Many consider that the iPhone 13 would have been, according to the old Apple nomenclature, an iPhone 12S . And, in a way, they are right. The new telephone of the North American company does not bring with it a significantly different design or a range of novelties as wide as the one we enjoyed with the previous generation – which opened the door to 5G connectivity, OLED technology, the MagSafe system and various improvements in the field of photography, among other things -.
However, that the advances of this model are less noticeable than those of last year does not detract one iota of value from this iPhone 13 . And it is that the new Apple phone, in reality, has evolved in practically every way. It is faster, has a slightly more refined design, the camera is capable of capturing the moments we live even better and autonomy has improved significantly. Many brands would like to say something like this about their flagship product after having set the bar very high with its predecessor.
Another factor to take into account is that the renewal periods are increasing. Or what is the same: we retain the phones we buy for longer . This means that most of those who decide to buy this iPhone 13 will probably come from models that are two or more years old. Not from an iPhone 12.
After this brief introduction, let's get down to business. How does this iPhone 13 behave on a day-to-day basis? What changes do we find compared to the iPhone 12? Is this the phone you should buy? Those are some of the questions that I have tried to answer during the days that I have spent with this phone in my pocket.
Spoiler: this mobile has everything to remain a best seller.
The day to day with an iPhone 13
The iPhone 12 redesign was a triumph. The flat sides made of aluminum, the reduction of the frames that surround the screen, the level of refinement that it presented in each corner and the sensations that the product transmitted when holding it in the hand made it one of the smartphones with the best finish of 2020 . And, on this occasion, could repeat that same ode without changing a single detail , since the good feeling has remained intact in this new generation.
Holding iPhone 13 is a pleasure, almost as much as looking at it. The new range of colors is also quite successful. Especially the unit in pink, which is the one I have had the opportunity to test. It is a different tone, but at the same time discreet. And it is also neutral enough to fit in all facets of your life: in a work meeting, at a party with your friends, in a family celebration, etc.
Preferences in this field, however, are quite subjective. Therefore, if you doubt about which color to buy, the best thing is to go to a store where they have all the models on display. So you can determine first-hand which iPhone 13 is the best It adapts to your style or personal preferences.
Regarding the size, both the 6.1-inch screen and the dimensions of the chassis have remained intact compared to the previous model . I have to admit that in my case I prefer large screens –like the one on the Pro Max–. But we must admit that this is a size that does not convince everyone. The 6.1 inches of this iPhone 13, on the other hand, are in a very sweet spot that combines manageability with a screen large enough to play or enjoy multimedia content. And taking into account that this product is focused on the general public, we could say that staying at that intermediate point is a success.
The screen, by the way, now shines brighter. Specifically, 175 nits more, reaching a maximum brightness of 800 nits that, to reproduce content in HDR, can go up to 1,200 nits. In other words: these are the same figures that the iPhone 12 Pro reached. And to this evolution is added Apple's excellent color calibration –which does not oversaturate the default colors as other high-end phones do–, the high ratio of OLED panel contrast, compatibility with formats such as HDR10, HLG or Dolby Vision and Apple's own technologies such as True Tone. Without a doubt, this is an excellent panel in every way.
The notch, by the way, is now 20% smaller. Aesthetically it looks a bit better, yes, but functionally nothing changes. The extra space gained on the sides does not translate, for example, into more icons in the corners.
The arrangement of the rear cameras has also changed compared to the previous generation . We go from a vertical alignment to a diagonal. The two cameras also take up a little more space. The change is not significant, but I do think that the new location has a greater visual balance.
Regarding the iPhone 12, the thickness has also increased. Of course: we are talking about a few tenths of a millimeter. Unless you put them side by side, the difference is imperceptible. And even then it is likely that many did not even realize it. In return, yes, we take a larger capacity battery. Specifically, one with 12.41Wh, which represents an increase of 15% compared to the iPhone 12.
Apple ensures that this improvement, added to the energy efficiency of the different components, translates into about 2.5 hours more use than the previous model. It also provides the following information on its website:
Do these numbers correspond to reality? It is difficult to verify, as we do not know the exact methodology that Apple has followed in these tests. What I can say is that, indeed, the autonomy of the iPhone 13 is better than that of the iPhone 12. And that the previous model was good enough to face a day of use without any fear.
For you to have a reference: one day I used the iPhone 13 to take dozens of photos, play music for several hours with Spotify, record some videos in 4K or with cinema mode, talk through applications such as iMessage or WhatsApp, browse social networks, arrive to a site with Google Maps and even give internet to an iPad tethering for approximately 40 minutes. And, most of the time, the phone was outdoors – which implies a higher energy consumption of the screen to shine more than usual – and connected to a 5G network. At 9 p.m., I still had 10-15% left.
When it comes to cargo, by the way, nothing has changed compared to the previous model. The fast charging of the phone is 20 W , a figure that may seem scarce compared to the numbers registered by phones like the Xiaomi 11T Pro (which reaches up to 120 W). I do not know why Apple does not implement a faster system, although everything seems to indicate that the key is in durability. Putting a phone at 120 W puts more stress on the battery than a 5 W recharge. And yes, there are ways to reduce battery degradation, but today it is impossible for a hundred – or any other number – of recharges to 120 W reduce the capacity of the battery the same as a hundred recharges to 5 W. And I suppose that Apple, seeing the interest it has in extending the useful life of its products – the iPhone 6s will receive iOS 15 -, has decided to opt for the safest way.
Technologies such as wireless charging, UltraWideband connectivity (key for AirTags) and, of course, MagSafe are also present in this iPhone 13. This system, which debuted with the iPhone 12, opened the door to multiple accessories. And, little by little, these have been arriving. In the market we can already find wallets, external batteries, docks, wireless chargers and tripods, among other things.
Also repeats presence in this iPhone 13 the 5G connectivity , which little by little begins to settle in more and more countries. This is still not the revolution that operators are trying to sell to their customers, as the infrastructures have yet to mature and the use cases that make the most of this technology are, for the moment, scarce. But, tomorrow, when all the juice is taken out of these networks, the iPhone 13 will be ready for it. And this is good news considering that the renewal periods are getting longer and, therefore, in three or four years there will be many people who will continue to use this phone.
Along with the 5G modem we find a new A15 Bionic SoC . In the presentation, Apple did not detail how better it is compared to the A14 Bionic. What he did note is that it was significantly better than its main rivals – although it did not detail which exact products it was referring to. Fortunately, the Geekbench 5 data allows us to quantify the performance evolution of this new chip. These are the figures, compared to an iPhone 12:
Is Apple's claim that this is the most powerful chip in the industry true? Yes, definitely. The North American company is the leader in absolute terms when it comes to processors for mobile devices . And not only in gross power, but also in energy efficiency, something that benchmarks do not usually count. In both cases, the differences with phones like the Galaxy S21 Ultra or the OnePlus 9 Pro are quite significant.
How much is this evolution noticeable on a day-to-day basis? In everyday tasks, quite a bit. However, the evolution of these components is super important in other ways. In the first place, it will help your smartphone to age better, as it will have enough margin to run the software that will arrive in the future . On the other hand, all that extra power, although it does not change the way you check your email or talk on WhatsApp, it is key for the correct functioning of technologies such as Smart HDR 4 or the recently presented “cinema mode”, which is They notice every time we open the camera.
Cinema mode changes everything, but that's not the only new thing that the iPhone 13 cameras bring
The iPhone 12 camera was recognized at the time as the best in both photography and video. An award that is not at all easy to achieve considering that in 2020 products such as the Huawei Mate 40 Pro or the Pixel 5 arrived in stores, capable of achieving good results in multiple situations.
This year, the North American brand faced the challenge of prolonging said reign . And for this it has implemented various improvements both on the hardware side and in the software field.
The main camera now has a larger sensor. Its resolution is 12 megapixels, while the lens aperture is f / 1.6 – same as in the previous model. The important thing, however, is that the pixels themselves are larger, allowing more information to be captured. It is not known if it is the same sensor that we found last year in the iPhone 12 Pro Max – which was slightly better than the rest of the iPhone 12 – but almost all its specifications seem to match. Even the exposure and ISO values that it is capable of reaching. It also inherits sensor shake stabilization, which is considered an evolution of conventional optical stabilization. The ultra-wide-angle camera has a new 12-megapixel sensor, although Apple has not detailed its size or performance. It just talks about a “faster” sensor. Investigating the technical data, I have found different minimum exposure values, which confirms the sensor change. The lens aperture is still f / 2.4. The front camera has 12 megapixels and an aperture f / 2.2, technical performance equivalent to those of the previous model. The company has implemented a new algorithm dubbed Smart HDR 4, which perfects what we learned from previous versions. Technologies such as Deep Fusion or night mode are also present. The phone is now capable of recording video in Dolby Vision at 60 FPS and in 4K resolution. This is a 30 FPS increase over the previous model. In practice, all these changes translate into an excellent camera that improves on the iPhone 12 . In bright environments, the images taken with the new model present a little more detail, achieve images with a fairly high dynamic range, interpret colors somewhat better, adjust the color temperature more accurately in certain situations and, thanks to the sensor larger size, it is capable of generating more natural bokeh.
In dark environments, the differences are a little more noticeable : the difference in the level of detail increases, the images are less flat, the night mode tends to require fewer seconds to capture the same scene – in addition to achieving better results– and the ultra-wide angle, despite still having some room for improvement, captures images with less noise.
iPhone 13iPhone 12iPhone 13iPhone 12 In addition, Apple has developed a new function called “Photographic Styles” that allows you to modify the personality of the photos captured by the phone. It's a pretty smart way to satisfy those customers who always want more contrasting or brighter images without having to alter the overall behavior of the camera. By default, the standard mode pursues fidelity. But if that mode doesn't convince you, then you have a range of options to choose from: high contrast, bright, warm and cool.
The technology behind this new function, yes, is much more complex than a simple preset . The phone applies the settings associated with each mode dynamically, a more complex process than the usual filters we use every day in apps like Instagram or VSCO. By the way, once you set it up, it can't be changed in post-processing. In other words: if an image is captured with the “bright” style active, you will not be able to change its appearance afterwards.
In the following gallery you can see the differences between each mode:
Standard Mode Warm Mode Cool Mode Bright Mode High Contrast Mode In general, I have no doubt that this mobile has the best main camera in its price segment , ahead even of products from Samsung, Oppo or Huawei. The only asterisks to Apple's excellent proposal are the following:
We are still without a telephoto lens. And, now that the iPhone 13 Pro has a telephoto lens of three times, it would not have hurt to incorporate a telephoto lens of two times in this phone. That way, you preserve the difference from the next higher model, but give customers a third camera that has tons of creative potential. I am not exaggerating if I say that in my day-to-day life, I take more photos with the telephoto lenses than with the main camera. The ultra-wide angle is better than before, but, in dark environments, it still has room for improvement. Proof of this is that the iPhone 13 Pro has a much more advanced ultra-wide angle. We do not have the ProRAW format, which allows you to take full advantage of the iPhone 13 camera. This function is still exclusive to the Pro models. I don't know if it is a technical limitation or a strategic decision. But this very good camera would be even more versatile if you could shoot in this format and subsequently edit freely in applications like Lightroom. As far as video is concerned, the iPhone 13 is once again a benchmark in both quality and dynamic range, scene interpretation and color. A range of virtues that this year is complemented for a new cinema mode that we could define as the equivalent to video portrait mode.
The results in this mode are quite good. With complicated subjects, such as a moving leaf, it is not always completely refined. But despite this, it is still surprising that a phone is capable of doing something like this using AI. And most important of all, this is the starting point. That is, the system will probably continue to improve with future software updates.
https://hipertextual.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/IMG_0012.mp4 The phone, by the way, is capable of detecting in real time which subject should focus , if a person is entering the scene and who is the real protagonist. After recording is finished, you can also edit the focus manually, as well as the bokeh level.
Regarding this new mode, yes, it would be necessary to make two observations. The first is that all clips are recorded in Dolby Vision , which is great news. And the second appreciation is that, at most, it can be recorded at 1080 and 30 FPS. No 4K at the moment.
Is the iPhone 13 worth buying?
The iPhone 13 is more an evolution than a revolution . However, all the changes that Apple has implemented have a direct impact on the experience of using the phone. Autonomy is a very good example of this, as are all the improvements that the camera brings. And, if we add to that the promising cinema mode, the result is an extremely well balanced product that it is impossible not to recommend.
The only “but” to this recommendation has the same surname as the iPhone 13. I am obviously referring to the iPhone 12, which is still on sale at various distributors –including Apple itself– with a really good value for money.
