Everything You Need to Know About Apple's New iPhone 13 Lineup

Your guide to the top new iPhone features, colors, sizes, pricing, and pre-order info.

During its much-anticipated "California Streaming" event on Tuesday, Apple announced a long list of new products, including fresh iPads, upgraded Apple Watches, and an avalanche of accessories to buy along with them. And like with all of Apple's September events, the biggest news to come out of the extended commercial or sorts was about the company's new iPhones: The flashy new devices—iPhone 13 mini, iPhone 13, iPhone 13 Pro, and iPhone 13 Pro Max—will hit stores next week.

In typical Apple fashion, the announcement event was perfectly choreographed and, of course, loaded with tech nerd lingo and plenty of corporate marketing speak recited by executives. That's why we went ahead and broke down everything you need to know about the phones, including the top new features, color options, sizes, prices, battery life, and pre-order information—all in one place, and all in language anyone can understand.

Hold on tight to your newly dated-feeling iPhone and let's dive in.

The coolest new iPhone 13 features

While there are dozens and dozens of meaningful upgrades—stunning display enhancements, more storage, and expanded 5G connectivity, to name just a few—arriving with the iPhone 13 lineup, a lot of the best improvements have to do with the phones' cameras, and some are game-changing. Here's a rundown of just a handful of highlights:

Cinematic mode

This new camera capability will change the way to make videos on your phone by making them look just like Hollywood films and TV shows. When you switch to Cinematic mode, your iPhone will automatically change the focus on people, animals, and other objects in the scene for those seamless depth-of-field changes you see in professional productions. So, let's say there's a person in the foreground of the shot, then another person enters the back of the frame. In this case, the focus will be on the person in the foreground at first, but when the other person walks in, the focus will move to them and create cinema-style depth to the video. Apple made a short film to show off how it works.

Notably, the focus can be changed while you're taking the video or when you're done shooting, so you can be sure you're getting the depth effect you're looking to create. Apple said it studied the art of cinematography and combined those learnings with machine learning to develop this Camera app enhancement, and in the previews it provided, it looks spectacular.

Courtesy of Apple

Macro photography

While this feature is limited to the more expensive Pro models, it's a huge deal. For the first time, you'll be able to shoot super-close up photos on an iPhone, thanks to a redesigned lens and enhancements to the autofocus system. Apple claims you can get a sharp focus on objects as close as two centimeters away; for example, morning dew drops on a flower petal. You can do the same while taking videos, too. Honestly, it's about time this was a thing.

Photographic Styles

From what we can tell, this appears to be a new way to make your photos pop with color, or contrast, or warmth... without having to apply filters or make other adjustments after you take them. Instead, you can flip on a Photographic Style that will apply the same look to every photo you take after that. Apple said it created some preset styles, including Vibrant, Rich Contrast, Warm, and Cool, but you can adjust them to create exactly the look you're going for. And apparently, it doesn't mess with skin tones and skies to prevent an over-edited, unnatural look.

Improved battery life

Apple should be required to increase the battery life with each new iPhone, but that's sadly not guaranteed. So, we were thrilled when the company revealed battery life improvements across the entire lineup. Specifically, Apple claims the iPhone 13 mini will provide 1.5 more hours of battery life versus last year's iPhone 12 mini, while the iPhone 13 will give you an additional 2.5 hours of battery life over the iPhone 12 before it. The Pro models are getting similar boosts: iPhone 13 Pro gets 1.5 more hours of battery life and the Pro Max model gets 2.5 more hours compared to their predecessors.

Courtesy of Apple

A smaller notch

Finally, let's address the elephant in the room. Ahead of Tuesday's event, rumors that the size of the notch—aka that area at the top of the iPhone screen where the front-facing cameras and Face ID sensors live—would change circulated widely online, suggesting that it would be smaller on the new iPhone models. And, thankfully, it turns out the rumors were correct.

Apple said it has redesigned the camera and sensor layout in the notch, allowing it to reduce the housing size. The notch is now 20% small in width, which is a noticeable difference compared to iPhone 12 models. However, the notch is now slightly taller than previous models, which is also noticeable. So, it seems like the design update is a mix of mostly good news and a little bad news. But it's probably safe to say that if you're used to the notch on the current iPhones, you'll won't have any issues with that of the new ones.

Bottom line: we'll take it!

Courtesy of Apple

iPhone 13 mini colors

  • Pink
  • Blue
  • Midnight
  • Starlight
  • Red

iPhone 13 colors

  • Pink
  • Blue
  • Midnight
  • Starlight
  • Red

iPhone 13 Pro colors

  • Gold
  • Silver
  • Graphite
  • Sierra Blue

iPhone 13 Pro Max colors

  • Gold
  • Silver
  • Graphite
  • Sierra Blue
Apple

iPhone 13 screen sizes and dimensions

iPhone 13 mini

  • Display size: 5.4 inches
  • Height: 5.18 inches
  • Width: 2.53 inches
  • Thickness: 0.3 inch
  • Weight: 4.97 ounces

iPhone 13

  • Display size: 6.1 inches
  • Height: 5.78 inches
  • Width: 2.82 inches
  • Thickness: 0.3 inch
  • Weight: 6.14 ounces

iPhone 13 Pro

  • Display size: 6.1 inches
  • Height: 5.78 inches
  • Width: 2.82 inches
  • Thickness: 0.3 inch
  • Weight: 7.19 ounces

iPhone 13 Pro Max

  • Display size: 6.7 inches
  • Height: 6.33 inches
  • Width: 3.07 inches
  • Thickness: 0.3 inch
  • Weight: 8.46 ounces
Courtesy of Apple

iPhone 13 storage sizes and prices

iPhone 13 mini

  • 128 GB - $699
  • 256 GB - $799
  • 512 GB - $999

iPhone 13

  • 128 GB - $799
  • 256 GB - $899
  • 512 GB - $1,099

iPhone 13 Pro

  • 128 GB - $999
  • 256 GB - $1,099
  • 512 GB - 1,299
  • 1 TB - $1,499

iPhone 13 Pro Max

  • 128 GB - $1,099
  • 256 GB - $1,199
  • 512 GB - $1,399
  • 1 TB - $1,599
Courtesy of Apple

iPhone 13 battery life

iPhone 13 mini

  • Video playback: Up to 17 hours
  • Video playback (streamed): Up to 13 hours
  • Audio playback: Up to 55 hours

iPhone 13

  • Video playback: Up to 19 hours
  • Video playback (streamed): Up to 15 hours
  • Audio playback: Up to 75 hours

iPhone 13 Pro

  • Video playback: Up to 22 hours
  • Video playback (streamed): Up to 20 hours
  • Audio playback: Up to 75 hours

iPhone 13 Pro Max

  • Video playback: Up to 28 hours
  • Video playback (streamed): Up to 25 hours
  • Audio playback: Up to 95 hours

iPhone 13 & iPhone 13 Pro pre-orders and launch date

Apple announced the pre-orders of all four types of iPhone 13—iPhone 13 mini, iPhone 13, iPhone 13 Pro, and iPhone 13 Pro Max—start on Friday, September 17 at 5 am PDT for those who want to get their hands on the new hardware first. If not, you can always wait until all of the new phones hit Apple stores and other retailers on Friday, September 24.

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Tony Merevick is the Managing Editor at Thrillist. Follow him on Twitter @tonymerevick and Instagram @tonymerevick.