LUCKY 13

Apple’s iPhone 13 series adds better battery life and slick new cameras

- SHAWN CHUNG

Apple’s annual iPhone update has delivered the iPhone 13 series, which on first glance appear to be very minor updates of the iPhone 12 series. For this review we’ve tested the iPhone 13 mini and the iPhone 13 Pro. As a reminder - while the iPhone 13 series is powered by Apple’s new A15 Bionic processor, the 6.1-inch iPhone 13 shares the same dual sensor camera module and Super Retina XDR Display as the 5.4-inch iPhone 13 mini, while the 6.1-inch iPhone 13 Pro shares a ‘Pro’ three camera module and Super Retina AMOLED display with 120Hz ProMotion with the 6.7-inch iPhone 13 Pro Max.

Physically there’s very little to distinguish the iPhone 13 from its predecessor, and it takes an experienced eye to notice that the length of Apple’s infamous screen ‘notch’ has been reduced, while the camera sensors are arranged differently between the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13. Pro-series devices still follow the same triple sensor layout, but with slightly larger lenses on the iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max.

It is the changes on the inside that count with the iPhone 13 family, first of which is the new A15 Bionic processor that enables faster performance for everyday applications, from opening a Safari webpage to taking a video and playing PUBG, while on the iPhone 13 Pro devices, there’s an additional GPU core to help handle the 120Hz ProMotion panel. Speaking of panels - we compared the iPhone 13 mini and the iPhone 13 Pro touchscreen with our iPhone 12 Pro Max, and felt that while the iPhone 13 mini was decent, it wasn’t as bright as the 13 Pro, which had very slight improvements on the iPhone 12 Pro Max in terms of brightness and contrast. Where the iPhone 13 Pro did well is when we tested it with 120Hz videos, with the iPhone 13 Pro achieving better definition and sharper movements than the iPhone 12 Pro Max.