As I use smartphones a lot for taking photos and videos for my work and silly social media posts, the Pro range is my preference. The new sensor in them means you get even better pictures than before, and what you see on the very good display is close to the final result, with little or no editing needed.
Battery life is excellent, especially in the Pro Max model which has 4323 mAh capacity as opposed to 3200 mAh in the smaller iPhone 14 Pro. It is about the same as the iPhone 13 Pro Max, despite the substantially faster A16 chip, always-on display, and battery capacity being the same.
Proper fast charging is the missing feature here, but at least you don't need to plug in the new iPhones that frequently.
Once again, the iPhone 14 Pros are a confirmation of Apple’s long-term strategy that emphasises high quality through control of the hardware and software that goes into the devices; and yes, you don’t need to point out that Big A doesn’t make every single component or write all the code for iPhones.
That level of control is by itself a huge and costly endeavour, but it means Apple can sell a full suite of personal computing and communications devices that work well together, at high margins and premium pricing.
So much so that when you encounter rough edges like image and video sharing in the built-in Photos app working differently on MacOS than on iOS/iPadOS, it really jars.
At some point soon, Apple will need to think about a user interface redesign for iOS too. As the devices become more capable with new features and sensors, app screens are getting very information-dense and difficult to navigate in places.
Integrated hardware and software is where it’s at however, which shows that the various platforms device-makers use aren’t as open as promised, being controlled by large conglomerates that have the money and expertise to develop them.
This is why Samsung is building Exynos processors, and Huawei is working on a Kirin chip built with a superfine 3-nanometre process.
However, neither the South Koreans nor the Chinese manufacturers have a viable alternative yet to Google’s Android operating system. The big device makers can influence the Android roadmap, but ultimately Google controls the software.
In Huawei’s case, this has proven to be a commercial disaster as the United States went geopolitical on the Chinese company, imposing sanctions.
Apple has none of those limitations, which means it can differentiate products almost as it likes, and not rush the latest tech to the market until it's fully baked and "just works".
Thanks to that thinking, Apple has been able to swim against the tide of dropping device sales worldwide, making the company recession-resilient to a degree.
The company is not however immune to Covid-19, which has hit the gigantic plants run by Apple’s Taiwanese supplier Foxconn in China. A virus outbreak in Shenzhen and China’s strict zero Covid policy, with lockdowns and quarantines, means iPhone 14 Pro assembly lines are running at reduced capacity, with increased wait times for device deliveries.
Not ideal for Apple ahead of the holiday season, but that’s just how 2022 rolls unfortunately.
