I've been using the iPhone 13 mini for 2 months now. And I love mini phones.

Pink rocks.

Two months ago, I wrote a post on my blog about the duality of having an iPhone 13 mini and iPhone 13 Pro Max. At that point, I had that phone for a couple days, didn’t switch to it as my daily driver, and had some interesting thoughts.

It’s now been two months later. My iPhone 13 Pro Max lives in a drawer. And I’m wondering why on Earth we don’t have mini phones.

Necessary context!

As mentioned in the last post, for nearly 4 years, I’d been rocking big phones. The Galaxy S9+, Note 10+, iPhone 11 Pro Max, and 13 Pro Max. My main reasons for rocking big phones were bigger screens for more productivity, and longer battery life.

So, when I transferred my eSIM to the iPhone 13 mini, it was a shot in the dark about what was going to happen. Would I truly enjoy the mini phone life? And the answer is a resounding yes. Mini phones are amazing. I’ve now been daily driving my iPhone 13 mini for over 2 months at this point, and have some additional thoughts on the phone to follow up on my previous “review”. Just note that I’m not a tech journalist.

Hand feel

One thing that hasn’t gotten away from me since using this phone is just how small and portable this phone is. It easily fits in my pockets without any fussing. It neatly fits in the cupholders in my car for when I use CarPlay. It chills on my desk, taking up a small amount of room. It’s the perfect size.

This also doubles for when I’m walking - usually I don’t have my phone in my pocket, rather, I’m holding my phone as I find putting my phone in my pocket reduces earbud reception. I also hold it in my hand for the moments where I need to look at a map to see where I’m going, or to take some photos.

I’m glad to say that I’ve had zero clumsy drops with this iPhone. The silicone case I have plus the small size really means you will not be fumbling this phone. The weight is perfect - not too heavy, not too light, just enough for the phone itself.

The feel of this phone truly sets it apart from other phones - including mid-sized phones. I recently got my hands on a Pixel 6 (with a 6.4 inch screen), and while I enjoy using that phone with a bigger screen and a much better weight distribution, nothing compares to coming back to a phone so small you can easily use it with one hand.

Screen size

In my original impressions, I made a note about the 5.4 inch screen size, and how it was pretty small but I was getting use to it for typing and such.

After a couple weeks, I was thankfully use to the keyboard on the mini and got use to typing on it. I’m just about as fast as I was on the 13 Pro Max - so no issues to talk about here.

I will say that the smaller screen size…can be rough at times. For day to day activities, it’s enough, and I’ve gotten use to reading news articles, watching videos, etc on the smaller phone. But, when I do occasionally use my Pixel 6 (it’s basically been christened as a work phone for the time being), I can’t help but miss the bigger screen size just a bit, the ease of typing on a larger phone, and generally having more space for content.

Before I quickly realize how much of a pain that bigger phone would be to carry. It’s a trade off that I think most people will get use to pretty quickly.

Battery life

Ah yes - battery life! This was a pain point I mentioned in my original thoughts about this phone which have remained…mostly true. Now, iOS devices go through a period in the first couple days of indexing and trying to figure out your battery usage habits, and I did notice a decent uptick in battery life past the first couple days.

I would now say that given moderate usage (i.e. off for most of my 10-6 workday, then I’m on it from 7pm onward), the phone lasts the whole day with about 5-6 hours of screen on time. For days that I’m commuting into the office where I can charge the phone there, it’s not a huge issue.

For instance - I wake up with the phone at 100%, and by the end of the commute (where I’m on my phone about half the time), it’s at about 80-85% when I get to the office. For commutes where I’m on my phone more, I can easily bring the battery down to 70% by the time I get to the office.

Unfortunately, I haven’t had a true untethered day in the real world with this phone - I’ve been working from home or commuting where there’s plenty of time to charge my phone during the day and keep it topped up. However, I’ll provide another update when college starts and untethered battery life matters a lot more.

I will say one thing - Snapchat is my primary form of communication, and oh boy does Snapchat absolutely kill the battery on this phone. A couple hours of continuous snapping will easily bring this phone down from 50-70% all the way to 5%. And then I’ll find myself on the couch, nowhere near an outlet, having to get out a charger and my 10-foot lightning cable (or a battery bank). You will sadly have to sacrifice the days of being able to go 2 days on a single charge with a bigger phone.

A very small upside to shorter battery life

Well, two upsides. When you have this phone, you know that the battery life will drain pretty quickly if you’re constantly on it. And I’ve found it to be an EXCELLENT way to combat my excessive screen time usage. Before the 13 mini, I had a bit of a problem with using my phone too much, especially in more social environments. Knowing how easy it is to kill this phone, the battery anxiety you get from this phone ends up feeding into less screen time usage. I’m now averaging about 6 hours of screen time on this phone, compared to 8-10 on my 13 Pro Max beforehand. The smaller screen size also encourages getting off the phone too. It’s a double-edge sword, but it’s a trade off I’ve found really useful.

Oh, and the smaller battery means that the phone charges super quickly, even on pretty standard 10 watt chargers. I’ve had no issues getting my phone topped up quickly for some extra juice.

A couple end notes

The rest of my initial impressions of this phone do hold up. 120Hz being missing isn’t an issue. The lack of a telephoto camera sucks, but it’s bearable.

So - should you buy this phone given it’s pretty certain that the iPhone 14 won’t have a mini version? Well, if you have $729 to blow, and have the freedom to switch phones on the regular, then yes. Experience the mini life, and you may very well like it.

For everyone else - you’re probably better with an iPhone 13.