Introduction
I wanted to do a review on my iPhone 13 Pro Max 256GB, which I have been using since October of 2021. After being an avid Android user for a decade, decided to make the switch to my first first iPhone back in 2021. My family was using iPhones for many years before I got mine, but the ecosystem really helped convince me to move over. Luckily I was able to use one of their old iPhones to confirm I was going to be able to adjust before committing.
In this review, I will cover these major categories.
Build Quality and Design
The build quality has held up really good. Honestly I am not aware of any major scratches on it, but I do have the standard screen protector to protect the display and use an Otterbox case to protect the shell.
I am glad I got a iPhone with wireless charging aka MagSafe, use it nightly. The iPhone 13 is still using the Lightning port, but my iPad and iPod airs are as well, so that has worked out for me. Whatever device I upgrade next will most likely have USB-C, and I will want to upgrade all three of them!
Performance and Software
As of writing this post, I am running iOS 18.5. I haven’t noticed any degradation in performance when running apps or games. I am assuming the new ones are faster, and if I ran any benchmarks, I would assume they would show that on complex games they are faster. However on daily task the phone is still very quick.
As for the display, it still looks great, no burn in issues. The only improvement I would like is a brighter display when using it in sunlight.
Battery Life
I have really solid battery life as well. At the end of the day I am normally between 50 and 70% and usually closer to 70% without charging it throughout the day. These metrics reflect about 2.5 hours of average screen on time.
My current maximum capacity is 87%.
Tip: I turn off as many notifications as I can. I believe this really helps save battery life and makes life less stressful!
Camera Quality
Almost all of the photos on this website are from my iPhone and they are obviously pretty good quality. I know each new version continues to add minor improvements. With having the pro version, the changes between different iPhone versions hasn’t been enough for me to switch.
The one item I have noticed is that the iPhone 13 Pro doesn’t do as well when compared to the 14 pro’s with night photos (eg northern lights or star photos), but these situations are far and few between.
Final thoughts
One of the reasons I wanted to write this review is because I’ve been thinking about upgrading when the new iPhone come out in fall 2025. That said, I’m genuinely surprised at how well the iPhone 13 Pro Max has held up with daily use. If you’re considering one, I recommend going with a higher storage option (like 256GB instead of 128GB), since apps, videos, and photos can fill up space quickly. For anyone looking at buying a used model, I’d still recommend it as it’s got several years left, especially as long as Apple continues to support it with updates.