Apple iPhone 13 Review: Is the substantial upgrades over the iPhone 12 make it worth buying?

A well-rounded iPhone with good features made for the people.

iPhones have held a strong foothold in the market until now as they bring very good software experience with long-term updates, the best performance, and gaming experience. However, if you look at the iPhone series, Apple does not release a bunch of smartphones just like in Android where each manufacturer launches a host of smartphones each month. 

However, Apple has stuck to its policy of providing three mainstream smartphones of its number series and a SE version also. Last year the iPhone 12 was a perfect flagship from Apple as it brought some very good features and now its successor the iPhone 13 is present here. The iPhone 13 brings some substantial upgrades over the iPhone 12 in terms of battery life, cameras, and a slightly new design.

So how good of an upgrade is it over the iPhone 12 (Review) and is it worth buying? Let's find out in the full review.

iPhone 13 Design:

Well, iPhones do not bring any such revolutionary design to the market because if you compare each generation of iPhones, they all look almost the same, and here it is no different with the iPhone 13 which looks almost like an iPhone 12 that was launched in 2020. The iPhone 13 carries the same flat edge design as the iPhone 12 but around the sides, it has slightly more rounded edges.

The camera placement has been changed as on the iPhone 13 you are having two cameras located diagonally with a LED flashlight in a square module instead of the vertical placement of cameras on the iPhone 12. The camera hump is slightly protruding and at the back, there are not any flashy designs as such. The button placements have been changed quite a bit from the iPhone 12.

The iPhone 13, like the iPhone 12 has sides made up of aluminum and the power button is located on the right side instead of the left, whereas the left has the volume buttons and the switch to control sounds just like OnePlus's alert slider. At the front, nothing has changed except the notch which is now narrower compared to the iPhone 12. 

Notches have been removed from Android smartphones in the past but Apple seems to stick with the notch and the notch on the iPhone 13 houses the FaceID and TrueDepth camera system. On the iPhone 13, both the front and the back are made up of glass and the front has that Ceramic Shield protection that offers four times the drop resistance compared to other iPhones in the past. 

 As always, there is an IP68 rating which makes it dustproof and waterproof and the back has support for wireless charging also. In terms of weight, the iPhone 13 weighs around 174grams which is 10grams heavier compared to the iPhone12 and also slightly thicker also. Overall, in terms of build and design, the iPhone 13 does make a wow factor but is built strong and feels premium.

iPhone 13 Display:

The iPhone 13 sports a 6.1-inches (1172x2532 pixels) Super Retina XDR OLED display which is the same size as that of the iPhone 12. There is no high refresh rate which seems to be a big miss as the budget smartphones from Android have at least a 90Hz refresh rate. However, if you want a high refresh rate on iPhone, then you should go for the iPhone 13 Pro that has a 120Hz ProMotion display.

The display on the iPhone 13 Pro feels much smoother as it refreshes the display twice that of the iPhone 13. Still, all tasks feel smooth to operate and there is support for HDR as well as Dolby Vision so you can stream HDR content on OTT platforms easily. The narrower notch does provide an immersive experience while watching videos or playing games though still, the notch feels irritating at times. 

The iPhone 13 display does provide better brightness levels as the display can go as high as 800nits compared to 600nits on the iPhone 12. Under direct sunlight, the iPhone 13 does provide better visibility than the iPhone 12. The display on the iPhone 13 covers 78.1 percent of the DCI-P3 gamut which is good. For security, the iPhone 13 relies on FaceID which works very fast and is more secure.

iPhone 13 Performance:

The iPhone 13 sports the latest Apple A15 Bionic chipset which has the same hexa core setup as that of the A14 Bionic chipset. The A15 Bionic chipset has 2x3.22GHz Avalanche cores and another 4x1.82GHz Blizzard cores and is coupled with a 4-core Apple GPU which provides almost 20-30 percent improved performance over the A14 Bionic chipset.

However, for the iPhone 13 Pro and the iPhone 13 Pro Max, you do get a powerful 5-core Apple GPU. In terms of daily tasks, both light and heavy are handled easily by the smartphone. There is also a 16 core Neural Engine that has voice and image recognition features, there is a new Image Signal Processing and for 5G, Apple has used the Qualcomm X60 modem.

There are almost all bands of 5G supported on the iPhone 13. The base variant now ships 128GB storage and you do not have a 64GB variant present. The base RAM is 4GB which is very little when compared to Android smartphones, but the 4GB RAM handles all the tasks with ease on the iPhone 13. In heavy games like BGMI, the smartphone runs Ultra+HDR graphics with an Extreme frame rate easily.

iPhone 13 Software:

The iPhone 13 runs on the latest iOS 15 out of the box which seems to be a good upgrade over the iOS 14. Like all the previous iterations of iOS, here also you do have a bunch of applications and widgets on the home screen, and when you scroll towards left, there is a Today page and when scrolled towards the right, there is the App Library which cannot be disabled.

The App Library has all the arranged applications in proper order and you cannot make any change or move any apps here and there. Like as always, the notification tray lands up when you swipe from the left side of the notch, and swiping from the right side of the notch shows the Control Center. With the iOS 15, there are some new features like Face Time application, newer Focus modes, etc.

The FaceTime application has a new look which has a Grid View, new background blur effects, and this time it also allows Android users to use it when you share the link to them. It can be used to listen or watch TV or songs among family or friends using SharePlay. Photos application now supports Shared With Me which shows the images shared as iMessages.

The Focus Mode is also very new and lest you set different profiles like Do Not Disturb, Driving, Night, Work, Pleasure and you can add other options like Gaming, Reading, Fitness, etc. also. The FocusMode also filters notifications that have been missed or unread in a Notification Summary Option. 

The Weather App and the Maps have a new look and the Safari Browser has a few tweaks where the search bar is located in the middle and now it also supports extensions. The Camera application now has a Live Text feature where it will scan the text when you point the camera towards the text. In terms of software updates, you will get another 5-6 years of software updates for iOS. 

iPhone 13 Cameras:

The iPhone 13 comes with a few improvements in terms of cameras compared to the iPhone 12. The main camera is a 12MP f/1.6 which is similar to that of the iPhone 12 but now it uses the larger Sony sensor and you get the sensor-shift stabilization that was found on the iPhone 12 Pro Max (Review). The secondary camera is a 12MP f/2.4 ultrawide camera which remains unchanged from the iPhone 12. 

The front has a 12MP f/2.3 camera. There are a couple of new features present like Cinematic Mode for videos. The main camera takes images with a good amount of details that look sharper and the dynamic range is also great. There is very little noise present in the background. The colors look natural with no oversharpening. 

During the night, the images from the main camera come out with a good amount of details but it does look slightly softer with some amount of noise. The dynamic range and contrast remain good and if you turn on the dedicated Night Mode, which gets triggered automatically when you are using the camera in very low light and the night mode does improve the dynamic range and colors look natural.

The 12MP ultrawide camera does a good job in terms of dynamic range but the details look softer and there is quite an amount of noise present. The colors look natural and there is a wider field of view but there is distortion around the edges slightly noticed. The same goes for the ultrawide camera during the night where dynamic range is good, but details look slightly softer and noise is present.

The 12MP main camera is capable of taking portraits. The portraits come out with excellent dynamic range, edge detection with proper background blur and the colors look natural. The images look sharper with no noise in the background and here Apple has nailed the depth of background blur also. There is no telephoto camera present here which is available on the Pro variants only.

The front 12MP camera takes some very good selfies with natural-looking skin tones and has a good dynamic range with very little noise in the background. There is also portrait mode for selfies and there is a 3D depth map for providing better background blur. 

In terms of videos, all three cameras can do 4K videos at 60fps and the video footage from the main camera comes out with good dynamic range and very little noise in the background. The stabilization works very well. The videos from the ultrawide camera come out with a good dynamic range with sharper details and less noise.  

At night, the videos from the main camera come out with good dynamic range and contrast. The colors look natural and there is no noise present but the ultrawide camera has just above average dynamic range but the colors look natural and the details also look sharper but there is some noise present. The videos from the front camera come out with a good dynamic range and details look sharper.

Talking about the Cinematic Mode, it is restricted to 1080p, not 4K and this applied a background blur around the object which you are focussing on and here depth map is created around the object which needs to be in focus. It works for the main camera and selfie camera only.  All three cameras capture videos at HDR and covert it into Dolby Vision format so colors look bright and pop out well.

iPhone 13 Battery Life:

The iPhone 13 packs a slightly larger battery at 3240mAh battery which is 15 percent large than iPhone 12 and since the A15 Bionic chipset is quite efficient, the standard screen-on time was around 7-8 hours which is great compared to 6-7 hours on the iPhone 12. 

With normal usage, the iPhone 13 lasts for two days and with heavy usage like playing games like BGMI, rendering videos, etc. the iPhone 13 easily lasted one single day. The charging speeds remain the same at 20W as that of the iPhone 12. It takes around 1 hour 30 minutes for a complete charge from 0 to 100 percent. 

But like the iPhone 12. you do not have any charger provided in the box as you need to purchase it separately. The MagSafe charger charges the smartphone at 15W and the wireless charging speeds are limited to 7.5W which is very slow compared to Android smartphones that support faster wireless charging speeds at 30W/50W. 

There is no support for reverse wireless charging which is a bit disappointing. Overall, the battery life feels great but Apple should improve on charging speeds.

iPhone 13 Audio Quality:

The iPhone 13 has support for stereo speakers that sound loud and clear without any distortion. There is no 3.5mm headphone jack present and also there is Dolby Atmos for enhanced sound profiles. The audio quality is slightly better than the iPhone 12.

Verdict:

The iPhone 13 is a good overall smartphone that packs all the flagship specifications like a good glass design, a nice OLED display, a powerful Apple A15 chipset, good battery life, and stereo speakers for a good sound experience. The software experience with iOS 15 is quite good and you get faster software updates for a longer-term period.

However, still, you miss out on the 120Hz ProMotion refresh rate as the iPhone 13 Pro series, there is still the Lightning port instead of the USB Type-C port and it also lacks a telephoto camera. So compared to the iPhone 12, the iPhone 13 is a good upgrade only if you want better cameras and battery life, then other than this the iPhone 12 is still a valuable product worth considering. 

But as a package, if you are looking for a flagship from Apple that provides good value for money, then the iPhone 13 is a perfect buy.