iPhone 14 Pro: I don’t need to have a New iPhone every year, just the procedure of switching with multiple authentications is sometimes a bit annoying. What’s more, the iPhone has matured to such a point that there are only evolutionary changes from year to year, rarely an innovation that truly surprises me.
A new device every three or four years, possibly a replacement battery in between, is sufficient. After three or four years, a new iPhone seems revolutionary compared to the previous one.
But now I find myself in the situation of having to change every year for professional reasons. Because even if innovations from generation to generation are quite rare, I need to be familiar with each annual update to ensure that we provide our valued readers with the best information possible. But which model is best for me?
Decide on a discount
In recent years I have had a red iPhone 11, a green iPhone 12, a lilac iPhone 13, and a gold iPhone 14 Pro in constant use. I didn’t buy any, most were Apple test models that we returned after a year, well cared for and undamaged.
But what does a spoiled iPhone user buy when they’ve been using the iPhone 14 Pro for a whole year? Your mileage may vary, but I opted for an iPhone 15, without the “Pro.”
Why is that? Of course, the price influences. Would the features of the iPhone 15 Pro justify the additional cost? Six months after making the change, I have an answer.
The camera: is just as good, minus the zoom – iPhone 14 Pro
Most people now make their purchasing decisions based on the smartphone’s camera, which is why most smartphone tests are camera tests. I had always used the regular model with its wide-angle and ultra-wide-angle lenses until I got a telephoto lens with the iPhone 14 Pro.
It made a difference compared to the previous iPhone 13, there’s no doubt about it. Over the holidays I was able to leave my other cameras at home for the first time (one a compact digital camera with 6x zoom, another a system camera with 3x zoom), especially because the iPhone simply takes better pictures.
Ok, I like the computational processing of the real images on the iPhone better, but I can’t judge if the images are better.
In late 2023, Apple also gave the standard iPhone a 2x zoom. The trick is that the scene photographed with the 48-megapixel sensor only uses the center 12 megapixels, which is a sort of cropped zoom.
As a result, the 2x magnification works like an optical zoom without the resolution being affected and the photo becoming grainy. And even at 3x zoom, albeit digitally magnified, it wasn’t a problem.
When the Alps seem to start just behind Munich on a clear day, it cannot be adequately captured in a photograph with a triple zoom, while the digital zoom shows the Zugspitze large, but quite blurry. The change has not taken away my enjoyment of the iPhone in terms of the camera, the 5x zoom (optical) of the iPhone 15 Pro Max would have been a good reason for a greater investment, but the Pro Max is too big for me.
Let’s see if the rumors are true and the iPhone 16 Pro also has a 5x or even 6x zoom in a size I can tolerate. Will I have to pass 15 after only one year in the family? My son with his iPhone 11 might be interested.
The processor: I don’t notice any difference
What will soon apply to M-series Mac chips has been the rule for A-Bionics in iPhones for a few years now: year-to-year improvements are measurable but incremental, but every few years a new chip causes a sensation thanks to the further reduction of the manufacturing process.
In 2023 this happened with the A17 Pro, the first chip manufactured using the 3nm process. But that’s no reason to buy the more expensive iPhone 15 Pro because I don’t need hardware ray tracing; I am at best a casual player and preferably a chess player.
So my switch from the iPhone 14 Pro to the iPhone 15 meant sticking with the same chip, the A16 Bionic with its 6-core CPU, 5-core GPU, and 16-core Neutral engine – a wonderful piece of technology that’s still miles ahead. . from the package and it is completely sufficient for my daily use.
Things probably won’t be much different with the next big leap, but if Apple uses more AI in iOS 18, its features may not work on all older iPhones. You might get the latest AI features with the A18 Pro, so even an iPhone 15 Pro wouldn’t help me much here. And I would hardly have noticed its better performance compared to the iPhone 15. So I’m not missing anything when it comes to the chip.
Color and shape: A matter of taste
An iPhone can only be considered an iPhone if the case is black. I respect it, but I don’t follow it. My second iPhone, a 4S, was white. Then I opted for gold, then red, light green, lilac, white gold, and now: light blue. Sure, the titanium colors of the iPhone 15 Pro are very elegant, let’s see what Apple comes up with for the iPhone 16 Pro.
The colors of the iPhone 15 are a little pale, especially compared to previous generations, but that doesn’t bother me. Green, yellow, and even blue are more like white with a hint of the main color, it’s just that black and pink are a little bolder.
To be honest, the iPhone 14 Pro in gold color was quite unfortunate in terms of color. The gold was very pale, the back more milky white than anything else.
I would have been reluctant to say goodbye to the iPhone 13 Pro‘s bloody stylish Deep Purple or Sierra Blue color, but I’m not missing anything. On the contrary: I like the color so much that I don’t want to hide it and I bought a transparent case. But after six months it is already clearly yellowish.
I checked out Apple Care+, so maybe I should use the iPhone without the case. It feels comfortable in my hand, much better than the iPhone 14 Pro without a case.
Screen: the main reason to go Pro
Apple carries some innovations from the Pro models to the regular iPhones of the next generation, such as sensor-shift image stabilization, which was initially only integrated into the iPhone 12 Pro Max and a year later in all iPhone 13s.
Other functions are reserved for professionals for a longer time or end up not being included in the second division. (Or should we rather talk about the Champions League and the Europa League? Normal iPhones are much better than the second-division ones!)
So far, this includes ProMotion, the adaptive display refresh rate that Apple has been including with the iPad Pro for years and has only been using with the iPhone since the iPhone 14 Pro. iPhone critics have complained that there is still no 120Hz display for non-Pro models, but that’s just one end of the spectrum.
A higher refresh rate leads to a better experience in many games, which, as I mentioned above, is not that important to me. And I don’t notice that it’s any smoother to scroll through websites, for example.
On the other end of the spectrum, however, there’s something I miss about the iPhone 15, possibly the iPhone 14 Pro’s only feature: the always-on display, which uses a 1Hz refresh rate.
This was a bit unusual at the time and nothing new for Android users, and not all Apple users approved of the feature. However, I liked it and wish Apple had at least moved this feature from the iPhone 14 Pro to the iPhone 15. But that will happen at some point, and my iPhone 15 is certainly not my last iPhone.
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