Apple Adds Muscle to New iPhones
Apple held its annual iPhone launch event in Cupertino, California, Tuesday. The company introduced new iPhones 14 and 15 Pro and Pro Max, as well as an updated Apple Watch Series 9 with USB-C and new AirPods Pro 2nd generation.
The iPhone’s most notable change isn’t a buzzy new feature, but rather a new charging port.
1. A16 Bionic
The most important thing to know about the new iPhones is that they’re powered by Apple’s latest mobile chips. The A16 Bionic, a system-on-chip (SoC), has been in high-end phones for a few years now, and it’s one of the best mobile CPUs you can get in a phone today.
The A16 Bionic has six CPU cores, with two performance cores that are designed to run fast and four efficiency cores that help preserve battery life. Apple hasn’t said how much faster the A16 Bionic’s performance cores are compared to last year’s A15 chip, but it says its efficiency cores use a third less power and are up to 40% faster than rivals.
Apple also improved its graphics processing unit (GPU) on the A16 Bionic, increasing GPU memory bandwidth by 50%. That should give the new iPhones better performance when playing demanding games, or handling more demanding apps like video editors and real-time augmented reality software.
In fact, the new chip’s biggest upgrade is in its new neural engine, which performs up to 17 trillion operations per second. That’s more than enough to render a full-frame image or to recognize your face in a selfie.
It’s also enough to run advanced neural network training, which is used for tasks like facial recognition and analyzing audio and text. It’s the kind of task that will be used more and more in our daily lives as AI becomes more useful and available to everyone. Apple hasn’t said whether it plans to add a neural engine to its lower-end iPhone models, though. If that happens, it could provide more reasons to buy the more expensive new iPhones over last year’s base model and its Pro counterparts.
2. Dynamic Island
When Apple first introduced its controversial “notch” with iPhone X, it got plenty of harsh reactions from critics. But it stood firm with its pill-shaped cutout and turned that dead space into something very useful with Dynamic Island. It’s an expanding and contracting section of the screen that uses software to show you what’s happening right now, whether it’s a currently playing song, how long your cab ride will be or a running stopwatch.
Unlike the old notification UI banner that slides in from the top of the phone when something comes in, Dynamic Island is fully interactive and can be expanded to see more information or controls. It’s especially useful when a call or text arrives, or when you want to check the status of your AirPods or end a voice recording. It can also display things like sports scores and Maps directions, so you never have to dig into an app to find out what’s happening.
And even better, you can tap on the Dynamic Island to instantly switch over to an app or a widget that’ll let you control the associated content. If music is playing, for instance, tapping on the island brings up a shortcut to all your playback controls. You can also long-press on the island to see a more extensive list of controls for whatever is showing up there, such as volume and track information.
It may seem like a small thing, but it’s one of the few features that make the iPhone 15 feel like a larger leap than last year’s model, even with the sharper camera and USB-C charging. And it’s an upgrade that’s coming to all iPhones, even the regular ones that don’t get Dynamic Island or the reshaped notch.
3. Better Cameras
Since 2015, Apple’s iPhones have been able to take great photos. But they’ve never been as good as the cameras in Samsung phones. This year, that changed. The new iPhones have a better main camera, with a larger sensor and improved image processing. The camera app also has some cool features, like Director’s View, Single Take and Astro Hyperlapse, as well as 3X optical zoom, 10X hybrid zoom and a plethora of filters.
The new cameras also have a cool trick that can make it look like you’re in a scene from a movie when you take a picture with the front-facing camera. It’s a fun feature, but it’s not something that will change the way you use your phone.
One of the things that really set this year’s iPhones apart is their amazing low-light performance. The cameras can see more detail in dimly lit scenes than other smartphones can, even with a bright lens and a bigger sensor. This is accomplished by using a series of pictures taken in rapid succession, then stitching them together and applying image stabilization and smart HDR to give you the best possible result.
Another big improvement is the telephoto camera. The new camera can focus on subjects that are much closer than the camera in last year’s model, which made for some impressive macro shots, but was soft when focusing on very small objects. Apple says that its new Photonic Engine processor does a much better job of processing images from the telephoto camera, preserving fine details and improving color. It’s hard to know for sure until we get our hands on the phones, but this seems to be a major upgrade.
4. Better Battery Life
There’s a lot to love about Apple’s new iPhones. But even more than fancy new features, many consumers prioritize long battery life in their smartphone choices. Apple is responding with improved iPhones that have longer video playback and web browsing times.
It’s not clear how much longer the iPhone 14’s battery will last compared to the iPhone 12. But Apple’s official battery information indicates that you can expect to watch two hours more video or listen to an hour more audio. That’s significant, but it also doesn’t tell the whole story about battery performance since usage varies.
Apple has also added new features to help you understand your battery and its health, and it’s recommended that you use them if you have an iPhone with an older battery. You can now see the percentage of your original battery capacity remaining, as well as how long it’s been since you last charged it. In addition, the latest version of iOS now shows when your phone’s battery is approaching a point where it will need to be replaced.
While new technologies and a fancy redesign grab the headlines, battery life improvements are one way that Apple is trying to entice customers as they pull back on spending to deal with inflation and a murky economic future. Despite slowing iPhone sales, Apple continues to dominate the smartphone market and its recent profits are a testament to that.
5. Charging Port
It’s a little too soon to call this year’s iPhone update “groundbreaking,” but Apple definitely made some changes that will affect how we use the phone. Perhaps the biggest change is in the charging port. Rather than a Lightning connection, the new iPhones have a USB-C port that supports up to 10Gb/s transfer rates and can be used to charge other devices like MacBooks. The ports also support the open wireless charging standard, allowing users to charge their phones up to 15 watts and enable MagSafe-compatible accessories.
The new iPhones have a smaller, more durable aerospace-grade aluminum design, and they’re both water- and dust-resistant. That’s in addition to a new solid-state power button that should be more durable than the old one, collect less dirt and grime, and improve the ease of repairs. The new phones also support Dolby Vision and HDR, which should make for better-looking videos.
There are a few other small but important changes, too. A new chip in the Apple Watch Series 9 will make it faster and brighter, and it’ll have a feature that allows you to control the phone by double-tapping your wrist. Apple is also introducing a new version of its AirPods with a new case and a faster custom S9 chip.
The new iPhones have more features than ever before, but they’re also a bit pricier than last year’s models. That might deter some consumers from upgrading, but Apple has a number of other upgrades that may convince them to buy, including the next-gen A16 Bionic processor, Dynamic Island and a bigger, higher-resolution display. Plus, the Pro models now have a titanium chassis and record-breaking thin bezels, as well as support for 5G mmWave bands that offer crazy-high speeds.
