So, how is the iPhone 13 going?

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 After three months of use, I feel more comfortable with the iPhone. I think I only rebooted twice, and it seems pretty stable. I have not performed a thorough battery test, but I bet I could get four days of battery life with my usage. Usually, when I recharge it at night, I am around 80% of battery life; I reckon the most used day it was around 66%. So on that front, it is a strong performer, much better than any of the Samsung Galaxy models I have owned over the years (not sure how good the latest models are though). 

Handling is good though it feels larger and heavier than my older Galaxy S10e. It takes excellent pictures, even in low light. For compatibility reasons, I changed the default photo/video format to HPEG and MOV files, though I guess it is optimized using HEIC.

I was surprised that fingerprint detection was replaced by Face ID biometrics. That works well most of the time, though it might add a bit of lag and needs you to have your phone looking at you (which may not be ideal in some circumstances). 

Applications seem to work ok, but I am guessing that in the process of conserving battery, many apps like WhatsApp or Telegram have poor performance when sharing the location, as it is hit-and-miss: you may share your real-time location, and even if you configure the app to always have access to location services, that might not be updated for more than 10 minutes (which renders the feature useless). It appears to me the policy changes when the app loses focus, though I am not sure about that. I think location only updates if the app keeps the focus. To be honest, in my late S10e, I was getting trouble with location updates in WhatsApp too, but not in Telegram.

For sharing pictures wirelessly with a PC, I usually use Dropbox, which works ok most of the time. One of the reasons I rebooted the phone once was because the Dropbox app was not uploading some files. It did not fix the problem, but removing the app and installing it again did fix it. It happened to me a couple of times, and Dropbox could have been more helpful and recognized there was a problem. It has been working ok after experiencing that hiccup for a week. 

I am disappointed some apps that allow NFC (not banking apps) tags do not work on the iPhone 13. One of these would allow me to open the campus doors I have access to, but while it works ok on Android, it does not on the latest versions of iOS. 

The whole user interface is clean, but sometimes it is unclear what to do next to get back to the previous screen or to minimize a picture on some apps. The ok or go back is not always in the same place, or it is of the same color; perhaps that is mostly the fault of the app developers (but it could be Apple's if they like to shuffle things around from version to version, I am not sure why that happens).

A feature I absolutely love is the mute mechanical switch, which is invaluable if you get a call during a lecture. You waste no time making the damn thing quiet. And I like they have a visual cue on whether it is enabled or disabled. 

Another cool feature once you connect your iPhone to a Mac is that Wi-fi credentials seem to be transferred to the phone so it learns all it needs to connect to networks it has never visited before. Again, I am not sure that happens because of the physical connection or whether that is spread through sharing the same Apple account, though it seemed to me the former was the case. As you can guess, I read the whole manual that came in the box with the phone (which, if you wonder, is none).

In summary, the iPhone 13 is larger and heavier than my previous Android phone. It has a solid battery and photo/video performance and I like it. Was it more expensive, you bet!

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