The build quality is simply superb, the phone retails for Rs 1,49,900 and needless to say, it sets new standards in all aspects—design, display, camera technology or battery life.

Why are people so crazy about Apple? Why is it that there is always a mad scramble to purchase the latest iPhone in town? Is it merely an aspirational device or there is more to it? A chance meeting with a young Indian American—currently on a visit to India and the proud owner of the latest iPhone 13 Pro—brought out some straight facts to explain the popularity of this Cupertino, California-based firm. “Apple products speak for themselves; they are known for their cutting-edge features and great looks. The experience in using an Apple device is unparalleled, be it the iPhone to communicate with, or the legendary Mac line of computers that we use for work and entertainment,” says the tech-savvy man, currently working with a fintech in New York. “Strictly from a user point of view, the iPhone is consistently well performing and easily usable. Structurally, functionally and aesthetically, Apple leads in every way,” he declares.

Recently, the iPhone 13 lineup went on sale and Apple has been kind enough to send across its latest device, the iPhone 13 Pro, for review. It is available in four stainless steel finishes—Graphite, Gold, Silver and Sierra Blue. We got the Gold, 512GB variant. The build quality is simply superb, the phone retails for Rs 1,49,900 and needless to say, it sets new standards in all aspects—design, display, camera technology or battery life.

In the box, you will get the iPhone 13 Pro and USB-C to Lightning Cable and documentation. There are so many things to like about the latest Apple device; it is attractive to look at, has a sturdy build with Ceramic Shield front, textured matte glass back and stainless steel design, with fluid performance its hallmark. There’s also the most advanced pro camera system ever on iPhone, Super Retina XDR display with ProMotion, a massive leap in battery life, A15 Bionic (the fastest chip in a smartphone), and so much more. In fact, you’ll be amazed with its powerful performance and impressive features; let us find out its key features and overall performance.

First, the cameras. There is an all-round upgrade of the triple camera system. The rear camera system introduces a new design with beautiful stainless steel trim surrounding each sapphire crystal lens. The pro camera system gets its biggest advancement ever with new Ultra Wide, Wide, and Telephoto cameras that capture mind-boggling photos and video, powered by the A15 Bionic chip. These technologies enable impressive new photo capabilities never before possible on iPhone, like macro photography on the new Ultra Wide camera and upto 2.2x improved low-light performance on the new Wide camera. Coupled with the larger ƒ/1.5 aperture, the Wide camera on iPhone 13 Pro offers a massive improvement in low-light situations. The net result is the images produced are brighter and sharper. New computational photography features like Photographic Styles personalise the look of images in the Camera app, and the phone now also includes Night mode on all cameras.

Second, video takes a huge leap forward with Cinematic mode for beautiful depth-of-field transitions, macro video, Time-lapse and Slo-mo, and even better low-light performance. Cinematic mode on iPhone records videos of people, pets, and objects with a beautiful depth effect with automatic focus changes, so anyone can capture cinema-style moments, even if they aren’t a professional filmmaker. iPhone 13 Pro also introduces ProRes, an advanced video codec used widely as the final delivery format for commercials, feature films and broadcasts, to offer higher colour fidelity and less compression. This powerful new pro workflow is enabled by the new camera hardware, advanced video encoders and decoders in A15 Bionic, and flash storage pipeline. I must point out iPhone is the only smartphone in the world to provide an end-to-end workflow—capture, edit, and share in Dolby Vision or ProRes.

iPhone 13 Pro brings the most advanced display ever on iPhone, Super Retina XDR with ProMotion, supporting an adaptive refresh rate from 10Hz to 120Hz, for fast frame rates when users need it and preserving battery life when they don’t. The intelligent new display leverages a more efficient OLED panel, new display engine of A15 Bionic, faster GPU performance, always-on touch coprocessor, and is custom designed to operate with iOS 15, making gestures, animations, and activities like gameplay feel faster and more responsive. Overall, you will experience very good resolution, colour, and contrast whether casually scrolling through the web or watching HDR videos.

The iPhone 13 Pro has a 3095-mAh battery which might look small, but thanks to more power-efficient components, it provides longer battery runtimes. At our end, the phone easily lasted more than one and a half day on moderate usage.

Apple phones are known for their ease of use and that’s why people keep buying Apple products. As the Indian-American this reviewer came across put it, “iPhone 13 Pro is the best smartphone in the world. Period.”

SPECIFICATIONS

Dimensions: 71.5 x 146.7 x 7.65 mm (W x H x D), 204g weight
Display: 6.1-inch (diagonal)all-screen OLED display
Processor: A15 Bionic chip
Operating system: iOS 15
Storage capacity: 128GB,256GB, 512GB, 1TB
Camera: 12MP + 12MP + 12MP (rear), 12MP Front Camera
Battery: 3095mAh, MagSafe wireless charging upto 15W
Estimated street price: Rs 1,49,900 (512GB)