iPhone 13: 6 things we love (and 3 things we don't)

(Image credit: Tom'due south Guide)

The iPhone thirteen has arrived, with all four new models hit stores today (Sept. 24). If you didn't preorder your new iPhone, you can head down to the nearest Apple Store or your favorite carrier to see if the iPhone 13, iPhone 13 mini or either iPhone 13 Pro model is in stock. (Simply be sure to check out our guide to the all-time iPhone thirteen deals before you start shopping.)

Nosotros're big fans of the latest iPhones, in example you haven't heard, with the iPhone 13 Pro Max earning our highest rating. Simply the other iPhones won rave reviews, likewise, earning praise for some welcome new features that tackled the few flaws from final year's phones while also expanding the iPhones' capabilities.

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If yous're still on the debate about whether to get an iPhone thirteen, we can help you determine if any of the new phones is the right choice for you. Beneath we'll talk about the features that place the various iPhone thirteen models loftier on the list of all-time iPhones equally well as some things nosotros don't like about the latest devices from Apple.

iPhone 13: What we like

There's a reason the iPhone 13 models got elevation marks in our reviews, with the iPhone xiii Pro Max vaulting to the top of the list for best phones. Here's a summary of what Apple got right with this round of updates.

More storage on the iPhone xiii base model: Our biggest ongoing complaint with iPhones has been Apple'south stingy mental attitude toward storage, particularly with its entry-level models. While the iPhone Pro serial had joined the rest of the globe in offering enough onboard chapters, last year's iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini started with merely 64GB of storage.

Apple inverse that with the iPhone 13 and iPhone thirteen mini, upping the corporeality of storage in the base models to 128GB. Now when determining how much iPhone storage you lot need at the time of purchase, yous can opt for the starting cost in many cases, free from the fear that you're beingness shortchanged.

The iPhone Pro models already had 128GB of storage in their base models, and so Apple went the other direction. You can go a 1TB iPhone xiii Pro or iPhone 13 Pro Max — if y'all don't mind paying MacBook Pro prices.

Photographic camera hardware improvements: These days, smartphones are pretty photographic camera-axial, and Apple makes the most of that with the iPhone 13 release. The iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone xiii Pro Max get the more extensive updates with a larger main sensor and wider discontinuity, plus a more than powerful optical zoom and an ultrawide angle shooter with that has a bigger aperture and a wider field of view.

iphone 13 pro back showing camera array — (Prototype credit: Tom'south Guide)

The iPhone xiii and iPhone 13 mini get improvements of their own, chiefly a larger main sensor that lets in 47% more calorie-free than the iPhone 12 did. The ultrawide angle lens on these phones can capture four times more scene than before.

The bottom line for these improvements is that the iPhones should perform better when it comes to taking photos in darker settings, every bit the larger sensors and wider apertures let in more light. That ordinarily translates to brighter pictures and less racket.

Certainly, our testing backs that up, every bit the various iPhone 13 models lucifer and surpass some of the best camera phones nosotros've tested in the past year. A lot of that comes downward to software tweaks — we'll talk nigh an exciting new characteristic in a moment, but the new camera hardware plays a large role, too.

Cinematic way: Speaking of software improvements to the iPhone'south motion-picture show-taking capabilities, the most centre-catching feature added to the iPhone this year is Cinematic mode. Activate Cinematic fashion when shooting video, and you tin can add together Hollywood-style rack focus to your video, where the chief subject appears in focus while the background is blurred.

Information technology gets amend — if the person you're shooting turns to await at something else, the focus automatically shifts too. Or you can manually alter the focus from the foreground to the groundwork, depending on what yous desire to emphasize.

Cinematic manner isn't flawless, and y'all're express to shooting at 1080p resolution instead of 4K. But boy, is it a lot of fun to play with, and nosotros wait a lot of Cinematic manner videos from early iPhone 13 adopters to pop up in the next few weeks.

120Hz displays on the iPhone thirteen Pro: Apple tree may be late to the high refresh rate party that Android phones have been dropping in on for more than a year, but it certainly did the characteristic right when it added ProMotion displays to the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Prom Max. Thanks to this feature, the six.1- and 6.seven-inch screens on the Pro and Pro Max volition dynamically suit their refresh rate, ramping things up to 120Hz when you can reap the benefits of smoother scrolling and richer graphics or scaling down to 10Hz to preserve bombardment life.

Fast-refreshing screens make a world of difference when it comes to the overall smartphone experience, and the ProMotion displays on the iPhone xiii Pro models certainly requite those phones a more professional person sheen. It's just a shame that not every new iPhone possessor is going to become to experience this item addition. (Only we're getting ahead of ourselves.)

A15 Bionic performance: At this point, it'south fairly anticipated when a new iPhone comes out to observe that yep, the processor in the new models outperforms everything else on the market. However, we should never take for granted how skilled Apple is at designing high-performance processors for its phones. The A15 Bionic chipset is another case of that.

As seen in our iPhone xiii benchmarks, the gap isn't that wide between the A15 and A14 Bionic that powered the iPhone 12 lineup. But information technology is there. More importantly, the new chip continues to keep Apple tree streets ahead of the best chips fueling leading Android devices.

And there'due south more than than just a performance boost here. The neural engine on the A15 Bionic has besides been beefed upwards, and that's powering a lot of new capabilities that rely on the chip'south added smarts. Cinematic way is a perfect example of this.

Best of all, Apple continues to use the same chip in all four iPhone models. Apart from differences in RAM and an extra core in the GPU of the iPhone xiii Pro models, y'all're going to get the same blazing-fast operation on the cheapest model as you lot would on the iPhone 13 Pro Max.

Amend battery life than terminal twelvemonth: If nosotros had to pick just ane matter about the iPhone 12 family that we didn't much care for, it would be the disappointing battery life on three of the iv models. (iPhone 12 Pro Max, you are excused from this discussion.) Apple tree clearly wasn't that impressed past the battery life, either, equally it increased the battery sizes across all four phones relative to their iPhone 12 counterparts. (Only how much bigger, Apple won't say.)

iModel	iBattery life (hours:mins)
iPhone 13 Pro Max	12:16
iPhone 12 Pro Max	x:53
iPhone xiii Pro	11:42
iPhone 12 Pro	nine:06
iPhone 13	x:33
iPhone 12	viii:25
iPhone 13 mini	8:41
iPhone 12 mini	7:28

Those big batteries forth with improve power consumption by the A15 Bionic means that the iPhone thirteen models last longer than last year's phones. in our iPhone xiii battery testing, all four new phones posted better times than their predecessors. The iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone xiii Pro Max improved so much, they're at present on our best telephone battery life rankings. The iPhone 13 finished alee of the average time for smartphones, too. But the iPhone 13 mini still lags behind the average, but it certainly outlasts the iPhone 12 mini.

iPhone 13: What nosotros don't like

Every bit much as we appreciate the iPhone 13, Apple tree'southward phones aren't flawless. There are a few things we would like to have seen in this year's models, and their absence is all the more glaring given how Apple nailed it with about e'er aspect of its phones.

No 120Hz displays for the iPhone 13: The ProMotion displays on the iPhone 13 Pro models are great, similar we said. Then it's a shame that the iPhone 13 and iPhone thirteen mini can't reap the same benefit. Instead, those phones feature OLED panels that are stuck at 60Hz.

iphone 13 mini display on laying on desk — (Image credit: Tom'due south Guide)

At that place's probably a practical explanation for this. Reportedly, the suppliers that make Apple tree's displays couldn't provide fast-refreshing screens in enough book for all four phones, so the conclusion was made to focus on the Pro models. By this time side by side year, it's rumored that all the new iPhone models will offer some sort of fast-refreshing capability. Merely that's of little alleviation if you pick up an iPhone 13 or iPhone xiii mini.

No Touch ID: We've mentioned earlier the hassle of trying to unlock your iPhone in the era of face masks — Face ID only doesn't allow it, and since there's no Touch ID sensor included on the iPhone 13, you're yet stuck borer in your passcode. With Apple finding a manner to include Touch ID on its new iPad 9, the lack of a solution for iPhones is especially glaring.

Maybe there'south a software workaround in the hereafter, mayhap there isn't, simply if you're looking for iPhone 13 flaws, this is i of the biggies.

Charging speeds haven't improved: The iPhone is a speed demon in many respects, but charging speed isn't one of them. Wired charging tops out at 20W, while MagSafe wireless charging offers 15W speeds.

That's pretty ho-hum, but information technology seems especially pokey when yous see what Android phones are doing with charging speeds these days. One of the major selling points for the OnePlus ix series is the phone maker's 65W fast charging technology. Y'all're seeing other phone makers prefer these faster speeds, likewise. Get the iPhone 13, though, and you'll observe that Apple isn't among them.

iPhone xiii outlook

Every bit nosotros said at the start, nosotros're big fans of the iPhone 13, and we tin show you lot the glowing reviews to bear witness it. For most people, the iPhone xiii gets enough correct to brand an upgrade a no-brainer. But there might be some people who see the flaws listed above and decide to accept a pass on this year'due south model — at least for at present.

Philip Michaels is a senior editor at Tom's Guide. He has strong opinions about Apple, the Oakland Athletics and old movies. Follow him at @PhilipMichaels.