good or bad for battery life?
The new iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max have a 120Hz display, which Apple calls “ProMotion.” A nice addition, but unfavorable for the battery – you might think. However, the opposite is true.
Read on after the ad.
A screen that refreshes the image 120 times per second requires a lot from the battery. Still, the ProMotion screen of the iPhone 13 Pro (Max) is more energy efficient than the 60Hz screen of other iPhones. The Pro models can not only refresh the image very quickly, but also make it extremely ‘slow’.
The iPhone 13 Pro’s ProMotion display supports an adaptive refresh rate from 10Hz to 120Hz. This means that the refresh rate varies. Only when it’s necessary to refresh the image quickly – for example when you’re scrolling or gaming – does your iPhone increase the frame rate to 120Hz.
Usually, however, it is not necessary to refresh the image very quickly. For example, you are texting in WhatsApp, watching a video (which are usually recorded in 24 fps) or reading an article on a website. In such situations, the frame rate just lower than before, with 10Hz as the lowest frequency. With iPhones other than the 13 Pro, this frame rate is always 60 Hz, regardless of what you do.
Battery life iPhone 13 Pro vs iPhone 13
The popular YouTube channel proves that the battery life of an iPhone is better from a ProMotion screen PhoneBuff in a video. In the video, the battery life of the 6.1-inch iPhone 13 Pro is compared with the 6.1-inch iPhone 13, which does not have a ProMotion screen.
The ‘normal’ iPhone 13 has a slightly larger battery capacity (3227 mAh) than the iPhone 13 Pro (3100 mAh). They also have an identical processor (the A15 Bionic) and they have an equally large 6.1-inch OLED screen. However, the battery life of the iPhone 13 Pro appears to be better.
Powered by a robotic arm, PhoneBuff performed all kinds of everyday tasks on the iPhone 13 and 13 Pro, such as browsing, emailing and photographing. With the cheaper model, the battery was empty after 9 hours and 42 minutes. Despite the smaller battery, the iPhone 13 Pro lasted a little longer: 9 hours and 51 minutes. A small difference, but it shows that the ProMotion screen is beneficial for battery life.
The iPhone 13 Pro has a starting price of 1159 euros. You pay for the Max version (which has an even better battery life due to the larger size) 1259 euros. Check our iPhone 13 Pro review and iPhone 13 Pro Max review for everything about the new top devices. Or watch the video below, where we’ll update you in just a few minutes:
