The iPhone 13 and 13 Mini Review: A Comprehensive Look at Apple's Latest Devices

As I spent five days with the iPhone 13 and 13 Mini, I was excited to put them through various tests to see how they would perform. CNET's battery test showed that both phones were able to handle a significant number of charges without losing too much power. The 13 has a 6.1-inch display and a 5.4-inch OLED panel on the 13 Mini, which is also an OLED panel just like the 12 and 12 Mini.

One notable feature of the iPhone 13 series is its increased brightness, particularly in the Pro models, but both the 13 and 13 Mini have seen an improvement. This increase in brightness will be especially useful when taking photos and recording videos, as these activities tend to consume more battery power. The camera on the iPhone 13 has a larger sensor with sensor-based stabilization, which helps reduce image noise in medium lighting conditions. This is noticeable, even after a quick glance at some of my favorite photos taken with the phone.

One of the most hyped new features in the iPhone 13 series is Cinematic Mode, which allows for dramatic and artistic effects in video recording. Unlike portrait mode, Cinematic Mode focuses on one subject, leaving either the background or foreground out of focus. The effect is quite striking, and everyone I showed the videos to were awestruck by its potential. However, there are some limitations - you can't use Cinematic Mode when it's dark, and adjusting the aperture (or depth of field) can be a bit tricky.

In addition to Cinematic Mode, the iPhone 13 has several other features that enhance photography. The "Photography Styles" feature allows users to choose from four different looks for their photos - vibrant, rich contrast, warm, or cool. These styles aren't exactly filters, but they do change the appearance of your photos in a way that feels intuitive and natural. However, there is no undo option if you don't like the look you get with a particular style.

Under the hood, both phones are powered by the A15 Bionic chip, which handled everything from gaming to video editing and photo edits with ease. This chip also handles temperature fluctuations quite well, which is impressive given that I used these phones in hot and humid environments during my time with them.

In terms of software, the iPhone 13 runs on iOS 15, which worked smoothly for me during my time with it. If you want to learn more about iOS 15 and its features like Focus Mode, be sure to check out our Best Features video.

The Verdict

After spending five days with the iPhone 13 and 13 Mini, I'm excited to share my thoughts on these devices. While they may not bring any revolutionary new features, they do offer some significant improvements over their predecessors - particularly in terms of camera performance. If you're looking for a solid camera experience without sacrificing battery life or display quality, one of these phones might be the right choice for you.

But before we get to that, I want to hear from you: what do you think of the iPhone 13 and 13 Mini? Are you planning on getting one, and if so, which one? Stay with the normal size, or go small this year? Let me know in the comments below!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthis is the new iphone 13 and 13 mini they have new cameras a bigger battery more storage a brighter screen and apple's new a15 bionic chip all for the same price and that seems very reasonable to me apple simplified its lineup for 2021 for all intents and purposes there are two phones the iphone 13 and the iphone 13 pro you want a small version of the 13 get a 13 mini you need a 13 pro with a bigger screen and battery get the 13 pro max in the case of the iphone 13 and 13 mini you get a reasonable upgrade to the iphone 12 and 12 mini which were already wonderful phones now there will be some that had hoped that the iphone would be a little more splashy and radical and in that case take a look at the iphone 13 pro and 13 pro max and by the way i'm just going to focus on the 13 and 13 mini in this video and i did an entire separate review video for the 13 pro and 13 pro max which you can check out the iphone 13 starts at 829 in the iphone 13 mini at 729 and that's the price of the base model that comes with 128 gigabytes of storage also if you buy and activate your phone on a carrier plan that price drops 30 and all that is before some truly wild deals from carriers last year's iphone 12 is still around at a lower price and if you are upgrading from an iphone 11 or older consider this the iphone 12 with 128 gigabytes is now only 50 less than the iphone 13 meaning apple really makes it easy for you to climb that upgrade ladder right up to the 13. now apple's clever pricing aside i definitely believe you get more than 50 worth of improvements by going to the iphone 13. the new phones have the same flat sided slabular design as the iphone 12 and 12 mini they come in five colors blue starlight product red midnight which is the color of the 13 mini i tested now it's hard to tell but the mini actually has an indigo hue to it and the last color is pink which is the color of the iphone 13 i tested it's got a nice soft pink color and in certain lighting can look almost white aside from the colors there are two key differences in terms of design the first is a new camera bump which now positions the cameras diagonally it's funny how that one change already has people clued in when i was testing it out and about i had several people stop and ask if this was the new iphone the next change is more subtle the notch is less wide it's still a notch and i still have a love-hate relationship with it aesthetically but i'll take it being 20 smaller other than that the phones have the same ceramic shield covering over the display the same ip68 rating for dust and water resistance meaning they can survive being submerged 6 meters about 20 feet for 30 minutes both the 13 and 13 mini had no trouble surviving an unexpected drench from an impromptu afternoon thunderstorm technically both phones are heavier and i to be honest didn't know that until i read the spec sheet and if that extra seven to ten grams has anything to do with it having a bigger battery i welcome the extra weight now i only had five days with the phones but both the iphone 13 and 13 mini had no trouble making it through a day on a single card now i do own an iphone 12 mini and i know the reality of the 3pm recharge and i hadn't experienced that so far with the 13 mini now i'm putting both phones through cnet's battery test and will update my written review with the final results on the front of the 13 is a 6.1 inch display and a 5.4 inch one on the 13 mini both are oled panels just like the 12 and 12 mini now you may have heard this here that some of the iphones got an upgrade to a high refresh rate it's only on the pro models but the 13 and 13 mini did get a noticeable increase in brightness and that is a welcomed improvement because you're going to be using it a lot to take photos and record videos especially with these new cameras the wide-angle camera gets a larger camera sensor with sensor based stabilization apple says that it's the size of the camera module that is one of the reasons the cameras are now arranged diagonally on the back of the phone to give you perspective the main cameras on the iphone 13 have the same size pixels as the main camera on last year's iphone 12 pro max which at the time had the largest sensor for any iphone the ultrawide camera gets a new sensor which helps it gather more light in use these aren't drastic differences but i definitely noticed the improvements there's less image noise in photos i take in medium lighting and here take a look at some of my favorite photos that i took with the iphone 13 and 13 mini let's talk about one of the most hyped new camera features cinematic mode and i've got to say this is so much fun to use and experiment with cinematic mode is kind of like portrait mode for video but as opposed to making the background have an artistic blur cinematic mode can focus from one subject like this cellist to another like this violinist leaving either the background or foreground out of focus the effect is dramatic and nearly everyone i showed the videos to were awestruck cinematic mode captures 1080p video at 30 frames per second using the two cameras on the back stereoscopically the iphone can choose who to focus on when to focus on someone else but you can also focus during the recording or even change the focus after you record the video which wow it's pretty cool now if the cutout effect is too much you can adjust the aperture aka the depth of field the results are nice and i imagine after using it for a while you'll know where the limits are and there are a few first you can't use cinematic mode when it's dark you'll be greeted with a message prompting you to turn on your flash editing the videos is straightforward enough but the controls for the keyframes where you change the focus are very small you can long press to expand the timeline but it shrinks back to a normal size timeline as soon as you let go so it makes it impossible to have a zoomed in view of those tiny focus keyframes another nice addition is called photography styles and what this does is changes the appearance of the photos you take to your preference so if you always add a little more contrast to your photos before uploading them you can set your camera to rich contrast and any photo you take in that mode will have that look baked in and there are four photography styles vibrant rich contrast warm and cool if you don't want to use any of these you can leave your camera set to standard also what's cool is in the camera app you can dial in the tone and warmth for each photography style to your preference now these styles aren't a filter the upside is it's smart about giving photos the look you want without for example making someone's skin look like an oompa loompa the downside is that it's baked into your photos and you can't undo it it's not as scary as it sounds and there's always editing settings to compensate after the fact on the whole the cameras are solid now powering all of this camera magic and the phone is the a15 bionic chip in my time with the phone it handled everything from gaming video and photo edits and all this being done in a variety of cool and hot and humid environments the iphone 13 and 13 mini run ios 15 which in my time worked well if you want a deeper dive into ios 15 and my experience with features like focus mode check out my ios 15 best features video after five days that's all i've got if you want to learn even more about the iphone 13 and 13 mini or buy one check out the links in the description also we're going to have a lot more coverage on the phones and putting them through more camera battery and drop tests in coming weeks but now i want to hear from you what do you think of the 13 and 13 mini are you planning on getting one and if so which one you're gonna go small this year or you're gonna stay with the normal size throw your thoughts in the commentsthis is the new iphone 13 and 13 mini they have new cameras a bigger battery more storage a brighter screen and apple's new a15 bionic chip all for the same price and that seems very reasonable to me apple simplified its lineup for 2021 for all intents and purposes there are two phones the iphone 13 and the iphone 13 pro you want a small version of the 13 get a 13 mini you need a 13 pro with a bigger screen and battery get the 13 pro max in the case of the iphone 13 and 13 mini you get a reasonable upgrade to the iphone 12 and 12 mini which were already wonderful phones now there will be some that had hoped that the iphone would be a little more splashy and radical and in that case take a look at the iphone 13 pro and 13 pro max and by the way i'm just going to focus on the 13 and 13 mini in this video and i did an entire separate review video for the 13 pro and 13 pro max which you can check out the iphone 13 starts at 829 in the iphone 13 mini at 729 and that's the price of the base model that comes with 128 gigabytes of storage also if you buy and activate your phone on a carrier plan that price drops 30 and all that is before some truly wild deals from carriers last year's iphone 12 is still around at a lower price and if you are upgrading from an iphone 11 or older consider this the iphone 12 with 128 gigabytes is now only 50 less than the iphone 13 meaning apple really makes it easy for you to climb that upgrade ladder right up to the 13. now apple's clever pricing aside i definitely believe you get more than 50 worth of improvements by going to the iphone 13. the new phones have the same flat sided slabular design as the iphone 12 and 12 mini they come in five colors blue starlight product red midnight which is the color of the 13 mini i tested now it's hard to tell but the mini actually has an indigo hue to it and the last color is pink which is the color of the iphone 13 i tested it's got a nice soft pink color and in certain lighting can look almost white aside from the colors there are two key differences in terms of design the first is a new camera bump which now positions the cameras diagonally it's funny how that one change already has people clued in when i was testing it out and about i had several people stop and ask if this was the new iphone the next change is more subtle the notch is less wide it's still a notch and i still have a love-hate relationship with it aesthetically but i'll take it being 20 smaller other than that the phones have the same ceramic shield covering over the display the same ip68 rating for dust and water resistance meaning they can survive being submerged 6 meters about 20 feet for 30 minutes both the 13 and 13 mini had no trouble surviving an unexpected drench from an impromptu afternoon thunderstorm technically both phones are heavier and i to be honest didn't know that until i read the spec sheet and if that extra seven to ten grams has anything to do with it having a bigger battery i welcome the extra weight now i only had five days with the phones but both the iphone 13 and 13 mini had no trouble making it through a day on a single card now i do own an iphone 12 mini and i know the reality of the 3pm recharge and i hadn't experienced that so far with the 13 mini now i'm putting both phones through cnet's battery test and will update my written review with the final results on the front of the 13 is a 6.1 inch display and a 5.4 inch one on the 13 mini both are oled panels just like the 12 and 12 mini now you may have heard this here that some of the iphones got an upgrade to a high refresh rate it's only on the pro models but the 13 and 13 mini did get a noticeable increase in brightness and that is a welcomed improvement because you're going to be using it a lot to take photos and record videos especially with these new cameras the wide-angle camera gets a larger camera sensor with sensor based stabilization apple says that it's the size of the camera module that is one of the reasons the cameras are now arranged diagonally on the back of the phone to give you perspective the main cameras on the iphone 13 have the same size pixels as the main camera on last year's iphone 12 pro max which at the time had the largest sensor for any iphone the ultrawide camera gets a new sensor which helps it gather more light in use these aren't drastic differences but i definitely noticed the improvements there's less image noise in photos i take in medium lighting and here take a look at some of my favorite photos that i took with the iphone 13 and 13 mini let's talk about one of the most hyped new camera features cinematic mode and i've got to say this is so much fun to use and experiment with cinematic mode is kind of like portrait mode for video but as opposed to making the background have an artistic blur cinematic mode can focus from one subject like this cellist to another like this violinist leaving either the background or foreground out of focus the effect is dramatic and nearly everyone i showed the videos to were awestruck cinematic mode captures 1080p video at 30 frames per second using the two cameras on the back stereoscopically the iphone can choose who to focus on when to focus on someone else but you can also focus during the recording or even change the focus after you record the video which wow it's pretty cool now if the cutout effect is too much you can adjust the aperture aka the depth of field the results are nice and i imagine after using it for a while you'll know where the limits are and there are a few first you can't use cinematic mode when it's dark you'll be greeted with a message prompting you to turn on your flash editing the videos is straightforward enough but the controls for the keyframes where you change the focus are very small you can long press to expand the timeline but it shrinks back to a normal size timeline as soon as you let go so it makes it impossible to have a zoomed in view of those tiny focus keyframes another nice addition is called photography styles and what this does is changes the appearance of the photos you take to your preference so if you always add a little more contrast to your photos before uploading them you can set your camera to rich contrast and any photo you take in that mode will have that look baked in and there are four photography styles vibrant rich contrast warm and cool if you don't want to use any of these you can leave your camera set to standard also what's cool is in the camera app you can dial in the tone and warmth for each photography style to your preference now these styles aren't a filter the upside is it's smart about giving photos the look you want without for example making someone's skin look like an oompa loompa the downside is that it's baked into your photos and you can't undo it it's not as scary as it sounds and there's always editing settings to compensate after the fact on the whole the cameras are solid now powering all of this camera magic and the phone is the a15 bionic chip in my time with the phone it handled everything from gaming video and photo edits and all this being done in a variety of cool and hot and humid environments the iphone 13 and 13 mini run ios 15 which in my time worked well if you want a deeper dive into ios 15 and my experience with features like focus mode check out my ios 15 best features video after five days that's all i've got if you want to learn even more about the iphone 13 and 13 mini or buy one check out the links in the description also we're going to have a lot more coverage on the phones and putting them through more camera battery and drop tests in coming weeks but now i want to hear from you what do you think of the 13 and 13 mini are you planning on getting one and if so which one you're gonna go small this year or you're gonna stay with the normal size throw your thoughts in the comments\n"