Jason Snell, writing at Six Colors:
The problem is that most people don’t buy a new iPhone every year. The primary upgraders to the iPhone 13 will be coming from the iPhone 7, or 8, or X, or XS, or XR.
Here’s an attempt to provide a little more of a big-picture overview for owners of older iPhones who are wondering what’s new in the iPhone 13.
This is probably the most useful overview of the iPhone 13 and 13 Pro I’ve seen, primarily because I myself am upgrading from the three year old iPhone XS. I think Jason hits the nail on the head: most iPhone reviewers are doing year-over-year comparisons and may accurately describe this crop of iPhones as “just an S-year” or a “small spec bump”. But most iPhone purchasers (like me) are inheriting the cumulative advancements of the last two, three, or even four years of Apple’s “incremental” updates. That context is important, and Jason lays it out quite nicely for everyone making the multi-year iPhone jump.