iPhone 13 series: Top five features to expect

We are just a couple of months before the expected arrival of Apple's iPhone 13 series, but the steady barrage of leaks has painted a pretty decent picture of what;s to be expected.

So far, the iPhone 13 shapes to be what the iPhone 11 series was to the iPhone XS-series one - key upgrades all across the board that might not sound particularly exciting when taken out of the context, but quite beneficial to the overall user experience.

Here are the top five features that will reportedly make the cut on the iPhone 13.

There will be gains all across the board when it comes to batteries. Here's the rundown:

As seen in this brief comparison, all new iPhones will likely ship with beefier batteries which should drastically improve their battery life. But it's not just the larger batteries that will improve the energy efficiency, it's also the LTPO OLED displays and the much faster A15 Bionic chipset that will likely be responsible for the energy saving gains. Last year's iPhone 12 series actually came with slightly decreased batteries in comparison with the previous iPhone 11 series, so it's refreshing to see a massive increase in the battery department. So far it seems that battery life could be one of the key features of the upcoming iPhone 13 generation.

The larger batteries will lead to slightly thicker phones, but it's worth it.

Although Apple was the first manufacturers to utilize a screen with a high refresh rate (the ProMotion one on the 2017 iPad Pro 2nd Gen), it's late to the party when it comes to smartphones. Yet, it's just the right time for Cupertino to employ the trendy new screen tech, and it will do that in the best way possible: by utilizing an LTPO OLED displays with adaptive refresh rates on the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max, as the rumors suggest. Supplied by Samsung Dislpay, these screens will most likely hit 120Hz at the maximum and dynamically go down in other scenarios. As a side note, such a display would allow Apple to introduce an always-on display on the iPhone, which would probably display a static image that refreshes at 1Hz, similar to the Apple Watch Series 5 and Series 6. However, the regular iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini are unlikely to get the new tech.

The Apple A15 Bionic chipset will be based on a 5nm manufacturing technology and is already reportedly in production at TSMC's foundries. This will hopefully allow it to deal with the global semiconductor shortage and be ready for a September release of its iPhone lineup. If previous years are indicative in any way, we should see massive performance improvements in comparison with the previous generation. In particular, the Apple A14 Bionic was a pretty solid improvement over the A13 Bionic, but most of that was because of the 5nm manufacturing process in contrast with the 7nm of the older device. That's why we don't expect such massive gains, but we would probably see great bumps anyway.

If the pandemic proved one thing, it's that Face ID doesn't bode very well with masks. The iOS 14.5 update fixed that to some extent, but not everyone has an Apple Watch. It's clear that a fingerprint scanner is still a necessity, and it seems the folks over at Cupertino support the same school of thought as the iPhone 13 series is largely expected to mark the return of Touch ID on the iPhone. As one might expect, Touch ID will arrive as an under-display solution due to the physical constraints of the bezelless design of the latest iPhone offerings.

The iPhone 13 is expected to come with an improved camera system, which will likely feature a much, much better ultra wide-angle lens. Venerable iPhone analyst Ming-Chi Kuo expects a wider f/1.8 in comparison with the iPhone 12's f/2.4 aperture, which should provide sharper photos with less noise. The number of physical lens elements is also reportedly increasing from five to six, which should theoretically reduce the image distortion, and that's something very important for wider angle images. Finally, autofocus is reportedly coming to the ultra wide-angle lens, which is a great thing to have. Aside from the ultra wide-angle camera, all iPhone 13 models are rumored to score the LiDAR depth-perception system as well as sensor-shift stabilization which should deliver much sharper night-time image aside from the obvious benefits to video shooting.