It seems that a big change is just over the horizon. The upcoming iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max make a stylish departure from Apple’s last few smartphones, offering interesting design changes, exclusive features, and wallet-draining upgrades.

We still don’t know everything about the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max. But leaks and rumors point to two very impressive phones. Here’s everything we know about the next-gen “Pro” models of iPhone.

Broad Details: Release Date and Pricing

Most leaks, including one from iDropNews, point to a September 13th launch event. But Max Weinbach, a well-known leaker, believes the event could air on September 6th. Either way, pre-orders for the phones should open after the event, with deliveries arriving up to two weeks later.

Pricing for this year’s iPhone lineup is a bit strange. Rumor has it that the Pro and Pro Max models will see a $100 price increase, pushing them to $1,099 and $1,199, respectively. This price hike may come with an upgrade to 256GB of storage for the cheapest configurations, though.

And in case you’re wondering, the iPhone 14 is expected to retain last year’s $799 price tag. It seems that the rumored iPhone 14 Max model (which replaces iPhone Mini) will slot in at $899, which may provide customers a more attractive upgrade option (as opposed to the Mini downgrade).

The Design: Goodbye Notch, Hello Pill

After three years of reusing the same basic design, it seems that Apple is ready to shake things up. The iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max will introduce at least one shocking design change—well, shocking for an iPhone, at least.

The iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max could ditch their notorious Face ID “notch.” We hear this kind of thing every year, but for once, it seems true. Leaked front panels shared by @SaranByte show the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max with a “pill-shaped” Face ID cutout, potentially confirming previous leaks, including renders from Front Page Tech and CAD files from 91Mobiles.

This new Face ID cutout could lead to some changes to the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max user interface. After all, Apple will have some extra real estate for icons. But such changes don’t appear in the iOS 16 beta, so take this with a grain of salt.

iPhone 14 front panels have leaked on Weibo – here are the changes to note:
1) thinner bezels on the Pro models, as reported by other sources
2) aspect ratio is also slightly different on the Pros (19.5:9 to 20:9); this corroborates with 9to5Mac’s report regarding taller displays pic.twitter.com/UtqNcBB9aP

— Saran (@SaranByte) April 28, 2022

Unfortunately, it seems that the standard iPhone 14 or iPhone 14 Max won’t upgrade to this new Face ID cutout, which is a shame. But all four phones in the lineup may feature larger rear cameras, something that could improve photo quality.

Apple could also upgrade the iPhone’s display size. Leaker @DSCCRoss suggests that the iPhone 14 Pro will use a  6.12-inch screen (up from 6.06 inches), while the Pro Max model may use a 6.69-inch display (up from 6.68 inches). Note that the standard iPhone 14 is the same size as its Pro counterpart, while the iPhone 14 Max is the same size as the iPhone 14 Pro Max.

Color-wise, @Jioriku says we can expect five different paint jobs for the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max. The phones may come in Green, Purple, Silver, Gold, and Graphite colorways. These are the same color options we got with last year’s iPhone 13 Pro, although the new Purple colorway replaces Sierra Blue.

Spec Talk: A New “Pro” Processor?

Information on the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max specs are a bit rocky. We expect these phones to start with 256GB of storage and use new adaptive refresh rate displays, but that’s the extent of what we can confidently report.

Still, most leakers agree that the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max will introduce an A16 Pro chipset. This is the first iPhone processor to use the “Pro” moniker.

The A16 Pro’s performance is unknown. Some leakers claim that this new chipset focuses on GPU and memory performance, offering gains between 25% and 50% in these areas (with a smaller 15% CPU boost).

If true, the A16 Pro chipset likely uses DDR5 RAM. A report from DigiTimes indicates that all four models of iPhone 14 offer 6GB of RAM, though the Pro models use “faster” RAM, which would suggest a DDR5 upgrade.

But other leaks, including one from @iHacktu, say that CPU and GPU performance get the big upgrade this year. Such leaks point to a 40% boost in CPU speeds and a 35% in GPU speeds (without much in the way of RAM). This would be the iPhone’s biggest CPU and GPU upgrade since 2016, according to Forbes.

Either way, customers should expect a huge difference between iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro’s performance. While the Pro and Pro Max phones get the A16 Pro chipset, the standard iPhone 14 and 14 Max will probably reuse last year’s A15 processor. (That said, Apple may call the A15 an “A16” for this release.)

Software: The iOS 16 Update Adds an Always-On Display

The iPhone 14 lineup will launch alongside iOS 16. And it’s a pretty big software update. Along with an upgraded lockscreen and new notification layouts, iOS 16 introduces an alternative to passwords and a refined focus on smart home control.

But we’re more interested in some of the smaller details that weren’t announced during Apple’s WWDC event. The new iOS 16 battery percentage indicator is quite notable, as Apple previously removed this indicator with the iPhone X release.

And it seems that the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max will be the first Apple smartphones with an always-on display mode. As explained by 9to5Mac, this mode takes advantage of the phones’ new adaptive refresh rate display panels, and like the Apple Watch, it dims your wallpaper to conserve battery life.

The Cameras: They’re Better Than Last Year, Duh!

Most leakers agree that the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max will retain their triple-lens camera setup. It seems that Apple won’t add any cameras this year, though existing cameras should get an upgrade.

The most decisive change is a new main camera. Information obtained by MacRumors shows that Ming-Chi Kuo and Jeff Pu, two respected Apple analysts, expect a 48MP main camera in the iPhone 14 Pro models. That’s a huge upgrade from the old 12MP sensor, and supposedly, it will support 8K video.

In a Medium post, Ming-Chi Kuo explains that all iPhone 14 models will gain an autofocus selfie lens. This seems like a long-overdue addition to the iPhone, and it coincides with the Face ID redesign on the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max. Kuo also states that the selfie camera will feature a new f/2.2 aperture, which could improve low-light performance.

And here’s an odd thing; Patently Apple discovered an Apple patent for a periscope camera. This kind of camera uses a series of lenses to increase optical zoom distance, reducing the need for crappy digital zoom. But rumors suggest that the periscope camera won’t debut in the iPhone 14 lineup.

Even if Apple doesn’t upgrade the iPhone 14 Pro or Pro Max camera modules, both phones should offer an improved photo quality. Most of Apple’s camera magic comes from software, not hardware, and each iteration of iPhone processor offers more power for computational photography.

We expect the iPhone 14 lineup to launch in mid-September. A $100 price increase likely pushes the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max to $1,099 and $1,199, respectively.

We will update this article as new information comes to light. Be sure to join our free newsletter to stay up to date with all iPhone 14 Pro developments!