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iPhone 13 Pro Worth it to upgrade in this situation?

ssledoux

ssledoux

macrumors 601
Original poster
Sep 16, 2006
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Down south
I have the iPhone 12, but my plan since I got it has been to go pro when the 13 came out, and pass my 64 gb 12 down to either my son or grandson.

I’ve never had a pro phone, but I want a display that is brighter outside (my 12 is nowhere near as bright as I feel like it should be outdoors), and I’d like to have the pro camera.

I had actually decided I wasn’t gonna, but with the camera improvements, and battery life, I’m really tempted. Worth it to make the jump from a 12 to a 13 pro?
 
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Ultimately, I think you are the only person who can make that decision. Personally, I would wait another year, but some people aren't as frugal as others. The chances of a new design next year are really good, and if your current phone does everything you need it to do, then wait. However, if it doesn't bother you to spend $400-500 a year to get the newest phone, by all means.
 
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If you’re going from a 12 to 13 pro, absolutely worth it.

12 to 13, wouldn’t waste my money.
 
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LFC2020 said:
If you’re going from a 12 to 13 pro, absolutely worth it.

12 to 13, wouldn’t waste my money.
Click to expand...

Yeah I wouldn’t bother with that, although I am loving that darn pink color, and I don’t even like pink.

I was trying to hold off on getting a pro until there was no notch, but the camera has me really tempted.
 
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Get it.
You'll have 14 days to see if buyers remorse gets the best of you.

Buying a new iPhone is soooo much more satisfying if you wait several generations before getting the next one. ZERO buyers remorse.
 
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now i see it said:
Get it.
You'll have 14 days to see if buyers remorse gets the best of you.

Buying a new iPhone is soooo much more satisfying if you wait several generations before getting the next one. ZERO buyers remorse.
Click to expand...

Well I have a 12, so I haven’t waited, but I have put off buying a pro. The camera is enticing for sure.
 
A lot depends on how much it is going to cost. My daughter's 11 Pro was just paid for - and Verizon gave us $1000 for it on an upgrade to a 13 Pro - so since she uses a 256gb model - I have to pay $4.17 a month for it (I prefer the 24 month calculations) - the deals are so insane, I traded in a iPhone SE 16gb I use for a work phone and got $579 toward a $799 13 in red. $9 bucks a month for 24 months. Where's the buyers remorse when you aren't paying much out of pocket?
 
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I’ve gone back and forth a little bit with the upgrade myself. I’m going from a 12 Pro to a 13 Pro.

I can afford it, but I always try to be conservative in spending so part of me is still whispering, “is it the fiscally responsible thing to do?”

Then I think how much I like taking pictures and have enjoyed the camera updates with the 11 and the 12 Pros, especially during my trip to Italy, taking pictures of my kids and pets, and I answer myself, “I want the best iPhone camera possible to capture these moments”.

If the 13 Pro cameras are as good as they are touting, I think I will notice the difference when I’m AirPlay ing them to my TV screens and iPad Pro. I also think that after this year I will likely wait a few years at least before upgrading again. It really sounds like the 13 Pro cameras will be just right for my amateur photography needs 😁
 
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If you aren’t dead set on getting a new phone now, then I would hold off for a little while. There are a lot of good deals for trading in an old device now, but it sounds like you’re going to be giving your old phone away rather than trading it in. If you wait a few months until Black Friday or christmas then there will probably be some deals for getting a new phone without trading in a device. You could probably save several hundred dollars by waiting a few months.

However, if whoever you would give your phone to has a reasonably current device that you could use as a trade in, then you might want to consider doing that as well to see if you can get a better deal on a 13 pro now with the trade in.
 
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An upgrade from a 12 to a 13 pro isn’t worth the money. I would save your money. Judging by your prior post history, you seem to upgrade iPhones a lot. The upgrade is very minor this year, and the pink color is just a shade…not worth putting down money for.
 
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ssledoux said:
Regular 12 to 13 pro seems like a bigger bump up than if I was going from 12 to 13 or 12 pro to 13 pro, but yeah, I am torn about it.
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First things first. Wait for all the reviews to come out and then you will have a better idea if the camera upgrades are significant enough to sway you. That’s what I would do if I was torn. For me there weren’t any struggles. My iPhone 13 pro max in Sierra blue is waiting for pick up at my local apple store on Friday Morning. I sold my iPhone 12 Pro Max. So I’m locked in
 
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Regular 12 to 13 pro could be arguably worth it for 120hz and the cameras. I’ll still be waiting another 12 months myself.
 
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VertPin said:
An upgrade from a 12 to a 13 pro isn’t worth the money. I would save your money. Judging by your prior post history, you seem to upgrade iPhones a lot. The upgrade is very minor this year, and the pink color is just a shade…not worth putting down money for.
Click to expand...

I typically upgrade almost every year, and honestly, I’ve only been disappointed once or twice in all that time. I would not upgrade from the 12 to 13 just for a color (I was just saying I really like it), and if I had the 12 pro I doubt I’d go to the 13 pro, but when I got the 12, I got a 64 gb intending to get a 13 pro when they released and pass my 12 down. So now they’ve released, and it looks like it would be a worthy upgrade.
 
The 13 pro is so heavy, the 12 is a delight balance between size and weight; and the cameras are really good too.

But you know you will order the 13pro, so why ask? :p
 
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austyn23 said:
The 13 pro is so heavy, the 12 is a delight balance between size and weight; and the cameras are really good too.

But you know you will order the 13pro, so why ask? :p
Click to expand...

Yeah. I did. I think there will be enough improvements in several areas, plus the 64 gb really isn’t enough storage, and I have waited through the 11 and 12 to go pro. We shall see how it goes!
 
ssledoux said:
I have the iPhone 12, but my plan since I got it has been to go pro when the 13 came out, and pass my 64 gb 12 down to either my son or grandson.

I’ve never had a pro phone, but I want a display that is brighter outside (my 12 is nowhere near as bright as I feel like it should be outdoors), and I’d like to have the pro camera.

I had actually decided I wasn’t gonna, but with the camera improvements, and battery life, I’m really tempted. Worth it to make the jump from a 12 to a 13 pro?
Click to expand...

‘Make the jump and you’ll get that brighter screen, better cameras and a happy grandson
 
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With what you have said here I do not think you would not be upset at all buying the Pro model from a regular iPhone 12. I would suggest since you like the camera features to get at least the 256GB model because the promotion is going to take up quite a bit of memory.
 
I bought a 12 last year to replace my 11 Pro because I wanted a slightly bigger screen and the non-pro line finally had OLED. I would have bought the 12 Pro, but since the most of the camera hardware improvements were only on the 12 Pro Max (which is too big for me) I went with the 12 thinking that the camera software improvements would be enough for me. I was wrong, my 11 Pro took much better photos, so I returned the 12 and kept my 11 Pro.

I pre-ordered the 13 Pro this year, very happy that the 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max have the same camera systems.

If you take a lot of photos, and the telephoto lens is important to you, the upgrade may be worth the cost.
 
If you've had a 12 for a while and wondering whether the upgrade is worth it to a 13 Pro then I would say yes, no doubt about it. As you say, 12 to a 13 wouldn't be much of an upgrade, and if you'd had the 12 Pro then I'd have said the same.
 
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brandct said:
With what you have said here I do not think you would not be upset at all buying the Pro model from a regular iPhone 12. I would suggest since you like the camera features to get at least the 256GB model because the promotion is going to take up quite a bit of memory.
Click to expand...

Crap I ordered the 128. Right now I still have 10 or 15 gigs still available on my 64, so I thought doing the 128 would suffice - hoping it winds up being enough since I hope to hang onto this one until the phone goes notchless.
 
A 128gb device actually has way more than 2X the free space as a 64gb device. In your case with only 15gb free on your 64, the 128 is giving you 8.5X more free space than what you've currently got - so that's good!
 
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