iPhone 14 vs iPhone 14 Pro — get ready for the biggest differences in years

When people go to shop for the new iPhone 14 this year, they could be in for a pretty big shock. And I’m not talking about the price. 

For starters, Apple is rumored to kill the mini model altogether for the iPhone 14 lineup. Instead, the 5.4-inch mini will reportedly be replaced by a 6.7-inch iPhone 14 Max. So there would be two iPhone 14 models with 6.1-inch displays and two with 6.7-inch panels.

But this isn’t actually the biggest news based on the iPhone 14 rumors and leaks I’ve seen so far. As you’d expect, the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max are tipped once again to feature 120Hz ProMotion displays, which could be limited to the Pro series. And the same thing will likely apply to the telephoto lens for a true optical zoom.

But there’s a lot more differences we’ve heard between the iPhone 14 vs iPhone 14 Pro. And they could put the Pro in its own league — for better or for worse. 

iPhone 14 vs iPhone 14 Pro: No notch for Pro

The iPhone 14 Pro is tipped to kill the notch, but don’t expect a similar look to the best Android phones.  Instead, Apple will reportedly replace the notch with two cutouts towards the top of the display: a pill-shaped cutout for Face ID and a smaller punch hole for the front camera.

We’ve seen a number of renders and mockups that show what the iPhone 14 Pro could look like, and it’s clear that some don’t like the dual punchole approach. Meanwhile, the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Max are expected to stick with the same notch as the iPhone 13 series. 

iPhone 14 vs iPhone 14 Pro: USB-C for Pro only?

Here’s an iPhone rumor we hope is absolutely false. The iPhone 14 Pro may offer USB-C connectivity. This would enable the iPhone 14 Pro to deliver faster transfer speeds when working with external peripherals — important for creative pros — as well as presumably enable faster charging. 

Right now the iPhone 13 supports 20W charging, but Apple is reportedly working on a faster 30W Gallium Nitride charger. It’s not known whether this would be reserved for the iPhone 14 Pro if it comes out this year.

Apple has been in hot water with the European Union for a while on not adopting USB-C in its phones, but the company could conceivably keep Lightning for the regular iPhone 14 and make USB-C a Pro exclusive feature. 

iPhone 14 vs iPhone 14 Pro: A16 Bionic goes Pro 

This is a rumor that we didn’t believe at first, but it could happen. According to Apple analyst Ming Chi Kuo, the iPhone 14 Pro series could exclusively get Apple’s new A16 Bionic chip, which will reportedly use a new 4nm process.

The regular iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Max would be powered by the current A15 Bionic chip but possibly feature more RAM, going from 4GB to 6GB. The iPhone 14 Pro would use the same amount of RAM but a more advanced LPDDR 5 memory that would “be up to one and a half times faster and up to 30 percent more power efficient.”

To be fair, the iPhone 13 benchmarks show that Apple already had the fastest chip in a phone and probably will for some time. But the iPhone 14 Pro series could get a serious performance boost. 

iPhone 14 vs iPhone 14 Pro: 48MP camera?

This rumor appears to be in limbo but we’ve seen previous reports that Apple could swap the 12MP main camera in the iPhone 14 Pro for a sharper 48MP shooter. The iPhone 13 Pro’s image quality is already stellar, but giving users more megapixels to play with would enable more cropping flexibility with photos.

A leaker on Weibo has shot down the 48MP camera rumor for the iPhone 14 Pro, saying that it will used the same IMX703 sensors at the iPhone 13 Pro models. So a 12MP camera with a 1/1.67-inch sensor size and 1.9 μm pixels. We’ll have to see how the rumors evolve, but for now I would say a sharper Pro camera is just a possibility.

Apple is rumored to be working on a periscope zoom for the iPhone, but that’s tipped for 2023. 

iPhone 14 vs iPhone 14 Pro: All the other differences

Assuming Apple keeps the existing iPhone regular vs Pro differences in tact, the iPhone 14 Pro series would continue to exclusively offer a 120Hz ProMotion display, which results in smoother scrolling and animations. And we’re also anticipating that the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max will feature a 3x optical zoom, while the regular iPhone 14 series would offer only digital zoom. 

Last but not least, the iPhone 14 Pro series could go up to 2TB of storage, even if that might seem like overkill for a phone. 

Bottom line

When you think about it, Apple really needs to convince shoppers that the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro will be worth the premium, especially if there’s going to be a 6.7-inch iPhone 14 Max. I can see plenty of would-be upgraders saying “why do I need a Pro when the iPhone 14 Max is good enough?”

Well, Apple can answer with only the iPhone 14 Pros offer a new powerful processor, a full-screen design with no notch, USB-C charging and (possibly) a sharper camera and more storage. And that’s on top of the ProMotion display and telephoto zoom. In other words, the new iPhone 14 Pros could really, really feel Pro.