iPhone 13 Pro 128GB won’t get full ProRes experience

Not every iPhone 13 Pro will be able to take full advantage of the upcoming Apple ProRes update.

Apple announced the iPhone 13 line at yesterday’s California streaming event with some impressive improvements to each device’s camera setup.

One of the unique features of the iPhone 13 Pro in a future update is ProRes, which offers a professional-grade recording codec for “more accurate colors and less compression.”

However, upon closer inspection of the fine print on the Apple iPhone 13 Pro specs page shows that not every iPhone 13 Pro will get the full benefits of ProRes. Scroll down to the Video Recording section of this list of specifications and you will find the following exception in parentheses next to Recording ProRes video up to 4K @ 30fps: “1080p @ 30fps for 128GB storage.”

In other words, you’ll need to purchase at least the 256GB model if you want to shoot full ProRes 4K / 30fps footage, as bragged from the stage at yesterday’s event. For those of you choosing the “entry-level” 128GB iPhone 13 Pro, you will only be able to record and publish ProRes footage at 1080p / 30fps when it launches at the end of the year.

That could well stop those still spending a sizable $ 999 / £ 949 on the 128GB iPhone 13 Pro model – especially if you didn’t read the fine print before pre-ordering this Friday, September 17th.

Of course, perhaps the most impressive new video feature will be available for the entire iPhone 13 family. Cinematic Mode intelligently adjusts focus based on scene depth, tracking subjects’ gaze and even predicting when a subject is about to enter frame.