Performance Review of iPhone 14 Plus: Apple A15 Bionic Surpasses Expectations, Gaming Experience Smooth as Silk

After a brief period with the iPhone 14 Plus, this device delivers a significantly enhanced experience compared to expectations, especially in terms of performance and battery life during gaming sessions. So, how strong is the performance of the iPhone 14 Plus? Does the iPhone 14 Plus deliver smooth gaming? How long does the iPhone 14 Plus battery last during gaming? Let's find out through this performance review of the iPhone 14 Plus below!

Read more: iPhone 14 Plus Review: Large Display, Robust Battery, Dominant Performance Continues

iPhone 14 Plus boasts impressive specifications with Apple A15 Bionic chipset

First off, let's quickly go through the specifications of the iPhone 14 Plus for easy understanding!

• Display: 6.7-inch size, Super Retina XDR OLED panel, Full HD+ resolution (2,778 x 1,284 pixels).
• CPU: Apple A15 Bionic.
• RAM: 6 GB.
• Internal Storage: 128 GB, 256 GB, or 512 GB.
• Rear Camera: 12 MP + 12 MP.
• Selfie Camera: 12 MP.
• Battery: Approximately 4,325 mAh (according to MacRumors), fast charging 29 W (official charger), 27 W with other accessories.
• Operating System: iOS 16.1.1 (at the time of my experience with the device).

For those who are unaware, the iPhone 14 Plus indeed utilizes the A15 Bionic chip from the iPhone 13 Pro series last year because it has a 5-core GPU. Not stopping there, the iPhone 14 Plus also features 6 GB of RAM, a significant upgrade from the 4 GB RAM of the previous iPhone 13. Therefore, the performance of the iPhone 14 Plus is sure to not disappoint.

Performance Rating of iPhone 14 Plus

To give you an idea of the power of the Apple A15 chip in the iPhone 14 Plus, I'll be using some specialized performance benchmarking software such as Geekbench 5, 3DMark, AnTuTu Benchmark, and the specific conditions are as follows:

• The device battery must be between 90 - 100% (battery below 90% will affect the device's performance and results).
• Do not charge the battery while benchmarking.
• Run the benchmarks 3 times consecutively and take the average result after 3 runs.

Firstly, in the case of 2 software, GeekBench 5 and AnTuTu, the results I obtained were very impressive. Specifically, you can follow the figures below.

- GeekBench 5:

• Single-Core/Multi-Core: 1,725 points/4,568 points.
• GPU Compute: 12,162 points.

- AnTuTu Benchmark: 771,483 points.

Moving on to the Wild Life Extreme test in 3DMark, the iPhone 14 Plus still delivers impressive numbers with a total score of 2,733 and an average FPS of 16.4. Since this is a relatively light graphics test, the iPhone 14 Plus battery remains at 96%.

Finally, in the 3DMark Wild Life Extreme Stress test (used to check the stability of the device during heavy tasks by automatically repeating 20 times), the iPhone 14 Plus shows average results. Specifically, in the Stability section, the iPhone 14 Plus only achieves 65.8%, meaning that if we play games or edit short videos on the iPhone 14 Plus, the device may experience slight lag. Additionally, the difference between the Best loop score and the Lowest loop score is quite significant (924 points).

Nevertheless, I believe this test is only for reference purposes. Based on my actual experience, the iPhone 14 Plus handles all tasks smoothly, quickly, including gaming or video editing with CapCut. Moreover, I think after about 6 months, the iPhone 14 Plus may achieve better performance scores thanks to software updates that Apple will release. So, don't worry too much!

iPhone 14 Plus Gaming Experience: Smooth Gameplay, No Overheating

As mentioned above, most tasks I use the iPhone 14 Plus for can be handled smoothly, including gaming. One notable aspect of the iPhone 14 Plus is that it doesn't overheat during prolonged gaming sessions (for 3 games: Arena of Valor, PUBG Mobile, Call Of Duty Mobile). Hence, the device rarely encounters issues like screen brightness reduction, which is a common problem when using iPhones for heavy tasks.

Now let's move on to the real gaming experience. I'll be testing 4 games: Arena of Valor, PUBG Mobile, Call Of Duty Mobile, and Genshin Impact. Unfortunately, at this moment, I seem unable to use Perfdog software to record FPS data during gaming sessions (perhaps Perfdog doesn't yet support iPhones running iOS 16 and later models). Therefore, I'll provide a short video clip of gameplay for visualization.

Regarding the graphics settings of each game, I won't share too much because I've set them all to the highest level. Except for PUBG Mobile, where I adjusted from UltraHD to HDR to push frame rates to the Extreme setting for the smoothest experience possible.

• Arena of Valor

In the first game, Arena of Valor, the iPhone 14 Plus handles smoothly and seamlessly. All movement controls, skill swipes are flawless, and I rarely experience stuttering or lag on the iPhone 14 Plus. The game scenes are also detailed, vivid, and the frame rate is consistently maintained at 60 FPS.

• PUBG Mobile

If you wonder why I reduced the graphics in PUBG Mobile, I always prioritize frame rate for shooting games. Because I lower the graphics in-game, the frame rate can reach 60 FPS (instead of 40 FPS if I adjust the graphics to UltraHD). As for the PUBG shooting experience, I have nothing to complain about on the iPhone 14 Plus, everything is very smooth, and there seems to be no stuttering or lag.

• Call Of Duty Mobile

Moving on to another shooting game called Call Of Duty Mobile, the iPhone 14 Plus continues to perform very well. This smartphone also provides quick responsiveness when I perform actions like weapon switching, movement, running, jumping, sliding, etc.

• Genshin Impact

In the final game, Genshin Impact, the iPhone 14 Plus can still handle graphics settings at the highest level, and what surprises me is that the device only gets slightly warm instead of overheating. However, after playing for about 45 minutes, the device heats up significantly, drains the battery faster, and automatically reduces screen brightness. This is understandable because this game is quite heavy and poses challenges for most flagship models today.

Summing up the gaming experience, I am completely satisfied with what the iPhone 14 Plus offers. In fact, I don't think Apple's use of the Apple A15 chip on the iPhone 14 Plus is necessarily bad. Because if something still works well and isn't outdated at a certain point in time, we can still confidently use it. It's just that Apple has started to differentiate between the regular and Pro lineups.

iPhone 14 Plus battery meets gaming demands for extended periods

Another aspect that satisfies me on the iPhone 14 Plus is undoubtedly battery life. This device handles the usage and entertainment needs of an average user well. For myself, even though I spend most of my time working on my laptop, whenever I have free time, I still use the iPhone 14 Plus to play games, watch movies, or browse Facebook. With such mixed usage, the iPhone 14 Plus still has over 20% battery left by bedtime before I plug it in. For more details, I'll see you in the upcoming review of the iPhone 14 Plus battery, so stay tuned!

Returning to the main issue, I'll proceed to play 4 games: Arena of Valor, PUBG Mobile, Call Of Duty Mobile, and Genshin Impact (each for 1 hour) to see how much battery the iPhone 14 Plus will drain. First, I'll share the conditions of this test with you:

• Play 1 game for 1 hour and similarly with the remaining 3 games.
• Start with 100% battery and fully charge after playing 1 game for 1 hour.
• Screen brightness at 100%.
• External speaker on at 100% volume.
• Turn on WiFi, do not use 3G or 4G networks (because these networks can cause overheating and rapid battery drain).
• Do not activate battery saver mode, adaptive screen brightness, GPS, and Bluetooth.

Here are the results I obtained:

• Genshin Impact: After 1 hour of gaming, the device drops 19% battery.
• PUBG Mobile: After 1 hour of gaming, the device drops 15% battery.
• Call Of Duty Mobile: After 1 hour of gaming, the device drops 14% battery. 
• Arena of Valor: After 1 hour of gaming, the device drops 11% battery.

Indeed, as Apple stated at the product launch event in September, the iPhone 14 Plus remains the device with the longest battery life in the iPhone 14 series. Despite gaming under stringent conditions as mentioned above, the iPhone 14 Plus still delivers excellent results, with no game draining more than 20% of the battery after 1 hour of play. Therefore, if you have a high demand for gaming on the iPhone, the iPhone 14 Plus is undoubtedly a relatively reasonable choice.

How much does the iPhone 14 Plus cost? Is it worth buying?

Overall, what the iPhone 14 Plus offers me after a period of experience, gaming, and heavy tasks is superb. If you are considering upgrading your phone, focusing on the screen and battery life rather than new features like Always on Display, Dynamic Island, then the iPhone 14 Plus is the suitable device. At the moment, the price of the iPhone 14 Plus at Mytour is 27.99 million VND (may vary depending on the time and promotion programs).

What do you think about the performance of iPhone 14 Plus? Leave your comments below for me and everyone to know! Thank you for your interest and following my article.

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