The Apple iPhone 13 Pro is now one of the most Powerful and Efficient smartphones on the market.
On September 14th, 2021, Apple officially announced the iPhone 13 Pro, along with the iPhone 13, iPhone 13 Mini, and iPhone 13 Pro Max. It is Apple’s latest flagship mobile device.
Spoiler alert! Every iPhone upgrade from here till the end of time, it’s gonna be a minor upgrade. That’s the way smartphones are.
Marques Brownlee (YouTube)
Let’s talk about Apple’s iPhone 13 Pro Review Simplified right now.
Table of Contents
What’s new in iPhone 13 Pro?
The highlight of the iPhone 13 Pro is that Apple significantly improved the Display, Battery, Camera, and Performance over the previous generation. When compared to the previous iPhone 12 Pro, the only difference noticeable is the lower notch and new color options.
As a result, the majority of the changes to the iPhone 13 Pro have been made internally and through software.
The Apple iPhone 13 Pro features the A15 Bionic Chip, a Larger battery, and More storage than the previous model. Apple also made minor changes to its camera modules. The new camera app now includes a Cinematic Mode, also known as “Portrait mode for Video” which Apple believes will usher in a new era of smartphone video shooting.
The new iPhone 13 Pro’s 6.1-inch display now enables ProMotion 120Hz Adaptive Refresh Rate that can dip as low as 10Hz depending on the task you are doing.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- 120Hz Display
- Long lasting battery with larger battery
- Improved camera
- Great performance
Cons
- Fast charging limited to 20W
- No USB-C port
- 4K ProRes video not available for 128GB storage option
- Slight design changes with previous version
- Expensive
Battery Performance is so good that I think you would struggle to use it all even if you tried, you could literally keep a YouTube video on for an entire day and I’m not sure it would run out.
Mrwhosetheboss (YouTube)
Design
iPhone 13 Pro is available in Graphite, Silver, Sierra Blue, and Gold colors. The Sierra Blue color choice appears tanner in person than in the images on the Apple website.
Apple’s iPhone 13 Pro was intended to be used with one hand, and the design has been tweaked from the previous model. The only difference between this edition and the previous one is a larger camera bump on the rear and a 20% smaller notch on the screen.
The phone will stand out from a table if you place it down on one, which is noticeable unless you put a case on it. Since the camera bump is so large, attaching MagSafe Duo to the iPhone creates a tight fit, making it easy to unplug the device from charging. Also, be careful while purchasing a case because you may be unable to charge as a result of this.
The battery in this mobile is 11% larger than the previous model and does feel a noticeable weight.
Apple has stuck to their very own Lightning port instead of using Type-C like other manufacturers.
Like all the other iPhone models, the iPhone 13 has IP68 Dust and Water Resistance, along with a special glass, Apple calls Ceramic Shield which Apple claims that it is 4 times less like to break when dropped.
You can try it out if you want, But We Don’t Recommend That.
The matte finish on the phone does give you a premium feel when compared to the normal glass in iPhone 13. Even though the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 are almost identical in size but you cannot switch cases between them because of the difference in the rear camera module.
Display
The iPhone 13 Pro features one of the Best looking screens on a Smartphone on the market right now.
Similar to the previous generation, it has a 6.1-inch Super Retina XDR OLED display with a new ProMotion 120Hz Refresh Rate that switches between 10Hz and 120Hz automatically to provide a fluid experience that responds to both the content on the screen and the speed at which your finger swipes over it. For instance, most games utilize a refresh rate of 120Hz, whereas reading an e-book may only require a refresh rate of 10Hz to preserve battery life.
High refresh rate screens are fairly prevalent in today’s Android Smartphones, but it doesn’t mean the iPhone’s refresh rate screen is still in its infancy.
It has a more premium feel since Apple was able to create a screen that people don’t perceive as being a first-generation device. When scrolling on the iPhone 13 Pro, which feels like direct connection with my finger, even the text remains readable rather than blurring.
The display is clear and bright, has excellent viewing angles, and can reach 1,000 Nits of Brightness, providing exceptional outdoor visibility even in broad sunshine.
Cameras
The front and back cameras of the iPhone 13 Pro are both 12 MP cameras.
A wide lens with an aperture of f1.5, a telephoto lens with an aperture of f2.8 and a 3x optical zoom, and an ultra-wide lens with an aperture of f1.8 and a 120-degree field of view are all included in the rear cameras.
The back cameras also have a 3D LiDAR scanner that could measure depth. The wide lens on the front camera has an aperture of f2.2.
If you compare the camera’s specs to those of the previous generation, you might not notice a significant difference because Apple left the cameras’ megapixel numbers unchanged and only made minor adjustments, such as tweaking the aperture sizes.
Since iOS 13, the camera app interface largely hasn’t changed, however the new Cinematic Mode was introduced with the iPhone 13 Pro, which is officially only available with this particular model. Additionally, Apple has included Standard, Warm, Cool, Vibrant, and Rich Contrast photographic color styles to help you fine-tune your images.
Photo
At first sight, the iPhone 13 Pro’s rear cameras photographs don’t appear to change much from those of the iPhone 12 Pro, but the image quality and low-light performance are very impressive than previous model.
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The new Telephoto Camera has a 3x Optical Zoom capability, and its shots are brilliantly crisp and detailed, with noise kept to a minimum in most circumstances. It prevents blurry images with the new sensor-shift image stabilization.
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The Wide Camera, which is often referred to as the Primary Camera, effortlessly handles daylight shots without producing noise and produces fascinating photos, although occasionally one gets the impression that the images are over-processed.
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Photographic Styles (Standard, Warm, Cool, Vibrant, Rich Contrast) have just been added, enabling you to give your images an unique look.
With the iPhone 13 Pro, Apple debuted a new Macro Mode that allows users to shoot close-up pictures of objects that are 2 cm away from the camera. This function has long been available on Android phones, and it’s great to see Apple following up. As long as you have sufficient lighting on the item and have a solid focus on the object, iPhone Macro Mode photos are fantastic. Macro images are taken from the Wide camera lens, and they do result in a 1x cut out of the image.
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Getting closer to the object will automatically activate macro mode on the camera app. Users become annoyed when this feature activates automatically since photographs don’t always need to be taken in macro mode. Therefore, Apple then included a manual button to turn off macro mode through an update.
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The Ultra-wide Camera images on the iPhone 13 Pro seem almost identical to the previous generation, with superb color rendering and dynamic range and a 120-degree camera perspective. With the recent addition of auto focusing, you can now utilize ultra-wide to highlight perspective and illustrate how subjects connect to their surroundings.
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The iPhone’s Night Mode from Apple produces excellent photos in low lighting. The white balance, color saturation, and details are all good in photos, but the shadows and highlights are merely average. Overall, low-light photography is excellent and produces clear, detailed images.
When it comes to Portrait mode and Selfies, the wide lenses in the iPhone 13 Pro perform well. With the iPhone 12 Pro, there isn’t much of a change, yet you get excellent photographs. When taking selfies in low light, iPhone struggles and the photos take on a somewhat warmer tone.
Video
The iPhone can capture videos in 4K at 24, 30, and 60 frames per second, as well as in 1080p at 30, 60, 120, and 240 frames per second. It captures HDR videos in Dolby Vision format at up to 4K 60 fps and all of the videos are Digitally Stabilized, which is a feature that cannot be turned off. It obviously requires decent lighting, but the iPhone’s Slow-Mo feature catches some lovely videos.
Apple introduced Cinematic Mode, a new type of video recording that records in portrait mode. It is quite impressive because it provides artistic and professional videos.
The major advantage of Cinematic Mode is its ability to follow the object and adjust the bokeh effect accordingly, allowing for cinematic object focus shifting. The transition is so flawless that the footage appears to have been shot by a professional. Videos in Cinematic Mode can only be recorded in 1080p at 30 frames per second.
You can now capture video in ProRes format, which is required by professional video editors, then edit these recordings on the same iPhone without any problems due to its processing capability. Except for the 128 GB storage capacity, all 13 Pro models support ProRes video recording.
Performance
The A15 Bionic Chip in the iPhone 13 Pro has an improved Neural Engine, a 6-core CPU, and a 5-core GPU. The mobile can run any app from the App Store, and gaming on the phone performs smoothly without any lag. In comparison to rival Snapdragon 888 with its Adreno 660 GPU, Apple says that the GPU in the A15 is 50% faster.
Since Apple has perfected the optimization of its chipset, the A15 really has more power than nearly any user will require today. With its long-term upgrades, it will provide five to six years of trouble-free use and performance that will prevent you from looking for a replacement for years.
GeekBench Score: Single Core
Higher is better
GeekBench Score: Multi Core
Higher is better
The phone’s lifespan in addition to its overall performance is one of its main selling features.
The iPhone 13 Pro ships with iOS 15, is upgradeable to iOS 16, and has 6GB of RAM. There are many storage options accessible with it, including 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB, and we believe that it would be sufficient for moving to two middle options other than the 1TB option.
The iPhone 13 Pro is 5G ready out of the box, so as long as your plan supports the technology and you’re in a coverage region, you can use the next-generation connection standard.
Battery Life and Charging
The battery in the iPhone 13 Pro is quite effective and can easily last all day. If you reduce your usage, though you may find that it still has 10–20 percent left in the battery when you put it back on to charge in the night. And if you want to save even more battery, simply switch off 5G. When using power-hungry apps that make use of Wi-Fi, 4G, 5G, GPS, and other technologies, the time durations specified may change.
The iPhone 13 Pro’s battery capacity has increased from 2,815 mAh to 3,095 mAh, giving it up to 1.5 hours more runtime than the iPhone 12 Pro, which often lasts up to 22 hours. When compared to the previous model, which users consistently complained for being power-hungry, this is a significant improvement.
In a world where Android phones offers a 120W adapter to charge, Apple still offers a 20W adapter to charge the iPhone 13 Pro, which advertises fast charging and claims to be able to charge it up to 50% in 30 minutes using a Lightning cable. Wireless chargers are even slower than cable chargers, with MagSafe charging at 15W and Qi-Wireless chargers at 7.5W.
Since chargers are not included in the box, using your existing iPhone charger to charge the new iPhone increases the possibility that charging speed may be slower than usual.
The good news is that users don’t have to worry about their sluggish chargers because the iPhone 13 Pro has an incredible battery life.
Operating System
iOS 15, a minor improvement over iOS 14, comes pre-installed on the iPhone 13 Pro and it does modify the appearance and feel of the iPhone and several functionalities. Because of its efficiency with app management, the new ProMotion display provides the iOS 15 more vitality and makes it seem incredibly fast.
However, occasionally the keyboard won’t open up and we suffer glitches like freezing and random hiccups. Additionally, the camera unexpectedly needs 2-3 seconds to save a picture. Ultimately, Apple released various updates to address such issues.
On June 6, 2022, iOS 16 was released, and it was promised that the iPhone 13 Pro will receive the upgrade shortly after. You can now download Apple’s developer beta and public beta, both of which have just been published. However, we advise waiting until Apple publishes a stable version of iOS 16 before upgrading.
If you already have an iPhone, it’s likely the iPhone 13 Pro will be a big upgrade – unless you currently own last year’s iPhone 12 Pro
TechRadar
Known Problems
- The ProMotion 120Hz was not working in most apps, and Apple fixed the majority of them.
- The iPhone 13 Pro had a responsive laggy issue, which Apple fixed with an update. According to our assessment, the iOS 15 was to blame and not the device itself.
- When moving the camera closer to an item, the iPhone 13 Pro camera app automatically switched to the macro mode. In response to the issue, Apple released an update that included a manual button to disable macro mode.
- There was an issue with Apple Watch not unlocking the iPhone, but it was addressed with an update.
TL;DR
Excellent all-around experience with the iPhone 13 Pro. You may enjoy the finest battery and screen performance on a mobile device.
The iPhone 13 Pro is not a wise choice if you currently own an iPhone 12 Pro and are wanting to upgrade because the differences between the two versions are negligible.
Even the most resource-intensive apps you’ll find in the Apple App Store were easily run on the new A15 Bionic CPU when combined with 6GB of RAM. For those who want a lot of capacity, the phone has storage choices up to 1TB, which start at 128GB.
Additionally, the iPhone 13 Pro has a superb camera that excels in both daylight and nighttime photography. With the telephoto and macro cameras, you can take pictures from a range of distances.
This phone’s battery life, which may last a day without any issues, is a big selling factor.
A ProMotion 120Hz screen, additional storage options, the new Cinematic Mode, and plenty other features are available on the iPhone 13 Pro.
Source: Apple, MrWhoseTheBoss (YouTube), Marques Brownlee (YouTube), Tom’s Guide, TechRadar, GSMArena, Digital Trends, CNET, MacRumors, Android Authority, Jeremy Bezanger (Unsplash), Days Tech, Digital Photography Review
