Apple Announces The All New iPhone 13 Series

Sep 18

Sep 18 Apple Announces The All New iPhone 13 Series

Apple has unveiled the new iPhone 13 Series during its “California Streaming” online event. The wait is finally over for all Apple fans across the world, that have been eagerly waiting to see the next iPhone lineup.

The lineup

The brand new iPhone 13 Series consists of 4 iPhone 13 models, just as last year. These are the models:

iPhone 13 Mini with a 5.4-inch display
iPhone 13 with a 6.1-inch display
iPhone 13 Pro with a 6.1-inch ProMotion display
iPhone 13 Pro Max with a 6.7-inch ProMotion display

Design

The design of the new devices is almost indistinguishable compared to the iPhone 12 Series.

On the front, the main difference is the smaller notch which we can find in all new four models. Apple mentions that the new notch is 20% smaller than the previous generation of iPhones. On the back, the non pro iPhones have a slightly different camera module layout. The two lenses are now placed diagonally compared to the vertical orientation of the previous years. The camera module design of the Pro iPhones remains the same as the iPhone 11 and 12 Pro series, but it is just larger due to the larger lenses used by Apple this time.

The buttons are slightly repositioned and the faster 5G mmWave antenna band is only present on the US devices, since Apple is once again offering faster 5G speeds exclusively to the US market.

All iPhone 13 devices are thicker and heavier compared to their predecessors since Apple decided to increase the capacity of the batteries. Apple is once again not including a charging brick in any of the iPhone 13 models. MagSafe is once again present in all iPhone 13 variants but Apple hasn’t mentioned any changes to this technology yet, which means that the charging speed through the MagSafe charger remains the same as last year.

Colors

Each new generation of iPhones brings new iPhone finishes as well. Sierra Blue is the highlight color of the iPhone 13 Pro and is the finish replacing last years Pacific Blue. Sierra Blue is available on the iPhone 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max together with the classic Graphite, Silver and Gold finish.

As expected, more color options are available for the iPhone 13 and 13 Mini models. Green and Purple are history but an all new Pink, Red, Starlight (White), Midnight (Black), and a different shade of Blue are the color options of this year’s non pro lineup.

Display & ProMotion

The big feature is the new display with ProMotion technology for the iPhone 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max. ProMotion technology delivers higher refresh rates of up to 120Hz for smoother motion content. ProMotion also improves the viewing experience and can reduce power consumption by automatically adjusting the display refresh rate to match the movement of the content. Hence, lesser content movement means lower refresh rate (can go down to 10Hz) which leads to reduced battery consumption.

Expectations for an Always On Display, similar to the one found in the Apple Watch since 2019, fell short as Apple didn’t deliver this feature for the iPhone 13 Pro owners, despite the new LTPO display panel.

Camera

Apple is once again focusing on the camera improvements of this generation of iPhones and adds some real innovations in it.

Each iPhone 13 model is using a completely new camera system compared to its predecessor. iPhone 13 and 13 Mini use the lenses of the iPhone 12 Pro Max of last year with some alterations. The main wide angle lens is using sensor swift image stabilisation with a wide aperture of ƒ/1.6 while the ultra wide is only having cinematic stabilisation (no OIS) with a ƒ/2.4 aperture.

However, the iPhone 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max have a completely new camera system with re-engineered lenses that allow the more light while shooting still photos or video. The main wide angle lens has a wider aperture than last year’s 12 Pro Max (ƒ/1.5 vs ƒ/1.6) with sensor shift image stabilisation. The new Telephoto lens is surprisingly using a narrower ƒ/2.8 aperture compared to last year (ƒ/2.2) but the optical zoom has been increased at 3X while the digital zoom can go up to 15X. We can now find autofocus and a significantly wider ƒ/1.8 aperture (vs ƒ/2.4 last year). Both the ultra-wide and telephoto lens have optical image stabilisation for more crisp videos.

Portrait video was one of the most anticipated features by creators and Apple finally delivered on this. The marketing name for this feature is Cinematic mode. Cinematic mode allows you to apply a depth effect while shooting videos of people, pets or objects just as it happened for years with the portrait mode for photos. Moreover, Apple is combining portrait video with Rack Focus (click here to learn more about rack focus) and the results based on the demo that was shown during Apple’s keynote are quite impressive. Apart from being able to adjust the focus of your video automatically, you are also able to manually change the focus and the level of bokeh both while capturing the video or even after capture on post production. Cinematic mode records video in Dolby Vision HDR and is available across the entire iPhone 13 lineup. Cinematic mode is available across the entire iPhone 13 lineup with a 1080p resolution at 30fps.

iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max are also capable to capture video in ProRes. which is video format with lower compression and higher color fidelity. ProRes allows you to edit more details of your videos thanks to this lower compression and more information captured while shooting. ProRes video is available at 1080p/30fps for all iPhone 13s while 4K/30fps require an iPhone 13 Pro/Pro Max with at least 256GBs storage.

Night mode is available for all iPhone 13 devices both from the rear and the front camera. Night portraits though, are available only for the iPhone 13 pro and 13 Pro Max, since Apple utilises the LiDAR Scanner to capture Night Portraits.

The fourth iteration of Smart HDR makes its return in the iPhone 13 Series. Smart HDR 4 is now improved thanks to the new Neural Engine and ISP of the A15 Bionic. Apple allows users to customise the looks of their photos (e.g. more dramatic, less saturated etc) with the new Photographic Styles feature.

Performance

The A15 Bionic SoC is an evolution of the A14 Bionic. The A15 Bionic is based on a 5-nanometer architecture, just like its predecessor. The new SoC has a redesigned Neural Engine and Image Signal Processor (ISP) which improve the photography and videography of the new iPhones in combination with the new camera hardware delivering the impressive Cinematic Mode.

The GPU of the new Soc is differentiated between the Pro and non Pro models. The Pro models have a 5-core GPU which is one more than the version that is included in the non Pro models. The early benchmarks already show that the single core performance of the new A15 Bionic is even more powerful than the single core performance of the M1 iPad versions.

More concrete conclusions will be extracted once we are able to get our hands on the actual devices.

Battery

Apple has improved the battery life of the new iPhones by simply adding a larger battery inside each iPhone 13 model. Apple made the devices thicker and eventually heavier in order to accommodate the batteries inside its latest smartphone lineup.

Results seem to be impressive for the iPhone 13 Pro Max, and quite satisfactory other devices. Concerning the battery life of the iPhone 13 Mini, Apple claims that the new battery will offer 1.5 hours of additional usage per day which is certainly more than welcome, since the owners of the previous generation 5.4” iPhone 12 Mini have been complaining about experiencing poor battery life.

Pricing, storage and availability

The new lineup will be available in stores as of September 24, but you can pre-order your device immediately should you want to secure a device close to the launch day.

Pricing remains the same as the iPhone 12 lineup, however Apple has increased the base storage of the iPhone 13 and 13 Mini at 128GBs which is now the base storage option for the entire lineup. An additional 1TB option has been added to the iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max models which now offer even more storage options than before. You can check below the US pricing:

iPhone 13 Mini: $699 / 128GB - [$799/256G - $999/512G]

iPhone 13: $799 / 128GB - [$899/256G - $1,099/512G]

iPhone 13 Pro: $999 / 128GB - [$1,099/256G - $1,299/512G - 1,499/1TB]

iPhone 13 Pro Max: $1,099 / 128GB ($1,199/256G - $1,399/512G - 1,599/1TB]