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Comment by pmg | Hacker News Reader

How’s your 13 mini holding up? I have a recently refurbished one (6 months old) and I can’t make it to 2pm without recharging.

Additional my mail search and photo search broke with Apple Intelligence/iOS18 integration.

Debating jumping ship to a epaper phone or holding out for the rumored iPhone Air.

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My 13 mini is also not great on battery. I've been debating ordering an iFixit battery and doing the swap, but in the past I've felt it was kind of mixed results from that. I don't think those batteries are newly manufactured units, but rather leftovers from the original production line that have been sitting on the shelf for 2-3 years. So although they'll be an improvement over one that's been through 1-2k cycles, they won't be like it was when it was brand new.

For now I'm just making do with having a power bank in my bag when I'm out and about.

I don't think the iPhone Air will actually be smaller in the dimensions I care about, just thinner which I assume will compromise battery life.

My mini is holding up ok. Battery needs replacing but I haven't done it. Like mikepurvis, I carry power banks around if I'm doing anything where I'm not going to be able to recharge easily. I use one like this https://www.amazon.com/Anker-PowerCore-Magnetic-Slim-B2C/dp/...

I prefer this form factor, but yeah

https://a.co/d/aFqI38o

I was able to get a new battery and screen for my 13 mini via AppleCare, but even the new battery won't get me through the day. Recent OS updates also make my camera shooting experience really slow for some reason.

Even with all that, I'm keeping the mini as long as possible because every year brings bigger and heavier iPhones.

> Recent OS updates also make my camera shooting experience really slow for some reason.

I’m on a 16 pro and it’s bad. It’s worse if I use the side button or do it from lock Screen, quicker from actual camera app. However it’s by far the slowest camera I’ve had on an iPhone, and I find the speed and quality a disappointing.

I have a 13 mini for about 3 years now - still holding up for most of the working day (about 15 hours). The trick is to reduce the number of apps you have on the phone, reduce the number of apps which like running on the background, and not watch a lot of videos.

I figured it out that treating it as a communication device + payments device + maps + very occasional content viewer, ie mostly as a utility will make the phone last much longer.

I’m on a 12 mini and it lasts all day easily.

I generally like the phone except it’s a little too big.

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