iPhone 13 Pro - our review

S-class smartphone ("Mercedes" scale A, B, C, E, S)

Rating scale 1-6 (6-star)

Let's go

iPhone 13 Pro is the second in terms of "prestige" and price this year. In the 128 GB version we tested, it costs PLN 5,199. The 256 GB version costs PLN 5,699. From the Max we wrote about here, the 13 Pro differs primarily in size, and thus battery capacity and weight. The set of cameras, processor and display are identical. In my opinion, this is good, because buying a smaller model usually involved some sacrifices. We will not have any dilemmas here, and the only criterion will be the thickness of our wallet and whether we want a larger or smaller phone.

The second important issue is the changes compared to its predecessor, i.e. the 12 Pro model. There are few of them, but users of Apple devices have already got used to it. The manufacturer doses all novelties very sparingly. This year, the visual change is primarily the reduction of the notch, and the technical - ProMotion - dynamic refreshing of the display up to 120 Hz.

The smartphone lent us Komputronik for testing. Thanks a lot!

Main pros and cons of the iPhone 13 Pro

Pros of the iPhone 13 Pro:

Cons of the iPhone 13 Pro:

How we rate design? - rating 5

iPhone 13 Pro, like the entire series this year, almost does not differ from last year's 12 line. A slightly larger island with slightly more protruding cameras - it's all cosmetics. Available colors are Graphite, Gold, Silver and Sierra Blue. The finish is top notch, which means glass on the front and back and a steel frame. The back is matte, scratch-resistant and does not collect fingerprints. The same cannot be said for a frame that is glossy - perhaps a matte one wouldn't look as premium, but it would certainly be more practical. The island traditionally protrudes a lot above the surface of the device.

The bottom edge is where the Lightning connector for charging is located. I wonder when the EU will finally force Apple to use USC-C. We have two speakers - on the bottom edge and above the screen. They sound, traditionally for Apple, excellent, the sound is fleshy, resonant and spacious. The right side is the power button, the left side is the mute slider, two volume buttons and a Nano SIM card slot.

13 Pro meets the IP68 standard. The dimensions are 146.7 x 71.5 x 7.7 mm. So it is not overly large and lies comfortably in the hand, even despite the angular sides. However, it is quite heavy - it weighs 204 g.

What do we think about the display? - rating 5

The flat panel display has a diagonal of 6.1 inches, a resolution of 1170 x 2532 pixels, 460 ppi and an aspect ratio of 19.5:9. It is made in Super Retina XDR OLED technology with HDR10 and Dolby Vision. The standard brightness is 1000 nits, at peak it can be boosted to 1200 nits. The picture quality is excellent. We have sensational colors and excellent viewing angles. The novelty is the refresh rate of 120Hz. And to be honest, it's hard for me to say that I would be able to see them. iPhones have always been incredibly smooth, and this is also the case, and in my opinion, it is the smoothness of operation that ensures a high comfort of use. In any case, this year in the race for numbers, Apple has reached the android competition.

A nice change is the reduction of the giant, already very old-school notch. But the change is evolutionary, not revolutionary, exactly 20 percent. less indentation.

We have the True Tone function at our disposal. It is a dynamic adjustment of the color temperature of the displayed white to the external lighting.

The lack of information displayed on the blank screen, i.e. Android Always on Display, which is popular in the world, has not changed. It's a pity, because with a larger battery and great energy management, Apple could, in my opinion, afford a bit of madness. Maybe in another model.

Specification - rating 6

The processor is a 5nm Apple A14 Bionic (2x3.1 GHz Firestorm + 4x1.8 GHz Icestorm) with an Apple GPU. In addition, we have 6 GB RAM, memory versions are 128 GB, 256GB, 512GB and 1T.

In AnTuTu Benchmark, the phone reached 788430 points. iPhone 13 Pro works perfectly. During everyday work, there is no question of the slightest cuts or slowdowns. Fluidity is great, in the Android world similar can only be found in Google Pixels.

The connectivity package includes: 5G, LTE, WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.0, NFC. The set of sensors is: accelerometer, proximity, lights, magnetometer, gyroscope, barometer, gravity. Location is carried out using: A-GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, BDS, QZSS.

GPS works without any problems, NFC with which you can make payments, the quality of phone calls is excellent.

How does the operating system work? - 6 rating

iPhone 13 Pro runs on the latest version of IOS 15. Apple is famous for integrating all its services. So we have iCloud, iMessage, FaceTime, Handoff, Apple TV+, Apple Music, iCloud Drive, Maps at our disposal. Of course, all this does not preclude the use of Google services or third-party tools. An important novelty is the ability to talk via FaceTime, after sending an invitation to talk, with Android and Windows users.

Interesting options are a custom email domain and hiding your email address. Thanks to the first one, we don't have to worry about spam flooding our main inbox. When registering on a website, we use a temporary domain, which we can liquidate at any time without affecting the main address. Hiding the address is nothing more than encrypting the traffic from the browser.

Still no split screen or floating windows.

Unlocking the phone is carried out by Face ID which is undoubtedly the most secure on the market, but also troublesome if we wear a mask. We are then forced to enter the code, unless we use an Apple Watch.

What kind of photos and videos does he take? – rating 5

The set of cameras is as follows:

So we don't have any concessions to the Max model - the set of lenses is identical. This is nice, because so far, when deciding on a smaller version, we also had to make compromises in terms of quality or photo opportunities.

There are several news. The first is the ability to choose the style of photography. We have at our disposal: standard, high contrast, vivid, warm and cool. The second - movie mode, i.e. recording with blurring the background and later the possibility of changing the focus point. The third - a larger telephoto lens, this time allowing for 3x instead of 2x optical zoom, which is of excellent quality. Fourth - macro mode implemented with a wide angle and allowing you to get closer to about 2 cm to the photographed object.

A wide angle is perfect, as it has a satisfactory amount of detail and the color of the photograph is identical to the main lens. Photos from the main lens are very natural, have great tonal range and detail. Also the selfie lens works very well.

In general, there is a change in the philosophy of photography that is moving towards Android and comes down to giving the user more different possibilities. Orthodox iPhone lovers who like it when Apple decides for them can complain about this. But I like these solutions.

The filming is done in the highest resolution of 4K 60 FPS from the front and back. The movies are perfect, there are no problems with focus, sound or stabilization and they are very pleasant to watch.

Example photos:

Example video:

How long does the battery last? – rating 5

The cell has a capacity of 3095 mAh. The maximum charging power is 20W and the whole process takes about an hour. Provided, of course, that we buy such a charger. Because in a tiny box we will not find it. The phone can also be inductively charged using Apple MagSafe with a power of 15W and 7.5W using Qi-compatible chargers.

Despite still a smaller cell than in Android devices, the working time is excellent. In my case, it was two to three days with typical activity, i.e. phone calls, internet browsing, Spotify, messengers and an evening YouTube session. If I took a lot of pictures, the time was reduced to a day and a half.

Our Final Rating

The iPhone 13 Pro is clearly a premium device. Better than the iPhone 12 Pro. The novelties are supposed to be small but attractive enough that I will not be surprised at all by the desire to switch from an older to a newer model. However - from the point of view of an Android user - I would not see a reason to change some top, flagship device to the iPhone. The differences between them are not big and not always in favor of the iPhone. We will find phones with better quality photos or even videos. Although often the choice will be a matter of taste.

The sense of change appears only when we decide to switch to the entire Apple ecosystem. Macbook, Apple Watch and iPad make it all come together in one great working organism. And if someone is already in this ecosystem, they are certainly happy with their new iPhone 13, 13 Pro or Pro Max.

The smartphone lent us Komputronik for testing. Thanks a lot!

We love: smooth operation

We don't like: notch and no charger

Who the iPhone 13 Pro is for:

For who isn't the iPhone 13 Pro:

Alternatives to the iPhone 13 Pro: