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Introduction
The Apple iPhone 13 mini is the most compact flagship smartphone money can buy. It's also easy enough to outright recommend to anyone looking for this particular type of device. It is astonishingly rare to find such a pocket-friendly smartphone, let alone one of flagship caliber.
Apple launched the first iPhone mini a year ago, and while it did not turn out to be the massive success some hoped for it to be, it was still a popular purchase among the fans of compact phones, Android and iOS alike. But because of the lackluster sales, the rumor has it the iPhone 13 mini will be the last of its kind before it is merged with the iPhone SE in a year or two.
The iPhone 13 mini brings few updates over the iPhone 12 mini - an improved chipset, a better main camera with new sensor and stabilization, about 10% battery capacity increase, and a couple of software features. And a smaller screen notch, of course! But we imagine few if any iPhone 12 mini users will be upgrading to the iPhone 13 mini.
But as a standalone smartphone, the iPhone 13 mini seems like a great offer for a number of reasons - it is the cheapest current flagship iPhone with unmatched compact and lightweight design. It employs the most durable design on the market so far, runs on the most powerful Apple A15 chip with 5G, has excellent cameras, there are loud stereo speakers and a great 5.4" OLED screen with Dolby Vision support.
Let's make a quick run through the specs now.
Apple iPhone 13 mini specs at a glance:
- Body: 131.5x64.2x7.7mm, 141g; Glass front (Gorilla Glass), glass back (Gorilla Glass), aluminum frame; IP68 dust/water resistant (up to 6m for 30 mins), Apple Pay (Visa, MasterCard, AMEX certified).
- Display: 5.40" Super Retina XDR OLED, HDR10, Dolby Vision, 800 nits (HBM), 1200 nits (peak), 1080x2340px resolution, 19.5:9 aspect ratio, 476ppi; Wide color gamut, True-tone.
- Chipset: Apple A15 Bionic (5 nm): Hexa-core (2x3.22 GHz Avalanche + 4xX.X GHz Blizzard); Apple GPU (4-core graphics).
- Memory: 128GB 4GB RAM, 256GB 4GB RAM, 512GB 4GB RAM; NVMe.
- OS/Software: iOS 15.
- Rear camera: Wide (main): 12 MP, f/1.6, 26mm, 1.7µm, dual pixel PDAF, sensor-shift OIS; Wide (main): 12 MP, f/1.6, 26mm, 1.7µm, dual pixel PDAF, sensor-shift OIS.
- Front camera: Wide (main): 12 MP, f/2.2, 23mm, 1/3.6"; Wide (main): 12 MP, f/2.2, 23mm, 1/3.6".
- Video capture: Rear camera: 4K@24/30/60fps, 1080p@30/60/120/240fps, HDR, Dolby Vision HDR (up to 60fps), stereo sound rec; Front camera: 4K@24/25/30/60fps, 1080p@30/60/120fps, gyro-EIS.
- Battery: 2438mAh; Fast charging 20W, 50% in 30 min (advertised), USB Power Delivery 2.0, MagSafe wireless charging 15W, Qi magnetic fast wireless charging 7.5W.
- Misc: Face ID, accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, barometer; NFC; Siri natural language commands and dictation, Ultra Wideband (UWB) support.
For a device of this size, the Apple iPhone 13 mini is jam-packed with features. We can't but appreciate that how Apple made the mini possible without cutting any corners - it is basically a shrunk version of the regular iPhone 13. It even offers Face ID and MagSafe wireless charging. And despite the new improvements, Apple managed to increase the battery capacity, too.
The iPhone 13 mini, just like the iPhone 13, has a regular 60Hz OLED, though that's hardly surprising. The ProMotion screen is reserved for the iPhone ProModels. And that's probably the only missing feature worth a mention before we get this review started.
Unboxing the Apple iPhone 13 mini
The iPhone 13 mini may be jam-packed with features, but its retail bundle is the opposite. Inside the thin paper box, you will find the iPhone 13 mini and a USB cable.
If you dig a little deeper, you'll also discover the SIM ejection pin and one Apple sticker. This year Apple's removed all plastic wrapping of its boxes and became even greener, so we guess the iconic sticker will be a goner soon enough.
Design, build quality, handling
The iPhone 13 mini looks a lot like the iPhone 12 mini and is equal in size - Apple used the same design though a few of the internal technical advancements have left a mark on the exterior, too.
For starters, the iPhone 13 mini has a smaller screen notch - one of the most important changes Apple has delivered this year. It's not a groundbreaking reduction, but it is the first step towards its retirement.
The other notable change is on the back - the dual-camera now uses diagonal alignment as opposed to the vertical one on the iPhone 12 mini. This new arrangement is probably a result of the primary camera improvements - a larger sensor with new sensor-shift stabilization.
Finally, the larger battery and the new hardware are responsible for 6 extra grams and 0.4mm extra thickness over the iPhone 12 mini. That's insignificant, obviously, but old protection cases may not fit properly on the new iPhone 13 mini. That, of course, is all but surprising.
The Pros are in the middle
The Apple iPhone 13 mini is obviously an incredibly small and lightweight smartphone - it's 131mm tall, 64mm wide and weighs 141 grams. Yet, it is also one of the most durable devices on the market thanks to its Ceramic Shield front, aluminum frame, Corning-made rear panel, and sapphire crystal lens covers. Apple likes to come up with fancy names, but various drop tests have already proven this new design indeed lives up to the hype.
On top of this extra durable design, the iPhone 13 mini is also IP68-rated for dust and water resistance. Apple went above and beyond the official IP requirements and secured the iPhone 13 mini against water - it can go swim in 6m deep water for 30 minutes and survive this adventure.
The 5.4" Super Retina XDR screen occupies most of the front, and it packs an incredibly sharp OLED panel with high brightness, HDR10 and Dolby Vision support. The bezels are as thin as on the iPhone 12 mini, but the notch is now narrower - that's the first size reduction since the iPhone X. The cutout still contains the Face ID sensors, the 12MP selfie camera and one of the stereo speakers that also acts as an earpiece.
The screen is protected by a flat piece of Ceramic Shield glass made in collaboration with Corning. The back panel is also flat and covered by a Corning-made glass though not a Ceramic Shield (probably a version of Gorilla Glass Victus). Both glass sheets are covered with extra oleophobic layers, which make smudges not that sticky and easier to clean.
Speaking about the back, you can easily notice the new camera arrangement. The back glass is all glossy, while the camera square is matte. The Pro models have it the other way around.
The whole camera setup is jutting out of the back, and then the two camera rings are jutting out once more. This makes the mini wobble a lot, but that's unavoidable for now.
The lenses are protected by sapphire crystal glass, which is dense and durable, and that's why they can easily scratch other surfaces like regular glass. Yes, we are warning you, again, not to stack the iPhone 13 mini over other phones.
The iPhone 13 mini uses an aluminum frame with brushed paint, and it's nicely grippy. Fingerprints do stick, but they aren't as visible.
There is nothing on the top of the iPhone 13 mini.
The bottom has the mouthpiece grille, the Lightning port, and the other stereo speaker behind another dotted grille.
The volume keys, the silencer and the SIM tray are all on the left.
The Side key is alone on the right side of the iPhone 13 mini. It powers on the iPhone, locks it; you can use it to summon Siri or Apple Pay. It doesn't shut down the phone, though; if you want to see the power menu - you hold Volume Up and Side key.
Handling the iPhone 13 mini has to be one of the most, well, memorable experiences we've had since the iPhone 12 mini. It's such a compact phone, with an amazing display, and excellent grip. One-handed operations are a breeze, the iPhone sits well in hand, and we rarely use the other hand for help. Overall, this is the phone you get for the best experience on such a compact display.
The iPhone 13 mini is easily the king of compact phones - it is of striking lightweight design, premium durability, and extra grippy. If you ever go near a physical smartphone store, you can easily experience that. If you do not like small phones, the iPhone 13 mini is surely not for you. But if you do - you will love every minute of it.
The smallest flagship display
The Apple iPhone 13 mini employs a small 5.4-inch Super Retina XDR OLED screen - just like the iPhone 12 mini. The panel now has a bit smaller notch and is even brighter with 800 nits of typical brightness. It has 1,080 x 2,340 pixels or 476ppi - the sharpest among the iPhone 13s.
A flat sheet of Ceramic Shield glass by Corning handles the screen protection.
The XDR OLED screen supports HDR10 and Dolby Vision. Its refresh rate is fixed at 60Hz - the 120Hz ProMotion mode is reserved for the iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max. The touch sensors should be working with 120Hz sampling.
The display of the iPhone 13 mini also supports True Tone adjustments, Wide Color, and it has the Haptic Touch feature provided by a powerful Taptic Engine.
So, we've completed our standard display measurements, and they are indeed impressive. We captured 831nits of maximum brightness, way above the average and a brilliant achievement. The minimum brightness is incredibly low at 1.9 nits.
| Display test | 100% brightness | ||
| Black, |
White, |
||
| 0 | 831 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 627 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 802 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 639 | ∞ | |
| 0.428 | 644 | 1505:1 | |
| 0.434 | 670 | 1544:1 | |
| 0 | 440 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 800 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 416 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 856 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 498 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 926 | ∞ | |
The display on the iPhone 13 mini has excellent color accuracy - we measured an average deltaE of 1.6 against sRGB targets. The panel supports wide color (P3), and it automatically switches to this gamma when DCI-P3 content is sent to the screen.
Battery life
The Apple iPhone 13 mini packs a 2,438mAh battery - that's about a 10% increase over the iPhone 12 mini and a very welcome upgrade. Being such a small phone doesn't allow for a large battery, and we can imagine there will be major concerns about the battery life.
It turns out there is no ground for any concerns. In fact, the iPhone 13 mini did better on our battery life test compared to the iPhone 12 mini - it scored 2 more hours on calls and 1 extra hour on our web and video tests.
Finally, when we added average standby performance to the mix, we calculated a total endurance rating of 75 hours - that's 6 more hours compared to the iPhone 12 mini and 14 hours less than the iPhone 13. It's not bad for such a small phone, not bad at all - the screen-on times are notably good.
The endurance rating denotes how long the battery charge will last you if you use the device for an hour of telephony, web browsing, and video playback daily. More details can be found here.
To adjust the endurance rating formula to match your own usage patterns check out our all-time battery test results chart where you can also find all phones we've tested.
Charging speed
Apple's charging hasn't changed since the iPhone 12 series. The new iPhone 13 supports fast charging via USB Power Delivery power adapters, with a maximum of 20W. Apple is offering such chargers as an extra purchase. It is a standard USB-PD charger with USB-C port, so you could get any third-party USB-PD charger instead - there are more compact, as well as cheaper options out there.
The iPhone 13 mini also supports fast wireless charging up to 15W (the 12 mini was limited to 12W). To get this 15W maximum, you need to use Apple's MagSafe charger. Otherwise, any Qi-compatible would do for slower 5W-7W charging.
So, if you charge the iPhone 13 mini with Apple's 20W adapter, it will refill 61% of its dead battery in half an hour.
30min charging test (from 0%)
Higher is better
- Realme GT 5G (65W)
87% - Apple iPhone 13 mini
61% - Apple iPhone 12 mini
60% - Asus Zenfone 8
60% - Samsung Galaxy S21 5G (25W PD)
55% - Apple iPhone 13
54% - Samsung Galaxy S21 5G (18W QC3.0)
40% - Apple iPhone 11 (5W)
18%
The iPhone 13 mini reaches 85% in 50 minutes, while the last 15% require additional 34 minutes - meaning a full charge is achieved in 1 hour and 24 minutes.
Time to full charge (from 0%)
Lower is better
- Realme GT 5G (65W)
0:39h - Samsung Galaxy S21 5G (25W PD)
1:13h - Apple iPhone 13 mini
1:24h - Samsung Galaxy S21 5G (18W QC3.0)
1:25h - Asus Zenfone 8
1:28h - Apple iPhone 12 mini
1:29h - Apple iPhone 13
1:46h - Apple iPhone 11 (5W)
4:00h
Speaker loudness and quality
The iPhone 13 mini offers the same powerful speakers as the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 smartphones. The first speaker is inside the notch and doubles as an earpiece, when necessary, while the other one is next to the Lightning port, at the bottom.
The audio setup supports spatial audio and Dolby Atmos, and we know we've said this before, but the output sounds exactly as promised - less directional and more spatial compared to non-iPhones.
The Apple consistency lives on with the iPhone 13 mini - it scored yet another Very Good mark for Apple!
You bet the audio quality is impressive - we can hear the bass, the mids are great, and the high notes are rich and sparkly. The iPhone 13 mini may be small, but it has one of the best stereo speakers on the market right now.
Use the Playback controls to listen to the phone sample recordings (best use headphones). We measure the average loudness of the speakers in LUFS. A lower absolute value means a louder sound. A look at the frequency response chart will tell you how far off the ideal "0db" flat line is the reproduction of the bass, treble, and mid frequencies. You can add more phones to compare how they differ. The scores and ratings are not comparable with our older loudspeaker test. Learn more about how we test here.
Apple iOS 15
All new iPhones come with Apple's iOS 15 out of the box. It's not a significant update over iOS 14, but it does round many UI elements shapes such as settings menus and icons, notifications, buttons. The new version improves heavily on FaceTime and Messages, Notification management, Safari browser (now with extensions), Wallet and Maps. It also makes Photos and Spotlight even more intelligent - the Photos app can now read and let you copy text in real-time.
The iOS interface is still based on homescreens populated with apps and stackable widgets, App Library with automatic sorting is your app drawer, there are also the familiar and Notification and Control Centers.
Apple iOS 15
Apple's iOS 15 has improved notification profiles (Focus) based on different automations, which are great for those who receive a ton of notifications per day. There is also a new Summary option to get you up to speed after a silent period.
Focus
The navigation gestures stay the same as they were on the iPhone X. Swipe upwards from the bottom line to close an app, swipe and stop midway for task switcher, swipe from the side of the screen for back and forward. You can also swipe on the line left or right to switch to your recently used apps instantaneously.
One of the most important updates in iOS 15 is in FaceTime. The new app looks more and more like Zoom, and it now supports Grid view! It has a cleaner interface, supports background blur, spatial audio, and most importantly - it can make conference calls, and non-Apple users can join the fun, too, by using an invite link and Chrome of Edge web browser.
The Apple users can enhance their microphone with Voice Isolation or Wide Spectrum and let others hear them much better.
FaceTime
The Safari web browser has seen quite the upgrade. First, the address bar is now at the bottom of the screen, easily accessible, and you can swipe on it left or right to switch tabs (in portrait mode) just like you fast scroll between apps via swipes on the infamous line. And second, Safari now supports extensions; you can download such from the App Store.
Safari
Apple uses its Siri and makes various upgrades to it every year. Multimedia is handled by Apple's own apps - Photos for your images and video clips, TV for movies and Apple TV+, Music for MP3s and Apple Music, and Maps for navigation.
Photos • TV • Music • Maps
Apple's system apps each year receive intelligence updates, which makes them even more powerful. For example, the Photos app now supports Live Text feature - if you see a text icon over an image and you tap on it, you will be able to (scan and) copy or look up the text you are seeing. You can even translate that text. Neat!
Live text
There is Files for your local files, Books are here for your documents, PDFs, and eBooks. Stocks and News are onboard. There is Weather app, too. Apple also offers its office suite for free - Pages, Numbers and Keynote. iMovie and Clips are also onboard, so you can edit your videos - there is newly added support for Cinematic shorts captured on the new iPhone 13 mini camera.
Files • Stocks • Weather • Books
Performance and benchmarks
The Apple iPhone 13 mini uses the latest Apple A15 Bionic chip, the same as the rest of the iPhone 13 series. It is the second 5nm Apple chip (second-gen 5nm TSMC process) and packs the whopping 15 billion transistors - that's 27% more than the A14 within the iPhone 12 phones.
The new A15 chip still relies on a hexa-core processor with 2 big Avalanche cores clocked at 3.23GHz and 4 small Blizzard cores working at 1.82GHz. The upgraded processor should deliver a 50% higher performance than the competition, whatever that means (Snapdragon 865 maybe?).
There is an improved 5-core Apple GPU for the Pro models and 4-core Apple GPU for the non-Pro devices such as our iPhone 13 mini.
The new A15 has a new 16 core Neural Engine, too, powering features such as on-device voice and image recognition and other advanced machine learning tasks. On top of that, there is a new ISP on board, twice the amount of cache, as well as a new display engine and new video encoders and decoders.
The iPhone 13 mini has 4GB of RAM, while the Pro models enjoy 6GB of RAM.
The Apple A15 Bionic also comes with Qualcomm's X60 5G modem.
You bet the Apple A15 Bionic processor is the fastest mobile CPU to date, as it happens every year with Apple's hardware. It is way ahead of the Android competition. And it offers a 15% boost over the A14 in multi-core performance and a 10% jump in single-core operations.
GeekBench 5 (multi-core)
Higher is better
- Apple iPhone 13 Pro
4687 - Apple iPhone 13 mini
4681 - Apple iPhone 12 mini
4174 - Asus Zenfone 8
3604 - Samsung Galaxy S21 5G
3238 - Apple iPhone SE (2020)
3237
GeekBench 5 (single-core)
Higher is better
- Apple iPhone 13 mini
1735 - Apple iPhone 13 Pro
1709 - Apple iPhone 12 mini
1599 - Apple iPhone SE (2020)
1334 - Asus Zenfone 8
1118 - Samsung Galaxy S21 5G
1032
The iPhone 13 mini, just like the iPhone 13, packs an improved 4-core Apple GPU, while the Pro models offer an even faster 5-core GPU - we guess they need it for their 120Hz displays.
The 4-core GPU on the iPhone 13 mini is doing a marvelous job, and this phone will offer stellar gaming experience for the years to come.
GFX Manhattan ES 3.1 (offscreen 1080p)
Higher is better
- Apple iPhone 13 Pro
181 - Apple iPhone 13 mini
150 - Apple iPhone 12 mini
131 - Apple iPhone 11
121 - Asus Zenfone 8
117 - Samsung Galaxy S21 5G
97
GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (offscreen 1080p)
Higher is better
- Apple iPhone 13 Pro
119 - Apple iPhone 13 mini
107 - Apple iPhone 11
76 - Apple iPhone 12 mini
73 - Asus Zenfone 8
69 - Samsung Galaxy S21 5G
60
3DMark Wild Life Vulkan 1.1 (offscreen 1440p)
Higher is better
- Apple iPhone 13 mini
9199 - Asus Zenfone 8
5666 - Samsung Galaxy S21 5G
5412
We also ran CPU and GPU stability tests as we do for all our reviews lately.
First, we ran the CPU stress test (APSI Bench) for 30 minutes. The cooling system allowed the CPU to keep 74% of its maximum performance, which is outstanding for such a tiny glass phone, a thin one at that.
Then, we ran a GPU Stress Test via the 3D Mark Wild Life app. The iPhone 13 mini throttled down to 64% of its maximum performance when working at 100% for 20 minutes - not inspiring though still a good number.
The phone doesn't get dangerously hot during stress tests, but it does get noticeably warm.
CPU stress test • GPU stress test
The iPhone 13 mini is great for gaming, believe it or not. The phone handles all games hassle-free, smoothly and with the best of graphics. It doesn't appear to be throttling in games and doesn't get hot while doing it, and it can keep offering such smooth gaming for at least 7-8 hours before its battery falls to critical levels.
The iPhone 13 mini employs the best mobile chip, and that's all anyone can hope for, especially in a small phone. Finally, 4GB RAM might seem inadequate for Android, but iOS and its apps manage perfectly fine with such capacity because of Apple's optimizations and the way of handling apps. Most games pause when minimized, and the worst that can happen is some of your minimized apps/games may need to restart if too much time has passed after you've minimized them. But this seems to be valid for any phone, Android and iOS alike, doesn't it?
Dual camera with improved primary
The Apple iPhone 13 mini camera department is a match to the iPhone 13's and not that different from the iPhone 12 and 12 mini's. There are two 12MP snappers on the back and one 12MP selfie imager at the front. The SL 3D scanner for Face ID also assists the Portrait selfie mode.
The iPhone 13 mini brings two hardware upgrades over the iPhone 12 mini. There are also a couple of software features available for the new iPhone 13 mini.
The main 12MP camera has a bigger sensor with larger pixels and a sensor-shift stabilization upgrade. It relies on a Sony sensor with 1.7µm pixels (vs. 1.4&micri'm on the iPhone 12 mini). The lens is 26mm f/1.6. Instead of optical stabilization, this camera now uses the iPhone 12 Pro Max's sensor-shift stabilization. This means the sensor itself is stabilized in real-time and not the lens akin to the in-body stabilization or IBIS seen on many large-sensor digital cameras.
The secondary camera is identical to the iPhone 12 mini's - a 12MP shooter with 1.0µm pixels and 14mm f/2.4 lens for ultrawide photos. The focus is fixed, and there is no stabilization.
The selfie camera is identical to the iPhone 12 mini's. It has a 12MP sensor with 1.0µm pixels and a 23mm f/2.2 lens. The focus is once again fixed. When using portrait mode on this camera, it captures depth info with the structured-light 3D scanner, so it should be taking convincing selfies portraits.
All three snappers support up to 4K@60fps video capturing with Cinematic Stabilization and Expanded Dynamic Range. Dolby Vision HDR capturing is possible on all cameras in all modes. The new Cinematic Mode works on the primary and selfie shooters only.
Camera app and features
The viewfinder has been mostly the same since the iOS 13 and the iPhone 11 - you can see outside of the viewfinder thanks to the precise calibration of the two cameras that allows seeing what will be left outside of the frame in real-time.
The Apple image processing includes all legacy features like Smart HDR, Night Mode on all cameras, and Deep Fusion.
The Night Mode icon pops up automatically when a low-light scene presents itself, and it will take a pseudo-long-exposure shot, handheld, of course. You will see the seconds suggested next to the Night Mode icon, but if you tap on it, you can change the simulated long exposure or altogether disable it. Usually, it's between 1 and 2 seconds, but sometimes the phone allows you to go for up to 30 seconds depending on the environmental light or its lack thereof. You can use this mode on the main, the ultrawide, and even the selfie snapper.
Deep Fusion is used when light conditions aren't ideal, say, indoors. It triggers instead of Smart HDR and Night Mode. Deep Fusion uses four frames before you hit the shutter, four more once you do, and one long exposure shot. The Neural engine will select the best frames and create a high-quality HDR photo that is very detailed, sharp, and more natural-looking. The Neural processor's machine learning process analyzes the image being taken and processes them differently depending on what's in the frame - say, sky, foliage, or skin tones. Meanwhile, structure and color tones are based on ratios obtained by the Neural unit on the A15 CPU.
As usual, all cameras talk to each other, so they already know the correct exposure and tone mapping settings when you switch between them. This applies to both stills and videos.
The camera interface is mostly unchanged. You swipe between modes and have a couple of settings you can uncover with an upward swipe - flash, night mode, live photo, photo aspect, exposure compensation, and filters. In video mode, you can change the resolution and frame rate from the viewfinder.
Camera app • Photographic styles • Photographic styles • Night Mode • Video • Settings
Portrait mode is available on the main and the selfie cameras. There is no RAW mode on the iPhone 13 mini.
There is a new feature called Photographic Styles which automatically edits a photo, one element at a time (applying different corrections to the subject and background, for example). You can choose between Standard, Rich Contrast, Vibrant, Warm, and Cool. You can tune each of these modes by your liking and set your preferred one as default. It's like filters, but more permanent.
The new hardware and software on the iPhone 13 generation enabled another interesting camera features - Cinematic Mode. It does automatic rack focus, but the phone records a depth map alongside the video, so you can change the focus point manually after the fact. Editing such videos is possible in iMovie and Clips apps.
Cinematic mode
Photo quality
The main camera of the iPhone 13 mini shoots excellent 12MP photos - they are sharp, and there is a lot of detail, the contrast is great, and we observed low noise levels. We can praise the dynamic range - these morning scenes were handled very well with a balanced approach.
Another thing the iPhones do is astonishing white balance, and the iPhone 13 mini is no exception - the colors and the color temperature are incredibly accurate. Sometimes this accuracy makes for this anemic photo look, and the photos could benefit from some extra vibrancy and warmth. It's good that Apple came up with the Photographic styles, which were made exactly for such occasions - once configured, it sets the tone and hues for every photo that comes next.
Finally, let's talk about the foliage. It's good, but not great. Sometimes the photos show excellent trees and bushes, sometimes smeared. We expect this to be improved with each new iPhone, but alas, this is not the year Apple's foliage skills get a boost.
Main camera, 12MP
The latest iPhones shoot some of the widest photos we've seen so far, while the automatic distortion correction is quite proficient. The resolved detail is okay, the noise is low, the contrast is superb, and the colors are once again impressively accurate.
The dynamic range has the same balanced approach as on the main camera - not too low and not unnaturally high.
It's not all great, though. Here, on these samples, you can clearly see Apple's inability to handle foliage properly. It's not terrible, but not that good either. This camera has smaller sensor pixels, and less detail is expected, still, sometimes the greenery is smeared badly and looks like an oil painting.
But at the end of the day, these wide photos will end up on the social networks, group chats, or just shown through the Photos app - and they do look spectacular when downsized.
Ultrawide camera, 12MP
Before we move to low-light samples, let's see some portrait shots. You can shoot such photos on the main camera, and they usually turn out impressive with a nicely balanced exposure. The subjects are sharp and detailed, with lively colors and noise-free, while the background blur is quite likable.
The depth map seems to be detailed enough as the subject separation is good most of the time. Yet, the separation may be less than ideal if the camera is presented with a more complex haircut or background.
Overall, these are some of the best portrait shots we've taken in a while, so we think everyone will be happy with Apple's portrait mode.
Portraits, 12MP
Apple's had the right idea about the Night Mode - it triggers automatically when the light is low and usually requires 1s or 2s exposure. You can opt out of using it or correct the suggested exposure time, but we strongly suggest sticking to Auto and do not apply corrections.
So, the photos taken with Automatic Night Mode are exemplary. They present balanced exposure, great contrast and superb color saturation. The resolved detail is outstanding; the sharpness, too. The dynamic range is not the best, but enough for a balanced look.
The noise reduction deserves praise for its proficiency - we enjoyed clean photos with very good sharpness.
The Apple's Night Mode doesn't turn the night into day, it just boosts exposure and the dynamic range makes for slightly better color saturation and may or may not help for more resolved detail.
Main camera Auto NM, 12MP
You can turn the Night Mode off, and this will yield you slightly softer photos with somewhat desaturated colors. The detail is still commendable, and the contrast and dynamic range are good, too.
The exposure is better for what we expected from non-Night Mode photos, and the images look a lot like what we saw that night, colors included. But people shoot at night to capture beautiful and colorful photos, and that's why we suggest sticking to the Auto Night Mode behavior.
Main camera NM off, 12MP
The ultrawide camera on the iPhone 13 mini also supports automatic Night Mode. The photos are okay - we can put a good word in for the exposure, the contrast, and the punchy colors. But the images are also soft and quite noisy, and we don't recommend pixel peeping them. They are usable for Facebook/Instagram share, and that's about it.
Ultrawide camera Auto NM, 12MP
Of course, you can also turn off Night Mode on the ultrawide camera, but you really should not do that. The standard photos are poor in quality - the detail is smeared, noise is everywhere, the photos are much darker, and the colors are desaturated.
Ultrawide camera NM off, 12MP
And here are photos of our usual posters taken with the Apple iPhone 13 mini. You can see how it stacks up against the competition. Feel free to browse around and pit it against other phones from our extensive database.
Apple iPhone 13 mini against the Apple iPhone 12 mini and the Samsung Galaxy S21 5G in our Photo compare tool
Apple's selfie camera has been offering two Field-of-View modes for a while - the slightly zoomed-in 7MP crop, which is equivalent to a 30mm field of view, and the full 12MP mode, which has a 23mm equivalent FoV.
If you hold the iPhone in portrait orientation, selfies are cropped to 7MP to provide a tighter framing, but if you rotate the phone horizontally, you will get more of the scene with the camera app automatically switching to the wider 12MP mode. You can also switch between those two modes manually from the viewfinder.
So, the 12MP selfies are spectacular - they are sharp with an incredible amount of resolved detail, the contrast and the dynamic range are excellent, and, for a third time on this page - the colors are very accurate.
The front camera and its processing handle noise very well, and it's low even when we shot indoors is not ideal light conditions - something that often kills the mood on other phones.
Selfies, 12MP
The Face ID tech comes in handy when shooting selfie portraits. The SL 3D snapper assists with a detailed depth map, and quite expectedly, subject separation is brilliant, while the background blur is lovely.
The selfie portraits are shot in 7MP, meaning the camera crops a part of its available FoV and shows a zoomed-in shot. Other than that, just like the standard photos, the portrait ones impress are super - they excel in detail and sharpness, colors, contrast, and even dynamic range.
Portrait selfies, 7MP
Video recording
The iPhone 13 mini supports video capturing up to 4K at 60fps with all three cameras, and it can even do it simultaneously if you have the right app.
All videos are digitally (also hardware where available) stabilized - Apple calls this cinematic video stabilization. All modes, including the 4K@60fps as well, feature expanded dynamic range thanks to the Smart HDR. The slow-mo options max out at 1080p at 240fps.
You can also capture HDR videos straight into the Dolby Vision format with up to 4K at 60fps (the iPhone 12 mini was limited to 30fps). You can edit these videos on the go on your phone, you can upload them on YouTube or any other popular platform, or even send them to your friends. The Dolby Vision information is saved outside of the video stream, so the video will look normal to any non-HDR player/screen and will be color-boosted on any Dolby Vision-compatible player and display.
You also have a choice between H.265 HEVC and H.264 video encoders. The High-Efficiency mode uses H.265 and is mandatory for 4K@60fps and HDR footage, while the More Compatible mode (H.264) provides easier playback across different devices.
The iPhone 13 mini, just like the previous iPhones, captures wide stereo audio for the videos at about 192kbps. This is spatial sound - it's richer and deeper compared to just regular stereo.
The 4K videos shot on the main camera are top-notch and one of the best in the mobile business, given that they all use EIS. The resolved detail is superb with just the right amount of sharpness applied, and noise is non-existent. The dynamic range is wide, as promised by Apple, the contrast and the colors are excellent as usual.
The 4K clips coming from the ultrawide camera are equally great. They are probably the best we've seen from an ultrawide shooter and extremely wide. The picture is detailed, colorful, with good dynamic range and accurate colors, of course.
The low-light footage from the main camera is good - there is enough detail, the colors are great, as is the contrast. The dynamic range is okay, and the noise is handled well even if the reduction processing lowers the sharpness a bit.
The best we can say for the 4K night clips from the ultrawide camera is that they are usable. They are darker, but if you really mush use this camera for video at night, the result won't be terrible.
The Cinematic Mode simulates rack focus automatically and is shot in 1080p resolution with 30fps. This mode is available on the main and selfie cameras. It works like advanced Portrait mode with blur simulation for everything that should be out of focus. The depth map is created in real-time, and an algorithm automatically decides which subject should be on focus. The automatic blur works side by side with the autofocus, and the overall results are good enough.
Possibly the best part about this Cinematic mode is that the depth map is captured outside the clip. This means you can easily edit these clips in iMovie or Clips. You can change the aperture, the subject that gets the focus, and more. So, if the Auto mode doesn't get it right, nothing is lost - since it's all done by software, you can fix everything later.
The video quality is good, but we don't think the edge detection is quite there yet and the blurred effect is not that good.
Finally, here is the Apple iPhone 13 mini in our video comparison database.
2160p: Apple iPhone 13 mini against the Apple iPhone 12 mini and the Samsung Galaxy S21 5 in our Video compare tool
The competition
The Apple iPhone 13 mini is a rare occurrence - it's not only one of the most compact phones on the market, but it's also a flagship one. And while people are still hoping for Sony to make a new Xperia mini, Apple is making compact iPhones by the dozen. Not only that, but it also offers budget phones as part of the iPhone SE lineup.
Apple iPhone 13 family portrait
The new iPhone 13 mini is a minor upgrade over the 12 mini model with a smaller screen notch and a brighter panel, a bit faster chipset, doubled base storage, a slightly larger battery, and an improved primary camera. We'd say the battery bump is what got us excited the most about this mini, and it indeed offers improved battery autonomy over the previous model.
The compact class is ruled by Apple, so you can imagine our first alternative recommendations come from Apple's camp. The iPhone 12 mini is still available, if the new upgrades don't excite you, you can just as well go for the older model and save yourself €120 and maybe spend them on a pair of AirPods instead.
There is also iPhone SE (2020), which is €320 cheaper than the €799 iPhone 13 mini, but it still offers a great iOS experience, excellent performance, good photo quality, and excellent videos. The bezels and the lack of Night Mode are potential deal-breakers, though.
If the mini is too small for you, then you can consider the iPhone 13 (€100 over the 13 mini) - it's the same phone but with a larger 6.1" display. The regular model is still considered compact, and many users may find it striking the best balance between pocketability and multimedia-friendly.
Apple iPhone 12 mini • Apple iPhone SE (2020) • Apple iPhone 13
Outside Apple, we want to mention the Asus Zenfone 8 and the Samsung Galaxy S21 5G for being one of the most compact Android flagships with outstanding screens, performance, hardware, battery life. The Zenfone is a bit cheaper than the mini, while the S21 5G costs about the same.
Asus Zenfone 8 • Samsung Galaxy S21 5G
Our verdict
The Apple iPhone 13 mini is the most compact smartphone on the market right now, with a flagship feature set and surprisingly good battery life for its small size. It has a lively Dolby Vision OLED screen, one of the most powerful chipsets to date, superb stereo speakers, and it offers a proficient trio of cameras that delivers great photo and video quality.
The iPhone 13 mini is also one of the most durable phones - it has a scratch-resistant screen and is IP68-rated for dust and water endurance in up to 6m deep water. Oh, and it's incredibly thin and lightweight.
The iPhone 13 mini is not perfect, of course, but it's close. It doesn't offer a 120Hz refresh rate, it ships without a charger, and iOS is not for everyone. Plus, it's a minor upgrade over the iPhone 12 mini, and the notch reduction is far from what many were hoping for.
We don't know if the iPhone 13 mini is the last of its kind, for a while at least, but if it goes extinct, we know many people will miss it dearly. Because it is the phone you get if you want a small yet powerful flagship - it's that simple. Even with its imperfections, it is the perfect smartphone for fans of compact phones.
Pros
- Striking design - beautiful, lightweight, durable.
- Small yet bright OLED, HDR10 and Dolby Vision support.
- Good battery life for such a small phone.
- Excellent stereo speakers - loud and clear.
- Class-leading performance, 5G.
- Top-notch photo and video quality across all three cameras.
Cons
- Minor update over iPhone 12 mini.
- No high refresh rate.
- Smaller notch is not small.
- iOS (with its limitations) remains a love it or leave it affair.
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