With the iPhone 13 reveal behind us, it’s time to read the fine print and see what we missed. And this year, there was a lot of fine print.
That includes some surprising news about the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro. And we have some not-so-great news about the Apple Watch and the new iPad mini.
1. The iPhone 13 Pro has a more powerful GPU than the iPhone 13
Kudos to 9to5Mac for noticing this one. While all iPhone 13 models nominally share the same processor, the A15 Bionic, the iPhone 13 Pro’s GPU is more powerful than the one in the iPhone 13.
More precisely, according to Apple’s specifications, the iPhone 13 Pro’s GPU has five cores, compared to the four-core GPU in the iPhone 13. The additional power might be there for another feature that only the iPhone 13 Pro has, which is ProRes video support.
The devil, they say, is in the details.
Credit: apple
2. The iPhone 13’s notch is narrower but taller
The rumors about the smaller notch on the new iPhones were true, but in reality, the difference is hardly noticeable.
Curiously, while the notch on the new iPhones is a bit narrower, it’s also slightly taller. In total, it still takes up less of the phone’s screen surface than before.
Oh, and sorry, despite the smaller notch, you still won’t get battery percentage in the iPhone 13’s Status Bar.
3. Shooting in 4K with ProRes requires at least 256GB of storage
Don’t even bother with 4K ProRes if your iPhone 13 Pro has less than 256GB of storage memory.
Credit: apple
This brings us to another detail that was easy to miss: If you plan to shoot ProRes video in 4K resolution, you’re going to need an iPhone 13 Pro or iPhone 13 Pro Max with at least 256GB of storage.
Per Apple’s tech specs page (via MacRumors) on the iPhone 13 Pro, ProRes video recording will be limited to 1080p at 30fps for models with 128GB of storage.
The reason for this is simple: Shooting ProRes in such high resolution will produce files that will take up your phone’s storage really fast. In fact, if you’re really interested in shooting ProRes video, you should probably get an iPhone 13 Pro or Pro Max with 512GB or even 1TB of storage (though that last version will cost you).
4. Oh, and ProRes won’t be available right away
Apple did mention this, but it was easy to miss: ProRes shooting is one option that won’t be available right away. According to Apple, it will be available “in a future iOS 15 update,” and only for iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max.
On the topic of things that won’t be available right away, Apple Watch 7 is among them. Apple merely said all models will be available “later this fall.”
5. The Apple Watch 7 apparently has the same processor as the Apple Watch 6
It looks pretty much the same as the Apple Watch 6, and it probably has the same processor inside.
Credit: apple
This is a bit of a bummer. New Apple products typically feature a more powerful processor, but this is not the case on the new Apple Watch 7, which appears to share the same processor as the Apple Watch 6.
Sure, the new Apple Watch has a couple of other upgrades over its predecessor, most importantly a slightly larger display. But given that the design hasn’t changed, and the processor isn’t faster, one has to wonder whether waiting for the Apple Watch 8 is the right move.
This is not official information, mind you; it’s according to developer Steve Throughton-Smith, who found the supporting data in the latest version of Xcode.
We’ll know more about what’s inside when the Apple Watch 7 gets inevitably taken apart, which should happen right after it hits the market later this fall.
6. The iPad mini has no headphone jack
We’ve covered this one in more detail, but the short version is this: Unlike its predecessor, the new iPad mini doesn’t have a 3.5mm audio connector. Sorry, folks.
