Apple iPhone 13

With improvements in every area, the plain iPhone 13 is a great update - but you may be tempted by others in the range

- JAMES PECKHAM

PRICE 128GB, £649 (£799 inc VAT) from apple.com/uk

On paper, you'd be hard pressed to find a reason why Apple didn't call this phone the iPhone 128. The design and specs are largely the same, and there are few headline-grabbing new features. But everything on the iPhone 13 is a touch better than before - and some elements are significantly better.

It's cheaper too. The iPhone 13 costs £ 779 for 128GB of storage, £20 less than the 64GB iPhone 12 at launch. If you need more storage, the 256GB iPhone 13 is £879, while the 512GB model costs £1,079. The iPhone 13 mini (see P47) has similar specs but is £100 cheaper in all its iterations. Or you can go in the other direction and buy the iPhone 13 Pro (see P48) or iPhone 13 Pro Max (see P49) if you're looking for higher specs and, in the case of the latter, a larger screen.

Spot the difference

If you own an iPhone 12, you won't see many differences if you upgrade to an iPhone 13. If you own an older iPhone or an Android device, however, then several things will leap out at you. First is the flat-edge design, but be assured that the phone is still comfortable to hold.

The front and rear are glass, but only the front panel has Apple's patented Ceramic Shield technology. Apple says this offers four times the drop resistance of the glass on older iPhones, but I wouldn't recommend putting this to the test.

On the subject of durability, the iPhone 13 series is IP68 dust and Done water resistant, with Apple claiming it can survive in up to 6m of water for 30 minutes.