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Another year, another smartphone upgrade cycle. The joke that smartphones have started to feel like exact copies of their previous generations is no longer funny — it’s almost true. In fact, we’re even starting to see generational downgrades. Take the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, which stripped functionality from the S Pen, or the Pixel 10 Pro XL, which removed Wi-Fi 7 and downgraded the camera sensor. The crown for selling (seemingly) identical hardware year after year, though, undoubtedly goes to Apple’s iPhones. Even the most loyal Apple fanboys find upgrading more than once every couple of years to be excessive. So suppose you have the iPhone 14 Pro, and you’re considering upgrading to the iPhone 16 Plus with the assumption that the baseline models have made long strides past old Pro models. Should you?
The iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro are good phones, make no mistake, but this was one of the most minor generational leaps we’ve ever seen. You’d be forgiven for thinking the 16 Plus model should outperform the 14 Pro; it has some advantages, like a faster chip and better thermal design, but many less-compelling aspects might make you reconsider. These are our five reasons why 14 Pro users should hold off and wait for something better instead of grabbing the 16 Plus.
Apple Intelligence isn’t (yet) a reason to upgrade
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Even if you don’t pay attention to the tech industry, you’ve undoubtedly heard of Apple Intelligence. It all started with a stacked 2024 WWDC keynote that unveiled Apple’s take on the AI race. The news hit like a bombshell. Apple made lofty claims of a Siri so intimate with you she could do anything with a voice command, and touted unparalleled privacy thanks to on-device processing. Even Apple’s fiercest critics took notice. Apple then sank the hooks by limiting what iPhone models can run Apple Intelligence, forcing upgrades for anyone who wanted a taste of the forbidden fruit. And then … record scratch. The huge promised Siri upgrade never materialized, and lawsuits followed for false advertising.
Credit where credit is due, there are some Apple Intelligence features you need to try, but none justify buying a phone. That super-intelligent Siri is likely on the books for 2026. Those lawsuits, by the way, were largely because people purchased an iPhone 16 series device after Apple’s marketing claimed it was designed for Apple Intelligence. In a similar vein, the 14 Pro (which doesn’t support Apple Intelligence) isn’t worth upgrading to the 16 Plus to get in on the action — because, well, there is no action.
It’s not an exaggeration to say that Apple effectively tricked its customers into upgrading to the 16s for a falsely advertised software feature. If Apple Intelligence is something you really want — specifically the new Siri — then we’d advise you to wait until Apple delivers. Keep your finger off the trigger until those promised features are in the hands of reviewers. Assuming Siri 2.0 ships alongside the iPhone 18 in 2026, it’ll probably be time for an upgrade anyway.
120Hz screens are still a Pro-only feature
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Screen refresh rates are admittedly a nerd feature. Most people buying a phone don’t even think about whether it has a 60Hz, 90Hz, or 120Hz refresh rate, and don’t care. People usually don’t care which MacBook models have 120Hz displays either. Having said that, it’s impossible not to see a difference between a 60Hz and a 120Hz phone compared side by side. Scrolling on a 120Hz screen flows as smoothly as melted butter, while a 60Hz screen feels painfully jagged and less responsive. You’ll notice this most if you’re using a 120Hz screen (the ProMotion display on the iPhone 14 Pro) and then suddenly downgrade to a 60Hz screen (the non-ProMotion display on the iPhone 16 Plus).
Yes, it’s true. In the year of our Lord, 2025, when 120Hz screens have already been a feature on budget phones for some time, the non-pro iPhones still ship with 60Hz screens like it’s 2007. To really drive that point home, the Nothing CMF Phone 2 Pro (which retails for $279) has a 120Hz screen, while the iPhone 16 Plus (which retails for $899) does not. This may soon be changing; rumor has it that the iPhone 17 series finally puts 60Hz out to pasture. Again though, for the 16 Plus, finger off the trigger.
Another minor consideration is screen brightness. Both the 14 Pro and the 16 Plus have identical peak brightness capabilities. If you’re coming to the 16 Plus hoping for a brighter screen that offers better visibility in daylight, you’ll come away disappointed. You’d also be giving up the Always-On Display of the 14 Pro, although the 16 Plus ironically has a screen that can get even dimmer at one nit of brightness.
You’d be downgrading to aluminum — and possibly less durability
It’s been a tradition for a while that the iPhone Pro models shipped with a stainless steel chassis, including the iPhone 14 Pro. Stainless steel offers a fingerprint-magnet, glossy finish. Apple swapped to a non-glossy grade 5 titanium with the 15 Pro and 16 Pro iPhones for durability and lightness. The 16 Plus, however, is still good ol’ aluminum, which Apple distinguishes by a more matte finish. Appearance-wise, whether going from stainless steel to aluminum is really a downgrade depends on you, and this is a feature people probably care less about than even screen refresh rates.
However, there may be one additional consideration here: durability. When the 15 Pro first shipped with titanium, YouTuber AppleTrack did a drop test comparing it to the 14 Pro. The results speak volumes. The 15 Pro started cracking early in the test. Meanwhile, the 14 Pro survived drop after drop, screen uncracked and usable even when dropped from about 15 feet onto hard brick. People theorize that the reason why the newer, “stronger” 15 Pro failed so miserably is that the harder titanium, unlike the 14 Pro’s softer stainless steel, failed to disperse the shock and thus cracked the screen more easily.
Needless to say, the durability of the 14 Pro is very impressive, and this may be the final phone to use stainless steel. Convincing rumors suggest the iPhone 17 Pro is going all-aluminum, just like the standard series of iPhones. It’s impossible to say how durable the 16 Plus is compared to the 14 Pro, and whether future Pro iPhones will be more durable. But it remains clear that trading in the 14 Pro, you may be giving up a tank of a phone.
Fewer camera goodies
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We’ve talked about items that usually aren’t a consideration when buying a phone, but one area where most people do care is the camera. Apple spends a lot of time and effort distinguishing one generation of cameras from the next. The iPhone 16 Plus is two generations ahead and has some features the 14 Pro does not: a more advanced portrait mode, support for spatial media, newer photographic styles, Visual Intelligence, an upgraded HDR version, 4K 60FPS QuickTake video, wind noise reduction, and audio mix. However, the 14 Pro holds a handful of features over it despite being two generations out of date.
The 14 Pro has a higher 3x maximum optical zoom, supports portraits in night mode, and shoots footage in ProRAW and ProRes — maximum-quality formats for professional video. In addition to this, it has a built-in LiDAR scanner. LiDAR works similarly to radar and helps with mapping out a physical space accurately. Self-driving vehicles use it to map their surroundings, and iPhones use it for key features like the Measure app. LiDAR is hugely helpful for night photography and has many other third-party AR uses that you may find helpful; an iPhone 14 Pro could be a tool for redecorating a house virtually or building 3D game assets.
Years of software updates still to come
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Phone manufacturers have long since realized that they can’t convince most people to upgrade their phones every year. So instead, they now compete to provide system software updates for as long as possible. Google promised seven years of features and updates for the Pixel, and so did Samsung. Despite being the stingiest of the bunch, this is close to how long iPhones tend to get updates. So here’s some great news: Your iPhone 14 Pro has a long life ahead of it, at least in terms of software updates.
How long exactly? It’s impossible to say since Apple doesn’t make clear how long each phone will be supported, but we can make a solid guess. The upcoming iOS 26 is supported on phones all the way back to the iPhone 11, which released in 2019. Assuming the worst-case scenario (that the iPhone 11 is dropped from support in 2026), that means iPhones can hope for about six years of updates. The 14 Pro came out in 2022, which means it may well get updates until 2028, possibly longer. Apple also occasionally releases critical security updates for older versions of iOS, so your phone may remain safe to use even longer.
Instead of upgrading, replace your iPhone’s battery. You’ve probably heard about the whole Batterygate thing, where Apple was allegedly slowing down iPhones. But what everyone gets wrong about that story is that Apple didn’t do it for nefarious purposes. In reality, the slowdown was to prevent system instability on devices with degraded batteries. Therefore, replacing the battery effectively makes your device brand new. And if you’re really dedicated, you could wipe your iPhone and start fresh to clear out any software cobwebs.
