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iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro battery test shows just how much ProMotion improves efficiency [Video]

Top image by PhoneBuff

One of the useful improvements across the entire iPhone 13 lineup is battery life. But while Apple’s estimates focus on how much video playback each device offers, that’s not a great real-world indicator of the battery life you’ll get. After an iPhone 13 Pro Max vs Samsung Galaxy S21 battery test, PhoneBuff is back with an iPhone 13 vs 13 Pro battery showdown.

At first glance, it may seem easy to assume the iPhone 13 with a slightly larger battery capacity (3227mAh) would outlast the iPhone 13 Pro (3100mAh) with them both having the same 6.1-inch screens, almost identical processors, and the 13 Pro having the ProMotion display with up 120Hz refresh rate.

However, the ProMotion display can also go as low as 10Hz when needed and can actually be a battery-saving feature. That’s a good part of why Apple says the 13 Pro can give 3 hours more video playback (22 hours) than the iPhone 13 with 19 hours of video playback.

In his detailed testing, PhoneBuff was impressed with both the 13 and 13 Pro’s overall battery life compared to the iPhone 12 and 12 Pro.

And the 13 Pro did indeed outlast the 13, but not by near as much as 3 hours, in PhoneBuff’s test it was just 9 minutes more screen-on time. So ProMotion was able to help overcome the 13’s advantage of a larger battery, but not by much.

That shook out to be 16 hours of standby time for each iPhone and 9 hours and 42 minutes for the iPhone 13 and 9 hours and 51 minutes of screen-on time for the 13 Pro. Check out the full battery test below:

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Avatar for Michael Potuck Michael Potuck

Michael is an editor for 9to5Mac. Since joining in 2016 he has written more than 3,000 articles including breaking news, reviews, and detailed comparisons and tutorials.


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