The rumor mill is churning rumor after rumor about the upcoming iPhone 14 series which, come hell or high water, should hit us this fall. Waving goodbye to the notch and using even faster hardware, at least on the Pro-lineup, the iPhone 14 series is seriously shaping up to be another important milestone for Apple.
Tons of things, including but not limited to the fall of the iPhone mini and the rise of a new device category (an affordable iPhone Max), a big design change in the form of a punch hole cutout replacing the famous notch, as well as faster hardware, but also… a higher price! And Apple should bring all of this to you come September 2022.
Apple will most likely unveil the iPhone 14 series on either September 6 or September 13, 2022, and launch it to the market on September 16 or September 23, 2022. That’s due to the usual timeframes that the company favors on an annual basis and sticks to: Apple tends to announce its new phones on the first or second Tuesday of September and subsequently launch them roughly ten days later, always on a Friday.
So this is why we expect the iPhone 14 to be announced in mid-September 2022, the usual iPhone announcement period for Apple. It’s very unlikely for something to shift this pattern. Last year’s iPhone 13 launch fully adhered to the pattern, so we expect no surprised this year.
Here’s a summarized list with some of the most recent iPhone launches and our expectations for 2022:
Recent rumors pin the pricing of the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max versions to be higher than predecessors. The anticipated price hike is due to a variety of factors, namely more expensive components and the display in particular, plus an overall price inflation across the supply chain.
It’s important to say that the iPhone 14 Pro Max specifically could get a bigger price hike if a rumored massive camera overhaul happens. For the rest of the models, we don’t expect a colossal spike in prices, and again, if we do see such a price hike, though, it would likely hit the Pro models the most.
iPhone 14 Name
Apple is reportedly prepping four devices for 2022 and most probably ditching the Apple iPhone mini lineup for good. Here’s a purported iPhone 14 lineup:
- iPhone 14 6.1″ — the base iPhone, a logical continuation of the iPhone 11, 12, and 13
- NEW! iPhone 14 Max 6.7″ — a larger version of the iPhone 14 with dual cameras and bigger battery
- iPhone 14 Pro 6.1″ — the triple-camera iPhone 14 with all the bells and whistles in a manageable size
- iPhone 14 Pro Max 6.7″ — a largest version of the 14 Pro with premium features and longer battery life
Apple iPhone 14 Camera
“We believe that the new 2H22 iPhone may support direct 48MP output and 12MP (four cells merge output mode) output simultaneously,” says Ming-Chi Kuo. “With 12MP output, the CIS pixel size of the new 2H22 iPhone increases to about 2.5um, which is significantly larger than the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13, and larger than existing Android phones, and close to the DSC level.”
This would be the largest camera sensor ever fitted on an Apple iPhone. Thanks to quad pixel-binning, it should provide superb low-light image quality that would play extremely well with the Night mode of the iPhone 14. It looks like Sony will be supplying these new sensors, whereas LG will be tasked with the production of the camera modules for the iPhone 14 themselves.
What’s more, the new sensor will theoretically allow for 8K video capture with the main camera. At the moment, iPhones can only capture up to 4K video at 60 fps. We are not sure whether 8K will actually arrive this year, though, as insiders have said it might not.
The front camera, however, is expected to get revamped on all four iPhone 14 models with a new one that supports auto-focusing. All previous iPhones had a fixed-focus front camera, so this would be a nice change that would allow for shallower depth of field to your selfies and video calls. Leaks don’t mention a resolution for the new front camera, but say it will have an f/1.9 aperture vs the f/2.2 aperture used previously, so it should let more light in as well.
Apple iPhone 14 Design
What will the iPhone 14 series look like? Generally, we don’t expect any too major changes in terms of overall design, so you can expect the iPhone 14 series to look mostly similar to the iPhone 13 series. Aside from the removal of the notch on the iPhone 14 Pro and the iPhone 14 Pro Max, which will be substituted for an “i”-shaped horizontal hole-punch cutout.
Another recent leak shows the new iPhone 14 series all coming with narrower borders around the screen for a cleaner look. This bezel minimization took off with the iPhone 12 generation, went strong during the iPhone 13 days, and it seems that the iPhone 14 will give us the thinnest bezels on an iPhone so far.
In April, iPhone 14 molds have also made the rounds, reinforcing the notion that we should expect four iPhone 14 models, with no ‘mini’ in sight this time around.
iPhone 14-series molds have appeared online
- Midnight
- Starlight
- Sky Blue
- Red
- Purple
We first saw Apple use a purple colorway as an additional color for the iPhone 12 that was introduced about half a year since the original release of the phone, and this one could be a similar, slightly darker shade.
iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max rumored colors:
- Graphite
- Silver
- Gold
- Purple
iPhone 14 Pro leaked schematics
iPhone 14 Pro Max leaked schematics
The iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max will reportedly feature thicker camera islands due to a larger camera sensor. As was suspected, the new 48MP camera that is rumored to replace the 12MP main sensor is the reason behind the thicker camera bump. Kuo has revealed that compared to the 12MP camera, the diagonal length of the 48MP module will be around 25 to 35 percent greater and the height of its 7P lens will increase by 5 to 10 percent when compared to the primary unit on the iPhone 13 Pro.
The iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Max will most certainly retain the slimmer notch that debuted with the iPhone 13 series.
Render by Xleaks7
Render by Ian Zelbo
Another rumor calls for the total omission of a physical SIM card slot. Dual eSIMs could be used instead, but even if this comes true, iPhones 14 units with physical SIM card slots will likely still be sold in regions where the eSIM standard hasn’t been adopted yet.
Apple iPhone 14 Display
Currently, we expect that only the Pro models will feature a 120Hz refresh rate, whereas the more affordable non-Pro versions will only come with 60Hz displays. That’s in line with what we have seen in the iPhone 13 series.
Some analysts, however, do say that it’s also possible for all four iPhone 14 models to get 120Hz screens, so here’s to hoping.
On the front, we’ve already mentioned how the iPhone 14 series might move away from the notch, and here is one more visualization of what that might look like:
Here’s what the rumor mill churns out about the iPhone 14 series display mix:
- 6.1″ iPhone 14 with 60Hz ‘slim’ notch display
- 6.7″ iPhone 14 Max with 60HZ ‘slim’ notch display
- 6.1″ iPhone 14 Pro with 120Hz i-shaped punch-hole display
- 6.7″ iPhone 14 Pro Max with 120Hz i-shaped punch-hole display
Apple iPhone 14 Specs and hardware
What we’re unsure of is what technology the new Apple A16 Bionic chip will be built upon. Some rumors suggest a move to 4nm or 3nm architecture, an upgrade from the current 5nm tech used. This should bring overall performance and power efficiency improvements. Others, however, mention the global semiconductor shortage and say plans have been postponed, so the A16 might still use 5nm tech.
According to TSMC’s production schedule, we could theoretically see up to a 15% performance gain as well as 30% power reduction, and a logic density gain of up to 70% over the current 5nm process (in ideal conditions).
What’s brand new and very likely, however, is that Apple will use the fancy new A16 chip only on the iPhone 14 Pro and the Pro Max, while the non-Pro models could stick with the older A15 Bionic.
The Pros are also expected to be the first iPhones with 8GB of RAM on deck, which would definitely improve their multi-tasking capabilities. Currently, the 13 Pro models ship with 6GB of RAM, and the non-Pro versions only have 4GB.
Apple iPhone 14 Battery and charging
We’re yet to hear anything in particular regarding the batteries of the iPhone 14 series. Coming from the excellent battery life of the latest iPhone 13, our expectations are already high.
| iPhone battery capacity | iPhone 13 | iPhone 12 | % difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| iPhone 13 mini battery capacity | 2,406 mAh | 2,227 mAh | +9% |
| iPhone 13 battery capacity | 3,227 mAh | 2,815 mAh | +15% |
| iPhone 13 Pro battery capacity | 3,095 mAh | 2,815 mAh | +11% |
| iPhone 13 Pro Max battery capacity | 4,352 mAh | 3,687 mAh | +19% |
On the charging front, there are two big rumors circling around: the first one is about a futuristic portless iPhone, while the second one is for Apple swapping the current Lightning port for USB-C. The portless iPhone is definitely not happening in 2022, while the USB-C iPhone is a possibility but a very remote one. One thing that might help that is recent ruling by the European Commission that pushes for a common charging port on all electronics to combat e-waste.
All four iPhone 14 will also have MagSafe wireless charging. However, it’s unclear whether the series will get reverse wireless charging, a feature that we have seen on many Android rivals. It could happen, and it could also be reserved for the iPhone Pro models only, but we don’t have clarity on that yet.
