Of course, the new iPhone took the stage. The next generation of iPhone is here (so to speak), with Apple officially unveiling the newest smartphone in its lineup. Brilliant colors, a new design, and much more.
This is the iPhone 13 mini and iPhone 13. As you can imagine, there is more than one variant. Apple starts with the design out of the gate, with exclusive Ceramic Shield front glass, IP68 water resistance, and a “new look” for the advanced dual camera system on the back. They are now arranged diagonally.
There are five new colors. Blue and pink join the range, with starlight, Product(RED), and midnight for good measure. Meanwhile, on the front, there is a new TrueDepth Camera system. It upgrades the front-facing camera in general, that’s 20% smaller than previous TrueDepth Camera systems.
Under the hood
The iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini features the A15 Bionic processor. Which, of course, is a huge upgrade over the previous generation. It’s faster across the board, both for getting things done on a daily basis, and better game play. 30% better graphics performance for gaming.
Displays
Both the iPhone 13 mini and iPhone 13 have a Super Retina XDR display, which is 28% brighter. It supports HDR content with peak brightness at 1200 nits. The display’s improved power efficiency means better blacks, and better contrast ratios with the OLED displays in the iPhone 13 mini and iPhone 13. It supports HDR10, HLG, and Dolby Vision HDR.
Cameras
The A15 Bionic processor helps out with computational photography, along with the hardware in general. The all new wide camera gathers 40% more light for less noise and brighter results for photos and videos. Larger, 1.7 micron pixels in this camera make this possible. An f/1.6 aperture for good measure.
Apple is bringing the sensor shift technology in its camera to the iPhone 13 mini and iPhone 13, a feature that was exclusive to the iPhone 12 Pro Max just last year.
Night Mode shots are better with shorter capture times, thanks to general improvements in this regard.
The ultra-wide camera is custom designed to reduce noise even more in dark shots.
From today’s press release:
A faster Neural Engine in A15 Bionic, new image signal processor (ISP), and advancements in computational photography power all-new features on iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini. Photographic Styles allows users to bring their personal photo preferences to every image while still benefitting from Apple’s multiframe image processing. Preset and customized preferences work across scenes and subjects, and unlike a simple filter, intelligently apply the right adjustments to different parts of the photo to ensure the important elements, like skin tones, are preserved. The dual-camera system and power of computational photography support Smart HDR 4, now with improved color, contrast, and lighting for each subject in a group photo, including in challenging conditions, making images more true to life, as well as improved Night mode. And the TrueDepth camera supports all the amazing new camera features, including Cinematic mode, Photographic Styles, Smart HDR 4, and more.
With video, the iPhone 13 adds “Cinematic Mode.” With this, focus changes take the focus. With “rack focus,” it brings new focus options to shooting video. With a new, simple and intuitive option. This means it will be easier to change the focal length while filming right on the fly, giving a more cinematic feel to your videos. Without the extra hardware. Focus transitions will happen in real-time — automatically.
Cinematic Mode is designed to work automatically. It will track the primary subject, then change when the hardware believes its necessary thanks to computational algorithms. Or, you can simply tap to change the focus as you want. Tap again to have the focus fix on a particular subject. And all of this shoots in real-time Dolby Vision.
5G
The iPhone 13 mini and iPhone 13 will feature better 5G connectivity. The new hardware supports more bands, in more places. And Apple is collaborating with more wireless networks. By the end of the year, 5G support will be available in 60 countries and regions, with support from over 200 wireless networks.
Battery life
The iPhone 13 mini and iPhone 13 has improvements across the board, all of which can eat battery life. However, the new phones have better battery life than the previous model. An hour and a half more battery in the iPhone 13 mini, and two and a half hours longer battery life in iPhone 13 (compared to iPhone 12 mini and iPhone 12). More power efficiency components and the A15 Bionic processor make this possible.
MagSafe
The magnetic accessory standard is not being left in the dark. New cases will work with MagSafe, in new color options. There is a new MagSafe Leather Wallet that supports the Find My network.
Pricing, storage, and availability
$699 is the starting price point for the iPhone 13 mini, and $799 for the iPhone 13. Starting built-in storage is 128GB, doubling the storage. There is a new 512GB storage option as well.