What’s up TR Fans and welcome back for another review here on Technology Reviews!
Apple released the iPhone 13 in 2021, with its advanced features being the one thing that was promoted. Coming with their most advanced camera system ever, durability that is front and centre, the a 15 chip with lightning fast functions that leaves competition behind, and a much larger battery, it has been described by Apple as being their most powerful yet.
But how accessible is the iPhone 13 for disabled users? In this blog, I’m going to go through all of its features, as well as the box it comes in, and make time to share my thoughts on its accessibility features as well.
So as mentioned, the iPhone 13 line up comes with an upgraded True Depth camera system, and a much bigger battery size, by an hour or more. For those who don’t like the notch, you’ll be glad to hear it has been reduced in size, and the rear camera module now sits at a diagonal. Adding the A15 chip, it helps bring more speed and efficiency to every task, a plus for anyone who wants to use their phone as a computer.
As well as adding speed, the A15 Bionic chip also improves photo processing. Although the camera uses the same f/1.6 aperture and 12MP sensor that it always has, the new wide lens has sensor-shift optical image stabilisation, which — according to Apple — captures 47% more light than before.
Another camera update that has been added, however, is the ultra-wide angle camera, with much improved low-light performance. It also shoots highly impressive night mode photos, as these photos shot on my iPhone 13 show.
The i13 also let’s its users take advantage of Apple’s advanced photography pipeline, by letting you create preset rules for the camera to capture a style of photo while shooting.
Other camera features that our new with the iPhone 13 is the new ‘Cinematic Mode’, which filmmakers will no doubt find interesting. It allows you to track a subject who is important in your film, as well as tracking when they turn away, and can even be adjusted after recording.
I don’t have experience using ‘Cinematic Mode’ at the minute, but I’m writing a short film for which I might use it later this year. If you would be interested in seeing that in a future review, please tell me in the comments, and I’ll see what I can do.
Other capabilities which the iPhone 13 comes with is that it’s MagSafe compatible — which I don’t have time to go into today but I will write about in future — as well as being capable of reaching 5G. I haven’t been able to use 5G when out yet, so I’ll give my thoughts on this at some point, but this is all there is to say about this section for now.
The sound system — when you have your headphones off — is also brilliant.
But even then, there are a few bad things. One of these is that the Micro Photography feature is limited to the iPhone 13 Pro, so if you want to get into that style of photography, you’ll have to get the dearest model. Something else that is disappointing is that the accessibility features included in iOS Monterey has taken away the ability to enter your passcode if Face ID doesn’t work, and instead requires you to double click the side button, and your only other option is to change it to Assistive Touch, which I haven’t been able to change or to use.
It would be nice if the Micro Photography style wasn’t limited to the most expensive model, and equally it would be nice to have the option for Face ID from previous software upgrades — which didn’t have any problems — to come back.
So what do I think about the iPhone 13 overall? While the phone itself is brilliantly high tech and the top phone for anyone in the creative industry, the features included in the present iOS Software lets it down. Sometimes you don’t want to let other people know that you’re buying something, which — if you have a disability — is no different. If the option for the old Face ID option in previous updates was included in the more recent update, it would make the newest iPhone highly accessible. This problem also showed up on my iPhone X — so it isn’t just limited to just the 13 — but until Monterey is sorted out — it can’t be counted as completely accessible.
Phoebelyle.com 