iPhone 14 Plus review: multiday battery, big bright screen, and light, but hard to use one-handed, no ProMotion, and adopting eSIM will be painful for some (Allison Johnson/The Verge)

Allison Johnson / The Verge:
Apple iPhone 14 review: improved selfie camera and good battery life, but feels like an iPhone 13S with no ProMotion, and the eSIM transition could be painful  —  A slight camera upgrade, new emergency features, and… not a whole lot else … The iPhone 14 is good.  You probably shouldn’t buy an iPhone 14.

Allison Johnson / The Verge:
Google Pixel 7 and 7 Pro review: faster biometric unlocking and bright screens, but underwhelming speech and intelligence features, and 7 display is still 90Hz  —  They’re not quite the super-helpful, ultra-intelligent phones that Google wants them to be, but the latest Pixel devices are more competitive than ever

Eli Blumenthal / CNET:
Small US carriers say Apple making eSIM the only option for iPhone 14 models in the US “democratizes connectivity” by letting users switch networks easily  —  Mint Mobile, Boost Mobile and US Mobile see room for growth as eSIM technology could make switching networks even easier.

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Cloudflare announces Zero Trust SIM, a US-only, device-specific eSIM for iOS and Android that uses VPNs and DNS filtering, and Zero Trust for Mobile Operators  —  Are smartphones ever entirely secure?  It depends on one’s definition of “secure,” particularly when dealing with corporate environments.

Allison Johnson / The Verge:
Apple unveils satellite-based Emergency SOS, free for two years in the US and Canada with iPhone 14 models, providing low bandwidth messaging services  —  Live from Cupertino, it’s the iPhone 14  —  Apple has announced the iPhone 14 and 14 Plus, preserving much of the iPhone 13’s design …

Joe Rossignol / MacRumors:
Apple makes eSIM the only way to authenticate wireless carriers for the iPhone 14 series in the US, working with T-Mobile, Verizon, and AT&T  —  Apple today announced that all iPhone 14 models sold in the U.S. do not have a built-in SIM card tray and will rely entirely on eSIM technology.