Apple launches premium iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max with new Dynamic Island notch replacement

At today’s Far Out launch event, Apple unveiled the top-tier iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max smartphones. Following up to last year’s iPhone 13 Pro offerings, the new devices offer a bunch of new features. And, at long last, the notch is gone from the iPhone, in favour of a pill-shaped cut-out for Face ID and the selfie camera.

The iPhone 14 launch event is today! Here’s when plus what to expect

The pill, branded as Dynamic Island, will be completely adaptive. Despite a rather daft name, the new hardware looks incredibly useful, perfectly integrated into the software. The Island will expand for music controls, volume, Face ID and other background features on iPhone. As suggested in rumours, the system is made from two sensors. It’s completely interactive, including for third-party apps.

Below the Dynamic Island is an improved screen – the Super Retina display. The new display goes up to 2000 nits, just as bright as the Pro Display XDR. It also supports a brand new Always On Display at a refresh rate of 1Hz. It dims wallpaper photos, and will show the new clock and widgets from iOS. Live notifications will also still show.

Inside, there’s a new A16 chip. It uses six cores, and is miles quicker than last year’s A15, and any competitor chips. High-efficiency cores use a third of the power from other chipsets, and can carry out your day-to-day tasks. The Neural Engine has also been improved, for better computational photography features. The new Display Engine powers the Always On Display and Dynamic Island.

For the cameras, most parts of the chips are used at once; with up to four trillion operations per second. The rear snapper is Apple’s largest, 65% larger than last year. With 48MP in the main camera and a 24mm focus length, this will take stunning shots. Apple claims there will be two times better low light performance from last year with the quad-pixel sensor. The new camera system offers a 2x telephoto option, alongside the 3x we’ve come to expect.

Packed inside, the new sensor also improves ProRAW, with much more detail captured. You can shoot in ProRAW at 48MP, which unlocks more editing options. The Ultra Wide camera has also been improved, with a 12MP sensor, and 3x better low-light performance. Thanks to the improvements, we’ll also see a better macro mode.

All these new sensors will deliver better 4K video performance, too. Like the standard 14s, we’ll also see the new Action Mode for video. Cinematic Mode now supports 4K at 30fps and 4K at 24fps. Speaking of borrowed features, the Crash Detection and satellite connectivity will come too. Offering automatic car crash detection, and satellite connection for emergency situations without any signal.

It’ll be available in Space Black, Starlight, Gold, and Deep Purple. The standard Pro is 6.1-inch, and the Pro Max is 6.7-inch. As before, the rails are made from stainless steel. Pre-orders for the devices starts this Friday (9 September), and devices will be shipping out a week later (16 September). You can grab the iPhone 14 Pro from the same $999/£1099, and the 14 Pro Max from $1099/£1199. Storage goes up to 1TB.

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About

Connor is a writer for Stuff, working across the magazine and the Stuff.tv website. He has been writing for around six years now, with writing across the web and in print too. Connor has experience on most major platforms, though does hold a place in his heart for macOS, iOS/iPadOS, electric vehicles, and smartphone tech. Just like everyone else around here, he’s a fan of gadgets of all sorts! Aside from writing, Connor is involved in the startup scene. This exciting involvement puts him at the front of new and exciting tech, always on the lookout for innovating products.