iPhone 14 camera improvements will sell it to me; the cutout not so much

I never used to upgrade my iPhone every year, but have done so for the last three: the iPhone 11, 12, and 13. I’m fully expecting the iPhone 14 camera improvements to see this trend continue.

A new look never hurts, and this year the Pro models will be getting this in the form of a pill-shaped cutout. I took advantage of a simple but clever way to preview this on my own phone …

Ian Zelbo came up with the cutout preview idea. Just download his image, view it full-screen, and turn your phone upside-down.

I don’t see much practical benefit. The amount of usable display space lost is about the same either way. Indeed, as the cutout extends further down, in some ways you lose more of the screen with this approach.

But I do like two things about it. First, simply the novelty value. There comes a time when you’ve looked at the same thing so many times over such a long period that you get bored with it no matter how appealing the design. A pill cutout isn’t better, in my view, but it is at least different.

Second – assuming the reports are correct – I like the idea of the camera and microphone alerts being in the middle of the cutout. This seems to be a much neater and more logical place to put them.

Some have criticized them as “fake LEDs” and asked why Apple didn’t simply use real ones instead. With my pedant’s hat on, I’d argue that they are in fact real ones: real OLED. But using virtual ones provides greater flexibility. For example, if only the microphone is being used, Apple could center the orange LED vertically, for a neater look. It could also do the same with the Location indicator. (I don’t know whether it will do this, but it’s better to have the option.)

I wouldn’t upgrade to a new phone just for this. Nor am I interested in the reported new colors. Gadget Rule #1 applies: All gadgets should be silver or black.

But I do expect the camera improvements to sell it to me. I now never routinely carry a standalone camera, even when travelling, so the importance of the camera features has grown significantly for me.

One of the things that has just gotten better and better with each generation is the low-light photography capabilities. The iPhone 12 was the last major jump here, with night mode portraits.

The headline camera feature of the iPhone 13 – Cinematic Video – excited me, but didn’t live up to its billing. However, ProRes video recording was a worthwhile feature for sure, and the slightly wider apertures means that there was at least a slight boost to low-light photos.

What we think we know about the iPhone 14 on the camera front is:

• 48MP sensor (likely mapped back to 12MP in low light)
• 8K video recording
• Auto-focus for front-facing camera

The 48MP sensor doesn’t excite me per se – I’ve always preferred fewer, bigger pixels to a lot of tiny ones. But I do fully expect Apple to use four cell merge output mode to achieve better-quality 12MP photos, at least in low-light. And every improvement here is welcome.

8K video recording is the very definition of luxury to me. I currently shoot at 4K to output at 1080p, which allows a lot of digital pan and zoom options when editing. I can’t see myself switching to 4K output any time soon, but shooting in 8K would create even greater editing flexibility, so will certainly be interesting to play with.

I don’t make a lot of use of the front-facing camera. I’m not a selfie kind of guy, but I do have friends who are, and as it’s usually me with the best camera, my iPhone gets used for group selfies, so any improvements here will be useful at least some of the time.

The big question to me is whether Apple will have managed any improvements to Cinematic Video. We’ve seen Portrait mode still photography get better and better, and I’m confident the same will happen here. Cinematic Video has massive potential for improvement through both hardware and software, and I’m hoping some of the iPhone 14’s extra processing power will be aimed in this direction.

Overall – and based only on what we think we know so far – I don’t think this year’s iPhone line-up is as exciting as some suggest. At least, not unless Apple has managed to keep a ‘one more thing’ up its sleeve.

But ever since I essentially adopted my iPhone as my primary camera 99% of the time, I am willing to pay for camera improvements each year, both bigger and smaller. I’ll apply my usual ‘monthly cost of usage’ formula (and use the usual US pricing for ease of reading):

(<Cost of new phone> – <Resale value of old phone>)/12

If the rumored storage upgrades are true, and this year’s models start at 256GB, then I’ll be buying the base model iPhone 14 Pro Max for, I’m guessing, $1200. I should be able to net a minimum of $600 for my existing phone, so that gives me:

($1200 – $600)/12 = $600/12 = $50/month

That’s a price I’m willing to pay for having the best possible always-in-my-pocket camera.

What about you? If you’ve tried the preview graphic, what are your impressions? And if you plan to upgrade this year, what sells it to you? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

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