What is your impression of the new colors "Starlight" and "Sierra Blue" of the iPhone 13 series? (Taro Matsumura)

Finally, the iPhone 13 series will be released on September 24, 2021. As a preliminary review, let's take a look at the newly added Starlight on the iPhone 13 and Sierra Blue on the iPhone 13 Pro.

Check the color of Starlight

When I hear "Starlight", some people think of Hikaru GENJI, some people are Aikatsu and Idolmaster, and some are famous jazz songs.

Until now, the lineup of iPhones, Apple Watches, iPads, etc. had a standard color called "silver". The back of the glass is painted white and has a white aluminum frame and body that is as good as it is.

The silver is not available for the iPhone 13 series this time, and "Starlight" has been added instead. Like silver, the back is pure white, and I think it's not much different from silver. But the sides were clearly different.

Whereas silver looked like a pure white aluminum metal color, Starlight was a slightly yellowish, pale champagne gold. The visual impression will be significantly influenced by the ambient light. Under warm light bulbs, it's closer to champagne gold, and under the clear white light of fluorescent lights, it may look more silvery.

Apple performs an oxide film treatment with the dye. By making fine holes on the metal surface and filling them, corrosion resistance is improved, a smooth surface is realized, and at the same time, coloring is performed.

Until now, silver looked like a solid color of aluminum, but I dared to add a color to it, and I added a little effort to make it a color called Starlight.

Compare Sierra Blue and Pacific Blue

Next, let's take a look at Sierra Blue, a new addition to the iPhone 13 Pro series.

The Pro series now comes in special colors starting with the iPhone 11 Pro. The 2019 iPhone 11 Pro was available in Midnight Green, with a stainless steel frame and back dyed in a distinctive deep green.

By the way, this dye was made by Seiko Advance in Saitama Prefecture, and when CEO Tim Cook visited the site in December 2019, it was interesting to see how the dye was mixed with midnight green. It was a target.

And the 2020 iPhone 12 Pro will be available in Pacific Blue, and the 2021 iPhone 13 Pro will be the same blue but with a different color under the name "Sierra Blue".

Sierra Blue Sierra comes from the Sierra Nevada Mountains, which is also a famous beer brand, and is a mountain. A bright color that looks like wisteria when viewed alone. It has a very subdued color. If you find a flower of this color while hiking, you will feel very rich.

If you look at last year's Pacific Blue and Sierra Blue side by side, you can see that the former is darker. Dark blue with a little green is perfect for the image of deep blue in the Pacific Ocean. Sierra blue has the impression that it is more purple.

However, all of them are calm colors, not stimulating colors.

Notch problem

Since the color of the exclusive color changes every year, it is difficult for people who like midnight green and absolutely like Pacific blue to switch.

On the other hand, the performance of smartphones is evolving year by year, and this year too, there have been major breakthroughs. What's remarkable about the 2021 model iPhone is actually the upgrade of the iPhone 13 Pro.

The iPhone 13 Pro is a product that inherits the features of the iPhone 12 Pro, such as a new flat design, 5G support, and three cameras. At first glance, it looks the same design, but the notch has been reduced and the earpiece speaker has been greatly improved in appearance and usability.

The notch has been a "cutout" in the upper front of the iPhone since the introduction of the all-screen design iPhone X, and has been an imperfect element in the design of the iPhone. Of course, it is also a design, but it is better not to have it.

Inside the notch are a handset speaker, a TrueDepth camera system with an in-camera and infrared light sensor, and other sensors. In the iPhone 13 series, the area of ​​the notch has been reduced by 20% due to the redesign.

Specifically, the earpiece speaker that used to be in the center of the notch has been pushed to the edge and out of the display area. This allowed us to make the cutouts on the screen smaller.

At the same time, the earpiece speaker has been moved to the edge so that when the iPhone is touched to the ear, the speaker position is no longer misaligned and difficult to hear. It's too detailed, but I think it will have a great effect on usability for people who make daily calls.

6.1-inch Pro model, camera improved by 2 generations

You should be able to feel the performance improvement of iPhone 13 Pro compared to iPhone 13 Pro Max. The reason is the progress of wide-angle cameras. That's because there was a leap for two generations.

Last year, the iPhone 12 Pro Max featured a large sensor and sensor-shifted image stabilization. This sensor has a 17μm pixel, which is also used in the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini, but it was not used in the iPhone 12 Pro last year.

This means that the iPhone 13 uses a larger sensor than the iPhone 12 Pro.

But the iPhone 13 Pro is not defeated either. In 2021, the same larger sensor with 19 μm pixels as the iPhone 13 Pro Max will be equipped with sensor shift type image stabilization. That's why the iPhone 13 Pro's wide-angle camera has improved for two generations at once.

It is resistant to camera shake and can pan videos smoothly. I was able to collect 2.2 times more light and enjoy shooting in the woods and at night.

Computational photography is also evolving. Movies in cinematic mode also have the impact of sublimating movie shooting into "expression." These features were common to the iPhone 13 series, which are also available on the iPhone 13. I would like to take a closer look at another opportunity.

But optical performance is the basis of the camera, and without compromise, the iPhone 13 Pro was the most balanced and attractive option. By the way, how would you rate this new color?

Apple (Amazon store page)