Joanna Stern: ‘From Mini to Pro Max, It’s All About the Battery and Cameras’

Joanna Stern, reviewing the iPhone 13 lineup for the WSJ:

With videos, gosh, I was really excited about the new Cinematic mode. Aaaand gosh, was it a let down. The feature — which you could call “Portrait mode for video” — adds artistic blur around the object in focus. The coolest thing is that you can tap to refocus while you shoot (and even do it afterward in the Photos app).

Except, as you can see in my video, the software struggles to know where objects begin and end. It’s a lot like the early days of Portrait Mode, but it’s worse because now the blur moves and warps. I shot footage where the software lost parts of noses and fingers, and struggled with items such as a phone or camera. The Apple spokeswoman said Cinematic mode is a “breakthrough innovation that will keep getting better over time.”

Stern went all-in on Cinematic mode for the video accompanying her review.

★ Tuesday, 21 September 2021