iPhone 13 Pro vs iPhone 13: Pro packs powerful punch; get this for extra money

iPhone 13 Pro vs iPhone 13: The GPU of the A15 chip found in the iPhone 13 Pro series is more powerful than in the regular iPhone 13 models.

iPhone 13 Pro vs iPhone 13: While the company markets all four iPhone 13 devices as having the same processor, there is a slight difference. (Apple)

Apple announced four iPhone 13 models last night - iPhone 13 mini, iPhone 13, iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max. These can be divided into two lineups of iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro. While some of the major differences between the two series includes cameras, storage options and 120Hz high refresh rate display, there are some other distinctions that might go unnoticed on first look. Apple has opted for a strategy that it selected for the M1 Macs.

For reference, the base M1 Macs have lesser GPU cores than the ones with more storage and RAM options. Apple is opting for the same GPU strategy on the iPhone 13 series. While the company markets all four iPhone 13 devices as having the same processor, there is a slight difference. The GPU of the A15 chip found in the iPhone 13 Pro series is more powerful than in the regular iPhone 13 models. For the unaware, from iPhone 13 mini to the iPhone 13 Pro Max - the entire lineup is powered by the A15 Bionic chipset, which has two high-performance cores and four cores for energy efficiency.

However, the graphics performance is different between the regular and Pro models. The GPU from the A15 Bionic chip in the iPhone 13 mini and iPhone 13 features four cores. It is touted to deliver 30% better graphics performance compared to the “competition.” By contrast, the A15 Bionic SoC on the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max come equipped with an extra GPU core for a total of five cores that deliver up to 50% better performance compared to the competition.

The differentiation is slated to be present because of the addition of ProRes codec support on the Pro models. Apple did say at the event that the A15 Bionic includes new video encoders and decoders capable of shooting and editing video in ProRes. It takes up a lot of storage space as well as require a lot from the GPU.