Apple iPhone 13 Mini: A Small Phone with Big Power

The iPhone 13 mini is the greatest option for individuals looking for a smaller handset using Apple’s iOS platform. It’s still considered the greatest tiny phone on the market. It’s powerful, the camera is excellent, and the battery life outperforms the iPhone 12 small. It’s not the best iPhone, but if you want a smaller smartphone, you’re in luck.

Phones are getting bigger and bigger to have more screen space. For people with little digits, this makes it increasingly difficult to grip and type with one hand. Introducing the iPhone 13 Mini.

Apple’s little phone includes the great majority of the features featured on the normal iPhone 13, including the same A15 Bionic CPU and dual-camera system. Unfortunately for those with little hands, Apple did not release a new iPhone 14 Mini alongside the iPhone 14 in 2022. So, if you’re looking to buy a new compact smartphone now, the iPhone 13 Mini isn’t quite as affordable as it was in 2021.

The iPhone 13 Mini suddenly faces a lot more competition. The Google Pixel 7a is somewhat taller and wider than the iPhone, but it is significantly less thick and much less expensive. It also has an impressive collection of features, particularly in terms of camera performance. The recent trend of foldable phones has also resulted in a phone with both a huge screen and a tiny form that can fit into a small pocket, such as the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5.

Price when reviewed: €543.08 | Check price at Amazon

iPhone 13 Mini KEY FEATURES

Apple has integrated the camera technology (zoom aside) of the 12 Pro Max into the iPhone 13. Apple released the first iPhone mini a year ago, and while it was not as successful as some had hoped, it remained a popular buy among aficionados of tiny phones, both Android and iOS. However, due to low sales, rumors suggest that the iPhone 13 small will be the last of its sort before being integrated with the iPhone SE in a year or two.

The iPhone 13 small has a few improvements over the iPhone 12 mini, including an enhanced chipset, a better main camera with new sensor and stabilization, a 10% increase in battery capacity, and a couple of software additions. Of course, there is also a smaller screen notch! However, we believe few, if any, iPhone 12 small consumers will upgrade to the iPhone 13 mini.

However, as a standalone smartphone, the iPhone 13 mini appears to be an excellent value for a variety of reasons, including the fact that it is the most affordable current flagship iPhone with an unrivaled tiny and lightweight design. It features the most durable build on the market so far and runs on the most powerful Apple A15 chip with 5G, superb cameras, loud stereo speakers, and a fantastic 5.4″ OLED screen with Dolby Vision compatibility.

APPLE IPHONE 13 MINI UNBOXING

The iPhone 13 mini may be packed with functionality, but its retail package is the polar opposite. The tiny paper box contains the iPhone 13 mini and a USB cord.

If you go a little deeper, you’ll find the SIM ejection pin and an Apple label. This year, Apple removed all plastic wrapping from its boxes and got even more environmentally conscious, so we expect the iconic label to be phased out soon.

CAMERA

The iPhone 13 Mini may be the best camera of its size I’ve ever used, especially considering the Google Pixel 7a is somewhat larger.

The main camera sensor on the iPhone 13 Mini is significantly larger, with larger pixels and a faster lens, allowing far more light to reach the sensor. This is combined with a 12-megapixel ultra-wide camera with a 120-degree field of view.

The main sensor also benefits from sensor-shift stabilization, which was initially introduced in the iPhone 12 Pro Max. It’s undoubtedly impressive that the technology from a phone that costs more than £1000/$1000 is accessible in a device that costs nearly half that much.

The most noticeable gains are felt when the light is low, whether outside or in dimly lit clubs and restaurants. The iPhone 13 Mini makes less use of the dedicated low-light Night mode, instead relying on that larger sensor and its innate abilities. Photos shot at night preserve a lot of the detail from the day, with little noise and extremely accurate exposure.

In less challenging settings, such as well-lit areas, the images shine with detail and a gorgeous natural finish. They are comparable to those obtained by the Pixel 6 and, in my opinion, outperform those captured by the Samsung Galaxy S21 series, including the Ultra.

If you want to change the style of your photos, the new Photography Styles offer more customization than I’ve ever seen on an iPhone. There are many styles for vibrancy and rich contrast, as well as options to make photos warmer or cooler.

Rich contrast, for example, emphasizes highlights and shadows, giving photographs a look comparable to those taken with the Pixel 6. These styles are more than just filters; they go deeper, and you can’t remove them once a picture has been captured with them.

Ultra-wide shots are also excellent, and I continue to appreciate the variety that this camera provides. The front camera, on the other hand, could benefit from an update after not receiving much attention in recent years. Selfies are good, but they lack detail and don’t have the same punch as photographs taken with the rear cameras.

The camera lacks any type of optical zoom, with the third sensor reserved for the Pro variants. The digital zoom pales in contrast to the Pixel 6, and I hardly used it.

Video remains a strong strength, and if you’re looking for a phone to record the film, the iPhone 13 series is, simply put the greatest option. The video is properly stabilized, with natural colors and a variety of frame rates and resolution options. Cinematic mode is similar to the stills camera’s Portrait mode, however it is less effective. Cinematic mode in HDR Dolby Vision allows you to record up to 1080p at 30fps, which is significantly lower than the normal video modes’ maximum of 4K 60fps.

DESIGN AND SCREEN

The iPhone 13 mini is designed to be luxury, yet its body is smaller than most high-end smartphones. It’s meant for consumers who prefer a smaller handset, as Apple’s smartphones have grown in size over the last five years.

It has a 5.4-inch screen, which is one of the smallest on premium smartphones right now.

The phone is easy to operate and fits pleasantly in the hand. We discovered that we could effortlessly type on the handset and access all regions of the keyboard with our thumbs.

The power button is on the phone’s right edge, while the silent switch, volume buttons, and SIM tray are on the left. The Lightning port is located between the phone’s speaker grilles on the bottom of the device.

The handset’s rear is composed of glass and has the company’s Ceramic Shield technology. This is similar to what we’ve seen on previous Android phones, and the phone’s defense against knocks and drops makes it four times stronger than iPhone models without the technology.

The iPhone 13 mini comes in five color options: blue, pink, red, Starlight, and Midnight. The latter two hues are Apple’s fancy names for white and black, respectively.

The handset’s rear has a camera module that protrudes significantly. This is in a diagonal configuration – the iPhone 12 mini had this resting horizontally – but it otherwise looks remarkably similar to prior handsets from the business.

Apple included a screen notch on the iPhone 13, as well as the rest of the iPhone 13 line. The business was not ready to use an under-display camera on its phones, although the notch is 20% less than on the iPhone 12.

We haven’t found a significant improvement during our tests, although it does provide a tiny boost in the screen area. That is especially crucial given the display’s size of only 5.4 inches.

The resolution of 1080 x 2340 is enough for the size of the screen, and we observed that Full HD video appeared clear. The size of the screen makes watching videos more challenging than on some of the larger-screen phones we’ve tested.

It’s harder to enjoy the greater resolution on a smaller screen, but it’s a top-tier Super Retina XRDR OLED display with high brightness levels; you’re getting all of the same technology as the iPhone 13 but with a little less real estate.

That screen is also significantly brighter than the iPhone 12 small, hitting 800 nits in outdoor situations. This was something we enjoyed when using the phone in direct sunlight.

The display features the standard 60Hz refresh rate like the last mini. That means you won’t get the same smooth experience as the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max, which have 120Hz panels, but it’s unlikely to be noticeable unless you’re coming from a smartphone with a high-refresh-rate display.

HOW’S THE PERFORMANCE?

The display features the standard 60Hz refresh rate like the last mini. That means you won’t get the same smooth experience as the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max, which have 120Hz panels, but it’s unlikely to be noticeable unless you’re coming from a smartphone with a high-refresh-rate display.

What distinguishes the iPhone 13 Mini is that it does not lose performance to achieve its compact size.

The gadget is powered by the same A15 Bionic chipset as both the iPhone 13 and the iPhone 13 Pro Max, resulting in excellent speed in all tasks. It’s a little out of current now that we’re in 2023, but most folks should be satisfied with the performance here.

The chip contains a six-core CPU, a four-core GPU, and a sixteen-core neural engine for AI workloads. The standard storage is 128GB, which is twice as much as the 12 Mini’s 64GB. Simply noting that the A15 Bionic produces strong benchmark scores and works well daily is an understatement of both it and the most current silicon. The application, like the Pixel 6 and its Tensor SoC (system-on-chip), focuses on photo processing, machine learning, and artificial intelligence.

The A15 Bionic powers the Cinematic mode with focus racking and continually changing blur effects, as well as the really handy Live Text tool, which can extract addresses and phone numbers from your photo library.

It also has an impact in gaming, comfortably handling all of the major titles at full settings. Throughout the review period, I’ve been playing a variety of Apple Arcade games, and while the screen isn’t the perfect size for gaming, everything runs smoothly.

A new 5G modem has expanded the number of available 5G bands. The phone’s USA version also supports mmWave 5G, a speedier form of technology that only works when you’re very close to the towers. mmWave is not yet available in the UK or many other places, hence the technology is simply missing from certain iPhone versions.

Buy it if...

• The design is strikingly elegant, lightweight, and robust.
• The OLED display is small yet bright, and it supports HDR10 and Dolby Vision.
• Good battery life for a tiny phone.
• Excellent stereo speakers, loud and clear.
• 5G provides class-leading performance.
• Excellent photo and video quality across all three cameras.

Don't buy it if...

• Minor update to the iPhone 12 mini.
• No high refresh rate.
• A smaller notch is not little.
• The charger is not included.
• iOS (with its restrictions) is still a love-it-or-leave-it proposition.

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