In bright and medium lighting, I found macro photography on the iPhone to be solid. It is not on the level of a mirrorless camera with a dedicated macro lens, but it is one of the best implementations of a macro mode that I have seen on the phone. I took solid close-up photos of food, coffee and even shot a nightmare video clip of ants crawling over a discarded grapefruit.
At the main dinner of the event, I learned two things: the first is that gooseberries are delicious. And the next thing is that in low light conditions, the iPhone still switches to the ultra-wide camera to take a macro photo. The best camera on the phone is the wide-angle camera, which can also handle low-light situations well. And because the phone has to be so close to your subject, it blocks some of the light, resulting in mediocre close-ups. At this time, there is no way to disable the macro function. Apple says a new setting will be added in a software update this fall, so you’ll be able to disable automatic camera switching when shooting at short distances for macro and video photography.
I love the Cinematic mode on the iPhone 13 Pro.
All iPhones 13 get a new feature called Cinematic Mode. Use the rear cameras or the True Depth camera suite to create 1080p video at 30 frames per second. What makes the video attractive is that everything except the subject is out of focus. The iPhone can even execute rack focus from one subject to another. The effect is dramatic and impressive.
Like the Portrait mode for photos, the feature allows you to change the depth of field. The good news is that the phone can do everything, including choosing who is focused and when to shift focus. During recording, you can manually touch and change the focus points and aperture yourself. Or you can do all of that after the fact.
Cinematic mode is a blast to use.
Are cinematic videos perfect? No, but it is a blast to use and experience. Cinematic mode needs a good amount of light to work best. If the conditions are too dark, a pop-up window will appear asking you to turn on the flash.
Also, I noticed that fast-moving non-human subjects, like water coming out of a spout or brewing an espresso, were difficult to keep in focus for Kinematic mode. And when editing a video in Cinematic mode, the controls for the focus keyframes are small. You can hold down to expand them, but they will go small again as soon as you release them.
Not all the bionic power of the A15 is the same.
Apple’s new A15 Bionic chip powers it all. The GPU in the Pro models has five cores instead of four in the 13 and 13 Mini. When I was testing the phones, I had no problem playing games, editing photos, or having a ton of applications open at the same time. See the benchmark test results below.
In addition to an impressive set of capabilities, there are the video recording capabilities of the iPhone 13 Pro. It can handle 4K at 24/30/60 fps and 1080p at 30/60 fps. I recorded a smooth and steady 4K video of a plane flying overhead with almost no shake or loss of focus that I could notice. It’s rare to get that level of stabilization on the phone without the help of a gimbal.
Software and Features
The iPhone 13 Pro updates to iOS 15 out of the box. We took a deeper dive into the individual features implemented with the operating system, but the notable ones are improved notification summaries, support for in-camera text scanning, tabs for Safari, and future support for storing immunization records. And other data.
iPhone 13 Pro home screen.
This review is not an evaluation of iOS versus Android. We have a ton of those kinds of pieces if that’s what you’re interested in, and by now, you probably already know which ecosystem you prefer. However, I will note that this version of iOS had more bugs at launch than I have normally seen. Aside from the app’s optimization for the 120Hz display and hit-or-miss Face ID, I also had an issue with the phone not unlocking with my Apple Watch Series 6. Apple has acknowledged this issue, however, and it should be fixed in the next update.
Price and availability
The iPhone 13 Pro is currently available for sale for a starting price of $ 999 in blue, silver, gold, and graphite color options. It also has 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB storage size options and works with all major US carriers. The only thing to consider when choosing the storage size An idea aside from your needs is that 4K 30fps ProRes recording is only supported with a minimum of 256GB storage.
Our take
The iPhone 13 Pro is the best iPhone you can get. Giving it the iPhone 13 form factor, a 120Hz display, excellent camera performance, tons of battery life, and ridiculous storage options, it truly is a phone for power users. It was a pleasure to use as my daily driver, and you won’t be disappointed if you pay for it.
Is there a better alternative?
The iPhone 13 Pro is the best model in terms of hardware, but if you want longer battery life and a bigger screen, the iPhone 13 Pro Max has everything in the Pro, only bigger. The iPhone 13 is more affordable, but it’s downsized, with no 120Hz display, telephoto, or macro photo support> It doesn’t have a 1TB storage option either. The iPhone 13 Mini is an even smaller version with the same hardware, making it a good option if you like small phones. If you have an iPhone 12 Pro, our camera test didn’t show much difference between the two devices, and it’s probably not worth upgrading.
If you’re willing to switch to Android, the Samsung Galaxy S21, OnePlus 9 Pro, and soon the Google Pixel 6 can all offer equal or better camera performance, equal power, and many unique features. Android makers also tend to adopt newer technologies like folding screens, giving you options like the Z Flip 3 and Fold 3.