Apple’s iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro have been out for a week. In that short time they have shown themselves to be Apple’s best year-over-year iPhone upgrade yet, even not including the future impact of 5G.
Apple’s iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro have been out for a week. In that short time they have shown themselves to be Apple’s best year-over-year iPhone upgrade yet, even not including the future impact of 5G. This year, Apple’s iPhone undertook its biggest design overhaul since… the last time it used this design. It feels very familiar to anyone who has used the iPhone 5 or iPhone 5s. That isn’t a dig by any means because the design looks fresh and feels great in the hand. It makes the phone feel slimmer and more substantial. Apple wasn’t necessarily trying to copy its used design. The flat sides just look more modern, just as they do with the iPad Pros and now iPad Air. We also can’t overlook that it has made it easier to stand up our phone to take photo thanks to that flat bottom. Both the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro are the same size this year, meaning a case that fits the iPhone 12 will fit the iPhone 12 Pro. This definitely will help case manufacturers who don’t have to create four case sizes this year, but it does make it slightly more confusing when trying to decipher which model to choose. Moving on from the flat sides, all of the colors this year are new, or at least tweaked. The iPhone 12 line goes bright with several anodized aluminum colors like (Product)RED, green, blue, silver, and black. We got our hands on the green model, which looks great, though we wish the color was slightly more vibrant, more akin to the green iPod mini from many years prior. If compared directly to the iPhone 11, it is thinner, lighter, and smaller, but so much improved. This year it ditches the LCD display for nearly the same OLED Super Retina XDR display that was found in the iPhone 12 Pro. It features all the same specs as the iPhone 12 Pro, just a slightly lower average brightness. Going from an iPhone 11 to an iPhone 12 will feel like a big jump when you compare even just the display, let alone the improved form factor and everything else. For the stainless steel, the silver color has a lighter or whiter back panel, gold is more vivid than in the past, and space gray has been usurped by graphite, which is just a hair lighter — similar to the graphite Apple Watch. Based on an informal poll at our local Apple Stores, Pacific blue has been by far the most popular of all the new colorways. It is easy to see wh, as we love this color. As Chevy Chase would say, it’s “streets ahead.” We liked the green of the iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max, but the blue is far better looking. All of the new stainless steel colors seem to attract fingerprints like crazy, which does detract for those that prefer to rock their iPhone caseless. Pacific blue and graphite are the worst offenders, with silver still showing and gold holding up the best. Aside from the obvious changes to the phone — i.e. the flat sides and larger screen on the iPhone 12 — Apple also improved its durability in two ways. The first is by increasing its water-resistance nearly two-fold. It is now capable of staying submerged in up to six meters of water for 30 minutes, up from the previous four-meter limit for the same duration. Second is the new ceramic shield that covers the front of the phone. The ceramic shield is supposed to improve its drop resistance by a factor of four. While these changes are welcomed, they don’t go far enough. In all my years with an iPhone, I’ve only had two issues when it comes to durability. The glass back has cracked — twice and I continue to have scratches on the upper edge of my display. What is so infuriating about these is that they simply should not be happening. I’ve never dropped my phone, yet the back glass cracked on me twice now. I have no idea if it is from an accidental bump or what but it somehow happened without the phone tumbling to the ground. For those who are already wondering, one of these happened while donning a case. I do know where the scratches on the top of the phone come from though. I typically store my iPhone 11 Pro Max in my back left pocket, and I repetitively place it against my pants with the screen facing my body and slide it down as to catch the top of the back pocket and continue sliding it down before letting it go. I repeat the same motion dozens of times a day, typically while wearing jeans, causing a set of faint wear marks on that top edge. It is absurd that sliding the phone in and out of your pocket could cause these scratches on the display, but here we are. The new ceramic shield will aid in drop protection but will do nothing to remedy either of my outstanding issues. To make it more frustrating, the cracked back can’t be easily replaced and requires an entire exchange of the phone and a higher out-of-pocket cost compared to a normal screen replacement. We applaud Apple for increasing the durability of the new phones, but it isn’t enough. The cameras on the iPhone 12 line are simply stunning. Apple once more dedicated a significant amount of time during its unveiling touting the incredible capabilities of the handsets. These new buffs aren’t a marketing ploy but massive new capabilities to capture unparalleled images. While the competition continues to oversaturate its images and toss on near-unusable 100X zoom capabilities, Apple has focused on the core cameras, which is what most people tend to use in day-to-day shooting. When it does introduce new features, they are technologically impressive and practically useful rather than just marketing fodder to mock the competition in social ads. This year, both iPhone 12, as well as iPhone 12 Pro, gained the ability to shoot 4K videos in Dolby Vision. We did a full explainer on the different types of HDR content but Dolby Vision has always been the best of the best when it comes to HDR video. Now that power is coming to the tiny phone in your pocket. Many may not realize this, but for feature films and shows that are presented with Dolby Vision, it isn’t shot that way, as it is shot and then mastered in Dolby Vision. That makes it all the more impressive that iPhone 12 can shoot, edit, play, and share this incredible content. Shooting in Dolby Vision is no special mode, it just needs to be toggled on within the Settings app for the camera. Apple makes it so smooth and easy to manage. With it enabled, Dolby Vision content is recorded when you capture video. It gets marked as HDR just like other special media in the Photos app such as burst photos or a portrait shot, with an indicator in the top-left corner. Between the two devices, iPhone 12 Pro can shoot Dolby Vision at 40K 60 rakes per second while the iPhone 12 is limited to only 30 frames per second. That is despite the devices having the same internal processor.
