The Apple iPhone 13 mini first appeared on the market in September 2021 and belongs to our Premium segment ($ 600- $ 799). Let’s take a look at how it fared in our battery protocol tests.
Key specs:
- Battery capacity: 2406mAh
- 20W charger (not included)
- 5.4-inch, 1080 x 2340, 60Hz OLED display
- Apple A15 Bionic chipset (5 nm).
- ROM / RAM combination tested: 128GB + 4GB
About SBMARK Battery Tests: For the score and analysis in our smartphone battery reviews, SBMARK engineers perform a series of objective tests over a period of one week both indoors and outdoors. This article highlights the most important results of our tests. (See our introductory article and how we test articles for more details on our Smartphone Battery Protocol.)
Test summary
Pros
- Extremely efficient device
- Well managed nighttime consumption
- Good wireless charging experience
Cons
- Poor autonomy overall
- Low charging efficiency
Thanks in large part to a 9.5% increase in battery capacity, the Apple iPhone 13 mini earned 3 points over the older iPhone 12 mini, although neither Apple device comes close to any of the competitors in the Premium category. OnePlus 9 and Samsung Galaxy S21 5G (snapdragon). Battery capacity, charger tested, display type and resolution, and processor specifications for all four devices are shown in the table below.
| Apple iPhone 13 mini | Apple iPhone 12 mini | OnePlus 9 | Samsung Galaxy S21 5G (Snapdragon) | |
| Battery (mAh) | 2406 | 2227 | 4500 | 4000 |
| Battery charger
wireless |
20W (not included)
15W |
20W (not included)
15W |
65 W
15W |
25W (not included)
15W |
| Display type | OLED | OLED | OLED | OLED |
| Resolution | 1080 x 2340, 60Hz | 1080 x 2340, 60Hz | 1080 x 2400, 120 Hz | 1080 x 2400, 120 Hz |
| Processor | Apple A15 Bionic 5 nm | Apple A14 Bionic 5 nm | Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 5G 5 nm | Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 5G 5 nm |
Autonomy (45)
Battery life depends not only on the capacity of the battery, but also on other aspects of the phone’s hardware and software. The SBMARK battery life score is made up of three sub-scores of performance: (1) Stationary, (2) On the go, and (3) Calibrated use cases. Each sub-score includes the results of a full range of tests to measure autonomy in all kinds of real-life scenarios.
59 hours
Light use
Active: 2h30 / day
41h
Moderate use
Active: 4 hours a day
25h
Intense use
Active: 7 hours a day
Due to its small battery, the Apple iPhone 13 mini only offers 40 hours and 51 minutes of battery life with moderate use, which is below average in the premium segment. Its battery life is slightly better than that of the iPhone 12 mini, but far behind its rivals, which both offer more than 10 hours of moderate use.
Stationary
Viva Y72 5G
The best: Vivo Y72 5G (104)
A robot housed in a Faraday cage performs a series of touch-based user actions during what we call our “typical use scenario” (TUS) – making calls, streaming video, etc. – 4 hours of active use over a 16-hour period, plus 8 hours of “sleep”. The robot repeats this series of actions every day until the device is discharged.
Thanks in part to good night-time handling (losing only 1.5%), the iPhone 13 mini lasted 45 hours and 33 minutes during our TUS test. That’s 2 hours better than the 12 mini, but about 12 hours shorter than OnePlus and Samsung.
In movement
Samsung Galaxy M51
The best: Samsung Galaxy M51 (96)
Using a smartphone on the go puts a strain on autonomy due to additional “hidden” requests, such as the continuous signaling associated with the selection of the cell phone network. SBMARK Battery experts take the phone outside and perform a series of precisely defined activities while following the same three-hour travel itinerary for each device.
The iPhone 13 mini’s performance in camera and social apps was disappointing. It came before the 12 mini for GPS and calling, but it lagged behind OnePlus and Samsung in almost every test.
Calibrated
Samsung Galaxy M51
The best: Samsung Galaxy M51 (100)
For this series of tests, the smartphone returns to the Faraday cage and ours robots repeatedly perform actions related to a specific use case (such as games, video streaming, etc.) at a time. Starting at an 80% charge, all devices are tested until they have consumed at least 5% of the battery charge.
While slightly better than the 12 mini, the iPhone 13 mini performed below average in our calibrated tests.
Refill (72)
The SBMARK battery charge score consists of two secondary scores, Full Charge and Quick Boost. Full charge tests evaluate the reliability of the battery charge indicator; measure how long it takes to charge a battery from zero to 80% capacity and from 80 to 100%; and measure how long and how much energy it takes for the battery to go from an indicated 100% to an actual full charge. With the phone at different charge levels (20%, 40%, 60%, 80%), Quick boost tests measure the amount of charge the battery receives after being plugged in for 5 minutes.
Unsurprisingly, the Apple iPhone 13 mini and its 20W charger were unable to keep up with OnePlus (65W) and Samsung (25W). However, it offers a decent wireless charging experience.
Full charge
Nubia RedMagic 6 Pro
The best: Nubia RedMagic 6 Pro (117)
It took the Apple iPhone 13 mini 57 minutes and 18 seconds to go from empty to an 80% charge and 1 hour and 54 minutes to reach a full charge. It is slightly longer than the 12 mini, which has a smaller battery. The OnePlus 9 and its huge 65W charger only takes 38 minutes and 40 seconds to fill its much larger battery.
The iPhone 13 mini took just 1 hour and 12 minutes to wirelessly charge up to 80%, while OnePlus and Samsung took 1 hour and 28 minutes and 1 hour and 51 minutes, respectively.
Fast thrust
Xiaomi 11T Pro
The best: Xiaomi 11T Pro (109)
Users can expect nearly 3 hours of battery life after charging the iPhone 13 mini for 5 minutes, which is better than both the iPhone 12 mini and the Samsung Galaxy S21 5G (Snapdragon), but far behind the 8 hours and 26 minutes. of OnePlus 9 while charging with 20% remaining power.
| Apple iPhone 13 mini | Apple iPhone 12 mini | OnePlus 9 | Samsung Galaxy S21 5G (Snapdragon) | ||
| Increase of autonomy (hh: mm) | 20% | 3:12 | 2:43 | 8:26 | 2:38 |
| 40% | 3:01 | 2:31 | 5:59 | 2:45 | |
| 60% | 2:07 | 1:53 | 5:28 | 2:09 | |
| 80% | 1:02 | 1:20 | 4:02 | 1:57 | |
| Percentage increase | 20% | 10% | 9.5% | 23% | 7.4% |
| 40% | 9.5% | 8.8% | 16.3% | 7.7% | |
| 60% | 6.7% | 6.6% | 14.9% | 6% | |
| 80% | 3.2% | 4.7% | 11% | 5.5% | |
| Energy consumed | 20% | 1391 MWh | 1205 MWh | 4923 MWh | 1466 MWh |
| 40% | 1315 MWh | 1119 MWh | 3491 MWh | 1528 MWh | |
| 60% | 925 MWh | 838 MWh | 3188 MWh | 1195 MWh | |
| 80% | 452 MWh | 591 MWh | 2354 MWh | 1088 MWh |
Efficiency (99)
The SBMARK energy efficiency score consists of two secondary scores, Charge up and Discharge rate, which combine both data obtained when testing typical robot-based usage scenarios, outdoor mobility tests, charge evaluation and measurements of the power, so they take into account the battery capacity of the device.
Thanks to the optimized software and hardware, the two iPhone minis beat both OnePlus and Samsung in terms of overall efficiency by a good margin.
Charge Up
Oppo Find X5 Pro
The best: Oppo Find X5 Pro (86)
Although its adapter is quite efficient, the iPhone 13 mini has poor performance for charging efficiency.
Discharge
Apple iPhone 13 Pro
The best: Apple iPhone 13 Pro (121)
In contrast to the charging efficiency, the iPhone 13 mini and iPhone 12 mini are among the best devices for discharge efficiency in the entire database.
Conclusion
Due to its very small battery and 20W charger, the iPhone 13 Mini cannot offer much in terms of battery life and charging. However, the device is well optimized and has excellent discharge efficiency.
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