Apple Event September 2021 - Is Apple Experimenting?

    The 2021 September Apple event was one of the most anticipated events of this month. Apple announced their new iPhone 13 lineup, Apple Watch Series 7, newer iPads, and minor updates on the Apple TV+ & Fitness app.

They started off with a couple of drone shots followed by a song and some video transitions... Then Tim Cook enters! Just like our Bollywood movie ;)

First up, the new iPad.

Apple introduced their new baseline iPad with minimal changes on the outside, but they added a new 12MP ultrawide selfie camera and the new A13 Bionic chip, which boosts up the performance of the iPad. This tablet is very easy to recommend because it can deliver top-notch performance at an affordable price range of 30k - 45k. 

Next, they introduced the iPad Mini, which has an entirely new design and refreshed internals. The new iPad Mini kinda looks like the iPad Air, but it's a scaled-down version. The Mini comes with a 12MP rear camera, an ultra-wide selfie camera, touch id, A15 Bionic chip, 5G support, and most importantly, the 8.3" display.

Then, they announced their Watch series 7, which has a 40% bigger display than the previous model, a much durable ceramic shield, and it charges 33% faster than the previous model. That's pretty much it, some minor changes to the Apple Watch.

Then we have the iPhone 13 line-up, the iPhone Mini, the iPhone 13, 13 Pro, and the 13 Pro Max. 

Ya, they look like the iPhone 12 series but differ in two principal regions: the display and the cameras.

The Display: All the 13s now have brighter screens. The 13 has up to 1000 nits of peak brightness, and the Pro models have up to 1200 nits for HDR and better visibility. Apple shrank the notch this time, which is now 20% smaller than the previous model. Finally, Apple added a 120hz refresh rate to the Pro models, a massive request from many. Apple also added a bigger battery to meet the display requirements. Also, the phones are a bit thicker and heavier than the last-gen models. 

The Cameras: When it comes to cameras, we can say that Apple is experimenting. The Pro models have the Telephoto (12MP) camera, which can now perform 3x optical zoom. The iPhone 13 and the 13 Mini get a wide and ultrawide camera (both 12MP) with sensor-shift optical image stabilization, i.e., the sensor inside moves instead of the lens to produce crisp and stable videos.

Sensor-shift optical image stabilization

The major highlight of the cameras is the brand new Cinematic mode. You might have seen a rack focus technique in movies where the camera first focuses on the protagonist and then focuses on his tasks. Apple added this capability to the new iPhone. 

In Cinematic mode, the software holds focus on the subject, even when they are moving, and focus transitions happen automatically from one subject to another with the help of AI. In simple words, the iPhone focuses on a subject entering the frame, and when the subject gazes away, the focus automatically changes to another subject. 

Cinematic mode

Autofocus and exposure lock

In my opinion, this is a massive improvement in the area of smartphone video. Future films can be shot on these smartphones because they are easier to use, have more features, and most importantly, we can change the focus after the video is taken! 

So, in conclusion, the iPad and the iPad Mini are currently the 2 most powerful and affordable tablets in the market. The Apple Watch is not very exciting this time around because they have only improved the display and the charging speed. When it comes to the iPhones, the significant improvement was in the area of smartphone video... The cinematic mode is simply outstanding!

The pricing of the iPhone 13 line-up starts from 70k and goes all the way up to 170k.