This is one of those years when the new iPhone looks pretty much the same as last year's iPhone.
But don't be fooled by the fact that the iPhone 13 Pro is essentially a souped-up iPhone 12 Pro.
There are four big improvements here, and they may not be surprising new technical marvels,
but they still makes for really meaningful improvements.
The iPhone 12 Pro is already great phone, even today.
So if the iPhone 13 Pro is the same thing with a ProMotion display, faster processor,
better camera system, and MUCH better battery life, well... that's a real winner.
Before we get into these improvements, we should note that the iPhone 13 Pro MAX is
exactly the same as the iPhone 13 Pro, except bigger and with a bigger battery.
That wasn't true last year, when the max had different cameras.
So everything said here goes for the Max size as well, except battery life, which we'll get to later.
In terms of styling, the iPhone 13 Pro hasn't changed much from the iPhone 12 Pro.
It's still got the same matte finish on the back, steel frame around the outside, and
is available in mostly the same colors.
You get Gold, Graphite, and Silver color options, and they're exactly the same but Pacific Blue
has been swapped out for Sierra Blue.
It's a good looking phone, but I prefer last year's darker shade.
You'll probably notice that the notch for the sensors at the top of the display is narrower.
But Apple didn't do anything at all with the extra screen space.
Don't they know that EVERYONE wants the battery percentage back?
You may also notice that the buttons have been moved downward just a little, but that's
not the feature that jumps out at you.
The big change is enormous camera bump.
The rear camera array is much larger and sticks out further, so cases for the iPhone 12 Pro won't fit at all.
And if you don't use a case that makes the back the phone lie flat, that big bump MIGHT
get in the way when using some wireless charging stands or car mounts.
The camera array got so much bigger because there are huge upgrades all around.
The standard wide-angle camera has a wider f/1.5 aperture and a larger sensor,
so it's better in low light.
The telephoto camera is now a 3x zoom instead of a 2x zoom, which is better for shooting
far away stuff but also produces more natural looking portraits.
But it's the new Ultra-Wide thats going to please the most people, I think.
It has a much wider f/1.8 aperture and works way better in dark scenes, but the real treat
is that the minimum focus distance is only 2 centimeters.
That means you can get your iPhone 13 Pro right up next to something for stunning macro shots and videos.
That's ONLY available on the Pro models.
The regular iPhone 13 and mini have a different Ultra-Wide camera with a smaller aperture
and a further focus distance.
Macro shots are apparently a Pro thing, and they are AWESOME.
If you're a video editor, you might like that the Pro models will be able to shoot directly
in ProRes format after a software update later this year.
But that's not the kind of thing most people should be concerned about.
Apple's got a couple of other new photo tricks in the iPhone 13,
but they're not exclusive to the Pro models.
There's Photographic Styles, which is a way to tweak the image processing pipeline to
give you shots that are cooler or warmer, or more vibrant.
These aren't just filters that change the whole photo equally, they're tweaks that are
applied selectively throughout the image processing pipeline.
So if you find that the iPhone's white balance is a little too blue or you prefer the punchier
colors of a Samsung phone, you can tune the iPhone camera to your liking without making
everyone's skin look like plastic.
The other neat new trick is cinematic mode video.
This shoots in 1080p and Dolby Vision HDR while applying a dynamic real-time depth of field effect.
The focus follows your subject and can move from the foreground to the background.
And the data for the focus changes is saved separately with the video so you can go back
later and change the focus when you edit.
It's a fun mode and works pretty well, but there's no support for it in third-party editing
software and the 1080p resolution is a little disappointing.
I think it's one of those things like Portrait Mode, where it's a fun toy at first but hard
to take really seriously right now.
And Apple will keep making it better with new phones and new software, and then in the
iPhone 15 it's going to be amazing.
All this new photo stuff is made possible by the new A15 processor.
When I say it's quite a bit faster than the A14 from last year, you have to remember that
the A14 is still faster than any other chip in any smartphone today.
The A15 still has six CPU cores - two high-performance and four high-efficiency - but they're a bit faster.
Our benchmarks showed them to be 8-10 percent faster for a single-core, and 10-20 percent
faster in multi-core stuff.
The graphics, on the other hand, takes a big leap.
In the iPhone 13 and 13 mini, it still has four GPU cores,
and yet it manages to be 10-15 percent faster.
In the iPhone 13 Pro, there's a FIFTH GPU core, so you can tack on another 20-30 percent
graphics performance on top of that.
This is the first time Apple has differentiated the Pro models with an extra GPU core, and
it makes a big difference.
This thing is just much faster than it needs to be and absolutely embarrasses every chip
in every Android phone.
Apple made a host of other improvements, too.
The Neural Engine that does machine learning and AI stuff is over 40% faster, the image
processor is better, and there's new video encode and decode hardware.
Even the wireless stuff is more power efficient, and the 5G modem supports more bands now.
That's really about supporting 5G in more countries and won't make a difference here in North America.
One of the other ways Apple is making the iPhone 13 Pro different from the regular iPhone 13 is with the display.
After years of giving us a ProMotion display in the iPad Pro,
we finally get it in the iPhone Pro.
Instead of always running at 60Hz, ProMotion automatically ramps up the display up to 120Hz
when scrolling or swiping, and turns it all the way down to 10Hz when looking at a still screen.
This makes everything super smooth and responsive when it needs to be and saves battery life the rest of the time.
You'll notice it right away in any app with lots of scrolling or in full screen transitions,
but it's going to take a little while for developers to update their apps to make all
their animations super smooth.
Still, it's already a great experience that looks and feels better from the first minute
you use it, and it's a big point of difference between the regular iPhone 13 and the Pro models.
Oh, and the display is brighter, too.
It goes up to 1000 nits, when last year's model tops out at 800.
That's way too bright for normal use but it does make the screen easier
to read when you're out in bright sunlight.
All this crazy high performance and brighter ProMotion display,
it must hurt battery life, right?
Well no, battery life has actually gone in the OTHER direction.
Apple put bigger batteries in the whole iPhone 13 line, but the more efficient ProMotion
display makes the Pro and Pro Max last even longer still.
We were already happy with the battery life in the iPhone 12 Pro, and the iPhone 13 Pro
lasting 35% longer in our geekbench battery test.
The iPhone 13 Pro Max is bigger with a bigger battery, and it ran for ANOTHER 2.5 hours!
Over 11 and a half hours with the screen on at 200 nits running geekbench over and over.
This is just astounding battery life.
It's hard to believe it, but the iPhone XS was just three years ago and since then Apple
has basically doubled battery life while making huge leaps in performance and display quality.
The iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max last a lot longer than last year's models, but if you're coming
from a three or four year old iPhone you're going to be stunned by how long they last.
It's tempting to think of the iPhone 13 Pro as just a minor update to the iPhone 12 Pro.
We've wanted ProMotion on iPhone for years and there are lots of Android phones with
high refresh rate displays.
And a faster processor, better camera, and better battery life...
well there's nothing too surprising there.
That's every iPhone update, right?
But you shouldn't discount these improvements just because they're not surprising.
The battery life isn't just a little longer, its a LOT longer.
The photo quality is a bit better, but that macro photography is going to delight millions of users.
And ProMotion may have happened later than we hoped, but it's every bit as nice as we expected.
The iPhone 13 Pro may be just an improved iPhone 12 Pro but it's a BIG improvement.
And it's quite a bit better than the regular iPhone 13, which doesn't give you ProMotion,
or macro photography, or telephoto, and whose battery doesn't last quite as long.
We have some nits to pick, like how Apple keeps hanging on to the Lightning connecter
when we want USB-C and how the selfie camera is good but hasn't been upgraded in a couple years.
And stainless steel is durable but it makes for a HEAVY phone.
But a product doesn’t have to be flawless to be the best, and that’s exactly what this is.
If you picked up an iPhone 13 or iPhone 13 Pro,
and you want more tips and tricks, visit Macworld.com