Apple iPhone 13 Pro Review: Is it Worth it?

The latest Apple iPhone 13 Pro smartphone feels like a pretty significant upgrade disguised in the old iPhone 12 Pro design. The most anticipated improvements include a better display, longer battery life, and, of course, amazing cameras.

iPhone 13 Pro: Design & Display

The design of the iPhone 13 Pro is almost identical to the iPhone 12 Pro models. The newest model also features flat edges, a stainless steel frame, a textured matte glass back, and a slight increase in thickness (0.30, compared to 0.29 in on last year’s iPhone).

iPhone 13 Pro features an OLED Super Retina XDR display supporting ProMotion technology, with adaptive refresh rates ranging from 10Hz to 120Hz. But it is also an LTPO display, meaning the adaptive variable refresh rate can range from 10Hz to 120Hz. It has 12 refresh rates that cycle through, seven more than in iPad Pro models. So, for example, if you watch a 24fps movie, the display only needs to refresh 24 times per second. But if you are reading text, like an email, it can drop to 10Hz to save battery.

The screen and resolution on the iPhone 13 Pro are the same as on the iPhone 13: 253 x 1170 pixels, 460 pixels per inch. But the iPhone 13 Pro got a noticeably brighter display. You get 1000 nits typical max brightness and up to 1200 nits in HDR.

As always, the True Tone matches the display color temperature to ambient light, Wide Color for rich, vivid hues, and Haptic Touch for feedback.

iPhone 13 Pro: Cameras

The iPhone 13 Pro has much larger sensors and cameras. The triple camera has a LIDAR Scanner, a microphone, and a flash.

The primary 12-megapixel f1.5 camera with that even more significant sensor-shift stabilization is simply excellent. It performs remarkably consistently in various lighting settings, both indoor and outdoor. iPhone 13 users also get a Photographic Styles feature, which lets them apply presets when taking photos (Standard, Vibrant, Rich Contrast, Warm, and Cool).

The Telephoto camera has also improved this year. It has gotten a new sensor and a 3x zoom lens. As a result, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the consistency when switching between different cameras.

The ultrawide lens with 12 megapixels offers a 92% improvement for low-light settings. As a result, the camera captures sharper, brighter photos.

Macro photography is another cool new feature of the iPhone 13. Users can shoot macro photos and videos, magnifying objects with a minimum focus distance of 2 centimeters.

Finally, the Cinematic Mode feature seamlessly shifts focus from one subject to another, blurring the background and creating movie-quality effects. In addition, smart HDR 4 recognizes up to four people in a photo and optimizes each person’s contrast, lighting, and even skin tones.

Connectivity

5G connectivity is included for improved video streaming, FaceTime calls, and even mobile gaming quality. Also, the Gigabit LTE is supported when 5G isn’t available. To save battery life when using 5G, the Smart Data Mode reverts to an LTE connection when 5G speeds aren’t necessary. In addition, the iPhone 13 Pro supports WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.0, and the U1 ultra-wideband chip.

iPhone 13 Pro: Overall Performance & Battery

The upgraded A15 Bionic Chip powers the iPhone 13 Pro, featuring six cores with two performance cores, four efficiency cores, and a five-core GPU. And according to Apple, its GPU offers a 50% faster graphics performance than other chips on the market. In addition, the A15 chip also includes dedicated network hardware, called Neural Engine, that can perform 15.8 trillion operations per second.

The iPhone 13 Pro also offers improved battery life. Several factors make the latest iPhone last longer. First, the battery is physically larger. Second, features like ProMotion and a high-efficiency A15 chip can improve battery life. This smartphone has an 11% larger battery than the 12 Pro model, which translates to about 1.5 hours of extra battery life. It also supports fast charging with MagSafe accessories, getting the battery at 50% in just 30 minutes.

Colors, Pricing & Availability

The iPhone 13 Pro models come in those four finishes:

• Silver
• Gold
• Sierra Blue, and
• Graphite

The cheapest 128GB model will cost you $999. And the most expensive 1TB one will run up to $1499. Apple also allows users to trade in their older iPhones to reduce the cost.

Apple started taking pre-orders on Sept 17th for shipment in mid-November.

Conclusion

While its looks didn’t change much, the new iPhone 13 Pro is objectively a great smartphone. Improved cameras with 3x optical zoom, longer battery life, and optimized performance are worth getting excited for. And while the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra has officially been called the best phone of 2021, the iPhone 13 lineup is right behind it. But if you are not upgrading this season, why not sell your used iPhone online and try a different brand in the meantime? Just a thought.