSIM support. In different France, the iPhone 14 still has a drawer for a nano SIM card. Dual SIM is supported with two eSIMs or a nano SIM and an eSIM.

48 megapixel camera that takes photos in 12 megapixels

The big change to the iPhone 14 and 14 Pro is the 48-megapixel main sensor, whose native pixel size is 1.22µm smaller than last year’s 1.9µm 12-megapixel sensor. The lens used, with an aperture of f/1.78, also lets in less light than last year’s f/1.5 model.

This sensor is 65% larger than that of the iPhone 13 Pro. What can be seen as an improvement is not, it is not due to the size of the pixels, but due to their definition, which simply takes up more space.

To take better, sharper, and brighter photos, Apple uses 4:1 pixel binning method at 12 megapixels. The iPhone 14 combines pixels with each other to make it brighter.

Fake 2x mode

When you look at the iPhone 14 Pro specifications, it says “2x 12MP telephoto: 48mm, ƒ/1.78 aperture”. As well as a 3x telephoto lens, and an ultra wide angle, there will be a 2x telephoto lens. When you look back at the iPhone 14 Pro… there are only three cameras.

The x2 mode is actually digital only. Apple is using a new 48 megapixel wide-angle camera, cropping the center area of ​​the image to recover the x2 magnification at 48mm focal length. This we’ve already found on the Pixel 6, for example.

The Apple A16 Bionic is slightly more powerful than the A15, but more efficient

The iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max have Apple’s new silicon chip, the A16 Bionic, etched in 4nm instead of 5nm, and have 16 billion transistors – 6.7% more than the A15 Bionic.

It gains little in the way of performance, but is announced to be very effective. This explains why Apple is making little comparisons with its older chips.

In fact, the two new CPU performance cores of the A16 Bionic require 20% less energy than the P-Core of the A15 Bionic. The Neural Engine has improved quite a bit now with 17 instead of 15.8 billion TOPS. For graphics units that are still equipped with five cores, Apple only mentions a 50% higher memory bandwidth.

Brightness up to 2000 cd/m² in certain cases

The A16 Bionic also features a new display engine that enables 1Hz refresh rates, Always-on, higher screen brightness, and advanced anti-aliasing for Dynamic Island animations.

Standard brightness hasn’t changed, still at 1000 cd/m² on the iPhone 14, but in peak brightness with HDR mode, Apple now switches to 1600 cd/m² instead of 1200 cd/m². Additionally, a new outdoor mode has been added, which will peak up to 2000 cd/m².

Note that nothing has changed on the iPhone 14 and 14 Plus. The OLED screen is still the same as last year and still has a brightness of 800 cd/m² in normal conditions and 1,200 cd/m² for HDR content. Incidentally, not much has changed on the standard iPhone 14s.

The iPhone 14 isn’t a major update. When comparing iPhone 13, iPhone 13 Pro, and iPhone 14, one wonders if skipping this new generation is not a good idea.
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