This day came. I have in my hands the iPhone 13, which will excite fans of Apple products for a whole year.
When creating this smartphone, Apple generously used its proprietary magic, because at first glance it is the same iPhone 12 in appearance. But once you use it for at least an hour, you catch yourself thinking that this is really a NEW gadget.
Yes, this smartphone has many improvements and advantages compared to the previous flagship. There are also several disadvantages, which I will definitely discuss below.
To be honest, I was looking forward to the Pro version more, because the “pro” prefix automatically makes the gadget cooler, especially from Apple. But having used the iPhone 13, I can say with confidence: in 2021, the functions and capabilities of this smartphone will be enough for most users.
Even if it is not much different from the previous flagship at first glance, you just need to test the new product for at least half an hour to appreciate the work done by the Cupertino engineers.
You can see first impressions of the new iPhones here. And below I will tell you in detail about the iPhone 13, which, like an expensive wine, does not open up immediately, but some time after tasting.
But when you try it, you will be completely delighted.
We still love the flat edges of a smartphone
If you were expecting some completely new design, I have to admit: in the hand, the iPhone 13 feels exactly the same as the iPhone 12.
Personally, I was happy with the flat edges last year, so I’m grateful to the designers who decided not to change anything in the new generation of iPhones. Yes, the smartphone has become a little thicker, but I didn’t even notice it, even holding the iPhone 12 in one hand and the “thirteenth” in the other. The difference of 0.25 mm has absolutely no effect on the tactile perception of the new product.
The body is also made of durable glossy glass with a matte aircraft-grade aluminum frame. The front panel is protected by a proprietary Ceramic Shield coating.
If you look at the screen for a long time, you will notice a reduced cutout in its upper part. In fact, this change gave 20% of the usable space for icons and notifications in the top status bar, but only iPhone 13 mini owners will appreciate this to the maximum. On the fairly large screen of the iPhone 13, the difference with the previous generation is not too noticeable.
The speaker has become narrower and more invisible. I am sure that now the mesh on it will collect less dust. The new cutout does not affect the quality of communication during a call; the interlocutor can be heard perfectly.
Physical buttons, a lever for switching the gadget to silent mode, a Lightning connector and speaker holes are also in the usual places.
The glossy back panel still attracts all fingerprints. So I recommend getting a case right away, given that this season Apple has rolled out new colors of its signature leather and silicone “clothes.” And third-party manufacturers have already come to the rescue, so there is plenty to choose from.
The block of main cameras protruding from the body has become larger and wider, so iPhone 12 cases will not fit. Moreover, this also applies to all other new iPhones.
The cameras themselves also changed their location; now they are not under each other, but located diagonally. This “rebranding” is dictated by technical improvements: now the iPhone 13 and 13 mini have optical stabilization with matrix shift, so that videos are as smooth as possible even in the most trembling hands.
In the previous generation of smartphones, only iPhones with the Pro prefix could boast of this feature.
The camera block lifts the iPhone 13 off the table surface. But the smartphone lies securely and does not wobble if you try to press your finger on the corners.
In addition to purely technical advantages, the changed location of the cameras is the most important visual marker that you have the new iPhone 13 in your hands.
So buy a case with protruding “sides” and place your smartphone with the screen on the table if you want to impress others.
What colors does Apple have in store for us this year?
Almost the entire palette of the new iPhone 13 in one photo.
In an article with first impressions, Nikita noted that all iPhone 13 have slightly different shades compared to last year’s models. As for me, the colors have become calmer and more pleasing to the eye, especially black, which is now not completely black, but with a slight tint of deep blue.
And it’s called Midnight, which I would translate into Russian as “blue-black” and not “midnight”.
The red iPhone 13 (PRODUCT RED) also became a different shade. It is no longer red, but noble ruby indoors and bright scarlet in the light. Looks more noble than last year's version.
The new pink iPhone doesn't look pink. Such is the paradox. It is rather comparable to the delicate flesh color of the thigh of a frightened nymph. This is how you imagined it now - this is exactly what this color looks like in real life.
Moreover, in the light, the pink iPhone 13 begins to look like baked milk. I would call it the most visually delicious of all the others.
Blue is less intense this season.
The blue color has become lighter. Only about this color I can say that it was better before . Although, in terms of shade, it is closer to the iPhone 12 Pro and Pro Max, which in a similar Pacific Blue color instantly became scarce last season.
And only the white iPhone 13 remained the same white as last year. A classic is forever, in Apple's case for at least one more season.
Disadvantages and features of space distribution in a one-story house
The disadvantages of one-story buildings can be listed in several points:
- If the house has one floor and a large total area, then difficulties will arise mainly during the design, since it is difficult to optimally place a building with full functionality on a limited area. Therefore, the main task of the planner is to minimize the total number of passage rooms - children's rooms, recreation rooms, bedrooms and living rooms. All rooms should be comfortable and combine several functions at the same time. For example, combining a kitchen and dining area, combining a living room with a relaxation room, or a combined bathroom will bring the arrangement of zones closer to optimal;
- A large one-story building means a larger roof area, which means increased costs for the construction of the roof, its insulation, moisture and sound insulation, and the organization of unimpeded drainage of snow and rain from the slopes. In addition, an extensive roof more often requires repairs, and this also costs money, labor and time;
- Small houses do not allow for spacious interior spaces. Therefore, when designing, the main task is to create an arrangement of rooms that will meet the requirements of all family members and SNiP.
Brick house project
How to live with a screen without 120 Hz
I was surprised to note that the lack of an adaptive change in the screen refresh rate does not spoil the impression of the iPhone 13. Yes, the matrix in the new product remains last year: 6.1-inch diagonal, Super Retina XDR technology with a resolution of 2532 × 1170 pixels and a density of 460 pixels per inch.
But the standard screen brightness has increased and is now 800 cd/m². It's autumn outside our window in full force, and there hasn't been any bright sun yet, but outside the screen looks brighter even with moderate settings for this parameter.
Naturally, True Tone technology and a wide P3 color gamut have migrated to the new product. To summarize all this, I can assure you: the iPhone 13’s screen is still top-notch – rich, with rich colors and a good margin of brightness.
If you need a 120 Hz refresh rate “for show” and to argue with the owners of Android flagships, look towards the Pro versions of the iPhone 13.
In practice, even without this parameter the eyes are comfortable.
Useful planning tips
Sometimes 81 square meters is not enough to optimally place pieces of furniture, a staircase to the second floor, or a wardrobe. For small private houses, you should use a variety of options and tricks.
These could be projects of a 9 by 9 house with an attic, with a summer terrace, two-story buildings:
- The attic can be used as an additional room. Such a construction step will require the preparation of another project, significant financial costs, as well as the installation of communications to the second tier. However, in the attic you can equip a bedroom and a wardrobe.
- From the kitchen or dining room you can make an additional exit to the summer terrace. In the warm season, terraces are used as a recreation area. During the winter, you can store various accessories and old things there.
- All wall niches, alcoves, shelves, and the area under the stairs to the second floor available in the house must be used to the maximum (for example, to organize storage areas). Above the cabinets, you can independently equip mezzanines or decorative shelves.
- The porch can be used as an additional platform. This could be a porch on several steps, made of stone, brick or timber. In the newly created area, a dining area is set up and benches or chairs are placed.
After a preliminary assessment of the soil and the availability of a spacious basement, you can place a garage on the lower tier. Additional calculations of the angle of inclination of the exit track, installation of a lifting gate mechanism, and connection of communication lines to the basement will be required.
However, the result justifies the invested effort and money - additional space appears in the house. A free project for a 9 by 9 house can be found in the catalog of various 3D modeling programs (ready-made projects are provided absolutely free to users).
A pumped battery makes the difference
The new iPhone 13 lasts longer than the iPhone 12 , that's a fact. Thanks to the new, more energy-efficient processor, which we’ll talk about later, and, oddly enough, the lack of a function for adaptively changing the screen refresh rate.
At the presentation, we were promised an increase in autonomy by 2.5 hours for the “thirteenth” and by 1.5 hours for the 13 mini. Personally, I’ve been driving the iPhone 13 for a day now, constantly launching applications and taking photos and videos, and the battery is actually being used more economically.
Graph after using the iPhone 13 for a day. Even in the evening before you put the gadget on charge, there is still quite a lot of energy reserve.
Especially compared to Android flagships, which “melt” right before our eyes even during routine use. I know what I’m talking about - I literally just used one such smartphone as my main one for several weeks. Rarely on any day did he survive until the evening, and once he completely let me down, discharged at the most inopportune moment in the Moscow region, at the time of calling a taxi.
The iPhone will definitely not have such unpleasant surprises during the day . The battery has grown slightly and also has a positive effect on the operating time of the gadget from socket to socket. For this, I easily forgive the 0.25 mm thicker iPhone 13.
Layout of a two-story house
The design of a two-story house with dimensions of 9 by 9 squares is used, as a rule, in conditions of insufficient land area (dense development of adjacent houses, the need for distance from neighboring buildings, a large number of additional buildings on the site).
An equipped and insulated attic can serve as the second floor.
Possible layout type:
- The hallway should be large, because this is where the staircase to the upper tier is installed. The area under the stairs is used with a creative approach (installing a small rack, shelves, equipping a place for a pet). The staircase can be a spiral one, a classic one, but it must have a railing.
- The living room should occupy no more than 40% of the total area of the first floor. Such calculations make it possible to achieve the optimal placement of functional areas in a house of 9 by 9 square meters.
- On the first tier there are all utility rooms: bath, toilet, kitchen. For two-story houses, the presence of two exits is dictated by fire safety rules. As a rule, the second door is used to access a summer terrace or a garage.
The second floor is always used for bedrooms, a children's playroom and a full wardrobe.
New cameras, shooting modes and proprietary filters
During all my time working with gadgets in general and smartphones in particular, the examples of photos and videos that I want to show you have come down to several basic points: shooting during the day, shooting at night, shooting moving objects. All smartphones shoot approximately equally well during the day; at night you can notice a difference in color tone and extra noise. Boredom.
For the first time in a long time, the iPhone 13 gave me back the desire to go outside in search of interesting shots. Because I want to take pictures and shoot videos with this smartphone.
The secret is that even if you don’t know how to do this, don’t know about white balance, photosensitivity, focal length and other terms for photographers, you just need to pick up the iPhone 13, point it at any object and tap the shutter button. It turns out perfect.
With similar matrix characteristics of the previous iPhone 12 and the new “thirteenth”, the quality of photos and videos has become almost ideal in the hands of a non-professional layman. Even photographs of the family at grandma’s sideboard, taken in a hurry after a home feast, will look cool.
I'm not talking about slightly more interesting compositions and locations.
The 12-megapixel wide-angle module and the same “ultra-wide” module now take in almost 50% more light during shooting. Moreover, this also applies to night mode - the quality of photos in the dark has improved significantly.
The new cinematic mode pays off, turning any video you shoot into a blockbuster. The feature with blurring the background, which is similar to portrait mode when taking photographs, as well as automatically changing focus from the foreground to the background and back, literally forces you to come up with scenarios, and not just hold the iPhone in your hand in the “I shot it!” I took it!”
And HDR video in the Dolby Vision standard in 4K resolution can be shot at 60 frames per second (previously it was only 30 frames per second).
During the daytime, the videos turn out great. Below is an example recorded with standard settings, without cinematic mode.
When shooting a video, be careful, because if you don’t set the cinematic mode before you start recording the video, then you won’t be able to change the focus from the foreground to the background or vice versa.
Photos on the iPhone 13 are much richer than those taken on last year's iPhone 12 and 12 mini. What I was most pleased with was that the camera stopped “yellowing,” giving the pictures unnatural colors. This is especially noticeable when photographing with zoom.
Photos were taken with 2x zoom in low light conditions.
In general, it is clear that the new iPhone 13 takes excellent photographs outdoors during the day. I didn't expect anything else. It is much more interesting to shoot at night and in dark rooms.
In such conditions, the iPhone 13 feels much more confident than the iPhone 12. Even with maximum zoom, photos are obtained with less “noise” and artifacts.
Photo taken with maximum digital zoom in low light conditions.
Portrait mode also works great in dark locations. The main thing is to find at least some light source.
Even if it is a dim yellowish light bulb high on the ceiling.
The photo was taken in portrait mode, the light source is weak. The iPhone 13 did a great job.
Outdoors at night, the iPhone 13 collects all the scattered light to produce a bright picture. Look at the photo below - it’s hard to guess that they were taken late at night, and the residential building is not lit at all in reality.
In the photo it seems that it was photographed at dusk and there is still quite light around. Bravo, iPhone 13.
Photos were taken without zoom late at night.
In general, photos from the iPhone 13 have less noise in dark places, the lines of objects in the pictures are clearer, and the color rendition is more neutral. Things are a little worse with macro photography; it’s better not to experiment with “close-ups”. We've already checked.
To improve your photos, you can use the built-in photo styles, which change the color tone of the photo and can even convert it into a spectacular black and white version.
Is it worth buying the iPhone 13 Pro?
Photo: Apple
Pro models are fairly niche devices. Largely due to its high price and minor differences from the basic version for ordinary users. Their purchase can be justified only by the real need for functions for photo and video shooting, as well as the desire to get the most advanced smartphone, regardless of the cost.
Why is it worth buying
ProMotion Screen
One of the main differences between the iPhone 13 Pro is its adaptive refresh rate display. Depending on the situation, it can vary from 10 to 120 frames per second, which allows you to get a very smooth picture and at the same time save battery power.
Macro mode
In addition to the Cinema and Night modes available on iPhone 13, the Pro version has an exclusive macro format. It works for both photos and videos. The mode turns on automatically when you bring your smartphone close to the subject, and allows you to capture the smallest details.
ProRes support
The ability to record and edit video in ProRes will be useful to anyone who seriously uses a smartphone for video shooting. This format is characterized by high image clarity with minimal compression. And videos shot in it can be edited both on the device itself and in Final Cut Pro on macOS.
Maximum autonomy
iPhone 13 Pro Max has the largest battery capacity, which, combined with the energy-efficient A15 Bionic chip, gives the longest possible battery life among all Apple smartphones. In any usage scenario, the charge will last all day.
Why you shouldn't buy
There is only one argument against it - the high price. Pro models are positioned as premium versions with advanced features, and this is reflected in the cost. The basic iPhone 13 Pro with 128 GB will cost 100 thousand rubles, while the iPhone 13 Pro Max with 1 TB will cost 160 thousand rubles. For comparison, for this money you can buy a 13‑inch MacBook Pro and also AirPods for change.
New processor, new speeds
Inside the iPhone 13 there is a new A15 processor made using a 5nm process. It has 6 cores - 2 high-performance and 4 energy-efficient. The processor began to consume even less energy to operate, and the number of operations it can process per unit of time flew into space: almost 16 trillion per second.
In practice, the difference is not too noticeable, although in fact everything happens a little faster on the iPhone 13 than on my previous iPhone 12 Pro.
This is perceived as something obvious, and only by forcing yourself to follow the sensations, you can notice how transitions between several hundred tabs in Safari occur without microlag, how Siri responds faster, YouTube or a heavy presentation opens.
There is definitely a performance increase and the iPhone 13 will remain a fast and relevant smartphone for several more years. Now there are no such applications or games to load the new processor to the limit, and the absence of lags and freezes - we, iPhone owners, have long been accustomed to this.
