Review: Apple iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Mini

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I HATE TO break it to you, but you’re probably going to want to upgrade to the iPhone 13.

With a few big exceptions. If you have an iPhone 12—especially if you have an iPhone 12 Pro—you don’t need to upgrade. If you’ve already decided that you’re splurging on the iPhone 13 Pro or Pro Max, then you should read my WIRED colleague Julian Chokkattu’s review of that phone. (The Pro’s features are slightly more advanced; plus, some people just want a really, really big phone.) And if you’re an Android user, as billions of people are, you might prefer to stick with Android. In fact, some of the best Android phones out there already have the fancier features of the iPhone 13.

But I’ve been using the non-Pro version of iPhone 13 for just under a week now, and I’ve used the iPhone 13 Mini for a few days too. I’m almost certainly going to upgrade to the iPhone 13 from the iPhone 11 I’ve been using as my daily phone. The iPhone 13’s build is nicer, a callback to the sleeker, flat-edged iPhones of the past. It has a bigger battery than last year. And I’ve been showing “cinematic video” clips of my cat to pretty much anyone who’s vaccinated and willing to come closer than social distancing rules allow.

The iPhone 13 is what a “basic” iPhone should be. As Apple has introduced variations of its phones over the years, with Pro, Max, and Mini now part of the annual lineup, it has also employed a classic product differentiation strategy; the standard models of iPhone have had less brilliant displays, lesser cameras, or pitiful base storage amounts compared to the Pros.

There are still some minor differences between the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro, but the gap between the two has closed. If you’re one of those people who has been holding on to your iPhone for years—and kudos to you for that—and are now eyeing an upgraded device, the iPhone 13 may be all the phone you need.

Case Study

At first glance the iPhone 13 looks exactly like the iPhone 12. The iPhone 13 has the same-sized 6.1-inch display. Its frame is made of aerospace-grade aluminum, its cover slip is glass, and its sides are flat, unlike the rounded edges of the iPhone 11. It has a “Super Retina XDR” display.

Look closely, though, and there are subtle build differences between the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13. The whole phone is less than a quarter of a millimeter thicker, to accommodate a larger battery and some additional camera tech. The camera lenses on the back jut out from the body a bit more. The display is a tad brighter. The “notch” on the front of the iPhone 13’s display is smaller.

The buttons on the side of the phone are seated lower than they are on the iPhone 12, which I didn’t notice until I jammed the iPhone 13 into my usual car mount and inadvertently powered the phone down a few times. And on the back of the phone the dual camera lenses are positioned diagonally from each other instead of vertically.

Otherwise: It’s an iPhone!

The base-model iPhone 13 and 13 Mini also ship with 128 gigabytes of internal storage. This is a long overdue improvement from last year, when the cheapest model of iPhone 12 came with just 64 gigabytes of internal storage. (This does establish a price difference between the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13—on Apple’s own site, the cheapest iPhone 12 will run you $100 less than a new iPhone 13. But given the difference in storage capacity, that $100 savings doesn’t seem like that great of a deal.)

The iPhone 13 starts at $799, while the iPhone 13 Mini starts at $699. Bump up your storage capacity to 256 gigabytes and you’re looking at $899 for the regular-sized phone and $799 for its tiny sibling, and then $999 and $899 for 512 gigabytes of internal storage. The iPhone 13 Pro Max can be configured with up to 1 terabyte of storage; these cannot.

In a reversal of the “uncarrier” messaging that has been presented to US phone buyers in particular over the past several years, subsidies now abound. Apple is promoting trade-in offers for relatively undamaged iPhones. Wireless carriers are too; Verizon is offering $800 off on some trade-ins, as well as $500 to switch from another carrier, which more than covers the cost of the new iPhone. AT&T is offering “$1,000 off” the iPhone 13 Pro Max and selling the iPhone 13 Pro for “$0”—but buyer beware: Some of these deals are contingent on three-year service agreements.

This is partly because the carriers want to spur adoption of 5G, which all of these new iPhones support. (My loaner phones did sometimes connect to 5G networks here in San Francisco; I didn’t notice a major difference in speeds at those times.)

One component that does make the iPhone 13 and 13 Mini feel a bit speedier than earlier models is Apple’s newest system-on-a-chip. It’s called the A15 Bionic, and as usual, Apple is touting its billions of transistors and its advanced graphics and artificial intelligence capabilities. In reality, early benchmark tests, including ones run by my colleague Julian, are showing just modest improvements over the compute power from last year’s A14 Bionic chip. And the iPhone 13 Pro models actually have a more powerful GPU, which helps power the 120-Hz display refresh rate that’s specific to the Pros.

Bright Eyes

The most tangible representation of the A15 Bionic’s performance jump is in photo and video capture on the iPhone 13. I’ve spent the past week carrying around a few phones—iPhone 11, iPhone 12, and iPhone 13—capturing media in various settings and lighting environments. The short version is that I saw a significant jump in quality when I compared photos and videos captured on iPhone 11 versus those on the iPhone 13. But the chasm between the iPhone 12’s cameras and the iPhone 13’s isn’t as wide.

Both the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 have dual 12-megapixel rear cameras. One of them is a wide-angle camera, and the other is an ultrawide. However, the iPhone 13’s wide camera has a larger sensor, which is supposed to let in more light. During a nighttime walk with a friend, I shot photos of her both in Portrait mode and in standard photo mode across all three iPhones, and the one shot on the iPhone 13 was undoubtedly the best, with crisper detail, truer color, and no halo effect.

Another standout feature is Cinematic video mode, which uses AI to create a depth effect during live video capture and shift the focus as you move from subject to subject, or as a person or object within the frame looks in another direction. This was the feature that got me most excited about the iPhone 13, even though the video quality maxes out at 1080p HD in Cinematic mode. I shot cat videos, hiking-with-friends videos, and videos of video production (meta). The auto-shifting bokeh effect added drama and context to certain shots, and I could see myself using—and overusing—this a lot. The iPhone 13 also has better optical image stabilization, so videos are mostly shake-free. (This latter feature is especially evident in some of the video clips for this review; some were shot with an older iPhone, and others with the iPhone 13.)

The iPhone 13 cameras have a few “Photographic Styles” built in to change the tint or mood of your pictures. Apple has said these are not filters; a lot of people will interpret them as filters. I used them twice and grew bored with them.

The iPhone 13 Pro rear camera module has a telephoto camera, as well as advanced digital and optical zoom—3X optical zoom in, 2X optical zoom out, and digital zoom up to 15X. The iPhone 13, by comparison, has 2X optical zoom out and digital zoom up to 5X. The Pro phones also shoot in Apple’s RAW mode, which means the photos have the specs of standard RAW imagery combined with Apple image processing. So actual pros, or people who fancy themselves pros, will probably want to investigate these cameras. But again: The iPhone 13 cameras are still excellent.

Power Up

And finally, battery life: I was impressed by the battery life on the iPhone 13, but I remain disappointed by the battery life on the iPhone 13 Mini. Is the iPhone 13 Mini the phone I wanted to carry with me on hikes this week? Yes, yes it was; I even forgot it was in my pants pocket. It’s a delightful little computer, and it has all of the features of the iPhone 13. However, after a day of use—tracking a hike, browsing Twitter, which I just can’t seem to quit, and shooting videos for this review—the Mini’s battery had dwindled to 10 percent by bedtime.

The iPhone 13, on the other hand, beat my expectations. After one high-usage day, I woke up the next morning and the iPhone 13 still had 40 percent of its juice. The phone has a physically larger battery than the iPhone 12 does, and the retooled processor provides some more power efficiency too. As with all battery tests, it’s hard to give a conclusive hurrah without trying to wear the phones down for at least a few more cycles. But so far I’d gladly take a few extra grams in weight on the iPhone 13 in exchange for its boosted battery life.

The iPhone 13 also charges super fast, finally bringing the iPhone up to speed with some high-end Android phones.

Tap Thru

Some critics have said that this is an iterative year for the iPhone, and they’re not wrong. But this is what we expect from flagship smartphones now: support for 5G, super responsive displays, better battery life, desktop-grade processors, and cameras that put point-and-shoots to shame. The question for consumers is more about where they are in the upgrade cycle, and what kind of technology they can get in their pockets for a certain price. The iPhone 13 feels like a response to that question—and a good one, at that.