iPhone 13: Design, Release Date, Price and Features

While it’s only been several months since the iPhone 12 was sold, Apple’s next smartphone, the iPhone 13, is already in sight (or whatever it ends up being called). The new phone is expected to be available in four different models, iPhone 13, iPhone 13 Mini, iPhone 13 Pro, and iPhone 13 Pro Max, according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. But when can we expect Apple to unveil its newest phones?

Apple still has to indicate any date of iPhone 13. On the basis of the history of Apple, however, we can generally predict when the company will hold iPhone events and make an informed guess on a release date. Although the pandemic has shifted the normal direction towards 2020 and marks the first Apple event in September without an iPhone in eight years due to development delays, Kuo forecasts 2021 as the traditional cadence of the business will return.

Related: iPhone Security Tips: How to Secure Your Kid’s iPhone

If that is real, at some point in September we should hope to get a first look to the iPhone 13.

Apple usually hosts their events on Tuesdays or Wednesdays and iPhone launches are typically scheduled around a week and a half after the new devices are revealed by Apple. Normally the third week of September, new iPhones are launched on a Friday.

Unless Apple announces a case, we won’t know if that’s true and displays your phone. However, if you would like to save on an iPhone 13 and look forward, at least for now we would bet on the September schedule.

iPhone 13 Release date

There is not a word on Apple’s next iPhone so far, either official or unofficial. In most cases, we can reliably predict when iPhone events happen in Apple and extrapolate a release date based on that. In 2020, the first case in eight years without iPhone in September was another story, due to development delays caused by the pandemic of coronavirus. However, Kuo expects business this year as usual for the supply chain of Apple. If this is the case, then sometime in September we might expect to see the iPhone 13 unveiled in an event.

Let’s synthesize the info we have:

• Apple loves having its events on Mondays or Wednesdays.
• Usually, the date of iPhone release is one and a half weeks after the annunciations from Apple.
• Generally, new iPhones will be launched during the third week of September on a Friday.

iPhone 13 Price

In Apple’s iPhone 12 lineup there were four phones at four different prices, with an even greater variance between carriers and storage settings. The baseline model iPhone 12 cost $799 at launch, an improvement of $100 from the 2019 iPhone 11, primarily as a result of adding 5G support for this new model. Since an important technological update is not anticipated for the iPhone 13, analysts expect a similar pricing structure for 2021.

iPhone 13 Design

There have been no leaked returns or grainy videos but we do not anticipate any large improvements to the design of the iPhone in 2021, as 2020 has already seen a substantial ‘slabular’ redesign with the return of the flat sides of the iPhone 5. Apple is also not expected to make any changes to the phone’s sizing from the previous generation.

iPhone 13’s rumored sizes:

• iPhone 13 Mini: 5.4-inch
• iPhone 13: 6.1-inch
• iPhone 13 Pro: 6.1-inch
• iPhone 13 Pro Max: 6.7-inch

Two possible design elements which already have a decent mood: The death of a Lightning port, whether speculated about, wished for or feared over the generations of iPhones, and a shallower notch or fully notched screen.

iPhone 13 Cameras

The iPhone got some really good updates from the camera in 2020, in particular in the Pro Max edition, where the iOS crowd (also in the pro) and ProRaw launched lidar.

Better zoom capabilities for the iPhone 13

But zoom technology was one of the weak points in the 2020 lineup camera offering. The Samsung’s Galaxy S20 Ultra and now the S21 Ultra both have a 100x zoom for contrast — a 2.5-times optical zoom (though it is a mix of optical and digital). The iPhone 13 will probably have a periscope camera (as stated by TechRadar), a feature that could have a wider zoom range without needing even larger camera bumps, according to ETNews. For the future periscope lens, Kuo made similar predictions while his report suggested that we would need to wait until 2022. The 2.5x zoom on the iPhone 12 Pro Max could also trickle into the next iPhone Pro edition. It’s possible.

Improved night mode photos

New rumors in early February hint at welcome improvements for low-light photography. Instead of f2.4 an ultra-wide lens is expected by analysts with wider aperture — f1.8. A wider aperture ensures that the camera can reach more light, allowing better images in low-light or at night.

Related: The Best iPhone VPN Apps 2021

Features: All the other iPhone 13 rumors we’ve heard

There’s plenty we can rely on last year and on Apple’s usual record for the 2021 iPhone lineup. For example, 5G is only a preliminary conclusion. In the case of a loader or speakers, or a headphone jack or a USB-C port there probably would not be. Without 2021, we expect the iOS 15 to be previewed by Apple at their WWDC annual event in June and the latest operating system loaded will be sent onto the iPhone 13.

120Hz refresh rate for the iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max

It was assumed that the radiator speeds would be refreshed in the iPhone 12, but the rumors of 120 Hz didn’t come out – probably due to the demand for the 5G phone battery already increased. Rather, the range of Apple displayed the same 60Hz display as the iPhone 11 last year.

But 2021 could be the 120Hz display year and a higher display refresh rate could lead to faster scrolling. Many top rivals now have a 120 Hz screen (e.g. OnePlus 8T and Galaxy S21), so the chances of the next Pro line are good.

Evidence for doubling the refresh rate in 2021 comes from Korean news site The Elec, which reports that two models of iPhone 13 use their screens with the LTPO technology (the story is in Spanish). This screen technology will make the telephone generally more power-efficient, which makes smaller batteries and/or longer battery life also likely (not to mention these whispers about an always-on display). Learn more about LTPO, Polycrystalline oxide, or low-temperature OLED screens. The famous Max Weinbach leaker repeated this rumor on YouTube in the middle of February.

An always-on display

The iPhone 13 could have its own version, which Weinbach called a “toned-down lock” screen, much like the Apple Watch (and the Android phones). If rumours are real, you still have to unlock or wake the entire screen without your next iPhone show the time and battery charge and getting reports.

Return of the Touch ID button

Bloomberg reported in 2019 that the beloved Touch ID button could return as an under-display sensor in the next year’s flagship, which would have been the iPhone 12. That did not happen, but it left room for error in the Bloomberg report, which says that the technology could “run to the iPhone refresh of 2021.”

Twitter leaker @L0vetodream also teased an under-display Touch ID last fall, which was subsequently corroborated (and translated) by Prosser.