Apple brings out four iPhone 12 models, from mini to Max
There’s a new iPhone on the block – well, four of them, to be precise. In a move designed to cater to a wider range of users and budgets, Apple has launched the iPhone 12, iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Max.
On the plus side, all the new smartphones have OLED screens and are slimmer and lighter than their old counterparts. They have a flat-edge design, making them a lot harder to drop compared to the svelte but slippery rounded edges of previous models.
Also making them more drop-resistant are their Ceramic Shield front covers, which Apple says will increase drop performance by four times.
And if you happen to drop them into water, the iPhone 12s can live through being submerged in water up to 6m for up to 30 minutes.
For charging, Apple has turned back to the MagSafe connection concept we used to see on MacBook laptops – a charger that attaches magnetically to your device and simply pulls off when tugged. For the iPhone 12 range, though, the wireless charger snaps on to an array of magnets built into the back of the phones.
There are a couple of new Belkin MagSafe chargers for the home and car coming soon to Australia.
The iPhones are also all 5G models, meaning that they can take advantage of the new mid-band 3.5GHz 5G mobile phone networks that offer improved speeds for faster downloading, streaming and gaming.
However, according to La Trobe University Research Fellow Stanley Shanapinda, Australians can’t benefit from the high-spectrum millimetre-wave (mmWave) 5G which the iPhone 12s can access in the US. First, this is because we lack access to the right networks and, second, the iPhone 12 models to be sold in Australia lack the mmWave antenna necessary to access them. You can read the full story here.
There’s also a new chip on board – the A14 Bionic. While this isn’t as cool as a new design or better cameras, Apple says it is 50 per cent faster than competing smartphone chips.
However, on the negative side for many is that while the new iPhone 12s come with a USB-C to Lightning Cable, there are no longer earphones or a charger in the box.
On the one hand this means that you’ll need to buy one of the new MagSafe Chargers or MagSafe Duo Chargers also announced by Apple or keep using your old Lightning or Qi chargers.
On the other hand, Apple says this reduces carbon emissions by avoiding “the mining and use of precious materials” and enables smaller and lighter packaging, which “allows for 70 per cent more boxes to be shipped on a pallet”.
It’s a fair point. We have more Apple chargers and earphones lying around the house than we need, and personally I’ve always thought it wasn’t necessary to bundle then with every device.
Apple iPhone 12
The iPhone 12 is a 6.1-inch model with a Ceramic Shield front, glass back and aluminium body. It comes in five colours: blue, green, black, white, and (PRODUCT)RED.
It has a Super Retina XDR display with a massive 2 million-to-1 contrast ratio for true blacks, and nearly twice the brightness of the iPhone 11.
On the photography side, this model has two 12-megapixel cameras on the rear – an ultra-wide and a new wide camera with a fast ƒ/1.6 aperture that captures 27 per cent more light than previous models.
It can record video in HDR with Dolby vision at up to 30 fps.
There’s optical image stabilisation for both still photography and video. Zoom is limited to 2× optical zoom out and 5x digital zoom.
I couldn’t find the battery specs, but Apple says it will provide up to 17 hours of video playback, up to 11 hours of video streaming and up to 65 hours of audio playback.
The phone measures 146.7mm high x 71.5mm wide x 7.4mm deep.
Apple iPhone 12 mini
The Apple iPhone 12 mini has everything the 12 has, but packs it into a smaller body with a 5.4-inch display.
Its dimensions are 131.5mm high x 64.2mm wide x 7.4mm deep, which is about the size of an iPhone 6/7/8 or SE.
Like the bigger model, it comes in 64GB, 128GB and 256GB capacities.
Apple iPhone 12 Pro
Like the ‘normal’ models, the iPhone 12 Pro range has flat edges, Ceramic Shield screens, Super Retina XDR displays, the A14 Bionic chip, MagSafe charging and 5G connectivity. But, as you’d expect from a premium range, there are more bells and whistles on board.
The Pro has a stainless-steel band, a textured matte glass back and a 6.1-inch edge-to-edge displays with reduced borders.
It’s available in four colours – Graphite, Silver, Gold and Pacific Blue – and measures 146.7mm high x 71.5mm wide x 7.4mm deep, the same as the iPhone 12.
On the back is a three-camera array. One is an ultra-wide, one is the super-bright ƒ/1.6 wide found on the cheaper models, and one is a telephoto. This gives you a 2x optical zoom in and out and a 10x digital zoom.
There’s a new image signal processor (ISP) and Apple’s new ProRAW format, which Apple says “combines Apple’s multi-frame image processing and computational photography with the versatility of a RAW format. Users can experience full creative control over colour, detail, and dynamic range natively on iPhone or with other professional photo editing apps”.
On the video side, the Pro can record in HDR and Dolby Vision at up to 60 fps and have advanced video stabilisation.
There’s a new LiDAR Scanner on board, which measures how long it takes light to reflect back from objects and can create a depth map of the space you’re in. This can be used for more realistic AR and is also used to improve autofocus by 6x in low-light scenes.
Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max
The flagship iPhone lives up to its ‘Max’ name, coming in with a 6.7-inch screen – the largest display ever on an iPhone – and a resolution of close to 3.5 million pixels. It measures 160.8mm high x 78.1mm wide x 7.4mm deep.
It shares a lot of its other capabilities and specs with the iPhone Pro, with a few differences.
When it comes to battery performance, the Apple iPhone Pro Max has a bit of an edge over the Pro: Video playback up to 20 hours (17 hours); video playback (streamed) up to 12 hours (11 hours); and audio playback up to 80 hours (65 hours).
Apple says the bigger iPhone also has a larger sensor and larger pixels on the wide camera, for an 87 per cent improvement in low-light conditions. The ultra-wide and 65mm telephoto cameras combine to give a 5x optical zoom range.
Apple iPhone 12 mini price
From RRP $1199
Available from Friday, November 13
Pre-order from 12am AEDT on Saturday, November 7
Apple iPhone 12 price
From RRP $1349
Available from Friday, October 23
Pre-order from 11 pm AEDT on Friday, October 16
Apple iPhone 12 Pro price
From RRP $1699
Available from Friday, October 23
Pre-order from 11pm AEDT on Friday, October 16
Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max price
From RRP $1849
Available from Friday, October 23
Pre-order from 12am AEDT on Saturday, November 7
