iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max offer identical camera features

Last year, the iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max were separated by more than just their different screen sizes, with Apple also limiting certain camera features to solely the iPhone 12 Pro Max. This year, however, the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max are at feature parity, aside from differences in screen size and battery life.

Most notably, this means that the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max feature the same camera hardware, with the Pro model gaining features that were exclusive to the Pro Max last year.

iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max camera features:

• Pro 12MP camera system: Telephoto, Wide, and Ultra Wide cameras
• Telephoto: ƒ/2.8 aperture
• Wide: ƒ/1.5 aperture
• Ultra Wide: ƒ/1.8 aperture and 120° field of view
• 3x optical zoom in, 2x optical zoom out; 6x optical zoom range
• Digital zoom up to 15x
• Night mode portraits enabled by LiDAR Scanner
• Portrait mode with advanced bokeh and Depth Control
• Portrait Lighting with six effects (Natural, Studio, Contour, Stage, Stage Mono, High‑Key Mono)
• Dual optical image stabilization (Telephoto and Wide)
• Sensor‑shift optical image stabilization (Wide)
• Six‑element lens (Telephoto and Ultra Wide); seven‑element lens (Wide)
• True Tone flash with Slow Sync
• Panorama (up to 63MP)
• Sapphire crystal lens cover
• 100% Focus Pixels (Wide)
• Night mode
• Deep Fusion
• Smart HDR 4
• Photographic Styles
• Macro photography
• Apple ProRAW
• Wide color capture for photos and Live Photos
• Lens correction (Ultra Wide)
• Advanced red‑eye correction
• Photo geotagging
• Auto image stabilization
• Burst mode
• Image formats captured: HEIF and JPEG

For instance, last year, optical image stabilization was exclusive to the iPhone 12 Pro Max, which meant that iPhone 12 Pro users missed out on that capability. Apple has been able to improve the camera hardware in the iPhone 13 Pro this year to bring the two to feature parity.

Feature parity between the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max is notable for a number of reasons. Most importantly, it means that users do not necessarily have to opt for the largest and most expensive iPhone to access the best camera hardware. For the iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max, had to decide whether they were willing to deal with the larger footprint of the Pro Max as a trade-off for having the top camera hardware.

The differences between the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max now boil down solely to screen size (6.1 inches and 6.7 inches) and battery life. Does this impact your purchasing decisions this fall? Let us know down in the comments.

iPhone 13 pre-orders begin on Friday, September 17, with the first orders arriving on Friday, September 24.

Must-have iPhone 13 charging accessories:

• Native Union Drop 10W Qi Charger
• Anker 30W USB-C wall charger
• USB-C to Lightning cable
• Lightning to 3.5mm headphone adapter or cable

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