One day with iPhone 13 series: Apple ascends in a boring yet devastating way 

Apple has made subtle changes that make things better at times or worse. For instance, because of the bigger camera sensors -- the camera bumps across the lineup are bigger. In the case of the standard iPhones, it is now diagonally aligned which is a telltale sign of an iPhone 13. The bigger bump also balances the phone better on tables while lying flat but adds more heft to an already hefty phone when one talks about the two pro models. In the case of the standard iPhone 13, it is a non-issue and these phones feel just the slightest more substantial. The notch is also 20 percent smaller but you will not realise it because Apple does nothing with the extra space so don’t notice a change. Across the board because of the larger batteries, all the phones are slightly heavier, but you feel this the most on the iPhone 13 Pro, not the Pro Max. But in terms of looks, feel and build quality -- the iPhone 13 Pro models are the prettiest, the plushest feeling and most well-built phone I have seen.

Apple has upped the ante with the screen technology by adding promotion 120Hz dynamically refreshing pixels on the iPhone 13 Pro. The screens are also brighter and have a better contrast ratio. The phone also feels faster and smoother but the addition of 120Hz on an iPhone isn’t as revelatory as it has been on Android mostly because of how iOS masterfully handles animations. On the standard models too, the screen tech has improved but the gains are nominal as the screens do get slightly brighter -- overall these screens are amongst the best in the business so no one is going to have an issue with such a tepid update.

For the first time, there is an extra GPU core in the iPhone Pro models -- so from a pure performance and headroom point of view the iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max are the fastest phones in the world followed by the standard 13 and mini.

All these phones are powered by the A15 Bionic chip which many claim hasn’t been a big improvement over the A14 Bionic which was already the fastest smartphone chip in the world. The breakthrough comes in terms of graphics, AI processing and efficiency. These are the fastest phones you will use but in day-to-day use they will not feel much faster than an iPhone 12 per se. But when you start playing games like Pascal’s Wager, one starts to realise how far Apple is ahead of Android in graphics. Similarly, you need to use these phones to realise the type of improvements that have been made to the battery life of the iPhones. But regardless, these are going to be the fastest phones in the world and they should last you very easily a minimum of 4 years.

At the keynote, Apple gave vague figures about the battery life improvements on the new phones. It said the iPhone 13 mini and iPhone 13 Pro would get another 1.5 hours of battery life while the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro Max would get around 2.5 hours of additional battery life compared to the iPhone 12 models.

Apple was largely under-selling its improvements. I used mostly the iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max -- while to a lesser degree tested the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini. After removing the iPhone 13 Pro Max from charge at around 7 am after a heavy day of use which involved a lot of video shoots on the iPhone and the usual work stuff, I was left with around 45 percent battery life at 8:51 pm with almost 8 hours of screen on time.

In the case of the iPhone 13 Pro, I unhooked it from charge at around 7:15 am with 93 percent charge and it was still going strong at around 1:30 am with around 25 percent charge. Its screen on time was lower at 5.2 hours. The iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Mini both have more than 50 percent charge 27 hours later with them both having around 13 hours of screen on time. To say, the battery life on the iPhone 13 series is wild is putting it mildly. Apple has flexed its muscles and provided phones with astonishing battery life, save for the Mini which will probably now just have average or slightly above average battery life. The good news is that even if you like a compact phone you don’t need to worry about battery life.

Apple’s leap in the camera department is arguably even more audacious than the battery department. The cameras on the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini get the sensor-shift technology that debuted with the iPhone 12 Pro Max last year. It also now gets the same sensor as the 12 Pro Max. They have also made the ultra-wide camera more light-sensitive and improved the image processing pipeline thanks to the A15 Bionic chip which has resulted in a camera system that’s better than the iPhone 12 Pro Max. It gathers more light, takes realistic shots and can see in the dark, now quite effectively even with the ultra-wide camera. This is a top-class still camera. Then there is the new cinematic mode which supports things like rack focus -- I didn’t test this much but whatever

Apple was doing this in an automated way, it was highly successful as I used it for shooting a youtube video of the new MG Motors Astor as well. But the iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max were a whole level of camera and for all intents, they blew the Mi 11 Ultra out of the water. Heck, even the standard 13 models would be able to do that now.

The iPhone 13 Pro cameras have massive 1.9-micron pixels and an f/1.5 aperture and it has some serious light gathering capability. The ultra-wide lens is even better now with a f/1.8 aperture and the zoom lens now gets 3x optical zoom and support for night mode. Pound for pound, this is simply the best smartphone camera you can get. It is not even close. And this year, the best bit is if you don’t like a massive phone -- you get an identical camera system on the iPhone 13 Pro, you don’t need to get the Pro Max for the better camera, something Apple did last year.

There are many small things — like the call quality feels better, the speakers sound louder, the buttons click slightly better. There is a reason these are the best phones in the world, it is because of what Apple doesn’t say, but rather speaks for itself in person.

Sure, this is fundamentally what Apple would’ve called an iPhone 12S, but who cares? iPhone 13 is a better and simpler name. And let’s not forget those “s” models gave us some of the most iconic features -- Siri, 64-bit computing, Touch ID, 3D Touch to mention a few. And this gets “cinematic mode” and generally the boldest leap in graphics, battery life and photography which will make a substantial update for anyone not using an iPhone 12 model. The battery life is so good that even many iPhone 12 users will be lured in.