The latest iPhone lineup is here, and it brings with both a range of subtle refinements and intriguing new features that will reshape how we interact with our phones. This excellent first look video discusses the new lineup and offers some impressions on their headline features.
Coming to you from Marques Brownlee, this great first look video discusses the new iPhone 14 lineup. The new iPhones come with a wide range of improvements and interesting new features. I am particularly excited about the emergency satellite SOS feature, as it ensures you have access to safety pretty much anywhere you go. Beyond that, users can get excited about a ton of improvements, including brighter displays (including always-on options), the Dynamic Island around the camera notch, new Photonic engine for improved low-light performance, Action mode, 48-megapixel raw stills, wider lens apertures, a bigger sensor on the ultra-wide camera, and more. The Dynamic Island looks quite interesting, providing a way for quick, relevant interactions that does not intrude on whatever your main focus is. I will be quite interested to see if developers start taking advantage of it, as I think it has some nice potential as a new interface element. Altogether, the new versions look like quite refined and capable devices. Check out the video above for Brownlee's full thoughts.
I get Motorolla android phones (the G-Power model) for $150, and they work really well. They do everything I need and last for about 2 1/2 years before needing to be replaced. Is a new iPhone, at way over $1,000, really worth that enormous amount of extra money?
I would consider making my next phone an iPhone 14, but only if someone can convince me that they are really more than $1,000 better than the Motorolla that I currently use. So go ahead, convince me!
The base model iphone is much cheaper if you are on a budget. But it sounds like you have all you need with that Motorola so I’d say stick with it.
In short it's not. Don't get me wrong, it'll be able to do things your Motorola can't and there'll be things that it does better. But if those aren't things you need then you'll be wasting your money.
All phone manufacturers keep pushing for more power, and at the moment Apple is winning, but all it's really doing is making the majority of users pay extra for more power than they'll ever need. Would you be happy to buy a £2,500 gaming laptop if you only wanted to edit Word docs and watch YouTube videos?
The thing I would need, and pay more for, is battery life and better reception.
I know there are such things as signal boosters that people get for their homes and cars, so maybe one of these days the latest iPhone will have a mini signal booster built in, for folks like me who live in a very remote area and spend a lot of time in the wilderness and mountains, hundreds of miles from a large city where the signal is strong.
I still don't understand why there aren't phones with MUCH better battery life. The Motorola I have is supposed to be the king of battery life, but if I use it constantly and have lots of apps open and play games and stream on it, the battery still drains down in less than a day.
I've been thinking that if they just made a phone that was a lot thicker, then they could fit a much much much larger battery into it. A slim phone doesn't help me at all. I would prefer a much thicker, heavier phone. Then the battery could last several days, even if one is constantly streaming and playing games with very heavy graphic details.
I don't know why battery life is still so bad in cell phones, even among the highest end ones. I can't believe that the buying public accepts such poor performance in devices that they pay so much money for.
I own an iPhone 11 Pro, it’s my work phone as well as my personal one, it comes off charge at 0720 each morning and goes back on at 2300 and is often still on more than 50% power… phone batteries have vastly improved over the years.
You can also buy a case that has built in power if you’re intent on making the phone larger, that would also give it enough power for several days. You would have to be using it constantly without a break for hours upon hours in order to wear the power down.
As far as why the iPhone costs money compared to the Motorola. It’s constructed out of stainless steel, it has a sapphire coating on the screen for rigidity, it’s weather sealed with an ip rating that means it can be submerged in water to a certain depth, it has a far more powerful processor, it has Face ID scanners for secure access to the device and secure payments of goods using Apple Pay (on both apps and contactless card machines in shops), it has 3 dedicated cameras on the back capable of shooting 4K video or 120fps slow motion (on mine they are all 12mp sensors, but the new model has 48mp iirc).
There will also be tonnes of other specs that account for the difference in price but unless I did a direct comparison I wouldn’t be able to list them all.
Wow! That is a great writeup on the iPhone! Thanks for all the info.
Of all the attributes you listed, I think the one that would be useful to me would be the better cameras than what my Motorola has. But whenever a photo is at all important to me, I have my DSPR and interchangeable lenses with me for that, so a cell phone camera isn't all that important to me. Nice to have from time to time, but not actually important or essential.
As far as batteries go, my Motorolla is the G Power - the model that was maximized for battery life. Your iPhone may have better battery life than mine, but I use the phone so heavily for hours and hours on end, with little or no breaks, that I think I would run even an iPhone battery down in half a day. Wordscapes is an app game that I sometimes play for 6 or 7 hours straight, and it runs the battery down far quicker than anything else (especially when I also have Google GPS running in the background).
You're probably not into word games, but it would be interesting to know how long your battery lasts if you play Wordscapes nonstop for an entire morning or afternoon/evening.
I understand the cameras aren’t for people like us, but you have to think many casuals want ultra powerful photography from their phone now, and I have to say I’m hugely impressed with what mine can do given it’s size and the job it’s meant to do.
I do have a wordscape app but not used it in ages, to give an example though I was on a WhatsApp call with my friend for 90 mins last night using my Bluetooth earbuds and the phone was still on more than 50% when I went to bed, so it’s pretty robust, that was after a full day general use from 7am til 9pm, then the 90 min call.
Looking at both phones on comparison it looks like the extra cash goes on the camera specs and materials used in construction, and the screen resolution too.
Thanks for the additional info. I do Instagram video calls, and they don't drain my battery much. I assume that is similar to a What's App call.
It's just that Wordscapes app and, to a lesser degree, the Google GPS, that drain it more quickly than anything else.
Wordscapes takes about 12% for every hour of steady play (no breaks). That means if I have a 100% charge I can only play Wordscapes for 8 hours before my battery is DEAD. And that just isn't acceptable.
The Google Maps GPS consumes about 10% of battery life for every hour used, if used by itself with nothing else running. So I can only use it for shorter trips, or it inhibits my ability to stream YouTube videos while I am driving.
When I stream YouTube music videos while the Google Maps GPS is actively tracking me, it takes about 15% to 17% per hour. That means only about 6 hours on a fully charged battery, when streaming music videos and GPS nonstop. And I do that A LOT because I often drive hundreds and hundreds of miles in one day. And I really want to stream music on YouTube and not have to use some other app like Spotify (which I hate). I know I don't need the battery-intensive video, and only need the audio, but I just like YouTube and prefer to keep using that as my music listening source.
Yeah that fair enough.
As a DJ I own all my music as I don’t like the idea of paying for it as streamed content, and I have a 128gb SD card full of music mixes in the car for listening.
But I can understand why you would want the battery power, maybe have some in car charging though? I’ve got a micro USB and cigarette lighter adapter in the car to charge my camera on the move if needed, and also a lightning cable for the phone.
The cigarette lighter in my car is funky; sometimes works, sometimes doesn't. And I really don't feel like taking my car to the shop - like, ever - but especially not for something insignificant like a malfunctioning cigarette lighter.
Looks like they made this with you in mind! https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2019/4/30/18522236/energizer-hug...
Unfortunately it didn't meet it's funding goal on Indiegogo so didn't happen. There must be another large battery phone out there.
Incidentally, a few phone makers have mentioned they'll be adding satellite connection to their upcoming handsets, so when you are up in the mountains etc you should still be able to get some kind of connection.
That product they were trying to get funding for reminds me of the power source that I carry around, so that I can keep my phone charged when out away from electrical outlets. It would be great to have the phone itself be like that, as it would save the trouble of having to carry around and extra "brick" and cable for frequent remote charging. That is a product I would have been very seriously interested in if they had been able to develop and manufacture it for a reasonable price.
I think the only issue they came up against was not enough people wanting it. But then the people who did want it REALLY wanted it. Maybe someone else will give it a try.
Check out the OUKITEL WP15S apparently it has a 4 day battery.
Thanks for that tip, Alex. There's a good chance that will be my next phone. Although I must say I have never spent that much money for a phone before ..... $230 .... OUCH!