The iPhone 13, with a 1TB option
Seeing Apple unveil its new iPhone 13 lineup tomorrow is about as certain as knowing that the sun is going to come up, and while we already know most of what’s coming, there have still been a few questions.
Chief among these is whether we’ll see a capacity increase. Rumours have gone back-and-forth for months on the seemingly mythic 1TB iPhone. Some analysts suggested Apple would drop the 1TB option to maintain its pricing, while others have more gently said the 1TB iPhone is definitely coming.
We’ve been strongly inclined to believe the latter, and even more so after Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman shared Apple’s plans for ProRes video recording on the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max, since that’s going to require a lot more storage to be a worthwhile feature.
Sadly, a leak last week from a Ukrainian e-commerce site cast some doubt on that, since even though it appeared to list every colour option available, there was no 1TB entry to be seen. However, it also omitted any references to a 256GB iPhone 13, which seemed dubious at best.
The good news, however, is that it looks like we will indeed see a 1TB storage capacity unveiled. A source no less reliable than Ming-Chi Kuo weighed in with a new investor report yesterday, not only confirming the 1TB iPhone 13 Pro, but adding that Apple will also be boosting storage capacities for the non-Pro models.
- iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini: 128GB / 256GB / 512GB
- iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max: 128GB / 256GB / 512GB / 1TB
If Kuo’s information is correct, Apple will be offering four storage tiers for the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max, marking the first time Apple has ever simultaneously offered this many storage options for any given iPhone model. The iPhone 6, iPhone 6s and 2016 iPhone SE are the only other models that have ever been offered in more than three different storage configurations, but this was only because Apple chose to re-release different tiers later in the product cycle.
In effect, the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini will move up a notch, while the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone Pro Max will have an extra 1TB model at the top-end. This would line up with previous reports that Apple was avoiding the 1TB model for pricing reasons, since it would allow the company to keep its pricing the same — rather than occupying the 512GB slot, the 1TB iPhone 13 Pro would add a fourth pricing tier on top the existing 128/256/512GB lineup.
The good news is that, unlike last year, all sources point to the entire iPhone 13 lineup being available this month, from the 5.4-inch iPhone 13 mini to the 6.7-inch iPhone 13 Pro Max.
If Apple follows its previous trends, pre-orders will begin this Friday, September 17, with the new iPhones arriving in people’s hands by next Friday, September 24. That said, it’s also possible that Apple could surprise us, and have the iPhone 13 go on sale this Friday, with pre-orders right after the event, as it did with last year’s Apple Watch Series 6 and Apple Watch SE.