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The iPhone 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max are the best smartphones you can buy this year, write and

David Court Patch Bowen. This review was first published at thebit.nz.

Last year the iPhone 12 Pro and 12 Pro Max were very different smartphones. That’s not the case any more. The iPhone 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max are the same smartphones, just in different sizes.

They’re also the best smartphones you can buy in 2021.

As the name suggests, the iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max are not designed for the average user. Apple has turned the camera, screen and battery up to 11 (and the prices too).

So unless you have a strong desire for super high-end smartphone photography or you just want a large-screened iPhone, the iPhone 13 is probably a more sensible choice. But if you want the best of the best of what Apple can produce in a smartphone in 2021, well ... the iPhone 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max won’t disappoint.

Price

The iPhone 13 Pro comes in four configurations. The 128GB configuration costs $1799, 256GB $1999, 512GB $2399 and the new 1TB configuration costs $2799.

The iPhone 13 Pro Max comes in four configurations as well. The 128GB configuration costs $1999, 256GB $2199, 512GB $2599 and the new 1TB configuration costs $2999.

Both the 13 Pro and Pro Max also come in four colours – Sierra Blue, Silver, Gold and Graphite – and they all look premium and slick.

Design

Apple went through a massive redesign of its phones with the iPhone 12 range. The iPhone 13’s design changes don’t have as much of an impact. In fact, you’ll be hardpressed to tell the difference between the 12 Pro / Pro Max and the 13 Pro / Pro Max.

All four devices have the same flat edges, MagSafe compatibility, the Ceramic Shield displays, glass backs and the 6.1-inch 1170 x 2532 display. They’re classy phones.

There are two subtle differences, though. The first is the 20 per cent smaller notch on the display. The second is the larger camera bump on the rear. The new camera array is 38x37mm, and it takes up more than half of the phone’s width.

Display

The iPhone 13 Pro’s display is a Super Retina XDR display with ProMotion. The big new thing with the 13 Pros is the bump to screen refresh rate. The iPhone 13 Pro’s display can now range between 10Hz to 120Hz and this is thanks to what Apple calls ‘‘ProMotion’’.

ProMotion is made possible by the low-temperature polycrystalline oxide (LTPO) OLED display Apple has used on the iPhone 13 Pro.

This display allows for highrefresh rates when performing actions on your phone that require it, such as gaming or scrolling through social media, and it can lower the refresh rate for less demanding uses like reading a book.

The iPhone 13 Pro running iOS 15 at 120Hz looks and feels buttery smooth. However, 120Hz LTPO displays are a feature that Android phones have had for a while now, we saw it with Samsung’s Galaxy

Note 20 Ultra, and it feels like Apple has caught up to the competition as opposed to innovating the industry.

But, putting that aside, the iPhone 13 Pro looks and runs very well, and anyone who hasn’t used a 120Hz device will instantly notice the improvements.

Performance

The iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max devices are rapid. This is an area where Apple has always blown the competition away and now, thanks to the new A15 Bionic Processor, that lead has just grown again – nothing else comes close.

The iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max don’t have the same A15 chip that the standard iPhone 13 has. This A15 has an additional GPU core (five in total) and six CPU cores (four energy-efficient and two highperformance).

The A15 also boasts 15 billion transistors compared to the

11.8 billion used by the A14 processor. It’s a beast.

When using the iPhone 13 Pro for graphically intensive games, video editing and photos/video I didn’t come across the slightest hiccup.

The main benefit of the A15 is how efficient it is. This processor lends itself well to the increase in battery size found in the iPhone 13 Pro. I was impressed at the little battery I had used after a reasonable amount of gaming.

Cameras: Let there be light

The iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max take amazing photos. That shouldn’t be a surprise, as that’s precisely what new iPhones are supposed to do.

The difference this year – other than both the Pro and the Pro Max having identical camera rigs – is that the Pro devices have been designed to do one thing better than all of their predecessors: let in light.

This, as serious photographers will already know, is the single most important thing in photography. More light equals better photos and the iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max feature several hardware upgrades that allow them to let in more light.

The iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max now have a Wide ƒ/1.5 aperture lens, an Ultra Wide ƒ/1.8, improving on the ƒ/1.6 aperture and ƒ/2.4 aperture from last year’s devices.

The one slight anomaly is the Telephoto lens has decreased to ƒ/2.8 aperture from the Pro Max’s ƒ/2.8. However, this is balanced out by the 77mm lens that delivers 3x optical zoom compared with the 2.5x optical zoom on last year’s iPhone 12 Pro Max.

What all this confusing photography jargon means is actually quite simple – the iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max devices take the best pictures of any iPhone.

I spent a few hours testing the iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max’s cameras and the most obvious improvement is its Macro photography. Its performance with closeup subjects is a point of difference for the iPhone.

Apple made big noises about the new Pro devices’ performance in low-light scenarios. In well-lit photos, it’s much harder to see a difference between the iPhone 13 Pro Max and the iPhone 12 Pro Max. The only difference is the 13 Pro Max image looks a bit more vibrant.

The Ultra Wide, ƒ/1.8 aperture and 120-degree field of view, lens has also been improved. Slightly. It’s now compatible with autofocus and, as I said above, this allows for detailed macrophotography.

There’s also a new telephoto, ƒ/2.8, lens with a 3x optical zoom. This lens creates stunning images at 3x zoom. They’re crisp and clear and don’t have the muddied effect of digital zoom. It’s also compatible with night mode, and any drop in light capture is quickly nullified when switching this mode on.

You can see that the iPhone 13 Pro Maxmaintains the same level of detail and quality when using 3x zoom, compared with the iPhone 12 Pro Max’s 2.5x zoom.

The iPhone 13 Pro has also improved its video capabilities. While the resolution and FPS outputs stay the same, 4K video recording at 24 fps, 25 fps, 30 fps or 60 fps, 1080p recording at 25 fps, 30 fps or 60 fps and 720p HD video recording at 30 fps, the iPhone 13 Pro also supports Dolby Vision HDR at up to 4K 60 fps.

Apple confirmed that you will also be able to shoot in the ProRes format, which sounds like a great feature for video editing, though this is a feature that will be rolled out in a later software update. It’s important to know that ProRes in 4K 30 fps is only available on the 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB models. The 128GB version can only film in ProRes at 1080p 30 fps.

Camera features

The iPhone 13 Pro’s new camera array comes with new features. The main additions are Photographic Profiles and Cinematic Mode (see the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini review at right).

Battery

The iPhone 13 Pro Max’s battery is the best in the business. The battery life of this device is massive.

I was able to use the 13 Pro Max all day, performing battery hungry actions such as gaming and video editing all at 120Hz, and the battery lasted roughly three hours longer than the iPhone 12 Pro Max. I have yet to put the iPhone 13 Pro through the same level of testing.

The iPhone 13 Pros charge at 20w via a cable and 15w via MagSafe. This is slow, especially as we’re seeing phones such as the OnePlus 9 Pro that can charge at 65w over a cable or 50w wirelessly. The wisdom of this, perhaps, is less battery degradation over its lifetime.

Verdict

The iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max represent the best of the best of what Apple can put in a smartphone.

The devices are exactly the same (apart from the size and battery capacities) and the performance of the on-board camera rigs is way ahead of the competition.

Stir in the boost to battery life and Apple finally bringing 120Hz displays to its smartphones, and it’s impossible to ignore just how good these smartphones are. The question you should ask yourself is whether you really need to pay for the pro-grade specs and features these devices offer. If you’re not sure if you’re ‘‘pro’’ enough, I’d suggest taking a look at the alsoexcellent iPhone 13 instead. It doesn’t disappoint either.

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2021-09-25T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-09-25T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://fairfaxmedia.pressreader.com/article/282200834068021

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