The iPhone 13 is out. Is it any better than its predecessor

Once more, Apple came out with four iterations for the iPhone 13 lineup. There’s the Pro and Pro Max, the Mini, and the conventional, or regular model.

Apple’s regular iPhone 13 has a lot in common with the iPhone 12, including a ceramic shield display, and straight edges. But the camera array was substantially shifted, into a diagonal arrangement.

The notch isn’t quite as big, and the new phone comes in five colors: blue, red, black, white, and lady pink.

The iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini have novel displays capable of 28% higher brightness than the last model. Powered by the A15 Bionic chip, the new model includes a 6-core CPU, in addition to a 4-core GPU, which Apple touted as the fastest of any phone on the market.

The cameras use next-gen image signal processing to coordinate and optimize the most advanced dual-camera system ever installed in an Apple phone. The 12MP sensor is larger to enable more light to enter.

There’s even a dark area-friendly ultrawide camera function.

One of those improved camera features is a new Cinematic Mode that adds blur to the foreground and background of a video, before, during, and after you capture the video. Or you can let the camera identify when an area in a video should be in ‘out of focus’ and apply effects on its own.

Apple made the iPhone 13 mini with 1.5 hours more battery life than its mini predecessor. Similarly, the iPhone 13 might last up to 2.5 times longer than the iPhone 12.

The iPhone Mini goes for $600 while the iPhone 13 is at $799. Try $999 for the iPhone 13 Pro and $1,099 for the iPhone 13 Pro Max.  The new model also has more storage, with 128GB plus on order are 256GB and 512GB models.

Apple said trade-in deals will cut some of the hefty prices off of nabbing a new iPhone with your old one.  Higher-end iPhones should include an LPTO (low-temperature polycrystalline oxide) display, which is a low-power variant of the OLED screen that enables a modular refresh rate.

Scam time

The September 14 event Apple held, where it introduced its new iPhone 13 lineup as well as the newest Apple Watch and AirPods versions, attracted buyers and scammers.

Kaspersky researchers analyzed numerous phishing pages offering to buy the new version of iPhone as well as previous lines of bestselling AirPods and Apple Watches.

Most of these sites are fake pages offering to buy devices at a special price, only buyers never get anything.

An example of phishing page offering to buy AirPods

There were phishing pages providing users an exclusive opportunity to buy or win a new iPhone before the official release. To place an order, users send their identifying information with which scammers may start using such data for bad purposes or sell it on the Dark Web.

This fraud scheme is quite popular and, in some cases, scammers ask to pay for a delivery fee, so users end up with not only sharing their personal data but also losing money.

An example of a phishing page offering to win iPhone 13

In order to avoid falling victim to a scam, Kaspersky also advises users:

To be skeptical about any news or extremely generous offers and promotions

To verify that messages are coming from reliable sources

Not to follow links from suspicious emails or messages in instant messengers and social networks

To check the authenticity of websites they visit

To install a security solution with up-to-date databases that include knowledge of the latest phishing and spam resources