Gadgets
iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini First Impressions
Apple has launched these phones at the same starting prices as their predecessors in India, which in itself is good news. What’s even better is that you get twice the amount of storage at each tier. 128GB is now the base amount, and the iPhone 13 mini starts at Rs. 69,900. That goes up to Rs. 79,900 for 256GB and Rs. Rs. 99,900 for the new 512GB option. The iPhone 13 128GB costs Rs. 79,900, while the 256GB option is priced at Rs. 89,900 and the 512GB option will cost Rs. 109,900.
The iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini are nearly identical in terms of design and specifications. They have different screen sizes and battery capacities, and just like last year, the iPhone 12 mini has slightly slower wireless charging, most likely due to thermal constraints in its tiny body. Beyond that, they deliver the same capabilities, so your choice between them comes down to budget and personal preference.
For people upgrading from an older smartphone or just prefer something as light and unobtrusive as possible, the iPhone 13 mini continues to serve as a familiar path forward. A lot of people don’t like the fact that mainstream phones are now all quite big. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem as though that’s going to be enough to sustain this form factor beyond the current generation – persistent rumours suggest that this might be the last iPhone of its kind.
There are a few new colours with this generation as well. Black and White have been replaced by Midnight and Starlight, which are less stark and more neutral. There are still Blue and (Product) Red options, but they aren’t the same shades as before. Pink is a brand new option, and it’s surprisingly faint – almost white, with just a slightly warm blush tone. Hopefully we’ll see some more variety mid-cycle, if Apple repeats what it did with a surprise additional colour option for the iPhone 12 series earlier this year.
You’ll immediately notice the new diagonal camera arrangement on the back. This is an odd design choice for Apple, a company that usually goes overboard trying to make everything as slick and minimalist as possible. The rings around the cameras are also shinier than on last year’s models. Another big change is a narrower notch. Apple boasts that it’s 20 percent smaller, but it’s also deeper than before, so this might not actually improve anything.
The iPhone 13 (below) and iPhone 13 mini (above) are instantly recognisable thanks to the new diagonal camera arrangement
Apple has reserved its 120Hz ProMotion refresh rate feature for the Pro iPhone models. If you use them side by side, the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini don’t feel quite as smooth as the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max. This isn’t a huge deal, but it would be nice to have, especially considering that many Android phones priced well under Rs. 20,000 do have at least 90Hz screens these days. That aside, the displays on both models do look very crisp and colours are bright. They support HDR playback and True Tone automatic colour temperature adjustment.
All the new iPhones have IP68 ratings for dust and water resistance, and all use Apple’s Ceramic Shield material for their displays, which should hopefully mean that they can withstand scratches and impact. The iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini have matte aluminium bands running around all sides. Both these phones are slightly heavier than their predecessors, but are still comfortable enough for one-handed use.
The new notch is less wide but also deeper, so it might still be distracting
Apple’s A15 Bionic SoC is common across the entire iPhone 13 line, but the two non-Pro models have slightly weaker integrated GPUs, with only four cores rather than five. You still get six CPU cores (two high-power, two efficient) and 16 Neural Engine cores. Apple doesn’t disclose amounts of RAM or battery capacities but does say that battery life is up to two and a half hours better than the previous generation.
You do get the same headlining new camera features as with the Pro models – Cinematic Mode, which automatically adjusts focus between subjects in a frame, and Photographic Styles, which lets you customise the tone and character of photos you take before they are rendered. What’s also worth noting is that sensor-shift stabilisation, previously exclusive to the iPhone 12 Pro Max, is not standard across all four models. However, you don’t get the Pros’ 3X telephoto cameras, or the ability to take macro stills and videos. The wide and ultra-wide cameras are also not the same as those on the Pro models, and have slightly weaker specifications.
It will be interesting to see whether the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini offer enough to set them apart from the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini, respectively, which remain on sale at lower prices and benefit from the new iOS 15 release. That’s what we’ll aim to decide in our full review, which is coming up very soon.
“At Xbox, we believe that with better tools, creators can make even more extraordinary games,” Haiyan Zhang, GM, Xbox Gaming AI, said in a blog post. “This partnership will bring together: Inworld’s expertise in working with generative AI models for character development, Microsoft’s cutting-edge cloud-based AI solutions including Azure OpenAI Service, Microsoft Research’s technical insights into the future of play, and Team Xbox’s strengths in revolutionizing accessible and responsible creator tools for all developers.”
The aforementioned AI design copilot is a toolset that will help game designers turn prompts into scripts and dialogue trees. In contrast, the character runtime will enable dynamically generated plot beats and quests. We’ve already seen heavy AI integration in games by way of procedural generation — a more recent example being the 1000+ planets in Starfield. Not to mention, enemy AI has been around for way longer.
Inworld made headlines in August when it launched a modded story mode for Grand Theft Auto V, Sentient Streets, in which players had to investigate the rise of a bizarre AI-worshipping cult — a segment loaded with characters that spoke in AI-generated dialogue, on the fly. The mod was later taken down by publisher Take-Two, leaving a permanent strike on the creator Bloc’s YouTube channel. As per The Verge, Inworld’s AI technology can also be used for narration in top-down RPGs to warn players about any events awaiting off-screen and respond to questions like we’ve seen in the past year with AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Bing Chat. Microsoft has also been heavily banking on artificial intelligence, having made a $10 billion (about Rs. 83,254 crore) investment in OpenAI. The company has also integrated AI tools into its popular suite of services and also added an AI copilot to Windows.
Despite being a Microsoft-affiliated AI toolset, it would be interesting to see whether titles using them will be allowed to thrive on other platforms. In July, Valve claimed that it would be cracking down on games that included AI-generated assets if the developer didn’t own the copyright to the piece of art. For the uninitiated, when you insert a prompt to create something in AI, the software simply repurposes existing assets found online and mushes them together — basically stealing from other artists and writers without appropriate commercial licenses. Infringing them would lead to the game not being distributed on Steam, forcing the developers to seek proper licenses for the asset by reaching out to the AI companies involved. It’s unclear how Microsoft’s partnership will play out — as long as AI content is being used as a catalyst to innovate and create something new, it should be fine.
In a post on X shared by BSNL’s Andhra Pradesh (@bsnl_ap_circle) unit, the company confirmed that BSNL users can upgrade their older 2G or 3G SIMs to a 4G SIM for free. Not only will the upgrade be free, but a promotional image shared with the post suggests that users who opt for the upgrade will also receive 4GB of free data that will be valid for three months. It is speculated that BSNL is aiming to boost its upcoming 4G services with this offer. The announcement was first spotted by Telecom Talk.
To access the free data offer and the free upgrade, BSNL users are requested to get in touch with executives at BSNL’s Customer Service Centre, franchisee or retailer stores, or contact one of their Direct Selling Agents (DSA). The promo image also adds in a finer print that the offer is available with certain terms and conditions, but hasn’t detailed any, so far.
Reliance’s Jio recently launched the 4G-supported Bharat B1 feature phone in India. The handset is priced at Rs. 1,299 in India. Alongside 4G connectivity, the phone comes with JioCinema and JioSaavn applications pre-installed.
The Jio Bharat B1 is equipped with the JioPay application, which is said to allow users to make UPI payments. Aiming to increase accessibility, the phone supports 23 languages overall, including multiple regional languages.
Realme, via Weibo, announced the arrival of the Realme GT 5 Pro in China. The display of the handset is confirmed to offer 3000 nits peak brightness. It has also been teased to offer heat dissipation with a surface area of around 10,000mm2. It is confirmed to ship with Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC. The post doesn’t specify the exact launch date of the smartphone, however, given the release of the teasers, the launch could be just around the corner.
The Realme GT 5 Pro has been in the news a lot lately. It is expected to feature a 6.78-inch (1,264×2,780 pixels) AMOLED display and is tipped to come in 8GB, 12GB, and 16GB RAM options along with 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB inbuilt storage options.
For optics, the Realme GT 5 Pro is said to have a triple rear camera unit comprising two 50-megapixel sensors and an 8-megapixel shooter at the rear. The camera setup might include a Sony LYTIA LYT808 sensor, an OmniVision OV08D10 secondary sensor, and a Sony IMX890 telephoto sensor. For selfies, there could be a 32-megapixel sensor at the front. It is said to carry a 5,400mAh battery with support for 100W wired charging and 50W wireless charging.
The Realme GT 5 Pro is expected to come with upgrades over Realme GT 5. The latter was launched in China in August with a price tag of CNY 2,999 for the base model with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.
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