iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max announced with 120Hz ProMotion display and smaller notch

Apple held its big fall event today, and the flagship products announced are the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max. They’ve got the same chipset as the iPhone 13 series, just like we’ve seen in the past, but they’ve got better displays, better cameras, and more.

First of all, let’s get the elephant in the room out of the way. The notch at the top of the display is smaller, 40% smaller in fact. If you’re a hater of the notch, it’s something that you’ll be happy to see. The display is better too, although it;s still being called Super Retina XDR.

iPhone 13 Pro

It supports 1,000-nit max brightness, which will be great for outdoor use. It’s also 120Hz, a refresh rate that competitors in the Android space have been using for a while. It’s an adaptive ProMotion display, meaning that it’s not going to suck down your battery life. The screen refresh rate is based on what you’re doing, and it can be as low as 10Hz.

Of course, we’ve got lots of camera improvements, from sensors to software. The new main sensor now has an f/1.5 aperture for better low-light performance, and the ultra-wide camera is f/1.8. The telephoto lens is now 3x, but if you want to get up close, Apple is going to let you use the ultra-wide lens for macro photography at a minimum 2cm distance, and it can do macro slow motion.

iPhone 13 Pro promo image

That’s not all though. The A15 Bionic has a new ISP, which means that it takes better pictures. There are big-time video capture improvements too. You an record 4K 60fps video in Dolby Vision, but there’s also a new cinematic mode, which lets you lock focus onto subjects, dynamically adjust, and more. It can also record ProRes video.

Let’s talk about that A15 Bionic chip that’s powering it though. It’s a hexa-core chip that has two new performance cores and four new efficiency cores. It also adds a new neural engine, and as mentioned, a new ISP. Considering that Apple has been ahead of its competition for some time with its custom chipsets, its no surprise that that’s still the case.

iPhone 13 Pro promo image

Next up, Apple is promising better battery life. If you grab an iPhone 13 Pro, you should get an extra 1.5 hours, while the iPhone 13 Pro Max will get you an extra 2.5 hours.

“iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max make up our most pro iPhone lineup ever with the biggest advancement for our camera system, the best battery life ever in an iPhone, and the fastest performance of any smartphone, setting a new standard for iPhone and enabling incredible experiences never before possible,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “The new pro camera system offers even more pro photography capabilities like improved telephoto zoom, macro photography, Photographic Styles, Cinematic mode, as well as ProRes and Dolby Vision video. The Super Retina XDR display with ProMotion is our best display ever; it intelligently responds to the content on your screen, offers fantastic graphics performance, and is perfect for any viewing experience.”

iPhone 13 Pro promo image

Pricing hasn’t changed for either model. They’re still going to start at $999 and $1,099 for the iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max, respectively, and that’s for 128GB of storage, while there are also 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB options. You can pre-order this Friday (September 17), and than the devices will be available on September 24. It comes in Graphite, Gold, Silver, and Sierra Blue.