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Head of Marketing Greg Joswiak in front of a photo of the iPhone 13 Pro projected in front of Apple's company headquarters
Photo: - / dpa
The keynote on Tuesday evening showed once again that it is worth taking a very close look at Apple's shows.
Not only because of the thoroughly scored staging and the deliberately opulent backgrounds in front of which the company's managers presented new iPhones, iPads and Apple Watches.
But also because of the details that sometimes got lost in the face of the new announcements on the stage.
The fact that the new iPhones are all a few grams heavier than their predecessors should only be noticed by extremely sensitive people.
After all, they also have larger batteries in return.
For this, one likes to carry around seven to twelve grams more.
However, they have also become more voluminous.
The difference should hardly be visible, but according to the data sheet, the new models are 2.5 millimeters thicker than their predecessors.
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New smartphones: Apple presents iPhone 13By Matthias Kremp
Protective covers bought for Series 12 will probably no longer fit.
But whether it makes sense to switch from an iPhone 12 to an iPhone 13 is a question that cannot be answered after the product presentation, but only after extensive tests.
The A15 chip and the other A15 chip
What is already clear, however, is that the new iPhones have been equipped with more powerful technology than their predecessors. At the presentation of the iPhones 13 and 13 mini, it was emphasized that Apple's new A15 processor is 50 percent faster than the competition. Almost 20 minutes later, when it came to the "Pro" versions of the new iPhones, the A15 was again lauded. This time, however, it was said that the chip with its five graphics processors was 50 percent faster than the competition.
However, Apple's marketing director Greg Joswiak also indirectly confirmed that there are two versions of the A15 - even if this detail is likely to have been lost due to the time lag between the presentation and the two iPhone models.
Although the chips have the same name, they have different numbers of graphics processors, which can also be seen in the diagrams that were shown.
In the cheaper iPhones and the iPad mini there is the A15 with four graphics cores and only in the iPhones 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max the variant with five of them.
It remains to be seen whether the difference is actually noticeable or just gives users of the more expensive models a good feeling.
High-end video only with a lot of memory
An innovation that should primarily interest professionals is that the iPhones 13 Pro and Pro Max support the ProRes video format. ProRes compresses videos particularly gently so that the recordings have particularly good color and image quality. The devices will not be able to do this right from the start, but only after an update, which will be delivered later, that much was revealed during the show.
What later could only be read in the small print: Their maximum ProRes resolution of 4k at 30 frames per second can only be achieved by the versions of the new iPhones Pro series that are equipped with at least 256 gigabytes (GB) of memory.
The 128 GB version has a maximum of Full HD resolution in ProRes mode.
Apple does not explain why this is so.
The blog »AppleInsider« suspects that the memory of the small version is simply not fast enough.
eSIMs in a double pack
In its data sheets, Apple has hidden a feature that is a further step on the way to an iPhone without openings: the ability to operate the new models with two eSIMs at the same time.
The iPhones of the twelve series could previously only use such an electronic SIM card alone or in addition to a physical SIM.
With the new models, however, iPhone owners are completely independent of the small plastic cards.
It has often been speculated that Apple could one day leave out the SIM tray after the headphone jack.
On the one hand, the mechanical structure of the devices would be simplified and, on the other hand, such a smartphone could be better protected against dust and water.
However, not all cell phone providers offer electronic SIM cards yet.
The Apple Watch Series 7 chip puzzle
For its new smartwatch, Apple has mainly revised the design. By making the edges of the display smaller, the screen could be enlarged by 20 percent. At the same time, the cover glass was made thicker so that it is more robust. The Apple Watch Series 7 looks new from the outside, but according to "9to5mac" it has the same processor inside as its predecessor. In any case, this can be read from Apple's programming software Xcode, which specifies the processor for the new model that is already in the 6 series. Apple has not even assigned a new model number to the new smartwatch, writes an app developer on Twitter.
One can only speculate about the reasons for this reluctance.
The developer Guilherme Rambo suspects that Apple has planned a completely new design, but has encountered insoluble problems.
Another reason could be the lack of chips, which is slowing down the entire industry.
It could have been easier to continue producing an established chip instead of setting up a new production process.
At least as likely: The Series 6 chip is still fast enough for everything that Apple wants to offer with the Series 7.
The new functions for cyclists, for example, are part of watchOS 8, which also runs on the old Series 3.
Sticking to the old chip should also have the nice side effect for Apple that the chip becomes cheaper even with more requested quantities.