'What's Different from the Previous Model...' Apple Unveils the 'iPhone 13' Series

Domestic Release on October 8

[Asia Economy Reporter Eunmo Koo] Apple has announced its new smartphone series, the iPhone 13. The notch size at the top of the display has been reduced, and it features the powerful A15 Bionic chip. It is scheduled for official release in South Korea on October 8.

On the 14th (local time), Apple held a special event at Apple Park in Cupertino, California, USA, to unveil the iPhone 13 series. The iPhone 13 series consists of four models, similar to its predecessor: the iPhone 13 (6.1 inches), iPhone 13 mini (5.4 inches), iPhone 13 Pro (6.1 inches), and iPhone 13 Pro Max (6.7 inches).

Greg Joswiak, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Marketing, said, “We made the iPhone 13 more powerful, supporting many features and enjoyable to use. It boasts a beautiful design, industry-leading performance, an advanced camera system with impressive computational photography features, amazing durability, water resistance, and a breakthrough improvement in battery life, allowing customers to use their iPhones whenever they need.”

He added, “Especially the Pro lineup offers more professional shooting capabilities, including Cinematic mode, ProRes, and Dolby Vision video. The Super Retina XDR display with ProMotion technology is Apple’s best display ever, intelligently responding to on-screen content and delivering fantastic graphics performance, making it perfect for all viewing environments.”

The colors for the iPhone 13 and mini are available in five options: Pink, Blue, Midnight, Starlight, and Product Red. The Pro and Pro Max models come in four colors: Graphite, Gold, Silver, and Sierra Blue. Storage capacities for the mini and iPhone 13 are ▲128GB ▲256GB ▲512GB, while the Pro and Pro Max offer ▲128GB ▲256GB ▲512GB ▲1TB.

Unlike the iPhone 12, which introduced 5G for the first time and changed its external design after three years, the iPhone 13 does not have major changes in appearance. However, the camera notch at the top of the display is 20% smaller than its predecessor. Both models feature an OLED-based Super Retina XDR display with 800 nits brightness. The A15 Bionic chip, with a 6-core CPU and 4-core GPU, improves processing performance by 50%. The 16-core machine learning chip enhances video and preprocessing performance.

Camera functions have also been improved. The rear dual-camera system includes sensor-shift optical image stabilization (OIS), an ultra-wide lens, and 1.7-micrometer (㎛) pixels. It can capture clear photos even in dark environments and record 4K video at up to 60fps. The Pro models also feature a new ultra-wide lens that enables macro photography with a minimum focus distance of 2 cm, allowing close-up shots that magnify objects larger than they appear. Macro photography typically requires special lenses.

A new 'Cinematic mode' has been introduced for video recording. This shooting technique focuses on a specific person or object within a frame while blurring other people, objects, or the background to emphasize the subject, commonly used in movies and dramas. This allows the focus to shift from one person to another or to an object within the same frame, guiding the viewer’s attention along with the focus changes.

The domestic retail prices start at ▲iPhone 13 mini 950,000 KRW ▲iPhone 13 1,090,000 KRW ▲iPhone 13 Pro 1,350,000 KRW ▲iPhone 13 Pro Max 1,490,000 KRW. In over 30 countries including the United States, China, Japan, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Germany, pre-orders begin on the 17th, with in-store sales starting on the 24th. In South Korea, the devices will be available for purchase starting October 8.