Apple iPhone 14 Plus review

Apple iOS 16 on the iPhone 14 Plus

All new iPhones come with Apple's iOS 16 out of the box. As usual, it's not a groundbreaking update over iOS 15, but it does improve on the lockscreen, the notification management, the Messaging app, and the privacy options, among other things. And, in typical Apple fashion, some features were left for a later date.

Let's take a closer look at the iPhone 14 Plus iOS 16 now. Its interface is still based on homescreens populated with apps and widgets, App Library for your less important apps, and Notification and Control Centers.

The lockscreen on iOS 16 is the first thing that's been overhauled, though it still follows the same logic - it's one with the Notification Center. It houses your notifications (privacy options are available), plus shortcuts for the torch and the camera. You can get past the lockscreen via Face ID or PIN if you've opted for secure unlock.

You can customize your lockscreen by picking from some cool wallpapers and adding a row of widgets (up to four). There can't be more than one row of widgets. The neat thing is that you can build a couple of different lockscreens and switch them on the go (tap and hold, then swipe). This way, you can easily change the look of the homescreen/notification center depending on your mood, or work.

Lockscreen customization

Another change here is that the notifications now roll up from the bottom of the screen. It's more convenient to browse through them. There are different notification display options as stack, list, or just a count.

Lockscreen customization

You can also pair your homescreen look with the lockscreen and change both in one go.

Switching lockscreen and homescreens on the go

Your apps usually populate the homescreen(s) and widgets. There are two specific screens - the leftmost is Today page, while the rightmost page - App Library.

You can hide specific homescreens - you may have a page that's full of games and hide it when at work or hide a page of work/school apps when on vacation. You can't opt out of Today and App Library, though.

Lockscreen • Homescreen • Today • App Library • Hide homescreens

Apple iOS 16 has an improved Focus mode - now, you can assign a Focus mode on each lockscreen preset you create. And in addition to all other ways of switching between Focuses, now switching between lockscreens also changes the Focus mode.

There are different Focus modes like Work, Personal, Driving, Gaming, Do Not Disturb, among others, highly customizable at that. And you can create and automate your own, of course.

Focus modes

The new iOS 16 also introduces Focus filters, which can affect different apps, with a dedicated API available to developers as well. With these filters, apps like messages and mail clients can automatically filter their content as predefined by the user within the Focus mode.

Focus filters

Widgets can be placed on any of the homescreens and the Today page, and they can coexist with app icons. There are three widget sizes supported by iOS - 2x2, 4x2, and 4x4. You can stack widgets of the same size on top of one another, and, optionally, they can rotate automatically.

Widgets • Widgets • Widgets • Stacked Widgets

The App Library is an app drawer, which is always your rightmost homescreen pane. Apps are added automatically to the App Library upon installation. The sorting is also an automatic process, and you can't edit the categories or move apps in different categories. The app sorting depends on the App Store tags the developer has used upon uploading the apps.

App Library

The Today page is still alive. You can put the same widgets and stacks you can on your homescreens. Here you can also use the old third-party widgets that haven't been optimized yet for newer iOS versions. The old widgets come right after the new ones, should you choose to use some new ones, of course. It's a pity this Today page cannot be disabled, as we found it mostly useless.

The Notification Center is summoned with a swipe from the left horn or the pill itself. The pane was unified with the lockscreen in iOS 11, and that's why you can have different wallpapers on your homescreen and notification center.

The Control Center, which has customizable and (some) expandable toggles, is called with a swipe from the right horn. You can use haptic touch to access additional controls. And the battery percentage is also here.

Today • Today • Today settings • Notification Center • Control Center

Other key improvements coming with iOS 16 include an improved Mail app, options to edit and unsend messages in the Messages app, a completely redesigned Home app, and a Fitness app for everybody, even those without an Apple Watch.

FaceTime has also been improved with a better hand-off feature across devices - now, it includes your wireless headphones, too.

The Photos app has an option to discover duplicate photos. Hidden and Deleted albums now require Face ID/Touch ID.

The Wallet app and functionality have been drastically expanded. In addition to all sorts of keys you can store here, the app now supports detailed receipts and tracking information.

Digital Keys and Digital ID functionality via Wallet has been expanded, too. Now various apps can use basic information from here to verify your identity or whether you are of a certain age. Sharing car and home keys is also possible between family members.

Finally, the Health app now supports medication tracking in addition to all sorts of important medical and fitness information.

The multimedia is handled by Apple's default apps - Photos, Music, TV.

The Photos app's library has four different views - Years, Months, Days, and All Photos. As usual, an AI-powered search option and powerful photo and video edit modes are available.

The TV app is part of iOS 16, and it is your default video player for locally stored movies and shows you've added via iTunes. This is also the digital store for movies and TV shows, and it is also the place where you find the Apple TV+ streaming service. A bit overwhelming, but you get used to it eventually.

Photos • Photos • TV

Music is the default player, and it relies heavily on Apple Music. But even if you decide not to use the streaming service, it can still do an excellent job if you have a few minutes to add your songs via iTunes.

Music

Books are here for your documents, PDFs, and eBooks. Stocks and News are onboard. Safari is your default web browser, and Apple Maps is your default map client.

Books • Books • Stocks • Safari

Finally, Visual Lookup has been part of iOS for a year now, but it has been immensely improved in iOS 16. It now works on both photos and videos and is powered by advanced machine learning. It can easily recognize texts in photos and allows one to look them up right away. What's even cooler is that you can now choose an object from a photo/video, tap and hold onto it, and then either copy it or just drag it and use it wherever you like - photo editor, video editor, messages, emails, whatever.

Visual Lookup

And those are the basics of Apple iOS 16 running on the latest iPhone 14 series.

Emergency improvements

All new iPhone 14 models support this new feature called Emergency SOS via satellite. It required designing all-new custom hardware and bespoke software to make sending out a message to a satellite possible without bulky antennas. This service is text-only and will be used primarily for emergencies, but it does support two-way communication, so you will be notified when rescue is on the way. The Find My app will also be able to share your location with friends so that they can keep an eye on you.

The new satellite messaging service • An emergency questionnaire • Find My reports location over satellite

You can compose custom messages to explain your situation, but when speed is life-saving several specially-prepared questions will let you send out a detailed SOS in just a few taps. In locations with a clear view of the sky, a message can be transmitted in about 15 seconds, but if there are trees overhead, it may take a couple of minutes. The satellite service will launch in November for users in the US and Canada, and iPhone 14 buyers will get a free 2-year subscription.

Crash Detection is also available on all iPhone 14 models, thanks to a new accelerometer that can detect up to 256G. If such an emergency occurs, the phone will automatically contact emergency services. This is a setting within the Emergency SOS menu called Call After Serious Crash. You can either turn it on or off; there are no other settings.

Crash Detection

Performance and benchmarks

The iPhone 14 Plus employs Apple's last-gen A15 Bionic chipset. Specifically, it's the "higher tier" variant with five GPU cores, as found in the iPhone 13 Pro models. So, we can probably expect a small uptick in graphical performance over the iPhone 13 and its four GPU cores.

Another thing that differentiates the iPhone 14 and 14 Plus from the iPhone 13 models is RAM. The new models have 6GB of RAM instead of 4GB, which means the internals should be somewhat identical to the iPhone 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max.

And while we are at it, it makes us wonder why the new software features like Photonic Engine and Action mode, which are available to the iPhone 14 and 14 Plus, are not also present on the virtually identical iPhone 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max. Apple being Apple, yet again, we guess.

Back to the A15, the 5nm A15 Bionic has a Hexa-core processor (2x3.23 GHz Avalanche + 4x1.82 GHz Blizzard) configuration - the same as last year. And, as we established, it has a 5-core Apple GPU.

So, all things considered, physically, the iPhone 14 Plus might be a copy of the iPhone 13, but internally it borrows from the iPhone 13 Pro/Max instead. While you aren't getting the latest and greatest A16 Bionic, this is still a nice little bump in hardware.

Despite being a year older, the A15 Bionic is still an incredibly powerful chip. It excels in CPU tests, only bested by the more recent A16 Bionic.

GeekBench 5 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max
  5423
• Apple iPhone 14
  4761
• Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max
  4706
• Apple iPhone 13
  4645
• Apple iPhone 14 Plus
  4582
• Asus Zenfone 9
  4338
• Xiaomi 12S Ultra
  4300
• Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max
  4240
• Apple iPhone 12
  4067
• Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (1440p)
  3657
• Samsung Galaxy S22+
  3528
• ROG Phone 6D Ultimate
  3505
• Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max
  3503
• Sony Xperia 5 IV
  3448
• OnePlus 10T
  3401
• Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro
  2659

GeekBench 5 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max
  1890
• Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max
  1741
• Apple iPhone 14
  1738
• Apple iPhone 13
  1727
• Apple iPhone 14 Plus
  1712
• Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max
  1606
• Apple iPhone 12
  1605
• Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max
  1332
• Xiaomi 12S Ultra
  1324
• Asus Zenfone 9
  1313
• Sony Xperia 5 IV
  1233
• Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (1440p)
  1180
• Samsung Galaxy S22+
  1165
• Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro
  1110
• OnePlus 10T
  1043
• ROG Phone 6D Ultimate
  1001

The 5-core Apple GPU is an excellent performer, and while not chart-topping, it's still among the best in the class. Obviously, phones with HRR displays do offer more when it comes to onscreen frame rate, while the iPhone 14s are limited by their standard 60Hz refresh rate.

GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Asus Zenfone 9
  89
• Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro
  79
• Samsung Galaxy S22+
  68
• ROG Phone 6D Ultimate
  68
• Sony Xperia 5 IV
  63
• Apple iPhone 14
  60
• Apple iPhone 14 Plus
  60
• Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max
  60
• Apple iPhone 11
  60
• OnePlus 10T
  60
• Apple iPhone 13
  59
• Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max
  57
• Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max
  55
• Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max
  54
• Apple iPhone 12
  53
• Xiaomi 12S Ultra
  51
• Apple iPhone XS Max
  47
• Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (1440p)
  37
• Apple iPhone X
  28

GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (offscreen 1080p)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max
  121
• Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max
  118
• Xiaomi 12S Ultra
  104
• Asus Zenfone 9
  104
• Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro
  103
• OnePlus 10T
  103
• Apple iPhone 14 Plus
  99
• Apple iPhone 13
  98
• Apple iPhone 14
  91
• ROG Phone 6D Ultimate
  82
• Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max
  78
• Apple iPhone 11
  76
• Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (1440p)
  76
• Samsung Galaxy S22+
  76
• Sony Xperia 5 IV
  70
• Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max
  67
• Apple iPhone XS Max
  60
• Apple iPhone 12
  58
• Apple iPhone X
  37

3DMark Wild Life Vulkan 1.1 (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 14 Plus
  11020
• Xiaomi 12S Ultra
  10533
• Asus Zenfone 9
  10469
• Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max
  9894
• Apple iPhone 14
  9757
• Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max
  9751
• Apple iPhone 13
  8986
• ROG Phone 6D Ultimate
  8687
• Sony Xperia 5 IV
  8560
• Apple iPhone 12
  7996
• Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (1440p)
  7437
• Samsung Galaxy S22+
  7405

The more compound AnTuTu benchmark is also very favorable towards the iPhone 14 Plus. It manages to perform on par with the iPhone 13 Pro Max and is outshined by the iPhone 14 Pro Max.

AnTuTu 9

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max
  955884
• Apple iPhone 14
  817125
• Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max
  801691
• Apple iPhone 14 Plus
  797976
• Apple iPhone 13
  775519
• Apple iPhone 12
  692020

We made sure to test the stability and thermal-throttling characteristics of the iPhone 14 Plus, too. The phone throttles its performance with prolonged loads but does it quite gradually, with no sudden drops, which is good to see.

So, the iPhone 14 Plus kept 81% of its maximum CPU performance when using all cores at maximum for 30 minutes. The 3D Mark stress test returned 67% stability, which is not bad either.

Thermal-throttling and performance

In practical terms, the iPhone 14 Plus gets moderately hot after a prolonged load. And even then, the A15 Bionic still has enough "oomph" to deliver a smooth experience.

Overall, we had no performance issues with the iPhone 14 Plus. Its one-year-old chipset performs great with superbly smooth general UX and also chews through every task we throw at the phone, from productivity to gaming. You shouldn't have any purchasing hesitation regarding performance with the iPhone 14 Plus at all.