For me, the iPhone 13 display is a world away from the 12, the color luminance is dramatically improved and when it “dims” it isn’t noticeable in the salient way it was on the 12.
Furthermore and importantly, I don’t feel the need to turn the display brightness up entirely whatsoever (so maybe the value I enjoy is merely around the iPhone 12’s actual maximum in the 550–625 nits) and if I do, I can easily sustain it for more than 3 damn minutes even while connected to LTE or 5G — likely the combination of a new display, rearranged packaging & X60 modem + new antennae are working in concert, because I’ve loaded plenty of software on this device and this excellent endurance in actual utility no signs of abating.
On the 12 the luminance limitations (whether initiated due to ambient conditions being subpar, or it’s own peak heat development or the combo) were stark to the extent it impacted the saturation and vibrancy of colors it seemed. And what’s more is the time it took for said dimming to occur was minimal and under ideal ambient circumstances , e.g. mere minutes on any decent brightness indoors would result in the display notably dimming, if not some UI lag as well (total throttling.)
Also, at baseline and across the luminance continuum I notice superior color representation with this first 13 vs the several 12’s I had gone through, some defective and one I sold. It’s been noted the displays are more efficient now, but clearly other improvements have been seen through - we know they are using on-cell touch now and maybe a different lamination process? Reflectance improved per DisplayMate.
While on-cell touch theoretically results in more susceptibility to internal noise (maybe why the 12 Mini, given it’s constrained package, had touch response/grounding issues, Apple reportedly did use on-cell touch AKA Y-Octa in the 12 Mini and 12 Pro Max) it’s also plausible this change or some other controller improvement increased the touch responsiveness, because I don’t notice as much of an issue with sensitivity or tracking particularly when outside. However, I’ve also noted an improved oleophobic coating (I think?) that felt diminished out of the box on the 12, an aberration for iPhones. So it could be something here or in the lamination too I imagine.
Lastly, since all of these things - the display, the modem in tandem with improved antennae are more efficient and the CPU is as well despite being more power hungry at peak clocks^1 — it seems to, in my experience, have made a drastic difference in experience after this past week with the phone. It’s consistently fast, my display is pretty good (wish reds were better but I’ll take it) and brighter than anything else I’ve ever used alongside being the top phone for direct sunlight other than the 13 Pro.
To top it off: it’s consistently smooth in the UI navigation and in editing photos or documents (and multitasking at that) for me probably due to, again, improving the internal thermal conditions via a constellation of part changes. The battery charges relatively faster while using the device as well, I assume due to the same. It can get warm, Apple haven’t devised a means of shorting thermodynamics — but it’s not a as frequent nor as severe as it was with the 12. Oh, I usually don’t care or prefer Android camera pipelines due to my disliking the amount of noise reduction Apple apply, but the camera is pretty goddamn good. The only disappointing thing, to me, is that Apple even released the 12, lol.
1: which are different things and it is actually possible to improve the efficiency per se for a CPU by raising the clocks in order to complete a workload of sorts & race to idle faster)
Furthermore and importantly, I don’t feel the need to turn the display brightness up entirely whatsoever (so maybe the value I enjoy is merely around the iPhone 12’s actual maximum in the 550–625 nits) and if I do, I can easily sustain it for more than 3 damn minutes even while connected to LTE or 5G — likely the combination of a new display, rearranged packaging & X60 modem + new antennae are working in concert, because I’ve loaded plenty of software on this device and this excellent endurance in actual utility no signs of abating.
On the 12 the luminance limitations (whether initiated due to ambient conditions being subpar, or it’s own peak heat development or the combo) were stark to the extent it impacted the saturation and vibrancy of colors it seemed. And what’s more is the time it took for said dimming to occur was minimal and under ideal ambient circumstances , e.g. mere minutes on any decent brightness indoors would result in the display notably dimming, if not some UI lag as well (total throttling.)
Also, at baseline and across the luminance continuum I notice superior color representation with this first 13 vs the several 12’s I had gone through, some defective and one I sold. It’s been noted the displays are more efficient now, but clearly other improvements have been seen through - we know they are using on-cell touch now and maybe a different lamination process? Reflectance improved per DisplayMate.
While on-cell touch theoretically results in more susceptibility to internal noise (maybe why the 12 Mini, given it’s constrained package, had touch response/grounding issues, Apple reportedly did use on-cell touch AKA Y-Octa in the 12 Mini and 12 Pro Max) it’s also plausible this change or some other controller improvement increased the touch responsiveness, because I don’t notice as much of an issue with sensitivity or tracking particularly when outside. However, I’ve also noted an improved oleophobic coating (I think?) that felt diminished out of the box on the 12, an aberration for iPhones. So it could be something here or in the lamination too I imagine.
Lastly, since all of these things - the display, the modem in tandem with improved antennae are more efficient and the CPU is as well despite being more power hungry at peak clocks^1 — it seems to, in my experience, have made a drastic difference in experience after this past week with the phone. It’s consistently fast, my display is pretty good (wish reds were better but I’ll take it) and brighter than anything else I’ve ever used alongside being the top phone for direct sunlight other than the 13 Pro.
To top it off: it’s consistently smooth in the UI navigation and in editing photos or documents (and multitasking at that) for me probably due to, again, improving the internal thermal conditions via a constellation of part changes. The battery charges relatively faster while using the device as well, I assume due to the same. It can get warm, Apple haven’t devised a means of shorting thermodynamics — but it’s not a as frequent nor as severe as it was with the 12. Oh, I usually don’t care or prefer Android camera pipelines due to my disliking the amount of noise reduction Apple apply, but the camera is pretty goddamn good. The only disappointing thing, to me, is that Apple even released the 12, lol.
1: which are different things and it is actually possible to improve the efficiency per se for a CPU by raising the clocks in order to complete a workload of sorts & race to idle faster)
