The iPhone 13 Pro lineup is simply a beast this year with a stunning camera performance, 120Hz refresh rate display, epic battery life and of course overall performance. Unlike last year’s models, the iPhone 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max vary only by size, battery life and price, while matching everything else.
Design & Display
The iPhone 13 Pro retains last year’s flat edge design, with the antenna wrapped around the stainless steel frame. The back is still made out of glass with a matte finish, with the camera getting a bigger body this year. On the front, Apple protects the display with Ceramic Shield, which is hard a durable.
Another change in design this year is the color change to Sierra Blue, replacing last year’s Pacific Blue. This year’s blue is much lighter and a bit pale. There’s also the new reduced notch by around 20%.
Display wise, this year, you will definitely feel the difference while using the phone as Apple has finally adopted the adaptive refresh rate which goes up to 120Hz (ProMotion). Of course this translates into a butter fluid experience across the entire usage aspects like smoother animations, scrolling and zooming. The display is noticeably brighter as well and move visible under direct sunlight. The display also adapts automatically to the task by reducing the refresh rate down to 10Hz when reading text for example.
The iPhone 13 Pro comes with a 6.1-inch Super Retina XDR OLED panel (2532 x 1170) whereas the iPhone 13 Pro Max packs a 6.7-inch display (2778 x 1284 pixels).
Performance & Battery life
The iPhone 13 Pro lineup uses Apple’s A15 processor with 6GB of RAM, and has five GPU cores and although it’s marginally more powerful than last year’s A14 Bionic, it is definitely the fastest chip in the market at this time. Apple is claiming it’s 50% faster than the competition. All this means that the Pro line up is delivering a superb gaming experience.
According to reports, the Pro Max’s battery is 4,373 mAh, whereas the Pro’s battery is reportedly 3,125 mAh. During our tests, we managed to get around 12.5 hours of continuous basic tasks such as web browsing, email, notes taking on mobile data, and around 11.5 hours on the iPhone 13 Pro.
Camera
Those new cameras are noticeably bigger, with three lenses, a flash, a microphone and LiDAR scanner.
Probably the biggest change and selling point this year, is the upgraded camera module. You can now shoot Cinematic mode videos with a bokeh effect, choose form different Photographic styles and take closeups with a new macro mode, and of course better photos in low light.
The 12-megapixel standard and ultra-wide lenses have wider apertures, and the telephoto lens is longer (77mm).
The main wide sensor captures up to 47% more light for better performance in low-light scenarios. The ultra wide camera also has a new sensor that captures more light. The sensor features 1.9 µm pixels, and a lens with f/1.5 aperture.
The front-facing TrueDepth cameras is set at 12-megapixel with an f/2.2 lens with support for Night Mode. Using the Pro iPhones’ cameras did result in brighter and ore vivid photos, with the Night mode receiving a better and faster processing.
When it comes to macro mode, when you get closer to the subject, the camera automatically switches from the wide mode to ultrawide, and does a very good job in capturing photos.
These cameras enable the same features on both the iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max, such as Cinematic mode for video, real-time filters with Photographic Styles, and ProRes video which is available on the 256GB variant or higher.
Key Differences
| iPhone 13 Pro | iPhone 13 Pro Max | |
| Storage | 128, 256, 512, 1TB | 128, 256, 512, 1TB |
| Screen size | 6.1 inches | 6.7 inches |
| Resolution/ppi | 2532 x 1170/460 | 2778 x 1284/458 |
| Adaptive refresh rate | Up to 120Hz | Up to 120Hz |
| Processor | A15 Bionic | A15 Bionic |
| Rear cameras | Pro 12MP (Telephoto, Wide, Ultra Wide) | Pro 12MP (Telephoto, Wide, Ultra Wide) |
| Zoom | 3x optical / 15x digital | 3x optical / 15x digital |
| Front camera | 12MP TrueDepth | 12MP TrueDepth |
| Colors | Graphite, Gold, Silver, Sierra Blue | Graphite, Gold, Silver, Sierra Blue |
| Size | 5.8 x 2.8 x 0.3 inches | 6.3 x 3.1 x 0.3 inches |
| Weight | 7.2 ounces | 8.5 ounces |
| Water resistance | IP68 | IP68 |
| Price | Starting from 4,199 AED | Starting from 4,699 AED |
Verdict
This year’s lineup is definitely a recommended upgrade, and it you are considering switching to iOS, the iPhone 13 Pro is a must. The 13 series pack all the perks and power putting them on top of the smartphones kingdom.
