iPhone 13 unveiled: Storage expands and cameras become more powerful

Apple unveiled the much-awaited iPhone 13 line-up in a pre-recorded screening last night. Like its predecessors, the line-up includes the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro. Among the major upgrades, the Cuppertino-based company upgraded the new lineup with twice the storage and touched up the camera's ability to zoom and improved night time and macro potraits.

Like last year's model, the new iPhone 13 will come in four different designs, with prices starting from $700 to $1,100. They're scheduled to be in stores in the U.S. by September 24. Back home, the base-model of iPhone 13 is priced at Rs 69,900 (without trade-in) while iPhone 13 Pro is priced at Rs 1,19,900 (without trade-in), as per the company's online store.

"It's an incremental upgrade," said Gartner analyst Tuong Nguyen told AP. "Some of the new features are impressive, but most of them are not noticeable or practical for most users."

Possibly the most notable change in the latest high-end iPhone 13 will be an option for a full terabyte of storage — that's 1,000 gigabytes — on the device, up from its previous maximum of 512 gigabytes. That's enough storage to accommodate roughly 250,000 photos, or about 500 hours of high definition video.

Having a massive amount of storage could become more important to many consumers with the advent of ultra-high definition video and ultrafast wireless 5G networks that will make downloading content faster and easier, Nguyen said.

Apple is also promising better cameras on the iPhone 13, including an improved ultrawide lens, a cinematic-like video feature and technology for better nighttime pictures. (The latter mirrors a feature Google has long offered in its line of Pixel phones, which haven't been big sellers yet.) As usual, the latest iPhones are supposed to have longer-lasting batteries, too.

But the release of last year's iPhone 12 unleashed one of Apple's biggest sales spurts since 2014, possibly because the pandemic helped make homebound people realize it was time to get a newer and better model than what they had been using. Through the first six months of this year, Apple's iPhone sales have surged by nearly 60% from the same time last year.

The pre-recorded video event streamed Tuesday gave Apple a chance to present a polished story following a turbulent few weeks. The recent bumps included a hastily patched security vulnerability that could let hackers secretly take control of iPhones and other Apple devices; a backlash to the company's plans to scan iPhones for images of child sex abuse and a federal judge's ruling that chipped away further at the competitive barrier Apple built around its app store, which generates billions of dollars in profits each year.

Although the iPhone is still by far Apple's biggest moneymaker, the company has been trying to supplement its success with peripheral products such as its smartwatch. The Cupertino, California, company used Tuesday's showcase to provide a preview of its next Apple Watch, which will feature a thinner, more rounded and brighter display.