Here’s how the iPhone 14 Pro compares to the iPhone 13 Pro

At its ‘Far Out’ fall hardware event, Apple unveiled its latest flagship, the iPhone 14 Pro with the updated A16 Bionic processor.

It is available to pre-order starting today, Friday, September 7th, and will be available starting September 16th, starting at $1,399 for the base 128GB storage variant.

While the upgrades on the iPhone 14 Pro make it a better device than the iPhone 13 Pro on paper, and the addition of the Dynamic Island is certainly cool, your needs might not warrant spending $1,399 on upgrading to the new device.

If you’re currently using the iPhone 13 Pro and want to upgrade to the iPhone 14 Pro, or you’re using an older device and wish to upgrade, read on.

It’s worth noting that Apple no longer sells the iPhone 13 Pro, but several Canadian carriers still carry the device.

Display and design

One of the main differences between the iPhone 13 Pro and the iPhone 14 Pro is the removal of the notch and the addition of a pill-shaped display cut-out called the Dynamic Island.

Dynamic Island houses the selfie cam and Face ID, just like the notch on the iPhone 13 Pro, though it can now also animate, move around and adapt to show notifications, directions, music controls, and more, while the notch on the iPhone 13 Pro is nothing more than a notch.

Other than that, both the devices look identical, with a 6.1-inch Super Retina XDR, OLED True Tone display, HDR 10, Dolby Vision and a 120Hz refresh rate. The bezels on the iPhone 14 Pro are a tad bit thinner than the 13 Pro, giving you a little bit of extra screen real estate, but nothing too major. Similarly, the iPhone 14 Pro has a slightly screen resolution than the iPhone 13 Pro, coming in at 2556 x 1179 pixels for the former and 2532 x 1170 for the latter.

The iPhone 14 Pro can also tone its refresh rate down to 1Hz when the Always-On display is in function, while the 13 Pro could only go down to 10Hz, making the 14 Pro more power efficient than its predecessor.

Weight-wise, the iPhone 14 Pro is 3g heavier than its predecessor, coming in at 206g, and can reach a peak brightness of 2,000 nits when outdoors, which is a significant gain over the iPhone 13 Pro’s 1,200 nits peak brightness, making the new device easier to use even when under direct sunlight.

Internals

Unlike the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus, which retain the iPhone 13 lineup’s A15 Bionic chip, the iPhone 14 Pro upgrades to the A16 Bionic chip, which, according to Apple, is the “fastest chip ever in a smartphone.” The new chip has nearly 16 billion transistors, and uses a 4nm process, making it up to 40 percent faster than the competition. The chip uses four efficiency cores, and according to Apple, uses one-third of the power of competing smartphones.

Both the iPhone 13 Pro and the iPhone 14 Pro offer LTE/5G connectivity and feature three-axis gyro, accelerometer, ambient light sensor and barometer sensors. On the storage side of things, the iPhone 14 Pro comes in the same storage variants as the 13 Pro — 128GB, 256GB, 512GB and 1TB.

While we don’t yet know the exact size battery on the iPhone 14 Pro, the iPhone 13 Pro has a 3,095mAh battery that offers up to 22 hours of video playback. According to Apple, the iPhone 14 Pro offers all-day battery life, which would translate to about 23-24 hours of video playback. Additionally, the inclusion of a more power-efficient A16 Bionic chip should result in better day-to-day battery life.

The iPhone 14 Pro is also the first iPhone to feature Emergency SOS via satellite connectivity. The handset can use its built-in antennas to connect to satellites, as long as you have a clear view of the sky and point your iPhone at the satellite. You’ll then be able to send short, custom text messages to emergency services about what the emergency is, if anyone is injured and more.

Camera

Same as the iPhone 13 Pro, the iPhone 14 Pro features a triple rear camera setup, however, with an upgrade.

On the iPhone 13 Pro, Apple deployed 12-megapixel sensors for all three rear cameras. On the iPhone 14 Pro, Apple upgraded the main camera to feature a 48-megapixel f/1.78 quad-pixel sensor to shoot higher resolution images, alongside improved 12-megapixel sensors for the telephoto and ultra-wide sensors. This is the first time we’ve seen pixel binning in an iPhone, and should result in less noisy images.

While the main camera on the iPhone 13 Pro could theoretically capture more light, owing to its f/1.5 aperture, the sensor on the iPhone 14 Pro’s main camera is 65 percent larger, according to Apple, which, when paired with better image stabilization, should result in brighter and more detailed images.

According to Apple, when compared to the iPhone 13 lineup, the iPhone 14 Pro should be able to shoot “3x better low-light photos on the Ultra Wide camera, “Up to 2x better low-light photos on the Main camera,” and “Up to 2x better low-light photos on the Telephoto camera”

On the video side of things, the Cinematic Mode introduced with the iPhone 13 lineup can now shoot videos in 4K HDR at 24 frames per second, a big upgrade from the 1080p HD at 30 frames per second limit on the last-gen iPhones, alongside an ‘Action Mode’ for video recording that helps with stabilization. It’s worth noting that the iPhone 13 Pro can shoot in 4K, just not in Cinematic Mode.

The front camera on the iPhone 14 Pro has also been improved, with a wider f/1.9 aperture 12-megapixel camera, which, according to Apple, helps it achieve, “38% better light‑gathering performance,” as compared to the iPhone 13 Pro’s f/2.2 12-megapixel camera.

Colours and Pricing

The 2021-released iPhone 13 Pro was available in ‘Sierra Blue,’ ‘Gold,’ ‘Silver,’ and ‘Graphite’ colourways and was available for $1,399 for the 128GB model, $1,539 for the 256GB model, $1,809 for the 512GB variant and $2,079 for the 1TB storage model.

The 2022-released iPhone 14 Pro is available in a new ‘Deep Purple’ colourway, along with familiar ‘Space Black,’ ‘Silver,’ and ‘Gold’ colours. The iPhone 14 Pro starts at $1,399 for the 128GB model, $1,549 for the 256GB model, $1,819 for the 512GB variant and $2,089 for the 1TB storage model.

The base 128GB iPhone 14 Pro model costs the same as last year’s 128GB iPhone 13 Pro model; however, the 256GB, 512GB and 1TB models are all $10 more expensive.

Should you upgrade?

The iPhone 14 Pro is hands down a better device than the iPhone 13 Pro. It features a better battery life, a more optimized processor, and the first 48-megapixel rear camera on an iPhone. If you’re a content creator, the improvements on the video and photo spectrum are hard to miss, while more casual users would surely be attracted to the Always-On display and the interactive and Dynamic Island notch that in itself makes me want to upgrade.

On a more practical note, though, if you already own an iPhone 13 Pro, upgrading to the iPhone 14 Pro just one year later should be out of question unless you’ve got extra money to burn. The iPhone 13 Pro will continue to be supported until 2028.

On the other hand, if you own an older iPhone or Android device, and are looking to upgrade, the iPhone 14 Pro wouldn’t disappoint. While generation-to-generation upgrades have been incremental in the previous years, the iPhone 14 Pro features significant upgrades over its predecessors.

If you’re looking to pre-order the iPhone 14 Pro, check out the story below:

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