SILICON VALLEY – Apple announces the iPhone 13 in 4 versions: Mini, Regular, Pro and Pro Max. On Thursday, Apple executives took to the stage at a virtual streaming event to announce the new flagship iPhone lineup.
The iPhone 13 is official. The body of the iPhone 13 resembles last year’s model, but the base model’s cameras are now arranged diagonally.
This year, Apple is reducing the size of the front display notch, which still houses all the usual Face ID sensors, but is now 20% smaller.
The base model’s new display is branded “Super Retina XDR” and is 28% brighter at 800 nits.
The device is available in 5.4-inch and 6.1-inch sizes. The new phones will also get a new SoC, the A15 Bionic.
The six-core processor includes two performance cores and four low-efficiency cores, and Apple claims it’s “the fastest processor in any smartphone, up to 50% faster than leading competitors.”
The new quad-core GPU is up to 30% faster than the competition and the 16-core neural engine is capable of performing 15.8 trillion operations per second.
A new “Cinematic” mode for videos features a rack focus effect and allows the camera to smoothly change focus from a foreground object to a background object during a video.
Users can tap the screen to focus and switch between two different objects. Of course, a phone doesn’t have the lens to do that – it’s an AI effect, like a two-object portrait mode.
According to Apple, the entire phone has been redesigned to make room for “new technologies” while incorporating a larger battery.
Apple wouldn’t give exact numbers, but it says the iPhone Mini’s battery life has increased by 1.5 hours and the base iPhone’s by 2.5 hours over the year. last.
The iPhone 13 Mini starts at $699, the iPhone 13 at $799. Both start at 128GB (an increase from last year) with storage tiers of 256GB and 512GB. That covers the base model, but Apple has also announced updates for the larger iPhone, the iPhone 13 Pro. As with the base model, the inner workings have been completely redesigned for a larger battery and the A15 Bionic.
The Pro model upgrades the A15 to a five-core GPU, which Apple claims is the fastest GPU in any smartphone. For the first time in the iPhone lineup, the Pro models feature a 120Hz display.
High-end Android flagships and Apple’s iPad Pro have already offered this feature, but the new screen is expected to be more responsive than the 60Hz screens the iPhone has featured in the past.
There’s also dynamic frame rate scaling to save power when viewing a still image or video; the display can go down to 10Hz. Just like last year, the Pro comes in at 6.1-inches and the Pro Max model at 6.7-inches.
The three rear cameras are all new, and Apple promises brighter, sharper images. The accompanying spec package included a 77mm telephoto lens with 3x optical zoom, an f/1.8 ultra-wide lens with “92% improvement in low light” and a prime lens with an f/ 1, 5. 1.9μm pixel size and “2.2x improvement in low light”.
There’s a macro mode for close-ups, and every camera now also has a night mode. The Pro Series also supports Apple’s ProRes, a format widely used for HD video in professional environments.
Users can record in ProRes as the A15 Bionic is hardware accelerated, then edit everything seamlessly in Final Cut Pro.
The iPhone 13 Pro battery lasts 1.5 hours longer than the iPhone 12 Pro. The iPhone 13 Pro Max battery lasts 2.5 hours longer than the iPhone 12 Pro Max.
The iPhone 13 Pro costs $999 and the 13 Pro Max costs $1,099. There’s a new 1TB storage option, which is a fourth tier after 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB. Every iPhone is available for preorder this Friday, and the phones will start shipping on September 24.
