First and foremost, thank you so much for checking out my 22 minutes in-depth review of the iPhone 13 Pro and the Pro Max. In case you have missed it, here’s a link to it: https://youtu.be/ZNtQ6Og1YnA
So as mentioned in that video, I decided to divide my iPhone 13 reviews into two parts, one was the Pro lineup and right now it’s for the Consumer lineup, or the “Non-Pro” lineup.
So in this review, I will be reviewing both the iPhone 13 Mini and the iPhone 13 and you know what, these two phones are bigger than you think.
https://youtu.be/ZMJwEpyGDnk
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Specs
First, let’s recap on the specs of the phones.
Like the Pro models, both the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Mini comes with Apple’s A15 Bionic 5nm chipset but compared to the Pros, it comes with 4-core graphics GPU instead of 5, and instead of 6 gigabytes of RAM on the Pro, it has 4 gigabytes of RAM and you can choose between 128, 256 and 512GB of storage. So yes there is no 1TB option where it uses an NVMe type storage, being the only smartphone in the market which uses this kind of storage, and as of the recording of this video the software is at iOS 15.1.
Now I know what you may be thinking, that is quite a “spec reduction” compared to the Pros? Well, you are in for a surprise.
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Build Quality
So how’s the overall build quality and size when using the phones daily, especially on the iPhone 13 Mini?
Well, since the iPhone 13 has the same dimensions as the iPhone 13 Pro and while on paper or the specs sheet says that it is lighter than the iPhone 13 Pro, personally I didn’t really feel much of a difference in weight comparing the Pro and the non-Pro variant.
As for the iPhone 13 Mini, the experience was very similar to the iPhone 12 Mini since it also had the same form factor and I have to say that even though I am a huge fan of a big-screen smartphone, there were some very interesting things that I found using the phone daily.
Firstly, because of the smaller size, it was super easy to take out from my pocket at any point of time and you will sometimes even barely feel it is there.
Second of all, the one hand usages were such an easier experience compared to any of its elder siblings, where it feels extremely natural and easy.
Then thirdly, I initially thought that I would struggle on my typing experience using the phone daily, but to my surprise I barely made any typing mistakes or typo, where usually I would use the G Board App as my primary keyboard setup, but I found it very nice that I could use the phone daily just by using the default Apple’s keyboard.
Then finally, I would say that you will surely feel the difference in weight on the iPhone 13 Mini compared to the rest.
In terms of the color options, the iPhone 13 Mini that I have is the Midnight color, which looks more like a really dark navy blue color in bright daylight, where it looks almost jet black in the dark.
And the iPhone 13 that I have is in Pink, a very appealing choice if you are looking into something a little unique or if you are just a fan of the color Pink… (Yeap! I am looking at you, Theebaan!)
Then last but not least, compared to the Pro variants, both these non-Pro variants have a glossy back instead of a matte finish, so keep that in mind.
But what I have done is to put on a Clover-colored MagSafe silicone case, just for me to have the added grip on the iPhone 13 Mini and the Product Red silicone case for the iPhone 13 when using it daily.
Also worth mentioning is that like the Pro variants, these two phones are also IP68 dust and water-resistant.
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Display
As for the phone’s displays, as mentioned or in case you didn’t know that every iPhone 13 lineup has the same display type, which uses the Super Retina XDR OLED display, with Dolby Vision but you will find a tiny bit of difference in the screen resolution just on paper.
And once again, you won’t really “see” the difference, to be honest, the iPhone 13 has 1170 x 2532 pixels and the Mini has 1080 x 2340 pixels.
Like the Pros, it had amazing color accuracy and both versions do very well in terms of visibility during very bright outdoors so there are absolutely no issues over here.
But where the Pro variant does have the advantage over these lineup’s screens is the refresh rate where these two phones have a 60 Hertz refresh rate compared to the ProMotion 120 Hertz adaptive refresh rate.
Yes if you put both the Pro and the non-Pro side by side, you will see a huge difference in terms of the overall motion when it comes to navigating, but as I mentioned before, the 60 Hertz refresh rate on the iPhone 13 and the iPhone 13 Mini, or even the previous generation iPhone 12, is still one of the best 60 Hertz refresh rate on any smartphone out right now.
Since the iPhone 13 was pretty much like how I was using the iPhone 13 Pro, in terms of video consumption daily so the experience was great.
As for the iPhone 13 Mini, here is where I did find that it was a little small to watch videos with, especially during my cardio sessions in the gym, but the quality of the playback was really nice and bright, especially since there is Dolby Vision also on the iPhone 13 Mini for watching HDR or content on Netflix.
However I did find that using apps like Waze was fine, and I really did enjoy my overall experience for apps when using it daily, since the screen on the Mini has the highest pixel density of 476 PPI compared to the other iPhone 13 line up, so it was pretty sharp indeed.
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Cameras
Now before talking about the quality of the pictures, let’s first talk about the camera arrays.
So one thing which I really want to mention is why it is different from the previous iPhone 12, where it is now placed diagonally compared to vertically.
[easy-image-collage id=5434]
(Left: Vertical camera array on iPhone 12 Mini, Right: Diagonal camera array on iPhone 13 Mini)
Contrary to popular belief, Apple has changed the camera arrangement for the camera arrays, not “for the sake of changing” the design over here, but the REAL reason was because of the addition of the Sensor-Shift technology.
If you are not familiar with this technology, it is actually a very unique sensor that instead of using lens stabilization that you would find on other smartphones, it is the sensor that moves, giving you a way better stabilization which is only available in high-quality mirrorless cameras.
So if you didn’t know that, now you know.
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Camera Specs
So in terms of the camera’s specs, all the lenses are the same as the Pro variants but just a slightly higher aperture value and there are no telephoto lenses.
The main lens is a 12-megapixel f 1.6 aperture 26mm wide lens, and the second camera is a 12-megapixel f 2.4 aperture 13mm ultrawide lens. Then the front camera is the same for all of the iPhone 13 lineup which is a 12-megapixel f 2.8 23mm lens.
Main, Ultrawide & Portrait Mode
Now since you are looking at only a difference in F-stop value between the Pros and non-Pros, you will expect a similar experience for the Ultrawide lens and the Main lens, with consistent colors and high dynamic range and details to all of the shots, especially for the portrait mode as well.
You will find the Photographic styles as mentioned in the Pro variant to change between all the modes since it’s a software image processing feature.
And while I didn’t really miss the Telephoto lens as much, what I do miss is the Macro Mode, as it is a feature that I have gotten to really love in the Pro variants, which are not available for these non-Pro variants, so keep that in mind.
Night Mode
As for the night mode photos, even though the aperture value is higher, the photos coming out from the camera still were high in quality.
Since the selfie cameras are identical with the Pro variants, expect some very high-quality selfie shots on the regular selfie and the portrait selfie as well.
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Video Recording
As for video recording, like the Pros both the rear and the front camera can record up to 4k 60 frames per second and the video quality was really great especially the Image stabilization as well. [Check out my YouTube video for the Video Recording samples]
And once again, the dynamic range for the front camera was just mind-blowing. Similar test which I have done on the Pro Max, where it is really great when it comes to taking against a harsh daylight when the Sun is even against you.
Now since the Cinematic Mode is also a software feature and not a hardware feature, I really felt that this Cinematic Mode was really great both on the iPhone 13 and the iPhone 13 Mini. And if you are looking to be a content creator, like if you want to make videos on YouTube or any other platforms, I think that this Cinematic Mode would be a great start for that.
I did a Halloween-themed YouTube Shorts using the Cinematic Mode on the iPhone 13, so in case you’ve missed it, check it out here: https://youtu.be/AwQzaFowBwo
So overall, I have to say that, yes, you won’t get a full-fledged camera experience on these non-Pro versions, but I humbly believe that what the main lens and the ultrawide cameras can do on these two phones are still really amazing, as the Pro features on the camera may not be something that everyone needs.
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Audio
As for the phone’s speakers, the stereo speakers are available across the board for all of the iPhone 13 lineups once again. What’s new is that the earpiece is up top in the middle compared to previous models so the notch is slightly taller.
When it comes to the sound quality, the highs for vocals and other high-frequency notes within the music was perfectly balanced for the iPhone 13 due to the size of the phone and while the output is louder on the iPhone 13 Mini based on my dB measurement at 96.8dB on the Mini compared to 93.3dB on the iPhone 13.
That’s because the highs are pretty loud to a point where it influences the overall output of the phone.
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Battery
As for the phone’s battery, looking at the iPhone 13, it comes with 3240 milliamps of battery, and the iPhone 13 Mini comes with 2438 milliamps of battery.
As mentioned in my Pro video review, the battery size of the iPhone is totally not comparable with any smartphone because of the efficiency of the A15 Bionic chipset, so don’t even bother comparing the numbers of the battery size.
In terms of the amount of screen on time that I got, there are significant improvements for both phones compared to last year’s model so Apple was right when they mentioned that especially on the iPhone 13 Mini, where I got an average of close to 5 and a half hours screen on time when I was at 10% battery, with dark mode turned on and sometimes even more, depending on how heavy I use the phone daily.
Then on the iPhone 13, I got a much better average of 8 hours plus, sometimes up to 9 hours of screen on time when I was at 10% battery, making this regular iPhone 13 have the best battery life compared to all of the other iPhone 13 lineup and this also could be due to the 60Hz refresh rate and the bigger battery.
So yes, this is where you will need to make decisions based on that because the iPhone 13 Mini seems to last just before the end of the day but the iPhone 13 gave me about one and half days of use, very similar to the iPhone 13 Pro.
And also worth mentioning is the fact that the Mini has fast charging up to 18-watts compared to a higher 23-watts on iPhone 13 but both are the same for the MagSafe Wireless Charging at 15-watts and Qi wireless charging at 7.5-watts.
So yes, it’s pretty obvious that the iPhone 13 would be a better choice if you really need very good battery life, or you can still opt to use the iPhone 13 Mini but keep a power bank around you if you are looking to be out the whole entire day.
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Software
As for the software, I went deep into everything that I loved about the latest iOS 15 in several of my past videos, including the Pro review video.
iOS 15 – https://youtu.be/SCCi4jIowfE
iPhone 13 Pro & Pro Max Review – https://youtu.be/ZNtQ6Og1YnA
Everything from the Focus Mode, the Smarter Notifications and SharePlay are all features that I really appreciate and so far I didn’t find any issues, using the phone daily especially even on a smaller screen on the iPhone 13 Mini.
As with the new smaller notch, it has quite a difference in the overall app usage when I use the phone daily compared to the previous iPhone 12 Mini, so that is a huge plus for me.
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Gaming
As for gaming, what’s interesting is that, even with the 4-core GPU compared to the 5-core GPU on the Pro variants, it is still the best GPU on any smartphone, where both ran great on Genshin Impact with High settings at 60 fps with Motion Blur turned on.
There are no major battery drains after continuous gaming up to close to half an hour, which was really nice to know.
And the overall colors and textures during gameplay was as good as the Pro line ups.
As for PUBG Mobile, the gameplay was obviously smooth and very optimized even for a lower spec phone and both phones ran really nice and smooth at Graphics set to Ultra HD and Frame Rate at Extreme.
What’s also really nice was the fact that both phones never had any overheating issues, just like their Pro siblings.
In terms of the physicality of playing games on the phone, surprisingly even though it had a smaller screen, the iPhone 13 Mini was quite nice to play on, it felt like I was playing on a mini or a portable console since the screen quality is still great.
But yes, the overall gaming experience on the iPhone 13 was definitely better since it had a very good balance of nicer handling and also screen size as well.
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Conclusion
So in conclusion, if you ever wondered if the non-Pro variants are worth the money, I would absolutely say yes to that.
As I’ve mentioned, both the iPhone 13 and the iPhone 13 Mini is surely bigger than you think and it is still one of the best performing and selling iPhones due to the more affordable price factor.
While some may say that the updates are “minor”, the real updates like the screen, battery, and cameras are changed that counts the most as a user upgrading their phone anyway.
If I really had to choose between them both because I am such a power user, I would go with the iPhone 13 but the iPhone 13 Mini has a little special place in my heart because of how unique the phone is and it is indeed currently the most mini-sized powerful flagship smartphone.
And if the rumors are true, we might NOT see an iPhone 14 mini so if you are thinking of getting the Mini, this might be your final chance, because if you are a fan of small phones, you will surely enjoy using it.
But with this review, do let me know which would you prefer to use as your daily smartphone? The iPhone 13 or the iPhone 13 Mini? Do let me know in the comments section below.
Once again, if you haven’t checked out my review of the iPhone 13 Pro and the iPhone 13 Pro Max, here’s the link to it https://youtu.be/ZNtQ6Og1YnA
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Get the phones at the link below:-
https://www.apple.com/my/iphone-13/
