Apple announced the latest iPhone lineup in the online event held Tuesday. The new iPhone comes with a similar design to the iPhone 12 and four variants, the iPhone 13 mini, iPhone 13, iPhone 13 Pro and the 13 Pro Max.
The pricing for the iPhone 13 lineup starts at $799 for the iPhone 13 with the mini variant coming in at $699. The 13 Pro comes in for $999 with the 13 Pro Max rounding out the lineup at $1099.
All variants are powered by the A15 Bionic built on a 5nm processor. The company claims that this is “the fastest CPU on any smartphone”. There’s also a new 4-core GPU.
The notch has gone smaller by 20%, the rear camera module has been redesigned, and the screen is now brighter by about 28% coming in at 1200 nits. There’s also a 1TB variant for the iPhone Pro models. The announcement also included the release date for iOS 15 — 20 September.
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The new iPhone 13 devices
While the new iPhones may not look very different from the outside compared to Apple’s previous lineups, some serious improvements are under the hood here.
Design
The design of the new iPhone 13 is pretty similar to its predecessor. However, you get a redesigned rear camera module, a smaller notch upfront (about 20% smaller). The screen is now 28% brighter as well. All four variants have IP68 water resistance as well as a protective ceramic coating on them.
Display
The iPhone 13 will come with a 6.1-inch screen, while the iPhone 13 mini will get a smaller 5.4-inch screen. Both phones feature a Super Retina XDR display.
The displays on the iPhone 13 and 13 Pro Max can go as high as 120Hz with ProMotion, a feature that automatically syncs the refresh rate with the user’s finger allowing for a smoother experience. The screens come in at 6.1 and 6.7-inches, respectively.
The A15 Bionic
Some major claims are backing up Apple’s latest smartphone processor. To start, the A15 Bionic is based on a 5nm chip with nearly 15 billion transistors and features six cores, including two high-performance and four high-efficiency cores.
Apple claims that the new SoC is 50% faster than the competition, with the graphics coming in at 30% faster than the competition. However, they conveniently failed to specify who they’re putting themselves against.
Camera
The base iPhone 13 has got a new 12MP wide sensor with an f/1.6 aperture and another 12MP ultrawide with an f/2.4 aperture lens that can capture up to a 120-degree field of view. It also features the sensor-shift technology introduced on the previous year’s 12 Pro Max.
The iPhone 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max get three cameras instead of two, with one wide-angle, one ultra-wide and a 77mm telephoto lens. The Ultrawide lens on the Pro series is also capable of macro shots.
There are photographic styles available on all four variants that allow users to allow personal photo preferences to each image using Apple’s multi-frame image processing.
Apart from this, there’s also a cinematic mode that allows for a shallow depth of field (blurred background for you non-photographers) and automatic focus changes. The Pro models also introduce ProRes, a video codec used as the final delivery format for commercials, films and broadcasts, offering higher colour fidelity and less compression.
Battery life
The new iPhone lineup is also claimed to offer better battery life, with Apple claiming that the iPhone 13 mini will get up to 1.5 hours more than the iPhone 12 Mini, with the larger iPhone 13 going as high as 2.5 hours.
The numbers are consistent with the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max, with both models coming in at 1.5 and 2.5 hours more than the 12 Pro and 12 Pro Max, respectively. This also makes the iPhone 13 Pro Max the longest-lasting iPhone in terms of battery life.
Hardware specifications
Here are the hardware specs for all four new iPhone 13 devices.
| Specs | iPhone 13 Mini | iPhone 13 | iPhone 13 Pro | iPhone 13 Pro Max |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Display | 5.4-inch Super Retina XDR | 6.1-inch Super Retina XDR | 6.1-inch 120Hz Super Retina XDR ProMotion | 6.7-inch 120HZ Super Retina XDR ProMotion |
| Processor | A15 Bionic | A15 Bionic | A15 Bionic | A15 Bionic |
| Software | iOS 15 | iOS 15 | iOS 15 | iOS 15 |
| Storage | 128GB 256GB 512GB | 128GB 256GB 512GB | 128GB 256GB 512GB 1TB | 128GB 256GB 512GB 1TB |
| Camera | 12MP Wide-angle 12MP Ultrawide | 12MP Wide-angle 12MP Ultrawide | 12MP Wide-angle 12MP Ultrawide 77mm telephoto lens with 6x optical zoom | 12MP Wide-angle 12MP Ultrawide 77mm telephoto lens with 6x optical zoom |
Availability and pricing
All four iPhone variants will be available for pre-order in Australia, Canada, China, Germany, India, Japan, UK, US and 30 other countries starting 17 September, with availability starting from 24 September.
Pricing starts at $799 for the iPhone 13 with the mini variant coming in at $699. The 13 Pro comes in for $999 with the 13 Pro Max rounding out the lineup at $1099.
The iPhone 13 and 13 Mini will be available in 128, 256 and 512GB variants, while the 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max will be coming in at 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB storage options.
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