The iPhone 13 Pro’s camera is missing one big feature

OPINION: Apple has turned a blind eye to its latest iPhone release: the iPhone 13 Pro and its bigger sibling, the Pro Max, sit on top. There are tons of updates. But the camera is missing one feature.

After a pretty gorgeous redesign in 2020, the iPhone this year has always been a more modest update, mostly aimed at people who haven’t updated in the past year.

Bigger updates include the ProMotion display, which can be refreshed at 120Hz for smoother navigation, a slightly smaller notch, and improved video shooting skills.

The iPhone 13 Pro retains the same set of three cameras as the iPhone 12 Pro, with wide-angle, ultra-wide, and tele cameras. While I haven’t had a chance to take the new iPhone 13 Pro to test it yet, it goes without saying that it will be a strong contender for the best camera phone, especially since it’s based on the already excellent 12 Pro with an improved ultra-wide-angle camera.

One feature that is missing across the entire iPhone 13 lineup is a zoom camera that rivals the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra.

While Samsung’s flagship device can use its smart periscope zoom system to capture very impressive shots even at 10x magnification, the iPhone 13 Pro is much more limited by its 3x optical zoom.

Having a high-end zoom lens isn’t the most important part of a phone’s camera, but in my experience it adds tremendous versatility. I’ve been using the S21 Ultra heavily over the past few months, and the shots I’ve been able to take with these cameras give it a noticeable edge over Apple devices. The ability to capture crisp images at zoom levels when iPhone results turn into a blurry mess is highly welcomed.

And without any major zoom camera updates this time around, it looks like it will continue.

There were gossip that Apple ended up taking the same path as Samsung and releasing a phone with a periscope lens to improve its zooming skills. however, this is not expected until next year.

While some exceptional zoom skills may be missing, the iPhone 13 Pro’s camera still feels like a welcome upgrade. Particular attention is paid to macro photography and the new Cinematic video mode, which was showcased with a clever parody of Knives Out.