iPhone 14 Plus review: Bigger is better | AppleInsider

Apple's decision to put aside the iPhone mini line in favor of the larger screen on the iPhone 14 Plus is the best decision in an otherwise muted update cycle. The key feature of the iPhone 14 Plus is its size, which starts with a 6.7-inch Super Retina XDR display alongside its 6.1-inch stablemate.

It's comparable to the iPhone 14 Pro Max, though the Plus is a hair wider and over an ounce lighter. A bigger battery also means longer charging times, with its 50% charge in 35 minutes of fast charging at 20W being healthy but slightly behind the 30 minutes of the iPhone 14.

We did this once already, and we did it again for the iPhone 14 Plus. In Geekbench 5, the iPhone 14 scored a 1,733 and a 4,641 on the single and multi-core tests respectively, and the iPhone 14 Plus was within single-digits of these tests.

Our iPhone 14 Plus scored a 12,909 while the iPhone 13 pulled a 10,795. Antutu put the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus at right around 803,874 with multiple runs.

For the iPhone 14 Plus, Apple didn't make any big alterations to the camera system it already had in the iPhone 13. What has changed are things like the Main camera's aperture widening and the use of a larger sensor with bigger 1.9-micron pixels, which provide 49% better low-light performance than the iPhone 13.

Using onboard sensors, including a high dynamic range gyroscope and a dual-core accelerometer, the iPhone 14 Plus can work out if it has been involved in a car accident, then after a delay, automatically attempt to call for assistance. Aside from the Lightning, as mentioned above, and MagSafe, the connectivity of the iPhone 14 Plus has changed a fair bit.

If you've scrolled past about 3,000 words to get here, the main takeaway is this: Had this iPhone 14 Plus shipped day and date with the iPhone 14, we'd have combined the reviews, they are so similar. The only differentiations are slightly longer battery life, and a larger screen with the iPhone 14 Plus, versus iPhone 14.

The iPhone 14 Plus is an unusual smartphone because it rectifies a mistake of Apple's expectations from consumers. If you wanted a big-screen iPhone in 2021, you had to fork out a premium for the iPhone 13 Pro Max.

With the iPhone 14 Plus, that same big screen experience can be picked up for $200 less. Going for the $899 base iPhone 14 Plus is clearly a cheaper alternative to the $1,099 base iPhone 14 Pro Max.

Unless you have to have the larger screen for, perhaps, accessibility concerns, we don't recommend jumping from an iPhone 13 to non-Pro iPhone 14. To those upgrading from the iPhone 12 generation or earlier, the iPhone 14 Plus is a viable upgrade if you don't want all the bells and whistles, but simply want a big iPhone..