As expected, Apple today showed off its new iPhone 13 lineup alongside two revamped iPads and the Apple Watch Series 7. Four versions of its new smartphones, which include upgraded cameras and new, supercharged chips, arrive on Sept. 24.
iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini
Like the iPhone 12, the iPhone 13 features a flat-edge design. It has a 6.1-inch display, while the iPhone 13 mini comes in at 5.4 inches. There’s a ceramic shield front and IP68 water-resistance.
Apple promises better battery life—up to 2.5 more hours in a day than iPhone 12 for iPhone 13, and up to 1.5 more hours in a day on iPhone 13 mini when compared to iPhone 12 mini, though we’ll have to put that to the test.
Apple’s iPhone 13 lineup runs the company’s new A15 Bionic chip, which features a 6-core CPU with two high-performance cores and four high-efficiency cores, plus a new 4-core GPU. It uses 5-nanometer technology and has nearly 15 billion transistors.
Despite that Ted Lasso teaser, the notch is still a thing on iPhone 13, but it’s 20% smaller.
Apple execs touted the iPhone 13’s new dual-camera system, which features diagonally arranged lenses and what Apple says is the “biggest sensor ever in an iPhone dual-camera system,” capturing 47% more light for less noise and brighter results. For budding photographers who couldn’t quite swing the iPhone 12 Pro Max’s high price tag, that smartphone’s sensor-shift optical image stabilization is coming to the Wide camera on the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini.
“It stabilizes the sensor instead of the lens so shots are more steady, while the custom-designed Ultra Wide camera with a new sensor captures images with more detail in the dark areas of photos and videos with less noise,” Apple says.
If you have dreams of Oscar gold, the new iPhones feature Cinematic mode, which records in Dolby Vision HDR for footage “with a beautiful depth effect with automatic focus changes.”
The smartphones support 5G and come pre-loaded with iOS 15.
Both smartphones come in five colors: (PRODUCT)RED, starlight, midnight, blue, and pink. Entry-level storage size has been bumped to 128GB, but you can also pick up 256GB and 512GB capacities. They start at $799 for iPhone 13 and $699 for iPhone 13 mini.
Pre-orders begin Friday at 5 a.m. PDT and the phones arrive Sept. 24.
iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max
If you have a little more cash to spend, the Pro line includes a Super Retina XDR display with ProMotion that offers an adaptive refresh rate up to 120Hz. This, according to Apple, will make the touch screen faster and more responsive.
The Pro lines are all about the cameras. Here, the Wide camera has 1.9 µm pixels and a larger ƒ/1.5 aperture, for “a massive improvement in low-light situations, up to 2.2x when compared to iPhone 12 Pro, and nearly 1.5x when compared to iPhone 12 Pro Max,” Apple says.
The Ultra Wide camera features a much wider ƒ/1.8 aperture and supports macro photography. The 77 mm Telephoto camera offers 3x optical zoom for a total 6x optical zoom range on the camera system, Apple says.
The iPhone 13 Pro sports a 6.1-inch display, and the big-screen 13 Pro Max features a super-sized 6.7-inch screen. Apple is promising similar battery improvements over its predecessors. They also support 5G and will come with iOS 15.
The Phone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max come in graphite, gold, silver, and sierra blue in 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and a new 1TB storage capacities. They start at $999 and $1,099, respectively. Pre-orders also begin Friday and the phones launch on Sept. 24.
