iPhone 14 /14 Pro leaks live: predicted release date, rumored price, specs and more

Right, so here we are – our first live, on-the-go dissection of some of the top rumors we’ve seen in the last week (and a fair smattering of the stuff we’re pretty confident of seeing next month, based on the consistent leaks over the last year).

I’ve been writing about and covering iPhone launches since 2008, and one thing that’s clear is that since the iPhone 6 or so, we’ve seen far more leaking of key elements of the phones in the build up to the launch, a far cry since the days of the iPhone 4 being found in a bar (opens in new tab) and everyone losing their minds…

Right, let’s start with a live one: the iPhone 14 price. Recently, respected analyst Ming-Chi Kuo pointed to some strong results from one of the iPhone suppliers, stating they believed that it was going to be making a vast majority of the iPhone models.

That manufacturing company, Hon Hai / Foxconn, has suddenly increased its financial outlook, which leads Kuo to confirm his belief that the iPhone will increase in cost around 15%.

What would that mean for you, if you’re looking to buy one of the new iPhone 14 models?

Based on the fact Apple likes to keep its iPhone prices ending $49 or $99, I suspect the new iPhone 14 will start at $799 and the smaller iPhone 14 Pro to hit $1099. This is just an educated guess at this point though – the ASP (average selling price) mentioned means that it could be Apple spreads the cost through the range to keep it balanced.

Talking of live ones, we’ve just published a story that Apple is expecting no hit to its orders of the new iPhone 14 range, despite the cost of living going up so much in recent months.

That right, despite the mooted 15% increase in price, Bloomberg is reporting that Apple has ordered 90 million units of its phones, clearly confident it can shift them over the course of the year and anticipating no slow down in demand.

That’s surprising and touches on something I’ll discuss in more detail later on: the expected absence of the iPhone 14 mini. To keep orders up at that level, which reportedly is in line with previous years, shows real confidence at this point – and means Apple must have new features that it feels are going to resonate with consumers.

We did some good analysis recently on the iPhone 14 release date – let’s go over it again here because I’ve got a pretty good gut feeling on this one.

My prediction is that the iPhone 14 launch date will be September 13, and then – regular as clockwork – on September 23 we’ll see it on shop shelves.

I can say this because I’ve attended all the physical iPhone launches since iPhone 6, many years ago – and they’ve always been on or around my birthday. The rumored September 6 launch date doesn’t jive with that, therefore it has to be the week after.

I once complained to a fellow journalist that I always had a disrupted birthday because of the iPhone launch, and he looked at me with sadness and told me he’d missed his entire 40th birthday day because he crossed the date line and the day just disappeared to come to an iPhone unveiling.

I shut up after that.

OK, next up for disucssion is your friend and mine: the iPhone 14 Max.

I can’t tell you excited I was when I started hearing glimmers of this phone begin to leak late last year, as it was the phone that I’ve thought Apple should make for years.

What is it? It’s the iPhone Pro Max without the Pro bit – so my expectation is that the 14 Max will have the A15 Bionic chipset inside (from 2021) and only two lenses on the rear, with the 14 Pro Max having the best of everything.

Wait! Don’t dismiss it yet – the thing I’ve enjoyed using the 13 Pro Max for is simply the battery life, and a larger 14 Max would be able to have that without the cost of the Pro Max.

Sure, the best camera is a brilliant thing – and I’ve got some wonderful snaps from the 13 Pro Max – but in these most cost-conscious times, I think the 14 Max is going to be a winner.

That means we’ll see the iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Max, iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max – that’s some lovely symmetry there.

While we’re on the subject, one of the strongest (and most believeable) rumored changes for Apple this year is that the iPhone 14 and 14 Pro models (and the related Max devices) will have different chipsets.

The new iPhone 14 will stick with the A15 Bionic chipset, where the iPhone 14 Pro will have the A16, and likely a touch more RAM inside.

While you could see that as Apple making the iPhone 14 worse (and, I suppose it is, given until this point every iPhone has always had the very best CPU inside) I see it as a good thing in helping consumers decide.

Because while the Pro range is always marketed at high-power creatives and people that need loads of power, in reality they’re popular because they just are the best iPhone.

So making it clearer that the Pro range is really the phone for the professional – much like the MacBook Pro vs MacBook – will simplify the choice for many.

However, that brings us back to price – unless Apple keeps the cost of the iPhone 14 the same as the iPhone 13, because of a similar engine, then it’s not going to be fair on the customer.

Sure, make the iPhone 14 Max more expensive than the iPhone 13 mini – it’s bigger and all the larger components cost more – but otherwise let’s hope for parity.

Maybe the A15 will disappear after all – I just came across an interesting idea from a sometimes-correct leaker speaking to Forbes (opens in new tab).

LeaksApplePro has suggested that the iPhone 14 WILL come with an A16 Bionic chipset – but it’ll be a rebadged A15, and the iPhone 14 Pro will pack an ‘A16 Bionic Pro’ chip.

Now, Apple does have precedent here: the S6 chip in the Apple Watch 6 was essentially just rebadged as the S7 for the Watch 7, albeit with capacity for faster charging.

Would Apple do something as bold with the iPhone 14? This brand has been at great pains to say how powerful it silicon is, and to skate over that with a minor upgrade would be a big change.

Let’s break (briefly) from the question over how the iPhone 14 and 14 Pro might differ – there’s a lot more to go over there – and speak about a key upgrade that might help offset the cost of the new 14 Pro: larger storage.

A note in June from research firm Trendforce forecast that the iPhone 14 Pro will start at $1,099, but would pack in 256GB of storage to begin with, rather than the 128GB on offer for the 13 Pro. 

Both will still go up to 1TB of storage, but for the ‘average’ pro having that extra on-board capacity, allowing you to build out more 8K video (if that comes to pass) will be a big boon.

Let’s all lean back and wander through more scurrilous rumor paths now, where we ‘investigate’ the leaks on the new iPhone 14 colors.

This is far more shaky ground, because the leaks are often rampant in the build up but have so often proved to be false, so what we ‘know’ so far could be utter balderdash, to use a heavily British phrase.

This is what’s rumored: the iPhone 14 Pro range will drop the green and Sierra Blue options (which would be awful, as the blue looks great) and will replace it with a purple option.

The iPhone 14 models will continue with white, black, red and blue, will lose the pink and green choices, and also come in hard with a purple offering.

The basis of this rumor appears from a posting on Chinese social network site Weibo (opens in new tab) that’s since been deleted, so read into that what you will – it’s from a few months ago too, so even it was true at the time it could have all changed by now.

Shall we talk cameras next? A few things here to get through, so strap in. The iPhone 14 and 14 Max are set to continue with two 12MP snappers on the back, used to capture ultra-wide and ‘normal’ snaps. 

I predict that the ultra-wide camera will get the macro mode that’s present on the current iPhone 13 Pro Max – currently the hardware is similar on the iPhone 13 models, but the cheaper phone can’t capture really close up photos like the Pro phones can.

It’s not clear exactly why that is, but it’s certainly annoying – the macro mode is really good, as you can see below.

Where the iPhone 14 Pro Max will likely shine is in the image quality if the rumored 48MP camera comes to pass. 

Apple has been taking great snaps with 12MP sensors for years now, so a jump to 48MP has to come with clear improvements – I predict it will be in both sharpness and the ability to record in 8K too, both of which would be real boons for flimographers. 

Here’s a final one before I sign off for the day – although check back in tomorrow as we spring this conversation back to life.

(And if you want to ask any questions, come and find me on Twitter over @superbeav – I’d love to hear from you).

So… is it bye bye to the notch?

When we’re talking about clearer differences to the iPhone 14 and 14 Pro models, it seems likely there’s going to be one key difference: the notch, or lack thereof.

Now, if I told many, many of you lovely readers that the notch was going away, then you might be feeling like that’s a good thing. So many other phone brands have managed to develop under-display cameras to make it an all-screen handset, so it’s great news that the notch is going away, right?

Well, in my opinion, what’s highly likely to come instead is worse. While the notch might be large and in the way, at least it’s symmetrical. The iPhone 14 Pro is likely to have a ‘pill and punch display’, as in a hole and a pill-shaped space, as you can see in the picture above.

This is to minimize the amount of screen removed for the camera, FaceID camera and speaker as possible, but the images we’ve seen look a bit skewed.

I have been hoping this isn’t going to happen, but the volume of leaks around it mean, unless Apple has a last minute design change of heart, we’re going to get a radically different-looking iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max.

Right, I’m off for the night – but this has been a blast so far, and I’ll leave you with this render that sees the ‘iPhone 14 Pro Max’ spinning through the air in a very fancy kitchen… that’s not going to be a feature, sadly.

Probably wrong on the starting storage, but the rest looks pretty accurate – let me know what you think.

Welcome to the heady world of iPhone leaks: the contradiction and why you should never assume what analysts say as gospel.

Not because they’re lying – the good analysts are among the very best people to follow on Twitter (get Ming-Chi Kuo (opens in new tab) on your follows from today if you care about the latest info…) but because things can change so easily.

So when one analytical firm spoke to people in the supply chain a few months ago, and based on the volumes of components reportedly being ordered, it surmised that the iPhone 14 Pro will come in 256GB as a the base model.

However, that doesn’t seem to be the case any more: according to analyst Jeff Pu from Haitong International (speaking via MacRumors, I’ve not been able to see the research note myself, so read into that what you will), the Pro versions of the iPhone 14 will follow the lead of the current iPhones: specifically, 128GB, 256GB, 512GB and 1TB.

To start with, that doesn’t seem to make sense. Those that will be doing high-end video or taking RAW pics (things the iPhone Pro range are great for) will fill up that storage quickly, right?

Let’s put the cynical hat on for a moment: what happens when you decide that you won’t use that much, then find out you’re wrong and run out of storage on the phone? You shell out for iCloud, and Apple sells more virtual storage. Or you decide to not take the risk, and buy a more expensive iPhone.

Let’s see what happens on (probably) September 13, shall we?

I think we can all agree that the design of the iPhone 4 was pretty revolutionary and interesting to look at – thanks, in part, to the rounded buttons on the side.

A lot of people will be talking about the fact the bezels are perhaps slightly thinner, or that the punch-hole-with-pill has replaced the notch on the iPhone 14 Pro… but I’m just sad that one of the earliest rumors of the iPhone 14 hasn’t come to pass: that the new iPhone will have rounded buttons again.