Apple iPhone 13 buyer's guide: Everything you need to know

Every year like clockwork, we see a new iteration of the Apple iPhone. In 2021, it was the Apple iPhone 13 series, and it saw the company making subtle refinements to the iPhone 12 series.

With that in mind, there are only minor differences between the 2021 iPhones and the 2020 models. However, there are still four iPhones on the docket, which can be confusing for the average buyer. In this buyer’s guide, we’ll break down all the info you need on what to expect with an Apple iPhone 13!

Please note, however, that these iPhones have now been superseded by the iPhone 14 series, which launched in September 2022. If you’re looking for the most recent iPhones, those are what you need. Likewise, the iPhone 15 series is just around the corner, so it might be worth waiting. Also, as a result of the release of the iPhone 14, some iPhone 13 models have been discontinued. We have noted these changes in the guide.

Apple iPhone 13 series at a glance

Apple launched the iPhone 13 series on September 14, 2021. Pre-orders started on September 17, with general sales starting on September 24, 2021.

Aside from some subtle differences, you won’t notice too many changes with 2021’s iPhones. As with 2020, there were four models, and each model is about the same size as 2020’s equivalent. The number of cameras on the back of each device remains unchanged, although they have been revamped a bit on the lower-end models. The front of the devices is what changed the most, with the infamous notch getting slimmed down for the first time ever.

On the lowest end, we have the iPhone 13 Mini. It has a palm-friendly 5.4-inch display and almost all the same specs as the vanilla iPhone 13. It launched at $699 but dropped down to $599 when the iPhone 14 series landed. This makes it the cheapest mainline 2021 iPhone you can get.

The vanilla iPhone 13 is the “standard” model. It has the same size display as the iPhone 12 at 6.1 inches. It also has the same rear camera setup, with a primary shooter and an ultrawide lens. The entry model started at $799 but has been cut to $699 to coincide with the launch of the iPhone 14.

Stepping up above the standard variant, we have the Apple iPhone 13 Pro. It’s the same size as the regular iPhone 13 but features a triple-lens camera on the back, among other upgrades. The third lens is a telephoto, which helps with zooming in on far-away subjects. It’ll set you back at least $999. However, this model has been discontinued and replaced by the iPhone 14 Pro, so you won’t be able to get it directly from Apple anymore.

Finally, the highest-end 2021 smartphone from Apple is the iPhone 13 Pro Max. It’s the biggest of the new phones with a 6.7-inch display. It has all the specs of the regular iPhone 13 Pro but comes with a bigger battery. Being that it was the best of the best from Apple in 2021, it was also the most expensive, with a starting price of $1,099. However, like the iPhone 13 Pro, the iPhone 13 Pro Max has been discontinued to make room for the superior iPhone 14 Pro Max.

Is the Apple iPhone 13 worth buying?

In 2020, Apple revamped a lot of the design aspects of its iPhones. It brought back the “boxy” design of the iPhone 4, changed the rear camera module design, and made other refinements. It also introduced the iPhone 12 Mini.

In 2021, Apple left things mostly the same. Sure, the fronts of the phones have a slightly smaller notch, the internals are better, and there are plenty of new features. Overall, though, there aren’t too many differences here when compared to the iPhone 12 series.

In 2022, the newer Apple iPhone 14 lineup launched and is superior to the iPhone 13 series. In fact, the iPhone 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max have been fully discontinued and replaced by the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max. As such, if you want a new iPhone, you should only go for an iPhone 13 model if you are looking to save money, as the iPhone 14 series is better.

Of course, there are plenty of Android phones out there that will match or even exceed most elements of the latest iPhones, regardless of the year. Scroll down to our alternatives section for more on that.

Apple iPhone 13 specs

Aside from physical dimensions, the Apple iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Mini are basically the same phones. Likewise, the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max are very similar outside of how much bigger the Max is. Below you’ll find specs tables comparing each pair of devices.

Which models get 120Hz refresh rates, aka ProMotion?

Flagship Android phones started getting high-refresh-rate displays years ago. Apple has launched products with high-refresh-rate displays already using the branding ProMotion — most notably in the iPad Pro range. However, ProMotion had never made it to an iPhone before, which means all Apple smartphones have had 60Hz displays.

That changed in 2021. For the first time, the Apple iPhone 13 series features phones with 120Hz display refresh rates, which is twice as fast as any other previous iPhone.

What is the benefit of a higher display refresh rate? High refresh rates create smoother motion. When scrolling quickly through Instagram, for example, a 60Hz display could look jittery as the display tries to keep up with the fast transitions. A 120Hz display, though, will look much smoother. This can enhance your day-to-day smartphone usage, but it will also make playing high-end games much more enjoyable. Very competitive gamers will also appreciate the slight accuracy advantage that high refresh rate displays offer.

Unfortunately, Apple’s ProMotion only comes with the Pro iPhones. In other words, the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Mini will not have 120Hz displays, but the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max will. Since the Pro models in the iPhone 13 lineup are no longer manufactured, you’ll need to look to an iPhone 14 Pro or 14 Pro Max for the ProMotion feature now.

Is the Apple iPhone 13 camera good?

In 2020, the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Mini came with a standard lens paired with an ultrawide shooter. The Pro models, meanwhile, had those same lenses but added in a third lens with telephoto capabilities. In 2021, we saw the exact same setup on the phones within the Apple iPhone 13 family.

Now, that doesn’t mean Apple didn’t upgrade the camera hardware of the phones. The ultrawide camera on the Pro and Pro Max has been upgraded from an ƒ/2.4 aperture to ƒ/1.8, giving it better shooting in low light, for example. However, there are no new lenses or other new hardware parts on any of the iPhones. Still, that didn’t stop them from being some of the best camera phones of that year.

Apple also brought new software tricks to the iPhone 13 series. There’s support for Cinematic Mode, which brings bokeh to video, and Night Mode on all the lenses, not just the main. ProRes video is also supported on the Pro models as of the October 2021 launch of iOS 15.1.

iPhone 13 Pro Max example shots

As we expected, the iPhone 13 Pro Max has an exemplary camera system. This isn’t surprising, considering we loved the camera on 2020’s Pro Max model, and things remained largely unchanged in 2021.

iPhone 13 example shots

Although the iPhone 13 won’t be as versatile as the iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max, it can still hold its own. You won’t get a telephoto lens here, so zooming in won’t produce stellar results, but we found this camera system to be great for the average person.

How is the iPhone 13 battery life?

One of the best bits of news related to the latest iPhones is that Apple increased the battery capacities for the whole line. When combined with the new A15 chipset (see next section), the battery life on these phones is better than what we saw from the iPhone 12 series. However, they still won’t be as good as some Android phones, so be sure to look at our list of the best Android phones with the best battery life.

As one would expect, the largest phone — the iPhone 13 Pro Max — has the biggest battery. In our testing, we found we could get two days’ worth of juice out of the iPhone 13 Pro Max, which is terrific. Of course, the phone itself is massive and heavy, so you definitely have a bit of a trade-off there.

We haven’t tested the iPhone 13 Pro, but we have tested the iPhone 13. With the iPhone 13, we saw a little over six hours of screen-on-time, which isn’t bad at all. Considering the higher energy needs of the ProMotion display on the iPhone 13 Pro, we’d expect that phone to not perform as well as the vanilla iPhone 13.

The iPhone 13 Mini has the smallest battery in the lineup. We haven’t tested it, but we assume the battery life on this phone would be the weakest of the bunch.

Remember that there are no chargers in the boxes with iPhone 13 devices. You’ll need to buy a charger separately or use one you already own. The 2021 iPhones charge at the same 20W speeds as the iPhone 12. All the new iPhones also support wireless charging.

How is the Apple iPhone 13 performance?

The iPhone 13 series is powered by the 2021 iteration of Apple’s silicon known as the A15 Bionic. It is a 5nm+ build. At the time of release, per our benchmarks, the A15 was the fastest and most powerful mobile chipset on the market — yes, even faster than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. However, the newer A16 Bionic supersedes the A15, so that now takes the crown.

Regardless, performance will not be a concern with the iPhone 13 models. They should be able to handle pretty much any task you throw at them. The Pro models, though, have more RAM than the non-Pro models, so they will be slightly better at heavy tasks, especially if you have a lot of apps open in the background.

The A15 Bionic should be a bit more power-efficient than 2020’s A14 Bionic. That means you would see better battery life from the iPhone 13 models, even when you factor out the larger batteries themselves.

For more info on how the A15 compares to Android processors, check out our Speed Test G YouTube channel and this video in particular.

Phone software and updates

All the 2021 iPhones shipped with iOS 15 on board in 2021. This was the most recent version of the operating system at the time. In general, iPhones see around five years of software updates. That means you should expect a yearly upgrade to the latest version of iOS until 2026 on any of the iPhone 13 models.

If you already own an older iPhone, you already have iOS 15, assuming your phone launched after 2016. As such, if all you want is iOS 15, there’s no reason to upgrade to an Apple iPhone 13.

In iOS 15, you can expect updates to how you receive notifications, enhanced FaceTime calls, the ability to upload ID cards into Wallet, and much more. We have a full guide to the new features in iOS 15.

iPhone 13 vs iPhone 12: What’s new?

As mentioned a few times now, the Apple iPhone 13 series isn’t all that different from the iPhone 12 series. However, it does come with a few upgrades that we have detailed for you below. Keep in mind that the list doesn’t include every upgrade — just the most significant ones.

• Smaller notch, larger cameras: The notch on the front of all iPhone 13 models is slimmer than what we’ve seen on previous iPhones. Meanwhile, the rear camera module is a bit larger on the Pro models and slightly redesigned on the non-Pro models. The number and types of lenses, though, have remained the same since the iPhone 12 series.
• ProMotion: The iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max have ProMotion displays, which is Apple’s branding for high refresh rate displays. They support up to 120Hz rates. The vanilla iPhone 13 devices, though, stick with 60Hz displays.
• Batteries: The batteries inside the iPhone 13 series are slightly larger than the ones we saw in the iPhone 12 series. This results in longer battery life.
• Cameras: The ultrawide camera on the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max has been upgraded from an ƒ/2.4 aperture to ƒ/1.8, giving it better shooting in low light. There are other minor updates to the other lenses, too. Do note that the main and ultrawide lenses on the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Mini remain unchanged.
• Storage: The starting storage capacity for the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Mini is now 128GB, up from 64GB. It also goes as high as 512GB, which iPhone 12 models did not offer. Meanwhile, the Pro models have a new 1TB option.

What are some good iPhone 13 alternatives?

If you are interested in the iPhone 13 lineup but want the latest and greatest features, your best bet is to check out the iPhone 14 series. However, if you like the idea of the iPhones but want to stick with or migrate to Android, there are plenty of choices that should make you happy.

• iPhone 14 lineup ($799 to $1,099): With the launch of the Apple iPhone 14 series, the 2021 lineup is now officially old hat. The new line of iPhones shut out the Mini version and replace it with the Plus variant, which is a larger version of the iPhone 14. The iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max replace the iPhone 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max, and all the 2022 iPhones are either equal or superior to the iPhone 13 equivalents.
• iPhone SE (2022) ($429): If you don’t want to pay even the lower $599 entry price of the iPhone 13 Mini, the iPhone SE (2022) is your next-best bet. It’s more than $150 cheaper, but you’ll know immediately why. It’s very small, has a dated design, and the camera system is considerably weaker. However, it does have the same chipset and wireless charging, so it’s not all bad.
• Google Pixel 7 series ($599 and $899): The latest phones from Google offer exemplary cameras, terrific battery life, and a bloat-free software experience with the second-longest update promise of any Android phone. The vanilla Pixel 7 would be comparable to the iPhone 13, while the Pixel 7 Pro would be comparable to the iPhone 13 Pro Max. Either way, you’re going to get a whole lot of phone for a lot less money.
• Samsung Galaxy S23 lineup ($799 to $1,199): In the world of Android, Samsung’s Galaxy S line is the closest analogy to Apple’s iPhones. The Galaxy S23 will be akin to a vanilla iPhone 13 in some ways while superseding it with a few features, such as having a telephoto lens. The Galaxy S23 Ultra will be comparable to the iPhone 13 Pro Max, with more cameras, a bigger battery, an included stylus, and more.
• ASUS Zenfone 10 (€799): The iPhone 13 Mini is the smallest of the 2021 iPhones, and Android manufacturers don’t really make phones that small anymore. That is, except for ASUS, which launched the ASUS Zenfone 10 in 2023. It’s not as small as the iPhone 13 Mini, but it is your best bet for a compact Android-based device.

Where to buy the Apple iPhone 13 series

• iPhone 13 Mini (128GB): $599 (was $699)
• Apple iPhone 13 (128GB): $699 (was $799)
• Apple iPhone 13 Pro (128GB): $999 Discontinued
• iPhone 13 Pro Max (128GB): $1,099 Discontinued

Apple launched the iPhone 13 series on September 14, 2021. Pre-orders started on September 17, with general sales starting on September 24, 2021.

The starting prices for the iPhone 13 series were the same as the starting prices of the iPhone 12 series. However, do note that the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Mini dropped in price by $100 each when the iPhone 14 series launched. Additionally, the iPhone 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max are no longer in production, having been replaced by the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max.

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