The iPhone mini stays in the Apple line for at least another year. At its California Streaming event, the company announced that its base iPhone model would be re-introduced in two sizes. Like its older brother, the iPhone 13 mini features the latest system on a company chip, the A15 Bionic. The 5 nm chip has a 6-core CPU consisting of two high-performance and four high-efficiency cores. The result is a chip capable of performing 15.8 trillion operations per second. Translation: it’s fast.
Critically, Apple claims that battery life has improved markedly on its latest iPhones. Compared to its predecessor, the company claims that most users should receive an extra hour and a half of battery life from the iPhone 13 mini. This increase in uptime comes from courtesy of the phone’s A15 Bionic chip, more efficient internal components and software optimizations the company has done under the hood. Considering that battery life was one of the few places where the iPhone 12 mini was a disappointment, it’s a major upgrade.
Certainly, the iPhone 13 mini does not include the ProMotion screen found on the iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max. Instead, like its predecessor, has a 5.4-inch OLED screen. However, Apple has redesigned the range of Face ID cameras on both the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini to make it smaller and less intrusive. According to Apple, the notch is now 20 percent smaller. In addition, the OLED screen of the iPhone 13 mini is 28% brighter and has a maximum brightness of 1,200 nights.
For photos and videos, the iPhone 13 mini has a range of dual cameras more capable than its predecessor. Apple claims that the phone’s 12-megapixel main sensor can capture 47% more light. Meanwhile, the phone’s ultra-wide camera borrows the sensor-changing optical image stabilization technology the company first introduced in last year’s iPhone 12 Pro Max. With its A15 Bionic chip, the iPhone 13 mini includes a feature called Kinematic mode that allows you to blur the background of a video while the subject stays in focus.
Prior to today’s event, there were conflicts over whether Apple would equip the entire iPhone 13 line with fingerprint sensors on the screen. In the end, the iPhone 13 mini and its siblings do not add any new method of biometric authentication. As such, unless you are, you will still need to enter a password to unlock the iPhone 13 mini while wearing a mask.
Like the iPhone 12 mini, the 13 mini includes Apple’s ceramic protection technology, which according to the company helps make the phone’s screen more resistant to damage caused by drops. It is also IP68 certified against water and dust.
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