Apple iPhone 13 and 13 mini official: smaller notch and new main cameras

14 September 2021
Apple's non-Pro models are closer to their siblings then ever.

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15 billion transistors 😂😂😂😂😂😂
that is the first thing people check when buying a new phone.

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    • Anonymous
    • t7s
    • 15 Sep 2021

    Zarmao, 14 Sep 2021Only the base iPad got a storage boost to 128GB. The much m... moreAll the iPads start at 64gb except for the Pro which starts at 128gb.

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      • Dzej
      • p{L
      • 15 Sep 2021

      Anonymous, 14 Sep 2021I wish Android had something as small and powerful as the i... moreThere is ASUS Zenfone 8. It's the size of 13, not 13 mini but does it matter though?

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        • Anonymous
        • TL%
        • 15 Sep 2021

        At least they increased the base storage to 128gb on the vanilla iPhones. Apple is feeling very generous this year.

        But A15 stuck at 5nm? MediaTek is releasing a 4nm flagship chip this year. Very unlike Apple to not use the latest process node.

        Smaller notch and that's it for improvements.

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          • President
          • rJW
          • 15 Sep 2021

          AnonF-1013367, 14 Sep 2021Galaxy z flip,, also has better battery life with 120hz screenYes but it runs on android blaa

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            • Anonymous
            • Dpc
            • 15 Sep 2021

            AnonF-1013367, 14 Sep 2021iPhone 13 and 12 mini battery life is below average, you ne... moreDefeats the purpose of small phone, when you have to carry a brick around, just to be able to get thru the day

              What the heck is "starlight"? The phone looks white in the pictures

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                • Anonymous
                • 7tn
                • 15 Sep 2021

                Anonymous, 14 Sep 2021I wish Android had something as small and powerful as the i... moreSharp did a few years back. Even had similar notches. Sd845 processor I think. Maybe more compact.

                  Lmao imagine having a notch when 2022 is right around the corner.

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                    • AnonF-1013367
                    • 3bm
                    • 14 Sep 2021

                    pufanu, 14 Sep 2021There's no way that an Android phone that small would ... moreiPhone 13 and 12 mini battery life is below average, you need power bank everywhere you go.

                      JustSomeRandomGuy, 14 Sep 2021your closest bets are the Zenfone 8 and Sony Xperia 5 IIIIf only they had wireless charging. Not a dealbreaker for many but still a glaring omission.

                        Anonymous, 14 Sep 2021I wish Android had something as small and powerful as the i... moreThere's no way that an Android phone that small would have decent battery life, sadly. I'd like one as well but it is what it is.

                          YUKI93, 14 Sep 2021Finally, no more 64GB internal storage. About time really! ... moreOnly the base iPad got a storage boost to 128GB. The much more expensive iPad Mini is still stuck at a truly pathetic 64GB unless you want to pay an extra $150 for an upgrade.

                          Edit: My mistake - thought you were talking about iPad mini not iPhone mini. But since the Phones got an upgrade to 128GB it makes the iPad mini even more pathetic as the only device still saddled with 64GB.

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                            • Anonymous
                            • nHA
                            • 14 Sep 2021

                            I wish Android had something as small and powerful as the iPhone Mini :(

                            Instead, the dimwitted manufacturers are too busy churning out overpriced identikit slabs.

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                              • AnonF-1013367
                              • 3V9
                              • 14 Sep 2021

                              Jejo, 14 Sep 2021The only appealing with iPhones are the sizes. Especially m... moreGalaxy z flip,, also has better battery life with 120hz screen

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                                • Wayne
                                • 7tm
                                • 14 Sep 2021

                                Ok. From a camera technologist point of view. The opening sequences looked like ProRes Raw shot on a cookout compromised little Sony sensor, but very palatable. It has a more advanced version of the color of a short film that premiered here around 4 plus years ago. The delivery rider promotional shot, shows another more normal color grade, but it came seen as not as good as a proper pro camera. But, the reality of the demo video was less
                                The murder mystery video on the normal iPhone 13, was crappy. It made people have the cardboard cut out look, which made me reject iPhone photography out of hand years back. I don't even know if this is truely representative, or something which happened with the project.. It's also not very good bokeh. The computational photography dud not impress me. Time to finally get real, and introduce that 4 camera island, used as 4 views, to get impressive bokeh effects, over death calculated stuff using one or two lenses. It is not a great look.

                                Moving into the Pro cameras, I wish they haven't declared the iPhone 13, to be the lesser models, like there was no Pro, and this was it. The situation is a lot better. The delivery rider promotional video looks lile it could have been shot with this under normal pro res, rather than Raw (which could also be used but you might get more out of). It's acceptable in a very good handycam sort of way.

                                The sample scenes shot show the short comings. A lot of action and scene cutting makes it hard to see what is happening, but it's there. The results were underwhelming, they were what as should be able to get, visually, if they made $200 camera phones right. My less than $100 mini (an actual mini phone smaller than the original iPhone) Could probably take this on visually, in proper lighting, but I have explored rigging that one up with descent apps yet. However, prores raw, should be more like the intro video, we all hope. Put it this way, the iPhone 13 mini should, at least be visually good as the pro video samples here, and should come with ProRes and ProRes raw, but as are not getting what we really want. Positive comments are to be had about the the thought of an original iPhone SE sized pro phone with ProRes or ProRes raw. I ask Apple to dump these features into the mini. It means you have. Little uncumbersome pro tool in your pocket for interviews or film anything at any time anywhere, and as a personal tool. The 4kp30 restriction is Apple Sony low, 4kp50/60 is great option, and for pro sports filming.

                                No 8k, no mention of 12 bit+ (which these sensors usually support internally within phone). No mention of 4:4:4 or 4:2:2 video node. No 8kp50/60.

                                What I really think is happening here, with the ProRes 4kp30 limit, without talk of 12bit+ 4:2:2 or 4:4:4, is that they are doing a new ProRes codec engine, maybe based on heif codec, and they don't want to devote the silicon to run that high featured or to record over 100MByte per second (4k) and don't want to include external recording for real pros to do so, or anybody shooting a wedding, or super big internal flash memories. What we are likely to get, is more compressed ProRes compression modes. ProRes Raw could use less memory, then normal ProRes though (it is more efficient to compress the raw sensor image pattern rather than larger calculated 4:2:2 pattern). They are finalizing what they can do and polishing ProRes, maybe raw, to the system. If just normal ProRes, the video format will be at most 4:2:2 at full resolution. An adaptive bit rate, lower quality, will be closer to 27MByte/s. If it's below 50MB/s, I'm disappointed, just because the extra data gives extra quality on a big screen, to work with.

                                Anyway. So, the new mini will look more like the old iPhone SE styling. But, as this is the last mini, and they are missing out on the ProRes video features there, I'm going have to miss out on it, likely. Maybe the smaller Samsung might be viable. I suspect that now Apple had done this, we will see similar, or better, virtual containerised (speed streamlined) cdng or heif from the other chipset manufacturers, and phone companies (any of them could program normal cdng or open sourced cineform to run on the CPU and gpu's of the chipset, bi-passing the limited codec hardware).

                                The new iPhones are very nice, feature wise. The performance comparison, is to old chips. The new competing chipsets are about to be announced. I suspect. In many ways, Apple will still be ahead.

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                                  • JustSomeRandomGuy
                                  • EwD
                                  • 14 Sep 2021

                                  Jejo, 14 Sep 2021The only appealing with iPhones are the sizes. Especially m... moreyour closest bets are the Zenfone 8 and Sony Xperia 5 III

                                    iPhone user: 2008-2011
                                    Android user: 2011-Present
                                    Pixel user: 2017-2021
                                    Samsung user: 2021-Beyond

                                    I hated Samsung for years. Always bashed them. Now here I am choosing them over Apple and Google. Tired of Apple and Google's left-wing politics. Yuppies are the new online influencers. I'm just stuck using Android because I do need Google's services and hate Apple's walled garden.

                                    I can't de-Google my phones. I need to use Google's services no matter what. But both companies are behind Samsung in innovation. Not that Samsung is perfect themselves. Far from it. But they're South Korean. They just manufacture stuff and don't get political or try to censor people online.

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                                      • Dmitry
                                      • 39y
                                      • 14 Sep 2021

                                      Headline quote, "Apple iPhone 13 and 13 mini official: smaller notch..."

                                      Once a notch, always a notch.

                                        Macaulay Culkin, 14 Sep 2021It's a shame the 13 mini might be the last one of that... more"What a waste of horsepower on those iPhone minis when I can't even download emulators and torrent apps from the App Store."

                                        I can agree with this. I am responsible for keeping my youngest sister's iPhone 6s up to date and I don't see any PSX or even PSP emulator on App Store to date. So really, the only reason why I would use an iPhone is because of the OS simplicity and the camera, that's it.

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