the iphone 13 pro was the clear choice
for me out of apple's current iphone
lineup because of its 120 hertz refresh
rate screen and better camera system but
was that upgrade really worth it after
six months or should i have just gone
for the iphone 13. and now that it's
been six months should you just skip
this phone and wait for the iphone 14
pro i'm going to answer all of those
questions and more and first let's start
off by talking about the 120hz display
or what apple calls their pro motion
display technology this makes the
iphone's animations scrolling and
basically anything you do on the phone
feel much faster to me it's actually an
upgrade that makes a difference every
time i use my phone and after six months
this feature alone to me is worth it to
get the iphone 13 pro over the 13. now
the other reason i went with the 13 pro
over the 13 is the new camera system
which includes a telephoto lens that's
also capable of producing macro shots i
like taking a lot of photos with my
smartphones and the iphone's photo
quality is of course great but having
the flexibility to be able to zoom in 3x
without losing resolution that's a
feature i use way more than the ultra
wide camera because in general i think
there are more situations where a
telephoto lens is appropriate than an
ultra wide lens so those are the two
things i think make the iphone 13 pro
worth it over the 13 even when you
consider the 200 price difference
between the two phones now if you
disagree with that take or you agree let
me know down in the comments sticking
with camera quality for a second if
you're looking at getting a 13 pro
versus something like the pixel 6 pro or
the s22 ultra in general the iphone 13
pro has taken great photos for me
overall i think there's just becoming
less and less of a difference between
the main phone makers in terms of camera
quality these days though i do find i
still prefer the look of photos taken
from my pixel 6 pro about half the time
compared to photos taken with my iphone
and this is even with me using
photographic styles that try to mimic
the cooler increased contrast look of
the pixel's camera system photographic
styles are a new feature for iphones
that allow you to change the overall
look of the photos your iphone takes and
i think this feature works pretty well
it allows me to create a truly unique
look to my photos that when you look at
them they don't always immediately look
like they were taken on an iphone and
this to me is a good thing since i think
the iphone's default style is a bit too
punchy with its highlights and if you
want to see our upcoming review of the
pixel 6 pro or you want to see more
reviews on apple products make sure you
like this video and subscribe to the
channel now there is one more difference
between the iphone 13 pro and the 13
that i haven't mentioned yet and that's
the lidar sensor now i don't think this
is a feature most people would use to
justify upgrading to the 13 pro but it
is a hardware feature that i have found
some surprising uses for over the past
six months over the holidays i wanted to
share a gingerbread house that i had
made with extended family who weren't
physically present to be able to view it
and a photo just wasn't going to do it
justice a gingerbread house it's a
three-dimensional object and if i just
took a bunch of photos of each of the
sides it's just not the same as viewing
it there live so i downloaded this free
app called scaniverse that utilizes the
lidar sensor and i was able to make a 3d
scan of my gingerbread house like 10
minutes later and then it was very easy
to send that 3d file to my other family
members through imessage so they could
see the entire thing in augmented
reality otherwise known as ar and they
thought it was pretty cool that they
could virtually just place my
gingerbread house on their kitchen table
the lidar sensor also makes taking
measurements and placing digital
furniture and objects from certain apps
and websites into your space a much
smoother experience because the lidar
sensor helps improve the accuracy of
digital object placement and the phone
can remember exactly where it drew the
object more accurately and because apple
supports ar across ios i found that a
lot of websites are actually supporting
this feature now now the lidar sensor
again it's not going to be a feature
that everybody finds a use for but i
have been surprised at how many times
i've actually used it over the past six
months considering i didn't expect to
use it at all
so those are all of the features that
help differentiate the iphone 13 pro
from the regular 13. now there is one
feature i haven't mentioned yet that's
probably the best feature of the iphone
13 pro and that's battery life the
battery life on the iphone 13 pro is
phenomenal i rarely ever see this phone
go near 25 battery by the time i'm ready
to put it on its charger at night for my
light to moderate phone use i'll end the
day between 50 to 40 battery left and
it's by far been the best battery life
i've experienced on any phone in recent
memory and a somewhat significant
upgrade from the iphone 12 i was using
before i got the 13 pro now another
thing i've really liked about using the
iphone 13 pro over the past six months
is ios 15 and the new software features
it brought to the iphone experience the
first one being focus modes in ios 15
you can create multiple focus modes
which will mute notifications and
distracting apps so you're not disturbed
while you're trying to work drive etc
and the killer feature here is when i
enable a focus mode or schedule one
it'll sync across all of my other apple
devices like my ipad and my mac related
to focus modes screen time is another
feature i've recently used a lot to help
me lessen the amount of distracting app
notifications and time i was spending on
social media apps apple gives you a ton
of data to work with to help you lessen
the amount of distractions from your
iphone so you can focus on more
important things another new software
feature that's been really useful is
called hide my email and what apple will
do here is it will create a random
icloud email address like this one that
you can send emails to and then what
apple will do is anytime an email is
sent to an address like this one it'll
forward that email onto your actual
email address this way when you're
signing up for something you're not
actually giving a company your actual
email address but what's been brilliant
about this feature on ios is when you
get a box to input your email address
you'll see a drop down appear
automatically with this feature making
it so simple to use now to use hide my
email you'll need to have something
called icloud plus which is what apple
calls their expanded icloud storage
program the lowest tier costs 299 per
month here in the us for 250 gigs of
storage and it comes with other features
like private relay a couple of other
features that have been useful on the 13
pro are the ability to mute text message
notifications from unknown numbers you
can use face id with a mask on and with
ios 15 you can copy written text like a
recipe and paste it as digital text into
your notes though the accuracy of this
feature can vary wildly and i still find
that google lens is a more accurate
product to use in this type of scenario
so that's a bit about the new software
features that i've enjoyed using on this
iphone now with the iphone 13 pro you of
course get the classic iphone hardware
features like face id which is fantastic
and the face id camera enclosure is a
bit smaller on the iphone 13 pro
compared to the 13. and apple's flat
screen design on this year's iphones are
a classic take on the iphone 4 and 4s
era and make it really easy to put on a
screen protector which i appreciate now
the last main benefit i found with using
this iphone and it's one you've probably
heard me mention before if you're a
subscriber to the channel and if you're
not perfect time to go ahead and
subscribe to the channel and give this
video a thumbs up
the last major benefit is the apple
ecosystem now the apple ecosystem this
is a term that refers to all of these
software features that you can use
between apple products
and the iphone i like to think of the
iphone like a key into the apple
ecosystem especially when we're talking
about phone calls and messages you can
also have all of your text messages on
your ipad mac and apple watch and even
send text messages from a homepod mini
okay it's sent your iphone will also
enable spatial audio and automatic
headphones switching between your other
devices it has universal clipboard which
makes it easy to copy text from your
phone and paste it on a mac or ipad
continuity where you can open up a web
page in safari on your mac for example
from right where you left off on your
iphone the iphone 13 pro also has an
ultra wideband chip that makes it easy
to tap a homepod mini to hand off audio
to or precisely find an air tag located
nearby next up let's talk downsides now
the only downside i found using the
iphone 13 pro over the past six months
has been apple's insistence on
downloading every application for this
device through their own app store this
limits the kind of apps you can download
and overall limits your choice as a
consumer for what you can do with your
own device unlike with one of apple's
other product lines the mac which
doesn't have this limitation other than
that i haven't found any other downsides
with the iphone 13 pro it's been a solid
device and for 200 more to me it is
worth the upgrade over the 13. now once
you get six months into a phone's life
cycle this question always comes up
should you wait for the new iphones
coming out around september or just get
this one now it's a valid question and
in general i don't think going for the
13 pro now is a bad decision based on
the latest rumors for the iphone 14 pro
from sites like forbes and figures like
mark german and john prosser it seems
like the upcoming 14 pro will ditch the
face id notch and have some other minor
aesthetic changes but nothing
groundbreaking that would really change
your day-to-day use of the device like
i'd argue better battery life and the
120hz screen gets you in the 13 pro now
apple will likely have a new chip in the
iphone 14 pro and that may allow them to
get even better battery life with that
phone compared to the 13 pro so that may
be something to watch the iphone 13 pro
starts at 999 us dollars for the 128 gig
model and can be specced out all the way
to one terabyte for 14.99 and it comes
in the new alpine green color silver
gold graphite and the sierra blue color
which is the color i have if you're
interested in purchasing an iphone 13
pro or you just want to check out some
links to some great iphone accessories
make sure you check out the purchase
links here in this video and in the
description below if you have any
thoughts on the iphone 13 pro what you
love about using it if it's worth the
upgrade over the 13 in your mind and
whether or not people should wait for
the 14 pro leave a comment below now if
you're looking for what to watch next
check out some of our other long term
apple reviews like our reviews of the
airpods max homepod mini ipad mini and
make sure you're subscribed to see
upcoming apple long-term reviews like
our review of the mac studio and studio
display for six months later i'm josh
teder thanks for watching