Over the last few weeks, I’ve outlined a variety of my first impressions of the new iPhone 13 Pro. From ProRAW (which didn’t actually debut on the iPhone 13 Pro), to Cinematic Mode, to ProMotion and battery life, I’ve been very impressed with the iPhone 13 Pro so far. I actually use my iPhone again.

There are many other facets to an all-encompassing device, though. And it’s hard to truly review a device like this after only a few weeks. Perhaps this is why Marques Brownlee’s 47-minute review of the iPhone 12 Pro earlier this year resonated with so many people. Brownlee’s comments came after months and years of using the device.

Case in point: I sort of praised the iPhone 12 mini last year. At the time, I was smitten with a small iPhone I could take everywhere, use with one hand in an instant, and not notice it in my pocket.

Then I truly discovered the 12 mini’s horrid battery life and I completely shut off from the phone. I barely used it, opting to simply carry it with me instead. It brought unnecessary anxiety to my life. And it cut into my productivity.

For these reasons, I’ll provide much shorter thoughts on the iPhone 13 Pro at this point. I’m not ready to review the device yet. Give me a few months to see how it settles in.

Here are a few more first impressions from my first month with the latest Pro iPhone from Apple.

Macro Photography

I wrote this about macro photography over on The Sweet Setup:

First, you need good light. Macro Mode operates in the ultra-wide camera, which has the technically inferior camera when compared to the wide and telephoto cameras. You need reasonably good light or the iPhone simply won’t lock focus. I’ve had a few instances where the iPhone locks focus, I’ve pushed it further, and the iPhone switches back to the wide camera. This only seems to happen in low light.

Second, you need a steady hand. I must have a slight, slight tremor in my hand, as very few of my handheld macro shots come out sharp and pristine. In low light, you’ll need a tripod and a steady finger to ensure tapping the shutter button doesn’t jar the iPhone.

Third, though Macro Mode photos can be shot in ProRAW, I’ve found the ProRAWs to be a little flimsier when editing. I chalk this up to the poorer ultra-wide camera (among other elements). Details aren’t maintained as well in shadows and highlights as they are with the wide camera. The subject matter of course differs, but it’s indeed more difficult to edit a macro ProRAW.

All three hiccups are outweighed by the fourth camera in your pocket. Where we had an ultra-wide, wide, and telephoto before, we now have a fourth macro camera for capturing entirely new elements of our world.

That’s a long quote, so you should just head over to read the entire piece on The Sweet Setup. My impressions a few weeks after writing these words holds true: For the new macro mode to really take off on the iPhone 13 Pro, you need good light, a steady hand, and just a tad more patience when editing the ProRAW photo.

Keeping this all in mind though, having a fourth camera in your bag trumps every other nitpick I could come up with.

Simply put, the iPhone 13 Pro now ships with four cameras: an ultra-wide, a wide, a tele, and a macro camera. This opens up a new world of iPhoneography. There’s no quality level that really matters here — the very fact you can trumps all nitpicks.

I’m excited to put the macro mode to the test next summer — this photography style screams for mother nature’s help, which is already barren and dead for the winter in these parts.

Until next year.

Size and Weight

I pre-ordered the iPhone 13 Pro Max, convinced I could make the spectrum-scaling move from 12 mini to 13 Pro Max in a year. After a month with the iPhone 13 Pro, I’m glad I didn’t try to go cold turkey.

The 13 Pro is a truly magical middle ground between the diminutive iPhone mini and the monstrous Pro Max iPhone. It provides enough screen real estate to edit photos in Lightroom or Photos, enough width to comfortably thumb-type lengthier messages or emails, and enough height to comfortably read a 7,000 word article.

What surprises me, even now, is the difference in weight between the 12 Pro and the 13 Pro. My wife’s 12 Pro feels like a toy compared to the 13 Pro. The 13 Pro is indeed thicker, but it feels so much more dense as well.

And the 12 Pro made the 12 mini feel like a lightweight toy.

There has been a bigger psychological jump for me between the 12 mini and the 13 Pro in terms of weight than in terms of overall body size.

Here’s an interesting anecdote:

In the fall, winter, and spring months, you’ll catch me wearing a sport jacket more often than not. Sport jackets are the best piece of clothing in the world. They provide a professional, classy, polished look with extra utility.

Namely, they provide pockets.

Sport jackets come with a variety of pockets — a front-facing breast pocket for a pocket square, two side pockets (best when they are patch pockets), and likely two or more interior breast pockets. Bulky items, like a thick wallet, are best placed as low as possible on an interior pocket, if one is available. I’ve always carried my iPhone on an interior breast pocket — the length of the iPhone nicely blends in with the length of the sport jacket, and you can barely notice an iPhone in the pocket.

I’ve stopped carrying my iPhone in a breast pocket. It’s simply too heavy. It pulls down on my left shoulder.

It’s just there, all day long. Pulling down.

By the end of the day, I’ll have a slight headache.

I carry my iPhone in my back pants pocket now. This is much, much less convenient.

Material Design

I’ve read numerous folks talk about the stainless steel band on the Pro model iPhones and complain about the fingerprint situation. Indeed, these stainless steel bands are fingerprint magnets.

But coming from a year of the 12 mini (with a glass back and aluminum band), the fingerprint situation on the stainless steel Pro iPhone band is substantially better than the fingerprint situation on the glass-backed regular iPhone.

I’ll happily take a stainless steel band over a glass back.

Also, the latest Dark Cherry Apple Leather Case is probably the best colour Apple has ever released. I don’t have that many fingerprints on my iPhone.

Typing and Productivity

I spoke about battery life in a prior blog post, which may well be the sole factor for my increased use of the iPhone. Without worry about a battery dying by the end of the day, I find it much easier to let go and use the iPhone as I need it.

I can also properly type on this larger iPhone.

Messages, emails, chats, short blog posts, tweets, and even Google searches — all of the above have noticeably improved in effectiveness. I find it nice to hop out of my seat during the day, stroll around the office with my iPhone in hand, and manage my calendar or hammer out quick emails all from iPhone. I’ve never done this before.

If there’s an underlying theme to all my first impressions, it’s how withdrawn my iPhone usage became over the last 12 months. I had an iPhone I couldn’t use physically or mentally. Physically — smaller touch targets, specifically with the keyboard, led to poorer accuracy and effectiveness of the on-screen keyboard, which led me to wait until I was in front of my Mac or an iPad to complete the task at hand. And mentally — reduced battery life meant I was constantly cognizant of how much power I had left before the end of the day. I simply opted to not use the iPhone.

This also spread into the camera. I was one of those guys who thought I could jettison the telephoto camera and be OK with the poorer camera system. Fast forward only a few months and I realized I had no optical zoom beyond 1x. When given the choice, I grabbed my wife’s iPhone 12 Pro to shoot all photos, even if my 12 mini was ready to go in my pocket.

The iPhone 13 Pro has rectified all of these situations. I no longer worry about battery life. I can type on this iPhone. I can shoot photos effortlessly with this iPhone. I can edit photos on this iPhone. I can tweet on this iPhone. I can write short blog posts on this iPhone.

Yeah, I could do all these things on the 12 mini. But I didn’t.

Now I do. And that’s all the difference.

I really enjoyed Mike Schmitz’s first impressions review of the iPad mini yesterday on The Sweet Setup. It’s clear this iPad speaks to him in ways prior iPads couldn’t.

Right from the top though, Mike discussed “iPad guilt”, or what I believe is the guilt of not using an iPad (or any device) to its fullest potential. Here’s Mike:

Yes, it’s great for audio editing and taking sketchnotes, but I was increasingly hesitant when considering spending $1500+ on a new iPad (and accessories) if I’m not going to use it “the right way.”

I was starting to think that the iPad just didn’t have a place in my life anymore. I couldn’t justify the high cost for a powerful “computer” I was going to primarily use as a notebook.

Mike borrows this “iPad guilt” terminology from Stephen Hackett:

Therein lies the conflict for me. My iPad Pro is a fantastic machine that can serve me well across large swaths of my work life, but I still prefer to do those tasks on a Mac. The iPad Pro is full of unrealized potential for me and how I like to get things done. More than once, I’ve felt silly upgrading to a new iPad just to realize that nothing changed in how I use it.

Both Mike and Stephen carefully point out that the latest iPad mini fits their iPad usage better than any other iPad. Not that they use the iPad wrong, but simply to highlight the vast array of ways an iPad can be used.

My question for them and for everyone is quite simply:

What kinds of things do I need to do on the iPad to justify owning one?

Mike specifically states he dreams about using the iPad Pro to write, but often fails to do so. Stephen mentions the iPad is great for many work-related tasks, but he simply prefers to complete those tasks on the Mac. Both of their commentary suggests the existence of the Magic Keyboard has an impact on their perception of the iPad Pro’s expected usage.

Here’s what I do on my iPad, noting that this is an update over my former iPad workflow for about five or six years as a post-secondary student:

• Evening reading, specifically in Matter, Reeder, News, HEY, and Safari — This involves a heavy amount of web clipping, highlighting with the Apple Pencil, and jumping into Reader Mode in Safari.
• Sporadic work and personal email
• Twitter browsing
• Writing in Ulysses
• Photo editing in Adobe Lightroom CC
• Screenshot making using Shortcuts
• Occasional TV watching, specifically when I want to experience Spatial Audio.
• Occasional large PDF compilations for clients — PDF Expert is just so good on the iPad.
• Occasional digital document signing for clients

There are a few notable things I do not do on my iPad:

• File management of any sort — I use Files for putting screenshots or images in a temporary Files folder only to use them and subsequently delete them on the Mac.
• Messaging — Oddly, while I’m fine emailing people from the iPad (even with the software keyboard; I’ve become a reasonably fast touchscreen typer in recent years) I tend to stay away from messaging friends or family in iMessage. I’ll message people, but only if I can lay the iPad flat on its back in landscape mode for the larger software keyboard.
• Handwritten notes — I’ve tried and tried and tried to get into a habit of using the iPad Pro for handwritten notes, but I just can’t. If I need to create a visual diagram of some sort, I generally opt to use actual pen and paper and then scan the document into whichever note-taking or storage app I’m currently trying.
• Video editing — I don’t shoot quality video or share anything on Youtube.
• Drawing or art — I struggle to draw stick men.
• Spreadsheets or document creation — At most, I’ll reference a spreadsheet, look at how formulas are built, and analyze a spreadsheet on the iPad. I almost never create spreadsheets on the iPad, nor do I write inside Microsoft Word on the iPad. Any writing I do on the iPad is done inside Ulysses and almost never pertains to my actual j-o-b work.

I only use the Apple Pencil for highlighting in Matter and editing photos in Lightroom. Occasionally the Pencil will be pulled out for a digital signature on a PDF. This may happen once a month. Overall, I don’t use the Pencil much, but I don’t think I could live without it when editing photos.

I write about 50% of my blog posts for The Newsprint and for The Sweet Setup on the iPad, while the other 50% are written on an M1 MacBook Air. I have no pattern to choosing devices. I simply grab the closest device and start writing. I think I type fastest and most accurately on the iPad Magic Keyboard. I wrote this post on the M1 MacBook Air.

I shoot exactly zero photos with my iPad.

Up until I bought the iPhone 13 Pro, I used the iPad’s LiDAR scanner for measuring distances and for creating 3D renderings, such as my backyard.

I abhor managing files on the iPad in the Files app. Renaming files inside Files is a total chore and I leave these tasks to my Mac at all costs.

This gives a simple idea of how I use my iPad on a daily basis. Some days, I don’t touch my iPad until 9:00PM in the evening when my kids are sleeping and after I’ve finished on the Peloton. Other days (often on weekends), I don’t touch my Mac at all while completing my work for The Sweet Setup.

Is this enough to justify an iPad Pro? Other folks are rendering 4K screencasts and 8K videos in Final Cut Pro with the M1 in the 13-inch MacBook Pro or MacBook Air. With an M1 chip onboard the latest iPad Pros, clearly I’m not stressing out my iPad at all.

I’m not sure how I get around justifying the latest iPad Pro each year. Maybe it’s a toy and I enjoy buying new iPads. Maybe I actually use it properly. I don’t know.

All I know is the iPad has nestled and grooved its way into pretty specific parts of my working life. At specific times, I reach for my iPad and only my iPad. At other specific times, I choose to wait until I’m back at my Mac.

Whether this changes with the M1 Pro MacBook Pro arriving next week is worth waiting to conclude on. That incredible XDR display may have me opting to edit photos on the Mac again.

I don’t know if I’m a justified iPad Pro owner. I do know I love the heck out of my iPad and I’d sooner get rid of my iPhone than get rid of my iPad at this point.