iPhone 13 Pro Review: When Apple gets it right, everyone else plays catch up

Perhaps the least interesting thing about the new iPhone 13 Pro is its design. The 2021 iPhone Pro models look more or less similar to the iPhone 12 Pro series, which got a major design upgrade last year. It continues to sport a flat edge design made of stainless steel with curved edges. The side frames are a fingerprint magnet and you would either need to use a case or a skin, but that would take away from the premium in-hand feel or end up wiping it again and again. I wish Apple could have opted for a matte finish on the stainless steel frame if it was possible.

The talking point around the design this year of the new iPhone 13 Pro models is the new Sierra Blue colour. The Pro iPhones get this muted shade of Sky Blue, which might look sort-of light grey from the sides at times. I personally love the new colour and would probably even choose this over the Graphite iPhone 13 Pro. The Silver, surprisingly, looks the least appealing to me, with Gold ranked above it. Design and colour preferences are subjective and therefore, I would leave this on you.

It is not just the new colour that Apple has added to this year’s iPhone. The iPhone 13 Pro is slightly heavier at 209 grams. It is also thicker at 7.7mm. However, I feel this is a fair trade-off for the bigger battery that is packed inside. More on the battery life in the later part of the review.

At the back, you still have the three camera setup and the LiDAR placed inside an even-larger square-shaped module. The camera this time around protrudes even further, which means that your iPhone 13 Pro will wobble when kept on a flat surface. 

While the design hasn’t changed much, it is the display that is getting quite some attention. The iPhone 13 Pro (finally!) gets a 120Hz ProMotion LTPO display that switches the refresh rates between 10Hz and 120Hz. Apple took its time after introducing ProMotion first on the iPad Pro in 2017. While iOS itself offered smooth animations, ProMotion feels even smoother at 120Hz. Provided you have the eye for detail, you will notice that the scrolling animations feel slightly smoother. 

The iPhone 13 Pro’s 6.1-inch display is large enough for me to consume content. Those looking for a larger screen can opt for the iPhone 13 Pro Max, which sports a 6.7-inch display. Both Pro models come with features like HDR10 support, Dolby Vision, True Tone, etc. The display on the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max has 1000 nits brightness. In simple terms, it means that you will not experience any difficulty while watching stuff on the screen, even under direct sunlight. The display brightness hits a peak of 1200 nits when viewing HDR content. The iPhone 13 Pro’s Super Retina XDR display is the best in business as it offers great viewing angles and vibrant colours. 

Apple has also shrunk the notch by 20 percent by moving the earpiece at the top of the notch and repositioning the Face ID and other sensors. Most people probably won’t even notice this unless you keep it next to the iPhone 12 or the iPhone 11 and compare. Apple isn’t making use of the extra space to show the battery percentage either. Users will have to pull down the notification shade or the Control Centre to check the iPhone’s battery percentage left.

Like last year, the iPhone 13 Pro comes with a layer of Ceramic Shield, which is claimed to offer up to 4x better drop resistance. While I was careful with the device during my iPhone 13 Pro review, I did drop the regular iPhone 13 accidentally a couple of times. The non Pro models also get the same Ceramic Shield treatment, which could have been the reason why the iPhone 13 managed to survive my accidental drop tests. Obviously, this is not a recommendation to perform an iPhone 13 drop test. 

The new iPhone 13 series models also come with an IP68 rating for water and dust resistance. You can dive up to 6 meters under water for about 30 minutes with your iPhone to record videos or click photos without worrying. 

Performance and Software

When it comes to performance, the iPhone wipes the floor with the best of Android smartphones out there. Apple’s custom-developed A-series chipsets have been the fastest among all smartphones. The lead is such that many phones launched in 2021 play catch up to last year’s A14 Bionic chip. This year, Apple made some big claims with the A15 Bionic. The latest chip on the iPhone 13 is claimed to offer up to 50 percent faster CPU and 30 percent better GPU performance compared to the competition. The iPhone 13 Pro takes it a notch higher with its five-core GPU, claimed to offer up to 40 percent faster performance compared to the competition.

To be honest, there’s a lot of raw power available under the hood that most people are not even likely to use. However, this power in the A15 Bionic on the iPhone 13 Pro would serve smoother performance in the longer run, which could last for 3-4 years, at least.

The five-core GPU would not just offer more than enough power while playing games but also when editing the heavy Pro-Res videos on the iPhone. We also played many games on our iPhone 13 Pro review unit, which included the much popular Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI), Asphalt 9 and some Apple Arcade games. Goes without saying, the iPhone 13 Pro did not break a sweat. There was no lag or any frame drop while playing BGMI even in HDR + Extreme graphics setting. That being said, the phone did get slightly warm to the touch. 

There’s no 3.5mm headphone jack and no in-box EarPods either. You will either have to rely on AirPods or any third party TWS/ neckband and connect via Bluetooth. The speakers on the iPhone 13 Pro are loud and clear. The earpiece, which doubles up as a secondary audio outlet, is also slightly louder compared to the iPhone 12. Call quality and reception is quite good with my Jio and Airtel SIM cards here in Mumbai.

With regards to the software, iPhone 13 Pro runs iOS 15 out of the box. I have listed down some of the best iOS 15 features in my iPhone 13 review. The new iOS 15 update for iPhone 13 Pro does not get a major design overhaul but introduces many important privacy features. Apple aimed at offering a smooth, enhanced user experience but iOS 15 is probably among the most buggy software updates in the recent times. For instance, the universal search feature refused to list some of the installed apps, including the App Store. The keyboard did not pop up at times when you tap on the App Library search bar. The Screen Time setting also showed some weird readings, which was fixed after a restart. Most of the bugs, except for the App Library bug, have been fixed in iOS 15.1. I will update this section if I notice any new bugs/ fixes.

Battery life

Another major upgrade that Apple introduced in the iPhone 13 Pro is a bigger battery. The company claimed that its Pro iPhone offers 1.5 hours more juice compared to the iPhone 12 Pro. While I did not get the chance to use the 12 Pro to verify the claim, what I can share with you is the practical battery performance details.

Starting with the worst case scenario, the iPhone 13 Pro offered about 6 hours and 15 minutes of screen-on time (SoT) on a single charge. This matches and in many cases, even offers better battery life compared to the Android counterparts. On good days when I did not play many games or shot videos, the iPhone 13 Pro offered up to eight hours of SoT. It falls slightly behind the iPhone 13, which offered up to nine hours of SoT on a single charge. The obvious reasons behind this include a slightly smaller battery and the iPhone 13 Pro’s 120Hz ProMotion display feature that requires some extra juice.

In case you are wondering, no, there is no charger in the box. Users need to purchase a 20W fast charging adapter from Apple or rely on their old chargers that come with a USB Type-C port. We used the AMX XP-60 to charge the iPhone 13 Pro at 18W and the phone with optimised charging disabled took about an hour and 30 minutes to refill the battery. Apple’s own iPhone 11 Pro charger that came in the box took five minutes less to charge the iPhone 13 Pro completely. Other than the lightning cable, the iPhone 13 Pro also supports MagSafe charging at 15W and Qi-based wireless charging at 7.5W.

Camera

Unlike last year, the iPhone 13 Pro and the iPhone 13 Pro Max share the same camera setup. Now, if you are someone coming from an iPhone 11 series or older iPhone model, this would be a big upgrade. All three camera sensors on the iPhone 13 Pro are the largest compared to any other previous generation model. Apple isn’t playing the numbers game here as the iPhone 13 Pro camera setup continues to house a 12MP triple-camera setup. Other than the larger sensors, the aperture on the main and ultrawide sensors is also wider. Theoretically, this should result in better lowlight performance while capturing more details, resulting in sharper images. 

The main 12MP f/1.5 sensor of the iPhone 13 Pro camera shines when it comes to daylight performance. It is among the few smartphones out there that captures close to real colours while offering good amount of details. The dynamic range too is among the best. We noticed that the camera does not blowout the highlights when the subject and the sun are in direct line of sight. Because of that f/1.5 aperture and a larger sensor, the camera at times does not even require to trigger the night mode feature. When it does, you get well-exposed images with decent amount of details.

The 12MP ultrawide camera gets close in terms of dynamic range but we noticed that it tends to struggle with getting the sky colours right sometimes. It won’t match the details you would get from the main camera but does get the colour temperature right while offering a wider frame. In lowlight too, we found the ultrawide camera performance to be better than the iPhone 11 Pro and also the latest iPhone 13. That’s because the iPhone 13 Pro’s 12MP ultrawide camera has a larger f/1.8 aperture lens, whereas the regular iPhone 13 has an f/2.4 aperture. 

Also, the same 12MP sensor now comes with autofocus and doubles up to shoot macro. You can move as close as 2cm away from the subject to get sharp, close-up shots using the 12MP ultrawide camera, which is a good thing. The bad thing here was that the camera automatically switches to the macro camera when it thinks that you want to click a particular subject. There were times when I was trying to get a closeup shot and the camera switched from main to ultrawide's macro mode. Apple released the new iOS 15.1 update with the new toggle which can be enabled via Settings > Camera > Auto Macro.

Completing the rear-camera setup is a 12MP f/2.8 telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom. It does not zoom in as far as the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra (Review) or the Vivo X70 Pro+ (Review) but at 3x optical, the iPhone 13 Pro shoots sharp, detailed zoom shots. The dynamic range is quite good too and you get good contrast levels alongside. Zoom anything further of 5x zoom and you will notice lack of details and colours washing out.

The iPhone 13 Pro also gets the Cinematic mode and Photographic Styles feature found on the regular iPhone 13 models. I have shared my experience about the same in my iPhone 13 review, which you can check by clicking here.

An exclusive video feature for the Pro models is ProRes. It is a high-quality video codec that offers better colour reproduction and less compression. Since the A15 Bionic has more than enough power, users can not just record but also edit ProRes videos at 4k30fps on your iPhone 13 Pro models. There’s a catch though. This is only possible on the 256GB/ 512GB/ 1TB storage options as 4K videos in general eat up quite some storage. For those with a 128GB iPhone 13 Pro, ProRes will be capped at 1080p at 30fps - the same as Cinematic mode. And it does make sense for Apple to cap the quality here cause a 1-minute long sample video shot in ProRes at 1080p 60fps took about 3.65GB of the total storage. Therefore, it’s best to get a higher storage option in case you plan to shoot a lot of video content.

The fourth 12MP camera sensor is at the front. It is the same 12MP sensor found on the older iPhone 12 models. Expect decent quality selfies with enough details and close to accurate skin tone. The overall front camera output was slightly warmer. The likes of Vivo X70 Pro+ and the S21 Ultra do a slightly better job with selfies, especially the former with its bunch of filters and bokeh modes. Also, I would pick the Vivo X70 Pro+ for its lowlight front camera performance. The iPhone 13 Pro’s Portrait mode is, however, quite impressive with edge detection and Portrait Lighting modes like natural, studio light, contour light, stage light mono, high-key mono, etc. on the front and rear camera. Stage light mono and High-key mono continue to remain as my favourite portrait modes on the iPhone 13 Pro. You can click here or the Flickr slideshow below to check some of the sample images we shot during our iPhone 13 Pro review.

Verdict

Coming to the most crucial part of this review: Should you buy the iPhone 13 Pro? Let’s address the elephant in the room first. Yes, it’s a given that with the iPhone 13 Pro price in India starting at Rs 1,19,900, it is an expensive purchase decision. For the price, Apple is offering a premium design in a glass body that packs the best performance unit in any smartphone currently available in 2021. It also brings a 120Hz ProMotion display, which is now even more brighter than outgoing models. I still don’t like the notch but have got used to it. 

The camera, too, has got major upgrades this year. It doesn’t get the big 108MP or 100x zoom numbers but aims at delivering consistent, reliable performance. One might say that the Vivo X70 Pro+ (Review) has a better lowlight performance but the iPhone isn’t far behind. While Vivo has its gimbal-like stabilisation, the iPhone’s sensor-shift OIS and colour accuracy helps it take the lead. 

Apart from the larger sensors and the main camera featuring sensor-shift stabilisation, Apple has also added support for ProRes video recording that actually gives better control to creators not just while recording but also post-processing, courtesy of the A15 Bionic’s sheer power. Cinematic Mode needs some improvement but considering its a first-gen update, the performance is quite good. Not to forget Photographic Styles, which gives you options to click photos in different colour profiles.

Lastly, the battery life is much improved and is among the best in segment. The iPhone 13 Pro Max will certainly be a battery-life champ, despite having a 120Hz 6.7-inch Super Retina XDR display. Next best would be the iPhone 13, which mainly gets better battery life due to its 60Hz display. The iPhone 13 Pro sits third, according to our experience, with its roughly-7-hours of battery life. 

It's not perfect either. I still would have liked to see Touch ID make a comeback in some form, especially during the times when we cover our face with a mask. The notch, although smaller, still exists. I have given up my hopes on Apple switching from Lightning but hopefully the next iPhone gets the USB Type-C along with faster charging support.

So, considering all these factors, should you upgrade to an iPhone 13 Pro from the iPhone 12 series? Maybe not. Unless you want the best of what Apple offers or an iPhone with better battery life and improved cameras, the iPhone 13 Pro can be considered. That being said, the regular iPhone 13 (Review) offers almost a similar camera performance and better battery life. The Pro models come with that extra macro mode and the ProRes video recording feature, with the latter suiting best for creators.

For anyone with an iPhone 11 or older iPhone, the iPhone 13 series is quite an upgrade. You can choose between the four iPhone 13 models and compare your use case with the details mentioned above.

Whether or not Android users should purchase the iPhone, it’s purely based on their preference. While Android offers more customisation options, iOS is more smooth, reliable and offers more convenience. Not to mention that the switch makes even more sense for those who have other Apple products like a MacBook or iPad. The user experience, when clubbed, helps improve productivity. Something as simple as Continuity features that lets you move your task from an iPhone to an iPad or a Mac. Or copying text on your iPhone and pasting it on your Mac, the ecosystem just works and makes work more convenient. 

Also, software support for the iPhone remains unmatched. While select Android smartphone companies have got close, Apple still maintains its lead of offering up to five years of software support for its iPhones.