6 iPhone 14 Pro Features That Android Phones Introduced

Some features of the iPhone 14 Pro that Android Phones Introduced,Android phones are now showing up at the top of the smartphone market.

Apple launches a new lineup of iPhones annually in the fall. And with every release, the company makes it seem that each new feature it brings to the iPhone is groundbreaking technology.

However, that is not the case all the time. In fact, there are several features in the iPhone 14 Pro that many Android phones have already had for a few years. So, let's check out some iPhone 14 Pro features we first saw on Android.

48MP Main Camera

The last time the iPhone got a resolution upgrade for its primary camera was in 2015 when the iPhone 6S got a 12MP sensor over the iPhone 6's 8MP.

While sensor resolution isn't the be-all and end-all of camera quality, as computational photography and sensor size are also important for smartphone cameras, it would've been nice if Apple bumped up its megapixels often, like Android manufacturers.

After all, we've seen smartphones like the flagship Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra and the mid-range Realme 8 Pro, both from 2021, launch with 108 MP sensors. And although the Apple iPhone Pro boasts a 2.44µm quad pixel size—equivalent to 1.22µm pixel size before binning—it's still smaller than the Xiaomi 12S ultra's massive 50.3 MP camera that sports a 1-inch sensor and 1.6µm pixel size.

Some might argue that Apple's Photonic Engine will make the difference. However, other manufacturers, like Samsung, Google, and Xiaomi, are also making strides with their computational photography technologies, creating stunning images with their top-tier smartphones—even in the same low-light conditions.

Autofocusing Front Camera

Most smartphones don't have autofocus in the front-facing selfie camera. That's because the small space for front cameras isn't suitable for placing the complex machinery required for focus control. Although Apple finally introduced this feature with the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro, Android users have already enjoyed it for several years.

Samsung first released this feature with the S8 in 2017. Google followed suit, giving the Pixel 3's front-facing camera autofocus in 2018. Although other manufacturers, like Huawei, Xiaomi, and Motorola, don't have this feature, it took Apple five years to adopt it for the iPhone. 

Always-On Display

iPhone 14 Pro finally gets the always-on display (AOD), allowing iPhone users to see the time and their notifications with a glance. Although this feature was first seen in Android phones with Samsung Galaxy S7 in 2016, the technology existed way earlier.

The first phone to introduce the always-on Display was Nokia 6303 in 2008. And when the company introduced AMOLED displays on its Symbian OS-powered devices, like the Nokia N8, all of those phones also featured AOD. However, what makes Apple's implementation of the AOD different from other devices is the ability to lower the screen refresh rate to as low as 1Hz.

Doing so allows the AOD to have minimal impact on the iPhone 14 Pro's battery life, even if the entire screen is turned on (instead of just a section, like most Android phones show). This ensures that iPhone users still get excellent battery life, despite the screen never shutting off.

Action Mode

Aside from the autofocusing front camera, Apple also introduced Action mode for the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro. Although we don't have the exact details of how this feature works, this mode probably uses optical and digital image stabilization to ensure you get a steady recording, despite shooting in bumpy conditions.

However, this technology isn't new to smartphones. The Samsung Galaxy S10 from 2019 already had Super Steady video, and even the mid-range Vivo V25 Pro has Ultra Stabilization.

Crash Detection

Recently, Apple has been going big on health and safety. Besides the health and safety features it introduced in the Apple Watch and the Emergency SOS via satellite communication on the iPhone 14, the company is also incorporating crash detection into the latest generation of iPhones.

However, OnStar, the General Motors company that provides vehicular services like navigation and security to its subscribers, already launched the OnStar Guardian app in 2021. This app, which is available for both iOS and Android, detects crashes using your phone's onboard sensors and automatically calls emergency services.

Even the Pixel 4a, launched in 2020, already has car crash detection. And while Apple says it added a high g-force accelerometer to measure sudden changes in speed and direction, plus other sensors like a microphone and a barometer, Android devices have these, too.

A 4nm Processor

Apple touts the A16 Bionic chip in the iPhone 14 Pro to be the most powerful smartphone processor ever. However, besides a chart that didn't give any information except that it performs better than the A13 Bionic from 2019, Apple only claimed it's 40 percent faster than the competition. So, we don't know how much better it is than last year's A15 chip.

The company says that the power and efficiency of the A16 chip resulted from the 4nm process used to create it. However, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, found in the Galaxy S22 series and some other Android flagships released in 2022, already uses this process.

Moreover, Qualcomm already released an updated version of this top-tier chip, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1+, and an upper mid-range version called the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 in May 2022—both using the same 4nm process.

And while Apple can make claims that the iPhone 14 Pro Max is the fastest ever smartphone, we have to confirm that via testing once we get our hands on actual retail units.

The iPhone 14 Pro Isn't as Groundbreaking as Apple Makes You Think

Apple (and many other companies) is great at marketing its devices, so it can make features that have existed on Android devices seem new and innovative during its presentations. After all, it spends millions of dollars on its global marketing efforts and probably has the best advertising agencies working for it.

And while Apple does have some exciting new features for the iPhone 14 Pro, like Emergency SOS via satellite and the Dynamic Island, most of its additions are evolutionary stages of previous and existing technologies.

Nevertheless, despite being available on Android for years already, when Apple implements these technologies, it does so in a polished way that makes them look new and exciting—at least to Apple users.

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