6. Apple iPhone 13 Pro – Best of last year’s bunch
If the iPhone 14 Pro is a little too expensive for your needs, why not consider last year’s iPhone 13 Pro? It may not be available from Apple directly, but plenty of retailers and carriers still offer it. It offers key improvements over the iPhone 12 Pro in terms of performance, battery and camera, and there aren’t any differences between it and the 13 Pro Max aside from screen size, meaning you don’t need to spend money on the largest iPhone to get the best features.
One of the key features of the iPhone 13 Pro is the 120Hz ProMotion display. The adaptive refresh rate can ramp up to a buttery-smooth 120Hz when scrolling and playing games, and drop down to as little as 10Hz when it can to save on battery life. The display is also brighter than ever, ideal for outdoor use.
Though it lacks the camera upgrades of the iPhone 14 Pro, the 13 Pro is still a capable snapper. It sports a main 12Mp snapper with sensor-shift OIS tech previously exclusive to the 12 Pro Max, along with improved f/1.5 aperture for better low-light photography. There are similar low-light improvements to the wide-angle camera, which doubles up as a macro camera, and a boosted telephoto lens now offering a 3x optical zoom.
Like the rest of the iPhone 13 range, you’ll find the A15 Bionic, paired with a minimum 128GB of base storage, going all the way up to 1TB. Performance is top-notch too, with very little between it and the upgraded A16 Bionic in this year’s Pro model. Really, there’s not a lot to like when it comes to the iPhone 13 Pro, and since the release of the iPhone 14 Pro, it’s cheaper than ever.
