After thinking about it, and looking at the new iPhone 13 Pro again in the store, I decided not to upgrade this cycle again.
My current iPhone X is still fine, and it’s still under monthly Apple care warranty. There’s nothing wrong with it.
Yes, the new camera on the iPhone 13 Pro has better specs. And it might be better in low light conditions. And the telephoto might be better, etc. But the fact of the matter is for 99% of my daily use it probably doesn’t make a difference. A friend posted a photo on Facebook the other day of the full moon taken with his smart phone, a Samsung Galaxy, and it was amazing. I couldn’t believe it was taken with a smart phone. It turns out that Galaxy has 20 times optical zoom! Now that is interesting. Of course I don’t want to leave the Apple ecosystem, but why can’t Apple get a telephoto like that?
it just feels a little bit over consumerism for me at the moment considering I just got my new MacBook Pro.
The new iPhone 13 Pro feels heavier and bulkier than my current iPhone X. In fact it weighs 30 g more. When I was holding it in the store a couple of days ago I actually felt the difference. Maybe next year they’ll find a way of making it slimmer and lighter.
So anyway, I’m going to wait and see what the 14 looks like.
This time last year, I had a physically trashed iPhone 7, and iPhone 12 was just out. I opted for iPhone 11 (which 2 weeks previously had been the primo, top of the line model). It surpasses all my expectations and I expect I’ll be happy with it for several years, at least until something needs changing and I forget how I broke my iPhone 7’s TouchID button while changing the broken screen.
The “sizzle” stuff like 5G is still in the process of rolling out, and since most of my internet consumption on my iPhone comes while I’m connected to very fast WiFi, it’s just not tempting.
I’m seeing a lot of those Samsung moon photos, and I think it’s their killer feature. Put that kind of optical zoom and AI exposure into an iPhone and Apple will really see their sales rocket.
Yeah, I agree there’s nothing super-compelling about the 13 (at least for me). But, I’ve decided to cast my lot with AT&T (for various reasons), and since they were basically giving away the phone (for an extension on their lease on your soul), I went ahead and traded in my XS Max for a 13 Pro Max. I like it and all, but it is a bit thicker and a bit heaver. Better battery life, for sure, and the camera is amazing.
I upgraded to an iPhone 13 Pro from a XS and I think I regret doing so. The phone is so thick I think I would have been happier with the 13 mini. The two reasons I did is that we need to get an extra phone for the kid and adding her to our other plan was $60 ($10 on the new plan), and the other reason was the camera. I take photos at conference with it, and that’s where it will come in handy.
The 13 Pro is very slightly thinner than the XS. The squared-off sides may make it feel thicker compared to the XS’s rounded sides; it’s also slightly wider than the XS. The 13 mini (and regular 13) is the same thickness as the Pro and has the same squared-off sides but is much narrower.
143.6 x 70.9 x 7.7 mm XS
146.7 x 71.5 x 7.65 mm 13 Pro
131.5 x 64.2 x 7.65 mm 13 mini
Switching from the 13 Pro to the mini (or regular 13) would mean giving up the telephoto lens and 6x optical zoom (15x digital). The wide and ultra-wide lenses are also different. The XS’s two lenses are telephoto and wide and it does 10x digital zoom while the 13 mini only does 5x.
