Expert’s Rating
Pros
Cons
Our Verdict
This is a ace - potent phone with a great screen and cameras in a highly portable physical body , and it has an awful lot to recommend it ; but the things that put hoi polloi off last yr – small screen , high cost rag , shortish shelling life – remain the case , and I ca n’t see this changing many judgment .
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[ September 2024 : The iPhone 13 mini is no longer sell by Apple . See our round - up of theBest iPhones compared , which let in all the current models . ]
Where to start with the iPhone nobody want ?
After reportedly disappointing sales of the 12 mini – accounting for just 6 % of sales , these were so disappointing that Apple had toscale back production – many pundit , includingthis one , advised the company to shelve the diminished - handset labor and stick to liberal speech sound .
But Apple determine to give it one more year . arrive 2022 , chances are iPhone buyer ’ selection will be large or really large , and perhaps we ’ll rue that we did n’t appreciate these pocket rockets while they were around .
In our in - depth iPhone 13 miniskirt review we essay the equipment ’s speed , camera and electric battery performance , evaluate its design and relief of utilization , and generally help you determine if this telephone set – the last of a dying breed , it would appear – is the ripe one for you .
For world-wide advice on grabbing a bargain , take a look at our roundup of thebest iPhone deals .
Design & build: Small wonder
The forcible intention has scarcely changed from last year , with the same squared - off bound and iPhone 4 - panache nostalgia aesthetic as on the 12 - series handsets .
Apple habitually go four or more years between chassis redesigns ( theiPhone SE from 2020 , in one of the troupe ’s more utmost representative of recycling , was found on a intention from 2014 ) , so this is barely strange , and it ’s not a bad thing in any case : the 13 mini is a great - looking and attractively constructed gimmick . I ’m just warning 12 mini owners not to expect meaningful ocular change .
Of of course , the gadget ’s USP within Apple ’s range is its size of it , and while this evidently does n’t float the boat of the average iPhone buyer , I fuck the convenience and portability of the 5.4 in screen and 140 g consistence . I ’ve been using aniPhone 12 Profor a yr , and have a bun in the oven to chance it difficult adapting to a lowly blind – but in fact , the antonym was the case . I found the screen perfectly usable for games and TV , and was mainly struck by how small the earphone matte in my pocket . Several times I panic and thought I ’d left it behind somewhere , but no : it was there , I just could n’t feel it .
That 140 g figure is slightly up on last year , incidentally , and the 13 mini is also a stern of a millimetre thickheaded than the 12 miniskirt ; I ca n’t possibly imagine you ’ll acknowledge either change . A more pregnant change is the switch from a upright to a diagonal alignment on the rear camera lens system , which Apple has n’t justified in proficient terms but I can only usurp is design to hold larger sensors within a camera mental faculty of corresponding size . It may also be intend as a badge of honor : look at me , I ’ve stick the new speech sound .
Colour choices
Note that Apple , as usual , has taken the opportunity of an iPhone launch to rejig the color selection .
The iPhone 12 miniskirt was available in purple , green , aristocratical , flushed , white and disgraceful . Apple has dropped the green and purple options for 2021 and add up pink , but even the colours that have stay around have been tweaked : ( Product)Red is now substantially darker , blue is unaccented , and black , rebranded as Midnight , has a touch more blue than last class .
( White has also been rebranded , as Starlight . It looks largely the same , with perhaps the merest soupcon of gold , but I ’ve not taken a close expression at a Starlight French telephone . )
Screen
Like the 12 miniskirt , the 13 mini features a 5.4 in ( 2340×1080 at 476ppi ) OLED screen door with a notch – but therearesome changes when you look closer . For one thing the notch is narrower than last year : not dramatically so , and Apple has n’t implemented any obvious change in iOS ’s interface to take reward of the extra space in the ‘ ears ’ ( this may fall out in iOS 16 ) , but it ’s enough to make the general experience slightly more pleasant and the notch slenderly less intrusive .
Apple has also ratcheted up the concealment ’s maximum luminousness in distinctive usage , from 625 to 800 nits . ( The maximum HDR brightness continue 1,200 nit . ) I was n’t staggeringly conscious of this change , but then I never come up it necessary or desirable to push up the brightness level on the 12 miniskirt . As before , this simply seems like a very lustrous , sharp , colourful and bright display that does the task of pretending not to exist : it ’s suppose to be a transparent window into a digital world rather than a pattern element in itself , and almost universally achieves this .
observe there ’s no ProMotion : that ’s the screen tech in the 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max that adjusts the refresh rate look on the essential of whatever the phone is doing at a make time , in fiat to grow silky animation when necessary while preserving battery life on other tasks . you could translate more about that in ouriPhone 13 Pro review .
Camera tests
I took the 13 miniskirt out for a serial publication of real - world camera tests , comparing its performance with that of last year ’s 12 – which it should patently surpass – and the iPhone 12 Pro , which it also beats , according to animpressive report from DXOMark .
We commence with the now - traditional test of Smart HDR : shooting a subject with the Dominicus right away behind them .
( This is by and large a terrible idea that you should endeavor to avoid , simply because of the complex ignition demands it places on your television camera and the overexposed skies and underexposed subjects that will oftentimes be the result . But there will be occasions when you ca n’t help it , and in any case the annual improvements in phone television camera have become so small that we have to labour the gadget into ever more hard scenario in rules of order to evidence them . )
The theory behind Smart HDR – Smart HDR 3 on the iPhone 12 and 12 Pro , and the young Smart HDR 4 algorithm on the iPhone 13 mini – is that it captures multiple exposures and intelligently blend them to find the optimal preferences for each section of the image . That way it can get out the detail of your shadowy national without overexposing the sunny sky .
The results were counterintuitive , with my own personal preferences running in exactly the unseasonable order . All three did a comme il faut business – you may well make out detail on the issue ’s case and vesture , despite the challenge of the backlighting – but the 13 miniskirt felt the weak boilers suit . Whereas the 12 and 12 Pro both fetch out vivid colours from the scene , the blue sky and pinkish dress in particular , the 13 mini add a detectable grey hurl . Perhapsthis was more realistic ( I do n’t remember it being this dispirited , however ) ; but it ’s certainly a less pleasing outcome artistically .
I will add that the 13 miniskirt captured a bad image than the others ( 3024 x 4032 , rather than 1536 x 2048 ) , so it ’s capable of deeper cropping before you lose lucidity .
Bizarrely , the 12 handled skin tones best of the three . But this may have been the favorable result of changes in conditions between shot , so let ’s try another .
All three phones maintain an telling level of detail on the close surface of the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree , which in reality was drop in shadow by the smart Dominicus poking through the branches . The 12 miniskirt come along to have catch themostdetail , although it ’s also the most plagued by lens flare ; it ’s very subjective , but I ’d say I like the 13 miniskirt ’s interpretation best of the three , offering more definition than the 12 Pro with a less intrusive sunshine than either of the others .
One more trial of Smart HDR versions 3 and 4 appearance once again that the 12 and 12 Pro are perfectly capable of capturing item despite intrusive backlighting , and that the 13 mini ’s improvement are more about reducing the dazzle of the short origin while maintaining foreground detail , rather than improving detail .
However , just to reiterate that the 13 miniskirt ’s sensors are superior and produce larger images that are better able to stand up to extreme crops , here ’s a hard close - up of the leaf in the previous picture .
take down that the 13 mini does n’t get the new macro capability offer by the 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max , so do n’t await to take humankind - beating close - ups of ants .
Portrait mode
The 13 mini offers Portrait Mode on both front and rear cameras , and I found its depth perception becoming in examination .
As you ’d expect , it renders a more accurate bokeh gist with the duplicate rear lens system . Even with a vivid sunshine behind the subject the 13 mini produced a uncontaminating and defined edge , and an artistically pleasing treatment of stray locks of hair : in focus , but with a softer boundary .
Using the front camera for a Portrait selfie with two subjects the 13 mini struggle a minuscule more with the fine point , although the overall effect was pleasing . When I zoomed in I noticed that this fourth dimension stray hairsbreadth was lost in the hazy background – an understandable failing give that in this context the consequence is produced through software package rather than glasswork , but still gently disappointing .
I ’m a lover of Portrait Mode in general but it does n’t palpate like it ’s moved forward importantly since the 12 mini .
Low-light photography: We own the night
spill the beans of features that were also offered by the former model , get ’s blab out about low - light photography . I took the 13 mini out at night to examine out its rendering of Night Mode , the feature article first roll out on the 11 - serial iPhones which deform night into day and create images that are technically incredible but ( in my view ) slenderly artistically surmise .
Interestingly , the 13 miniskirt seemed far more flash - prostrate than the models I ’ve tested in previous years . Whenever I hire a night - time pic it would activate the flash by nonremittal , even though that ’s rarely a good option – you ’ll illuminate the field , but the background will be fundamentally black .
deactivate the flash manually I got Night Mode to sound off in , and this perform solidly , with the dark sky transform from near black to a light gray and healthy detail visible in both fore- and setting . But as before , and because of the long vulnerability , I found it very susceptible to shake . It ’s very significant to perk up the speech sound against a human knee ( or use a tripod , ideally ) to get sharp results .
Video: Let’s get Cinematic
I ’ve left one of the most interesting tv camera upgrade to last . And that is Cinematic Mode , a rough analog to Portrait Mode for video capture .
This mode is activate in the same style as Portrait Mode , with a consecrated time slot in the Camera app ’s carousel of options . It works in real time as you shoot , detecting faces automatically and line up the focal length to them ; but you’re able to tapdance different country of the build and address the focus elsewhere . ( This is non - destructive , however , and you could cut the video later to focus on something else . )
I ’ve catch reviewers describe this mode as a thingamabob , and wonder when it ’s likely to be used : those make short films can have playfulness with it , of course , but how many of us do that ? But my sense is that , like Portrait Mode , it may end up as the nonpayment that I use nearly all the time ( when photograph the great unwashed , at least ) . I like the effect , think it ’s execute well , and ca n’t really see any downside to using it since you could always absent it afterwards .
Speed tests: Hot stuff
As is traditional , all four 13 - series iPhones have the same processor : the A15 Bionic , the latest and fast fluid system on a fleck to wheel out of Apple ’s factories . That is n’t to say that they will produce identical performance , however , since the 13 and 13 mini have 4 GB of RAM , whereas the 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max have 6 GB .
Still , the iPhone 13 miniskirt is adequate to of salient processing public presentation , and produced elite numbers throughout our benchmarking . In Geekbench 5 ’s CPU test it scored an olympian 1725 ( single - magnetic core ) and 4622 ( multi - core ) , compared to 1594 and 4094 by the iPhone 12 miniskirt . That ’s a year - on - twelvemonth increase of 8.2 % and 12.9 % severally .
As ever , we have to warn that this theoretic improvement will be far less obtrusive in real - Earth utilization , for the simple reason that the 12 mini ’s A14 chip is well fast enough to operate anything on the App Store . I bump the 13 mini slick and responsive throughout testing , but I feel on the nose the same about my 12 and 12 Pro samples , and you ’ll probably be in the same place if you ’re still using an 11 - series iPhone .
Rather , this is a question of future - proofing : the A15 and A14 are both very fast now , but the A15 will still be fast for around a yr longer than the A14 as app developer gradually stick in more demanding elements to take reward of the more hefty hardware .
Graphics: Really hot stuff
Another difference of opinion between the standard and Pro handsets this year is the number of GPU cores they ’re equipped with : the 13 and 13 mini have four , while the 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max have five , and the latter are the ace to go for if you want the absolute best potential graphics performance . But again , the 13 mini gives a great business relationship of itself in testing .
In the most demanding Aztec Ruins ( High ) segment of the GFXBench Metal test , the 13 miniskirt recorded an exceptional frame charge per unit of 51.5fps ( average across three runs ) , compare with an tantamount figure of speech of just 42fps for the 12 miniskirt . Its superiority was less obvious in other division , but only because they were n’t demanding enough to harness its mightiness .
Note that theSonyin the above set is of course running the open rather than the Metal bench mark , although it gives us an close together idea of comparative performance .
Battery performance: Not much better
One of our reservations about the iPhone 12 miniskirt – and indeed about the SE ( 2020 ) , being seemingly a weakness constitutional to diminished - shape iPhones – was its relatively poor battery performance . That ’s not a entire surprise , give that Apple is hold to expend a smaller barrage in such devices , but was a worry nevertheless .
I ’d make out to be able to say that Apple has put such fear to bed , but I do n’t think that would be completely true .
surely , the company talks a ripe biz . Battery performance was a major topic of the intro , in which Apple said the new miniskirt would last around an time of day and a one-half longer than its herald aside from main power ; while the estimation on the specs varlet have jumped from 15 to 17 hour for video recording playback , from 10 to 13 hour for video cyclosis , and from 50 to 55 hr for audio frequency .
( Aside from the annual package optimisations that enable Apple to draw more performance from the same hardware , the 13 mini actually has a declamatory - capacity battery than the 12 miniskirt , having jumped from 2227mAh to 2406mAh . )
But in actual - world use , things did n’t seem massively different .
Just like last year , the miniskirt in the main proposes Low Power Mode at some point in the even ( this happens automatically when it hits 20 % ) , and usually finish the daylight somewhere between 10 % and 20 % . There was one anomalous 24-hour interval on which the phone made it to close of play on 25 % , which is nifty , but there was another when it scraped home with 4 % , which eagle - eyed readers of our12 mini reviewwill have spot is even lower than the 7 % which was that gadget ’s worst day .
Looking on the positive side , it might be noted that the 13 mini never fail to make it through a full mean solar day on a individual charge , and usually did so with sensible ease : that , sure enough , is the independent threshold of acceptableness for a telephone set ’s bombardment carrying out . But I would retort that batteries degrade from the first Clarence Day you use them , and because I was testing a brand - new sample this is the very best performance you may expect . A full mean solar day of use is indeed the minimum expect performance ; but a yr down the melody you may not be able to depend upon it .
So much for subjective testing : what about the hard numbers ? The 13 mini hold out 6 60 minutes 33 transactions in the Geekbench 4 stamp battery test , compare to 8 hours 11 minutes for the iPhone 13 , 9 hours 15 bit for the 13 Pro and a whopping 11 hr 41 second for the 13 Pro Max . It ’s very much the peewee of the bedding material in this regard – but do please take down that Geekbench is a demanding test designed to push phones to their limit , rather than a delegacy of distinctive usage .
Price & availability
The iPhone 13 miniskirt went on sales agreement on 24 September 2021 , and is available to buy powerful now .
The 13 mini starts at £ 679 / $ 699 / AU$1,349 : it ’s the cheapest of Apple ’s late-2021 iPhones , but far from a budget alternative . Here ’s the full Mary Leontyne Price lean :
That ’s the RRP , and the terms you ’ll make up if you buydirect from Apple . But other retailers are likely to undersell Apple with small discounts at first , and larger single after the initial fuss of interest starts to die down .
you may find good mountain with the help of our guide showingwhere to buy the iPhone 13 miniskirt . And you’re able to quickly scan the lowest price across a range of retailers with our automated table , embedded below .
Verdict
I doubt this is go to change anyone ’s creative thinker .
I will double much of what I said last year : this is a crack - herculean earphone with a great screen and cameras in a commodious , highly portable chassis , and it has an awful deal to urge it . If you ’re in the convergence of the Venn diagram between ‘ need a small iPhone ’ and ‘ being prepare to pay top belt for it ’ , this is a brilliant choice for you .
The problem is that very few people appear to be in that convergence zone , and one would imagine that most of those bought the iPhone 12 mini last year . And the improvements from the 12 mini are not important enough to free an raise : Cinematic Mode is appealing , but the other modification to the camera setup are difficult to discover in any but the most unnaturally demanding condition , while the additional processing index wo n’t be felt until a yr or two down the line .
My sense is that most likely 12 mini customers were put off by one ( or more ) of three factors : the screen was too small for their liking ; the barrage did n’t last long enough ; and the price was too high . The first and third have not changed , and while Apple talks a good secret plan about the second one , it does n’t appear in examination to have vary a great hatful .
So it ’s another 4.5 - principal review , and it gets my personal testimonial . But I ca n’t see this speech sound turn around the fortune of Apple ’s small - earphone variance ( thenext iPhone SE , being both small and relatively cheesy , is the key firing ) , nor can I see Apple free an iPhone 14 mini next twelvemonth . Which is a ignominy , really , but apprehensible .
iPhone history
The iPhone 16 chain and the iPhone SE 3 are the current - genesis models available from Apple . In addition to a newiPhone SE 4 modelwe’re also expectingiPhone 17to launch in 2025 . Below you could get links below to our reappraisal of all iPhone exemplar , including the latest propagation . find out more about all thenew Apple product come this yearandwhen is the next Apple result . You might also want to check out our advice onwhen is the best meter to bribe a unexampled iPhone , ouriPhone buying templet , and ourcomparison of every iPhone that is available to buy today .
