Apple iPhone 14 Plus

At Rs. 420,999 in our listing, the Apple iPhone 14 Plus is hard to justify. Its main advantage is excellent battery life in a big, light body, plus a large OLED screen, solid cameras and a back glass that is easier to repair than on the Pro models.

The compromises are a 60Hz display, a chip carried over from the iPhone 13 series, a notch instead of Dynamic Island and a Lightning port.

Verdict: buy the 14 Plus only if you specifically want the biggest battery in a non-Pro iPhone and find it well below our listed price. At our current prices, the Apple iPhone 15 (Rs. 327,499) and the Apple iPhone 13 Pro (Rs. 293,999) both cost less and offer newer or more premium features.

The 6.7-inch Super Retina XDR OLED screen at 1284 x 2778 pixels is sharp, with deep blacks and strong contrast. HDR10 and Dolby Vision support make it a very good screen for films and YouTube, and the large size helps with reading, maps and split attention tasks like video calls.

Our database lists 800 nits in high brightness mode and up to 1200 nits peak for HDR. That is good outdoors but dimmer than the iPhone 14 Pro Max.

The main weakness is the 60Hz refresh rate: scrolling and games are less smooth than on 120Hz phones, which stands out more on a screen this big. There is no always-on display or Dynamic Island; both are limited to the Pro models.

The A15 Bionic (5 nm) with a 5-core GPU and 6GB RAM is the same chip used in the iPhone 14 and closely related to the iPhone 13 series. In practice, it is still fast for social media, browsing, photo editing and popular games, and a newer chip would add little more than a few frames per second or slightly quicker app launches.

The flip side is that there is no performance step forward over the previous generation, so you are paying for size and battery rather than speed.

The reviews we used did not report heating or sustained-performance tests for the 14 Plus, so we cannot confirm how it behaves in long gaming sessions.

The camera hardware matches the iPhone 14: a 12 MP main camera with an f/1.5 aperture and sensor-shift stabilisation, and a 12 MP ultrawide. Independent reviews describe the same results as on the smaller model: natural, detailed daylight photos and dependable video.

The 12 MP selfie camera has autofocus, which keeps your face sharp at different distances. Video goes up to 4K at 60fps with Dolby Vision HDR on both the rear and front cameras.

There is no telephoto lens, so zoom shots rely on cropping, and the bigger body brings no camera advantage over the iPhone 14. If photography is your priority, the Pro models or the iPhone 15's 48MP camera are the stronger choices.

With a 4323 mAh battery, the Plus matches the 14 Pro Max on capacity while running a less demanding screen and an efficient chip. Apple lists it at 26 hours of video playback (below the Pro Max) but a record 100 hours of audio playback (above the Pro Max). Independent testing also placed it among the longest-lasting iPhones of its generation.

Charging is the weak point: it still uses Lightning, and wired charging reaches about 50% in 30 minutes with a USB-C Power Delivery adapter, which is not in the box. A large battery therefore takes a while to fill. MagSafe charging reaches 15W, and Qi2 chargers also reach 15W after the iOS 17.2 update.

The iPhone 14 Plus launched with iOS 16, and the early builds brought reports of battery drain, lock screen rotation bugs and other glitches across new iPhones. Later updates are the fix, so keep the phone updated.

Our database lists it as upgradable to iOS 26, and Apple's iOS 27 compatibility list includes the iPhone 14 Plus. Apple does not publish a fixed number of update years.

iOS has no ads or duplicate apps, and Crash Detection is included. Apple Intelligence is not supported; Apple limits it to the iPhone 15 Pro and newer. Emergency SOS via satellite is not offered in Pakistan, and a non-PTA unit cannot keep using a local SIM, so check PTA status before buying.