Storytime
December 26 2022, CIRCA 01:30
Damn, I just dropped my phone.
I pick it up, and immediately I see a tiny area in the top-right corner of the screen lit in bright green. My heart sinks. While there are no cracks, it’s upsetting that I broke even that tiny part of the screen in my half-assed attempt to hold the phone while trying to adjust my bedsheets (which, on my bunk bed, are at my chin level).
Sigh. Guess I’ll just live with it.
December 26 2022, circa 11:30
I’m seeing the screen flickering now. Not good.
December 26 2022, circa 14:25
It has happened. While I’m packing for my first overseas trip post-COVID, more of the screen is breaking down.
All I did was play some music off YouTube. Is this karma?
DECEMBER 27 2022, 19:40
I’ve made my way to Orchard Road to decide on the two candidates for my next phone. Here I am at the Sony Store at Wisma Atria, with the Xperia 5 IV in my hands. I’ve tried it several times in the past year visiting the store as it has some honestly good apps for videography, but this time I’m looking at how it feels as a phone first and foremost.
The only thought in my head, however, is one contrary to my previous experiences: it’s a fun science experiment that forgets to be a daily driver.
After my visit to Apple Orchard Road, I’ve made my choice.
DECEMBER 28 2022, 10:15
I’ve done it.
Why an iPhone?
My first smartphone was a hand-me-down Samsung Galaxy S (yes the original) after my dad bought a new phone.
Since then, I’d stuck with Android for a good decade. Here’s a list of phones I’ve used:
- Samsung Galaxy S
- HTC Incredible S
- Sony Xperia Z (the first phone I truly owned)
- Samsung Galaxy S7
- Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge (a long story but also a hand-me-down)
- Google Pixel 3 XL
It’s not that my family was anti-iPhone – my dad bought a 3GS and 5, and my brother would get a 7 Plus and 14 Pro Max. I’d used my dad’s iPhones before, and understood their appeal, but the relatively high cost (the Xperia Z and Pixel 3 XL were $0 with SingTel) and lack of customisation, a USP of Android, kept me away.
Yet I always felt a longing desire to own an iPhone, having gone through my teenage years with MacBooks (out of necessity, I’m not loaded). After a year with the Pixel 3 XL, I thought of making the switch to iOS when it became unusable – not because it was a bad phone, but because I was simply getting bored of Android.
And that time came earlier than I imagined.
The phone
The 14 Pro comes in a 6.1-inch form factor that’s been around since the 12 series. While the design is based on the iconic 4 and 5 series, I would have liked rounded sides like on the 11 series in particular. Just a personal preference. Nevertheless, the 14 Pro with a case on (the Spigen Ultra Hybrid in my case heheh) feels good in my hand – secure and comfortable.
The camera bump is something that bothers me, though. While I’ve put on a camera lens cover (the second one – the first was lost to a toilet bowl by not sticking on tightly), the bump sticks out such that the lens cover sits on whatever surface I put the phone flat on, especially the bottom half where the main 48MP wide camera sits. There were a few tiny scratches on the area around the lens on the first cover, so I worry about the long-term durability of coverless iPhones.
I shan’t cover aspects like the display and speakers – many a reviewer has touched on them, and for the most part, the competition makes use of similar technologies to great effect (Samsung and LG provide the majority of OLED panels, and Sony competes with Samsung on image sensors). The real battle for smartphone manufacturers now, I’d say, is on the software side of things.
The good
Camera PROCESSING
One of my biggest issues with the Pixel 3 XL was that while it took great photos (especially in low light), it had pretty mediocre video quality beyond surprisingly good stabilisation (an optical + electronic image stabilisation combo). Certainly usable, but not ideal for making videos with.
My desire for an iPhone was partly driven by this need to have good smartphone video. The day after I got my 14 Pro, I happened to set off on a Royal Carribean cruise to Penang and Phuket – the perfect opportunity to test its cameras.
Here are some samples, straight from the native camera app. Photos are RAW files converted to PNG, while videos are all shot in 4K 60FPS HDR.
A lot of reviewers have talked about the over-processing done by the phone on photos, and it is indeed not the best, particularly in low-light scenarios. Even when using ProRAW, taking low-light photos on the 14 Pro felt like a downgrade from the Pixel 3 XL.
Here are a couple more samples over the past six months (some are HEIC files).
FACE ID
I remember thinking of Face ID as gimmicky back when Apple unveiled it on the iPhone X. This opinion came from a time when smartphones were still in their relative infancy, and Android’s attempts at it were primitive in retrospect.
Certainly, in the time since face recognition was first introduced with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, perhaps modern Android phones are just as capable as iPhones in this department. Regardless, this is about Face ID, and oh boy it is life-changing.
Face ID is a much more comfortable and consistent method than a fingerprint scanner, from unlocking the phone to making purchases. The fact that it works with face masks is almost science-fiction for 13-year-old me, who first tried face recognition on the Galaxy S.
SAFARI
As a macOS user, I prefer Safari over Chrome for the most part, unless I need to use Google services like YouTube (Chrome has the great Enhancer for YouTube extension) or multiple non-Apple devices.
It’s partially because I’d prefer not to install extra software and waste some space (even if it’s arguably negligible). But with Apple’s insistence on creating a seamless user experience, Safari takes advantage of native features, be it Picture-in-Picture (PiP) or Apple Pay integration. Best of all, it looks much cleaner than most other browsers. For me at least.
This still holds true in iOS, especially with the tab bar being set at the bottom by default – so much easier to use than Chrome on iOS.
The meh
GENERAL iOS experience
So, the iOS experience. I’d heard plenty from the people around me about their real-world experiences with iOS. Some, like my paternal aunt, say iOS is simple – capable of getting things done, without the overwhelming abundance of features you can work with in Android. Others say it’s a “walled garden” that restricts your freedom to do things.
Both are true to some extent – I had sideloaded apps on my Pixel like Tachiyomi and occasionally games downloaded from Qooapp, and trying to set up iOS alternatives like Paperback and Aidoku for manga was a headache. In addition, not being able to install apps outside the App Store was and still is my biggest issue with iOS. There were rumours of Apple bringing sideloading to EU countries in iOS 17, but unfortunately, there has been no news.
Customisation (or the lack thereof) is a contentious point, and truth be told, I don’t miss it that much. I used Nova Launcher on my previous phones starting from the S7, and even then I didn’t change much beyond the colour for the home page indicator, as well as choosing between white and black for the status icons to better fit my wallpaper. The only thing I miss is being able to leave spaces in the home pages so I can see my wallpaper.
Multitasking is also not a thing with iOS, so doing things like backing up photos and videos to Google Photos has to be done with the app open, whereas it would have done the same in the background back on the Pixel 3 XL.
Not all of iOS is doom and gloom, however. It still does just about everything you’d expect of smartphones – make calls, scroll through social media, take photos, etc. Sounds very copium of me, but the thing is, after a while it starts to feel like any other OS with its own perks and quirks.
Ultimately, the true power of iOS is unleashed with the addition of a second Apple device. I bought myself the 2023 14-inch MacBook Pro for personal use shortly before this was published, and Apple’s walled garden became a truly compelling Eden. From syncing Wi-Fi connections with the iPhone to using it as a webcam via Continuity, the Apple ecosystem is the biggest reason why people stick with it. Or is it the other way round?
Apple MAPS
Let’s get the verdict out of the way – Google Maps is GOATed. But when there are new things to try, how could I resist?
Apple Maps, powered by Dutch location tech company TomTom, has some niggles. For one, it doesn’t show alternative routes while driving. Google Maps not only shows those, but the differences in the estimated time of arrival, which can help drivers decide which route to take if they’re in a rush. In its defence, Apple Maps is more accurate with ETA timings.
It’s also quite inflexible about directions. I tried driving my usual route from my Bukit Panjang home to my maternal grandparents’ place in Sengkang, and at one point near Mandai Road, Apple Maps presumed I’d taken the ramp down to said road, even though I was heading further north to SLE. It took a couple of seconds more than Google would to readjust its route.
Apple Maps isn’t completely hopeless, however. I liked the natural-sounding and contextual instructions given while driving (e.g. “At the next junction, turn right” vs “In 200m, turn right”), and the UI is generally more to my liking.
As Joshua Chang says in the video above, Apple Maps has come a long way from its 2012 debut, but Google has had its seven-year headstart in obtaining up-to-date geographical data, presenting it and refining those processes. Unless Apple can do something about that or Google gets complacent, I’ll stick with Google Maps as I mainly use it to navigate unfamiliar places.
Battery Life
The 14 Pro has a smaller battery capacity than the Pro Max, which certainly shows on days I’m away from a charger. However, that’s not my usual use case (probably about once a week on average), so I’d still say the 14 Pro has acceptable, if not good, battery life.
BUGS
I experienced a rather scary bug one day where I couldn’t get past my lockscreen. Perhaps either FaceID or the touch recognition glitched out. I had to learn how to restart the phone (which happens to be an unintuitive process) before it went back to normal.
What a shocker. I didn’t think iPhones could suffer from bugs. As a MacOS user for over a decade now, I feel like I should’ve known that no tech products are immune to bugs. Why did I think iPhones were any different?
Perhaps because I paid slightly over $2,000 (including AppleCare+) for a phone?
The bad
PRICE
Yes, I know I bought an iPhone. But it doesn’t change the fact that Apple products are pricey. Too much for what they’re worth in my opinion.
When competitors are matching or even exceeding their specs, what exactly am I paying for with an iPhone that justifies the extra few hundred dollars? Long-term software updates? A well-supported ecosystem? Personally, those aren’t enough to justify the price tag – the phone better let me do things a laptop of that price can. And naturally, it can’t.
Lightning
Just why. If it weren’t for me dropping my Pixel 3 XL, I honestly could’ve waited for the 15 series.
USB-C not only is a more common connector, but also does things like charging and data transfer much faster than 11-year-old Lightning.
Heat Dissipation
For some reason, the 14 Pro gets hot much faster than any phone I’ve used, exacerbated by the stainless steel frame distributing the heat around the phone where my hand is holding it even with the case in between.
I will admit. I’ve pushed it somewhat by playing graphically intensive games like Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail at the highest possible frame rates (with medium-ish settings for the rest), but for some reason the issue also rears its head when using Google Photos to back up my photos and videos or, occasionally, charging. The phone has the sense to at least pause charging when that happens, but I foresee this issue to be a major sore point.
Gimmicky features
With every phone, there are unique features that exist to either help a core function or simply differentiate the phone from its competition. In the 14 Pro’s case, these are Dynamic Island, LiDAR and MagSafe.
DYNAMIC ISLAND
The biggest visual change that comes with the 14 Pro is a camera cut-out that I fear may go the way of the MacBook Touch Bar. While theoretically, a global widget is helpful, the Dynamic Island suffers from the same problems the Touch Bar had – not enough developers are making or able to make good use of it.
I personally don’t find myself using it too often. In the initial days of geting Spotify Premium back in April, I used it quite a fair bit as I started to see the convenience of having my music on the same device I was reading Reddit or Twitter on.
However, as someone who prefers cueing songs on the fly like an actual DJ rather than letting Spotify decide what it thinks I want to hear (a topic for another day), I end up switching to the app itself to choose the next songs. In addition, my dad handed me his Fitbit Versa 2 after getting a Charge 5 with his newly purchased Pixel 7a, and that’s what I use when the trains are crowded and I can’t get my phone out of my pocket.
Beyond that, none of my apps make use of Dynamic Island, which is why I’d say it’s the biggest gimmick among the three here.
LiDAR
Apple uses the LiDAR depth-sensing technology in the iPhone for computational photography, resulting in features like the artificial bokeh used in Portrait mode.
Beyond the cameras, LiDAR can also be used for measuring distances or the lengths of objects rather accurately, though unless you do measurements regularly, it might not be of much relevance.
MagSafe
I was introduced to MagSafe on my first MacBook Pro, so I do see its usefulness in being the method for connecting the iPhone to wireless charging stands or slapping on other accessories. Quite a brilliant, if cost-prohibitive, feature.
I didn’t foresee myself getting charging stands or other MagSafe accessories as I was unsure if I’d continue with iPhones, which is why I initially wanted to say nothing about my experience with the iPhone’s MagSafe. However, having bought my third MacBook Pro as of this review, I’m considering getting some kind of MagSafe accessory that lets me use the phone like a webcam.
Gimmicky? Yes. Still cool though.
Verdict
For what is essentially an impulse purchase, the 14 Pro is thankfully a good phone. It mostly delivers the promised fuss-free experience you get with Apple products, at the cost of some freedom and some questionable choices if you’re coming from Android. Most of the issues I have with the 14 Pro are software-related, like the lack of sideloading.
However, if I look at the phone as a stand-alone product, I can’t help but feel like I’m not getting my money’s worth, or that I traded the things I loved about Android for others that I’m less enthused about.
The 14 Pro’s value changes with a second (or more, if you’re filthy rich) Apple device. Apple’s focus on seamless integration between their devices is simply wonderful. It’s no wonder their fanboys are aplenty.
The future
Will I continue with iPhones in the future? It’s hard to say. I feel that smartphones have come a long way, to the point that they’re more or less equal – amazing in some areas, lacking in others.
If anything, I feel like the current smartphone market is lacking a device for me.
Even when I was choosing between this 14 Pro and the Xperia 5 IV, it was a matter of choosing the lesser of evils – I had to choose between a more restrictive software experience or a weird form factor.
Speaking of form factor, I might go for a foldable phone next. The technology for that would’ve matured by the time I change out this 14 Pro (hopefully when it stops getting OS updates), and the Pixel Fold is quite promising (once Google gets their QC right as usual).
Or maybe, just maybe, a foldable iPhone.
Hydratik 
Leave a comment