As a world-renowned cheapskate, I’ll by no means go up the chance to pay much less for one thing. That is very true of smartphones the place my pure inclination to pay any greater than I’ve to steers me towards discounted fashions. Why pay up for the newest {hardware}, my reasoning goes, when the marked-down mannequin could also be simply pretty much as good.
You’d assume, then, that I might leap on Apple’s iPhone 14 with each toes. Apple’s flagship system was top-of-the-line telephones accessible when it arrived a yr in the past, and now it is promoting for $100 lower than earlier than. It runs the newly launched iOS 17 and not using a hitch, and it ought to proceed receiving software program and safety upgrades for an additional 4 years — lengthy after many individuals can be able to improve. Add all that collectively, and the iPhone 14 looks like the cut price hunter’s dream.
I am right here to let you know that it isn’t. If you end up in an iPhone 15 vs. iPhone 14 buying dilemma, I urge you to choke again any intuition towards paying much less and to pony up the additional $100 for Apple’s newer telephone.
That is not essentially a mirrored image of the iPhone 14, an appropriate telephone in its day. Reasonably, it is an acknowledgement that the iPhone 15 is a much better system — actually sufficient to justify parting with that further c-note.
Why the iPhone 15 beats the iPhone 14
Studying John Velasco’s hands-on iPhone 15 evaluate, I used to be struck by how important the adjustments had been that Apple made to its entry-level iPhone this yr. The processor, the cameras, even the look of the telephone — all of these items are totally different from the iPhone 14 in a really noticeable approach.
Sure, a cynic may dismiss lots of these iPhone 15 enhancements as Apple enjoying catch-up with its personal gadgets — a lot of what is new in regards to the iPhone 15 truly appeared within the iPhone 14 Professional the earlier yr. However should you’ve obtained an iPhone 12 or older and also you’re considering a brand new handset, you actually aren’t going to care that the iPhone 15 is late to the social gathering on some options. What you’ll discover is that the iPhone 15 has superior options not accessible within the cheaper iPhone 14.
Let’s begin with the look of the telephone. The iPhone 15 adopts Apple’s Dynamic Island function the place the entrance digicam and Face ID sensors are housed in a cutout within the telephone’s show. In distinction, the iPhone 14 options the notch that is been round on Apple flagships for the reason that iPhone X.
Possibly you do not see a lot of a distinction between the notch and a cutout, however the Dynamic Island does liberate extra display screen actual property and makes the iPhone show really feel much less truncated. There is a performance part, too, because the Dynamic Island hosts alerts and Stay Actions in a extra compelling, easier-to-track approach. As soon as you’ve got seen it in motion, you may be glad the notch is gone.
The iPhone 15 will get the same old silicon bump for a brand new handset — on this case, it is the A16 Bionic that powered the iPhone 14 Professional lineup. Whereas I am not a fan of Apple’s technique of assigning totally different chipsets to telephones launched the identical yr, there isn’t any arguing that the A16 is quicker than the A15 Bionic contained in the iPhone 14 — we have got the benchmarks to show it. Whereas a sooner chip would not be sufficient to sway me to 1 telephone over the opposite, it is undeniably one other mark within the iPhone 15’s favor.
It is the cameras that take the largest leap ahead between generations. Whereas the iPhone 14 has the 12MP foremost digicam that Apple has been utilizing for the reason that invention of movie — OK, OK, it was solely for the reason that iPhone 6s in 2015 — the iPhone 15 will get an improve to the 48MP foremost sensor launched with the iPhone 14 Professional fashions.
The change would not simply imply that the iPhone 15 can seize pictures at full decision, although, sure, that’s in its bag of methods. By default, the iPhone 15 takes 24MP footage. It additionally helps a 2x zoom, with the 48MP lens cropping in on the world you are zooming in on for a 12MP shot. That is lots of flexibility for the digicam {hardware} and we’ve not even gotten to the enhancements to options like Good HDR and Portrait mode that the iPhone 15 advantages from.
To place it one other approach, the iPhone 14 was no slouch within the digicam division. However the iPhone 15 is an enormous leap ahead, a lot in order that it is laborious to justify the iPhone 14’s lower cost by giving up these sort of enhancements.
Cheaper mannequin trade-offs
there are occasions when it is smart to go together with the cheaper iPhone mannequin, even when it means given up some enhancements. If we had been having this dialog a yr in the past because the iPhone 14 got here out, I might be steering you towards the discounted iPhone 13. Positive, the iPhone 14 delivered some efficiency beneficial properties and new software program options corresponding to Emergency SOS through satellite tv for pc and Crash Detection. However these hardly appeared price an additional $100.
The calculus is totally different this yr with the iPhone 15/iPhone 14 comparisons. Along with the same old efficiency enhancements, you’ve got obtained a a lot better foremost digicam and a telephone that is simpler to carry because of the iPhone 15’s contoured edges. Even the addition of a USB-C slot means extra versatile charging choices.
I am as a lot for saving a buck or two when attainable as the subsequent individual, and it is actually attainable by choosing the $699 iPhone 14 as a substitute of the $799 iPhone 15. But it surely’s not horrible sensible, given all of the adjustments Apple made to its newest telephone.