Apple iPhone 13 review: Everything you need to know

Our Verdict

The iPhone thirteen'south brighter brandish, longer bombardment life and powerful cameras make information technology the best iPhone for the money. But nosotros wish information technology had faster charging and the iPhone 13 Pro's adaptive 120Hz display.

For

• Brighter display
• Great cameras
• Compelling Cinematic video mode
• Class-leading operation
• Very skilful battery life

Confronting

• Lacks 120Hz display
• Slower charging than rivals
• Cinematic mode capped at 1080p

Tom'due south Guide Verdict

The iPhone 13's brighter display, longer battery life and powerful cameras make it the best iPhone for the money. But we wish it had faster charging and the iPhone thirteen Pro's adaptive 120Hz brandish.

Pros

• +

  Brighter display

• +

  Great cameras

• +

  Compelling Cinematic video mode

• +

  Grade-leading functioning

• +

  Very skillful bombardment life

Cons

• -

  Lacks 120Hz display

• -

  Slower charging than rivals

• -

  Cinematic mode capped at 1080p

The iPhone thirteen (from $799) may not look all that new — other than the new camera lens layout — but under the hood, information technology'due south a amend flagship all effectually. Some might meet it equally an incremental upgrade over the iPhone 12, but it's definitely got a lot going for it.

The new iPhone'southward brandish is brighter than its predecessor'due south. The battery life is noticeably longer. And Apple tree has improved an already slap-up camera with new sensors and computational photography features that make you experience like a pro (fifty-fifty on a non-Pro telephone).

Yes, the A15 Bionic powering the iPhone 13 is over again the fastest flake in the land. But information technology'southward more than most what this chip lets you practise. This includes Cinematic mode, which adds depth of field to your videos while automatically shifting focus, and Photographic Styles for changing the await of your pics.

More iPhone 13 reviews: Our verdict is in

• iPhone xiii Pro Max review: The best new iPhone overall
• iPhone thirteen Pro review: Stellar cameras in compact blueprint
• iPhone xiii mini review: Small phone with large performance

The regular iPhone thirteen has some flaws. The charging is still relatively irksome compared to some Android phones. And I don't similar that only the iPhone 13 Pro models get a 120Hz brandish and telephoto zoom. But based on my in-depth iPhone xiii review, this new iPhone is the best phone for the money.

Cheque out our iPhone 13 mini review if you lot want all the same features of the iPhone 13 in a smaller design. Want a 120Hz brandish and telephoto zoom? See our iPhone thirteen Pro review. And our iPhone 13 Pro Max review is the place to go if you want the biggest screen.

iPhone 13 review: Cost and storage

Available right at present, the iPhone 13 starts at $799 for 128GB of storage (upwardly from a meager 64GB on the iPhone 12), and that goes upwardly to $899 for 256GB and $1,099 for 512GB. In the U.K. the entry-level model starts at £779, with the 256GB handset coming ins at £879, and the 512GB model hitting £i,079.

These are inappreciably cheap phones but you tin can save with trade-in offers from Apple as well equally from wireless carriers, and there are plenty of discounts available. Practice make sure to cheque out our iPhone 13 deals folio for the latest offers. And see the iPhone 13 Cyber Monday deals for really big savings.

iPhone 13 specs: All models compared

	iPhone 13 mini	iPhone 13	iPhone 13 Pro	iPhone thirteen Pro Max
Starting cost	$699	$799	$999	$1,099
Storage	128, 256, 512GB	128, 256, 512 GB	128, 256, 512, 1TB	128, 256, 512, 1TB
Screen size	v.iv inches	6.1 inches	half dozen.1 inches	vi.vii inches
Resolution/ppi	2340 ten 1080/476	2532 x 1170/460	2532 x 1170/460	2778 10 1284/458
Adaptive refresh	No	No	Upwardly to 120Hz	Upwardly to 120Hz
Processor	A15 Bionic	A15 Bionic	A15 Bionic	A15 Bionic
Rear cameras	Dual 12MP (Broad, ultrawide)	Dual 12MP (Broad, ultrawide)	Pro 12MP (Telephoto, Wide, Ultra Wide)	Pro 12MP (Telephoto, Wide, Ultra Broad)
Zoom	None / 5x digital	None / 5x digital	3x optical / 15x digital	3x optical / 15x digital
Front camera	12MP TrueDepth	12MP TrueDepth	12MP TrueDepth	12MP TrueDepth
Colors	Ruddy, Starlight, Midnight, Blue, Pinkish	Red, Starlight, Midnight, Bluish, Pink	Graphite, Gold, Argent, Sierra Bluish	Graphite, Gold, Silver, Sierra Blue
Size	5.2 x two.v x 0.three inches	5.8 x 2.8 ten 0.3 inches	five.8 10 2.8 x 0.iii inches	6.3 10 three.1 x 0.iii inches
Weight	4.97 ounces	6.14 ounces	7.2 ounces	8.5 ounces
Water resistance	IP68	IP68	IP68	IP68
Battery life (video playback	eight:41	x:33	eleven:42	12:16

iPhone 13 review: Design and colors

• Smaller notch makes display a flake more than immersive
• Slightly dissimilar button placement
• Pink and bluish are standout colors

There's really two blueprint changes of notation for the iPhone 13. First, the cameras on the rear are now arranged diagonally instead of vertically.

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

Second — and more chiefly — the notch is now 20% smaller while still delivering the same keen TrueDepth camera arrangement and Face ID you'd look since the iPhone X ushered in this feature iv years ago.

(Paradigm credit: Tom's Guide)

Honestly, the smaller notch doesn't make much of a deviation in day-to-solar day use of the iPhone 13. When watching videos in landscape mode side by side at full-screen, I didn't find either notch that distracting.

I did capeesh the mini notch more than when using apps with a white background in portrait orientation, such as Gmail. However, the notch on the iPhone 13 swoops down a bit more despite beingness narrower.

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

The push placement is slightly unlike on the iPhone 13 versus the iPhone 12. The power button is lower on the right side, and the same affair goes with the ringer switch and volume buttons on the left side.

(Prototype credit: Tom's Guide)

Otherwise, the iPhone 13 offers the aforementioned tough CeramicShield display up front, durable glass dorsum and apartment edges. And you get the same IP68 water resistance equally before. Unfortunately, the iPhone 13 doesn't offer Touch ID, an upgrade many of us would have appreciated since Face ID doesn't work well with masks. I didn't need a sensor in the display similar many Android phones now back up; a Impact ID sensor embedded in the power push button like on the iPad mini 6 would have been fine.

For at present, it appears the iPhone 13 is having a problem unlocking with the Apple Watch in some cases. Apple has acknowledged the outcome and says a fix is coming before long.

The iPhone xiii comes in five colors, including Pink, Blue, Midnight, Starlight and (Product) Red. I tested the blue model, which is a fun shade without existence too loud. And I continue to capeesh the colour-matched aluminum frame Apple includes with its entry-level iPhones.

iPhone thirteen review: Display

• Brighter display easier to read in straight sunlight
• Stellar colors and dissimilarity

Alas, the iPhone 13 doesn't boast the adaptive 120Hz refresh rate of the iPhone 13 Pro, merely it's withal a stellar OLED panel. This Super Retina XDR display is now 28% brighter than the iPhone 12; it'due south also rated at 800 nits, compared to 600 nits for last year'south telephone.

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

In my testing, I wouldn't say the brightness difference is dramatic, but it can help when y'all're trying to view the iPhone xiii's display in direct sunlight.

iPhone xiii (left) and iPhone 12 Pro (right) (Image credit: Tom'south Guide)

The overall display quality continues to exist stellar. When watching the trailer for The Matrix Resurrections, I was mesmerized by the neon code encircling Neo every bit he walked downwards the street, and in some other scene I could make out individual hairs on Neo'due south beard as he stared upwardly into the sunday.

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

On our lab tests, the iPhone 13 averaged 795 nits of brightness, compared to 569 nits for the iPhone 12 and 702 nits for the Galaxy S21. The iPhone 13 also registered 78.1% of the DCI-P3 colour gamut and 110.2% of the sRGG color gamut, where college numbers are better. The iPhone 12 hit 81.1 and 114.5 and the Milky way S21 77.iv and 109.2.

The iPhone 13 panel'south color accuracy is stellar, also, equally it achieved a Delta-E score of 0.26 (lower is better.) That compares to 0.29 for both the Galaxy S21 and iPhone 12.

iPhone 13 review: Cameras

• Bright and colorful images shell Samsung
• Ultra-broad camera delivers more scene and improved Night way
• Photographic styles give you creative control

There's much more to the iPhone 13 cameras than just a new diagonal arrangement of the lenses. The broad photographic camera now gathers 47% more light than the iPhone 12, cheers to a larger camera with ane.7μm pixels.

(Image credit: Tom'southward Guide)

Another plus is that the ultrawide camera can now capture four times more scene and its newer sensor delivers ameliorate low-low-cal functioning along with less noise.

If yous're not a fan of the iPhone's usual color temperature — or you only wanted more control over your photos — you'll appreciate the Photographic Styles feature. In the Photographic camera app, you can switch from multiple styles, including standard, vibrant, rich dissimilarity, warm and absurd.

Prototype 1 of five

Warm (Image credit: Tom's Guide)

Paradigm 2 of v

Vibrant (Image credit: Tom's Guide)

Prototype 3 of 5

Standard (Image credit: Tom's Guide)

Image four of v

Rich Dissimilarity (Image credit: Tom's Guide)

Prototype 5 of 5

Absurd (Paradigm credit: Tom's Guide)

I tried out the feature with a series of portraits, and I appreciated the difference between styles. For example, the rich contrast mode fabricated the shot look less hazy, while the vibrant setting fabricated the coleus plants pop more along with the tree in the background. It's not that easy to switch this upshot on the fly, as you have to tap a setting and so select the style you want, but I like that yous can customize your own styles.

In this photograph taken at the Manasquan reservoir in New Jersey, you can run across how superior the iPhone 13'due south photographic camera is compared to the Samsung Milky way S21 Ultra. The water looks more vibrant and translucent, and the iPhone 13 does a better task rendering the shadows around the forest.

The iPhone thirteen also delivered a better looking shot of these Halloween decorations. The orange pumpkin sign looks more vibrant and brighter, as practise the surrounding existent-life pumpkins. The Galaxy S21 Ultra's pic is plenty abrupt but looks a chip apartment.

In many shooting situations, the iPhone 13 was on par with the iPhone 12, but I did observe a marked improvement in Night fashion. While the upshot is a chip on the fuzzy side, the iPhone 13 captures a brighter pink in the hydrangea flowers and the surrounding leaves are brighter.

iPhone thirteen review: Video

• Cinematic mode automatically changes focus on subjects while calculation bokeh
• Superior Dolby Vision HDR video quality

The iPhone thirteen is the rare smartphone that can make you lot feel similar a managing director as yous shoot videos. And that's thank you to a new feature called Cinematic mode. This effect brings depth of field to your footage and automatically changes the focus to various subjects depending on what's happening in the frame, such as someone turning their head to talk to another person. Yous don't have to lift a finger and information technology works (almost) like magic.

When shooting my 3 dogs playing with my daughter, I was really impressed when the iPhone 13 placed the focus on the pup that was closest to me at first, and as he left the frame my daughter and older golden retriever automatically came into focus. The bokeh outcome on the background is something other smartphone makers have attempted, including Samsung, but the Milky way S21 Ultra isn't smart plenty to switch the focus from field of study to subject field in real time.

(Paradigm credit: Tom'due south Guide)

Cinematic style isn't perfect, as the iPhone 13 sometimes took a second to recognize faster moving subjects (our younger aureate retriever). A bigger drawback is that this style is capped at 1080p, as yous tin can't record Cinematic mode in 4K. But overall, information technology'south a cool feature I think a lot of people volition want to try, especially for social videos on TikTok.

The overall video quality from the iPhone 13 is stellar, with improved noise reduction, improve dynamic range and enhanced semantic rendering that tin can place skin, faces, the heaven and more. Every bit I swept around the Manasquan reservoir with the iPhone 13 and iPhone 12, I especially noticed less noise in the blowing leaves from the iPhone 13'south footage. And in a dissever 4K clip, I got lost in the gentle waves lapping against the sand.

iPhone thirteen review: Operation and A15 Bionic

• A15 Bionic is fastest chip once again
• Machine learning operation notably better

The A15 Bionic doesn't offering dramatic performance gains over the A14 Bionic powering the iPhone 12, simply it didn't need to just to remain the fastest chip in any phone. Every bit with the A14 Bionic, the A15 offers a six-core CPU and iv-core GPU, but there's now a 16-cadre Neural Engine for machine learning and AI, up from eight cores on the previous chipset.

Apple says that the iPhone xiii's CPU is up to 50% faster than the competition while the GPU can handle graphics rendering twenty% faster. Earlier we get into the benchmarks, I think it'due south important to talk about how swift this phone feels in everyday apply.

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

In a game like Genshin Impact — an open-world adventure combat title — the animations and particle effects felt console-quality as I climbed mountains, explored sweeping landscapes and tried to battle enemies. I was every bit impressed by the Seek app, which instantly identified plants when I pointed the camera around my backyard.

(Image credit: Tom'south Guide)

On Geekbench v, which measures overall performance, the iPhone 13 scored 4,129 and i,684 respectively. That's considerably ameliorate than the three,859/one,593 turned in by the iPhone 12, and it destroys the Galaxy S21's scores of 3,302/1,048.

The iPhone 13's graphics operation also impresses. On the 3DMark Wild Life benchmark, the new iPhone striking 55.nine frames per second. That'southward but a chip higher than the iPhone 12 (51 fps), but the Galaxy S21 Ultra mustered only 33 fps.

We didn't encounter much of an improvement on our video editing test using Adobe Premiere Blitz. The iPhone 13 took 25.ix seconds to transcode a 4K video to 1080p compared to 26.5 seconds for the iPhone 12. The Galaxy S21 took 1 minute and ii seconds.

Check out our iPhone thirteen benchmarks results page to see how all iv models perform and how they compared to the Android competition.

In terms of 5G performance, the iPhone xiii should get better over time as carriers continue to roll out their networks. For example, Verizon says its further-reaching C-Ring spectrum will attain 100 million people by 2022. And we saw very promising speeds in our Verizon C-Band 5G testing.

When it comes to phone call quality overall we've found the iPhone 13 to offer solid performance on multiple networks, only one characteristic is missing. Apple removed the phone noise cancellation feature with the iPhone xiii, which was an option under accessibility settings on the iPhone 12 and prior iPhones. Some users have complained that calls can sound worse when there'south a lot of groundwork racket. However, you can enable voice isolation in Control Centre during calls.

iPhone 13 review: Battery life and charging

• 10 hours and 33 minutes of battery life, which is 2 hours better than iPhone 12

Apple says that the iPhone 13 lasts upwardly to 1.5 hours longer than the iPhone 12, thank you to a bigger battery, more efficient display and the A15 Bionic chip. Merely our testing showed even meliorate results.

On the Tom's Guide battery test, which involves continuous web surfing over 5G at 150 nits of screen brightness over cellular (AT&T's network in this example), the iPhone 13 endured for 10 hours and 33 minutes. That's more than 2 hours longer than the eight:25 time that the iPhone 12 turned in. The best consequence we saw from the Galaxy S21 was 9:53.

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

To see how all four iPhone 13 models fared, cheque out our iPhone thirteen battery life results summary, which includes comparisons with more Android phones.

Unfortunately, the iPhone 13 offers the same charging speeds every bit before. The new iPhone got to 51% capacity in 30 minutes with Apple's 20W charger. Other phones on our fastest charging phones listing are much speedier, such every bit the OnePlus nine Pro.

The iPhone's 15W MagSafe charger is a scrap slower, but some may detect it more than user-friendly because it'southward magnetic and doesn't involve the Lighting port.

iPhone thirteen review: iOS 15

• SharePlay lets you watch videos and heed to music with friends
• Focus cuts downwards on distractions

iOS 15 delivers some welcome improvements to your iPhone, many of which focus on shared experiences. FaceTime has improved audio and a cleaner interface, and the iOS fifteen.1 update lets you listen to music or picket movies or Television set shows with friends or family unit via SharePlay. And the Messages app delivers a new Shared with Y'all section for photos, manufactures and more to make information technology easier to keep rails of all the different links friends text your mode.

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

I personally capeesh the new Focus feature in iOS 15, which lets yous filter notifications based on what you're doing. And notifications themselves have been refined, complete with a new summary view and then you don't get overwhelmed by constant alerts.

(Prototype credit: Tom's Guide)

Other iOS 15 highlights include a redesigned Safari (I really don't like the address bar at the bottom, but Apple lets you alter the location), a more total-featured Atmospheric condition app and an enhanced Maps app with more detail and better road views. Last but not to the lowest degree, Live Text bites off Google Lens by recognizing text in real time via the camera when you desire to expect things up or get translations.

Since we posted our review, Apple tree has come up out with iOS 15.2, which adds even more features to your iPhone including an App Privacy Report. Equally always, developers continue to produce great apps that take advantage of iOS, then we'd suggest loading up on some of the all-time iPhone apps or, if yous're new to the platform, grabbing the best apps for a new iPhone.

iPhone 13 known bug

Thus far iPhone thirteen owners accept encountered a few problems. For example, some iPhone thirteen users are finding that the telephone won't unlock with an Apple Sentinel, though a fix plainly is on the way. In addition, some iPhone xiii owners are complaining well-nigh the touch display non being responsive enough in some cases, which could exist an iOS 15 consequence.

On the iPhone xiii Pros, in that location are complaints that the cameras are automatically switching between lenses without warning, and Apple will exist rolling out an update that volition enable users to turn this off. And the ProMotion displays on the iPhone 13 Pros are not running at 120Hz with some apps, which Apple will be addressing in an update. And developers need to optimize their apps every bit well.

Another issue that'due south been cropping up for a select few iPhone 13 users is an errant pinkish screen issues. The bug is frequently fixed with a phone restart, although the problem has persisted for some, forcing Apple to transport out replacements.

See our iPhone xiii bug roundup for more info.

iPhone thirteen review: What about the Pixel 6?

The closest Android has to an iPhone is Google's Pixel line, which is out at present. While the Pixel phones don't sell in numbers that even give the iPhone 13 pause, they do offer serious competition when it comes to cameras. Google and Apple trade blows on who has the best camera phone and this year is gear up to be a major battle.

With Google taking a page from Apple'southward playbook and going with its own silicon (named Tensor), the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro have some incredible AI and auto learning capabilities, especially with speech recognition and photography mail-processing. We accept a Pixel half dozen Pro vs. iPhone 13 Pro Max face-off if you want to see how the ii pinnacle dogs perform against each other. Just relevant to this, we take a Pixel 6 vs. iPhone 13 confront-off yous should check out if yous're on the fence.

iPhone thirteen review: Verdict

The iPhone 13 improves on what was already the best iPhone for about people by introducing a bunch of welcome enhancements. I specially like the longer battery life, as the iPhone 12'south endurance was underwhelming even for a 5G phone. I wouldn't recommend that iPhone 12 owners upgrade to the new iPhone, but the iPhone 13 is worth it if you ain an iPhone 11 or older device.

(Paradigm credit: Tom's Guide)

I don't retrieve many people will care almost the smaller notch. What truly stands out on the iPhone 13 is the photographic camera. The depression-light performance is even amend at present, and computational photography features similar Cinematic mode and Photographic styles flex the A15 Bionic's muscles in ways that go way beyond benchmarks.

I'1000 also glad Apple doubled the starting storage at 128GB, every bit that move was overdue and puts the new iPhone on a par with Android flagships. I'd like to run across Apple offering faster charging next time around — be it via USB-C or MagSafe — as well as a 120Hz display.

The bottom line is that the iPhone thirteen is a fantastic phone and raises the bar for what you think a photographic camera phone can do.

Marking Spoonauer is the global editor in master of Tom's Guide and has covered technology for nearly 20 years. In improver to overseeing the direction of Tom's Guide, Marking specializes in covering all things mobile, having reviewed dozens of smartphones and other gadgets. He has spoken at central industry events and appears regularly on TV to talk over the latest trends. Mark was previously editor in master of Laptop Magazine, and his work has appeared in Wired, Popular Science and Inc. Follow him on Twitter at @mspoonauer.

Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/iphone-13

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