iPhone 13 Pro review: The Pro phone you should buy this year

Another year and another Pro iPhone. The iPhone 13 Pro is the more affordable — though not by much — phone in the list of Pro iPhones this year. It also looks like the odd one out. The iPhone 13 Pro Max, because it is the “maximum” of everything that Apple offers, gets all the buzz. While the iPhone 13, because it is relatively so much more affordable, gets all the love from consumers. But don’t underestimate the iPhone 13 Pro, and definitely not this year. It holds up well against the Max and offers much more than the vanilla iPhone 13. In other words, at its price of Rs 119,900, the iPhone 13 Pro offers a lot to users.

This is the third year in a row that I’m reviewing the Pro model after testing the iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro. And, this year, the iPhone 13 Pro, apart from the display and battery difference, is almost identical to its bigger sibling, the iPhone 13 Pro Max. Unlike the iPhone 12 series, the iPhone Pro and 13 Pro Max pack the same set of cameras, including all the latest features. This means if you want the Pro model this year, then there shouldn’t be any confusion.There are a number of key features that I believe will make the iPhone 13 Pro endearing to users. A bigger battery is a much-needed upgrade, the A15 Bionic is as powerful as it can get, the ProMotion display is a welcome addition, and cameras make it worth more than ever.iPhone 13 Pro review: Familiar but robust designFor the iPhone 13 Pro, the design is probably one thing that may not impress buyers this year. This is not because the design has anything wrong with it. But because we have seen it earlier. But beyond the looks, there are some differences. This year’s iPhones are thicker, and a case in point is the iPhone 13 Pro which, at 7.65mm thickness, feels not as slim as the iPhone 12 Pro at 7.4mm. This thickness also translates into a considerable weight rise to 203 grams from 187 grams on the 12 Pro. iPhone 13 Pro (Left) and iPhone 12 Pro (Right)The second big noticeable difference is the display notch that has been reduced in size and, as Apple claimed, is 20 per cent smaller compared to the notch on the earlier iPhones. It is noticeable in use. In a good way. The Pro models sport surgical-grade stainless steel frames that go through a physical vapour deposition process to offer an Apple-custom finish that looks elegant. The new Pro models come in four colours – Graphite, Gold, Silver, and Sierra Blue. This review features the Graphite iPhone 13 Pro, and I feel it is the most boring colour option. My favourite colour pick in the Pro trims will be the Sierra Blue, which looks fantastic and changes into various shades like grey as light falls on it from different angles.On the back panel, we see an all-new camera system on the iPhone 13 Pro, with a beautiful stainless steel ring around the sapphire crystal lenses. The textured matte glass finish looks great. At the front, Apple has again used its Ceramic Shield glass. Like the iPhone 12 Pro, the iPhone 13 Pro is rated IP68.Due to the huge camera bump at the back, the 13 Pro wobbles more on a flat surface than its predecessor. This should not bother those who like to use a back cover or some sort of protection for the rear panel, so it shouldn’t be a big deal anyway. iPhone 12 Pro (on the left) and iPhone 13 Pro (on the right)Overall, the iPhone 13 Pro with the familiar flat-edged design looks similar to the iPhone 12 Pro, and you will notice differences design-wise only when looking closely. Long story short, the design may not be the factor that may push you to buy the new iPhones this year.iPhone 13 Pro review: No going back from ProMotion displayStunning is the word to describe the display on the iPhone 13 Pro. I have been using Pro models for the last two years, but this one was different right from the word go. From unlocking to standard animations to scrolling interactions, the iPhone 13 Pro feels like a device that’s fast compared to the iPhone 12 Pro in a side-by-side comparison. After years of rumours and leaks pointing to a higher refresh rate display, Apple has finally upgraded its Pro iPhone models to ProMotion 120Hz adaptive refresh rate.The 13 Pro features the same 6.1-inch Super Retina XDR display that we saw on the iPhone 12 Pro. However, this one can shuffle between 10Hz to 120Hz refresh rate depending on the content that’s running on your phone. Though, as pointed out by some reports, not all third-party apps are able to take advantage of the 120Hz refresh rate on the new Pro models, and Apple has promised a software fix in the coming days. iPhone 12 Pro vs iPhone 13 Pro – Display notch comparedThis year’s iPhone 13 Pro comes with 1000 nits peak outdoor brightness, which means it’s brighter than the 12 Pro’s 800 nits of peak outdoor brightness in typical use.In real-world usage, the iPhone 13 Pro offers a fantastic display and is a treat to watch multimedia content, be it movies, shows, videos, or general browsing. The display is vibrant, and the colours really pop on this one. For movies or games, the device offers incredible colour accuracy and contrast. iPhone 13 Pro review: Best cameras on an iPhone, yetIf Apple chose to call the new iPhones the iPhone 13 and not the iPhone 12s, one big possible reason is probably the cameras. The company is taking a leap this year (might have heard that before) in iPhone photography, and the Pro models are at the centre stage, yet again.The camera system has received a full makeover, and now the main Wide camera comes with a new sensor that is the largest ever put into an iPhone alongside a lens with an impressive f/1.5 aperture. The Telephoto lens now comes with a new 77mm focal length with f/2.8 aperture and 3x optical zoom support, a first for the iPhone. To compare, the iPhone 12 Pro maxed at 2x optical zoom. Similarly, the new Ultra-wide camera comes with autofocus and a larger f/1.8 aperture with claimed improvements in low-light shots. All three sensors shoot 12-megapixel images. There are some new features here. Of them, the Cinematic mode, Macro mode and Photographic Styles stand out. There’s also ProRes, which is aimed at content creators who want to shoot videos in extremely high-bitrate and then edit them in professional programs. The best part is that the iPhone 13 Pro will allow users to record and edit on the device itself, making it more appealing for people who have videos in their daily workflow. The feature is not yet enabled on the iPhone 13 Pro model, and we will have to wait a bit more to try it.Lots of chatter about cameras, but how well do they perform? I will let the pictures tell the story.Starting with the daylight shots, the iPhone 13 Pro clicks beautiful photos with plenty of details. The primary Wide sensor now comes with a larger sensor that allows more light-gathering, translating to less noise. From flowers to cars to animals, the iPhone 13 Pro just stands out with results. There are abundant details in the image, skin tones with true colours and even muted shadows that have colours that look natural and sharp.The Ultra-wide camera now comes with autofocus and has an added feature to handle macro photography. Apple has cleverly used its Ultra-wide sensor to do focusing at close distances, removing the requirement of a dedicated macro sensor that we see on some flagship smartphones. The new set-up is amazing and allows you to magnify subjects with a minimum distance of 2 centimetres. During taking close-up shots, the transition of lenses is smooth, and you won’t find any abrupt switch. However, a manual control would have been nicer. Apple has promised manual control in a future update.Photographic Styles is another new feature Apple is adding this year to its cameras, and it adds colour tones that users can choose depending on their preference. Portraits on the new iPhone 13 Pro are excellent, with a fantastic balance between the background and the subject in the foreground. The Telephoto zoom has been bumped to 3x from the current 2x, which is nice considering rival Android flagships now come with up to 10x zoom. The zoom is excellent for landscape compositions, though, don’t expect much. I ended up getting slightly noisy images with colours desaturated somewhat. However, the details are more or less preserved, something you won’t get on modern-day flagships.Apple is bringing Night mode to all the cameras for the first time, including the Telephoto lens.The selfies on iPhones look better than the majority of Android flagships, and that’s the case with iPhone 13 Pro as well. Selfies on the 13 Pro are sharp with abundant details and the right skin tones. There’s some dip in low-light situations, but largely it’s better.Apple is not just trying to woo photography enthusiasts but also wants to appeal to content creators with a lot of video shooting. The new Cinematic mode is a case in point, which automatically adds beautiful shallow depth of field and focus transitions to videos. The best part is the video depth information is stored and allows you to change the depth of field of effect later. The implementation is excellent and works well across different light conditions. iPhone 13 Pro review: One word, powerfulSimilar to how Apple’s product cycle refresh means new iPhones, the company also upgrades its in-house chip and this year, it’s A15 Bionic chip. On paper, it packs two new high-performance cores and four new high-efficiency cores with the Neural Engine, mostly the same as the A14 chip. However, another under the hood bump is the all-new five-core GPU on the Pro models, which is more than the four-core GPU on A14. Everything happens so smoothly that it feels unreal at times, but it’s hard to tell the difference compared to the A14 Bionic.And that’s where synthetic benchmarks come in. I’m not a fan of synthetic benchmarks for the simple reason that the experience matters more than benchmark results, especially when we live in a world where some handset makers have rigged test scores to misdirect consumers. But, going by a host of benchmark scores floating on the Internet, the iPhone 13 Pro beats all Android flagships hands down, even the ones with a Snapdragon 888 under the hood and, of course, shows better results than last year’s iPhone 12 Pro. I tried Asphalt 9, Battlegrounds Mobile India, Call of Duty, and Dead Trigger 2 titles for gaming, and the experience was fantastic. From Apple Arcade, I played Oceanhorn 2 and Butter Royale, which were amazing to play on the new iPhones. I also did some editing on the Lightroom and Adobe Premiere Rush apps on the iPhone, and they worked smoothly.The loudspeakers on the iPhone 13 Pro are loud for a single person use in a room and can be good enough for games and even movies. In addition, the call quality of the new iPhone 13 Pro is excellent, and I have to point out that the phone managed to latch on to cellular networks around zones where I rely on Wi-Fi only, which was again impressive.iOS 15, Apple’s latest operating system, runs out of the box on the iPhone 13 Pro. It has plenty of highlight features, like Focus mode, which can help you filter notifications based on what you are doing. I posted my impressions of iOS 15 here, and you can go through it if you want to know more. Unfortunately, the marquee features like SharePlay in FaceTime were unavailable on the iOS build I was running on the Pro model. iPhone 13 Pro review: Incredible battery lifeThe battery department is one big bump in this year’s iPhones, and the iPhone 13 Pro shows significant improvements over the 12 Pro. During my review, I got roughly over a day with heavy usage on the iPhone 13 Pro, which isn’t something I get any more on the 12 Pro.In my video loop test, the iPhone 13 Pro managed around 11 hours of video playback before the phone shut down itself, which is impressive.If there’s one department where Apple still lacks massively, it has to be fast charging support. The iPhone 13 Pro comes with fast charging support that maxes out at 20W, and to be fair, it is pretty low compared to the Android flagships offer. Even the MagSafe wireless charging is capped at up to 15W, while Qi wireless charging is up to 7.5W. With a 20W charging adapter, the iPhone 13 Pro can charge up to 50 per cent in 30 minutes. The iPhone 13 Pro takes about 80-90 minutes to charge from 0 per cent to 100 fully. From left to right: iPhone 11 Pro vs iPhone 12 Pro vs iPhone 13 ProiPhone 13 Pro review: Verdict2021 will probably be the year when the Pro model regains sales numbers compared to its Pro Max sibling, something we haven’t seen in the last few years. And, the reasons are simple, the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max are identical, except for the bigger display and a bigger battery. This year, Apple offers similar camera features on both its Pro models, which wasn’t the case with the iPhone 12 Pro and 12 Pro Max. So, when you buy the iPhone 13 Pro, you save money and get a better manageable device overall for everyday usage.As an iPhone 12 Pro user, I don’t see any point in upgrading to the 13 Pro because there aren’t any new additions that blow me away. But anyone and everyone using the iPhone 11 or older devices should definitely think of upgrading to the new Pro model if your pocket allows it. It packs tons of improvements and majorly in three departments – display, camera, and battery – which make the Pro worth your money.If you’re keen on the iPhone 13 Pro but do not want to spend over a lakh, then there’s the iPhone 13 on the offering as well, which offers almost an identical design and features (minus some Pro focused add-ons).iPhone 13 Pro review 8.5/10 ProsBuild qualityCamerasBattery lifeConsCamera bumpOnly 20W fast charging