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iPhone 12 review: One of our most appreciated phones of all time

 


5G support, a new striking design, improved cameras and four different models all add up to make the iPhone 12 an absolute unit.


The iPhone 12 and 12 Pro are here and mark the beginning of a new generation of iPhone. Support for 5G, a new hardware design, and camera improvements are a significant step away from the iPhone X generation of devices. This is nothing new. Apple did something similar in 2010 with the iPhone 4 and in 2014 when it released the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. There is one big difference between the iPhone 12 generation, though. 

It's the first time there are four new iPhones at once: the iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Mini, iPhone 12 Pro, and iPhone 12 Pro Max. If you want to go small and reap the benefits of a lower price there's the Mini. If you want the biggest iPhone with the newest in iPhone cameras, get the Pro Max. But that leaves the 12 and 12 Pro which are similar (like basically-the-same-phone similar). That's not necessarily a bad thing.

The iPhone 12 and 12 Pro are the same sizes. They both have the same design, the same display, the same insanely fast A14 Bionic chip, the same 5G support, the same selfie, wide and ultrawide cameras. Heck, they both come in blue. (Technically, the 12 Pro is Pacific blue.) This is a departure from the base and pro models from last year. 

The $699 iPhone 11 and $999 iPhone 11 Pro were similar but had enough differences to distinguish themselves from each other. The $829 iPhone 12 (or $799 if you activate it on a carrier when you buy it) is $130 more than the iPhone 11 when it was released. An iPhone 12 with 128GB of storage (the same as the baseline 12 Pro) costs $879 (sans carrier discount) which is only $120 less than the $999 iPhone 12 Pro. It's best to think of the iPhone 12 and 12 Pro as "better" and "best" versions of the same phone. Prices start in the UK at £799 for the iPhone 12 and £999 for the 12 Pro. 

In Australia, they start at AU$1,349 for the 12 and AU$1,699 for the 12 Pro. See the chart at the bottom for a full pricing breakdown. It's brilliant that both the 12 and 12 Pro can connect to sub-6 and mmWave 5G here in the US. One phone doesn't have better 5G support than the other. They are both the same. I tested these phones in Greenville, South Carolina on both T-Mobile's 5G network and Verizon's Nationwide 5G (the non-mmWave version without the bonkers speeds). 

I was impressed with the coverage both carriers offered, but not always with the consistency of 5G speeds. Using the app SpeedTest, the iPhone 12 on T-Mobile recorded download speeds between 10.4 and 14.9 megabits per second, while the iPhone 12 Pro on Verizon clocked in between 97.9 and 104Mbps for downloads. One of the first things I noticed about the iPhone 12 is its "globular" beauty. Apple's idea of premium differs from the flash and spectacle we see in flagship Android phones. Body colors don't appear to morph from one to another depending on the light. 

The screen doesn't wrap around the edges. In fact, the iPhone 12 and 12 Pro don't have curved edges at all. Instead, a straight-edged polished stainless steel band defines the iPhone 12 Pro (it's matte aluminum on the 12), much in the way it did on the iPhone 5, 5S, and SE, just without the chamfered edges. The iPhone 12 and 12 Pro have a bold, striking look without any frills. The build and finish on the 12 Pro are extraordinary. 

The iPhone 12 is also defined by a stunning OLED panel, which Apples calls a Super XDR display. Gone is the LCD found on the iPhone XR and 11. Besides the contrast and resolution, the squared-off sides seem to push the display up and forward. When the phone is on its back, it's as if the rest of the phone is holding up the display while trying not to be seen. Both phone screens are covered with a ceramic shield, a new material that starts off as glass and is infused with nano-ceramic crystals. 

(After the infusion, it's no longer considered glass.) Apple claims it offers four times the protection when dropped. I'm not sure exactly how that number was calculated by Apple, but I look forward to my colleagues putting the 12 and 12 Pro through a series of drop tests. The iPhone 12 and 12 Pro are both rated IP68 for water- and dust-resistance and can withstand being submerged in water to a depth of 6 meters for 30 minutes. In the time I had the phones, both handled spills, light rain and minimal submerging in water just fine. 

CAMERA PERFORMANCE: 


The cameras received hardware, software, and processing upgrades. While other phones might have a standout camera feature (like the Galaxy S20 Ultra's 100x Space Zoom) that these iPhones lack, the iPhone 12 and 12 Pro can capture excellent photos and video and deliver consistently fantastic images. Here's a sample that was taken in a range of different environments and lighting.




The iPhone 12 has the exact same cameras as the iPhone 12 Pro, except for the telephoto camera and lidar. But these phones aren't just dependent on hardware to take good photos and videos. Apple's new A14 Bionic chip, along with software and machine learning, adds improvements to everything. 

For example, the 12 and 12 Pro have the same hardware for their ultrawide-angle camera as last year's 11 and 11 Pro. 

But the 12 and 12 Pro have software to correct the lens distortion. Take a look below at these ultrawide-angle photos of a brick wall. in the iPhone 11 photo, notice how the corners of the brick wall look like they're bending.

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