JANUARY 2022 MACWORLD 63proposes Low Power Mode at some
point in the evening and usually
finishes the day somewhere between
10 percent and 20 percent.
Looking on the positive side, it might
be noted that the 13 mini never failed to
make it through a full day on a single
charge, and usually did so with
reasonable ease. A full day of use is
indeed the minimum expected
performance, but a year down the line
you may not be able to depend upon it.
And if you’re using MagSafe to charge,
it’s still a little slower (12W versus 15W).
What about the battery benchmarks?
The 13 mini lasted 6 hours and 33
minutes in the Geekbench 4 battery test,
compared to 8 hours, 11 minutes, for the
iPhone 13, 9 hours, 15 minutes, for the 13
Pro, and a whopping 11 hours, 41 minutes,
for the 13 Pro Max. It’s very much the runt
of the litter in this respect, but do
note that Geekbench is a
demanding test designed to
push phones to their limit, rather
than a representation of typical
usage.
BOTTOM LINE
I doubt this iPhone is going to
change anyone’s mind. It is a
superpowerful phone with a
great screen and cameras in a
convenient, highly portable
chassis. If you’re in the group of people
who want both the best specifications and
the smallest phone, you probably already
bought an iPhone 12 mini. But that group
turned out to be smaller than expected,
and the improvements in the 13
mini are not significant enough
to justify an upgrade over last
year’s model.
For the rest of us, the mini
doesn’t make a ton of sense.
The battery life is too big a
tradeoff over the regular-size
iPhone 13, and the writing is
certainly on the wall that it won’t
be around this time next year.
That is a shame, but it’s also
understandable. ■mmmmh
iPhone 13 mini
PROS- Superfast processor.
- Portable size.
- Excellent cameras.
CONS - Battery life remains a
concern. - High price tag.
- No ProMotion.
PRICE
$699
COMPANY
Apple
Smaller phones mean smaller batteries, and
that’s something you’ll have to contend with.