My gosh, it’s been almost 4 months since Apple released their line of iPhone 13 phones
and the iPhone 13 mini is THE iPhone I want to use the most.
It has just about everything I want in an iPhone.
My time has been split pretty evenly between this beautiful product red iphone mini and
the Sierra blue iPhone 13 Pro but after nearly 4 months I have decided to sell my beloved
13 mini…..
Hey, I’m Jerry and when Apple released the iphone 12 mini in 2020 I was soooo happy to
finally have a smaller iphone….relatively, that still had a decent size screen.
Apple crammed a 5.4” display into a body smaller than the iphone 6, 7, 8 and SE2, but
with nearly all the power of the bigger iphones.
With the iphone 13 mini Apple made the device even better across the board especially in
the way of battery life, but more on that later, making this the iphone I most wanted
to use.
For clarity, this is obviously the iphone 13 mini in product red and I like to go with
256GB which I find is the sweet spot for me.
This allows for plenty of storage space for photos and videos along with some synced media
like podcasts and netflix downloads.
And when I go on vacation sometimes the internet and wifi speeds are not great so I won’t
run out of space before everything gets backed up to google photos.
This guy goes for $799 in the US.
So the main reason I like to use the iPhone 13 mini is simply because of the size.
In my 1 month review I called it a human sized iphone because in many cases I can use this
iphone one-handed.
I also had planned initially to use the mini completely caseless to keep it as small as
possible in my hand and pocket.
but after a couple of months I found that it was just too slippery and I had to spend
more mental energy being careful with it than I wanted to so I finally tossed it into a
clear Apple magsafe case and have been much happier.
Unfortunately this slight change in size means that I do need to use 2 hands a bit more for
typing or tapping certain areas of the screen.
This aluminum and glass sandwich just looks amazing especially in the red color.
This is the true product red color, not like the past couple of years and if you disagree
with me you are wrong!
The screen on the 13 mini was updated this year to handle a max brightness of 800 nits
in regular use, up from 625 on the 12 mini and that makes a real difference in everyday
use, especially outside.
I have had zero issues using this phone in any condition, even with sunglasses on so
I am really happy with this update.
Compared to the iphone 13 Pro and Pro Max the mini still has a standard 60hz display.
I said in my review that not having pro motion did not bother me at all and the only time
I noticed it was if I was using the pro side by side with the mini.
But Since the 13 mini was released Apple released the new MacBook Pros that also have the 120hz
pro motion displays.
The problem I am having now is that between my iphone 13 pro, ipad pro, and now MacBook
pro they all have a high refresh screen.
This means that I am almost certainly using the mini side by side with a 120hz display
so I do notice the lower refresh rate much more often.,,,,Not to the point where I think
it’s a bad display or that I can’t recommend the 13 mini, just that I notice it more often
and it makes me want to switch to my 13 pro because it's right here in my office.
One of the down sides of the 13 mini is that because it is physically smaller with less
room inside, the speakers feel a bit weak.
They dont sound bad, or tinny….just not as full or loud as its bigger siblings.
And for most occasions this is not an issue at all, but….and I know I'll get some crap
for this, I like to use my phone in the shower to listen to news or podcasts.
It’s water resistant, why not?
The mini has a harder time getting loud enough to be heard over the water so I need to make
sure to angle it and bounce the sound off of a wall to create enough volume.
Next up is the Cameras, and I am not a pro photographer but I do like the cameras on
the iphone 13 mini even if it is just a wide and ultrawide.
I find the photos to be bright and clear and I love having the wide angle option especially
for taking pics of my house remodel.
It makes getting wide shots in a tight space a bit easier.
2 of the 3 big camera features announced with the iPhone 13 line were picture profiles and
Cinematic mode, and I have to say that after my 1 month review I have not used either one
of them.
I am sure that a lot of people like being able to set custom picture profiles for photos
so that they have their own consistent look but I actually like the way iPhone photos
look by default.
As for Cinematic mode, it is a cool technology demo that can change the focus automatically
when shooting video or even after in the photos app.
I found that I just dont want to do that work when shooting video with the iphone.
For me, the point of taking video with the iphone is that it is quick and easy and I
don't need to think about it or do more work when done.
Actually, I have not seen any youtube or social posts with cinematic mode since the first
couple weeks after the iphone 13 launched.
I think it is cool and will continue to get better but for now…..meh.
The one camera feature I do miss when using the iPhone 13 mini instead of the pro is Macro
mode which I use often, more as a utility.
Like zooming in on small text on a power adapter or finding a splinter in my finger.
It's actually pretty darn useful.
The iphone 13 line comes with Apple’s A15 processor which is a 6 core processor with
2 performance cores and 2 efficiency cores.
In tests this processor is about 15-20% faster than the a14 from the iphone 12.
But the bottom line is that it is crazy fast!
It has built-in video encoders and decoders, an image signal processor, handles lidar and
augmented reality, and has enough power to check each frame in cinematic mode on the
fly to make smart focus changes.
There is no app that you can get that will be slowed down by this processor and its just
a beast in the iPhone 13 mini.
Which brings me to battery life……which is good!
Apple says that the battery life of the iphone 13 mini is better than the regular 12 from
2020.
And I can say, despite having undeserved battery anxiety sometimes, I do not have any issue
on regular days with battery life.
I can get any where between 3 and 6 hours of screen on time using it for work apps,
email, browsing, shopping, youtube, music, podcasts, and watching my streaming directtv.
And I do not baby or try to conserve the battery during the day and will end with somewhere
between 5 and 20% remaining.
Now, if you remember at the beginning of the video I said that i have decided to sell my
beloved iphone 13 mini and you may be wondering why when I have pretty positive things to
say about this iphone…..Well, the truth is, all of the little things I mentioned that
were not as good as the pro have finally pushed me to give up my mini iphone.
Because I have added a case and need 2 hands for more things I am not getting much of a
benefit of the small size in my hand and pocket.
If I am using 2 hands more often why not get the benefit of a larger screen……and if
I now have a larger screen then the 120hz pro motion display on the 13 pro alleviates
that screen disparity when switching between my macbook pro and ipad pro which also have
120hz displays.
So although I don't think that most people will see or care about the pro motion display,
I am now more aware of it than I was 4 months ago.
The speakers on the Pro are louder and fuller and I do like the utility of the macro camera.
Although the battery on the mini is fine for most days, my irrational battery anxiety is
relieved a bit when using the 13 pro where I can get 5-7 hours of screen on time if needed.
So, for me it came down to all the little things that were real upgrades from the 13
mini to the 13 pro, and I didnt come to this decision lightly.
I really mean it that the 13 mini is the iPhone I most want to use because it is more compact
and and man do I love that color.
If you want a smaller phone I absolutely recommend you go get one because there may not be a
14 mini, but for me, because I have both right here, the added benefits of the pro are calling
me.
But what do you think?
Am I crazy to give up the iphone 13 mini?
Let me know below.
If you are rocking a mini iphone and looking for an mini iPad you should check out my ipad
mini 6 review right over here.
Hit the thumbs up button if you liked it, hit subscribe if you want and Ill see you
next time.