Review: Apple iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max

[upbeat music]

Another year, another new iPhone.

This is the iPhone 13 Pro

and this is the iPhone 13 Pro Max.

And let's get two things out of the way.

If you have an iPhone 12,

there's no reason to upgrade.

There are some nice improvements here,

but the changes are pretty minor.

Second, if you are going to upgrade,

most people should probably just go

for the standard iPhone 13 or iPhone 13 Mini,

which my colleague Lauren Goode runs through

in another video.

They're cheaper and they have many of the same features

most people care about.

But if you're heavily invested

in having the most feature packed camera system,

then that's the reason to go for the Pros,

which cost $1000 and 1100 respectively.

Now, this is where I usually make a spiel

about buying the Pro Max instead of the Pro

because it's only a hundred dollars more

and has so many more Pro grade features.

But this year the features are actually

pretty much exactly the same between the two,

outside of screen size and battery life.

So pick whichever model you like.

[upbeat music]

First, let's talk everything other than the cameras.

There is a 6.1 inch OLED screen on the smaller Pro

and a 6.7 inch screen on the Pro Max.

Now this is definitely what you want

if you want the largest screen,

that's not an iPad mini.

Now the screen gets a little brighter

over the standard iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini,

but what makes them stand out this year is Pro motion.

It's a feature apple introduced in 2017 with the iPad Pro,

but it's finally in an iPhone.

Essentially the way a smartphone display works

is by showing you rapidly changing images or frames.

Traditionally that's 60 frames per second or 60 Hertz.

This year, just like several Android phones,

the Pro models refresh the screen at 120 Hertz

or 120 frames per second.

So you can imagine by doubling that rate,

you're seeing more images and everything just looks

a whole lot more fluid.

Apple goes a step further and varies the refresh rate

as you interact with the screen.

So it matches the speed of your finger

and it isn't always hogging battery life.

Now this is one of those features

that some people will really notice and others won't.

Putting it next to the iPhone 12 Pro,

I can definitely see the difference

just by scrolling through Twitter.

And it's one of those quality of life improvements

that just makes using the iPhone a little nicer.

They are powered by the A15 Processor,

which is plenty powerful to run games and apps really well.

It does have an extra graphics core

over the standard iPhone 13 models,

but the difference is likely not that dramatic.

More important is battery life,

which has improved across the board.

But the Pro Max easily lasts me a full day of heavy use,

close to seven hours of screen on time.

And the iPhone 13 Pro was a little behind that.

Both will get you through an intensive day,

but the Max has a higher chance of lasting

a little bit more and having a little bit of juice

in case you forget to charge it the following morning.

As usual, these Pro phones are made of stainless steel

instead of aluminum,

which makes them a little more durable

than the regular iPhones,

but they're still wrapped in glass

so you should definitely use a case.

They still support the Magsafe accessory system,

Apple introduced last year.

So that lets you attach various magnetic items to the back,

like a tripod or a wallet.

Now the cameras.

You get an extra zoom camera on the Pro models.

And this year it's a three times optical telephoto.

So it let's you zoom in a little closer

than before to your subjects.

All three of the cameras can take in more light

and night mode works on the zoom camera too.

So generally I saw less noise and sharper images

across the board over the iPhone 12 Pro series.

Though the difference really wasn't that vast.

This is still one of the best camera systems

out there on a phone.

There are three other exclusive camera features

over the standard iPhone 13.

ProRes video capture, which is a format

that lets you have greater editing control over your clips.

And it's definitely the most Pro feature on these iPhones.

Unfortunately it's not available yet.

It's coming later this year,

so I haven't been able to test it out,

but you should know that Apple says

the 128 gigabyte Pro model

is limited to 1080p ProRes capture.

So you need 256 gigs to at least get 4k ProRes.

Which at this point,

why isn't 256 gigs the standard storage size?

Anyway, there's also macro photography.

The ultra wide camera on the Pro models has auto focusing

and Apple has made it so that you can go

really close to a subject,

up to two centimeters away,

and still get a really up-close bright, sharp shot.

This is something that a lot of people

will either care about or forget about after a week.

But it's nice to have for the times

you really want to take an close shot of a bug.

And it works with video too.

But my favorite is the ability

to take portrait mode shots at night.

Now that's thanks to the LIDAR sensor,

which helps with auto focusing and capturing

a depth map in low light.

Now this was a Pro feature last year

and that hasn't changed.

Most of the photos I take though are in portrait mode.

So this is something I very much love

and use all the time.

And that leads me to cinematic mode,

which is arguably the most unique feature

on these new iPhones.

It's actually available on the iPhone 13

and iPhone 13 mini too.

So it's not a Pro feature at all,

but it's my favorite addition this year.

It's pretty much portrait mode, but for video.

Now we've seen this before in other Android phones,

but Apple's [indistinct] is easily the best.

It automatically tracks the subject

and adds this blur effect around it.

If the subject looks away,

the focus should automatically shift

to whatever the subject is looking at.

Now, the shift thing didn't work for me most of the time,

but what's special here is that Apple

is actually capturing the full depth map.

So you can change the focus post capture

if the camera didn't get it right.

Now, that's pretty incredible.

It's far from perfect.

It doesn't work in low light for example,

it's restricted to 1080p, and it really prefers a subject

up close and center with a very clear backdrop.

But it's the feature I've had the most fun testing.

And I think I'm pretty much going to switch

to using cinematic mode most of the time.

There are a few other features I didn't mention

like photographic styles or censorship stabilization.

That's because my colleague Lauren Goode

talks more about them in her video on the iPhone 13.

So check that out.

Otherwise that's the iPhone 13 Pro.

You'll notice I said one of my favorite features

is one that's available on the iPhone 13

further making my point that most people

should probably just stick with that model.

But the Pro models do offer brighter, smoother screens,

more and better cameras and longer battery life.

And to some that's totally worth it.