Powerful pro features are worth the upgrade from the standard model

I’m PCMag’s managing editor for consumer electronics content, overseeing an experienced team of reviewers and product testers. I’ve been covering tech for more than 20 years. Prior to PCMag, I worked at outlets such as Android Authority, Fortune, InformationWeek, and Phonescoop. 

Apple's iPhone 14 Pro offers a number of welcome upgrades over the standard model while being smaller and easier to handle than the Pro Max, but its battery doesn't last as long.

Apple's iPhone 14 Pro (starting at $999) suffers a bit from middle child syndrome. It’s a clear step up in features and performance from the standard iPhone 14 ($799), but it’s not quite as flashy as the larger Pro Max ($1,099). Fortunately, the more compact Pro is every bit as powerful as the Pro Max with one exception: battery life. But the trade off in longevity is usability. Where the massive Pro Max might simply be too much phone for some people, the Pro is more hand and pocket friendly—in addition to being $100 less. Ultimately, we give the Pro Max our Editors' Choice award for its longer battery life, but the Pro is otherwise just as capable, and a worthy alternative if you prefer a smaller phone.

Apple hasn’t changed the iPhone Pro’s design significantly for several years, which means the 14 Pro looks about the same as the 13 Pro and 12 Pro. One aspect Apple does update this year is the color palette, which now includes the hard rockin' Deep Purple in addition to Gold, Graphite, and Silver. The Graphite review unit Apple lent us is closer to a full black than previous iPhones, which were more gray.

The iPhone 14 Pro measures 5.81 by 2.81 by 0.31 inches (HWD) and weighs 7.27 ounces—dimensions that are, for all intents and purposes, identical to the 13 Pro. It’s noticeably smaller and lighter than the 14 Pro Max (6.33 by 3.05 by 0.31, 8.47 ounces), and about even with the vanilla iPhone 14 (5.78 by 2.82 by 0.31 inches, 6.07 ounces). The most direct competitors in terms of price and features are the Google Pixel 6 Pro (6.45 by 2.99 by 0.35 inches) and the Samsung Galaxy S22+ (6.2 by 2.98 by 0.3 inches), both of which are significantly bigger.

Like the larger Pro Max, the Pro relies on a stainless steel frame and Apple’s Ceramic Shield glass for durability. It meets the IP68 rating for protection against dust and water submersion expected of today’s top phones. The quality of the fit and finish is the best in the industry.

Placement of physical controls and ports mirrors that of other iPhones, which means you’ve got a ringer switch and volume buttons on the left, a combined power/screen lock button on the right, and the dated Lightning port on the bottom. We’ll continue to bemoan Apple’s proprietary port until the company adopts the industry-favored USB-C port for charging and data transfer.

Apple drops the physical SIM tray for all US models of the iPhone 14 family, which instead rely on eSIM. iPhone 14s sold outside the US, however, continue to include SIM tray support.

Though the phone’s dimensions are changed only minutely compared with the iPhone 13 Pro, the camera module is larger and thus you’ll need to scout out a new case.

The iPhone 14 Pro screen carries a few notable upgrades over the iPhone 13 Pro screen. It’s got slightly slimmer bezels and bumps the resolution from 2,532 by 1,170 pixels to 2,556 by 1,179 pixels, for a density of 460ppi. It carries over the 6.1-inch measurement and features such as HDR, Haptic Touch, and True Tone color.

Apple has improved brightness for the Pro line this year. The standard brightness hits the same 1,000 nits (typical), while the peak reaches 400 nits more. Moreover, a special sunlight mode ramps brightness to a maximum of 2,000 nits for improved outdoor visibility. Though contrast is still two million to one, the iPhone 14 Pro is clearly brighter than the 13 Pro and easier to use outside during the day.

The phone carries over the 120Hz ProMotion tech from last year, but is able to slow the refresh rate down to just 1Hz to conserve power. This matches the top refresh rate of most competing flagships, but doubles the speed of the vanilla iPhone 14 model, which remains at 60Hz.

That 1Hz rate assists with one of the 14 Pro’s new features, the always-on display (AOD). Though Android phones have offered AODs for years, this is the first time the feature is appearing on an iPhone. It’s customizable to a degree and doesn’t sap battery life, according to Apple, and you can turn it off if you wish.

Last, and perhaps most important, the iPhone 14 Pro moves away from the notch at the top of the display in favor of what Apple calls the Dynamic Island. Apple still needs room in the screen for the Face ID and TrueDepth camera module, but rather than leave the cutout blank, it adopts a new user interface element that highlights notifications and live activities. The Island is compatible with a number of apps, a list that will surely grow over time. It may take some getting used to for long-time iPhone users, but it's a novel approach to ancillary app data that we like.

Battery life could be the iPhone 14 Pro’s lynchpin. Apple’s smaller flagship has never been as impressive as the Max model when it comes to battery life, and that hasn't changed for the iPhone 14 lineup.

The iPhone 14 Pro has a 3,200mAh battery, which is well below the 4,500 to 5,000mAh cells in competing flagships, including the 4,323mAh battery in the 14 Pro Max.

Our test, which involves streaming a YouTube video over Wi-Fi with the screen brightness set to the max, shows the limitations of the 14 Pro’s battery. It lasted 16 hours, which is the exact same time achieved by the 13 Pro, but well short of the 19 hours we saw from the 14 Pro Max. The Pixel 6 Pro hit 22 hours, for comparison, while the Galaxy S22+ ran for 10 hours.

In practical terms, the phone powered through a full day consistently, with charge to spare. I didn’t run into any problems during the test period despite heavy benchmarking and always ended the day at 25% or higher. Your results will vary based on multiple factors, including screen brightness and screen-on time, radio use, and more. I wouldn't say that battery life is necessarily an issue with the 14 Pro—it simply falls well short of what you get with the 14 Pro Max.

You won’t find rapid charging on any iPhone. The 14 Pro can hit a maximum wired charging rate of 20W when used with a compatible charger, though you have to pony up for the charging brick. In our tests, the 14 Pro battery charged from 0% to 50% in 30 minutes, which is equal to Apple's claims. A full charge took close to 80 minutes. Samsung's Galaxy S22 family can charge in as little as 75 minutes when connected to Samsung's faster 45W charger. Neither Apple nor Samsung can match the OnePlus 10 Pro 5G, which can fully recharge in just 35 minutes. 

Wireless charging is no faster than 15W, and only then with a MagSafe-compatible wireless charger. Typical Qi-based wireless chargers can power the iPhone 14 Pro at a maximum rate of 7.5W, which is fairly slow.

The iPhone 14 Pro packs the same A16 Bionic processor as the iPhone 14 Pro Max, which is good news since the standard iPhone 14 sticks with last year’s A15.

The A16 advances from a 5nm process to a 4nm process with a total of 16 billion transistors, or 1 billion more than what’s on the A15. Two performance cores and four efficiency cores make for a total of six, which are aided by a five-core GPU and 16-core Neural Engine. The GPU features 50% faster memory while the Neural Engine is 7% faster—updates that will be most obvious when gaming and using the camera. Apple keeps the RAM the same at 6GB, but upgrades it from LPDDR4 to LPDDR5. A fresh image signal processor assists the camera and the Display Engine keeps the AOD from using too much power.

The iPhone 14 Pro family is available in 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB variants, though it doesn't support expandable memory. 

Put to benchmarks, the iPhone 14 Pro equals the scores of the Pro Max while outshining last year’s iPhones and competitors alike. It hit 1,882 and 5,554 on Geekbench 5 for the single- and multi-core tests, respectively, where the iPhone 14 scored 1,753 and 4,734. The Pixel 6 Pro and its Google-made Tensor processor rated 1,021 and 2,813 for the single- and multi-core Geekbench tests, while the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1-powered Samsung Galaxy S22+ rated 1,216 and 3,448.

The iPhone 14 Pro and its A16 Bionic processor netted 1,021 on the Geekbench ML test, 59.55fps on the GFXBench Aztec Ruins test, and 3,368 on the 3DMark Wildlife Extreme test.

Simply put, the iPhone 14 Pro is among the fastest phones on the market. It outclasses the Android competition with ease—while last year’s iPhone 13 Pro also still manages to keep ahead of top Android flagships. There’s no questioning the Pro’s performance, which remains best of class year after year.

Apple's updated operating system, iOS 16, runs spectacularly on the iPhone 14 Pro. It’s fast and smooth across the board. Further, the phone should rate as a top gaming device, easily handling titles such as Alto's Adventure and Genshin Impact.

Apple replaces the aging Qualcomm X60 modem in the iPhone 13 with the newer X65 here, which offers faster maximum 5G speeds, better MIMO performance, and power efficiency gains.

The 14 Pro matched the Pro Max in our signal tests (taken in Northern New Jersey). For example, the 14 Pro reached download speeds of 88Mbps on Verizon 5G where a Pixel 6 Pro maxed out at 96Mbps in the same location. Uploads on the 14 Pro were faster at 8.28Mbps versus the Pixel's 4.52Mbps. (Average speeds for Verizon’s network are typically much faster than these samples, which were limited by our testing locations.)

The Wi-Fi 6 radio demonstrated excellent performance, hitting 740Mbps when held a few inches from a Verizon Fios router with 940Mbps service. Wi-Fi upload speeds were as quick as 262Mbps. Speeds at the edge of the Wi-Fi network were 4.52Mbps down and 3.37Mbps up. The iPhone beat a Pixel 6 Pro, which hit peaks of 475Mbps (down) and 207Mbps (up) near the router and 3.62Mbps (down) and 3.5Mbps (up) at the network's edge.

You’ll find the iPhone 14 Pro’s Bluetooth 5.3 radio to be reliable. Codec support is quite good with AAC, Apple Lossless, FLAC, and Spatial audio.

The stereo speaker performance is on par with that of the iPhone 14 Pro Max and iPhone 14. The earpiece and bottom-firing speaker create stereo sound and can get quite loud. With the volume set to about 50%, media sounds good and balanced. Our test track, The Knife's "Silent Shout," pushed detailed highs and thumpy lows. Dialing the volume to its highest levels, however, introduced distortion to both the high and low frequencies. We suggest a Bluetooth speaker if you really want to crank it.

HD voice calls over Verizon's network were crystal clear. I didn't experience any pops, hisses, or drops, and the phone generates more than enough volume to hear calls whether you’re at home or standing on a busy city street.

As with the entire range of iPhone 14 devices, the 14 Pro has the new Crash Detection and Emergency SOS via satellite features to help out in emergencies.

Crash detection relies on new sensors and algorithms that are able to assess the data collected during a high-speed deceleration and determine if an accident occurred. If you're unconscious or unable to make a call yourself, the iPhone 14 will automatically call emergency services and/or your emergency contacts and provide them with your location.

The Emergency SOS via satellite tool relies on special antennas to connect directly to Globalstar satellites to provide rudimentary communications in the event that normal cellular and Wi-Fi coverage is unavailable. This service, which is for true emergencies only, won't launch until November.

The Apple iPhone 14 Pro stands near the top of the hill when it comes to mobile photography, with only a few phones above it.

Apple has redesigned the Pro's camera system, which features a new 48MP sensor that's 65% bigger than in last year's iPhone 13 Pro. Apple also debuts second-generation sensor-shift optical image stabilization to assist with focus. Most of the time the camera bins down by a factor of four to produce 12MP final images, though you can shoot with the full 48MP resolution in ProRaw mode. Pixel binning lets the sensor capture more light, which is critical for low-light shots. The ultrawide and telephoto cameras each have 12MP resolution sensors but faster optics than last year's phone. Taking all the lenses into consideration, the iPhone 14 Pro offers 0.5 to 3x optical zoom, with up to 15x digital zoom available. 

All the data generated by the lenses and sensors are parsed by the new Photonic Engine image signal processor, which Apple says evaluates multiple exposures at the individual pixel level to select the best one before merging them into a final image.

The daylight pictures I captured look great, with sharp focus, deep contrast, and rich detail. The biggest issue that should be obvious to trained eyes is the presence of too much sharpening, which Apple needs to dial back in order to give photos a more natural look.

Shots taken during twilight or at night impress. Using the phone one evening in New York City showcased just how good it is in challenging lighting.

The 12MP TrueDepth selfie cam has a brighter aperture of f/1.9, which lets in 38% more light than the f/2.2 selfie cam of the 13 Pro. Moreover, the TrueDepth camera takes advantage of the IR dots generated by the Face ID camera to add autofocus. The results are much sharper selfies that have excellent color even in poor light.

On the video front, Action Mode is the big new feature. Action Mode crops video down a bit from 4K to 2.8K, but that allows it to add immense levels of stabilization. The final result is video that looks like it was captured from a steadying gimbal rather than in your hand. Further, Cinematic mode adds supports for 4K24 and 4K30 capture for Hollywood-like results. Video captured with the Apple iPhone 14 Pro is simply the best you're going to get from a modern mobile phone.

Are photos in the same league as video? That depends a bit on what you want from them. Some people may prefer the more natural look of photos captured with the Pixel family, while others may prefer the boosted results from Samsung's Galaxy S range. Whichever of these phones you choose, you're going to get top-notch photos.

The iPhone 14 Pro may not carry quite the same level of cachet as the Pro Max model, but don't let that fool you into thinking it's any less capable. Other than battery life, Apple's 14 Pro does everything the larger Max does with equal prowess. Most importantly, its new processor, added camera, faster screen, and Dynamic Island make the 14 Pro a more compelling choice than the standard iPhone 14. So while the iPhone 14 Pro Max is our Editors' Choice recommendation, the iPhone 14 Pro is only a tick behind it. And for many, the Pro's smaller form factor might be more appealing than the Max's additional battery life.

Apple's iPhone 14 Pro offers a number of welcome upgrades over the standard model while being smaller and easier to handle than the Pro Max, but its battery doesn't last as long.

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I’m PCMag’s managing editor for consumer electronics content, overseeing an experienced team of reviewers and product testers. I’ve been covering tech for more than 20 years. Prior to PCMag, I worked at outlets such as Android Authority, Fortune, InformationWeek, and Phonescoop. 

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