Every New Feature We Want to See From the iPhone 14

It’s nearly new iPhone season once again, but what can the iPhone 14 possibly bring to the table that makes it a cut above its predecessor? There are rumblings about the iPhone 14’s potential expanded features, but we’ll have to wait until September 8 to find out how real they are.

In anticipation of Apple’s next event, we thought we’d outline our iPhone 14 wishlist and what we hope to see in the new smartphone.

iPhone 14 features wishlist

Better refresh rate

I didn’t realise how much of a difference a high refresh rate could make until I laid my hands on one of the new Samsung Galaxy devices, and I’ll admit it was hard to go back.

Refresh rate refers to the frequency a computer image refreshes. The higher the refresh rate, the smoother the picture appears. Samsung’s latest Galaxy devices pack 120Hz, but the iPhone 13 is still stuck at 60Hz.

While you might not notice this in your day-to-day, the difference is clear if you have the two devices side by side and Samsung comes off better for it. If Apple really wants to pack a punch with the iPhone 14, a higher refresh rate is one day to do it.

No notch

The iPhone notch has been a controversial design choice ever since its introduction. While the notch has definitely shrunk over the years, it still hasn’t disappeared completely.

Rumours suggest the iPhone 14 may adopt the hole-punch design this year with a small gap in the screen for the camera and a potential second one for the Face ID scanner. If true, it would definitely be a welcome design shake-up.

RIP Lightning cable

Just gonna say it: the lightning cable needs to go.

Apple’s insistence that it has a unique cable for everything is quite simply a huge pain for cable management everywhere. Now that the company is moving to USB-C cables for its MacBooks, it’s time for the iPhone to do the same.

Of course, it may eventually be forced to do so by legislation, but Apple could get ahead of the curve here and just switch the iPhone 14 to USB-C charging instead. Am I dreaming? Probably.

8K camera capabilities

The iPhone’s camera continues to improve with each generation and it has to reach a peak at some point. One thing Apple could bring to the new iPhone 14 to really knock everyone’s socks off is 8K video capabilities.

TVs have just started offering 8K resolution, but there isn’t a whole lot of content being filmed in 8K. Add those capabilities to every single smartphone and soon that problem will be solved.

It’s a flashy upgrade that a whole lot of people probably won’t care about, but for video enthusiasts, 8K resolution has the potential to be a game-changer.

Don’t change the size

For the last few iPhone generations, we’ve seen the general design of each model shift only slightly. The iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 are basically identical except for the placement of buttons on the side and the camera notch on the back, which has shifted.

It’s small enough, not to notice… until you put a case on it.

Yep, these incremental design shifts somehow always render your previous iPhone case redundant, forcing you to drop a fistful of dollars on a new one, and, quite frankly, I’m not here for it. We’re already shelling out thousands of dollars on a new iPhone, at least let us save some money on the case.

Leaks around the iPhone 14 suggest we’ll once again be getting four new models (iPhone 14 and 14 Max, iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max), so let’s hope at least some of them are identical in design to their predecessors.

Will Apple grant us any of these features on our iPhone 14 wish list? We’ll have to wait and see on September 8 when Apple’s Far Out event takes place.