Question Apple A15 announced

[jpiniero]

Seems like the CPU or GPU is not much faster than A14. Might be due to wanting lower power draw for better battery life.

The NPU did get a bump, 15.8 vs 11.8 tops.

Edit: The Pro does get an increase to 5 GPU cores from 4. Might be useful because of the 120 Hz VRR they added.

 

[Annas231]

I wonder what Apple bases that 39 watt max on? The highest figure they could measure from real world code, the highest synthetic load they could come up with (i.e. power virus for all CPU cores, GPU cores, NPU cores, maximum memory traffic, network traffic, etc.) or that was simply the sum of the max draw of all components.

Unless we know what that 39W figure represents, it is in no way comparable to any figures we have for AMD and Intel systems. Given the jump to 50W for the Macbook you can bet that measurement includes "display at max brightness".

Agree, everything its at "max speed" included max brightness
Ive checked my Dell xps and i have 98W outlet, and its a simple intel with igpu, no dgpu, 16gb ram

 

[Annas231]

So at around 50W the M1 macbook has no competitor
Now i wonder how the next, more "professional" macs will perform and at what W
Probably will goes over 100W since they go with magsafe (usbC is not a viable option since it can charge at 100W i think)
So i wonder if the rumors that i read here will come true and the next macs will indeed have double the gpu cores or even 4x times gpu cores as an option
That 32 cores gpu i think will be on par with nvidia 1060TI ?!

 

[insertcarehere]

Not solely you mean? Because process advantage is of course a contributing advantage, one of many advantages Apple has assembled over time.

I'd argue that a significant reason that Apple has a process advantage is that, regardless of architecture, leading processes have a much easier time getting to acceptable performance/yields clocking at ~3ghz (Apple's clock targets) than ~5ghz (contemporary x86 clock targets). Besides Apple, Qualcomm also got to TSMC 7nm for their SoCs earlier than AMD was able to.

 

[Leeea]

thats applies the same for every other laptops ...
So, what other laptop can outperform the m1 macbook at 50W outlet ?
But the others already answer me, but thank you anyway

So at around 50W the M1 macbook has no competitor

Yawn, did you even even look?

This took me less then 3 minutes:
https://www.newegg.com/pine-gray-as..._laptop-_-34-235-800-_-Product&quicklink=true
I spent more time typing this post then finding the superior product.

ZenBook 13 starts at $869
m1 MBP starts at $1299

Maxes out at 65w with the battery charging.

It achieves this by using a superior oLED screen.

The 5700u does lose to the m1 on single thread, but beats it on multithread. With internet browsing being multithreaded, in the typical usage scenario this will yield a superior experience.

The oLED screen on this $869 laptop offers superior blacks, superior HDR*, superior pixel response times, superior 90 Hz refresh (vs 60 Hz on MBP screen), smoother scrolling, superior contrast, superior color response, and superior black uniformity, all which yields a superior user experience to the last gen LCD on the apple equivalents.

(*remember, HDR is not how bright the screen can get, as the m1 mbp can certainly burn your eyes out quicker, but is a measure of contrast ratio between the black and the full brightness.)

It also comes with a SSD that is 2x larger then the m1 MBP starting at $1299.

With its magnesium chassis, it comes in at 2.5 lb, lighter then any laptop Apple makes.

At 17 hours of battery life, the ZenBook comes close to the same as the m1 mbp.

oh, and it provides this superior user experience for $430 less then the m1 MacBook Pro.


There is nothing wrong with liking Apples, they are great computers. But sticking them up on a throne and proclaiming nothing else comes close is delusional.

 

[Eug]

My main machine is a 24 GB 2017 27" Core i5 iMac, but my secondary machine is an 8-core 3 GHz Xeon Mac Pro from 2007 with a 30" Cinema Display.

Since the Mac Pro is stuck on 10.11 El Capitan, it's time to upgrade the machine. Plus, recently I found out my 12 GB Apple-specific FB-DIMM RAM with its giant heatsinks is defective, so I'm now running 8 GB server RAM with crappy heatspreaders which unfortunately means fan noise whenever I do anything more than baseline. Even just surfing a multimedia heavy website gets the fans ramped up.

Rather than spending more money to get a bunch more ancient FB-DIMMs, I'm now thinking of just upgrading to a Mac mini.

A 16 GB M1 Mac mini would be more than fine for my secondary computer, if it weren't for the relative dearth of ports. I might have to wait for an M1X Mac mini with more ports. However, AnandTech's A15 review now has me intrigued for an M2 Mac mini, since presumably M2 is built around A15. An M2 with a new form factor and more ports would be great, but I suspect they'll limit the ports on that one too, and make the M2X the one with all the extra ports.

I wonder if M1X will just be M1 with more performance cores (and less efficiency cores) and new I/O and memory management, or if M1X will get some other A15 upgrades as well.

 

[Doug S]

I wonder if M1X will just be M1 with more performance cores (and less efficiency cores) and new I/O and memory management, or if M1X will get some other A15 upgrades as well.

My money is still on it not using the big core from A15. The A15 big cores are basically unchanged from A14/M1 aside from the bumps in cache size (doubled SLC, larger L2 inherited from M1) so they must have been putting their effort somewhere else.

Either a schedule slip caused the new big core to miss the window to be included in A15, or they were working on a different timeline focused on the newer Macs. If the former we'll see the big core that should have been in A15 in M1X/Jade-C, and next year's A16 will have a different core. If the latter we'll see a new big core in M1X/Jade-C, and that same big core in A16 next year.

 

[moinmoin]

I'd argue that a significant reason that Apple has a process advantage is that, regardless of architecture, leading processes have a much easier time getting to acceptable performance/yields clocking at ~3ghz (Apple's clock targets) than ~5ghz (contemporary x86 clock targets).

It doesn't end there either: ARM offers sufficient performance at 3 GHz so unlike Intel Apple just has no urge to push the frequency at that rate. And the efficiency infliction point is still below 3 GHz so not pushing to those high frequencies is an advantage from that point as well.

Besides Apple, Qualcomm also got to TSMC 7nm for their SoCs earlier than AMD was able to.

And aside Apple MediaTek and others are earlier to N5 than AMD. But I don't think AMD's current pursuit is to be first on a given node to begin with, so this is pretty off topic.

 

[Mopetar]

My money is still on it not using the big core from A15. The A15 big cores are basically unchanged from A14/M1 aside from the bumps in cache size (doubled SLC, larger L2 inherited from M1) so they must have been putting their effort somewhere else.

Either a schedule slip caused the new big core to miss the window to be included in A15, or they were working on a different timeline focused on the newer Macs. If the former we'll see the big core that should have been in A15 in M1X/Jade-C, and next year's A16 will have a different core. If the latter we'll see a new big core in M1X/Jade-C, and that same big core in A16 next year.

It's hard to imagine a world where the new core misses the A15 that launches in September, but makes it for their notebooks a month later. It's possible, but that call had to have been made long enough back for manufacturing at the very least and even further back fir the decisions to be made with how to proceed since you can't have something as big as the iPhone making massive changes on short order.

It's more likely that Apple either missed completely on both or that they intentionally made this decision and that they could add cache and clock speed to see gains so that more focus could be on the new Mac chips and getting their product line transitioned to their own silicon. I hope that it's the latter because with all of the shortages, price gauging, and everything else going on right now a new pro product from Apple really isn't all that expensive in the grand scheme of things and I'd certainly love a new high performance laptop.

 

[Doug S]

It's hard to imagine a world where the new core misses the A15 that launches in September, but makes it for their notebooks a month later. It's possible, but that call had to have been made long enough back for manufacturing at the very least and even further back fir the decisions to be made with how to proceed since you can't have something as big as the iPhone making massive changes on short order.

It's more likely that Apple either missed completely on both or that they intentionally made this decision and that they could add cache and clock speed to see gains so that more focus could be on the new Mac chips and getting their product line transitioned to their own silicon. I hope that it's the latter because with all of the shortages, price gauging, and everything else going on right now a new pro product from Apple really isn't all that expensive in the grand scheme of things and I'd certainly love a new high performance laptop.

Well ignoring that there is no event scheduled yet and even if they do have one that new Macs will be shipping right after the announcement instead of months later after the M1 announcement, it could have to do with process as well.

If they designed the new core for N4, and Jade-C will be on N4, that could be another reason why they recycled the A14/M1 big core for A15. The additional time required to port it to a different process would have made the schedule even tighter - even if we do see new Macs ship by the end of this month.

We've had rumors of new Macs being imminent since March, so just because there are still rumors they are imminent I don't see any reason to believe we'll see them this year. Making Christmas doesn't matter as much for higher end Macs targeted more at professionals - who buy them for themselves rather than get them as gifts.

 

[Eug]

Well ignoring that there is no event scheduled yet and even if they do have one that new Macs will be shipping right after the announcement instead of months later after the M1 announcement, it could have to do with process as well.

If they designed the new core for N4, and Jade-C will be on N4, that could be another reason why they recycled the A14/M1 big core for A15. The additional time required to port it to a different process would have made the schedule even tighter - even if we do see new Macs ship by the end of this month.

We've had rumors of new Macs being imminent since March, so just because there are still rumors they are imminent I don't see any reason to believe we'll see them this year. Making Christmas doesn't matter as much for higher end Macs targeted more at professionals - who buy them for themselves rather than get them as gifts.

I'd be surprised if they don't come this quarter. A lot of people out there (including higher end consumers, not just pros) are waiting for new MacBook Pros and 30" iMacs, and some are waiting for higher end Mac minis too. Few people are going with the Intel models, except for the true pros with mission critical Intel workflows.

These are widely rumoured to get new form factors, and of course, new Apple Silicon chips. Current models are either using the old Intel chips, or have the old form factor, or both.

In fact, one of the reasons I haven't bought a new Mac mini is because I'm thinking it's gonna get a new form factor.

So:

New 14" MacBook Pro size and design, high end, more ports
New 16" MacBook Pro design
New 29"/30" iMac size and design
New Mac mini design, high end, more ports

However, in the context of component shortages, I could see Apple prioritizing the 14" and 16" MacBook Pros over the iMac and Mac mini.

 

[Eug]

M1X/Jade-C

This is old news, from China Times last year, but I hadn't seen it before. It seems the naming is similar but not identical to the naming Mark Gurman was using.

蘋果A15晶片 傳採台積N5P製程 - 財經要聞

蘋果A14及A14X處理器已在台積電採用5奈米製程量產，預期明年會推出新款桌上型電腦A14T處理器及蘋果自行開發繪圖處理器（GPU），同樣採用台積電5奈米製程投片。據供應鏈業者消息，蘋果已著手進行新一代A15系列處理器

www.chinatimes.com

A14 Sicilian: iPhone 12
A14X Tonga: M1 - MacBook Air, 13" MacBook Pro, Mac mini, 24" iMac
A14T Mt. Jade: M1X?

All are 5 nm. Production of A14T was targeted for the first half of 2021, although it's possible that was delayed.

A15: iPhone 13
A15X: M2?
A15T: M2X?

All are also 5 nm. Production of A15 would have began by 2021 Q3, but production of its variants A15X and A15T wouldn't commence until some time later.

 

[Mopetar]

Well ignoring that there is no event scheduled yet and even if they do have one that new Macs will be shipping right after the announcement instead of months later after the M1 announcement, it could have to do with process as well.

If they designed the new core for N4, and Jade-C will be on N4, that could be another reason why they recycled the A14/M1 big core for A15. The additional time required to port it to a different process would have made the schedule even tighter - even if we do see new Macs ship by the end of this month.

We've had rumors of new Macs being imminent since March, so just because there are still rumors they are imminent I don't see any reason to believe we'll see them this year. Making Christmas doesn't matter as much for higher end Macs targeted more at professionals - who buy them for themselves rather than get them as gifts.

They haven't scheduled anything yet, but it sounds like they will have an event soon based on speculation from people who follow Apple: https://9to5mac.com/2021/10/03/macbook-pro-m1x-release-date-information/

Even if some of the products won't ship until early 2022, they'll still have an event. Maybe it gets pushed into November if they're still trying to firm up the release. Apparently shipping anything right now is still a mess so that could certainly affect a major product launch like this.

 

[Doug S]

"People who follow Apple" = Mark Gurman, who was absolutely confident the Apple Watch 7 would have flat edges. So we'll see.

Whenever the new Macs come out it will be interesting to compare its big core, little core and GPU core with the A14/M1 and A15 to see where it falls on the "delayed release of a previous gen product, designed in tandem with A15, first release of a next gen product" spectrum it falls.

 

[Mopetar]

"People who follow Apple" = Mark Gurman, who was absolutely confident the Apple Watch 7 would have flat edges. So we'll see.

Whenever the new Macs come out it will be interesting to compare its big core, little core and GPU core with the A14/M1 and A15 to see where it falls on the "delayed release of a previous gen product, designed in tandem with A15, first release of a next gen product" spectrum it falls.

No one gets everything perfectly right. He follows the company more than I do. I guess I could go dig through whatever Gruber is posting, but he usually keeps his cards pretty close to the chest so he doesn't upset Apple with leaks that someone else hasn't already put out.

 

[Eug]

If it matters to you, this is the rumour monger accuracy track record:

Source Leaderboard - AppleTrack

Top Apple Sources in 2022 # Name Accuracy 1 🐟 Ross Young 92.9% 2 🏀 Mark Gurman 86.5% 3 📉 Trendforce 84.5% 4 🎧 52audio 83.3% 5 🕘 9to5Mac 82.8% 6 ❓ MacRumors 72.7% 7 🇨🇳 China Times 72.7% 8 👨‍💻 Ming-Chi Kuo 72.5% 9 🧻 Jon Prosser 69.1% 10 🍍 Max Weinbach 69% 11 […]

appletrack.com

Mr. Gurman is 88.8% accurate out of 481 rumours. This statistic also illustrates just how much he talks about Apple, since he has well over twice as many rumours attributed to him as the 2nd place rumour monger.

A relatively common Mac announcement period is mid-October to mid November. So, if there is going to be a release, we'll likely hear something within the next 5 weeks. If we don't hear anything by about mid-November, then it's likely there won't be anything until spring 2022 or later.

Note that I exclude the Mac Pro from the discussion, as that one doesn't seem to follow the "rules" for release announcements that the other Macs do.

For the record, I expect new MacBook Pros within the month. No guarantees, but that's my personal prediction, and I'd give it 3:1 odds. I am less convinced about the new Mac mini and new iMac, especially because of the global component shortages, but those are also decent possibilities.

From the advice here and from what I gather elsewhere, the expectation is that they will all be M1X, based off the A14 core.

So, if you're in the market for a new MacBook Pro, does it make sense to wait? Well, that depends.

1. Can you wait? If not, and you absolutely need something now, then of course buy now.
2. Are you an education customer on a limited budget and want new AirPods? If yes then buy now and make use of the Back To School promotion if it's available in your country.
3. Do you need 32 GB? Then yes then wait, since the current M1 MacBook Pro model maxes out at 16 GB.
4. Do you want a new form factor? If yes then wait, since rumour has it it will get a new form factor.
5. Do you think the Touch Bar is stupid, like I do? If yes then wait, since rumour has it the Touch Bar is being killed off and will be replaced by proper function keys.
6. Do you want more ports? If yes then wait, since rumour has it the new MacBook Pros will gain more ports, and a better mix of ports too (like HDMI and SD).
7. Do you want an improved screen? If yes then wait, since rumour has it the MacBook Pros will gain mini-LED screens, with a new 14" size too.
8. Do you like MagSafe charging? If yes then wait, since rumour has it the MacBook Pros will gain MagSafe.

I'm not under any illusion that all of these predictions will necessarily come true, but I think there is a high chance that many of them will, so this is a very reasonable time to wait if you don't absolutely need to buy now.

As for the Apple Silicon Mac Pro, my expectation is that it will appear some time in 2022. I'm curious what they would choose to name those chips.

EDIT:

It turns out Macworld just published their take on this:

Buying a new Mac? STOP and read this first!

Things are happening with Apple's Macs. Let's take a look at what Macs you should think twice about before buying.

www.macworld.com

They suggest:

2021 - New MacBook Pros
2021/2022 - New Mac mini
2022 - New big iMac
2022/2023 - New Mac Pro

 

[Ajay]

2021/2022 - New Mac mini

It would be nice if they update this to be beefier. Larger M.2 SSD, more memory by default. It's an expensive unit, but the upgrade pricing is just insane (well, coming from a PC user).

 

[Eug]

It would be nice if they update this to be beefier. Larger M.2 SSD, more memory by default. It's an expensive unit, but the upgrade pricing is just insane (well, coming from a PC user).

It will be beefier, but will likely be a high end model, to complement the existing low end models. The pricing will be correspondingly high.

Currently:
$699 - M1 256 GB 8 GB
$899 - M1 256 GB 16 GB
$899 - M1 512 GB 8 GB
$1099 - M1 512 GB 16 GB
$1099 - Core i5-8500B 8 GB, more ports
$1299 - Core i5-8500B 16 GB, more ports
$1299 - Core i7-8700B 8 GB, more ports
$1499 - Core i7-8700B 16 GB, more ports

The Intel models are currently the "high end" models, but the CPUs are 3 generations old and ripe for replacement. These are the models for the pros with mission critical Intel-based workflows to manage the transition to Apple Silicon. Having these 2018 models for sale until 2022 means that with continued macOS support and AppleCare, such pros are covered until 2025. Then, Apple can terminate macOS support in 2025, and say they supported these old Intel models for 7 years.

I think the best we can hope for for the M1X models is a $100 discount from that high end Intel pricing, but I think even that might be too optimistic given Apple's pricing history.

 

[Eug]

Hmm...

https://twitter.com/x/status/1445871080653082629

https://twitter.com/x/status/1446055450957463555

37°20'09.9"N 122°00'38.7"W · Cupertino, Kalifornien 94087, USA

Cupertino, Kalifornien 94087, USA

www.google.com

 

[Gideon]

So I finally bit the bullet and bought my first phone from the "dark side" - iPhone 13 mini.

A lot of things I don't like about it and the ecosystem but I'm tired of the ever increasing "phablet" craze and just wanted something smaller for a change, And there really aren't any decent Android alternative in a similar form-factor.

Anyway, I benched it in geekbench and here are the results:

1. vs my Home Desktop Ryzen 3700X rig:

iPhone14,4 vs Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. MS-7A34 - Geekbench

(It's using an older version of geekbench on the Ryzen side but the newer scores are no better)

1. vs my old phone (Oneplus 6):

iPhone14,4 vs OnePlus 6 - Geekbench

I'll add my work M1 Mac Mini tomorrow, but judging from these results it looks to have almost exactly the same single thread score as the iPhone 13. That is low 1700-ies. (up from the 1300-ies for iPhone 12 series) .


All the benchmarks aside, the funny thing is the CPU doesn't feel all that much faster. The single-theraded performance should be up to 2.4 times faster than my previous Oneplus but the overall experience is essentially the same. It might be due-to iOS UI sluggishness (slow animations and 60 Hz screen and whatnot) but that's the experience I've had so far. The only area where I definitely noticed significant speedup are the AI assisted workloads: face recognition, speech recognition, QR code scanning, etc. These things are wicked fast but that is due-to the large dedicated hardware block (and more tightly integrated software too, no-doubt).

 

[Eug]

So I finally bit the bullet and bought my first phone from the "dark side" - iPhone 13 mini.

A lot of things I don't like about it and the ecosystem but I'm tired of the ever increasing "phablet" craze and just wanted something smaller for a change, And there really aren't any decent Android alternative in a similar form-factor.

Anyway, I benched it in geekbench and here are the results:

1. vs my Home Desktop Ryzen 3700X rig:

iPhone14,4 vs Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. MS-7A34 - Geekbench

(It's using an older version of geekbench on the Ryzen side but the newer scores are no better)

1. vs my old phone (Oneplus 6):

iPhone14,4 vs OnePlus 6 - Geekbench

I'll add my work M1 Mac Mini tomorrow, but judging from these results it looks to have almost exactly the same single thread score as the iPhone 13. That is low 1700-ies. (up from the 1300-ies for iPhone 12 series) .


All the benchmarks aside, the funny thing is the CPU doesn't feel all that much faster. The single-theraded performance should be up to 2.4 times faster than my previous Oneplus but the overall experience is essentially the same. It might be due-to iOS UI sluggishness (slow animations and 60 Hz screen and whatnot) but that's the experience I've had so far. The only area where I definitely noticed significant speedup are the AI assisted workloads: face recognition, speech recognition, QR code scanning, etc. These things are wicked fast but that is due-to the large dedicated hardware block (and more tightly integrated software too, no-doubt).

The iPhone is vastly overpowered for what it needs to do for regular day-to-day usage.

In this household I have:

iPhone SE (A9, 2 GB RAM)
iPhone 6s (A9, 2 GB RAM)
iPhone 7 Plus (A10, 3 GB RAM)
iPhone XR (A12, 3 GB RAM)
iPhone 12 Pro Max (A14, 6 GB RAM)

All have iOS 15 installed.

For the SE and 6s I can notice a bit of lag here and there, esp. when loading apps and/or switching apps, but once apps are loaded, they are just fine and very responsive if they are just regular mainstream apps that don't tax the system to the max. The iPhone 7 Plus feels pretty good, but very occasionally I can feel a bit of lag too.

I feel no lag with the iPhone XR, so that it is effectively functionally the same as the iPhone 12 Pro Max in terms of UI speed.

To put it another way, for UI performance, I would have been totally fine to use the 7 Plus for another year, but I upgraded just because I wanted to get a better camera.

BTW, we also have

iPad Air 2 (A8X, 2 GB RAM)
iPad 7 (A10, 3 GB RAM)
iPad Pro 10.5" (A10X, 4 GB RAM)

All of these are running iPadOS 15.

The iPad Air 2 definitely feels slow now, but the iPad 7 does pretty well. I can notice a bit of lag if I look for it though but overall I'd be fine using it as a daily tablet driver in terms of speed. My main issue with it is the mediocre speaker setup. The iPad Pro feels fast and has much better speakers. I did compare the iPad Pro side-by-side against my friend's iPad Pro with A12X and that feels even faster, but it's diminishing returns. I didn't notice the difference until I directly compared them side-by-side.

Note again here, I'm just talking about UI feel. Things can be very different once you start talking about gaming or heavy duty multimedia apps.

tl;dr:

IMO, any iDevice with A12 or later will feel like a brand new current machine when it comes to UI performance. However, even an iDevice with an SoC as far back as A10 should feel pretty decent too, at least if it has 3 GB RAM or more.

 

[Doug S]

All the benchmarks aside, the funny thing is the CPU doesn't feel all that much faster. The single-theraded performance should be up to 2.4 times faster than my previous Oneplus but the overall experience is essentially the same. It might be due-to iOS UI sluggishness (slow animations and 60 Hz screen and whatnot) but that's the experience I've had so far. The only area where I definitely noticed significant speedup are the AI assisted workloads: face recognition, speech recognition, QR code scanning, etc. These things are wicked fast but that is due-to the large dedicated hardware block (and more tightly integrated software too, no-doubt).

If your 13 mini is 2.4x faster than your old phone, the little cores in it are probably pretty equally matched to your old phone's big cores - but drawing 80-90% less power. There's little point in performing tasks faster than human reaction time, so if they can be performed at the same speed in a much more power efficient way, that's preferable.

There's a reason there were only a few phones tested that had better battery life than the iPhone 12 in Andrei's last review, and with the longer battery life claimed for the 13 I wouldn't be surprised if it ends up alone at the top once he completes the iPhone 13 review.

Realistically the tasks we use our smartphones for that use the CPU haven't changed all that much for years. If a phone that's 2x faster made a real noticeable impact in your day to day usage, imagine how painful it would have been to use a smartphone say 10 years ago. Try underclocking your 3700X at half the default clock rate and see how it feels - I doubt it makes much difference for most tasks.

 

[Gideon]

IMO, any iDevice with A12 or later will feel like a brand new current machine when it comes to UI performance. However, even an iDevice with an SoC as far back as A10 should feel pretty decent too, at least if it has 3 GB RAM or more.

Realistically the tasks we use our smartphones for that use the CPU haven't changed all that much for years. If a phone that's 2x faster made a real noticeable impact in your day to day usage, imagine how painful it would have been to use a smartphone say 10 years ago. Try underclocking your 3700X at half the default clock rate and see how it feels - I doubt it makes much difference for most tasks.

I agree with both of you. I haven't tested that with the aforementioned CPU but I've accidentally run my former 1700X at 2 GHz after playing with some BIOS settings. Only noticed it a couple hours later because opening programs was a bit slower. Thouhg I wasn't doing anything too taxing at the time, just browsing.

On phones the UI is even more streamlined for lower end hardware and even more heavily GPU rendered. I guess that even having a 120Hz variable refresh-rate screen would feel a lot more responsive at times han a significantly faster CPU. Particularily when browsing or scrolling feeds.

Don't get me wrong the phone is blazing fast, just an interesting observation. In the times begone having 2x more ST performance was night and day difference.

There's a reason there were only a few phones tested that had better battery life than the iPhone 12 in Andrei's last review, and with the longer battery life claimed for the 13 I wouldn't be surprised if it ends up alone at the top once he completes the iPhone 13 review.

That's something that solidified the purchase for me actually, as battery life was the other major concern next to size and SoC performance and iPhone 12 was already doing quite well on that front.

Overall Battery life is quite decent but nothing too amazing compared to other phones IMO. With the claimed extra 20% vs iPhone 12 I possibly even expected a bit more. But then again I'm probably just picky and didn't have a 5G phone before, which probably affects battery life to a degree as well.

 

[Eug]

That's something that solidified the purchase for me actually, as battery life was the other major concern next to size and SoC performance and iPhone 12 was already doing quite well on that front.

Overall Battery life is quite decent but nothing too amazing compared to other phones IMO. With the claimed extra 20% vs iPhone 12 I possibly even expected a bit more. But then again I'm probably just picky and didn't have a 5G phone before, which probably affects battery life to a degree as well.

The mini has by far the worst battery life of all the iPhone 13 series models unfortunately.

 

[Doug S]

The mini has by far the worst battery life of all the iPhone 13 series models unfortunately.

Well you have to pay for that size somehow, though it seems like the 13 Mini takes a bigger hit than you'd think based on the difference in battery size from the regular 13.

That suggests to me that perhaps Apple isn't exposing the full capacity, i.e. stop charging at 90% and power off at 5% or something along those lines to keep the battery healthier for longer.

 

[Gideon]

After looking at this video:

and seeing Andrei's battery life tests:

Apple's iPhone 13 Series Screen Power, Battery Life Report - Long Lasting Devices

www.anandtech.com

I'm very glad I didn't opt to by an iPhone 12 mini a while back. The battery life on my 13 mini is still perfectly usable even if it's not that much of an improvement over my previous phones. iPhone 12 mini would have been a straight regression (even if it's not that big, it's less than ideal to go back).

Then again Iphone 13 or 13 pro are really impressive . They would probably last up to 2 days with my usage patterns: