On September 24, 2021, Apple released its newest iPhone, the iPhone 13 and the iPhone 13 Pro, eleven months after the release of the iPhone 12 (apple.com). With repeated announcements of a new iPhone each year, and at times twice per year, it makes it hard to keep track of which version is the newest model. With each iPhone supposedly more advanced than the last, the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro contain evident upgrades in camera, battery life, and storage. Even so, how do these changes compare to the characteristics of the newer iPhones 12 and 11, or even the older models ranging back to iPhone 6?

The iPhone 13 (6.1 inches) with three additional models of the Pro (6.1 inches), Pro Max (6.7 inches), and mini (5.4 inches) come in a variety of colors with slight differences in each model. Besides a difference in size, the iPhone 13 (mini and regular) and the iPhone 13 Pro (max and regular) has a different optical zoom range, with the iPhone 13 being times 2 and the iPhone 13 Pro being times 6, as well as camera design, with the iPhone 13 having two camera lenses and the iPhone 13 Pro having 3 camera lenses with a telephoto (apple.com). Additionally, all four models do not have the same battery life, since the amount of battery life increases by size, so it ascends from the iPhone 13 mini (17 hours), the iPhone 13 (19 hours), the iPhone 13 Pro (22 hours), to the iPhone 13 Pro Max (28 hours) (apple.com).

Technology has evolved and has been developed for years into the advanced form it is today. In the everyday life of modern society, it is apparent that the use of phones constitutes a large portion of how people function and is a necessary means to many people, which can be seen through the students of YLHS. A school like YLHS, which has over 1,000 students, will come with over 1,000 perspectives, and many will have unique opinions, especially with a topic as prominent as iPhones. Sam Davis (10) expresses her opinions on the new iPhone 13, stating that “I have an iPhone XR right now and I don’t think I would get the new [iPhone] just because I really like the one I have, and I feel the new model won’t be much better,” since Apple consistently “keep[s] coming out with stuff and they try to make it better… I think there is a difference, but I don’t think it’s really big.” If the iPhone model people currently have is still effectively functioning, there has to be an advancement or benefit from their older model that will urge many people to purchase the new iPhone. 

By comparing the features of the iPhone 13 to older iPhone models, the extent of the upgrades in the iPhone 13 will differ with each model, which will determine whether the upgrades are significant enough for a change of phone. The biggest emphasis in Apple’s marketing of the new iPhone 13 has been the high-quality camera, significantly improved from previous models. The new design for the iPhone 13 camera is two lenses, diagonal to each other, comprising its biggest wide camera sensor, sensor-shift optical image stabilization, and the Ultra-Wide camera with a faster sensor (apple.com). With this being said, the iPhone 13 does not have many other advancements from the iPhone 12 or 11 other than the camera adjustments, which is already proficient in the iPhone 12 and 11, and it has a slightly longer battery life (apple.com). However, there will be significant changes in the camera of the iPhone 13 when comparing it to the camera of any iPhone before iPhone 11. Other than the camera, one of the features that stands out in iPhone 13 is the use of 5G, which can also be found in iPhone 12, but none of the iPhones before that.

Depending on the usage of the phone, different levels of efficiency and duration are needed, so to some, just the ability of the camera to take a photo is enough to satisfy their needs. To others, the extra two to three hours gained in battery life, precision in the details caught by the camera, or speediness of the 5G data, is valuable, making the new iPhone 13 a worthy purchase. The iPhone 13 is now available for purchase with new upgrades and more refined features.