Apple iPhone 13 mini review

Introduction

The Apple iPhone 13 mini is the most compact flagship smartphone money can buy. It's also easy enough to outright recommend to anyone looking for this particular type of device. It is astonishingly rare to find such a pocket-friendly smartphone, let alone one of flagship caliber.

Apple launched the first iPhone mini a year ago, and while it did not turn out to be the massive success some hoped for it to be, it was still a popular purchase among the fans of compact phones, Android and iOS alike. But because of the lackluster sales, the rumor has it the iPhone 13 mini will be the last of its kind before it is merged with the iPhone SE in a year or two.

The iPhone 13 mini brings few updates over the iPhone 12 mini - an improved chipset, a better main camera with new sensor and stabilization, about 10% battery capacity increase, and a couple of software features. And a smaller screen notch, of course! But we imagine few if any iPhone 12 mini users will be upgrading to the iPhone 13 mini.

But as a standalone smartphone, the iPhone 13 mini seems like a great offer for a number of reasons - it is the cheapest current flagship iPhone with unmatched compact and lightweight design. It employs the most durable design on the market so far, runs on the most powerful Apple A15 chip with 5G, has excellent cameras, there are loud stereo speakers and a great 5.4" OLED screen with Dolby Vision support.

Let's make a quick run through the specs now.

Apple iPhone 13 mini specs at a glance:

• Body: 131.5x64.2x7.7mm, 141g; Glass front (Gorilla Glass), glass back (Gorilla Glass), aluminum frame; IP68 dust/water resistant (up to 6m for 30 mins), Apple Pay (Visa, MasterCard, AMEX certified).
• Display: 5.40" Super Retina XDR OLED, HDR10, Dolby Vision, 800 nits (HBM), 1200 nits (peak), 1080x2340px resolution, 19.5:9 aspect ratio, 476ppi; Wide color gamut, True-tone.
• Chipset: Apple A15 Bionic (5 nm): Hexa-core (2x3.22 GHz Avalanche + 4xX.X GHz Blizzard); Apple GPU (4-core graphics).
• Memory: 128GB 4GB RAM, 256GB 4GB RAM, 512GB 4GB RAM; NVMe.
• OS/Software: iOS 15.
• Rear camera: Wide (main): 12 MP, f/1.6, 26mm, 1.7µm, dual pixel PDAF, sensor-shift OIS; Ultrawide: 12 MP, f/2.4, 120˚, 13mm.
• Front camera: Wide (main): 12 MP, f/2.2, 23mm, 1/3.6"; Wide (main): 12 MP, f/2.2, 23mm, 1/3.6".
• Video capture: Rear camera: 4K@24/30/60fps, 1080p@30/60/120/240fps, HDR, Dolby Vision HDR (up to 60fps), stereo sound rec; Front camera: 4K@24/25/30/60fps, 1080p@30/60/120fps, gyro-EIS.
• Battery: 2438mAh; Fast charging 20W, 50% in 30 min (advertised), USB Power Delivery 2.0, MagSafe wireless charging 15W, Qi magnetic fast wireless charging 7.5W.
• Misc: Face ID, accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, barometer; NFC; Siri natural language commands and dictation, Ultra Wideband (UWB) support.

For a device of this size, the Apple iPhone 13 mini is jam-packed with features. We can't but appreciate that how Apple made the mini possible without cutting any corners - it is basically a shrunk version of the regular iPhone 13. It even offers Face ID and MagSafe wireless charging. And despite the new improvements, Apple managed to increase the battery capacity, too.

The iPhone 13 mini, just like the iPhone 13, has a regular 60Hz OLED, though that's hardly surprising. The ProMotion screen is reserved for the iPhone ProModels. And that's probably the only missing feature worth a mention before we get this review started.

Unboxing the Apple iPhone 13 mini

The iPhone 13 mini may be jam-packed with features, but its retail bundle is the opposite. Inside the thin paper box, you will find the iPhone 13 mini and a USB cable.

If you dig a little deeper, you'll also discover the SIM ejection pin and one Apple sticker. This year Apple's removed all plastic wrapping of its boxes and became even greener, so we guess the iconic sticker will be a goner soon enough.