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The truth is smartphones climax few years ago.
After all this progress, miniature computers reached incredible speeds, their screens got bigger and brighter, and their cameras produce images that make amateur photographers look like magicians.
The problem with so many innovations is that upgrades are now so recurring that it’s hard to know what to write about each year. This situation is particularly Apple’s iPhone 13, this may be the most incremental update to the iPhone ever.
The latest iPhone is only 10 percent faster than last year’s models. (For context, the iPhone 6S was more than 70 percent faster than its predecessor, the iPhone 6, in 2015.) Its most flashy new feature, a higher screen “refresh rate” on models over $1,000, makes movement appear smoother when opening. apps and text navigation — hardly a game changer.
Innovations in smartphone cameras also seem to be slowing down. Apple executives described the iPhone 13’s cameras as “much more powerful” and “the most advanced” of the iPhone, largely because they can capture more light and reduce noise. But in my testing, the improvements were marginal.
That’s all to say that the annual phone update has turned into a tech innovation mirage, as companies like Apple and Samsung boast massive marketing events and advertising campaigns to boost sales for the holiday shopping season. In reality, upgrades are now a celebration of capitalism in the form of brutal incrementality.
What better way to show this slow walk than with smartphone photos? To put the iPhone 13 cameras to the test, I purchased a special tripod to hold the two phones side-by-side so I could take roughly identical photos of my dogs at the same time. I compared photos taken with the new iPhones, last year’s iPhone 12, and the three-year-old iPhone XS.
When I got the results, I was really surprised at how well the iPhone XS camera stood up against the latest models. And the iPhone 13’s camera was slightly better than the iPhone 12’s.
Enough words. Let my latest iPhone dog photos guide you.
I took all my phones and my dogs Max (that smaller corgi) and Mochi (brown Labrador) to a park in Richmond, California, to compare the photos taken in daylight. The other, iPhone 13 and 12 photos that remained in the shadows were barely distinguishable. The iPhone 13 did a slightly better job at capturing shadows.
In a test comparing the $1,000 iPhone 13 Pro to the $1,000 iPhone XS released in 2018, both photos of the dogs looked crisp and detailed in bright sunlight. I will assure you that the iPhone 13 Pro produces images with more vivid colors.
But in a test on a shaded road in the middle of the forest, the photo taken with the iPhone 13 Pro showed Mochi as if it had been blown away from the sunlight; The shadows and lights captured by the three-year-old iPhone looked more natural. Apple disagreed with my assessment. (You be the judge.)
The improvements in the new iPhone cameras are most visible in low-light photos taken with night mode, which takes multiple photos and then combines them while making adjustments for colors and contrast. Low-light shots of Max perched on a balcony just after sunset looked sharper when taken with the iPhone 13 Pro than on the iPhone 12.
Low light was an area where the three-year-old iPhone XS couldn’t compete as its camera didn’t have a night mode. In the same test, Max was hidden in the dark except for his handsome white mane.
iPhone 13 cameras also feature a new video feature called cinema mode, which uses algorithms to automatically focus on faces—even my dogs’ ones—as they move. I’d have a hard time imagining why someone without the ambition to be a filmmaker would use this mod, but I can think of a few. TikTokers who can like.
In summary, the iPhone 13 cameras are slightly better than last year’s iPhones. Even compared to iPhones from three years ago, the cameras are much better if you only care about taking good pictures in the dark.
How important is night photography? I posed the question to Jim Wilson. Longtime staff photographer for The New York Times, while taking pictures of the new iPhones for this review. He said it would be a very important feature for people like him, but not so important for casual shooters.
“Sometimes I wait for the night to make an ordinary scene different and exciting,” he said. “But for most non-professional photographers, it doesn’t matter.”
Having a smartphone plateau is not a bad thing. This means you can enjoy what you have for years without missing anything important. And when you feel like the upgrade is right, you’re in for a piece of mature technology that gets better gradually – if not dramatically.
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