Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Ctrlos

macrumors 65816
Sep 19, 2022
1,005
2,195
What if you use the camera? Have you been travelling somewhere lately? How does it hold up?
I go travelling for work frequently. The iPhone 13 (on 85% health!) happily goes all day with camera, Safari, maps and music no problem.

If you’re buying one new then provided you’re not doing any intensive gaming it will easily last for a whole day. On 17.5 it’s still incredibly quick with no frame skips.

The camera quality is still absolutely brilliant too:

IMG_1620.jpeg
 

Honza1

macrumors 6502a
Nov 30, 2013
935
434
US
25% battery loss with only music playing indicates bigger problem than worn out battery.
If the real reason behind replacing the phone is really battery life - we all are often just looking for justification - try some common fixes:
* Reboot, should fix misbehaving/hanging apps or processes.
* Kill apps known for eating battery life in the background. Facebook, social media in general... Those are much more likely to kill your battery life than battery wear.
These small fixes solved my battery issues over the years better than buying a new device. Which you can do also, but it might not fix your battery life. Just give you good feeling of having a new device ;-)
Further, there are limits - some members of my family use their phone for hours of FaceTime calls and the only solution for that is add on battery. They make Magsafe batteries now which work amazingly well.
 
  • Like
Reactions: iHorseHead

ndouglas

macrumors 6502a
Jun 1, 2022
667
589
Lots of previous comments here that I agree with overall. Not sure what you mean by “trust is gone” esp. when you plan to upgrade to another iphone by the same company… to reiterate a few points made by others, an “honest answer” includes:
—absolutely a non-mini (and a non-12-mini) iPhone will have way better battery life than what you’re dealing with currently
—it heavily depends on your usage, re: how well a 13 non-mini would serve you
—you could get a phone of any type, year, size and have its battery hold capacity for years vs. some that deteriorate much sooner (1.5 - 2 years is my average personally before it’s noticeably degraded)

///

—waiting a 2 months might be doable if you need or want the latest or just to see what is released, but personally at 84% on a 12 mini I would update that immediately to either a 13 mini, or a 14 or 15 regular. Life is too short to deal with such a notoriously bad-battery model so many years after it was released.

///
Finally, my own personal experience that is likely not shared by many, since 99% of people today walk around with ginormous phones sticking out from their pockets:
—if you’re at all like me you will not be able to deal with the larger phones due to how they are too big for pockets. I tried a 14 regular for a couple weeks, the larger battery and screen were great but the size was just not enjoyable for me, so I replaced it w/ a 13 mini. I will let go of this phone and my resistance to larger ones when I must (say in a couple years if there is no SE 4 or future minis) but for now I’ll keep this one as long as possible.


Good luck in your decisions, I suspect that whenever you replace it, with whatever you choose, you’ll be relieved and wish you did it a bit sooner.
 

Andeddu

macrumors 68000
Dec 21, 2016
1,689
2,081
My 13’s battery is down to 89% battery health and can still last me a full day on most days. I am a heavy user with 6+ hours of SOT. I’ll get a battery replacement once my phone reaches 2 years old in Jan 2025.
 

one more

macrumors 601
Aug 6, 2015
4,701
5,994
Earth
Anything of a regular (6.1”) size starting from iPhone 13 will give you a great improvement to your ageing mini’s battery capacity.

While you are looking for your upgrade, as others have mentioned, using 5G and Bluetooth are both very energy hungry, so if you don’t want to worry about your battery you could flip it to low-power mode (your iPhone will go to 4G temporarily).
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.