The same day that the iPhone 13 Pro went on sale, I got on a plane to London. It was a trip focused entirely on the leisure, with a single objective: to enjoy for the umpteenth time a city, London, to which I always want to return.
But on this occasion, the peculiar paths that life takes us put before me a super interesting opportunity: taking the recently introduced iPhone 13 Pro to the former member of the European Union. And how could I refuse to do so. It was a golden opportunity to experiment with the sweetest phone of the moment.
When I analyze a smartphone, I always put it to the test in a wide range of situations. But being able to go on a trip with a brand new phone in your pocket is a litmus test. Like going to live with your partner. Many things can go wrong. But if that's not the case, then you know you've found the right person. Or with the correct one, in the case of the phone.
But the thing does not stop there. As if it were a biblical episode, the stars aligned themselves fifteen days later so that, on a new trip –this time to the wonderful but hilly city of Porto–, I could take the jewel in the crown of the North American company. : the iPhone 13 Pro Max .
And so we get here. After nine days in two different cities and with some Francesinha in between, in this article, my dear reader, I only have one sole purpose: to express what my impressions have been with the two phones that reign in the Apple catalog , after going through one of the most complicated scenarios for a mobile phone with them.
The practical vs. the superb
Let's rewind to the beginning. I am at the Barajas airport (Madrid). The day starts so early that I don't even remember the time. I've only had the iPhone 13 Pro in my pocket for a few hours. In the days before, he had been using the standard iPhone 13 to prepare his analysis. And, before that, the phone that accompanied me the longest in the last year was the iPhone 12 Pro Max, a kind of Saint Bernard of mobile telephony: big, but extremely good.
Personally, I have never had a problem with large phones. What's more: I always opt for them. On the one hand, because large phones tend to be the ones that offer the best features; on the other, because I like to have a panel as large as possible with which to work or simply entertain myself.
But, as I said, at that moment I was with an iPhone 13 Pro in my pocket. A phone with a size that is in a super sweet spot. Why? Because its screen is large enough not to accentuate your myopia when reading an email, but it also facilitates its use with one hand.
The size of the iPhone 13 Pro is in a super sweet spot: it is easy to use with one hand while offering a screen large enough to enjoy content or work comfortably
This conclusion was obviously not new to me. I've used phones of this size in the past – including the iPhone 13. However, in this experiment there was something that made me particularly curious: how much would I miss the extra autonomy of a Pro Max in a scenario as demanding as this?
Using an external battery at some point in the day was something I took for granted. What's more: I consulted the bookmakers and that option was not even quoted. But it is completely normal. Use Google Maps often, always have the phone on 4G / 5G networks, take multiple photographs in each corner, have the brightness level in medium-high values because you are always outdoors, check applications such as TripAdvisor, record videos in 4K at 60 FPS –yes, I record everything at the highest quality–, use social networks to share what you do… And, to all those demands, add to that leaving the hotel early, but coming back relatively late. How could I not need an external battery?
What did surprise me about this phone was how late I had to resort to that battery. After disconnecting it from the charger first thing in the morning, I didn't need to inject electrons into it until after mid-afternoon. A fact that speaks quite well of the work that Apple has done with the autonomy of the iPhone 13 Pro.
When it came time to recharge the iPhone 13 Pro, by the way, I did so with a MagSafe battery. And let me grant me the license to express in these lines how practical accessories of this type are. In the case of batteries, they avoid having to carry cables on the street. It just sticks to the back of the phone like a limpet and thanks to Qi technology it starts charging the phone. Infinitely more practical.
The only “but”, which I also voiced in the Anker MagSafe battery review, is efficiency. It is no secret that wireless charging is slower and more inefficient than cable , but I give you an example: a battery like this, with a theoretical capacity of 5,000 mAh, can wirelessly recharge almost 100% of an iPhone 13 Pro, which has about 3,000 mAh. But nothing else. The remaining approximately 2,000 mAh are lost in the process.
A battery with MagSafe? Always say yes. Charging is less efficient than by cable, but during a trip it is infinitely more practical
In this case, I didn't mind at all, as the juice that the battery could supply wirelessly was more than enough to finish the day. And, in return, I infinitely gained in practicality. But, if the future we are walking towards passes through wireless charging, it would be positive that both Apple and the rest of the companies involved in the Qi standard do everything possible to improve these metrics.
And now let's get back to the phone itself. Do you remember that I said lines earlier that, from the beginning, I took the use of an external battery for granted? Do you think that the same need would be repeated with the iPhone 13 Pro Max?
Absolutely.
I, naturally foresighted, brought the same MagSafe battery to the second of my travels. This time, with the iPhone 13 Pro Max in your pocket. In Porto, my use of the phone was equally demanding: lots of photography, Google Maps often, etc. But the outcome was quite different: the iPhone 13 Pro Max, unlike myself, always arrived at the hotel with remaining power . At no point did I have to resort to the external battery. And that, dear reader, is a feat. Few products provide peace of mind like this.
The autonomy of the iPhone 13 Pro Max is quite a feat. Few products provide peace of mind like this.
The price to pay, obviously, is the size. A toll that not everyone is willing to take. But, fortunately, Apple also has in its catalog a phone with more content, equivalent in performance and with a fairly good autonomy: the iPhone 13 Pro The decision, therefore, boils down to one question: do you prefer the practical or the superb?
The iPhone 13 Pro are brilliant in photography, but spectacular in video
In the field of photography, the iPhone has always been in the lead . And this year's phones are no exception, as we explained in their respective analyzes the day they came to light.
Personally, I was curious to experiment with the cameras of the Pro models – I had only used the one on the iPhone 13 -. These have even bigger sensors, a better wide angle, macro mode photography and what interests me the most: a threex telephoto lens.
The vast majority of photographs that I take with the phone –or with the camera, when I use it– are with focal lengths of 50 mm onwards . Or what is the same: with a 2X or a 3X. The explanation is simple: it is a focal range with which I not only feel more comfortable, but I can be much more creative.
The problem with this telephoto camera –which in the iPhone 13 Pro is three times, instead of the 2.5X or 2X of the previous models– is that it captures less light . Its aperture is f / 2.8, much smaller than, for example, the f / 1.5 of the main camera. That is to say: if the light is scarce, its performance suffers.
When the light falls below a certain threshold, the phone also does something quite peculiar: instead of using the 3X camera, what it does is take the picture with the main camera (capable of capturing more light) and perform digital zoom . This is not new, actually. Apple has been doing it with its phones for years. However, with the iPhone 13 Pro (or Pro Max) it happens more often than with previous models. Why? Easy: the aperture of the new telephoto lens (f / 2.8) is smaller than that of the previous telephoto lenses (f / 2.2 in the case of the iPhone 12 Pro Max and f / 2.0 in the case of the iPhone 12 Pro), so the phone ends up resorting to the aforementioned trick more often.
The logic behind this methodology is beyond doubt. However, I would like to have the ability to disable this “cheat” . And it is that the algorithm does not always make the best decision, a statement that I was able to verify using Halide, a third-party application – highly recommended, by the way – that does allow forcing the use of the telephoto lens regardless of the circumstances.
I understand that Apple always opts for simplicity. But a setting, although it is hidden in the UI, that allows determining what behavior the camera has in this situation, is something that surely more than one person will end up thanking.
Beyond this, having a telephoto lens of three increases is a delight for both portraits and city photography. Not only for being able to capture distant elements without moving; The way in which the perspective is distorted with this type of lens is super interesting from a creative point of view, as well as being more suitable for taking portraits of people. The longer focal length, on the other hand, produces more natural bokeh, so in certain situations you may even be able to do without portrait mode – which artificially generates the bokeh -.
The step of the iPhone 13 Pro to three magnifications, yes, makes me constantly dream of a future iPhone with a variable focal camera or, simply, with two telephoto lenses – a 2X together with a 4X, for example. That versatility would open many doors for people who use the iPhone as a creative tool.
Another novelty of the iPhone 13 Pro is the macro mode, which allows taking images of super small subjects. I have to admit that, although the results are good, I think this is a fairly limited use feature. It's nice to have it there, but it doesn't have a noticeable impact on the way I generally use the phone's camera.
What is more useful is the cinema mode, which simulates the bokeh effect of portrait mode in video . And yes, analyzing the results in detail, it is easy to find imperfections. But in a relatively wide range of situations, the results that this mode delivers are quite good.
One detail that I like is that also works with the front camera , so you can make selfies with blur – ideal for your social networks. I also find the level of control it gives you over the focus fascinating even in post. You can not only vary the aperture – to alter the level of bokeh – but also change the focus to another subject within the same scene. This last feature, by the way, would be positive to also have it in portrait mode photographs, where it is only possible to edit the bokeh.
And speaking of bokeh: the new main sensor, being larger and having a larger aperture lens, also produces more natural blur . In general, this is excellent news, although it also has its downside: it is easier for a distant subject to be out of focus, since the plane of focus is “thinner”.
And what do you think about the quality of the images that this phone takes? The answer is quite simple: this is, without a doubt, one of the best – if not the best – camera that we can find in a mobile phone at the moment. Of course, I must make some observations:
As far as dynamic range and color rendering (including skin tones) are concerned, the iPhone 13 Pro does an excellent job. Little more can be said. In daytime settings, the experience with this phone is similar to that of the previous model. It processes some textures a little differently and shows a subtle evolution in the interpretation of some colors, but it is not a noticeable difference. When the light begins to be scarce, the differences become more visible: the new model is less afraid of darkening the parts or contours that you consider appropriate, while showing a little more sharpness. It is also generally faster when taking pictures in dark situations or with the night mode active – which, by the way, I like more than other phones because of its naturalness – the images in portrait mode, especially with the telephoto lens, are super good. The iPhone is not the phone that best separates the main subject from the rest of the scene – especially if it is about objects rather than people – but, without a doubt, it is the one that best interprets faces and, above all, the that generates a bokeh closer to that of a professional camera –it is more progressive, it deforms subjects that are out of focus more accurately, etc.–. The ultra-wide angle is better in every way than the one we found in previous models, but, in dark environments, you still have room for improvement. If you analyze the cameras of the last two generations of iPhone to the millimeter, you will probably identify a trend: the algorithms are more aggressive reducing noise – which sometimes translates into textures with less detail – and introduces a kind of artificial sharpness. In some situations, this behavior can be beneficial; but, in others, the images are a bit unreal. Or, as I like to define it: they have a slightly punchy aesthetic. Personally, I easily notice this behavior in any image that has greenery, especially if that photo was taken with the telephoto lens. And, although I understand the logic behind this decision, I would like the algorithms to be a little less aggressive in these two senses, retaining some more natural detail – even if that means leaving more noise on some surfaces – like a camera would do. An idea related to the above has been around my head for weeks: would it be feasible for Apple to implement a third setting in its recently released “photographic styles” that would allow modulating the aggressiveness of noise reduction and the aforementioned artificial sharpness? It would be wonderful, in my opinion, having ProRAW is great, as it offers more versatility when it comes to editing the photos you capture with the iPhone. Of course: it is a RAW processed by the multiple algorithms of the phone. If you want to work on an image as raw as possible, the best option is still the Halide application added to the RAW format – not to be confused with ProRAW. If you have photography skills, you will probably opt for this option. The video recording, beyond the cinema mode, is spectacular. Apple has no rival in this field. Stabilization, exposure, color rendering … They are light years ahead of the competition. Being able to record in 4K, at 60 FPS and in Dolby Vision, is also a marvel that not only opens the door to professional uses; But it will ensure that your content will look super good even after the passage of time. I love the consistency of the iPhone camera. It does not matter with which sensor you take the image or the situation you are in. The experience is the same. And that's key to getting the most out of a tool like this. In general, my impression after these two trips with the iPhone 13 Pro camera is super positive. It is an efficient, versatile camera, quite fun to use, constant in its behavior… But the most valuable of all is that it is a camera you can trust . And that, when we talk about a tool as fundamental as this, is key. At no time do you doubt whether or not it will measure up to a specific scenario. You know it will. And, in addition, it will be super consistent in your results, which, as I said previously, is super important.
Details matter, and the iPhone 13 Pro pays attention too thereto
Beyond sizes, photography or autonomy, the iPhone 13 Pro also shines in other ways . And it does so in details that, although they may seem minor, had a notable impact on the two trips I made with the new phones in my pocket.
The new Super Retina XDR display, for example, is one of them. Having such a well calibrated panel allows you, among other things, to edit your photos as if you were in front of a computer. And the extremely high brightness levels make it possible to reproduce content in HDR or use the phone in exteriors be a joy.
To this equation we must add ProMotion technology. When you take the step, returning to a 60 Hz screen is strange. This system makes everything on the phone much more fluid: transitions, scrolling, etc. And, in addition, it saves battery, since the refresh rate can drop to 10 Hz if necessary – something that a standard panel does not do. That, in fact, is the key why the iPhone 13 Pro offers a little better autonomy than the conventional iPhone 13.
A detail that is rarely highlighted but that, in my opinion, is essential when you are traveling, is the accuracy of the GPS, as well as the compass. And here, dear reader, the iPhone is a master. Few competing phones have such a consistent GPS alongside such an accurate compass. When you are lost in a city, it is key.
By the way: although Apple Maps is not as complete as Google Maps, I must admit that it is quite practical to use it on the Apple Watch to walk to a certain place. You avoid constantly taking your mobile out of your pocket, passing the street where you had to turn – the watch vibrates when you have to do it -, etc. It's a winning combo.
Infinite trips
In the nine days that I was walking around London and Porto with the two variants of the iPhone 13 Pro, I reaffirmed an impression that, from my experience with previous models of the brand, I expected: this is a phone that you can trust without fear of nothing ; will always measure up.
And that statement, which seems obvious considering that we are talking about a product of more than 1,000 euros, is something that cannot be said of all the products of the competition. No, at least, in as many ways as with this iPhone 13 Pro.
