Another iPhone launch, another DXOMark camera test. This time, the iPhone 13 Pro has earned a score of 137, nine points more than the iPhone 12 Pro in 2020. This places it in the top five of DXOMark’s list of best smartphone cameras.
DXOMark explains that the score includes a “Photo score of 144,” a “Zom score of 76,” and a “Video score of 119.”
With a DXOMARK Camera overall score of 137 the Apple iPhone 13 Pro mingles among the very best devices in our camera ranking. The overall score is compounded by an excellent Photo score of 144. Like for all iPhones color rendering is vivid with nice skin tones and a slightly warm touch and the camera is generally very reliable. Overall Photo performance is quite similar to the 12 Pro we tested last year but improvements have been made in several areas.
The review shows that the iPhone 13 Pro has accurate and repeatable target exposure, nice color, skin tones, and white balance. It has fast, accurate, and repeatable autofocus, good detail in indoor and outdoor conditions, and more.
On the other hand, DXOMark says the iPhone 13 Pro has a limited dynamic range in challenging high contrast scenes, luminance noise on primary, ultra-wide, and telephoto lenses, especially in low light. The company also faced occasional pink-white balance casts in some conditions and some white balance variations in videos. The problem with the newer iPhone is its camera’s zoom:
The camera’s Zoom score of 76 isn’t quite up there with the very best but performance has still been improved over the 12 Pro, thanks to the longer 3x optical zoom versus 2.5x on the older model.
Video, on the other hand, was one of the most praised features of the iPhone 13 Pro:
The outstanding Video score of 119 puts the iPhone 13 Pro at the very top of this sub-ranking, thanks to several improvements in key areas. Tone mapping instabilities that were very visible on the iPhone 12 series model have been fixed and exposure is now generally very stable. Autofocus performance has been pushed as well, thanks to better tracking a very smooth refocusing at the right moments. Our testers did not spot any unwanted focus breathing, either.
With all of that in mind, here are how the top DXOMark smartphone camera rankings now break down:
- Huawei P50 Pro: 144
- Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra: 143
- Huawei Mate 40 Pro+: 139
- Apple iPhone 13 Pro: 137
- Huawei Mate 40 Pro: 136
- Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra: 133
- Huawei P40 Pro: 132
- Oppo Find X3 Pro: 131
- Vivo X50 Pro+: 131
- Apple iPhone 13 mini: 130
As always, it’s important to keep in mind that the methodology and reliability of DXOMark’s testing are often questioned and disputed, primarily on the basis that camera quality is subjective and assigning a “score” is challenging. This is especially true when there is no fixed scale and scores push well above 100.
What do you think of these results? Let us know down in the comments.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Comments