iPhone through the ages: the original to the iPhone 13 - how much has it changed?

iOS was evolving at the same rate as the hardware, of course, and Siri began life as an iPhone 4S exclusive.The improvements were enough to persuade us to describe it as "the best thing Apple has ever created" in the official TechRadar review.Launched: September 2012After six handsets, Apple finally decided it was time to tweak the iPhone's screen size and aspect ratio.Coming in at 20% lighter than its predecessor, the 2012 iPhone adopted a 4-inch screen, running at 640 x 1136 pixels.Otherwise, despite the usual speed bump and a stronger antenna, it was very much business as usual in terms of the design and capabilities.Our biggest gripe in our iPhone 5 review was with the aging iOS, but with iOS 7 arriving on September 18 that issue is very much negated, which will please a number of iPhone 5 users who've been holding onto the handset for nearly a year.Launched: September 2013The big step in the seventh stage of the iPhone's evolution was the arrival of the iPhone 5C, a slightly cheaper, plastic-backed model to help battle Android in the busy mobile middle market. With a pixel density of 401ppi, not only does the iPhone 6 Plus have the largest screen of any iPhone ever, but it also has the clearest.The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus also benefit from Apple's use of "dual-domain pixels", which along with the 1300:1 contrast ratio makes the screen on the handsets look absolutely fantastic.Both the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus also ditched the industrial and sharp-edged design that had been with the iPhone for four generations, in favour of a more ergonomically-pleasing chassis with a screen that curves into a body with rounded edges and corners.Both handsets feature metal backs, and as we pointed out in our reviews, they take a lot of design language from the iPad Air, resulting in a product that looks and feels genuinely premium.Another big change is that the boosted screen sizes and the corresponding increase in body dimensions have meant that the power button now resides on the right-hand side of the devices.Along with the launch of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus Apple, released iOS 8, which kept many of the flat aesthetics of iOS 7 and ushered in some neat new features.It wasn't a completely smooth launch, however, and after only a few months Apple has already patched it to iOS 8.1.3 in a bid to squash bugs and fix problems.The rocky launch of iOS 8 was in stark contrast to the assured releases of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, with Apple proudly announcing that the two iPhones broke the company's records for pre-orders in the first night they were available.Launched: September 2015Say hello to the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus. Instead, Apple offered us the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus during its September 12, 2017 launch event at its brand new Cupertino, California HQ.Don't let the lack of the 'S' suffix fool you though, as these two new iPhones look incredibly similar to the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus they replace - it's another incremental upgrade (but Apple did have something rather special alongside these two - move to the next slide to learn more!).Back to the iPhone 8 handsets though, and this time around you get an all glass rear, which in turn has brought wireless charging to both phones while the screen has been improved color wise, but still has the same resolution as predecessors.The rear facing 12MP camera on the iPhone 8 has also been improved, as has the dual snapper on the back of the iPhone 8 Plus, giving you brighter, clearer and more colorful snaps.Both phones also benefit from Apple's brand new A11 Bionic processor and upgraded GPU, ensuring there's plenty of grunt under the hood.Launched: September 2017The iPhone X was the phone that stole the show in 2017, pushing aside the incremental upgrades that are the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus, and dazzling Apple fans around the world with a bold new look.TechRadar's own Gareth Beavis went as far to say the iPhone X is "the most important iPhone ever launched" - no pressure then.The main event was the bezeless 5.8-inch Super Retina HD display, packing in 2436 x 1125 resolution for a 458ppi pixel density. Repeat, the iPhone X does not have a home button.Apple ditched the physical key in favor of a swipe up gesture from the bottom of the screen, while the fingerprint scanning Touch ID tech was also been kicked to the kerb.In its place is Face ID, a facial scanner technology that accurately maps your face and - Apple claims - is much more secure than Touch ID.All this comes at a cost - and the iPhone X was the most expensive iPhone ever when it launched, starting at an eye-watering $999, £999, AU$1,579.Launched: September 2018The iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max launched in 2018 as the then-leading smartphone duo to grace Apple's illustrious range.The iPhone XS features merely incremental upgrades over the iPhone X, with improved rear cameras, a new gold finish and more power under the hood.Meanwhile the iPhone XS Max is a next leap forward for Apple, offering up a massive 6.5-inch display as well as the same upgrades as the XS.If you fancy getting hold of either of these handsets though, be prepared to pay. That small size could prove as much a selling point as the low price though, since the smallest iPhone 11 model is 5.8 inches.Launched: October 2020The iPhone 12 range arrived late - landing in October 2020, rather than September when it was expected, but it got there eventually, and this time around there were four phones.There's the 5.4-inch iPhone 12 mini, the 6.1-inch iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro, and the 6.7-inch iPhone 12 Pro Max. All four models have an OLED screen, an A14 Bionic chipset and - for the first time on an iPhone - 5G.They're also all tougher than their predecessors, with 'Ceramic Shield' protection on the front, and the ability to survive being submerged up to 6 meters deep in water.The two standard models have two rear cameras and the Pro handsets up that to three - and even find space for a LiDAR scanner to improve augmented reality and low light shots.With the iPhone SE (2020) also landing earlier in the year, this is by far the bulkiest Apple's iPhone line-up has ever been.Launched: September 2021The iPhone 13 landed alongside the iPhone 13 mini, iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max in September 2021, and this selection of handsets wasn't a huge change from what came the year before.Fresh off adding 5G to the iPhone, Apple chose in 2021 to instead focus on polish and other minor improvements.Still, that resulted in some of the best battery life we've encountered on an iPhone, especially in the case of the iPhone 13 Pro Max, while both Pro models also got a handy macro camera mode and a 120Hz screen.The screens of these phones have otherwise remained similar to the previous year though, as have the designs (albeit with a smaller notch), but there's the expected power boost from the new A15 Bionic chipset.In all, this would probably be an 'S' year if Apple still used that naming scheme, but these remain quietly brilliant phones.Sign up to get breaking news, reviews, opinion, analysis and more, plus the hottest tech deals!Thank you for signing up to TechRadar.