Review | iPhone 13 smartphones: Apple raises the bar for shooting video with Cinematic Mode and a processor that’s second to none
- Apple puts its superior software to good use, with the iPhone 13 models offering glitch-free integration with other Apple products
- The new iPhones take great lowlight photos and the video camera and processor are the best on the market
Apple’s new iPhone 13s are here and I’ve been testing all four models for the past week. How do they stack up against last year’s iPhones – and the Android competition?
Design and hardware
From the outside, the iPhone 13 series looks very similar to the iPhone 12 series. The four phones come in three sizes: 6.7 inch (13 Pro Max), 6.1 inch (13 Pro and 13) and 5.4 inch (13 Mini).
The Pro phones have an extra zoom camera that the non-Pro models lack. The only noticeable physical changes from last year, other than new colours, are the smaller notch on the front for the selfie camera and larger camera module size.
The smaller notch is a superficial change, as the gain in display is minimal. But there’s a good reason for the increase in camera module size: the image sensors in the new phones’ main 12-megapixel cameras are bigger than those in Apple’s 2020 models, with the Pro phone seeing a significantly bigger jump.
The Pro models’ exclusives include a 120Hz display refresh rate and a macro photography mode. The high refresh rate brings noticeably more fluid animations, and it looks particularly impressive on the giant iPhone 13 Pro Max display.
Inside, all four iPhones run on the new 5nm Apple A15 Bionic silicon chip and have bigger batteries than last year – they’re a bit thicker and heavier too.