Should You Get the Apple iPhone 13?

The latest refresh to Apple’s flagship line of iPhones has been met with heavy discussion. Apart from the default iPhone 13, Apple once again demonstrates its understanding of consumer psychology. Dynamic as ever, the additional release of the iPhone 13 Mini, Pro, and Pro Max ensures that there’s a niche carved out for anyone thinking of a possible phone upgrade.

Size aside, the new range of iPhones boast similar internal upgrades in the form of an A15 Bionic chip with a 6-core CPU. Faster than ever, the new smartphones also possess an improved resolution and screen refresh rate compared to their predecessors. Fans of the form will also rejoice to hear that the device is available in five and four new colours, for the iPhone 13 to the iPhone 13 Pro Max respectively.

Of course, with four models to choose from, each slightly different from the other, the nuance of picking the right phone might be lost unless studied in detail. Before you make a snap decision, let’s go through the subtle contrasts between each form of the iPhone 13.

The Cinematic Mode

The biggest software addition to the iPhone 13, available across all models, is Cinematic Mode. Highly touted by amateurs and professionals alike, this feature allows users to shoot videos with a bokeh effect. Adding a portrait look and additional depth of field, Cinematic Mode’s selective focus provides creators with the opportunity to focus on background or foreground subjects.

If photography and filming are the main functions of your iPhone, it might be a considerably worthwhile idea to push the envelope and move towards this iteration of the smartphone. In addition to Cinematic Mode, the new iPhone 13’s camera software upgrades make the phone a monster for photography. New Photographic Styles in the Camera app, combined with better low-light performance and improved zoom bring new facets to the already impressive existing spec-sheet. 

Improved Battery Life

A more practical upgrade that long-time Apple fans were begging for, the new suite of iPhone 13 come with a notable upgrade to battery life. After testing each model in detail, the newer iPhone 13 each have approximately 20% more battery life compared to the previous generation of iPhones. 

This is particularly impressive considering the number of additional features and software upgrades made towards the phones. Breaking this down, even more, a report by Tom’s Guide which ran a comparative test of battery life, the iPhone 13 lasted for 10 hours and 33 minutes while continuously connected to 5G and surfing the web on 150 nits of screen brightness. Under the same conditions, the previous iPhone 12 only lasted 8 hours and 25 minutes. To be fair, not everyone is going to be utilising their phone on 5G cellular data for 10 hours consecutively, so we expect the real-world implications of the larger battery to be more noticeable.

Improved Display 

After alluding to some hardware upgrades the whole article, if anything, this is the defining reason for potential buyers to consider moving up from an iPhone 12 to 13. Inbuilt in all four of the new devices is the top of the line Super Retina XDR display, with Promotion. 

With a maxed out refresh rate of 120hz per second on the Pro and Pro-Max models, this new detail is also armed with what Apple terms as “Adaptive Refresh”. Intelligent enough to accelerate and decelerate the screen’s refresh rate, matching the speed of input as the device is used - this new understated function makes browsing on the Pro and Pro Max models incredibly smooth.

The perks of this are even more apparent for avid gamers when split-second decision making could be the difference between a win and loss. Haptic input and relative adjustment give hardcore gamers an unprecedented edge versus any other brand of smartphone on the market.

Considering all the aforementioned points, the question “Should I get a new iPhone” is dependent on how much each of these features means to you. If they check all the boxes for what you’re looking for in an upgrade, the only question left to ask yourself is “What colour do I want it in?”.