iPhone 13 Pro

Yes, it’s good, but is it enough to tempt you?

- NICK ODANTZIS

From $999 From apple.com

Features 6.1–inch Super Retina XDR display with ProMotion, 460ppi, A15 Bionic chip, 128GB/256GB/512GB/1TB storage, IP68, Pro 12MP rear camera system with Telephoto, Wide and Ultra Wide cameras, 12MP TrueDepth front camera, 7.16 oz

During what sometimes feels like a never-ending cycle of incremental upgrades to the iPhone, the iPhone 13 Pro could rank as the most incremental upgrade ever (ignoring the non–numeric S models). But wait, this is also the best iPhone ever. Huh? Bear with us. Last year’s iPhone 12 Pro was pretty darn great already, so there wasn’t really a big requirement to totally redesign it. Instead, Apple has finessed it in several key ways, and in the process made it a bit, erm, chunky… more on that later.

Probably the most noticeable upgrade from last year’s handset is battery longevity. The iPhone 12 Pro certainly wasn’t bad by any means — we easily managed about a day’s use before snapping it on to a MagSafe before bedtime — but it wasn’t top of the class either. According to Apple, the iPhone 13 Pro gains an extra 5 hours of video playback per charge — up to 22 hours now. Certainly, at the end of a day we noticed the battery bar still well over half a tank, as apposed to less than a quarter.

So that’s pretty incredible news. The battery boost is most likely down to the increased capacity of the unit — up from 1,078 mAh to 1,197 mAh, according to iFixit’s teardown.