iPhone 13 Pro in review: Strong overall package with known weaknesses

After last year's iPhone 12 Pro was rather disappointing and Apple hardly changed anything compared to the 11 Pro, the new iPhone 13 Pro comes with some major improvements. Apple finally installed a display with a smooth 120 Hertz refresh rate and a smaller notch, a new triple camera with larger sensors and a 3x optical zoom, a larger battery and much more.

We have tested the iPhone 13 Pro extensively over the past few weeks and you will now find out in the following lines whether the cameras are really as good as everyone says and whether the smartphone is worth recommending for a recommended retail price of a proud 1.149 euros.

Haptics & design - worth 1.000 euros

The biggest change in the design of the iPhone 13 series is probably the smaller notch. It would be unfair to Android manufacturers to say it's a big change, but it's actually the one we've been longing for for years. However, the change hasn't meant that the long-awaited battery percentage display can now be read at the top. On the contrary: it shows exactly the same as in the 12 series, which means a lot of space is wasted unnecessarily.

The iPhone 13 Pro has no changes in dimensions compared to the 12 Pro. This means that it is still a very compact flagship smartphone that feels pleasantly small in the hand. This feeling is only slightly revised by the sharp edges. The weight is now 203 grams, which is actually quite a lot for such a small case.

The in-hand feel remains rather poor due to the angular frame, but from a purely visual perspective, you can say that the current iPhone Pro models are really worth 2.118 euros with the maximum configuration. The angular stainless steel frame in particular looks extremely high-quality with the way the light reflects, so you'll enjoy admiring it in everyday life. But you have to accept that it almost magically attracts fingerprints and, like the camera module, is extremely difficult to keep clean. The colors haven't changed much compared to the 12 series. You still have the choice between gold, silver and graphite. A new addition is "Sierra Blue", which creates more of a gray tone in situations with less light and looks different than in product images or in situations with a lot of light. I personally like the color quite a lot, even if I would have liked a bit more saturation.

Display - high quality

iPhone displays have always had a worry-free reputation. Beautiful color reproduction, stable brightness and a clear appearance. While last year's iPhone 12 series couldn't really claim the latter point in particular, the problems have been fixed this year. Whether from the front or the side, the iPhone 13 Pro's panel looks extremely clear, pleasant to look at and the brightness is one of the best on the market at 1.000 nits in direct sunlight (not peak for HDR content).

The viewing angle stability is excellent. (Image: TechnikNews)

The second weakness that was often criticized in the iPhone 12 series was the lack of a high refresh rate. This point was remedied this year with the iPhone 13 Pro. Apple finally installed a 120 Hertz LTPO panel and called it "ProMotion". This function is able to automatically adjust the refresh rate to the required level in order to save power, which works much better than with comparable Android smartphones. Furthermore, the 120 Hertz are kept extremely constant in the current software version, which ensures smooth operation in everyday life.

Software - IOS 15

Inside is the new Apple A15 Bionic, which is manufactured using the energy-saving 5-nanometer process. It is supported by 6 GB of RAM, which is more than enough for an iPhone. People who are tech-savvy should know that Apple's A-series processors are the best performing mobile chips every year. The current flagship Android processor is still fighting against the A13 and A14 Bionic from previous years. This advantage is particularly noticeable in areas such as gaming. The balance between efficiency and high performance in particular has a very positive effect this year after some problems with the Snapdragon 888. In everyday use, the iPhone with the iOS software basically has no stuttering, everything runs extremely consistently and smoothly. The heat development and power consumption are below average.

Battery - disappointing charging times, surprisingly good runtimes

Apple installs a 3.095 mAh battery that can be charged with up to 20 watts. With a MacBook power supply, it takes almost two hours to fully charge the battery, which is extremely embarrassing for € 1.149. For comparison, the only 300 Euros expensive Real GT Master Edition is with the included 65 watt power supply in approximately 30 minutes fully charged. According to Apple, the right power supply will not be included this year due to the environment, which I still find completely incomprehensible, especially when you consider that the newly introduced iPad Mini comes with a power supply. Wireless charging is possible with up to 15 watts, which is fine, but Android and HarmonyOS devices offer significantly more here too.

After all the criticism, it is now time to praise the iPhone across the board, because the battery life is surprisingly good for such a small capacity and noticeably better than the iPhone 12, which I also tested. With the adaptive refresh rate (10Hz-120Hz) activated, I always got through a day easily and even 1,5 days were usually no problem. At the end of the day, with a screen-on time of 5 to 6 hours, I usually had between 25 and 50 percent battery left, which is really good. Some Android flagships with significantly larger batteries, such as the OnePlus 9 Pro, My 11 Ultra or S21 Plus only dream. Even that Huawei P50 Pro or the similarly compact Sony Xperia 5 III cannot quite keep up. Kudos to Apple for delivering such a good battery life despite the small battery and the smooth refresh rate of 120 Hertz.

Camera - very good, but not the best

Apple has installed a triple camera on the back, consisting of a main, ultra-wide-angle and telephoto camera, all of which have a resolution of 12 megapixels each. The latter enables a 3x optical zoom, which is far from Huawei, Samsung, Xiaomi and Sony, but at least Apple has changed something compared to the iPhone 12 Pro. There is also a LIDAR scanner, which was introduced last year and is responsible for depth effects and faster focusing.

Starting with the main camera, which takes good pictures with beautiful and mostly realistic colors. The sharpness is also great, but with the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra and the Huawei P50 Pro There are still slightly better alternatives, although I think the iPhone has a slight advantage over Samsung. However, the differences are not that big. I find the dynamic range a little disappointing. Almost all competitors, such as the Huawei P50 Pro, are Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra and OnePlus 9 Pro are sometimes significantly better. Even some older smartphones from the previous year are a bit better here. For at least 1.149 euros, I expect more here. As soon as the lighting conditions get worse, the night mode is automatically activated, which exposes the images for a few seconds in order to deliver better shots. I really like the resulting results, even if the images are sometimes a bit too dark for my taste, which is why some details in dark areas are lost, but apart from that I have nothing to complain about. The sharpness in particular is really good and colors are usually reproduced beautifully and naturally. The S21 Ultra can no longer quite keep up here, especially in extremely poor lighting conditions. The Huawei P50 Pro and Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra can keep up very well and often like them even better.

Overall, I would have expected a bit more from the new ultra-wide-angle camera. Images quickly start to get noisy and in terms of sharpness, almost all flagship competitors have more to offer. The OnePlus 9 Pro, OPPO Find X3 and even last year's Huawei P40 Pro + are significantly better here. Similar to the main camera, the dynamic range also causes some problems, which simply shouldn't be the case for the price offered. At least colors are reproduced very well. In low light, the results are still reasonably usable, but compared to the Android and HarmonyOS competition, there is room for improvement here. Even the normal OnePlus 9, which costs almost half as little as the iPhone 13 Pro, wins at Lowlight clear.

The ultra wide angle camera also functions as a macro camera. If you hold the iPhone close enough to objects in the camera app, a macro mode is automatically activated, in which even small objects appear gigantic.

The new telephoto camera takes very good pictures between 3x and 5x magnification, which are particularly characterized by high sharpness and mostly accurate color reproduction. The OnePlus 9 Pro, OPPO Find X3 Pro and the S21 Ultra cannot quite keep up. However, if we compare the quality with older Huawei smartphones with triple optical Zoom lenses, for example the Huawei Mate 30 Pro, it quickly becomes clear how much of a leader Huawei was in the field of zoom, which the following comparison shows quite well (left: iPhone 13 Pro, right: Huawei Mate 30 Pro):

Fortunately, the zoom camera of the iPhone 13 Pro is still reasonably usable even in poor lighting conditions, which is definitely no longer the case with many competitors. In addition, it is also used in portrait mode and procurrently produces pretty much the best portrait shots in a smartphone.

As with every new iPhone, the video quality is by far the best in a smartphone this year. Hardly any other smartphone reproduces colors so beautifully and naturally and can cope with backlighting or more difficult lighting conditions. Big compliments to Apple. The "cinematic mode" is fine and definitive around worlds better than Huawei, OnePlus and Samsung, but I'm not 100 percent satisfied with it, especially since only Full-DH can be used as the resolution in this mode. According to Apple, the new video format "ProRes" will also be activated later this year.

Selfies with the front camera succeed with great color rendering and a decent dynamic range. However, there is still a lot of room for improvement in terms of sharpness and lowlight performance.

Test photos

Let's take a look at a few test photos. As always, the following images are absolutely unprocessed, but compressed without loss in order to keep loading times and memory consumption of the website low.

Comparison with the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra & Huawei P50 Pro

Last but not least, we want the cameras in different situations with the Galaxy S21 Ultra from Samsung and what I think is the best photo camera smartphone, the Huawei P50 Pro, to compare.

Daylight

The camera comparison shows quite well that the competition from Huawei and Samsung are clearly ahead in terms of dynamic range, both with the main and ultra-wide-angle cameras. The P50 Pro also has a slight edge in terms of sharpness, even if the difference is small. However, I would like to praise Apple for the mostly natural color reproduction. If we use the 3x zoom on all three smartphones, the iPhone wins by a clear margin. Even Samsung cannot keep up on this point despite the 3x optical zoom camera, and Huawei still uses the main camera, as the 3,5 megapixel telephoto camera is only used from 64x magnification. From 10x magnification, the differences in favor of the P50 Pro and S21 Ultra are huge. Apple still has a long way to go here.

low light

As disappointing as the shots from the iPhone 13 Pro's ultra-wide-angle camera are, I like the shots taken with the main camera. The images are a bit too dark for my taste now and then, but in terms of sharpness and color reproduction, Apple is right up there with the best and easily beats the S21 Ultra. On the other hand, I like the P50 Pro a bit better overall, but the difference is by no means big.

Other - especially

iPhones have always stood out with their special features. The stereo speakers have been improved a step compared to their predecessor without Apple mentioning it. The sound seems a bit clearer, especially at higher volumes. This makes the iPhone 13 Pro's speakers one of the best in the flagship segment.

The Taptic Engine, which ensures extremely precise haptic feedback despite the smaller volume. It's probably the best vibration motor in a smartphone.

Unfortunately, the iPhone 13 Pro does not have a fingerprint sensor, as the only option for unlocking your smartphone is hidden in the notch at the top: FaceID. It is a three-dimensional facial recognition system, which is therefore much more secure than on most Android smartphones. In principle, it works very reliably, but unfortunately still not in landscape format, and if you wear a mask, the missing TouchID sensor is a problem.

tl; dr - conclusion

The iPhone 13 Pro is not only a very good iPhone, but also a very good smartphone in general, which definitely doesn't have to hide from the Android competition. Compared to the iPhone 12 Pro, Apple has actually improved more than I initially expected. The display is now finally at flagship level with the smooth refresh rate of 120 Hertz, the performance is as excellent as usual, the main camera is one of the best in a smartphone, the battery is surprisingly good and even smaller things like the speakers or the vibration motor are excellent. However, the iPhone 13 Pro is by no means perfect: the edges around the panel and the notch could still be a bit smaller, there is room for improvement with the ultra-wide-angle camera, I miss a fingerprint sensor, the focal length of the optical telephoto lens is no longer really up to date for a flagship at the end of 2021, the long charging times are just ridiculous and I would have liked USB-C instead of Lightning. Added to that is the usual high price of 1.149 euros.

If you live in the Apple ecosystem and Android is out of the question, you can go for the iPhone 13 Pro and be very happy with it. For anyone who could also get along with Android, I would definitely recommend taking a look at the similarly good and sometimes significantly cheaper Android flagship competition.

Buy iPhone 13 Pro

• Buy at Amazon
• buy directly from Apple

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