iPhone 14 Pro vs iPhone 13 Pro

Apple announced iPhone 14 Pro on 7 September 2022, opened pre-orders on 9 September and had it in US stores on 16 September, from $999. iPhone 13 Pro came the year before, in 2021. Both have long since been replaced; the current Pro is iPhone 18 Pro, and neither of these is sold new, so you’re buying used or refurbished, or deciding whether yours is worth replacing.

This was the year the Pro stopped looking like a notched iPhone. Dynamic Island, an always-on display, a 48MP main camera, Crash Detection and Emergency SOS via satellite all arrived on iPhone 14 Pro. The port didn’t change: both use Lightning, and USB-C only came with iPhone 15 Pro.

The specs that changed, and the ones that didn’t

Spec	iPhone 14 Pro	iPhone 13 Pro
Announced	7 September 2022	2021
US launch	$999 for 128GB	Not published
Display	6.1-inch, 2556 × 1179, 460 ppi	6.1-inch, 2532 × 1170, 460 ppi
Screen	Dynamic Island, Always-On, ProMotion	Notch, ProMotion
Brightness	1000 typical, 1600 HDR, 2000 outdoor	1000 typical, 1200 HDR
Chip	A16 Bionic, 5-core GPU	A15 Bionic, 5-core GPU
Main camera	48MP, 24 mm, f/1.78	12MP wide, f/1.5
Telephoto	12MP, 77 mm, f/2.8, 3x	12MP, f/2.8, 3x
Ultrawide	12MP, 13 mm, f/2.2, 120 degrees	12MP, f/1.8, 120 degrees
Front camera	12MP, f/1.9	12MP, f/2.2
Battery	23 hours video, 20 streamed, 75 audio	22 hours video, 20 streamed, 75 audio
Cinematic mode	4K HDR at 30	1080p at 30
Connector	Lightning, Ring/Silent switch	Lightning, Ring/Silent switch
Weight	206 g	204 g
Safety	Satellite SOS, Crash Detection	Not listed
Bluetooth	5.3	5.0

The screen: same ProMotion, new furniture

Both phones already refresh at up to 120Hz with ProMotion, and iPhone 13 Pro was the first smaller Pro to get it, so moving to iPhone 14 Pro doesn’t make scrolling any smoother. What the 2022 screen adds is everything around the refresh rate.

iPhone 14 Pro’s 6.1-inch Super Retina XDR display (6.12 inches as a plain rectangle) runs 2556 × 1179 at 460 pixels per inch. It adds Dynamic Island, which Apple pitched as a new way to show notifications and activities, and an always-on display, new with this generation. Brightness is 1,000 nits typical, 1,600 for HDR and 2,000 outdoors, with a 2,000,000:1 typical contrast ratio.

iPhone 13 Pro’s 6.1-inch ProMotion screen (6.06 inches as a plain rectangle) is 2532 × 1170 at the same 460 pixels per inch, with the same 1,000 nits typical and contrast ratio but a 1,200-nit HDR peak. The front camera sits in a notch, and only iPhone 14 Pro lists an outdoor peak or an always-on mode.

The bodies are close. iPhone 14 Pro is 147.5 × 71.5 × 7.85 mm and 206 grams; iPhone 13 Pro is 146.7 × 71.5 × 7.65 mm and 204 grams. Same width, so the newer phone is 0.8 mm taller, 0.2 mm thicker and 2 grams heavier. Both are stainless steel with Ceramic Shield on the front and a textured matte glass back, and both are IP68 to 6 meters for up to 30 minutes. iPhone 14 Pro came in Space Black, Silver, Gold and Deep Purple; iPhone 13 Pro in Graphite, Gold, Silver, Sierra Blue and Alpine Green.

Cameras: the 48MP main sensor is the upgrade

iPhone 14 Pro’s main camera is 48MP at 24 mm and f/1.78, with second-generation sensor-shift optical image stabilization, and it gives a 12MP 2x crop at 48 mm. The ultrawide is 12MP at 13 mm, f/2.2 and 120 degrees, and the telephoto is 12MP at 77 mm and f/2.8 with optical image stabilization, which Apple calls 3x.

iPhone 13 Pro is 12MP on all three: a wide camera at f/1.5, an ultrawide at f/1.8 with a 120-degree view, and a telephoto at f/2.8. Apple gives focal lengths only for iPhone 14 Pro’s cameras. The older main camera has the wider aperture, f/1.5 against f/1.78, but the newer one has four times the pixels. Zoom is the same on both: 3x optical in, 2x optical out, a 6x optical range and up to 15x digital. Both have LiDAR, which iPhone 13 Pro uses for Night mode portraits.

On the front, both have a 12MP TrueDepth camera. iPhone 14 Pro’s is f/1.9 with autofocus and Focus Pixels; iPhone 13 Pro’s is f/2.2.

Video is mostly shared: 4K at 24, 25, 30 and 60 fps, Dolby Vision HDR up to 4K at 60, and ProRes up to 4K at 30, which drops to 1080p at 30 on 128GB models. Cinematic mode improves from 1080p at 30 on iPhone 13 Pro to 4K HDR at 30 on iPhone 14 Pro, and iPhone 14 Pro adds Action mode at 2.8K and 60 fps.

Battery, charging and buttons

Battery life is close to a wash. iPhone 14 Pro is rated for up to 23 hours of video, 20 hours streamed and 75 hours of audio; iPhone 13 Pro for 22, 20 and 75. Apple publishes neither phone’s RAM or battery capacity, nor an all-day battery figure.

Charging is identical. Both use Lightning and reach 50 percent in around 30 minutes with a 20W adapter or higher, sold separately, and both can charge from a computer. MagSafe runs up to 15W and Qi up to 7.5W; neither lists Qi2. Video out tops out at 1080p through a Lightning Digital AV Adapter or Lightning to VGA Adapter, also sold separately. Each box has the phone, a USB-C to Lightning cable and documentation, with no power adapter or EarPods.

The side control is still the Ring/Silent switch on both. The Action button arrived on iPhone 15 Pro and Camera Control after that, so trading a 13 Pro for a 14 Pro adds neither button.

Apple lists an operating range only for iPhone 14 Pro: 0 to 35 °C in use, −20 to 45 °C in storage, 5 to 95 percent humidity (noncondensing), and testing up to 3000 meters of altitude. Both are rated M3 and T4 for hearing-aid compatibility.

Safety, radios and software

iPhone 14 Pro has Emergency SOS via satellite and Crash Detection; iPhone 13 Pro has neither. At launch, Apple included the satellite service free for two years with activation of an iPhone 14, so check what the plan is now if you’re buying one used.

The radios are close. Both have 5G on sub-6 and mmWave with 4x4 MIMO, Gigabit LTE with LAA, Wi-Fi 6, ultra-wideband and NFC. iPhone 14 Pro moves to Bluetooth 5.3 from 5.0. Both use GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, QZSS and BeiDou, but only iPhone 14 Pro’s GPS is precision dual-frequency, and NavIC doesn’t appear until later iPhones.

The chips step from A15 Bionic to A16 Bionic, both with a 6-core CPU, a 5-core GPU and a 16-core Neural Engine. The base iPhone 13 is the one with the 4-core GPU. Apple’s iPhone 13 Pro specs still list iOS 15, and neither phone carries a promised number of years of updates.

If you’re buying used, match the model number. iPhone 14 Pro is A2650 or A2651, and iPhone 14 models are activated with eSIM and don’t take a physical SIM, though Apple shows a tray on phones bought outside the United States. iPhone 13 Pro is A2483 or A2484, with a nano-SIM plus eSIM and dual eSIM support; it doesn’t work with older micro-SIM cards, and eSIM isn’t supported in every region.

What they cost

iPhone 14 Pro started at $999 in the US when Apple announced it on 7 September, with 128GB, 256GB, 512GB and 1TB models; iPhone 13 Pro came in the same four sizes. Neither is sold new now, so you’ll pay whatever a reseller asks; the question is whether Dynamic Island, the always-on screen and the 48MP camera are worth the gap to you. Check before you buy.