Apple iPhone 13 review
Now a ways past its second birthday, the iPhone 13 is still a strong pick for a new iPhone if you want to keep within your budget. It's still very easy to buy thanks to Apple continuing to stock it, and has several years of updates ahead, so it's a strong value option too.
The iPhone 14's also available, and of course there's the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro to consider as Apple's latest models too. But the iPhone 13's strong chipset, and the Photographic Styles and Cinematic camera upgrades it introduced, allow it to keep up.
The iPhone 13 has some flaws. The charging is still relatively slow compared to some Android phones. And I don't like that only the iPhone 13 Pro models get a 120Hz display and telephoto zoom. But based on my in-depth iPhone 13 review, this iPhone remains one of the best phones for the money.
iPhone 13 review: Price and storage
Available right now, the iPhone 13 starts at $599 for 128GB of storage (up from a meager 64GB on the iPhone 12), and that goes up to $699 for 256GB and $799 for 512GB. Take a look at our Apple Store coupons page for the latest discounts.
This is the cheapest Apple's ever sold the iPhone 13 for, now that it's over two years old. These are still not that cheap, though save with trade-in offers from Apple as well as from wireless carriers, and there are plenty of discounts available. Do make sure to check out our iPhone 13 deals page for the latest offers.
iPhone 13 specs: All models compared
iPhone 13 review: Design and colors
Smaller notch makes display a bit more immersive
Slightly different button placement
Pink and blue are standout colors
New Green color launched March 2022
There’s really two design changes of note for the iPhone 13. First, the cameras on the rear are now arranged diagonally instead of vertically.
Second — and more importantly — the notch is now 20% smaller while still delivering the same great TrueDepth camera system and Face ID you’d expect since the iPhone X ushered in this feature four years ago.
Honestly, the smaller notch doesn’t make much of a difference in day-to-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 appreciate the mini notch more 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 being narrower.
The button placement is slightly different on the iPhone 13 versus the iPhone 12. The power button is lower on the right side, and the same thing goes with the ringer switch and volume buttons on the left side.
Otherwise, the iPhone 13 offers the same tough CeramicShield display up front, durable glass back and flat edges. And you get the same IP68 water resistance as 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 like many Android phones now support; a Touch ID sensor embedded in the power button like on the iPad mini 6 would have been fine.
For now, it appears the iPhone 13 is having a problem unlocking with the Apple Watch in some cases. Apple has acknowledged the issue and says a fix is coming soon.
The iPhone 13 comes in six colors, including Pink, Blue, Midnight, Starlight and (Product) Red. I tested the blue model, which is a fun shade without being too loud. And I continue to appreciate the color-matched aluminum frame Apple includes with its entry-level iPhones. Apple also launched fresh iPhone 13 colors during the Apple Event in March 2022, including a new green iPhone 13.
One thing to note, thanks to Apple's new iPhone Self Service Repair kits, you can now carry out your own repairs, but proceed with caution here as you'll need some technical skills.
iPhone 13 review: Display
Brighter display easier to read in direct sunlight
Stellar colors and contrast
Alas, the iPhone 13 doesn’t boast the adaptive 120Hz refresh rate of the iPhone 13 Pro, but it’s still a stellar OLED panel. This Super Retina XDR display is now 28% brighter than the iPhone 12; it’s also rated at 800 nits, compared to 600 nits for last year’s phone.
In my testing, I wouldn’t say the brightness difference is dramatic, but it can help when you’re trying to view the iPhone 13’s display in direct sunlight.
The overall display quality continues to be stellar. When watching the trailer for The Matrix Resurrections, I was mesmerized by the neon code encircling Neo as he walked down the street, and in another scene I could make out individual hairs on Neo’s beard as he stared up into the sun.
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 color gamut and 110.2% of the sRGG color gamut, where higher numbers are better. The iPhone 12 hit 81.1 and 114.5 and the Galaxy S21 77.4 and 109.2.
The iPhone 13 panel’s color accuracy is stellar, too, as 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 beat Samsung
Ultra-wide camera delivers more scene and improved Night mode
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 wide camera now gathers 47% more light than the iPhone 12, thanks to a larger camera with 1.7μm pixels.
Another plus is that the ultrawide camera can now capture four times more scene and its newer sensor delivers better low-light performance along with less noise.
If you’re not a fan of the iPhone’s usual color temperature — or you just wanted more control over your photos — you’ll appreciate the Photographic Styles feature. In the Camera app, you can switch from multiple styles, including standard, vibrant, rich contrast, warm and cool.
I tried out the feature with a series of portraits, and I appreciated the difference between styles. For example, the rich contrast mode made the shot look less hazy, while the vibrant setting made the coleus plants pop more along with the tree in the background. It’s not that easy to switch this effect on the fly, as you have to tap a setting and then select the style you want, but I like that you can customize your own styles.
In this photo taken at the Manasquan reservoir in New Jersey, you can see how superior the iPhone 13’s camera is compared to the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra. The water looks more vibrant and translucent, and the iPhone 13 does a better job rendering the shadows around the wood.
The iPhone 13 also delivered a better looking shot of these Halloween decorations. The orange pumpkin sign looks more vibrant and brighter, as do the surrounding real-life pumpkins. The Galaxy S21 Ultra’s pic is plenty sharp but looks a bit flat.
In many shooting situations, the iPhone 13 was on par with the iPhone 12, but I did notice a marked improvement in Night mode. While the result is a bit on the fuzzy side, the iPhone 13 captures a brighter pink in the hydrangea flowers and the surrounding leaves are brighter.
Now that the iPhone 14 is here, you can also check out our iPhone 14 vs iPhone 13 detailed camera face-off.
If you're looking to get more out of your iPhone camera, see the one iPhone camera tip everyone needs to know and also check out the hidden iPhone camera feature for taking your portraits to the next level.
iPhone 13 review: Video
Cinematic mode automatically changes focus on subjects while adding bokeh
Superior Dolby Vision HDR video quality
The iPhone 13 is the rare smartphone that can make you feel like a director as you shoot videos. And that’s thanks 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. You don’t have to lift a finger and it works (almost) like magic.
When shooting my three 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 effect on the background is something other smartphone makers have attempted, including Samsung, but the Galaxy S21 Ultra isn’t smart enough to switch the focus from subject to subject in real time.
Cinematic mode isn’t perfect, as the iPhone 13 sometimes took a second to recognize faster moving subjects (our younger golden retriever). A bigger drawback is that this mode is capped at 1080p, as you can’t record Cinematic mode in 4K. But overall, it’s a cool feature I think a lot of people will want to try, especially for social videos on TikTok.
The overall video quality from the iPhone 13 is stellar, with improved noise reduction, better dynamic range and enhanced semantic rendering that can identify skin, faces, the sky and more. As 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’s footage. And in a separate 4K clip, I got lost in the gentle waves lapping against the sand.
iPhone 13 review: Performance and A15 Bionic
A15 Bionic is fastest chip once again
Machine learning performance notably better
The A15 Bionic doesn’t offer dramatic performance gains over the A14 Bionic powering the iPhone 12, but it didn’t need to just to remain the fastest chip in any phone. As with the A14 Bionic, the A15 offers a 6-core CPU and 4-core GPU, but there’s now a 16-core Neural Engine for machine learning and AI, up from 8 cores on the previous chipset.
Apple says that the iPhone 13’s CPU is up to 50% faster than the competition while the GPU can handle graphics rendering 20% faster. Before we get into the benchmarks, I think it’s important to talk about how swift this phone feels in everyday use.
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 equally impressed by the Seek app, which instantly identified plants when I pointed the camera around my backyard.
On Geekbench 5, which measures overall performance, the iPhone 13 scored 4,129 and 1,684 respectively. That’s considerably better than the 3,859/1,593 turned in by the iPhone 12, and it destroys the Galaxy S21’s scores of 3,302/1,048.
The iPhone 13’s graphics performance also impresses. On the 3DMark Wild Life benchmark, the new iPhone hit 55.9 frames per second. That’s just a bit higher than the iPhone 12 (51 fps), but the Galaxy S21 Ultra mustered only 33 fps.
We didn’t see much of an improvement on our video editing test using Adobe Premiere Rush. The iPhone 13 took 25.9 seconds to transcode a 4K video to 1080p compared to 26.5 seconds for the iPhone 12. The Galaxy S21 took 1 minute and 2 seconds.
Check out our iPhone 13 benchmarks results page to see how all four models perform and how they compared to the Android competition.
In terms of 5G performance, the iPhone 13 should get better over time as carriers continue to roll out their networks. For example, Verizon says its further-reaching C-Band spectrum will reach 100 million people by 2022. And we saw very promising speeds in our Verizon C-Band 5G testing.
When it comes to call quality overall we've found the iPhone 13 to offer solid performance on multiple networks, but one feature is missing. Apple removed the phone noise cancellation feature with the iPhone 13, 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's a lot of background noise. However, you can enable voice isolation in Control Center 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 up to 1.5 hours longer than the iPhone 12, thanks to a bigger battery, more efficient display and the A15 Bionic chip. But our testing showed even better 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 case), the iPhone 13 endured for 10 hours and 33 minutes. That’s more than 2 hours longer than the 8:25 time that the iPhone 12 turned in. The best result we saw from the Galaxy S21 was 9:53.
To see how all four iPhone 13 models fared, check out our iPhone 13 battery life results summary, which includes comparisons with more Android phones.
Unfortunately, the iPhone 13 offers the same charging speeds as before. The new iPhone got to 51% capacity in 30 minutes with Apple’s 20W charger. Other phones on our fastest charging phones list are much speedier, such as the OnePlus 9 Pro.
The iPhone’s 15W MagSafe charger is a bit slower, but some may find it more convenient because it’s magnetic and doesn’t involve the Lighting port.
iPhone 13 review: Software
SharePlay lets you watch videos and listen to music with friends
Focus cuts down 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 15.1 update lets you listen to music or watch movies or TV shows with friends or family via SharePlay. And the Messages app delivers a new Shared with You section for photos, articles and more to make it easier to keep track of all the different links friends text your way.
I personally appreciate the new Focus feature in iOS 15, which lets you filter notifications based on what you’re doing. And notifications themselves have been refined, complete with a new summary view so you don’t get overwhelmed by constant alerts.
Other iOS 15 highlights include a redesigned Safari (I actually don’t like the address bar at the bottom, but Apple lets you change the location), a more full-featured Weather app and an enhanced Maps app with more detail and better road views. Last but not least, Live Text bites off Google Lens by recognizing text in real time via the camera when you want to look things up or get translations.
Since we posted our review, Apple has come out with iOS 15.2, which adds even more features to your iPhone including an App Privacy Report. As always, developers continue to produce great apps that take advantage of iOS, so we'd suggest loading up on some of the best iPhone apps or, if you're new to the platform, grabbing the best apps for a new iPhone.
And now that iOS 16 is official, we have a lot more to look forward to. Apple announced a bunch of changes to things like the lock screen and Messages. There is even an update to allow Face ID to unlock your iPhone 13 in landscape mode.
iPhone 13 known problems
Thus far iPhone 13 owners have encountered a few problems. For example, some iPhone 13 users found that the phone won't unlock with an Apple Watch, though a fix addressed that. In addition, some iPhone 13 owners complained about the touch display not being responsive enough in some cases, which could be an iOS 15 issue.
On the iPhone 13 Pros, there are complaints that the cameras are automatically switching between lenses without warning, and Apple rolled out an update that enabled users to turn this off. And the ProMotion displays on the iPhone 13 Pros are not running at 120Hz with some apps, which Apple also addressed with an update. And developers need to optimize their apps as well.
Another issue that's been cropping up for a select few iPhone 13 users is an errant pink screen bug. The bug is often fixed with a phone restart, although the problem has persisted for some, forcing Apple to send out replacements.
See our iPhone 13 problems roundup for more info.
iPhone 13 review: What about the Pixel 6?
The closest Android has to an iPhone is Google's Pixel line, which is out now. 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 set to be a major battle.
With Google taking a page from Apple's playbook and going with its own silicon (named Tensor), the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro have some incredible AI and machine learning capabilities, especially with speech recognition and photography post-processing. We have a Pixel 6 Pro vs. iPhone 13 Pro Max face-off if you want to see how the two top dogs perform against each other. But relevant to this, we have a Pixel 6 vs. iPhone 13 face-off you should check out if you're on the fence.
iPhone 13 vs Galaxy S22
Samsung's Galaxy S22 is Samsung's best competitor against the iPhone 13. They have the same size display, but Samsung offers a smoother 120Hz panel. Samsung also delivers a telephoto zoom lens, while the iPhone 13 doesn't offer an optical zoom. However, the iPhone 13 wins in other ways, including overall image quality, battery life and performance.
See our Galaxy S22 vs iPhone 13 face-off for a full comparison of these two flagship phones.
iPhone 13 review: Verdict
The iPhone 13 is a great buy if you want to save versus the iPhone 14. I especially like the long battery life, as the iPhone 12’s endurance was underwhelming even for a 5G phone. I wouldn’t recommend that iPhone 12 owners upgrade to the iPhone 13, but the iPhone 13 is worth it if you own an iPhone 11 or older device.
I don’t think many people will care about the smaller notch. What truly stands out on the iPhone 13 is the camera. The low-light performance is even better now, and computational photography features like Cinematic mode and Photographic styles flex the A15 Bionic’s muscles in ways that go way beyond benchmarks.
I’m also glad Apple doubled the starting storage at 128GB, as that move was overdue and puts the new iPhone on a par with Android flagships. I’d like to see Apple offer faster charging, as well as a 120Hz display.
The bottom line is that the iPhone 13 is a fantastic phone if you want to save money.
