iPhone 13 mini I love my 13 mini, but…

[ssledoux]

Wow, maybe batteries are a crapshoot like displays. I’ve had my 13 mini since March and it’s still holding strong at 100% battery health. I know it’s only been several months but the battery in my iPhone 12 began degrading steadily well before it reached the several-months mark.

My mini is at 100% also - looked at it just this morning.

 

[LacrosseChic]

My mini is at 100% also - looked at it just this morning.

Mine as well. 4 months in and coconutbattery days 102,6%

 

[xxray]

Yup. I would've bought the Mini if it had ProMotion. ProMotion was the one feature for years I'd said would make me upgrade from my XS Max. I also knew I wanted to downsize, and I really wanted the Mini. I still do. But the Pro model had ProMotion and still was a downsize, so though it wasn't as small as I wanted, that's what I went for.

 

[erikkfi]

I went from a 13 Pro to a 13 Mini and haven’t regretted it for a second. Not for screen size or refresh rate. ProMotion was OK but not a game-changer for me, and I constantly questioned why my iPhone had to be so damned heavy.

 

[jezbd1997]

I have never seen anything in relation to 60hz screens causing discomfort. Are you sure you are not a PWM sufferer? Everything is buttery smooth when I use my 12 Mini which leads me to believe that I have no PWM sensitivity.

i had sensitivity to my 11 pro (my first oled iphone) but since upgrading to 13 pro i’ve had no issues which single-handedly was worth the upgrade

 

[AVBeatMan]

It's amazing what you get used to. I used my 13 Pro Max from launch day up until 4 weeks ago when I sold it and have been using a mini since. My sister came for the weekend and I held her regular 13 Pro and thought "wow, this is huge!". I'm still going back to the Max though.

 

[Quarric]

Ah yeah I posted just a bit after you answered that, thanks for the info. I am leaning toward getting a 13mini next (unless a newer one comes), but in the meantime I will try to eke another year or so out of my SE2, since it’s a hassle to change more than needed, and even just replacing the battery is like 3+ hours of being at the Apple store and mall, waiting for them to do it.

The mini is a great phone, I do think it’s a shame they decided not to do another one for this year it would appear. My SE2 is emergency back up phone for now, if I do decide to get a larger phone for home use I’ll get it a new battery before seeing who needs a phone to give it too. I’m surprised I don’t miss Touch ID as much as I thought I would, though I’d still like to have it as an option preferably.

 

[Quarric]

Wow, maybe batteries are a crapshoot like displays. I’ve had my 13 mini since March and it’s still holding strong at 100% battery health. I know it’s only been several months but the battery in my iPhone 12 began degrading steadily well before it reached the several-months mark.

Would you like to swap?😂 I think I must’ve got a dud tbh. Also forgot to add to my earlier comment that I have 5g turned off too, have never used it.

 

[JM]

I love the mini also, but I’m likely going back to a pro. As much as I love the weight, overall size, etc., I miss having a bit more screen real estate.

I’d prefer a regular 14 for weight, but I am beyond ready to lose the notch.

That pill shape notch is amazing looking, and after rocking the 11pro for about two months now, and seeing how the 13pro is the same width just a few mm taller, I may jump to the 14pro when there’s a decent deal through a carrier (or straight up direct from Apple… not sure which one yet because $1099 is a LOT of money to drop on something so limited compared to a laptop for the same amount of money).

Also, I miss the 13mini photo quality. The 11pro is certainly an amazing camera, but I have definitely been spoiled by the 13 mini’s wider aperture and photo processing. (Except the 13pro I’ve seen sim e disappointing photos, so I also will need to see how the 14Pro handles photos, and hoping they move away from the oil painting after-effect/processing)

 

[SYCAMOREGRAD]

I have loved both minis, and I agree with Eric, above, the 6.1” isn’t too ginormous. Much better than a 6,6S,7,8 Plus…

 

[ndouglas]

Would you like to swap?😂 I think I must’ve got a dud tbh. Also forgot to add to my earlier comment that I have 5g turned off too, have never used it.

For all that settings and usage you described, it really seems like you should be getting less annoying / poor battery performance. Weird. And it’s disappointing but not surprising that the Apple store staff’s responses were mostly just ”get a bigger /newer phone.”

 

[klasma]

I have never seen anything in relation to 60hz screens causing discomfort. Are you sure you are not a PWM sufferer? Everything is buttery smooth when I use my 12 Mini which leads me to believe that I have no PWM sensitivity.

Similar to how different people have different PWM sensitivity, some also have different sensitivity to screen refresh (60 vs. 120 Hz).

 

[klasma]

Good questions I’d like to know that too. I have an SE 2020 and it’s fine since I use other devices to supplement it, but yikes, any time I use it for navigation, listen to radio on my headphones, or anything similar for even like 30-60 minutes, it takes a significant toll on the battery. And this is after replacing the battery last January.

Mobile data access drains the battery, unfortunately, especially if you’re on the move and the phone has to constantly change network cells. The other big load is screen brightness, which when using auto-brightness and being outside in bright daylight, and e.g. navigation keeping the screen on, can be considerable.

 

[Quarric]

For all that settings and usage you described, it really seems like you should be getting less annoying / poor battery performance. Weird. And it’s disappointing but not surprising that the Apple store staff’s responses were mostly just ”get a bigger /newer phone.”

They did also suggest I get an iPad mini for home use, no thanks, I know I’d just end up on my phone again. I’d also add to my settings, brightness is at 30% 99% of the time, dark mode is active wherever I can get it, smart invert and the Noir extension are used where I can’t. Battery should’ve lasted at least a decade with all that🤣well might as well make jokes out of it. It isn’t atrocious in day to day use yet, but it’s at the point where you notice that you used to get more out of it if you know what I mean.

 

[ndouglas]

Mobile data access drains the battery, unfortunately, especially if you’re on the move and the phone has to constantly change network cells. The other big load is screen brightness, which when using auto-brightness and being outside in bright daylight, and e.g. navigation keeping the screen on, can be considerable.

This is one of those posts where my impulse is to click “dislike“ or angry or similar, but not toward the poster just about their being very correct, and me not liking the truth of these good points. 😂😭 lol

But seriously, yes, very true!

 

[ndouglas]

They did also suggest I get an iPad mini for home use, no thanks, I know I’d just end up on my phone again. I’d also add to my settings, brightness is at 30% 99% of the time, dark mode is active wherever I can get it, smart invert and the Noir extension are used where I can’t. Battery should’ve lasted at least a decade with all that🤣well might as well make jokes out of it. It isn’t atrocious in day to day use yet, but it’s at the point where you notice that you used to get more out of it if you know what I mean.

Haha, indeed a decade! Very impressive you did all that to try to get more battery life and even more of a bummer it didn‘t work much.

 

[Xand&Roby]

Wow, maybe batteries are a crapshoot like displays. I’ve had my 13 mini since March and it’s still holding strong at 100% battery health. I know it’s only been several months but the battery in my iPhone 12 began degrading steadily well before it reached the several-months mark.

Also I’ve had my 13 mini since March and until yesterday it was 100% battery health: today 97%.
First iPhone ever to make this, since 3GS.

 

[klasma]

This is one of those posts where my impulse is to click “dislike“ or angry or similar, but not toward the poster just about their being very correct, and me not liking the truth of these good points. 😂😭 lol

But seriously, yes, very true!

Yeah, I’m sorry, I thought it would be helpful to know what might be causing the battery to drain.

 

[Quarric]

Haha, indeed a decade! Very impressive you did all that to try to get more battery life and even more of a bummer it didn‘t work much.

Fortunately that's just how I use my phones anyway, because yeah if I'd done all that hoping to preserve the battery it would've been a bit gutting. I have issue's with glare and light backgrounds, so the brightness and dark mode stuff makes my screen actually tolerable to look at.

 

[Unami]

Good questions I’d like to know that too. I have an SE 2020 and it’s fine since I use other devices to supplement it, but yikes, any time I use it for navigation, listen to radio on my headphones, or anything similar for even like 30-60 minutes, it takes a significant toll on the battery. And this is after replacing the battery last January.

I got an se2020 as well - I recently switched on background app refresh again, because I wanted it to download podcasts in the background and it makes quite a difference. (Functional, apart from downloading podcasts it does very little but drain the battery)

 

[Unami]

Also I’ve had my 13 mini since March and until yesterday it was 100% battery health: today 97%.
First iPhone ever to make this, since 3GS.

Well, if you used and regularly charged a phone for 6 months, there's no way the battery health would be still at 100% unless there's a calibration error or some other software glitch.

 

[Funny Apple Man]

I have the 2018 iPad Pro (which ofc has ProMotion) and I don't have a problem going back to my 60hz iPhone 12 mini and MBA. My eyes aren't that sensitive to refresh rates.

 

[OJK]

Thank you sincerely for the helpful information. I have a feeling it is more the refresh rate than the PWM that’s bugging me, and I can always return the 14 Pro and cancel trading in my 13 mini if anything seems amiss.

But you are saying that you are completely happy with scrolling on your iPad 9th gen (no PWM, 60Hz only), or did I misunderstood that?
That would indicate that you are sensitive to PWM flicker but less to refresh rate - your iPad‘s display does not have pwm flicker, so you’re happy with even 60Hz.

I personally am very sensitive to pwm flicker. A phone like my wife’s XS is very disturbing to me. I also have a Galaxy A50 flickering at 120Hz and it is super disturbing.
The difference between 60 and 120Hz refresh rate is definitely noticeable when scrolling, but it’s more of a nice to have rather than necessary (for me).

 

[sorgo †]

But you are saying that you are completely happy with scrolling on your iPad 9th gen (no PWM, 60Hz only), or did I misunderstood that?
That would indicate that you are sensitive to PWM flicker but less to refresh rate - your iPad‘s display does not have pwm flicker, so you’re happy with even 60Hz.

I personally am very sensitive to pwm flicker. A phone like my wife’s XS is very disturbing to me. I also have a Galaxy A50 flickering at 120Hz and it is super disturbing.
The difference between 60 and 120Hz refresh rate is definitely noticeable when scrolling, but it’s more of a nice to have rather than necessary (for me).

Yes, perhaps it’s just 60 Hz on OLED vs LCD that’s the major problem. We’ll see once the new phone arrives. But yeah I totally know what you mean about the XS.

 

[Bash310]

My mini has been my favourite phone to date honestly, and I really liked my old 5s and first gen SE. But, and I absolutely didn’t think I’d find a but when I got it, my battery health is already at 91% I took it in to get a check over to see if there was any reason to explain it, I don’t watch loads of videos, I don’t play games on it, I don’t use a lot of social media apps and it’s not attached to a charger unless it needs it. The conclusion they offered was that as I use it as my primary computer device that perhaps the accessibility features constantly running on it are just causing that extra bit of ware on the system.
Naturally they suggested changing to a bigger phone with a bigger battery, or getting a tablet or something for home use. I tried that a few years ago and ended up giving the iPad to a family member because I just kept using my phone as the size is nicer to hold and I don’t need the extra screen size.
So for the first time I’m actually considering getting one of the larger phones for home use or for long, heavy use by my standards days, and keeping the mini as my general take most places, most of the time phone because I can’t see myself enjoying carrying a pro everywhere.
Unless the 14 pro comes with something really worth the cost to me, I’ll probably just get a 2nd hand 13pro at some point.

Do you happen to use a fast charger or wireless charger? I have a 12 mini from release date with 97% battery health, it has always been charged using an old 5W charger over night.