We know that the Apple iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro starts at MYR 4,199 and MYR 5,299 respectively. While Apple maintained the same US$ pricing for the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro models, prices in Malaysia has gone up a little thanks to some shifts in currency exchange rates. The price tag, for Malaysia at least, is still a little hefty if you want to get the device directly from Apple.
Source: U Mobile
Pre-orders for Malaysia have started during the weekends (16th of September 2022 to be exact). Thankfully, you do not have to place your pre-orders specifically with Apple directly. You can do it with all the major carriers in Malaysia at this point, including U Mobile. With these network providers too, you can get your iPhone with their existing postpaid plan, so rather than paying for your iPhone in a single hefty payment, you can space out your payment together with your phone plan over a year to two years.
Source: Maxis
Maxis, Celcom, Digi, and even U Mobile has revealed their most anticipated phone plans, their postpaid plans for the upcoming Apple iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro models. The most affordable way to own an Apple iPhone 14 at this point, at least at the time of writing, is via engaging on Maxis’ Postpaid Share 48 plan. There is a small caveat here though, the Share 48 plan is technically dependent on another full Postpaid plan like the Postpaid 128. While it only gives you 30GB in monthly data quota, sharing the line with another principal line owner also allows you to share data with the principal line. On the device end, you are getting your basic Apple iPhone 14 with 128GB of storage for only MYR 116 every month. That totals to MYR 167 on a monthly basis. Once you go for the Maxis Postpaid 128 plan though, you are paying MYR 221 every month.
Source: Digi
While the Maxis Postpaid 128 plan with the iPhone 14 seems a little pricey compared to the Postpaid Share 48 plan, it is still more affordable than anything else you can find in the market at this time. The next best thing for the most basic iPhone 14 is from Digi and it totals up to MYR 240 a month. The only other network providers that allows you to own an Apple iPhone 14 for below MYR 300 is U Mobile and Celcom with their MYR 98/month plan with iPhone that will set you back a total of MYR 247 a month. These prices are exclusive of SST though, so you want to keep that in mind.
Source: Celcom
Maxis’ Postpaid Share 48 and Postpaid 128 plans still gives you access to the highest end Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max with 1TB storage. Of course, the price of the iPhone itself will shoot up to MYR 230 every month, that is on top of the MYR 48/month you pay for your data plan. That will only total up to MYR 278 every month though, still more affordable than most of the iPhone plans you can find anywhere. Of course, the price goes up to MYR 324 the moment you go for the Maxis Postpaid 128 plan. For Celcom and Digi, you are required to have their more premium Celcom MEGA 158 (worth MYR 158/month) and Digi Postpaid 120 (worth MYR 120/month) to get your hands on Apple’s iPhone 14 Pro models.
You can refer to all the installment and phone plans from Maxis, Celcom, Digi, and U Mobile on their respective websites.
[UPDATE] U Mobile has announced that they are also on the pre-order bandwagon. Pre-order of the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro will begin on the 16th of September 2022. More info on their website.
When Apple’s iPhone 14 was announced by Cupertino, its availability in Malaysia was confirmed to be 23rd September 2022. There were no mentions on its pre-orders during the launch though. Fret not though, Apple Malaysia has confirmed that the Apple iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro will be available for pre-orders from the 16th of September onward. There is one small caveat in the pre-order though, the Apple iPhone 14 Plus will only ship out from the 7th of October 2022 onward.
Of course, you can buy your new iPhone from Apple directly via their website or any of the authorized retailers in Malaysia. Unfortunately, we do not have a proper Apple Store in Malaysia just yet. Alternatively, you can get your latest iPhone from the carriers, and three of Malaysia’s major carriers has also put up their pre-order teasers. Pre-orders with the carriers also start on Malaysia Day (16th of September 2022).
Obviously if you are getting your iPhone device directly with Apple, you are paying for the device in cash, or installments via your credit card. With the carriers, you would usually be required to sign up for their data plans. At this point though there are no information on what sort of plans you will have to sign up for to get your new iPhone. There is no solid indication of pricing from the carriers just yet.
Of course, there are going to be some check boxes you must tick if you want to order your device from the carriers. Their websites will also tell you to ensure that you have any of your outstanding bills cleared. You also want to make sure that you are not tied to any contracts before you pre-order your iPhone 14. Pre-orders from the carriers will be carried out virtually entirely, which also means you want to make sure that you have a stable internet collection. You also want to be on their postpaid plans to make sure that you can get your device with no issues during the pre-order period.
So far, only the three major carriers have announced their pre-orders for the new iPhone. The three major carriers, as mentioned earlier, are Maxis, Celcom, and Digi. While UMobile does have an iPhone specific plan, they have not made any announcements regarding the Apple iPhone 14 devices from their end just yet. We are guessing that they will announce their iPhone plans closer to the actual availability date on the 23rd of September 2022. For more information on the Apple iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro, you can visit their website.
The Apple iPhone 13 was something of a wonder. It was, according to Apple, amongst the most powerful smartphones in the world. Of course, Apple would also like to think that they make the best smartphone in the world. Confidence is key, they say.
With the iPhone 13, Apple pulled all the stops to make the smartphone experience better than before. Instead of focusing on fitting new hardware to push technological boundaries, it was more about making the Apple iPhone a better companion to its users. They followed that same recipe in the new Apple iPhone 14, alongside some very welcome additions.
First up, there is no iPhone 14 Mini here. You have the Apple iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus instead. You get the standard 6.1-inch display with the regular iPhone 14, and then you get a larger 6.7-inch display on the Plus variant. They are selling this as a separate thing to the Pro variants of the iPhone too, understandably.
New Bigger Display
Source: Apple
You still get the recognizable notch on the top part of the display that now houses a TrueDepth camera. According to Apple, the front camera will now take better pictures than ever with newly added features like autofocus. On both variants also, you get a beautiful Retina XDR OLED display with peak brightness of 1200 nits making HDR contents as immersive as they come on an iPhone The Retina XDR display also boasts 2,000,000:1 contrast ratio and Dolby Vision for an even better Netflix experience, especially if you go for the larger iPhone 14 Plus. The displays are also now covered in what Apple calls a Ceramic Shield front cover, a built-in screen protector to protect it from drops and other bumps it might meet in its lifetime. It is also water and dust resistant, to ensure that it can handle anything you can throw at it accidentally, obviously.
Power From the Pros
Beneath the new expansive display is Apple’s proven A15 Bionic System on a Chip (SoC). It is the same one found on the Apple iPhone 13 Pro models. It packs two powerful performance cores for all sorts of heavy lifting, and four efficiency cores within to keep the device going for long periods of time. It also packs a 16-core neural engine for Siri to leverage on and for iOS to keep things snappy and snazzy. For even better photos, the A15 Bionic also houses a new integrate image processor. The Apple iPhone 14 Plus also now features the longest all-day battery life of any available iPhone.
Even Better Photos and Videos
Source: Apple
Out the back is a glass housing that adorns new colours for the iPhone. You still have the standard black (Midnight), and white (Starlight) variants of the Apple iPhone. The Product RED is also still an option for the iPhone. Additionally, you get to get your iPhone 14 in blue or purple.
The backs of the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus house two cameras. The main camera is a 12-Megapixel shooter like before. Accompanying the 12-Megapixel main shooter is an equally impressive 12-Megapixel ultra-wide camera. Thanks to the dedicated Photonic Engine found on the A15 Bionic, the camera performance is much improved especially in low-light conditions. The Deep Fusion computational prowess also allows the camera to capture photos with breathtaking details and textures, true to life colours, and full of information.
There are a few new features on the camera too; it has a new action mode that cleverly stabilizes videos even when they are shot in the middle of the action. The LED flash has also been re-worked and is now 10% brighter than before and is supposedly more uniform and consistent. There is also the Cinematic mode available for videos shot in 4K 30fps and 24fps. Of course, you get to shoot your videos in brilliant Dolby Vision HDR colours.
Emergency SOS via Satellite and Crash Detection
Source: Apple
Source: Apple
Source: Apple
Source: Apple
What is impressive with the iPhone 14 is not all the things listed above. It is not the latest iOS 16 for the iPhone. Nor is it the fact that Apple Fitness+ is coming to all iPhone users. What we find most impressive regarding the Apple iPhone 14 is that it now packs satellite technology and a high-impact accelerometer.
Having satellite technology might not seem like a big deal. Satellite based mobile phones have existed for a while now and it is used in various situations where cellular signals are choppy or when cell towers cannot be installed. It is a rather old school technology that is only good in very specific situations. On the iPhone, it is good for emergencies. They call it Emergency SOS, which is rather fitting. Because satellite signals can be very specific in terms of direction, the iPhone Emergency SOS interface guides you to get the best connection to an available satellite. In emergency situations, the feature allows you to quickly send SOS messages to available emergency services via satellite. Since the low-bandwidth nature of satellite communication means it might take a few seconds to minutes for messages to get through to the right people, Apple’s Emergency SOS interface presents a quick questionnaire to assess your situation before sending a distress signal to an Apple relay station and then to the right services. The satellite technology can also be used in the Find My app, for services to easily and accurately locate you in non-cellular or WiFi situations.
The high-impact accelerometer that is newly found on the iPhone 14 is like no other accelerometer on regular smartphones. It can withstand and measure G-Force up to 256Gs. Combined with a new high dynamic range gyroscope, the new iPhone 14 packs the first ever smartphone-based Crash Detection technology. Where the Apple Watch detects fall impacts and inform your emergency contacts, the iPhone detects when you get into a severe car crash and automatically dials emergency services if the user is unable to reach their iPhones for whatever reason. The feature is also made possible by combining several existing technologies like barometer, GPS signals, and microphones which have been trained to recognize a car crash by motion and sounds.
Source: Apple
Source: Apple
Source: Apple
Source: Apple
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Source: Apple
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Source: Apple
Source: Apple
Source: Apple
Source: Apple
Price and Availability
The Apple iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus will be available in five colour options mentioned above. Storage options starts at 128GB and tops out at 512GB. Pre-orders for the Apple iPhone 14 series in the United States will begin 9th of September 2022 onward. The Apple iPhone 14 will start shipping on the 16th of September onward while its bigger brother, the iPhone 14 Plus starts shipping on the 7th of October 0nward. Malaysia will get its first taste of the new iPhone from the 23rd of September 2022 onward. Emergency SOS via satellite will not be available in regions outside of the U.S. and Canada for now. If you are in the available regions, the service is included for free for two years if you purchase an iPhone 14 or iPhone 14 Plus. The Apple iPhone 14 will be available for MYR 4,199 onward and the iPhone 14 Plus will be available from MYR 4,699 onward.
