Apple introduced the iPhone 13 Pro back in 2021 with its headlining features being an all-new Super Retina XDR display with ProMotion featuring an adaptive refresh rate up to 120Hz, making the touch experience faster and more responsive, along with the pro camera system and its new Ultra Wide, Wide, and Telephoto cameras that was able to capture stunning photos and video, all while being powered by the A15 Bionic.
Our model comes in the new sierra blue colour which is certainly stunning and makes the three year old iPhone 13 Pro stand out even in this age. It boasts a 6.1″ Super Retina XDR OLED display with ProMotion offering a sumptouos 2532‑by‑1170-pixel resolution at 460 ppi that makes your content pop while also supporting an adaptive refresh rate from 10Hz to 120Hz for fast frame rates when you need it (mobile gaming) and preserving battery life for when you don’t.
At the time, this was also the brightest display ever on iPhone with up to 25 percent higher max outdoor brightness, at 1000 nits, so users will experience amazing resolution, color, and contrast whether casually scrolling through the web or watching HDR videos.
Zooming into the cameras
If you prefer to capture your own content rather than viewing it, the iPhone 13 Pro sports new sensors and lenses for all three rear cameras, optimized to work seamlessly with iOS 15 and powered by the new image signal processor (ISP) in A15 Bionic for improved noise reduction and tone mapping, the iPhone 13 Pro lineup features the best camera system ever on iPhone. The all-new Wide camera has a larger sensor with 1.9 µm pixels, the largest ever on iPhone, for less noise and faster shutter speeds needed across lighting conditions, producing even more detailed photos.
Coupled with the larger ƒ/1.5 aperture, the Wide camera on iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max offers a massive improvement in low-light situations, up to 2.2x when compared to iPhone 12 Pro, and nearly 1.5x when compared to iPhone 12 Pro Max. Sensor-shift optical image stabilization (OIS) — unique to iPhone — is available on both models, stabilizing the sensor instead of the lens, so images are smooth and video is steady, even when the user is not.
The new Ultra Wide camera features a much wider ƒ/1.8 aperture and a new autofocus system, bringing a 92 percent improvement for low-light environments, producing images that are brighter and sharper. You can capture sharp images where objects appear larger than life, magnifying subjects with a minimum focus distance of 2 centimeters. Macro also extends to video including Slo-mo and Time-lapse. iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max also boast a new 77 mm Telephoto camera, allowing users to get closer to their subjects while recording video and achieve even more classically framed portraits, offering 3x optical zoom for a total 6x optical zoom range on the camera system.
Snappy performance
Also a snappy and smooth performer is the under the hood chipset in this instance the 15 Bionic chip which boasts a 6‑core CPU consisting of 2 performance and 4 efficiency cores, a 5‑core GPU, and 16‑core Neural Engine (phone supports iOS 18 with the soon to arrive Apple Intelligence feature set) allowing for blistering performance whilst navigating the OS, multitasking, playing mobile games, or simply using the smartphone from day to day.
Also onboard is 5G to future proof the device, wireless charging up to 15W through MagSafe (or Qi wireless charging up to 7.5W), as well as a built‑in rechargeable lithium‑ion battery delivering battery life of up to 22 hours for video playback, up to 20 hours when streaming your favourite series on Netflix, Amazon Prime TV, Showmax, YouTube or Disney+ or up to 75 hours when listening to your favourite music or podcasts. We can confidently say that this smartphone does get you through a full working day of usage.
Ultimately this is still a smartphone worth considering in 2024 if you can get it on a good deal via Facebook Marketplace for instance, as new ones through local retailers like Incredible Connection is still expensive at around R23 500 for which you could get a newer smartphone like the Samsung Galaxy S24+ or even iPhone 15 Pro via Amazon.co.za, or foldable smartphone on Amazon.co.za like the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 for example – definately not worth being new but for a good deal a great condition pre-loved device will more than do the job :).
