If last year was about design upgrade, 2021 is about giving the iPhone 13 series a truckload of feature upgrades. Apple CEO Tim Cook has successfully managed to turn all attention to the company’s key driver — the iPhone. The big annual announcements cap a year in which Apple has seen record profit, mostly because of last year’s iPhone 12. Here are a few reasons that make the new Apple products interesting.

Same-day launch, fastest availability and last year’s pricing

The iPhone 13 series is coming not just before the Indian festive season, pre-order and availability dates have been kept the same as in the US. While the new phone will up for pre-order on September 17, availability begins September 24. The early availability of the series is expected to help Apple attract more customers, and helping the buoyancy factor is the company’s superior supply chain and logistics. Plus, this is the fastest ever availability for the iPhone in India.

Equally interesting is pricing, which remains unchanged. The iPhone 13 mini starts at Rs 69,900, the iPhone 13 at 79,900, iPhone 13 Pro at 119,990 and iPhone 13 Pro Max at 129,900, which is the same as last year’s series. Sweetening the deal is storage option. The base storage variant of the iPhone 12 mini and iPhone 12 was 64GB but this time the entry-level is 128GB, exactly double. For the Pro and Pro Max, there is a new 1TB storage option, which was previously offered only on the iPad.

With its compact design and breakthrough performance, iPad mini is the ultimate tool users can take anywhere

The company has stealthily improved its smartphone portfolio in India. It now has an aggressive entry point in the form of iPhone SE (2020) and then the action up to the all-powerful iPhone 13 Pro Max. That India is a fast-growing market can be seen from Apple CEO Tim Cook’s note in July this year when he said: “We set a new June quarter revenue record of $81.4 billion, up 36 per cent from last year, and the vast majority of markets we tracked grew double digits, with especially strong growth in emerging markets, including India, Latin America, and Vietnam.”

Cinematic focus

The iPhone 12 Pro (and even the 11 Pro) had already given the phone some of the capabilities of professional cameras to the point that we wondered what more can these little devices do. The answer comes in the form of cinematic mode and ProRes.

To keep it simple, cinematic mode automatically helps you focus on the subject while the rest is slightly blurred out. The feature is going to be available across the iPhone 13 series, meaning you will often come across videos that have a cinematic feel to them.

Cinematic mode records videos of people, pets, and objects with a depth effect with automatic focus changes

Made possible by the iPhone 13’s A15 Bionic processor, which is faster than competing mobile chips (50-per cent better, in this case), the rack focus effect can continuously transition between forefront and background focus based on what’s occurring in the frame. The devices are intelligent enough to shift focus as subjects look away.

And here’s the deal-breaker:You can also manually tap to change or lock focus on your preferred subject. And the cinematic mode is even available on the iPhone 13 Mini, the smallest of iPhones.

For content creators

ProRes is specific to the new iPhones that come with an extra camera or the iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max. Users of these cameras will get to record and edit footage in ProRes (coming later in the year), helping to optimise videos. It’s especially handy for video creators who colour grade or use editing software like Final Cut Pro X or Adobe Premiere Pro. The feature will let you record up to 4K at 30 frames per second, within the native camera app.

“That’s really bringing it up to the professional film cameras,” cinematographer Greig Fraser, who was joined in a promotional video with the director Kathryn Bigelow, said during Apple’s big event. “We’re going to very, very soon see film-makers make films in a different way.”

Apple made the ProRes video codec in 2007 to compress a video into a small file while retaining a lot of the image quality and colour. But why would you want the feature? Many film-makers, like Steven Soderbergh, shoots feature-length films and videos with an iPhone. ProRes video would allow film-makers to retain better image quality and colour, offering more latitude to adjust both elements in post-production.

Photography upgrade

It makes sense to bring the photography upgrades to the Pro models, and they arrive in the form of low-light performance as well as telephoto lens. Keeping the 12 Pro in mind, the new equivalent has improveed low-light performance by allowing for apertures as wide as f/1.5 on the main lens, compared to the earlier f/1.6. The trend continues on the ultra-wide front, boasting f/1.8, improved from f/2.4. The figures may sound like small figures but they contribute greatly towards how much light gets collected in darker settings, like restaurants and concerts.

What looks like a bigger improvement is that though the telephoto lens is 77mm-equivalent while the iPhone 12 Pro’s telephoto was 52mm. Or, users can zoom closer in on far-away scenes without sacrificing image quality. Plus, the telephoto lens now supports night mode.

Instead of adding a useless macro lens, which most Android phones peddle, the iPhone 13 Pro takes care of things differently. The ultra wide lens and autofocus system combine forces to magnify subjects as close as two centimeters away. These are not easy shots even on professional set-ups but Apple is promising a lot here. You can also record video and even slow-mo at this scale. So, you have some interesting shots coming up.

The third thing worth pointing out is Photographic Styles that applies local edits to an image in real time as the photo is rendered. Unlike a simple filter, you can intelligently apply the right adjustments to different parts of the photo to ensure important elements, like skin tones, are preserved. You now have the power to compose shots using one of four presets and see what the end result will be before clicking the shutter button.

The mighty Mini

With its compact design and breakthrough performance, iPad mini is the ultimate tool users can take anywhere

The previous iPad Mini launched in 2019 and was in need of an upgrade, which Apple has delivered. Narrower bezels and Touch ID point to a bigger screen size without increasing the size of the chassis. There’s a lot to like about the 8.3-inch device, which features the brand new A15 Bionic chip, delivering up to 80 per cent faster performance than the previous generation. There’s a new USB-C port for faster connectivity while new advanced cameras bring Centre Stage to the device (for example, you can move around during a video conference and the camera will automatically follow you) and there’s support for Apple Pencil (second generation).

Better battery life

The point came up a lot during the big showcasing. Study after study point to the fact that people want longer battery life and Apple took note of it. The company has said that the new iPhones have a brighter screen and longer battery life. So all the new iPhones will get at least 90 minutes more battery life under normal use while the most expensive model will get 150 more minutes of battery life than last year’s models. Battery life remains one of the most important features to consumers. In one 2019 poll by SurveyMonkey, 76 per cent of iPhone owners said longer battery life would be a feature that would get them excited about a phone upgrade.

Falls from bikes

Apple Watch users who ride bikes are set to get some new features, via watchOS 8. The company says that Apple Watch will now begin to detect when users begin a bike ride to remind you to start a workout. And though the Apple Watch can already detect a fall on Series 4 or later devices, allowing users to contact emergency services if needed, Apple says that it will now add fall detection to cycling. It also means, the Watch is able to sense the unique motion and impact that occurs when someone falls when riding a bike, which is different from a person falling down. Coming to Watch Series 7, it features a redesigned front crystal with a stronger and more robust geometry that is over 50 per cent thicker than that of Apple Watch Series 6, making it more crack-resistant without compromising optical clarity.

Pricing and availability

• Apple Watch Series 7: Pricing hasn’t been declared; will be available later this year.

• iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Mini: Pre-order starts September 17. iPhone 13 starts at Rs 79,900 and 13 mini at 69,900. Availability: September 24.

• iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max: Pre-order starts September 17. iPhone 13 Pro starts at Rs 119,900 and iPhone 13 Pro Max at 129,900. Availability: September 24.

• iPad Mini: Starts at Rs 46,900. Availability: September 24.

• iPad (9th generation): Starts at Rs 30,900. Availability: September 24.