iPhone 14 Plus (2023, yellow) evaluate

Worth When Reviewed

$899

Finest Costs At this time: Apple iPhone 14 Plus

$899

It has been virtually half a yr for the reason that launch of the iPhone 14 Plus, and since Apple is refreshing the iPhone 14 and 14 Plus with a new yellow coloration, and we didn’t take a look at and evaluate the iPhone 14 Plus upon launch, this felt like a great time to verify in on it.

Generally, what applies to the iPhone 14 applies to the 14 Plus. It’s the identical telephone, solely bigger. The bigger battery makes it last more, however it’s in any other case only a alternative in regards to the telephone/show measurement that’s greatest for you.

It is a good telephone and a good improve (particularly when you’re coming from a mannequin no less than two or three years previous), however it’s kind of onerous to suggest. Beginning at $900, it’s solely $100 wanting the regular-sized iPhone 14 Professional. The Professional fashions all the time supply extra, however this yr the hole is wider than ever because the Professional fashions have a more recent processor within the A16, a brighter show with an always-on function, Dynamic Island, telephoto digital camera, and 48MP important digital camera.

Apple’s pricing and product differentiation technique places the iPhone 14 Plus in a troublesome spot, the place it’s far too costly to be the “reasonably priced large telephone” alternative, and too restricted relative to the iPhone 14 Professional to justify its excessive value.

It certain is yellow

The brand new yellow coloration isn’t for everybody. My spouse noticed my take a look at telephone on my desk and mentioned “you bought a yellow iPhone case?”

“No, it’s a yellow iPhone. I’m testing it,” I mentioned.

“It’s terrible. Why did they make this?” she replied, turning it over in her arms.

Some will like it, some will hate it. It’s yellow. It’s onerous to explain it one other means, as a result of that’s what it’s. Shut your eyes and movie “yellow.” You nailed it! When Crayola makes a crayon that’s yellow—not “sunglow” or “canary” or “laser lemon”—it’s this coloration. It’s not “yellow however with a touch of.”  It’s “no-modifier” yellow. Fortunately it’s only one choice you’ve gotten amongst 5 different colours: midnight, starlight, blue, purple, and pink.

Foundry

It’s in any other case very a lot a contemporary iPhone. There’s a notch the place the entrance digital camera and Face ID stuff goes (reasonably than the pill-shaped Dynamic Island of the Professional fashions), a rounded-circle digital camera bump on the again with two cameras (12MP huge and 12MP ultra-wide), buttons on the aspect, and lightning port on the underside. The 6.7-inch show makes it fairly massive, and small telephone followers are positively upset that the iPhone 13 mini was changed by this larger, costlier, mannequin.

The brand new battery life champ? Not fairly!

There’s little motive to dive deeply into the precise options and efficiency of the iPhone 14 Plus, apart from to verify that, sure, it’s precisely just like the iPhone 14. For those who’re interested by digital camera high quality, efficiency, show high quality, and all these different specifics confer with our iPhone 14 evaluate. The iPhone 14 Plus is similar–or shut sufficient to not matter.

With one exception: battery life. With a bigger battery and show, one can fairly anticipate the iPhone 14 Plus to have totally different battery life than the smaller mannequin. Apple says it has the longest battery lifetime of any iPhone, together with the iPhone 14 Professional Max.

In our testing, that didn’t fairly pan out. The iPhone 14 Plus is the second-longest-lasting iPhone, behind the iPhone 14 Professional Max, roughly tied with the iPhone 13 Professional Max. When you think about that the iPhone 13 Professional Max has an identical show and A15 processor, that makes a whole lot of sense.

Be aware that we take a look at with a special methodology than Apple does. We use the Geekbench 4 battery take a look at, which repeatedly runs that (now growing old) benchmark with the show on. We set the show to a measured brightness of 200 nits. Apple makes use of a special brightness setting and measures standby, video playback, audio playback, and telephone name period. Our assessments are likely to put much more stress on the CPU and GPU than Apple’s.

The iPhone 14 Plus isn’t, in our testing, the longest-lasting iPhone accessible, however it nonetheless gives actually wonderful battery life. It’s spectacular how battery life in Apple’s largest telephones has grown by over 60 p.c in only a few years, even whereas vastly enhancing efficiency and show high quality.

A very good telephone that’s onerous to suggest

There’s little question that the iPhone 14 Plus is an effective telephone. It’s bought unbelievable efficiency, battery life, and a very good digital camera.

However is it 9 hundred {dollars} good? That’s rather less clear. It definitely stings that this mannequin replaces the iPhone 13 mini, which not solely swaps the one small telephone in Apple’s lineup for a bigger one however replaces a $699 telephone with a $899 one.

Maybe extra essential, although, is that the iPhone 14 Professional could be had for simply $100 extra, and it provides you quite a bit: the extra highly effective A16 chip, always-on show, greater most brightness, Dynamic Island, telephoto digital camera, and 48MP huge digital camera. The non-Professional iPhone 14 fashions aren’t an enormous leap over the iPhone 13, frankly, whereas the iPhone 14 Professional is.

For those who can spend $900 on this, you’ll be able to spend $1,000 on the Professional. Even $1,100 on the iPhone 14 Professional Max might be a greater thought if you really want a much bigger iPhone. For those who plan to maintain your iPhone for no less than a few years (and also you in all probability ought to), you’ll respect all of the issues the Professional and Professional Max fashions provide you with for a comparatively small funding.