Both the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini offer a 12MP main camera that has the biggest sensor ever used in a dual-camera iPhone. It should let in 47% more light than the iPhone 12 camera for sharper pictures. These two iPhone 13 models sport the sensor shift optical image stabilization feature Apple added to the iPhone 12 Pro Max last year, and the ultrawide lens promises more detail in the darker areas of your images.

The iPhone 13 Pro models feature even more dramatic camera changes. The main sensor is bigger on the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max for better low light images, while the ultrawide angle lens has a wider f/1.8 aperture. (It was f/2.4 on the iPhone 12 Pro models.) Again, that's going to mean brighter, sharper images, even when the lights are low. And the 77mm telephoto lens on the iPhone 13 Pro models now offers a 3x optical zoom, an improvement over the 2.5x zoom found on the iPhone 12 Pro.

Night Mode works on all three iPhone 13 Pro cameras, and the iPhone 13 Pro offers sensor shift stabilization, instead of limiting that feature to the Pro Max mode

We haven't had a chance to do a head-to-head camera faceoff between any of the iPhone 13 and iPhone 12 models. But in some photo comps, you can see how the iPhone 13 handles low-light photography a little bit better than its predecessor. In this shot of hydrangeas, the leaves look pinker in the iPhone 13 shot, and there's brighter leaves surrounding the petals.

One other area worth highlighting is Cinematic mode, a video shooting feature available on all four iPhone 13 models. This mode automatically adjusts focus when you're shooting video, shifting between objects in the foreground and background as your filming warrants. You won't see a feature like this on the iPhone 12.

iPhone 13 VS iPhone 12: Performance and 5G

The iPhone 13 models are all powered by the A15 Bionic processor, an upgrade from the A14 Bionic chip found in all the iPhone 12 models. Considering the A14 was the fastest system-on-chip we've tested, that should mean for some pretty powerful performance. After testing the iPhone 13 model, we found that the new chipset is faster than the A14 in the iPhone 12, although the gap between the iPhone 13 and the iPhone 12 is not large.

One thing about the iPhone 13 Pro models-they have a 5-core GPU compared to the 4-core graphics processor on the regular iPhone 13.

Apple says the new phones should support even more 5G bands and says 5G support on the iPhone 13 models will double with more than 200 carriers in 60 countries and regions.

The iPhone 13 will ship with iOS 15 pre-installed. The iPhone 12 models currently run iOS 14, but you can now upgrade them by downloading the iOS 15 update. (You can read what we think of those new features in our iOS 15 review.)

iPhone 13 VS iPhone 12: Battery Life and Charging

Apple will not disclose battery size when it releases new phones, but we do know that they are larger and can last longer after being charged.

This is a good news. Except for the iPhone 12 Pro Max, the other iPhone 12 models are far below average in our battery test. We let the phone surf through the cellular network until the battery runs out.

Apple say, the battery life of the iPhone 13 mini and iPhone 13 Pro should be 1.5 hours longer than that of the iPhone 12. The improvement time for iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro Max is 2.5 hours. Our tests definitely proved this.

As you can see, in our battery test, each model of iPhone 13 is more durable than similar products of iPhone 12. We believe that the phone can be used for more than 11 hours in our test.

Charging speeds are unchanged from the iPhone 12 —  MagSafe wireless charging and 20W charging. As with the iPhone 12, the iPhone 13 models will ship without an included charger.