Apple at its event on Tuesday announced the new iPhone 13 and on the surface it is a relatively minor update. First off, it is visually very similar to the iPhone 12 from last year, the notch is smaller by 20% and the cameras on the back are arranged diagonally as opposed to vertically – we’re not sure why either, but it does make it look different.

However, inside is where Apple has done the most work. The iPhone has been rearchitected to take up less space, thus allowing more room for a larger battery. On paper this has had some quite remarkable results, the iPhone 13 mini has 1.5 hours more battery life than the iPhone 12 mini and the larger iPhone 13 has 2.5 hours more battery life than the iPhone 12. These phones are a bit heavier too, thanks to the larger battery but the screens are the same size and are actually brighter now too.

Inside is the latest A15 Bionic SoC from Apple, like the A14 it is running on a 5nm process and has around 15 billion transistors. This time it is a six core design, with four high efficiency cores and two high performance cores.

In terms of cameras, it is still a 12MP sensor, but it is now much larger and both the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini are getting the sensor shift optical image stabilisation system that was launched exclusively on the iPhone 12 Pro Max in 2020.

The iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini open for pre-orders this Friday and will then be available on 24th September. Prices remains the same as the iPhone 12, but you get more for you money this time. The base price of $799 US / £779 gets you 128GB this time, with the iPhone 12 the base model was 64GB. New colours are available too, with black, silver red, blue and pink.