iPhone 13 mini "Downgrading" from a 15 Pro to a 13 mini– first impressions

[Capeto]

When the iPhone 12 mini was first announced, I bought it on day 1 to upgrade from my iPhone 8- I've never been a fan of the bigger phone sizes. I then upgraded to the iPhone 13 mini the next year mainly due to the battery improvements, but when the 15 Pro (and associated carrier deals) came across, I gave in and traded it in. Don't get me wrong, the 15 Pro is a mighty fine phone, but lately I have been itching back for the smaller form factor, plus I want to reduce my screen time.

I got a "renewed" 13 mini from Amazon which came with 100% battery health, although I'm assuming it's not a first-party battery. The phone unfortunately came with iOS 18 (I was hoping for an older version for better performance and battery life), so I updated to 18.6. I set it up as a new phone (but used my previously existing Apple Account), downloaded a few essential apps, and have been using it for the past couple of days.

Some of the first "re-impressions" so far:
- Obviously love the size and weight. Very, very remarkable difference compared to the 15 Pro.
- Going back to Lightning from USB-C kinda stinks. Most of my other devices at home are already on USB-C, but we still have a few Lightning connectors around for my wife's work phone, her iPad, and our kid's iPad.
- I kind of miss the Dynamic Island, but I'm sure it won't be a big deal getting used to not having it anymore.
- Don't really notice the "downgrade" to a 60hz screen
- While the telephoto lens will be missed, I'm also using this as an opportunity to use my camera gear more, so I'm not bothered by its absence
- The elephant in the room: Battery life. I don't know if it's still indexing, or if it's the likely third-party battery, or if the battery life is just not as good on iOS 18 as when I last had mine with iOS 15... but when I'm using it, it feels like battery decreases by about a percentage point per minute. I'm trying things to increase it, such as staying on LTE (vs. 5G) and turning off background app refresh. Standby time is pretty good. Pretty sure I won't be upgrading to iOS 26 for a while.

 

[vvvvvv]

To your last point- no, that’s just how bad the battery is, sadly. It finally drove me away in the past few months. Having to worry about how many % points it dropped just by opening a banking app or firing off an email is just not worth it anymore.

 

[mrvnmg]

When the iPhone 12 mini was first announced, I bought it on day 1 to upgrade from my iPhone 8- I've never been a fan of the bigger phone sizes. I then upgraded to the iPhone 13 mini the next year mainly due to the battery improvements, but when the 15 Pro (and associated carrier deals) came across, I gave in and traded it in. Don't get me wrong, the 15 Pro is a mighty fine phone, but lately I have been itching back for the smaller form factor, plus I want to reduce my screen time.

I got a "renewed" 13 mini from Amazon which came with 100% battery health, although I'm assuming it's not a first-party battery. The phone unfortunately came with iOS 18 (I was hoping for an older version for better performance and battery life), so I updated to 18.6. I set it up as a new phone (but used my previously existing Apple Account), downloaded a few essential apps, and have been using it for the past couple of days.

Some of the first "re-impressions" so far:
- Obviously love the size and weight. Very, very remarkable difference compared to the 15 Pro.
- Going back to Lightning from USB-C kinda stinks. Most of my other devices at home are already on USB-C, but we still have a few Lightning connectors around for my wife's work phone, her iPad, and our kid's iPad.
- I kind of miss the Dynamic Island, but I'm sure it won't be a big deal getting used to not having it anymore.
- Don't really notice the "downgrade" to a 60hz screen
- While the telephoto lens will be missed, I'm also using this as an opportunity to use my camera gear more, so I'm not bothered by its absence
- The elephant in the room: Battery life. I don't know if it's still indexing, or if it's the likely third-party battery, or if the battery life is just not as good on iOS 18 as when I last had mine with iOS 15... but when I'm using it, it feels like battery decreases by about a percentage point per minute. I'm trying things to increase it, such as staying on LTE (vs. 5G) and turning off background app refresh. Standby time is pretty good. Pretty sure I won't be upgrading to iOS 26 for a while.

Just found an iPhone 13 mini on amazon as well. Just waiting for it to arrive. Really excited to go back to a smaller iPhone. I'll be switching from my 16 Pro to the 13 mini. I've had the 12 mini when it first came out but traded that in for the 13 Pro so I could get better cameras. I may keep the 16 Pro for the camera and video features. So far the 16 Pro has been my favorite non mini iPhone in a while. The other day I was fumbling around with my 16 Pro and was like this thing is so big and heavy to try use with one hand and it made me miss my old 12 mini. I really wish Apple would bring back the mini iPhone. I'd take a 17e mini or an 18 air mini. My dream tho is a Pro mini. Besides battery life the mini was the perfect form factor for a truly pocketable iPhone.

 

[FeliApple]

Yeah, I use both USB-C and Lightning and it doesn’t really bother me. I like to charge my iPhones with the 5w USB-A Power Adapter and I have enough of those around to charge all of my iPhones at the same time if I so choose. If you have the cables, I’d expect that not to be nuisance at all, too.

When it comes to battery life, I reckon you’re a heavy user. Whilst it’s likely that iOS 18 has some impact vs iOS 15, the iPhone 13 Mini, as far as I recall (although I haven’t tried it), had the battery life of the Xs on iOS 12, so about 9 hours of light SOT. That doesn’t sound too bad, but you need maximum efficiency and light use to get to 9 hours.

For reference, my Xʀ on iOS 12 gives me 16 hours with the same usage, and my 16 Plus on iOS 18 gives me 27. As for iPads, my 11th-gen iPad on iPadOS 18 gives me 26 hours. This makes the Mini look inadequate. Add to that a more moderately heavy usage pattern, and you may be looking at about 5-6 hours on iOS 18… not that great. That’s just a byproduct of size, not much you can do. But that’s in theory. 1 percentage point per minute indicates there’s an issue that’s probably solvable. How heavy are your settings?

 

[Trader05]

Id ask other 13 Mini users if they have similar battery life. I saw on youtube a bunch of techs checking “refurbished” phones and they swap out the battery with the old battery’s board and connector with an after market battery.

 

[phillyman]

So here is a 13 mini user (and there are MANY on this forum)... Bought 13 mini day it came out and still on original battery but will go to apple store and have it replaced. ....

Sooooo thank you for post... I appreciate posters that write accounts with pros and cons and try to stay as fair as possible. The battery life plain and simple is bad... I don't think mine is quite that bad. I think I usually lose 10 -20 an hour but it can be more... If I only use it for texting and a podcast it lasts me most of the day (maybe 4-6pm) range. But some days when I'm traveling I start top off at 11 am - noon. At 20% like all old batteries it starts to die VERY quickly.

I know battery life is a true concern for many. I have chargers more or less wherever I tend to be for longer periods of time and just top off.. I think 20 - 30 minutes at most brings it back to a solid amount (sorry drawing a blank on how much).

What REALLY helps my charge is always having it in battery save mode.

The tradeoff is worth it to me, but the screens on newer phones are VERY nice and SHINY
I'll stick it out another couple years but please don't post asking for APple to bring back a small iPhone. The forum will just blow up again and 100 posts later we are still where we were a couple years back .

Enjoy the 13 mini and good luck. Last thought on battery. It might be worth paying the 80 (?) bucks (if in the states) to have apple put in an original battery?

Good luck,
Philly

 

[max2]

Figured out a way to make basically any smartphone last 2 days minimum even if you use it continuously with demanding things (example mobile gaming, no I do not never really could too small of a screen sadly)

Some a week. Does not involve power save mode either. No not extra weight added to it and not always plugged in to a outlet.

 

[vvvvvv]

Figured out a way to make basically any smartphone last 2 days minimum even if you use it continuously with demanding things (example mobile gaming, no I do not never really could too small of a screen sadly)

Some a week. Does not involve power save mode either. No not extra weight added to it and not always plugged in to an outlet.

…go on

 

[ProbablyDylan]

Are you me? I made the same move last week and am having zero regrets besides missing USB-C. I did find this case for preorder that converts lighting to USB-C but I don't have the highest hopes for it!

iPh0n3 - USB-C Protection Case

🔥 Batch 1, 2 AND 3 already sold out... Sorry 😢 😢 Please sign up with your email to be alerted when your model gets back in stock. The models with the most sign ups get higher priority. ANNOUNCEMENT VIDEO: here Just plug your phone in this protection case and get USB-C in just a few seconds. No...

obsoless.com

 

[Ralfi]

…go on

Starting to think it was a question 😂

If you’re not a heavy user, then I can understand this downgrade. Otherwise, I can’t make sense of all the sacrifices you’ve just made, all for a smaller screen/weight.

 

[1rottenapple]

I still have my 13 mini for the gym. I miss it sometimes. Only if it has satellite support i think I’d stay with it. But yah battery stinks. If you turn on 5g forget it battery becomes horrible. I appreciate the battery on the 16 because I can hike for 5 hours and it’ll only drop 30%. One less thing to carry.

 

[Gregintosh]

I recently "downgraded" from the 15 Pro to the 16e.

100% agree with missing the Dynamic Island. Some thought it was gimmick but some apps really made good use of it.

I miss it most when I am booking a car on a ride sharing app. It used to show the license plates and ETA in the Dynamic Island. This let me scroll around on my phone while waiting. Now I have to keep checking the app to see where it's at or to remind myself of the plate number to look for.

But for battery life I feel the opposite. Obviously the mini phones had worse battery life, if not the worst of any modern iPhones. But for the 16e, the battery life is way better and very noticeable.

I also don't notice the drop the 60hz as much after a few days of getting used to. Performance wise I think the 16e has more power anyway, since it has a newer chip, so no losses there (even though I just do basic stuff like social media, messengers, etc)

As for look and feel, I do like the lighter weight, another very noticeable part. Also since the 16e I about 1/3 the price I paid for my 15 Pro (1TB model), I don't feel stressed about using it with no case and no screen protector.

I bought the AppleCare+ for it on a monthly basis just in case, but even if I had to replace the whole thing out of pocket it wouldn't be a big deal cost wise for me.

With the more expensive phones, it feels like a case and screen protector are a must, which deprives the user of enjoying the natural feel and weight of the phone, using it as it was designed to be used -- which honestly is a much more pleasurable experience.

I know that the 16e is bigger than the Mini, but for those who enjoyed having a light phone (if weight was the reason they liked the mini and not just the size), didn't mind the notch, and didn't mind the 60hz screen the 16e might be a great choice.

Especially those who loved the mini but hated the short battery life, they would really love the 16e.

 

[MattSee]

13mini on ios 18.6 user with 5G enabled, with new original battery from Apple. Everything running smooth, no problem making it to the end of the day. But i´m a light user, almost no SM apps.