Apple today unveiled the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini as expected at its ‘California Streaming’ event. Pricing for the new iPhones begin at $829 and $729 respectively but Apple is offering a 30 percent discount to those who purchase from carriers Apple has bumped up the base storage to 128GB and there is now 512GB configurations for the new iPhones.
Not much has changed in terms of design for the iPhone 13 compared to last year’s iPhone 12, but the notch at the display is now 20 percent smaller. As opposed to the vertical arrangement on last year’s models, the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini now have their dual cameras arranged diagonally.
The iPhone 13 maintains the 6.1” OLED panel just like last year’s model while the iPhone 13 mini also retains a 5.4” display. According to Apple, both displays are now 28 percent brighter. As expected, the new iPhone models are powered by Apple’s A15 Bionic which is more powerful than the A14 Bionic. The A15 has two new high-performance cores and four new high-efficiency cores and almost 15 billion transistors. Apple calls the A15 Bionic “the fastest CPU in a smartphone” and it is up to 50 percent faster than “the leading competition. Apple says it also delivers up to 30% faster graphics than “the leading competition”.
Thanks to the bigger batteries, the power of the A15 Bionic chip and the software optimizations, Apple says the iPhone 13 will now deliver 2.5 hours more battery life than the iPhone 12 while the iPhone 13 mini will now deliver 1.5 hours more battery life than the iPhone 12 mini.
As expected, Apple has made big improvements to the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini camera system. The lenses can now take in light, thanks to the larger sensor of the wide camera that is now 47 percent bigger than that of the iPhone 12. For the first time, the entry level iPhone now has sensor-shift optical image stabilization introduced by Apple last year on the flagship iPhone 12 Pro Max. The cameras also get “photographic profiles” and a new “cinematic mode” with a rack focus effect when shooting the video. When shooting in real-time with cinematic mode, they can adjust intelligently on different subjects as more people enter the frame, this is available on both the front and rear cameras and can also be controlled manually.
The iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini has 5G support which is expected to be compatible with more than 200 carriers across 60 countries and regions before the year ends.
Preorders begin Friday, September 17th and the iPhones will be available on September 24th.
