iPhone 13 Pro Reviews: ProMotion and Longer Battery Life Highlight an Iterative Refresh

[DontSweatIt]

Yeah but also the cellular landscape is being made. So we don’t really know which carrier is going to be good. I can’t commit to any of these.

What it is really means is pay upfront and we’ll give you a credit monthly if you stay on our service. I may or I may not.

I personally only do prepaid and buy unlocked. If I needed multi line then I think the prospect is much better because you get huge discounts.

Ok you got me fair point

 

[code-m]

Not trying to convince anyone. My mind is already made up, and it impacts on me not one iota if anyone else upgrades because of it or not. And no, I’m not an Apple Pencil user. If Pencil support was the only key update for this cycle, I’d be sitting it out whilst others would be biting Apple’s hand off to get it.

Some reviewers, Marques Brownlee specifically, noticed ProMotion on their 13 Pro review units immediately. Other reviewers have said it looked a ‘bit smoother’ scrolling than the regular 13 and earlier iPhones without dwelling on it or even suggesting the feature is as significant as the camera and battery upgrades.

ProMotion is the key thing decider for my own upgrade, the difference between staying on the 12 Pro and getting the 13 Pro. Which is fine. If others don’t rate the feature as highly, I’m fine with that too. Ditto those who can see it but don’t care and those who are even interested. 😀

I did not claim I never saw it, what I was saying is that it’s not a prominent thing like a higher resolution screen “RetinaDisplay”. It also something one forgets when moving from one device to the next if it does not have it and the eyes and brain adapt accordingly within a short period of time.

I mentioned Pencil because when writing, drawing the lag is perceivable unlike general use.

A brighter display or something is high contrast is also things people notice such as OLED, microLED, even miniLED.

Do you go from your 120 Hz iPad Pro display and cannot use an iPhone (non-iPhone Pro 13) or Mac laptop or even watch TV or movies because guess what those are not 120 Hz refresh rate. Life must be such a struggle in the non-120 Hz world 😝

 

[SFjohn]

I wonder how much more battery you get with 5G turned off?

2%?

 

[GuruZac]

I really want the 13 Pro Max battery…but I go jogging with my phone in my pocket and that has to feel like a brick.

Really hoping the 13 Pro battery is better than 12 Pro…13 Pro is perfect size for me, just need better battery life.

MKBHD is claiming 5 hours on screen time with the 13 Pro and still had 50% left. Sounds like it's 11 Pro good.

 

[GuruZac]

The 13 Pro reminds me of the iPad Pro 4th Gen. Not quite as bad, but a very incremental upgrade—with the pro motion display being the only standout, unexpected feature. I‘ve upgraded every year since the 5s, but this year breaks that cycle.

Here’s to hoping the 14 Pro Max is a quantum leap forward. 🍻

I would argue the X to XS was a much smaller upgrade than the 12 Pro to 13 Pro. Cameras (and features), ProMotion display look to be significant upgrades. However, if I had a 12 Pro, I would not be upgrading this year as those still aren't enough. I am coming from an 11 Pro with a ridiculous deal from Verizon so I got a 13 Pro.

 

[DontSweatIt]

The 13 pro and pro max are delayed

 

[MacBH928]

I’ll be turning off 5G once I get an iPhone equipped with it. Most insane marketing hype for a new technology ever.

Not once in my life have I felt that LTE wasn’t sufficient enough. So, I’ll take the battery savings, thank you very much.

Its not a hype, its advantages just not seen yet because it has not been implemented correctly yet. For example, LTE has slowdowns meanwhile 5G does not in congested areas like stadiums and busy streets. There is also faster ping.

Yes 5G is not gaming changing on a smartphone, but it will let all wireless devices work happily together in congested areas like buildings with every appliance connected to the internet and so.

 

[Menneisyys2]

IMO, phones are not worth the upgrade for only camera. Phone camera photos are only good for small display like phone or tablet. It’s not good enough for print or for viewing on a large monitor. Once they reach at least 1 inch sensor quality, may be then.

Indeed. For some specific videoing purposes they (phones) still the best tools though, at least for me. For example I shoot 8...10-hour-long "no darkness in the Finnish night" type of night videos a lot (see particularly the Jun-July-early August videos at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSJ3JqZMyf0LDLNofpBtzow/videos if interested; all of them are shot with my iPhone 11). It's plain impossible to do the same with any dedicated (non-video-specific), decent camera:

1, most of them stop shooting at 30 minutes (stupid EU laws)

2, many of them still record to h.264, which results in around 2 times bigger files (it's an issue - the iPhone produces about 110 GB for 10 hours at 4k24 for h.265; I prefer managing these kinds of sizes and not double of them )

3, the ones that don't stop at 30 minutes and do record to h.265 (for example, the Sony A7C) have generally other flaws (with the Sony A7C, it's the lack of weather proofing and generally, for generic/other video'ing purposes, inferior video (8-bit and 30fps only) compared to models like the 30-minute-gimped Fuji X-T4. Surely the Sony A7C will soon be superseded by a new model, I don't think Sony keeps such a nice camera with such an inferior video spec on the market for long.)

 

[cardfan]

I would argue the X to XS was a much smaller upgrade than the 12 Pro to 13 Pro. Cameras (and features), ProMotion display look to be significant upgrades. However, if I had a 12 Pro, I would not be upgrading this year as those still aren't enough. I am coming from an 11 Pro with a ridiculous deal from Verizon so I got a 13 Pro.

I’m guessing apple had a little something to do with the deals. They’ve a lot riding on being able to have increased iPhone sales with such an underwhelming upgrade especially when the free money has ended.

The risk is setting up iPhone 14 to have bad sales when people are stuck making payments on the 13. Maybe apple is that confident about the 14 and that people will upgrade anyways losing their credits.

 

[djcerla]

MKBHD said on his 13 pro he was at 5 hours screen time with like 50% left

Edited.

 

[Marty80]

My iPhone 12 Pro Max will do me fine until the next big revision in another 2 years, which hopefully gets rid of all the notch.

 

[aWaldo]

Not sure why they did just call it an iPhone 12S. A numerical increase should require a larger hardware and visual product difference than the previous model.
I suppose the new colors require a new number.

Apple may have seen lower sales due to the “s” name, as opposed to just adding a new number. The other reason could be that the “s” stands for “speed”, which is a very limited description of what each new iPhone brings, so it didn’t make sense to retain.

 

[rp2011]

High end Android phones have basically bit the dust. All they can muster is now is foolish gimmicks like the backwards “bendable phones.” So Apple is just coasting now, as they feel like why bother and just cash in.
This is the time where we need more competition. Android has to step up their game. Because as soon as any company feels they can just coast, and complacency creeps in then that is the beginning of the end.

 

[Damian83]

What??? The storage is not "slow like hell" and yea I would dare use it to download a 4k blu ray if I chose to but I actually use it for transmitting other very large files quite often.

That speed is not outside, it's actually inside my house. I actually download and upload big files often when on 5G and have even done it walking though a park.

well you re part of 0,001% of the population that needs to send big files while walking in a park 😃
i bet if you tell me which are these files you have also to kill me afterwards 😂

 

[pratikindia]

Indeed. For some specific videoing purposes they (phones) still the best tools though, at least for me. For example I shoot 8...10-hour-long "no darkness in the Finnish night" type of night videos a lot (see particularly the Jun-July-early August videos at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSJ3JqZMyf0LDLNofpBtzow/videos if interested; all of them are shot with my iPhone 11). It's plain impossible to do the same with any dedicated (non-video-specific), decent camera:

1, most of them stop shooting at 30 minutes (stupid EU laws)

2, many of them still record to h.264, which results in around 2 times bigger files (it's an issue - the iPhone produces about 110 GB for 10 hours at 4k24 for h.265; I prefer managing these kinds of sizes and not double of them )

3, the ones that don't stop at 30 minutes and do record to h.265 (for example, the Sony A7C) have generally other flaws (with the Sony A7C, it's the lack of weather proofing and generally, for generic/other video'ing purposes, inferior video (8-bit and 30fps only) compared to models like the 30-minute-gimped Fuji X-T4. Surely the Sony A7C will soon be superseded by a new model, I don't think Sony keeps such a nice camera with such an inferior video spec on the market for long.)

Completely agree on video capability though.

 

[svish]

Battery life is impressive and ProMotion seems to be good on iPhone

 

[Razorpit]

Would be interesting to see a proper test carried out. A similar question was asked on Reddit a while back iPad Pro - How noticeable is 120Hz? with plenty of individual annecdotes to support everything from ‘Wouldn’t be without it’ to ‘Can’t see the difference’. How much of this is confirmation bias I don;t know - I suspect few would say they either couldn’t see or were indifferent the feature on a device they’ve paid for handsomely out of their own pocket.

I think the biggest gain on the iPad is for Pencil users. It literally makes it as if you are writing on paper. I think it does offer some benefit when scrolling, you can have quite a bit on screen.

wow one must really lack attention to detail if one can't differentiate 60Hz from 120Hz. It's super noticeable on the iPad Pro.

iPad, maybe. iPhone, going to go with a probably no on that one.

Good idea! I’ll be deleting the music app immediately as well.

Not once in my life have I felt cassettes weren’t sufficient enough. So I’ll take my walkman thank you very much.

Don't forget to sell the car and only ride your bike.

 

[GuruZac]

I’m guessing apple had a little something to do with the deals. They’ve a lot riding on being able to have increased iPhone sales with such an underwhelming upgrade especially when the free money has ended.

The risk is setting up iPhone 14 to have bad sales when people are stuck making payments on the 13. Maybe apple is that confident about the 14 and that people will upgrade anyways losing their credits.

Yeah i think you’re correct. We are getting $1000 each for our iPhone 11 Pros. That leaves a $99 balance (plus the sales tax on $1099 for which I already paid upfront) for my phone paid over 24 months…or a little over $4/mo ($99/24mos). If the iPhone 14 Pro comes out and I’m too tempted to not upgrade, I’ll only have $50 left to pay on my 13 Pro. Seemed crazy to not upgrade for that deal.

 

[john123]

People expect WAY too much from smartphones these days as if we’re still in the early to mid 2010s when upgrades were only significant because there was still a lot of features to include and improve upon, but now we’ve reached a point where you can only improve upon the little things.

Sure, it would be nice if we had no notch and TouchID under the display which are coming but apart from that there is nothing more to be done really. People’s minds are still stuck in that 2010s innovative timeframe and they expect the same unrealistic big changes today when they have already been implemented back then. iPhones and phones in general are ‘boring’ now because there is nothing more to add to them. Save for the couple of features I pointed out above the ‘innovation’ that everyone is craving is done and I have no idea why they can’t see that.

Gosh, I remember reading something like this back around 2007 about my BlackBerry…

 

[Abazigal]

The majority of iphone users are not on the iPhone 12. They are on an older iphone and the iphone 13 represents a compelling upgrade for them, especially if they are using a phone that is 3-4 years old. This is who Apple is targeting with each new generation of iphone.

There is no good reason for Apple to create an iphone that is such a significant step up from the iPhone 12 that existing 12 users feel compelled to rush out and upgrade. It’s wasteful, and Apple isn’t capable of producing that many units either way.

Seen through this lens, Apple’s long term strategy is clear. They don’t need users to keep buying iPhones, they just need you to keep using iPhones. They have ample ways of monetising iphone users consequently.

 

[Razorpit]

The majority of iphone users are not on the iPhone 12. They are on an older iphone and the iphone 13 represents a compelling upgrade for them, especially if they are using a phone that is 3-4 years old. This is who Apple is targeting with each new generation of iphone.

There is no good reason for Apple to create an iphone that is such a significant step up from the iPhone 12 that existing 12 users feel compelled to rush out and upgrade. It’s wasteful, and Apple isn’t capable of producing that many units either way.

Seen through this lens, Apple’s long term strategy is clear. They don’t need users to keep buying iPhones, they just need you to keep using iPhones. They have ample ways of monetising iphone users consequently.

Don't get me wrong, I agree with your thinking, however the wife and I are on X's and XS' and other than getting a "refreshed" battery, there hasn't been much over the last 3-4 years that makes us want to upgrade.

And this is coming from a guy who was far enough ahead of the curve to hack the Sprint network on his Motorola Startac to "surf the net" and get live email on his Handspring Visor.

 

[The Game 161]

Rather blown away by the battery life even with high refresh rate it doesn’t miss a beat

 

[Abazigal]

Don't get me wrong, I agree with your thinking, however the wife and I are on X's and XS' and other than getting a "refreshed" battery, there hasn't been much over the last 3-4 years that makes us want to upgrade.

And this is coming from a guy who was far enough ahead of the curve to hack the Sprint network on his Motorola Startac to "surf the net" and get live email on his Handspring Visor.

Coming from an 8+ myself, the biggest benefits to me so far is really the improved performance (apps open noticeably faster and seem more responsive) and battery life (went from having to charge in the middle of the day to now ending the day at 70%). I don’t have 5g in my area yet, haven’t gotten round to playing with the new camera functions yet, and boy is the pro max noticeably heavier (especially with a case on).

I am also still on the fence as to whether I want to adopt magsafe or not.

I could conceivably have hung on to my 8+ for another year and still gotten by fine (Apple is doing a fairly good job of supporting older devices these days), but felt it was finally time to upgrade.

Fare thee well, Touch ID…🥲