iPhone 14, the review: the day of the groundhog

Apple two weeks ago presented four phones, two with decidedly innovative aspects (the Pro models), one with the novelty of a larger screen, symmetrical to that of the Pro Max model (the Plus), and finally one, the one we decided to review here, which looks like the day of the groundhog.

You remember, the old movie I start all over again with Bill Murray waking up every morning hearing the same song on the radio and finding out he’s living the same day, over and over? Here, the new iPhone 14 is so similar to the old iPhone 13 that by unpacking for a moment or two it felt like we were back in September 2021. It is practically impossible to distinguish the two devices unless you have chosen, as we did, the new purple color (very light, almost gray).

In short, Apple’s “entry level” phone with a 6.1-inch screen this year it’s basically like last year. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing, because it’s a great phone. Let’s see why.

What’s new in iPhone 14

The new iPhone 14 has very few new things on paper compared to the previous model. Crash Detection (Car Accident Detection, also available on Apple Watch Series 8 and Ultra), satellite connection when there is no coverage (only available in North America from November), models only with eSim (without physical Sim, but also these only in the USA), the new purple color of the body (but there are no more green and pink), a management improved thermal compared to the previous one (the phone withstands more work overload without slowing down), better repairability (the internal components are isolated and better replaceable than the iPhone 13), improvements to the main camera and to selfie cameralast year’s processor but in Pro version (i.e. with an extra core for the GPU that improves graphics performance by 20%). Everything else is identical.

It took an “S”

The list, as you can see, is not very short but in reality it veils the elephant inside the room: iPhone 14 is actually an iPhone 13S, the old way in which Apple diversified the alternation of smartphones from one generation to the next. Apple once presented a model with a redesigned bodywork and perhaps new dimensions for a new generation that was entitled to a “round” number, and then the following year it improved the interior perhaps making the phone faster for the “S” version . In this case, however, the number has changed but not the underlying philosophy: iPhone 14 is actually an incremental improvement, even less than the old “S”.