What happened to my iPhone 13 Pro after a year. Worn without a case

Okay, almost a year. It’s been 10 months since I bought the iPhone 13 Pro – the iPhone 14 is coming out soon, which means it’s time to take stock of the use.

Before that, I went with the iPhone 12 Pro Max. Mainly so as not to weigh down the hand, but also because you don’t want to hide the catchy new design.

The lighter iPhone 13 Pro has become a feather in general, so even less has become known about cases.

The color for this year turned out to be silver, which causes poisoning obvious scratches already in the first month.

But not everything is so scary. I managed to grab the smartphone all the time to advise this color to the most sloppy. More details below.

When I did put on covers

There are several manifestations, they are mainly manifested with aggressive practices: travel, hiking and summer cottages, parties.

In none of the cases of infection, I want to pay special attention to fluttering over the delicate body of the smartphone. In such cases, the iPhone becomes a tool for photography, navigation and communication, and not an expensive status toy.

I use two according to my mood: the original transparent polycarbonate and the cheapest “under the skin” from AliExpress.

But this is about 5% of the total time of use, so at work and on quiet weekends, cases are needed in a bag or at home and are waiting in the wings.

Streets and Indoors Detect Scratches Differently



On the street, the fact of using a smartphone is given out only by well-marked fingerprints. Polished steel is covered with greasy patterns from the first moments, which are useless to rub off. While you clean one side, you slap on the other.

Otherwise, it looks like out of the box, in direct sunlight you need to look for scratches almost with a magnifying glass. With all the display of the transfer of the furrow, I did not succeed.

Light scratches from backlight cases on a sharp edge near the display

Apart from one deep “notch”, the smartphone looks like new

With artificial light, the story is different. All the “wounds” of awareness

Scratches and furrows show through

Everything changes in the body. Artificial light more often exposes the existence of a scratched smooth surface. Most of all, the lower part has happened, where the charging port is.

Like it or not, the Lightning metal connector will hit the steel around it before falling into the connector. If the MagSafe battery hadn’t been used for 4 months, things would have accumulated worse. Like this:

The edges were taken most of all scratched not by objects from the pocket or from the table, but by covers.

Expected: the official plastic supplier and Ali’s fake don’t have reliable microfiber pads, like silicone and leather originals, but there is a tight fit and hard material. Straight lines of formation precisely from the constant change of covers.

Two years with display protection film

I like the return to flat glass, but from a practical point of view, I don’t. The iPhone 13 Pro is reminiscent of the iconic design of the iPhone 5 and my first of all iPhones, the iPhone 5S, but making navigation gestures is much nicer with 2.5D rounding.

But any pasted protection “gets” flush with the edges, sometimes it even looks like a glove.

After experimenting with glass that has glowing edges, I returned to the proven hydrogel films. It looks like I’m walking without protection.

Yes, there is tape

Before the sale of the iPhone 12 Pro Max, the coating of the smartphone remains in perfect condition, even despite a single unsuccessful fall.

After evaluation, the application is simple, but without explanation, the first time I had problems. If you also want to install a film, see my installation design here. You can buy them, they are probably now selling them for next to nothing: 4 pieces at once for 130 rubles.

Raw steel masks dents

I badly damaged my iPhone 12 Pro Max last year. Rough gray grooves appeared in its polished blue-painted steel, which also dug into his hands. I have become more careful and now I make sure that the smartphone is always located on a flat surface.

iPhone 13 Pro still fell out. I’ve been relatively lucky. Although there was no cover, the fall was on the kitchen tile, separated by two tiny dents in the upper corners. This did not affect the collection at all, and after a week I forgot about the oversight.

And this is the merit of unpainted metal: if a red iPhone 13 or a graphite iPhone 13 Pro fell, these little “scars” would remind of themselves every day. So they began to use cream with glitter.

So one simple piece of advice: buy a silver iPhone Pro or a white standard iPhone if you carry an iPhone without a case but don’t want to keep track of every scratch . Of course, this year Apple painted the lightest iPhone 13 in beige and called it a “shining star”, but in other models it is natural-colored aluminum.

In general, the back panel is tired

The white back is unbearably bland

And the red and black add a dramatic design.

I took the silver color, because the edges around the screen frames are very clearly visible – they sparkle in the sun.

But the rear white panel is terribly boring. Three black “pancakes” of the camera against its background is ridiculous. In most cases, the light is completely high quality, and there is no high probability and beautiful rear window to be seen.

Black and any other shade on this panel looks elegant. So maybe there’s nothing wrong with the iPhone 14 Pro likely coming in two dark hues at once: blue and purple.

📸 All photos in the article: