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iPhone 14 VS iPhone 15

Now that the iPhone 15 is officially out, you might wonder if you should pick one up. That’s a fair question, but you may want to consider the fact that Apple still sells the iPhone 14—brand new and for $100 less. The iPhone is only one year old, and Apple has a strong track record for supporting its phones for years, long after you’re ready to trade your phone in for something else. So maybe it’s worth saving some cash and going with a slightly older but still capable smartphone.

Then again, the iPhone 15 has some more notable upgrades from its predecessor than in recent years. A lot of the key features that only the iPhone 14 Pro got last year have made it into the iPhone 15 this year. That’s like getting the previous year’s $999 phone for $799 this year, which, by any measure, is a killer deal.

The similarities between the two phones make a solid argument to go with the older model. After all, if most of the characteristics are the same, but one costs $100 less, that’s a no-brainer. But consider that this year’s huge differences could significantly improve your user experience. So that’s what we’re here to examine. Here are the differences and similarities between the iPhone 14 and the iPhone 15.

Even if the iPhone Pro models sell more, many people still buy the vanilla ones. The iPhone upgrade cycle is longer than that of Android phones, and it’s a testament to how well these devices are made from hardware to software and back.

iPhone 14 VS iPhone 15

If you are still holding on to an older iPhone, consider upgrading to iPhone 14 or 15 (both are still officially on sale from Apple). Look no further; we’ve got a complete comparison lined up.

The jump from the iPhone 14 to the iPhone 15 is one of the biggest ones we’ve seen. The iPhone 15 has a new, much brighter display, a new, much better primary 48MP camera, and it has switched to a USB Type-C port, to name a few things.

The iPhone 15 and the iPhone 14 have an almost identical overall footprint. You would be hard-pressed to tell the two apart just going on shape alone.

The new colors are more of a giveaway, but a quick look at the shape of the display notch makes the unique device instantly recognizable. The Dynamic Island, introduced in the Pro models last year, has finally trickled down to the vanilla iPhone 15, and we like the more modern look.

Both phones have a 6.1-inch panel, but the new iPhone 15 has a slightly higher resolution and a better screen-to-body ratio of around 86.4%. The difference in person is hardly perceivable, though.

Another aspect of the new iPhone 15 design that could be noticed if you look into details is the unique rounded chamfer on the aluminum middle frame going all around the phone’s body. Thanks to it, handling is now more excellent and more comfortable.

The two phones are expected to be very similar in terms of build and materials. Their frames are made of aluminum. The back and front sides are covered with Corning’s protective glass – Gorilla Glass on the back and a more durable variety on the front. Apple calls it a Ceramic Shield. It’s the same on both models.

The iPhone 15 and iPhone 14 have the same IP68 ingress protection rating. Apple rates both devices as fit to survive submerged for up to 30 minutes in up to 6 meters of fresh water.

1.  Display comparison

While both phones have a 6.1-inch Super Retina XDR OLED display, the display panels are significantly different, unfortunately, not in terms of refresh rate. Apple refuses to offer anything higher than 60Hz on its vanilla iPhone models.

Both iPhones are certified for HDR10 and Dolby Vision and have brightness, colors, and contrast to back up that rating.

However, it is one of the significant upgrades on the iPhone 15’s screen as it gets notably brighter than the iPhone 14. We measured 806 nits of brightness on the slider and 1643 nits of maximum brightness when exposed to external solid light. We got a similar 804 nits from the iPhone 14 by maxing out the brightness slider, but it didn’t offer any brightness boost beyond that in bright ambient light.

The display on the iPhone 15 is also just slightly higher in resolution at 1179 x 2556 pixels, compared to 1170 x 2532 pixels on the iPhone 14. That’s hardly a noticeable difference.

The more significant change is the shift from the notch design of the 14 to the Dynamic Island on the iPhone 15. This brings the vanilla iPhone design in line with the Pro models. It may be subjective, but we like it better than the notch.

2.  Battery life

Apple has crammed a slightly larger battery into the iPhone 15, compared to the 14, without affecting the device’s proportions or weight. The increase is not huge, going from 3279 mAh to 3349 mAh, but it is still there.

And battery capacity is not the only thing that gets incremental upgrades year over year. Apple’s A16 Bionic chip inside the iPhone 15 is based on a more efficient 4nm development process than the 5nm A15 Bionic inside the iPhone 14. There have been plenty of architectural advancements as well. The new display panel is probably more efficient this year. So, it all adds up to a small but noticeable bump in battery endurance.

While both phones have a 6.1-inch Super Retina XDR OLED display, the display panels are significantly different, unfortunately, not in terms of refresh rate. Apple refuses to offer anything higher than 60Hz on its vanilla iPhone models.

Both iPhones are certified for HDR10 and Dolby Vision and have brightness, colors, and contrast to back up that rating.

However, it is one of the significant upgrades on the iPhone 15’s screen as it gets notably brighter than the iPhone 14. We measured 806 nits of brightness on the slider and 1643 nits of maximum brightness when exposed to external solid light. We got a similar 804 nits from the iPhone 14 by maxing out the brightness slider, but it didn’t offer any brightness boost beyond that in bright ambient light.

The display on the iPhone 15 is also just slightly higher in resolution at 1179 x 2556 pixels, compared to 1170 x 2532 pixels on the iPhone 14. That’s hardly a noticeable difference.

The more significant change is the shift from the notch design of the 14 to the Dynamic Island on the iPhone 15. This brings the vanilla iPhone design in line with the Pro models. It may be subjective, but we like it better than the notch.

3.  Charging speed

Apple claims that the iPhone 14 and iPhone 15 should be able to get from zero to 50% in 30 minutes if you get a 20W charger. In our testing, both iPhone models exceeded that marketed expectation, with the iPhone 14 doing 60% and the iPhone 15 – around 58% in half an hour.

While neither iPhone is particularly speedy in charging, the iPhone 15 has its charging taper off much more aggressively towards the end of the charging cycle than the iPhone 14. That allows the iPhone 14 to squeeze out a small victory over the iPhone 15 in total charging time with 1:31 minutes on the clock, compared to 1:50 for the iPhone 15. However, this charging curve behavior could be subject to change with a future iOS update.

4.  Speaker test

The iPhone 14 and iPhone 15 have hybrid stereo speaker setups with a dedicated bottom-firing speaker for one channel and an amplified earpiece for the other. In keeping with tradition, both iPhone models also offer excellent sound quality with clean mids, highs, and even some lows.

Loudness is an exciting aspect. Like with charging, the older iPhone 14 squeezes out a slight, noticeable lead in the speaker loudness department over the iPhone 15. The older notch screen design may have more room for the top speaker, but that’s speculation on our end. In any case, the iPhone 15 managed a “GOOD” score in our testing, while its iPhone 14 sibling managed to cross the threshold into “VERY GOOD” territory.

The samples below compare how the two iPhones sound in controlled acoustic conditions. Ensure you have your headphones on and the volume is at max level.

5.  Performance

The Apple A15 Bionic inside the iPhone 14 is still a performant chip. The iPhone 15 has the newer Apple A16 Bionic chip based on a 4nm process instead of the 5nm one of the A15.

The CPU performance improvements offered by the A16 over the A15 chip are relatively small, but the overall performance and responsiveness of the chip still got a significant boost thanks to the move to LPDDR5 RAM.

The A16 Bionic still has five GPU cores in the GPU department, just like the A15. These mainly benefit from the higher memory bandwidth available on the new chipset.

Apple’s Neural Engine, which runs on-board machine learning tasks, is also very similar across the iPhone 15 and iPhone 14 and has the same 16 cores, though these come with increased performance on the A16 chip (17 TOPS vs. 15.8 TOPS in the A15).

The Apple A15 Bionic inside the iPhone 14 is still a performant chip. The iPhone 15 has the newer Apple A16 Bionic chip based on a 4nm process instead of the 5nm one of the A15.

The CPU performance improvements offered by the A16 over the A15 chip are minor, but the overall performance and responsiveness of the chip still got a significant boost thanks to the move to LPDDR5 RAM.

The A16 Bionic still has five GPU cores in the GPU department, just like the A15. These mainly benefit from the higher memory bandwidth available on the new chipset.

Apple’s Neural Engine, which runs on-board machine learning tasks, is also very similar across the iPhone 15 and iPhone 14 and has the same 16 cores, though these come with increased performance on the A16 chip (17 TOPS vs. 15.8 TOPS in the A15).

6.  Camera

The other camera on the back of the iPhone 14 and iPhone 15 is a 12MP ultrawide. On both models, it lacks any fancy features like autofocus. That is only present on the Pro models, allowing the ultrawide to double as a macro shooter.

The iPhone 14 and iPhone 15 are rocking very similar ultrawide cameras with a 120-degree field of view.

The same goes for the selfie cameras, which could even be identical at 12MP with autofocus.

The new 24MP default photos from the primary camera look extra sharp and tend to offer better and more fine detail than the 12MP stills of the iPhone 14.

As mentioned, the 2x digital zoomed photos from the iPhone 15 also look markedly better because the iPhone 15 has many more main camera resolutions to work with.

Besides that, the overall processing and color science Apple has developed over the years remains consistent and can be observed on both phones. You get slightly more muted colors than most modern Android phones. Whether or not that looks better to you is, of course, a matter of preference.

Speaking of similarities, the two phones capture the same excellent video. That means up to 4K across all cameras with optional EIS expanded dynamic range thanks to the Smart HDR and HDR video capture. ProRes does remain an iPhone Pro feature, though.

Both phones shine in low-light capture, too. Though, the iPhone 15 has a slight edge overall.

One criticism regarding Apple’s night mode is that there is no way to force it ON or toggle it OFF manually. In this default Auto mode, the Night mode doesn’t trigger as often as we think it should. Though, that criticism applies to both the iPhone 15 and iPhone 14.

Conclusion

The vanilla iPhone has become more of a “commodity” than any other device in Apple’s lineup. It is a ubiquitous device that tends to get picked up by default by people who want “an iPhone” rather than the more tech-savvy crowd, which goes for the Pro models. There is nothing wrong with wanting things simple.

The iPhone 14 is cheaper, and its hardware will still hold up great in 2023. It even charges slightly faster to 100% than the iPhone 15. Its speakers are also a little louder. And some things are even the same across the two phones.

The iPhone 15 has a new 48MP primary camera, notably better than the 12MP shooter on the iPhone 14. Then there is the move to the more universal USB Type-C port, which marks a watershed moment in the history of iPhones, and you may want to be on the newer side of this divide. The display is now much brighter and comes with the new Dynamic Island, which looks more up-to-date. Battery life is better, too. And finally, there is the faster chipset. Less importantly, the new iPhone 15 comes in a new set of colors and will have more extended software support, which is essential if you keep your iPhones for longer or pass them down to family members.

Overall, the iPhone 15 and iPhone 14 are excellent devices in their own right, and we appreciate Apple’s decision to keep officially selling both. The more choice, the better.

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