On paper, the iPhone 13 series does not seem to be a significant upgrade over the iPhone 12 lineup. However, once you look closely, you realize that Apple has made some meaningful improvements to the lineup.

The iPhone 12 series itself was a significant update over the iPhone 11 series. So, this year’s iPhone refresh was always going to be a little muted, with Apple focusing on basics. And that’s exactly what the company has done.

The iPhone 13 series improves in every key area: display, performance, camera, and battery life. The display is brighter, and on the Pro iPhones, you now get 120Hz ProMotion support. The cameras got a massive upgrade, with Apple using sensor-shift stabilization and bigger sensors across the board. Then, there’s battery life, which saw a massive improvement as well.

Apple claimed improvements of anywhere between 1.5 – 2.5 hours compared to older iPhones, and early battery tests of the new iPhones corroborate that. In fact, the iPhone 13 Pro Max lasted nearly 10 hours in a battery drain test, making it the longest-lasting smartphone in the test.

The battery life improvements also make the iPhone 13 mini much more usable as it improves on one of the weakest aspects of its predecessor: the battery life. Sure, early reviews suggest the battery life is only good enough to make it through a day, but that might just be enough for many of its potential customers.

For someone already owning an iPhone 12, the upgrade to an iPhone 13 would not make much sense. However, iPhone X/XS and even iPhone 11 owners will see some notable improvements across the board in daily use with the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro series.

If you pre-ordered the iPhone 13 series or managed to get one on launch day, how do you feel about it? Do you think it is an underwhelming upgrade? Or do you think Apple has made all the right improvements?