iPhone 16 Pro vs iPhone 13 Pro: All the differences

What are the new features in the iPhone 16 Pro? And is this finally the moment for iPhone 13 Pro owners to upgrade?

The 16 Pro arrives with a slightly larger screen, longer battery life, a faster processor that supports AI, and faster charging speeds. Apple is also revamping the ultrawide and zoom cameras and is adding the 5X zoom camera from the Pro Max.

If you had any doubts, leave them aside – this shapes up as a big year for the compact Pro model.

While the overall design of the iPhone 16 Pro and 13 Pro are similar, with flat sides and a triple camera system, there are some important changes.

The 16 Pro gets a bigger 6.3-inch screen (vs 6.1" display on the 13 Pro), and the borders around the screen are also impressively slim, which gives it a modern look.

And despite all the new features and the larger size, the 16 Pro weighs a tiny bit less thanks to the use of the lighter titanium material instead of the stainless steel on the 13 Pro.

Here are the exact sizes of the two:

Other compelling design upgrades are the new Action button and Camera Control.

The Action button replaces the mute switch and can be programmed to pretty much every function in the phone (we already saw it on the iPhone 15 Pro series).

The Camera Control is brand new and located just below the power button on the right side of the phone. It is dedicated to camera functions only, but not just limited to the stock Apple camera app.

For the most part, it's similar to a shutter button on a real camera, but with added functions.

You have a light press functionality to lock focus or exposure for example, while a full press will capture a photo or start recording video. But what's really cool is that you can also swipe on it, so it acts like a mini-trackpad. With this you can control a number of functions like zooming in and out, cycling through filters or others. Cool!

Read more: iPhone 16 colors

Another new feature for iPhone 13 Pro owners is a USB-C port, a welcome change from the proprietary Lightning port. The 16 Pro also has the Dynamic Island with Face ID instead of the notch on teh 13 Pro.

IP68 water and dust protection are the same on both phones.

Apple has moved to a 6.3-inch screen on the 16 Pro, a slight shift from the 6.1-inch display on the 13 Pro.

This seems like a good thing for the average user – as we spend more time on our phones, more screen space is always welcome.

Apple has also trimmed the borders around the screen by nearly a half, for a very modern look on the 16 Pro.

Another welcome change you will notice when comparing the 16 Pro vs 13 Pro is lower minimum brightness, so it gets down to 1 nit on the newer model for more comfortable viewing at night. Max brightness, however, has not changed and both get around 1,000 nits typical max brightness.

The 16 Pro also gets a new version of the Ceramic Shield with 2X the protection compared to the previous generation, so we guess that means even bigger improvement compared to the 13 Pro.

What has not changes is that both have a 120Hz ProMotion screen for smooth scrolling.

Despite the change from a notch to Dynamic Island for Face ID on the front, the face recognition has not changed in speed or functionality either.

For years, we've been talking about processor speed and benchmarks, and while that is improving this year too, the big story this time is about AI.

With the new A18 Pro chip, Apple is the first to use second-gen 3nm tech and the chip has a more powerful neural engine to deal faster with machine learning tasks.

A welcome change in the design is better heat dissipation on the A18 Pro, which will helps gamers a lot, but is also great for intense tasks like Ai, too.

It's also no surprise that the 16 Pro gets 8GB of RAM, the minimum requirement for AI, while the 13 Pro does not support AI features and only has 6GB of RAM.

However, don't expect all Apple Intelligence features to arrive at once with the iPhone 16 Pro.

Some like the Clean up feature in Photos (similar to Magic Eraser on Pixel phones) is coming with iOS 18.1. Arguably more impressive features like the ChatGPT integration are scheduled to arrive by the end of 2024, and yet others like the fully revamped Siri are due next year.

Also read: iPhone 16 AI features

Other smaller changes likely include a new modem, the Snapdragon X75, which promises better connection and signal reception.

The iPhone 16 Pro also gets Wi-Fi 7 support vs Wi-Fi 6 on the iPhone 13 Pro. This should give you up to 2.4X faster speeds and improved latency in perfect conditions.

 

With three cameras on the back, the iPhone 16 Pro and 13 Pro share some similarities, but really a lot has changed in these three years.

The main camera has moved from 12MP to 48MP and that gives you far better detail and low light performance. You also get 2X zoom quality with sensor crop on the 16 Pro, which you did not have on the 13 Pro.

The ultra-wide camera also gets a similar bump from 12MP to 48MP with benefits to detail and night-time photos.

And finally, the 3X zoom camera is replaced by the 5X tetraprism zoom lens from the Pro Max for more reach. That is great if you want ot film your kids' concert or really anything far away (you do lose out on 3X portraits, though).

Photographic Styles first arrived on the iPhone 13 series, and they had not changed much in the last three years. But now is the time – the 16 Pro has new Styles that have more controls and best of all, you no longer need to remember to turn them on before you take the picture, you apply them after the fact.

As for video, you get a more capable 4K Cinematic video on the 16 Pro (really, this has been available on the 14 Pro and 15 Pro as well).

The brand new feature, however, is glorious 4K120 slow motion. This upgrades the 1080p120 slow motion of the 13 Pro and we, as creators, are excited.  Even some high-end professional cameras don't support 120fps beyond 1080p! This will surely unlock a ton of creative opportunities.

Also read: iPhone 16 camera

Another feature Apple focused on with the 16 Pro is called Visual Intelligence. It is basically Google Lens made the Apple way. It functions similarly as it allows you to do a visual search and get useful information about what you see, but it's also great that it is not hidden deep in menus and you can just long press the Camera Control and start using it right away.

While we don't yet know the exact iPhone 16 Pro battery size, we do know that it will last longer.

Apple rates the iPhone 13 Pro for 22 hours of video playback, while the 16 Pro is rated for 27 hours, a significant change.

Audio playback has also improved from 75 hours on the 13 Pro to 85 hours on the 16 Pro.

As for battery capacity and size, the iPhone 16 Pro is rumored to have a 3,577mAh battery, nearly 16% larger than the previous model (which had a 3,095mAh battery). We still have to wait for the teardowns for a confirmation about that number, though.

We have to double-check all of Apple's battery numbers, so will be running our in-house battery tests for a more detailed picture of the battery changes.

The exciting rumors about faster charging on the iPhone 16 Pro only turned out half-true.

Wired charging remains quite slow at 20W speeds, but MagSafe wireless charging is faster.

With a new MagSafe charger that has to be connected to at least a 30W power brick, you will get a total of 25 watts of power to the iPhone 16 Pro.

What does this mean in real life? Previosuly, a 30-minute top up with MagSafe gave you back around 35% of battery, and with this faster version of MagSafe you are getting 50% back in 30 minutes.

Let's recap the iPhone 16 Pro vs iPhone 13 Pro specs in a table:

Three years surely brings lots of changes, and if you had any doubts, leave them aside – the 16 Pro will be a significant upgrade from the 13 Pro.

And not just because of the brand new Apple Intelligence features. Apple has improved the fundamentals of the smaller Pro phone. You now get longer battery life, finally a true zoom camera, a reworked ultrawide snapper, and even the main camera is new with a 48MP sensor compared to the 13 Pro.

Other smaller conveniences are the new USB-C port that replaces Lightning, as well as the useful new physical buttons.

Also read: iPhone 16: the deals

For those who are wondering what's coming next, rumors suggest the first big iPhone redesign in a few years with the 2025 iPhone 17, so that is the model to get if you want a phone that looks different.