iPhone 13 – Still A Great Buy in 2022?

The iPhone 13 was unveiled on September 14, 2021 and released on September 24, 2021.

iPhone has been a tremendously successful product for Apple, and at this point it’s an understatement to say that it’s a standard in the mobile phone industry.

Each year brings a new version of the phone to update what’s inside, but little changes to the iPhone’s outside appearance – which is why people love their iPhones, because it doesn’t change unless they want it to!

The iPhone 13 is now well-integrated into the market and many now have their sights set on the iPhone 14.

Is it worth going for the iPhone 14, or is the iPhone 13 still worth buying?

You can get the iPhone 13 for under $1,150 on Amazon or less than $50 per month using Amazon’s buy-now-pay-later service (but only if you get a Cricket Wireless subscription).

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An unlocked version where you’re free to keep your carrier goes for a bit more on Amazon.

But we’ll cover pricing a bit more later.

iPhone 13: Overview

The iPhone 13 is Apple’s most up-to-date iPhone after the iPhone 11, iPhone 12, and the Pro and Pro Max versions of each phone.

It’s a reasonably powerful phone that provides everything most people want in a smartphone.

For most users, the iPhone 13 will do exactly what they need from their phone without any problems at all.

And iPhones last so long these days that they can be a great investment that can last you three years or more.

People do everything on their phones these days. 75% of adults watch movies at least once per week (and 3 in 10 every day), and the iPhone 13 is a great device for viewing entertainment and mirroring to larger devices like TVs and larger monitors.

iPhone 13: Look & Feel

The iPhone 13 is a sleek rectangle with rounded corners and an aluminum-and-glass housing along the front face of the device.

The back has been simplified compared to previous iPhone models, with a single-color glass panel instead of the iPhone 12’s two-toned glass.

The iPhone 13 measures 150.9 x 75.7 x 7.4 mm and weighs approximately 159 grams. The back is always made from attractive, scratch-resistant Gorilla Glass 5 from Corning.

In true Apple fashion, iPhone 13 doesn’t have any buttons on it at all – not even a volume button!

The iPhone 13 has a sensor that lets you turn up/down the volume just by touching the speaker grills on either side of the Lightning connector (or use Alexa). And this works for muting as well!

To unlock your phone using Face ID, iPhone 13 uses a TrueDepth camera system that scans your face and unlocks the iPhone when it recognizes you.

iPhone 13 has an all new Face ID, with improved speed and accuracy over iPhone X’s original Face ID.

iPhone 13 only takes half a second to unlock!

iPhone 13: Screen & Resolution

The screen on iPhone 13 is quite possibly the nicest-looking of any iPhone so far!

iPhone 13 measures 5.8 inches diagonally across its front face, making it Apple’s largest phone yet at this point in time.

However, thanks to bezels being reduced by almost 40% compared to iPhone 12, the size difference doesn’t feel that noticeable unless you’re putting iPhone side-by-side with another phone or looking at iPhone 13 from an iPhone 12.

iPhone 13 has a few new features, like the iOS 15 update that came out in September 2021, which adds more creative tools for iPhone photographers and much more.

When it comes to resolution, iPhone 13 boasts over 20% more pixels than iPhone 12!

iPhone 13 has a resolution of 1792 x 828 pixels at 3x Retina, giving iPhone 13 326 PPI with HDR screen technology showing 4096 colors.

iPhone uses OLED screen technology, which means blacks are really deep blacks instead of dark gray shadows on most LCD screens.

But what does this mean?

Well for users who do a lot of graphics or gaming or watch movies on their phone, they’ll appreciate the iPhone 13’s high resolution.

iPhone 13 has a fantastic-looking screen that makes iPhone 13 even more of an iPhone X-style device, and iPhone 11 and iPhone 12 can’t match it!

iPhone 13: Power & Memory

Apple’s powerful A15 Bionic chip gives iPhone some serious horsepower while making iPhone last longer.

It keeps iOS 15 running smoothly while Apple Pencil is supported in the iOS version of GarageBand (and other creative apps like Adobe Photoshop).

iPhone also supports faster LTE networking speeds than iPhone 12 did (up to 20% faster).

The new A15 Bionic includes a six-core CPU architecture with two performance cores that are up to 15% faster than the A14 on iPhone 12 and four efficiency cores that are up to 50% more efficient.

• A15 Bionic chip
• New 6‑core CPU with 2 performance and 4 efficiency cores
• New 4‑core GPU
• New 16‑core Neural Engine

iPhone 13 also has a second-generation performance controller that delivers 30% faster multi-threaded processing for all CPU-intensive tasks.

iPhone 13 has Ultra Wideband technology that devices like the iPhone X don’t have, which lets iPhone 13 locate itself quickly and accurately indoors or out – even under dense foliage where GPS can’t usually reach.

iPhone 13: Features & Technology

iPhone 13 has iPhone 11’s wireless charging system and iPhone 12’s Face ID (though a bit improved).

iPhone 13 also includes iPhone X style gestures for iOS which let you go back to the last app just by swiping up and bringing you home by swiping in the middle of the iPhone X style interface.

iPhone 13 uses iOS 15 and can run all of Apple’s latest updates like watchOS 5, iTunes, tvOS, and more!

What does this mean for iPhone users?

So long as you update your iPhone (don’t leave it on an older version), every new iPhone is going to be faster than its previous model year, with better memory management and usually a better camera too.

Going forward, the iPhone 13 will also work with iOS 16, iOS 17, iOS 18, and other upgrades until Apple stops supporting them.

iPhone 13 has iPhone 11 camera benefits like iPhone 12, iPhone 11, and iPhone 10 features like the iPhone X style interface and wireless charging.

These are excellent upgrades to an already great phone! If you want iPhone’s latest and greatest (and who wouldn’t?) iPhone 13 is how you get it!

iPhone 13: Camera Quality

The iPhone’s camera gets better with each iteration.

Naturally, the camera quality is a big component of whether the iPhone is the best smartphone product for them on the market.

So much of our smartphone activity goes through the camera, whether it’s taking regular pictures, filming videos, Snapchat, TikTok, or basically anything else.

The base model, iPhone 13 Pro, and iPhone 13 Pro Max camera quality is top of the line.

Front Facing Camera

The iPhone 13’s front-facing camera is an excellent 7 MP TrueDepth camera with optical image stabilization at f/2.0 aperture Apple calls Smart HDR, as well as the same Stagefright as iPhone 11.

The iPhone 13 uses a dot projector, infrared camera, and flood illuminator to sense your face in the dark and unlock your iPhone 13 in a snap.

iPhone 13’s camera is so fast it can capture slow-motion video at 240 fps!

iPhone 13 also has Portrait Mode selfies too, so you can take a photo of yourself and alter the depth-of-field around your face after you’ve taken the picture.

iPhone 13 also has Animojis, which are exclusive emojis that use TrueDepth to create 3D models of your face and map facial movements from your iPhone onto an emoji automatically.

Back Facing Camera

iPhone 13 has a fantastic-looking 7 MP back facing camera that supports Smart HDR and up to 4K video, as well as the iPhone X style Depth Control.

iPhone 13’s high-quality cameras take excellent photos in low light, which is one of iPhone 13’s most impressive features.

iPhone doesn’t use digital zoom like other smartphones do – instead, it uses an advanced processing technique called Super Resolution, which enhances the details of your photo by up to two times and combines pixels together to make them look better than they would without enhancement.

iPhone also captures great photos at night (thanks largely to the wide color capture), especially with iPhone X style Portrait Mode available for both front and back cameras now.

With iOS 15 on iPhone 13 you can adjust depth-of-field after taking a photo too, which iPhone supporters are raving about.

Video Recording iPhone 13’s video recording comes complete with Portrait Mode for back cameras and TrueDepth for front facing cameras, giving iPhone 13 users iPhone X style selfies every time they take one.

iPhone 13 records 4K videos at up to 60 FPS, 1080p slow motion at 240 fps, and 720p slow motion at 240 fps.

iPhone 13 also has the super fun new feature called Time Lapse, which lets you capture fast action shots that look like stop motion animation – it takes photos of an event over a long period of time and compiles them into a single quick video that speeds up time and makes it look like the event happened in a much shorter timeframe.

iPhone 13 also has Slo-Mo, which is iPhone 13’s version of iPhone X’s 240 FPS slow motion video recording.

iPhone 13 can take 1080p footage at 240 fps and 720p footage at an impressive 480 fps.

iPhone 13 also captures time lapse videos in photos, letting iPhone users enjoy multiple events that happen over long periods of time (like their summer vacation) in a short period (like scrolling through all their memories from the trip in one minute).

iPhone 13: Design, Size, and Display

iPhone 13 comes in several different colors:

• red
• white
• black
• blue
• pink

The iPhone 13 has a 5.8″ inch OLED True Tone display with 2436 x 1125 resolution and 458 pixels per inch (PPI).

It is Apple’s largest iPhone ever at 6.3 ounces (or 174 grams) and .33 inches (8.2 mm) thick, and it’s also their heaviest iPhone ever at 7.13 ounces (202 grams).

The iPhone 13 has an IP68 rating for dust and water resistance, making it iPhone 13 even more resistant to damage than iPhone 11.

It’s the perfect size for most people who like big displays but can’t go above Apple’s iPhone XR’s 6.1″ screen due to hand sizes – iPhone 13’s display is just as big, but iPhone 13 has more than twice the iPhone XR’s screen resolution.

The iPhone 13 also has a new glass design that supports wireless charging at up to 7.5 watts (w/ Qi certification). iPhone 11 doesn’t support fast charging in quite the same way.

In terms of comparisons: For Battery Life, the iPhone 11 comes with 2700 mAh battery… iPhone 13 comes with 3400 mAh battery. That’s more than one full extra charge over the iPhone 11!

iPhone uses some of its built-in power management system to make sure iPhone 13 can last 8 hours on internet use or video playback and 12 hours on calls, which are all very good numbers for Apple devices.

If you’re looking for iPhone 11 vs iPhone 13 comparisons on something like iPhone 11’s speed vs iPhone 13’s battery life, iPhone 13 will almost always be the better choice… iPhone 11 is shockingly fast for a phone of its generation with only 2 GB RAM, but iPhone 13 makes up for it in spades with 3 GB RAM (which is what iPhone XS Max has too).

iPhone 11: Specs iPhone 11 comes with an A13 Bionic processor that makes it one of the fastest smartphones on the market.

iPhone 13 has an A15 Bionic chip too, which runs even faster than iPhone 11.

iPhone 13: Battery Life and Charging Time

iPhone 13 has a 3400 mAh battery, iPhone 11 has a 2700 mAh battery.

iPhone 13 is the clear winner here with a full extra charge over iPhone 11. iPhone 11 is fast, but iPhone 13 makes up for it by doubling iPhone 11’s charging speed.

iPhone 13: Storage Capacity iPhone 13 comes in three storage capacities: 64 GB, 256 GB, and 512 GB.

That big 512GB option gives iPhone 13 users extreme amounts of storage space for their photos, apps, games, music… you name it!

iCloud storage upgrades are also available if you need more than what your phone can hold.

Some might even argue iCloud is a better way to go.

iPhone 13: Wireless charging

If you need wireless charging, the iPhone 13 works for that, just like the iPhone X, 11, and 12 (including Pro, Pro Max, XS, and XR models).

The Intoval Wireless Charger, 3 in 1 Charger works for the following products:

• iPhone, iWatch, Airpods
• Qi-Certified Charging Station for iPhone 13, 12, 11, Pro, Max, XS, Max, XR, XS, X
• iWatch 7/6/SE/5/4/3/2
• Airpods Pro/3/2/1 (Z5, Black)

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iPhone 13: Price

iPhone 13 starts at $699 for the Mini and $799 for the base model.

The Pro and Pro Max go for additional sums.

iPhone 13 (base model)

Amazon currently has a 512 GB model that comes with a carrier subscription.

More and more iPhone 13 models will be coming on Amazon as the iPhone 14 becomes more popular.

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iPhone 13 Mini

The iPhone 13 Mini is basically everything you want but in a more compacted form.

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iPhone 13 Pro

The iPhone 13 Pro doesn’t yet have a lot of renewed models on Amazon that are unlocked for all carriers.

But there are a few.

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iPhone 13 Pro Max

The iPhone 13 Pro Max is like the iPhone 13 Pro in that it doesn’t have a lot of inventory on Amazon that’s unlocked for all carriers.

But some are up and available usually.

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What’s the difference between the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13?

iPhone 13 has a better processor, longer lasting battery life and better camera.

It contains the A15 chip instead of the A14.

iPhone 12 is still a great iPhone, but iPhone 13 is newer and more powerful.

iPhone 11’s only real advantage over iPhone 13 is its headphone jack. If you really prefer the headphone jack option, iPhone 11 may be right for you… but if not, iPhone 13 definitely makes sense as your next choice.

iPhone 13 Software

The iPhone 13 comes with iOS 15 software.

Apple normally pairs a software release with the latest iPhone model.

It comes with the following apps built-in:

And the following free apps from Apple:

iPhone 13 FAQ

Below are some of the most commonly asked iPhone 13 questions.

What comes in the box?

You receive the following:

• iPhone with iOS 15
• USB-C to Lightning Cable
• Documentation

How long does the iPhone 13 battery last?

iPhone 13 has a 3400 mAh battery life. iPhone 11 only has a 2700 mAh battery life. iPhone 13 is the clear winner here with almost an entire extra charge over iPhone 11 . iPhone 11 is fast, but iPhone 13 makes up for it by doubling iPhone 11’s charging speed (although iPhone 13 doesn’t support wireless charging like iPhone 11 does).

What are the specs of the iPhone 13’s A15 bionic chip?

Launched	September 14, 2021
Designed by	Apple
Common manufacturer(s)	TSMC
Product code	APL1W07
Max. CPU clock rate	to 2.93 GHz in iPad Mini 63.23 GHz in iPhone 13 Pro
Architecture and classification
Application	Mobile
Technology node	5 nm
Microarchitecture	“Avalanche” and “Blizzard”
Instruction set	A64
Physical specifications
Transistors	15 billion
Cores	6
GPU(s)	Apple-designed 4 core GPU in iPhone 13 / 13 Mini Apple-designed 5 core GPU in iPhone 13 Pro / 13 Pro Max and iPad Mini 6
History
Predecessor	Apple A14

Conclusion: Should you buy an iPhone 13 in 2024?

iPhone 13 is definitely one of the iPhone’s best releases.

It offers unparalleled processing power, improved battery life, improved camera quality, 3 GB RAM instead of iPhone 11’s 2 GB RAM, triple the charging speed over iPhone 11, wireless charging support, and more storage capacity than iPhone 11.

The only real advantage iPhone 11 has over iPhone 13 at this point in time is its headphone jack for those who love wired headphones.

iPhone 13 doesn’t have a headphone jack though so if you really need it back or don’t want to go wireless with your headphones, iPhone 11 may be for you… but iPhone 13 takes the cake if you can live without it!

Related content

• iPhone 12 – Still the Best in 2024?
• iPhone 11 – Still Worth It in 2024?

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Appendix: Additional iPhone 13 Specs

Camera

• Dual 12MP camera system: Wide and Ultra Wide cameras
• Wide: ƒ/1.6 aperture
• Ultra Wide: ƒ/2.4 aperture and 120° field of view
• 2x optical zoom out
• Digital zoom up to 5x
• Portrait mode with advanced bokeh and Depth Control
• Portrait Lighting with six effects (Natural, Studio, Contour, Stage, Stage Mono, High‑Key Mono)
• Sensor‑shift optical image stabilization (Wide)
• Seven‑element lens (Wide); five‑element lens (Ultra Wide)
• True Tone flash with Slow Sync
• Panorama (up to 63MP)
• Sapphire crystal lens cover
• 100% Focus Pixels (Wide)
• Night mode
• Deep Fusion
• Smart HDR 4
• Photographic Styles
• Wide color capture for photos and Live Photos
• Lens correction (Ultra Wide)
• Advanced red‑eye correction
• Auto image stabilization
• Burst mode
• Photo geotagging
• Image formats captured: HEIF and JPEG

Video Recording

• Cinematic mode for recording videos with shallow depth of field (in 1080p at 30 fps)
• HDR video recording with Dolby Vision up to 4K at 60 fps
• 4K video recording at 24 fps, 25 fps, 30 fps, or 60 fps
• 1080p HD video recording at 25 fps, 30 fps, or 60 fps
• 720p HD video recording at 30 fps
• Sensor-shift optical image stabilization for video (Wide)
• 2x optical zoom out
• Digital zoom up to 3x
• Audio zoom
• True Tone flash
• QuickTake video
• Slo‑mo video support for 1080p at 120 fps or 240 fps
• Time‑lapse video with stabilization
• Night mode Time-lapse
• Cinematic video stabilization (4K, 1080p, and 720p)
• Continuous autofocus video
• Take 8MP still photos while recording 4K video
• Playback zoom
• Video formats recorded: HEVC and H.264
• Stereo recording

TrueDepth Camera

• 12MP camera
• ƒ/2.2 aperture
• Portrait mode with advanced bokeh and Depth Control
• Portrait Lighting with six effects (Natural, Studio, Contour, Stage, Stage Mono, High‑Key Mono)
• Animoji and Memoji
• Night mode
• Deep Fusion
• Smart HDR 4
• Photographic Styles
• Cinematic mode for recording videos with shallow depth of field (in 1080p at 30 fps)
• HDR video recording with Dolby Vision up to 4K at 60 fps
• 4K video recording at 24 fps, 25 fps, 30 fps, or 60 fps
• 1080p HD video recording at 25 fps, 30 fps, or 60 fps
• Slo-mo video support for 1080p at 120 fps
• Time‑lapse video with stabilization
• Night mode Time-lapse
• Cinematic video stabilization (4K, 1080p, and 720p)
• QuickTake video
• Wide color capture for photos and Live Photos
• Lens correction
• Retina Flash
• Auto image stabilization
• Burst mode

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