At last, all of this year’s iPhones have landed. The final part of the puzzle goes on sale on Friday 7 October and joins the iPhone 14 along with the iPhone 14 pro and iPhone 14 pro max in the range.

The new model is called the iPhone 14 plus and it marks the first time Apple has released a phone with a screen this big (6.7in) that doesn’t have the word pro at the end of it. So, what’s in a name? Well, quite a bit of money, actually.

The entry-level iPhone costs £849, the identically sized iPhone 14 pro comes in at £1,099, while the bigger phone, the iPhone 14 pro max, is priced at £1,199. The latter has the same size screen as the less expensive iPhone 14 plus.

It seems this year Apple has tried to please customers who really want the big-screen experience but don’t want to pay top dollar. The iPhone 14 plus squeaks into the middle of these iPhones, costing £949. All these prices are for the versions with 128GB storage.

So, which iPhone should you buy?

How we tested

The new iPhone 14 plus has a big screen, so we watched video and played games to see how good they looked. We checked the screen brightness indoors and outside. The setup was explored to see if it was as simple as promised. Because the phone is so big, trying it in the hand was important, and we checked if it felt too big or too heavy the longer we used it.

A high-end phone is expected to be fast, so we checked how quickly apps opened as well as how responsive the camera was (making sure there was no shutter lag, for instance) and took photos and video in different lighting conditions. Lastly, we checked if Apple’s claim of the longest battery life on any iPhone was true.

Apple iPhone 14 plus

Screen: 6.7in OLED

Processor: Apple A15 Bionic

Storage: 128GB, 256GB, 512GB

Dimensions: 160.8mm x 78.1mm x 7.8mm

Weight: 203g

Rear cameras: Wide 12MP, ultra-wide 12MP

Front camera: 12MP

Colours: Blue, purple, midnight, starlight, red

Design and performance

The iPhone 14 plus looks identical to the iPhone 14, except it’s bigger. It even comes in the same glossy-backed colours as the iPhone 14: midnight, starlight, purple, red and blue. Purple is beautiful, though it definitely looks more like a pale mauve, and is much lighter in hue than the deep purple that is the hero colour for the iPhone 14 pro.

As with the iPhone 14 pro max, the plus is very big, and if you haven’t had a plus-size phone like this before, you need to hold it in your hand before you buy. When people used to having smaller phones have seen the iPhone 14 pro max, the common response is to be taken aback by how big it is.

On the other hand, if you are coming to this year’s phone from an iPhone 13 pro max, for instance, you will find the size familiar, and you’ll probably want to stick with similar dimensions – trading down to the 6.1in screen on the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 pro can be quite a challenge after you’ve become used to such sumptuous real estate.

One of the design differences between the iPhone 14 pro and the 14 plus is the case material. Because the pro is made of stainless steel and the plus is aluminium, the plus is noticeably lighter in the hand, which may be another consideration.

The design of the iPhone 14 plus is very similar to a larger version of the iPhone 13, so there are few surprises here. The camera lenses are bigger this time around, and the cut-out where the true-depth camera sits is narrower and deeper than last year’s, matching that of the iPhone 13 pro.

This is a theme, actually, because the processor in the 14 and 14 plus is the same as the iPhone 13 pro – that is, a whizzier version of what was in the iPhone 13.

If you’re concerned that this year’s phone has last year’s processor in it, don’t be. This is a powerful, speedy phone that does everything it needs to do. Apple is good at not wasting time or components – if this processor was nimble enough, why would a faster one be of any use?

This chip is enough to run the new features in this iPhone. These include crash detection – a clever system that you’ll hope you never put to the test. If you are in a car crash, the phone will try to rouse you. If you don’t respond, it will automatically contact emergency services and tell them your location.

In recent days, a car crash in Nebraska sadly put this feature into action, when emergency services were called to the scene by an automatic message from an iPhone in the vehicle.

The other marquee upgrade in terms of internal features is emergency SOS via satellite. This feature launches in November in the US and Canada initially, and means if you get into trouble in a place with no cellular or wifi connection, the phone can send short SMS messages to emergency services. Bandwidth is limited, so you are given a series of messages to choose from.

For it to work, you need to be able to point it directly at a satellite, which is hidden from the human eye, of course, but special software tied in to the phone’s GPS enables you to overcome this issue. You can even update your location in the Find My app with this feature.

Both of these feature are rather gloomy, of course, but they could turn out to be life-savers.

Display

The sumptuousness of a 6.7in display is probably what you’re considering this phone for. It’s an OLED screen, with the same dimensions and roughly the same pixel density as the pricier iPhone 14 pro max. However, while the pro max offers dynamic refresh rate changes, making for a super-smooth operation, this does not. It’s also not as bright as the pro max (though it’s brighter than previous versions).

Even so, it’s a great display that looks rich and detailed, smoothly updating as you watch video or play games, for instance.

Cameras

There are two rear cameras on the iPhone 14 plus, as on the iPhone 14. Both have 12-megapixel resolution sensors but while the ultra-wide is the same as on the iPhone 13, the main camera is a new one with a larger sensor than before, a wider aperture and bigger individual pixels.

Add a new piece of software called the photonic engine and you have a camera system that Apple says can take better photos even in low light, and is the company’s biggest step forward for low-light performance.

The photonic engine means the phone can take multiple shots and stack them, to create a sharper image. This is called deep fusion and has been around for a few years, but now it happens earlier in the process, before any compression takes place, to enable better results.

The front-facing camera has been improved, not just by increasing the pixel count to 12 megapixels and adding a bigger aperture that draws in light more quickly, but by adding autofocus instead of fixed focus for the first time. In use, the cameras here are outstanding, making it easy to take sharp, appealing, colourful images without even trying.

Battery life

This model has the best battery life of any iPhone ever, Apple says. While it might be surprising that the longest life doesn’t go with the most expensive phone, it’s worth remembering the iPhone 14 pro max has an always-on display, which the plus lacks. That may be part of the reason the plus edges it slightly. In use, all four of the latest iPhones have full-day batteries, but the plus just goes on and on.

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The verdict: Apple iPhone 14 plus

If you’ve been looking for a large-screen iPhone but don’t want to pay the price for the pro max model, your wait is over. The iPhone 14 plus is a handsome, surprisingly light phone with a gorgeous screen and outstanding performance.

The bigger battery means it lasts and lasts, however hard you push it. Although it doesn’t have the third camera or always-on screen of the pro max, it is an accomplished, appealing phone at a great price.

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