iPhone 14 and 14 Pro leaks live Q+A and dissecting whether you should upgrade

Are you ready for the iPhone 14 launch?

Good morning – or afternoon, depending on where in the world you are. It’s so nearly iPhone 14 launch day (which is September 7, if you’ve managed to forget and are desperately pawing at the walls hoping to guess when it’s coming).

The thing is… there’s a lot happening. The iPhone 14 will be the star, probably backed up by the iPhone 14 Pro Max. Then there’s the Apple Watch 8, the Watch 8 Pro… and maybe even the AirPods Pro 2 as well.

In short, there’s a bumper amount of stuff happening, and if you’re just wondering whether the new iPhone is going to be the one for you, then that’s what we’re (well, I’m) here for today: telling you the key leaks that you should be thinking about, and welcoming any thoughts you might have on Twitter – catch me on @Superbeav and I’ll add your thoughts to the discussion.

08:11:53

Hello again – we’re still here and still talking about what the new iPhone 14 and 14 Pro will bring, digging into our years of iPhone coverage and expertise to discern what might be coming and whether it’ll be worth your time to upgrade.

Let’s start today with this handy Tweet from Raquel:

It’s a great question and one that’s pretty easy this year (in my opinion): no, no you probably won’t need to upgrade.

If we’d been talking this time last year, I’d have said there’s a good chance that you’ll enjoy the impending battery improvement that was mooted, but I wasn’t aware just how good it would actually be.

There is talk that the iPhone 14 Pro Max will have the larger battery, but it’s mostly to allow for the new always-on display… so I think the battery life will end up being similar to the iPhone 13 Pro Max, which was already pretty good.

I’ve been using the 13 Pro Max for a while now and I’m totally fine with the battery life, and when it comes to deciding whether to buy the 14 Pro Max in September, I’m not sure I’d go for that model.

Sure, always-on displays are useful (no tapping to just see the time) and I like the sound of the enhanced camera, but at this stage, if I had to commit I’d say no… especially with the heavily-rumored price hike.

23:16:27 – September 05, 2022

The other thing that the ‘Far Out’ invite to the Apple event could be is a reference to satellite connectivity – and this is one that intrigues me.

In reality it’s about as useful as a watch with unactivated cellular connectivity allowing you to call emergency services – handy, but not changing your life daily (unless you often happen to be lost and need to call life-saving numbers when you have no cellular service).

It’s a nice-to-have, sure, but would Apple hang a whole event around it? It’s something that could happen, if Apple decided to make a big enough deal about it, but we’ll have to see when the event rolls around.

19:21:24 – September 05, 2022

We’re pretty certain that one of the key differences between the iPhone 14 and the iPhone 14 Pro will be the processor inside, with Apple sticking to the A15 chipset inside the 14 and 14 Plus, and going all-out with the new A16 Bionic chipset in the Pro models.

(There’s a rumor that the A15 will be rebadged to the A16, and the new chip being called the A16 Pro… but that’s a bit too much Pro).

Either way, the new chip is set to be much better at thermal management, which means that it’ll be able to punch harder in terms of raw performance without coming at the cost of battery life – and anything that extends the battery further would be an excellent thing.

But that’s what’s upsetting me there – if only that chipset was being put in the massive iPhone 14 Plus without all the extra performance needed to be powered. 

It could last for ages…

17:52:50 – September 05, 2022