The real highlights of the Apple event

For the September event, Apple again had a lot of new products in its luggage, but as always, the keynote was peppered with far too much information. In my opinion, however, there are 5 real highlights that can be quickly listed. Including the new iPhone 14 Plus, the Apple Watch Ultra and much more.

First of all: If you really want to study every detail of the Apple event on September 7th in detail, I recommend watching the keynote at your leisure. You just have to bring a little time with you, because Apple took a little over 1.5 hours for all the new products. Including the new iPhone 14, the Apple Watch Seris 8, SE, Apple Watch Ultra and the new AirPods Pro:

For those who like it faster, I have listed my 5 personal highlights below. This will be discussed in detail later.

iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max: “Dynamic Island” instead of Notch

With the Pro models, the notch (display notch) is now history. It is replaced by a pill-shaped opening in the middle of the display – half hardware, half software, called “Dynamic Island” by Apple. Apple makes a virtue out of necessity and integrates the area as a kind of second dynamic display. Perfect for pop-up notifications, music control, Face ID recognition and much more. This thing no longer feels like a foreign body and is truly an integral part of the iPhone screen for the first time.

iPhone 14 Plus: Size matters

Let’s take for granted things like an improved camera on the iPhone 14, the differences to the iPhone 13 are, if we’re honest, not worth mentioning. What remains? The new iPhone 14 Plus with a 6.7-inch display, which previously haunted the rumor mill as the iPhone 14 Max. For those who have missed a large screen, especially in the standard model, Apple now has a cheaper alternative to the iPhone 14 Pro Max in its range. Inexpensive is of course relative in view of the new prices in Germany. But more on that at the end.

Apple Watch Ultra: what a novelty

The Apple Watch Series 8 and even the new Apple Watch SE are nice, but are they really new? You have to look closely to find this rather weak update great. The Apple Watch Ultra, which was previously traded as the Apple Watch Pro, is quite different. Everything is new: display, design, bracelets, features. This part is no longer a normal smartwatch, but a wristop computer with a huge display for pretty extreme people. Yes, the watch can even replace a dive computer. I am impressed.

Accident detection on all new Apple Watches and iPhones

Hopefully no one will need this feature, but if they do, everyone will be glad it exists. Every Apple Watch launched today and every newly launched iPhone has new accident detection. If the worst comes to the worst, it can now even detect serious car accidents and make an emergency call, ultimately saving lives. Not a gimmick, it makes more sense than any of the competition’s irrelevant Mickey Mouse features.

AirPods Pro are no longer lost

Finally the second generation supports the AirPods Pro too the more accurate “Where is?” for iPhone with U1 chip and has an improved charging case with built-in speaker. Like an AirTag, the cover never gets lost. Very good, saved another lifetime because you don’t have to search anymore.

Explicitly not a highlight for me at the moment is the emergency call function via satellite on the iPhone 14, because we don’t have this feature yet. Who knows when we’ll get this here in Europe? However, we can be happy that the iPhones with only eSIM will only be available in the States. So we in Germany and Europe retain the freedom and can still use normal SIM cards. However, we can be annoyed about the price explosion in the euro area. Even the smallest iPhone 14 now costs just under 1,000 euros, an iPhone 14 Plus comes to 1,149 euros, let’s not even talk about the Pro models. A fat price increase (source: Apple).