The iPhone 13 series, which includes the iPhone 13, the iPhone 13 Pro, the iPhone 13 Pro Max and the iPhone 13 mini, are going on sale in India from today. Over here at the India Today Tech we take a quick look at the new iPhones.
It’s time to take the first look at the recently introduced iPhone 13 series. The phones go on sale in India from today although we hear and see that the iPhone 13 Pro and the iPhone 13 Pro Max may hit the market only in limited quantity. Now, before we talk about the phones just a line about their prices: Just like last year, this year also we saw four new iPhones iPhone 13 mini, iPhone 13, iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max. The price starts from Rs 69,990 and goes up to Rs 1,79,990. I briefly tried all four new iPhone models and while the design language remains more or less same, there are some incremental changes both to the overall aesthetics and on the hardware front. I will talk about all of these in this quick review. For the ease of explaining, I have broken it in two parts, so let’s start with the iPhone 13 mini and iPhone 13. Both the variants come in a slim box — similar to last year’s models — which makes the absence of charging adapter pretty obvious. The retail box includes your smartphone, type-C USB to lightning charging cable, Apple sticker and a SIM ejector tool. Both the smartphones flaunt a familiar design language but, with some subtle changes. Needless to say, the iPhone 13 mini is more compact and lightweight because of its 5.4-inch display while the iPhone 13 features a 6.1-inch screen. The first noticeable difference is on the camera module both in terms of placement of sensors and their size. The camera sensors are now placed diagonally and are bigger than before. That looks good on the iPhone 13 but, a bit too large and obvious on the iPhone 13 mini. There is also a metal ring around the lenses which gives the phone a nice look especially on the Product Red colour variant. The iPhone 13 mini I am trying is in Midnight colour, which is a toned-down version of Black. The iPhone 13 is in Apple’s iconic Product Red which is just stunning! I will pick the Red over other colours any day. Both the phones have aluminium frame with a matte-ish finish that helps avoid fingerprint smudges. Apple continues to stick with the lightning port so unless you move among friends who all use an iPhone you will probably have to carry the charging cable whenever you are away from home or office for long durations. The subtle change continues on the front where the notch is now 20 per cent smaller. At least that’s what Apple says. First, I thought 20 per cent won’t make much of a difference but, in hand it does. The notch is actually smaller than before. While many were hoping to see a notch-less iPhone this year, that hasn’t happened. Disappointing yes. But the smaller notch is one consolation. The Super Retina XDR displays use OLED panels and are buttery smooth even though the high refresh rate feature is reserved for the Pro models. The iPhone 13 mini may have its takers but, the size is a little too small to stream content.