The iPhone 13 Pro Max despite no longer Apple’s recent flagship, is still a strong contender in 2025, it is one among Apple’s best smartphones ever made, it just seems so unbeatable either in one way or another by its successors, for instance, I would proudly tell you that the iPhone 13 Pro Max is able to capture a more clear and less blurry close up photo than the 14 and 14 Pro max which tends to blur up at the edges, and I’m not even kidding you, I honestly was hoping that the would fix that with the 15 Pro Max, but here we are.

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In this review, we will examine the 13 Pro Max in-depth, including its features, performance, and comparison with its successors, to determine whether it remains a good buy.

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Firstly, we will be looking at the body

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Well, the body design of the 13 Pro Max has no notable difference with that of its predecessor, the 12 Pro Max, the 13 Pro Max has a stainless steel feel and glass back that offer a premium feel, the layout too is pretty much same with that of  its predecessor also, the notch on the 13 Pro Max is a smidge smaller and he camera bumps is just a little larger than that of of the 12 Pro Max. The silver color was my absolute favorite; there’s something unexplainable about how it complements the shiny metallic edges. I’ve never been a fan of glossy, shimmery backs, so the textured matte glass back was a huge plus for me

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That’s basically it for the body design of the 13 Pro Max, it's safe to say it’s an upgraded version of the 12 Pro Max.

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Next is the Display

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The display of the iPhone 13 Pro Max is one to be impressed about, though it is prone to scratches, any slightest drop would definitely leave a dent on it which is pretty bad, and despite how bad that is, this issue was passed through to the 14 lineups too, they are just too fragile, that's the only downside on the display.

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For the color output, well this a good one for me, the 13 Pro Max has a wide color gamut and pretty much flawless color accuracy, I was able to compare the display of the 13 Pro Max to the 15 Pro max, and honestly, you would barely notice the difference, that's how much impressive it is I’m guessing you’re beginning to see reasons why the 13 Pro Max is regarded as one of the best iPhones Apple has ever made.

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The screen offers a 6.7-inch Super Retina OLED with a Pixel Density of 458 PPI. I must say, the 120Hz refresh rate on the iPhone 13 Pro Max is quite a standout feature, and this brings me back to why the 13 Pro Max is regarded as one of the best iPhones available.

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The 120hz refresh rate is what runs on the 15 Pro Max, up to the 16 Pro Max even, this is the first time Apple is introducing a high 120hz refresh rate on their mobile phone, the call it promotion and its adaptive  games can’t fully utilize it just yet but these issues have been fully resolved in the 16 Pro Max, aside from that, the feature is executed very well.

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The display on the iPhone 13 Pro Max can drop down to as little as 10 hertz and then jump up to 120hz on the fly, depending on whether you’re touching the screen and the current content, this both helps in reserving battery life and offers a much more smoother user experience, other than that, this is a wonderful display.

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Next is the Camera of the 13 Pro Max

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The camera performance of the iPhone 13 Pro Max is superb, I’m not even lying. One of the primary reasons people opt for an iPhone is to enjoy a world-class camera experience, and it's safe to say that the story remains the same with the 13 Pro Max.

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Taking photos with the iPhone 13 Pro Max doesn’t really need a lot of focus to capture an image that looks sharp and clear enough, and if I’m being honest, I really didn’t notice any notable difference in pictures taken with the iphone 13 Pro Max and its successor, the iphone 14 Pro Max. I was quite impressed by the outcome of the iPhone 13 Pro Max's camera.

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One great feature I’ve had a massive love for is the Macro mode, which allows you to take very detailed, close-up shots without needing additional accessories. As someone who does basic photography and videography, this really came in handy, and I’m not even lying! Simply by moving my iPhone 13 Pro Max close to the object, the camera automatically triggered into Macro Mode, allowing me to take close-up, detailed shots. This feature was introduced on the 13 Lineup and passed through its successors.

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Here’s something that makes the iPhone 13 Pro Max really special and still contending in 2025, a lot of features were introduced upon release of the 13 line up, and most of these features still run down to the latest line up of Apple smartphones, in most cases, Apple claim its been improved, but upon taking an in-depth use, you tend to hardly notice or be able to tell the difference.

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Many mobile photographers who can't afford the 15 Pro Max and 16 Pro Max are still capturing stunning shots with their 13 Pro Max, and some of their audience would see those pictures and believe within themselves that they were taken with Apple’s latest release.

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Next thing we’ll be looking at is the Battery Life

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The iPhone 13 Pro Max boasts an impressive battery life; it is no longer news that Apple doesn’t officially publish the exact battery capacity of its iPhones on its website or during product announcements. They only provide general battery performance metrics, and for the iPhone 13 Pro Max, Apple claimed up to 28 hours of video playback, that’s just like saying the battery of the 13 Pro Max should last a little over 24 hours of usage, and honestly, when I got my hands on the 13 Pro Max, for the first few months, I attested to that claim as true, but overtime, my battery seemed to depreciate faster than expected which was very unusual, my battery health dropped from 100 to 95 in just about 4 months of usage. I was honestly not impressed with this issue at all, and at that point, I knew there was an issue with the battery of the 13 Pro Max.

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The IOS 15 was not the smooth sailing Apple led me into believing, there were quite a number of bugs with the system, the most annoying was the screen time, it keeps bugging me and always end up tracking something as little as the youtube app that was only on in the background, still clocking in minutes despite killing the app, and this played a huge role in draining the battery life of my iPhone 13 Pro Max.

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This is the reason why I prefer the battery life of the 14 Pro Max to that of the 13 Pro Max; they are literally run on the same battery capacity, though that of the 14 Pro Max was made smaller, but I had a better experience with the battery of the 14 Pro Max over the 13 Pro Max.

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But overall, the battery life of the 13 Pro Max was quite impressive and for the charge time, I used the Apple 22 watt charger, my 13 Pro Max charged from 0 to 48% in about half an hour, which can’t be compared to the charge speed of the recent flagships but the 13 Pro Max supports charging up to 27 watts, which gives a faster charging experience.

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Now the General Performance

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For performance of the iPhone 13 Pro Max, it is pretty decent when it comes to daily usage and overall performance, the A15 Bionic Chipset on it gave the 13 Pro Max a better performance,  but I noticed that the iphone 13 Pro Max tends to heat up quickly when playing high performance mobile games, I play a lot of high performance mobile games.

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While playing Call of Duty Mobile on my iPhone 13 Pro Max, everything initially ran smoothly as expected, given that the iPhone 13 Pro Max supports a 120Hz refresh rate, which should allow for dynamic adjustments to deliver super smooth responsiveness when needed. But after a while, I noticed my iphone 13 Pro Max was beginning to heat up, thereby reducing performance and responsiveness, which wasn’t what I expected.

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I tend to believe that the reason for this overheat and slight lags when gaming for long on my 13 Pro Max was because the 120hz which was new introduced on the 13 lineup, as expected, it wouldn’t give a 100% performance rate, as to which this issues was resolved on the 14 Pro Max, even though it wasn’t still giving off a perfect experience, but overheating and lags while gaming wasn’t as bad as it was when I was using my 13 Pro Max.

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Conclusion

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To wrap this up, the iPhone 13 Pro Max is an amazing device to use; its performance is superb, and some of its features can still be compared to those on Apple's most recent flagships, which still place it on Apple's top lists of amazing phones.

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If you’re looking to get 13 Pro Max and wondering if it is a good buy or not, trust me, the iPhone 13 Pro Max is definitely a good buy, but if you’re relying on a much more better battery performance, then with a slight increase in budget, you can opt for the 14 Pro Max which offers a better battery performance and gaming experience, aside that, I’m very much impressed with the 13 Pro Max. The cameras' displays are extremely nice, and one tends to hardly notice the difference when compared to Apple’s recent flagships.