Year after year, iPhones continue to remain a reference and, even when they are not surprising for innovation or completeness, as in 2020, they still manage to offer valid reasons to be chosen. But what if, in addition to being a status symbol, a fashion and a habit, iPhone 13 Pro is also the best smartphone on the market?
It happens that we find ourselves on our hands with a complete product, hardware and software side, solid and concrete, practical, but also able to wink at those who want something more, a technically almost flawless smartphone that this time combines everything that we need. we would have expected. Let’s find out everything there is to know in our iPhone 13 Pro review.
DESIGN AND ERGONOMICS
iPhone 13 Pro, as well as its big brother 13 Pro Max , is a smartphone that closely resembles the previous generation , which in turn does not differ from the first iPhone with notch, iPhone X.
Family feeling guaranteed therefore, even if never as this year Apple has dared to flex its muscles and I am referring to the rear body in which the three huge photographic lenses peep out, enclosed in a transparent island. The photographic sector of the new iPhone is one of the biggest changes and undoubtedly the best card that the company wants to play, for this reason also the design becomes the protagonist in communicating it: iPhone 13 Pro takes great photos and just look at it to realize it.
The overall dimensions are always the same (146.7 x 71.5 x 7.7 mm) and are, in my opinion, right, a good compromise between handling and display size that remains 6.1 inches diagonally.
The steel edges are always square and with a glossy finish in all colors, but the weight has increased from 189 to 204 grams , which little however makes one-handed use a little less easy. Returning to the optical group, not only the dimensions have increased but also the thickness, well masked by the three levels on which the elements are placed (island, lens frame and lens glass).
As for the front, you have to look more carefully to notice that the ear capsule has been moved higher and the notch slightly narrowed thanks to a reorganization of the components.
On the Max the change is really of little consequence given the generous dimensions of the panel, on the iPhone 13 Pro instead the smaller “notch” is appreciable even if it does not change the cards in a substantial way.
There is also the IP68 certification against water and dust and as always you are struck by the premium look in its maximum expression, especially in the Gold color that we used for the review.
CERAMIC SHIELD TOUGH BUT SOFT
It had already happened last year, it could have been a coincidence perhaps, but two clues prove it and this time it must be said that glass with ceramic treatment is a good thing if we talk about impact resistance, much less if we talk about scratch repellency. , small imperfections from rubbing or crushing. In a few days, both iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max got a little damaged and it’s a great shame, definitely consider a protective glass (we tried the one inserted below and it’s great).
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NEW 120 HZ DISPLAY
One of the most awaited innovations for the new iPhone 13 was undoubtedly a high refresh rate display, a feature that is now essential on the top of the Android range (and not only) of the last 2 years and therefore has become urgent also for Apple.
Apple has implemented it by choosing the best of technology for high refresh rate displays: although it has not officially confirmed this, we should have LTPO panels with variable refresh rate from 10 to 120 Hz , capable of modifying the behavior based on what the user is viewing.
However, this is not an absolute novelty even for the Apple world that had experienced it on the Apple Watch 3. Apple calls the ProMotion functionality and it has already been implemented on the iPad Pro, albeit without using LTPO panels.
How does it work? The screen of the iPhone 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max varies the refresh rate dynamically slowing down to 10 Hz (10 refresh per second) to go up to 120 Hz when scrolling lists, texts, images, or in games that support 120 fps.
The advantage is twofold: on the one hand the user experiences an unprecedented fluidity in any part of the system , which thus becomes very enjoyable and super reactive, with even more fluid animations and always clear details, on the other hand it is possible to save a bit of battery when the images are static and it would be a waste to update the image 60 times per second (60 Hz which is the classic frequency of all previous iPhones).
In practice, you will find iPhone 13 Pro a little more snappy and fluid than its predecessor. It may not be one of those novelties that immediately leave you breathless, but be careful, because trying to activate the option that limits the refresh rate to 60 Hz (in the accessibility settings) you will immediately realize how much you may miss the ProMotion.
If with the first teardowns the certainty that the displays used are of the LTPO type emerges, consequently the regret for the absence of always on display would arise , which would have been well exploited with these particular panels.
What if it wasn’t LTPO? We specify that no one, except Apple, can be sure at the moment of the type of technology used, even if the international press is now taking it for granted. In this case the display could be a normal 120 Hz OLED with a software control that adjusts the refresh rate based on the content displayed, something a little less advanced but still effective and already seen several times on Android smartphones.
MULTIMEDIA
Refresh rate apart from the display remains roughly that of last year in terms of quality and brightness, even placing the two models side by side it is difficult to see differences, while the measurements speak of an extra 200 nits of peak brightness not in HDR (in HDR reaches 1200 nits).
The quality is very high and as always Apple has been very careful in preserving the vision of multimedia content in terms of color profile and calibration . We then add that, rightly, the refresh rate of the screen always goes to conform with the fps of the multimedia content, in order to avoid any type of annoying visual effect.
To the screen we add an audio sector with excellent power, space and body even at low frequencies. I have not found any major changes with the past and it is therefore a confirmation of the response given for the iPhone 12 Pro.
In this specific regard, instead of the iPhone 13 Pro Max it is amazing, perhaps even improved and really excellent, but we will talk about it in the dedicated review.
A15 BIONIC AND TECHNICAL SHEET
The Apple A15 Bionic SoC debuts on the new iPhones , a direct evolution of the previous generation “engine” that adds further power to graphics processing . While maintaining the same architecture there has been a certain improvement in performance, even if to see it you have to combine the two generations and go focused on some complex processes at the calculation level.
On A15 Bionic we find a 6-core configuration for the CPU and 5 cores for the GPU to which the 16-core NPU is added, the maximum frequencies for the CPU go from 3.1 to 3.22 Ghz, while the production process remains at 5 nm.
Without wasting too much on chatting iPhone 13 Pro is faster than its predecessor in processing data from LiDAR , opening some games and processing HDR videos for sharing, it is still an updrade with a marginal impact in the daily usability.
It would have been interesting to see iPhone 12 Pro at work with the new “cinematic mode” feature, but unfortunately the feature for the moment is exclusive to the new generation.
USABILITY AND SOFTWARE
The usability of the iPhone 13 Pro is ultimately not very different from that of its predecessor and all the other iPhones on the market. This is one of the prerogatives of iOS: to always be able to offer a familiar, easy and immediate environment, whatever the product you are using.
For this reason, net of some special photographic functions, all in all iPhone 13 Pro does not add anything special to what has already been said countless times about iPhones. Here everything is very fast and reliable, the telephone part is flawless as well as the connectivity one and iOS 15 adds even more possibilities and finishing touches.
Before talking to you about some new features of the operating system, I will focus on the telephone part, because I want to reiterate, as already with the iPhone 12 Pro, that this is one of the smartphones that take the best of all, they feel perfectly in the capsule and have a speakerphone that can also be used in noisy environments or in the car thanks to the double speaker. This is to say that despite being a hyper-technological product, the basics have not been neglected.
I add that it is a single sim + eSIM support and that in the Italian model unfortunately there are no antennas for mmWave, once again, and it is a lost opportunity for Apple to demonstrate that it can do things better than the competition.
iOS 15 that adds something useful like the various full immersion profiles that allow you to customize notifications and not just by creating usage profiles to be activated with a touch, or the live text that recognizes text from photos and transforms it into digital text that you can use on the phone The weather application and the Maps application have also been renewed, now more beautiful and complete.
In short, iOS is always depending on the point of view an indispensable added value or a reason not to buy iPhones, not everyone likes it and it is not ideal for everyone but it is perfect for many and one of the reasons why iPhones are so popular. .
AUTONOMY AND RECHARGE
Charging and autonomy, a cross and a delight respectively of the iPhone 13 Pro. The autonomy left me stunned , I did not expect a similar duration, also because with the iPhone 12 Pro you could not complain but not even be calm on very busy days.
Well, with the new model and despite the 120 Hz bugbear, the results were above expectations: it takes you to the evening without batting an eye and always keeps a good reserve just in case, a very linear behavior and a contained drain even under stress.
The other side of the coin is a recharge that begins to be a “case”, 25 Watt with cable, 15 Watt wireless and Apple that seems to turn away in the presence of a competition that is inventing one after the other. . There are Android smartphones for just over 200 Euros that can be recharged in half an hour! Sure it’s a choice, but let me tell you it’s becoming more and more incomprehensible (along with sticking with the Lightning connector, when the whole world including the European Union would like Type-C).
PHOTO AND VIDEO
The rear cameras of the iPhone 13 Pro are all new and bring, in addition to a flashy and perhaps a bit disproportionate design, many technical hardware and software innovations .
iPhone 13 Pro (and its colleague 13 Pro Max who is the same from this point of view) see a substantial improvement in the entire photographic sector , and even without upsetting the rules of the game, they still manage to be convincing at 360 degrees, undoubtedly hoisting itself into a new reference in the smartphone market.
Attention, technically during 2021 we have seen even more interesting solutions, for example the new Samsung GN2 sensor equipped on Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra , or Samsung’s careful management for the 108 MP sensor of Galaxy S21 Ultra , but Apple has put something here in addition, some innovative software functions, a superfine video quality, combined with an amazing consistency of performance in the photographic field.
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MAIN CAMERA
The 12 MP main sensor is now larger (1.9 µm pixels) and has received stabilization on the iPhone 12 Pro Max’s Sensor Shift sensor , while the aperture is now F / 1.5. The result is an ability to store significantly more light and, ultimately, to deliver significantly better photos in terms of dynamic range, detail and color accuracy.
The photos at night and with little light are the field in which the differences emerge clearly, however even during the day it has been possible to further refine the general quality. That said, there is still room for improvement, for example in the management of the not always perfect HDR and in night photos in which there are people, which are a bit too worked and emphasized on sharpness.
VIDEO AND PRORES
If you can have fun with cinematic mode, with normal video recording things get much more serious and … on the verge of perfection.
iPhone 13 Pro makes crazy videos , which isn’t a very professional term but gives a good idea of what my feeling was after the first tests. In 4K at 30 and 60 fps the quality is superfine from all points of view, audio, video, stabilization and autofocus.
Staying at 30fps, even in HDR, the stabilization is impressive in its effectiveness and really allows for near-camera quality images. Our video review was shot in part with the iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max and I would certainly be curious to see what it could do by adding an external lens to improve the optical performance.
IN CONCLUSION
On balance, I liked this iPhone 13 Pro in practically everything , it is not perfect but it is equipped with almost everything (charging and type-c) that a smartphone that aspires to be the best must have.
In other words , finally, by buying an iPhone 13 Pro you are sure of having the best of technology in your hands , a powerful and balanced product, strong on everything and capable of keeping up with the competition even on a technical level. All this without setting aside the historical weapons in its favor, two above all the operating system and the ecosystem of Apple products.
So yes, I believe that to date iPhone 13 Pro is the best smartphone on the square and someone who has never been an iPhone type says so, indeed, in private and professional life he has always been more interested in the world of Android smartphones and probably will be. even after iPhone 13 Pro. You can be sure that in this judgment there is no habit or fascination for the bitten apple, on the contrary, there is the most detached and neutral analysis possible of someone who simply loves technology.
All this has a price, 1189 Euros for the basic 128 GB version (eye, no ProRes in 4K), to reach 1769 Euros for the exaggerated 1 TB version, prices that have not risen compared to last year but which, at light of the competitors’ proposals, it does not even appear exaggerated.