iPhone 12 & iPhone 12 mini review: HDR powerhouse! By 9to5Mac

A review of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini a 4k HDR video powerhouse check out the full video, but first a brief word from our sponsor imaging is the Swiss army knife for iOS device management for mac and windows, use it to make time machine style, wireless backups and easily transfer documents, media and content, explore system files, access device and battery diagnostics, and more and here's what's important, all your data stays local on your computer or the drive of your choice. Backups can be encrypted for maximum privacy. With that amazing, you can dig into your iPhone or iPad's backup history and browse your photo library without syncing and export multiple versions, you can even save and export WhatsApp, chats and iOS messages, and it's already for apple's latest software and hardware. It's no wonder why imaging is the most popular, all-purpose, iPhone and iPad manager for mac and PC for a limited time, get 30 off imaging by clicking the link in the description special thanks to imaging for sponsoring 9-5 mac. The majority of the iPhone 12 features are common to every model in the lineup, though, the differences in camera size and battery life may help you decide which phone is best for you with. That said, I think that most people will be happy with the iPhone 12 as it provides the best overall balance of camera features size and battery life.

All of Apple's iPhones are powered by an industry. First 5 nanometer Apple A14 system on a chip which brings forth modest performance gains in terms of CPU and GPU. However, the most impressive performance benefit is with the neural engine which now hosts 16 cores and is up to 80 faster now with each new iPhone generation. Machine learning gains more and more importance, as it lends greatly to the advances in computational photography, and this is what gives the iPhone a distinct advantage over dumb traditional standalone cameras, if you're coming from an iPhone 11 or an iPhone 10r. One of the first things you're going to notice about the iPhone 12 is the display.

The super retina Dr display is no longer the so-called pro feature. So now everyone gets to enjoy the benefits of an OLED display, with a 2 million to 1 contrast, ratio and perfect black levels. Even more important is that the super retina Dr display can get extremely bright and that's a critical feature to the phone's HDR functionality. The iPhone 12 display features a typical 625 nits max brightness, but for HDR content it can almost double that brightness up to 1200 nits as we'll discuss the HDR capabilities of this phone, particularly on the video front, is what really differentiates apple's latest endeavor compared with its predecessors. All iPhone 12 models feature fantastic cameras with noticeable improvements and low light capture, especially thanks to its faster f 1.6 aperture on the wide angle, shooter machine learning enhancements to smart, hdr3 and night mode, along with brand-new features like the ability to capture edit and playback Dolby Vision, 4k HDR video brings significant value to the iPhone 12. The front-facing true depth camera system also receives upgrades like support for night mode and deep fusion and even HDR video recording as well.

Despite what apple and Verizon may have led you to believe the most outstanding feature about this year's crop of phones. Isn't the overhyped inclusion of 5g cellular connectivity, but it's the support for Dolby Vision, 4k HDR! This is the feature that stands out to me, the most because it is instantly noticeable and when you see it for the first time, it's really like wow, but what's incredible about this year's crop of apple's flagship device is that the iPhone provides a true end-to-end HDR workflow for 4k HDR 30 frames per second on the pro models you get 60 frames per second. Now. That means that not only can you capture videos in HDR, but you can edit them directly in the photos app or iMovie. I can even fire up an advanced video editing, app like suffusion and edit 4k HDR videos there.

In my opinion, this is the most impressive feature about the iPhone 12, and it's not just restricted to the so-called pro models, but it's available on all four of apple's new smartphones, the main thing separating the iPhone 12 Pro and, to a greater extent, the iPhone 12 Pro max are the breadth of camera options and improvements. Just like last year, the pro designated iPhone features a telephoto camera to go along with the standard wide and ultra-wide cameras on the baseline model. While this is a very nice feature, I think you'd have to be very much into capturing photos and videos with your iPhone to justify the at minimum 200 price jumps to the pro with the iPhone 12 Pro you get, the following: camera enhancements, a 52, millimeter telephoto lens, a LIDAR scanner, which was first available in the iPad Pro 2020 model, night mode, portraits apple pro raw capture, 4k, HDR, Dolby, vision up to 60 frames per second. Now the iPhone 12 Pro max yields those features plus a wide angle, camera with 47, larger sensor and larger pixels to go along with it, there's also a more advanced version of is or optical image. Stabilization that uses sensor shift on the wide angle camera.

You also get a millimeter telephoto focal length and five times the total optical zoom range. But in my opinion, if you care about photos and videos enough to warrant the upgrade to the pro, you should look at the iPhone 12 Pro max. Apple's largest smartphone to date features an enhanced primary camera with better stabilization for improved low-light capture, and it has a 6.7 inch display, which makes it ideal for editing, photos and videos and given its size, it shouldn't be surprising that the iPhone 12 Pro max also features the most battery life of any iPhone, which can provide a much-needed boost for long photo and video sessions. So if you're going to pony up the money for the iPhone 12 Pro, and you can handle the 6.7 inch form factor, then you might as well pay the extra 100 bucks for the model that packs in the most pro features the ability to shoot raw photos natively in the camera. App is one of the features that sets the pro version of the iPhone 12.

Apart from the beast line edition apple pro raw is still in beta, but I've had the opportunity to test it, and I came away impressed even though the feature isn't shipping to customers yet apple pro raw allows you to capture photos with less in-camera image processing, which affords more flexibility to modify those images in post-production. It also features more dynamic range which allows you to retain more highlight and shadow data lending you more creativity, options and professional editing apps, like affinity, photo adobe, Lightroom and photoshop after testing out apple pro raw on the iPhone 12 max. I can definitely say that I wouldn't want to shoot photos in regular mode again. If I had the choice. Unfortunately, native raw image capture is exclusive to the iPhone 12 Pro, and it should be included in iOS 14.3 once that releases later this year. All iPhone models support an iPhone 4 inspired design, which makes it one of the better looking models over the last dozen plus years.

Now I prefer the look of the iPhone 12, not only because of the color options, but because of the aluminum antenna band that wraps around the device. Now on the iPhone 12 Pro you get the nice and shiny, but fingerprint magnet of a stainless steel band yeah, you guys can keep that one, although I think the iPhone 6 era, iPhones with rounded off edges, are more comfortable to hold in hand, especially with larger phones. The flat edges of the iPhone 12 lend the phone a more distinct look. That's easy to identify among lineups of metal and glass slabs. Now I'm a sucker for screen real estate, so I naturally gravitated towards the iPhone 12 Pro max's 6.7-inch screen much to the dismay of my arthritic fingers, but if I was going to use the iPhone 12 full time, instead of the pro I'd, probably go for the smaller iPhone 12 mini. It's insane to think that you get this much power and capability in the pint-sized body of the iPhone 12 mini forgetting about the second generation iPhone SC that launched earlier this year.

The iPhone 12 mini feels like the true successor to the original iPhone SE with the footprint that's much closer than I expected now outside it's affordable, 699 price point. The biggest advantage of the iPhone 12 mini is that it's the most hand friendly phone that apple has sold in years because of its edge to edge design that omits a home button in favor of face ID authentication, it's able to pack a 5.4 inch display into a body size, that's smaller than the second generation iPhone SC. Remember that the iPhone SC comes with a considerably smaller 4.7 inch display, so the iPhone 12 mini gives you a lot more screen real estate in a more compact design that even people with smaller hands will find easy to use now, because the iPhone 12 mini is so small. The downside is that, of course, it's going to have a smaller battery, depending on how you use your iPhone. That may or may not be a big issue.

However, if you're prolific about capturing photos and videos, especially 4k 60 video, it may be difficult to make it through a full day without a midday visit to your friendly local wall outlet. An iPhone 12 review would not be complete without a nod towards its max safe capability and the various mac safe accessories now available max safe for the iPhone, which owes its name to the now defunct. Magnetic charging cable connection once found on mac books allows you to wirelessly charge your iPhone faster than a regular QI charger. Now, here's a piece of advice: don't buy max, save for its ability to charge faster, because faster in apple terms is only a little faster. Not to mention that it requires apple's, 20, watt power, adapter for full charge performance, and it's kind of funny, because apple no longer includes a power adapter inside the iPhone's box.

So if you want to use max safe to its full potential, not only do you have to pay for the max safe charger itself, but then you have to pay for the 20 watt power adapter, but even with that ideal setup with max safe wireless charging still doesn't come close to the type of speeds that you get with a wire charger, which means wireless charging remains more about convenience than anything else. That being said, max safe is definitely more convenient than your typical QI charger. Thanks to auto aligning magnetic connectivity, you no longer have to worry about the wireless charger, not charging your phone, because you didn't perfectly align it on the charging coil. Yet MagSafe is more than just charging. It's a whole accessory system which includes third-party offerings with companies like welkin, making wireless charging stands and car mounts apple's.

Silicone and leather cases are all mac safe enabled and they each showcase a special color animation and sound when paired with an iPhone 12. These cases also work with the mac safe wireless charger and accessories like the iPhone leather wallet with maxi 5g connectivity is important, but it's far from the game, game-changing feature that carriers like Verizon at t and T-Mobile like to paint it as at least for the moment, while 5g does have lots of potential its usage, especially when it comes to the insanely fast speeds that 5g marketing and hype is all built upon, falls a little flat. Indeed, with the right carrier in the ideal location in the right city, it may be possible for you to experience the type of speeds only made possible by millimeter wave high band connectivity, but most iPhone customers will never get to experience that kind of speed. In fact, apple only sells iPhones that are capable of experiencing the fastest type of 5g in the US, and even then, access to that type of high band 5g is relatively rare. That's not to say that the benefits of 5g aren't already being felt because it is just not with the shocking speeds found in most 5g marketing materials.

It's far more likely that your experience with 5g will be that of the low band variety which could yield speeds that are only moderately faster than LTE connectivity. We've been enjoying for the last several years. If at all in certain areas, you may be fortunate enough to have access to significantly faster mid-band connectivity, but you'll have to check with your carrier first to see if it's available in my particular neck of the woods in the US, I only have low band available with my carrier. T-Mobile and the speeds aren't anything to write home about now. Will 5g connectivity yield better speeds in more places in the future? Undoubtedly, but there are still major blocks of 5g spectrum that is still being auctioned off today.

The carriers will need to flesh out their offerings, in other words, give 5g a few more years, and it'll probably be more worthy of the hype. Conclusion the iPhone 12 proves that you don't need a pro iPhone to garner a great experience. The iPhone 12 and 12 mini are the best baseline iPhones ever conceptually. The iPhone 12 mini is the best of all time in my eyes, due to the design the size and features, it really is like a modern day iPhone SE, and you all know how I feel about the SC, but as much as I like, the idea of going back to a small phone and as much as my fingers would appreciate that I just can't, I've been spoiled by large phones and there's never been a larger phone than the iPhone 12 Pro max. Yet not everyone can justify carrying around a mammoth of a phone, let alone pay eleven hundred dollars for the privilege, but the regular 6.1 inch iPhone 12 Pro for all that it does right feels like it's sort of in a no man's land in this lineup, it's significantly more expensive than the iPhone 12. Yet it doesn't come with all the bells and whistles found on its bigger brother.

For that reason, I'm more keen on recommending the regular size, iPhone 12 for the majority or the iPhone 12 mini if you're dead, set on owning a more reasonably sized phone. The iPhone 12 mini, in my honest opinion, is the best looking and the best functioning smartphone that I've experienced in years if you're not addicted to having a large phone. It's an amazing piece of hardware, but depending on how it's used, it can struggle with battery life. With that being said, the baseline iPhone 12 is probably the most reasonable iPhone out of any in the lineup. It features a large but not overly large 6.1 inch display it costs 800 bucks. I know that's still expensive, but you know in today's day it's actually fairly reasonable, and it features an amazing camera system with end-to-end HDR workflow.

It also features better colors than the pro version, and it comes with full 5g support and mac safe support, just like all the other iPhones. So those are my thoughts folks. What are your thoughts? What do you think is the best iPhone for 2020 sound off down below in the comments with your thoughts on the matter, and please leave a thumbs up if you appreciate this video, because that helps other people find it as well, of course, subscribe to nine to five mac if you haven't already done so, we'll have more videos like this in the near future, thanks for watching? This is Jeff with the nine to five mac special thanks to imaging for sponsoring 905 mac imaging is made by apple fans, and it's already fully compatible with iOS 14 iPad, OS 14, and it's ready for mac, OS, boxer and Apple Silicon use it to do things like easily transfer, music and videos to your devices or download and install iOS apps and manage an app library right on your desktop click. The link in the description to get 30 off. I'm amazing, for a limited time.

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