iPhone 13: Smaller notch, brighter display and improved dual-camera setup

Another year, another new set of iPhones, and this year is no different. But this year’s new iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Mini does have some changes over last year’s duo, most notably a smaller notch on the top and diagonal camera lenses on the camera bump.

In fact, the size of the notch has been reduced by 20% according to Apple, while still keeping Apple’s usual host of features like Face ID in it. The screen itself is a 6.1-inch, Super Retina XDR OLED display with a 2532 x 1170 pixel resolution that’s capable of 800nits, rising to 1200nits during peak HDR brightness. For comparison, last year’s iPhone 12 was only capable of 625nits. There’s also True Tone, Haptic Touch, HDR10 and Dolby Vision too.

As for the smaller iPhone Mini, the screen size is down to 5.4-inches, with a lower 2340 x 1080 pixel resolution, though that’s actually a higher ppi density than its bigger sibling. Meanwhile, for the rest of the body for both phones, you’ll find their Ceramic Shield glass on the front, while the rest of the body is made of aerospace grade aluminum and a glass back, except the antenna line that’s made of upcycled plastic water bottles. Incidentally, despite the same size screen between the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13, this year’s iPhone is 10g heavier and 0.15mm thicker than its predecessor.

Under the hood is the A15 Bionic processor, built on 5nm technology with 15 billion transistors. The CPU itself has 6-cores, split between two high performance cores and four efficiency cores. Apple claims that it’s 50% faster than the competition, though we have no idea what exactly they’re comparing it too. As for the GPU, it’s a 4-core GPU that again, Apple says is 30% faster than the competition. That’s despite it having 1 less core than the A15 Bionic processors found in the iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max. There’s a bunch of other upgrades too, with a new ISP, video encoder, display engine and a 16-core neural engine capable of 15.8 trillion operations per second.

Of course, the cameras are a big part of the iPhone 13’s selling point, and you’re getting a dual 12MP camera system here with a main camera on the bottom right quadrant and an ultrawide camera on the upper left quadrant. The main camera has a new 1.7μm sensor that’s 47% more light-gathering and comes with a f/1.6 aperture with a 26mm focal length. This is the same sensor that’s found in last year’s iPhone 12 Pro Max, with the iPhone 13 also featuring sensor-shift stabilisation from it. The ultrawide camera meanwhile has a newer, faster sensor with an f/2.4 aperture and 13mm focal length capable of a 120-degree field of view.

Another new feature for the cameras is a new ‘cinematic mode’ for videography. This brings to the iPhone 13 a rack focus effect commonly used in films. When recording a video with two or more subjects, it’ll automatically shift the focus in certain situations, such as when someone enters the room or looks away. You can also tap the screen to shift the focus manually, while tapping again locks the focus onto the subject in focus. The 12MP front camera will get this feature too.

Other features of note include a bigger battery that ought to last you 2.5 hours more than the iPhone 12, while the iPhone 13 Mini will get you an extra 1.5 hours. Apple has doubled the 5G bands supported with the iPhone 13, while also introducing a new ‘smart data mode’ that automatically shifts users back to LTE when 5G speeds aren’t necessary. The iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Mini are both rated for IP68 dust and water resistance too, along with stereo speakers but alas, still no charger in the box though there’s a USB-C to lightning cable.

The iPhone 13 will start at RM3,899, while the iPhone 13 Mini is priced at RM3,399 onwards. There’ll be three storage options available, with 128GB, 256GB and 512GB storage configurations for both iPhones. This means that Apple has replaced the 64GB configuration as its base model with 128GB while maintaining the same price. As for colours, it’ll be available in Midnight, Blue, Pink, Starlight and Product (RED).

They’ll be available for pre-order in Malaysia starting from 1st October onwards. For more information on the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Mini, you can head over to their product pages on Apple’s website.