iPhone 12 Mini unboxing + comparison to iPhone SE (2016) - Apple dominates small phones again! By Tong Zou

Hey guys how's it going today we're going to do the unboxing of the iPhone 12 mini. This is a phone that a lot of us have been waiting for a long time, actually um, because for years and years there were always rumors of Apple trying to make an um. Well, we've been hoping a lot of us. Small phone owners have been hoping that apple would make another small phone, just like the original apple uh iPhone SE, but with you know, a baseless display, all the updated spec soled display. Hopefully- and now we finally got it right- it's been rumored for a very long time, uh we're just looking for a phone about the size of the original iPhone SC, but with all the specs and updated um features and everything, and there was like, renders and stuff floating around for such a long time of mac, rumors and finally, in 2020 late 2020. We finally get it right with the iPhone 12 announcement uh.

They announced the iPhone 12 and 12 pro and finally, the 12 mini comes to us um. Now. I do think that this is the best value iPhone that apple offers right now right, so they offer the iPhone 12 at 800. The iPhone 12 mini at dollars, because it's smaller, and then they are, they offer the iPhone 12 Pro at a thousand dollars. So um, I think, out of all these devices, the iPhone 12 mini is the best value for sure because think about it.

The iPhone 12 has most of the features of the iPhone 12 Pro, except for that extra telephoto lens and some few minors, like aesthetic things like the stainless steel and different colors and the litter sensor whatever. But I think those are all very minor features, and personally I wouldn't pay like two hundred dollars more to upgrade to that to the 12 pro now, if you're, looking at the iPhone 12 mini you're, actually paying 300 more to upgrade to the 12 pro, and this has the exact same specs as the iPhone 12 does right. So this is definitely the best value phone that apple offers and actually one of the best value phones on the market. If you ask me, because this is top-notch, internals top-notch specs for 700 bucks right, which for apple, is basically a budget price um. So let me go over these specs um.

If you don't know already um, so the 12 mini has a 5.4 inch display right. It's an it's got the same bezels design that we've been seeing from apple since the iPhone 10. Uh super retina, Dr, OLED um, and I like that. OLED actually came to their so-called budget devices right because last year, with the iPhone 11 um, you had to upgrade to the iPhone 11 Pro to get the OLED. But now we have a 700 phone with basically the same internals as apple's flagships and with an OLED display right.

So there's almost no reason to get the pros. I feel like for all of apple's products this year. You don't really need to upgrade to the pro right, because it's very minor differences. The iPad error is, you know, almost as good as the iPhone as the iPad Pro it's like 90 as good as the iPad Pro or not even 95, and then this phone here right, the iPhone 12 mini, is about 90 90 95 as good as the iPhone 12 Pro right and uh the new MacBook as well right, the new MacBook um m1 chips right, the app the MacBook Air is about 90 95 as good as the uh MacBook Pro they have the exact same chips, actually the exact same processor. So I feel like with apple's uh pro devices this year.

They don't really give you a good value proposition now because they put so much of their technology into their lower end stuff. Now right so the iPad Air, the iPhone 12 mini the MacBook Air they're all perfect value devices. Now you don't really have much of a reason to upgrade to the pro unless you really want to have that extra oomph right, and you're, paying like maybe what 200 300 bucks more for that. Personally, I don't think it's worth it, but you know for the people who really need that extra powers or extra features. So maybe it's worth it.

But for me, I think yeah. This is what I got, and I like the smaller size as well. So the fact that it's cheaper is actually a bonus for me, um, so yeah 1080 by 2340 resolution, Dolby Vision, wide, color gamut, true tone. All those um features that were previously on apple's flagship devices. Come to this.

Of course, you got the Apple A14 bionic, a very powerful chipset um, and you get. I got the 64 gig version, um four gigs of ram uh, which is yeah, and then you got you get the camera as well. The 12, megapixel, f 1.6 uh 26 millimeter wide, and you get the ultra-wide as well. You have the 12, megapixel, f, 2.4, ultra-wide um, so you're missing only the telephoto from the pro but um. In my opinion, I think the ultra-wide is way more useful than telephoto.

Personally I've been using my iPhone 11 Pro um. You know for over a year already, and I use the ultra-wide a lot now, the telephoto on the iPhone 11 Pro. I don't really use all that much. Maybe I use it like five percent of the time and I would use the ultra-wide, maybe like 25 of the time right. So I use the ultra-wide on my 12 pro like five times more than the telephoto, so I think the ultrawide is way more important, so yeah.

This is the packaging you'll notice that the packaging is much smaller than before, probably because they don't give you an adapter anymore. So that's one of the things that people are talking about. The apple, don't give you the adapter, that's supposedly for environmental purposes, to save the box space. As you can see, it's very small um, so now yep pretty much. You only get the bare minimum with the iPhone 12, so 12 mini see.

I got the blue color because I love blue. It's my favorite color and I believe this is the first time that apple's offered an um an iPhone. This kind of blue color, like it's really blue wow. It's like navy, blue, so compared to the 12 pro you get a different kind of blue you get like a pacific, blue or whatever. It looks a lot like the essential phones, ocean, desks um in my opinion, um, because it's more like a turquoise, teal kind of color, but with the 12 mini and the 12.

You do get a really dark navy, blue here so um. I personally do like the pacific blue, but you know if I'm going with the 12 mini, I don't really have a choice. I have to get this darker navy blue, and this is fine color too, and you see that this phone very, very small, easy to hold in the hand right um, the only other things you get in the box are designed by California's apple and California. It's almost like a non-necessity anymore, because everyone knows how to use um an iPhone. Now.

I think so this only comes with the uh sim card, ejector tool, now so very basic, very minimum, and then you get the USB charger um USB c to lightning it's still using lightning, of course. So you get that and that's really if you just get the bare minimum in the box and I think that's what apple they're really trying to save some space here. They don't give you a lot just the bare minimum, the phone, the cable and a sim card, ejector tool, that's it and the phone itself again. I really like the colors this year, um, so navy blue, although it's not as good as a pacific blue for me, I still think it's a pretty nice color. So for the cameras you get the normal wide angle lens and the ultra-wide angle lens and um.

I don't know. I think that you don't get the telephoto, but I think that for most people the ultra-wide is far more useful than the telephoto I mean to me. Furthermore, I use the ultra-wide way more than telephoto, so I don't really miss the telephoto from the 12 pro um. But if you really do want the extra lens you're, basically paying a couple of hundred bucks more for that uh and then the colors as well right. So this is um.

Maybe I like the pacific blue color a little better for the 12 pro, but it's not a bad color at all right. It's still a pretty unique color. As far as iPhones are concerned, I think the apple's color selections for their iPhones this year is pretty nice um for both their 12 line and their 12 pro line. So it's pretty nice again, nothing on the back. You used to have designed by apple in California, or something like that.

You don't get anything on the back now. It's just nothing as you just get the Apple logo. That's it! I really wish they would put a fingerprint sensor on the Apple logo. That's personally something I would like to see, but you're still stuck with face ID, which is um honestly a little bothersome, because this year we all have to wear masks when we go outside because of COVID-19 right and face ID pretty much doesn't work when you have a mask so yeah every time I have to use the pen so yeah. It would be nice just to have a fingerprint sensor here, uh, especially in the pandemic times right other than that.

I really like the design right. It's an edge to edge, display um, pretty much baseless, except for the notch right there, but that's that's the same as for uh, most of the iPhones since the iPhone 10, but it's the first time that apple's done this in a smaller form factor right, all right. So on the left side you get the silent switch and the volume rockers, as you do on previous iPhones, and then on the right side. You get the power button, then, on the bottom, you get the lightning connector, of course, and I know that a lot of people are disappointed that apple didn't switch the iPhone to USB-C, like they have their other devices um, I'm not quite sure why that is um. So far, the iPhone is the only device that apple makes left that still uses the lightning connector right.

The iPads mac books have all switched to USB. If I had to guess there are some rumors going around that the apple is changing the iPhones to be totally um portlets. I guess on the next version, I'm not sure if that's true or not, but if it's true, then that would kind of explain why they didn't even bother moving this to USB-C, it's probably because they want to get rid of the ports all together on the next version, so not sure how true that is, but it seems to be the rumor that's been going around, but yeah guys. This is the iPhone 12 mini and just to give you guys an uh size comparison. I know that a lot of people have been holding on to the original iPhone SES, because the new iPhone SC that came out this year um it was a lot bigger than I guess people expected.

I mean it was still small relatively it was the size of the iPhone 8 from a few years back, but it's still a little too big for some people right and the iPhone 12 mini is actually smaller than the second generation iPhone SC right now. A lot of us are still holding on to the original iPhone SE from 2016, because this was the original phone that was um. You know perfect value had all the great specs and internals of the flagship, iPhone 6s at the time and in a really compact form factor that is the iPhone 5s form factor right now. I still have the original iPhone SC um. This is still, in my opinion, one of the best phones for this smaller form factor right.

So I did another video on the Sony. Xperia xc1 compact, which I said was probably the best small phone that you can get um on the market and that was like from a few years ago, um in the new Sony's. They don't really make the compact form factory anymore, which is kind of a shame. I know there was the sharp across are too compact as well, but those have around the same specs as the xc1 compact and the xc2 compact, and there wasn't really any good small phone right and the original SC was still the best for this size right. So the xc1 compact xc2 compact, sharp aquas, are too compact, they're all pretty good small phones, but all of them were slightly larger than the iPhone SC, of course, and here comes along the iPhone 12 mini right.

It just blows away previously right. The xp1 compact xc2, sharp echoes, are too compact were the best small phones that you can buy on the market. This one just blows all those small phones away, because now Apple has retaken the crown of who makes the best small phone again right. I thought it might be interesting to do a side-by-side comparison of the original iPhone SC and the iPhone 12 mini now. I know that the iPhone 12 mini has better specs than internals, and it's newer, but I thought it might be just uh interesting to see what's the similarities and differences between the two all right, so the original iPhone SC came out in 2016 um as one of the best value phones on the market and the best small phone on the market for quite some time.

Um now the iPhone 12 mini is basically the same thing, but for this year it's one of the best value phones on the market and probably the best yeah. Actually it is the best small phone on the market right that you can get right now, um, so yeah, that's that's um kind of similar in the sense that apple came out with pretty much the best small phones on the market for uh people who love small phones. Like me all right, so the iPhone SE has a four inch. IPS displays the iPhone 12 mini has a 5.4 inch OLED display the iPhone SC has a physical home button with touch ID and the iPhone 12 mini has face ID, but no physical buttons on the front display um speakers wise. I think I don't actually remember, but I think the SC might only have a mono speaker because I remember I did a side-by-side comparison with my Sony x, Xperia xd1 compact, and that one has stereo speakers, and it was way louder.

So if the SCS stereo speakers is definitely not very good for speakers, but I think it might only have a mono speaker now, the iPhone 12 mini does have stereo speakers, so the speakers on the 12 mini are better. They both have lightning. So that part is actually the same, so nothing changed there um the iPhone SC has a headphone jack and the iPhone 12 mini does not. So if headphone jack is important to you well, none of the new iPhones are going to have that, and I don't think apple's ever going to bring that back. So that's unfortunate uh, but you know legacy wise.

You do that. You do get that with the old iPhone SC now size, wise um, the iPhone 12 mini is ever so slightly bigger than the SC, but not by much right. Furthermore, you can see that the footprint here, the SC and the iPhone 12 mini yeah, the 12 mini, is ever so slightly bigger, but not by very much they're pretty much the same thickness. They both have the silent switch right here in the same place, and the volume button is pretty much in the same place as well, except the iPhone SC has these smaller, plus minus buttons, whereas the iPhone 12 mini, have these more modern, looking rectangular buttons for the volume rockers and then the sim card slot is on the left side on the 12 mini, whereas on the SC it's on the right side, and then you have the physical power button here on the right side of the 12 mini, and then the physical power button on the SE is actually on top. So this is maybe just a relic of a different time when apple used to have all their power buttons on the top of the devices um, but they've since changed that so yeah I mean those are the uh similarities and differences between the two and then obviously, in the back here, you can tell that the cameras on the 12 mini are a lot better, has an ultra-wide lens, in addition to the regular lens, both of those cameras again, both of those lenses are going to be a lot better than the one on the SC, obviously um.

I do sort of like the design on the SC a little better. Still, though, you can tell that the iPhone SE has the name on it, whereas this one doesn't have any name like you, wouldn't even know that it's the iPhone 12 mini. Unless you know people actually saw the phone, and they recognized it from what it is right. But if someone never saw pictures of the iPhone 12 mini and for some reason they never um went to an Apple website or something like that, then they wouldn't actually know because there's no there's no name on here uh, whereas the iPhone SE actually has a name. It has designed by apple um in California.

Uh all this stuff on it, the FCC stuff on it um, iPhone, 12 mini just, doesn't have anything on the back um and then the Apple logo is higher up on the SC. It's right in the middle of the 12 mini. So I noticed that they moved the location of the Apple logo in recent phones as well, um and yeah. I still do like the SC's design somewhat. I think it's a pretty unique design um still prefer the smaller iPhone 5s design in some ways, um, but otherwise, yeah going back to the rectangular form factor is, is pretty cool as well.

The apple did that, because I never really enjoyed the curved form factor that the iPhone uh seven brought in yeah. I actually always kind of preferred this rectangular form factor the iPhone.6 probably brought that form factor in but um I actually prefer the rectangular form factor. I always have I even like the iPhone 4s, the iPhone 4 and 4s actually had really nice designs as well and uh with glass back and everything kind of wish. They would bring that back and both of these have aluminum frames by the way, so not stainless steel like the 12 pro and the 11 pro they have aluminum frames um, but otherwise yeah that's about it um and I do miss the fact that touch ID is on the iPhone SC. I wish that they would bring touch ID um to the new iPhones as well.

Just put it on the back somewhere. You know if you don't want to ruin the bacillus display, but I do think that apple should give another option. In addition to the face ID, I mean that's what most phones do. Nowadays, they give you two options or three options right to log in, but apple only ever gives you know, face ID and um. I think that they could give you both but anyways.

I do miss the touch ID, especially in the comic times, where you have to wear a mask right, I think touch ID is a lot more useful right now. A lot of people I know, is still holding on to the original iPhone SES, because it's such a small, portable compact form factor right and um. At the time it came out, it was the best value phone on the market. It was really cheap. I think it was like 400 bucks or something when it came out right.

Very, very cheap um had the same internals as the 6s, and it's very small compact form factor right. The iPhone 5s form factor that a lot of people like the rectangular shape. Now we have the iPhone 12 mini that. Finally, we can probably replace our original iPhone SES with, because the new the second generation iPhone SC, wasn't really a replacement right. It was um, I mean it's small, but it's not as it's not the same form factor that we expected, but now the 12 mini comes out, and I do think that this is the iPhone SC replacement right, and we can also compare it to the iPhone 11 Pro that I've been using for the past year, and you can see just how the size stacks up against each other.

So the original iPhone SE from 2016, then you have the iPhone 12 mini, and then you have the iPhone 11 Pro, and you can see for me the iPhone 11 Pro is not too big. Obviously I still prefer smaller phones, but it's probably any bigger than the 12 pro, and it starts to feel a little uncomfortable for me right. This is about the same size as my Google Pixel 2, which I used for a long time too, and still actually the same size as my Google Pixel 4a right. It's about the same size as my 4a, so yeah um, the Google Pixel 4a iPhone 11 Pro is probably the max size that I would go without feeling like too awkward and uncomfortable, and this one is also um different design, as well as using the rounded design which I personally like the rectangular design, and I know a lot of people still like the rectangular design. So I will be switching to the iPhone 12 mini as my main phone now, and I know that's kind of actually a downgrade because the 11 pro still has the telephoto lens right um.

But I don't really use the telephoto that much, and I think, I'd much rather just have the smaller size of the iPhone 12 mini. I think that's going to be um, a better use for me and uh yeah. My original iPhone SC, which I know a lot of people still use to this day. Um, I think the 12 mini is the proper upgrade for it um so again. Yeah, unless you really like that fingerprint sensor, which I know is apple, should really think about putting that back.

Because now we can't, we had to wear masks right, so the face ID isn't too useful, um and the headphone jack, which I know a lot of people still miss um. But if you don't mind uh those things then uh the iPhone 12 mini is basically the way to go just a better upgrade in almost every way and oh yeah, the iPhone 12 mini, does have wireless charging. That's something that the original iPhone SC doesn't have, obviously so there's another advantage for the 12 mini, and I also have to note that none of the iPhone 12s have the high refresh rate right. So I know a lot of competing. Android phones have the 120 hertz or a really high refresh rate, that's something that is not on the 12 mini, but it's not on the 12 pro either.

Um seems to be something that apple's only putting on the iPad Pro. So those are like really much more expensive devices right. So I don't know why they didn't put it on. The 12 pro seems to make sense to me to put on their pro devices um. But I don't know anyways.

That's uh that was apple's call um. I mean it's okay, that the 12 mini doesn't have it because it's a cheaper one, but I would think that they would put it on the 12 pro right. So it's a little odd that they left that out for all the iPhone 12 models, but that's another reason why the iPhone 12 Pro isn't that much better than the 12 mini right, um and oh yeah. So the frame is an aluminum frame right so for the 12 and the 12 mini the frame is aluminum compared to the 12 pro, which has a stainless steel frame, which is exactly the same one that the iPhone 11 Pro has except it's you know rectangular and stuff. So you know after handling the 11 pro for such a long time.

I do appreciate the uh stainless steel frame because I do feel like it is a lot, a few, maybe a little more durable, because I've dropped the 11 pro a few times, and it's never had any scratches on the frames or anything like that. Um I mean just look at the back right: I've dropped this phone like I don't know how many times a lot and uh the frame still looks perfect. Nothing looks scratched or anything like that. I think with an aluminum frame like on the 12 and on previous iPhones by the way, a lot all the previous iPhones used, aluminum frames too, including the original SC um. If you drop it you're more uh prone to get some scratches or damage, I think um, so there's another advantage that you might think about for upgrading to the 12 pro.

But for me, that's still not enough to pay like 300 more for right just for the stainless steel frame, all right. Okay! So now we're going to turn on this device um again, there is no fingerprint sensor, so it is just uh using a face unlock but um. I mean nothing really much to say about here. This is iOS right. It's the latest iOS and um anyone who's handled the latest iPhones.

You can obviously see what iOS does so. I don't need to explain too much about it uh, but it does look really cool right. I mean the fact that it's such a small baseless phone, you get that full screen in front of you um. It's just like to me. Look at that.

It's like a perfect hand size right. So when I hold the SC right, people love the SC because of its small size right, it's really comfortable to hold the 12 mini feels just as comfortable to hold for me anyways um. So I think there's no lack of there's no loss there. It doesn't feel like I'm holding anything substantially bigger, even though it is slightly bigger. But to me this is very, very comfortable to hold, whereas I can say that for my 11 pro this one is getting a little uncomfortable, it's just on the edge of uncomfortable.

I think if this was any bigger, it would just be yeah like I probably wouldn't want to hold it. This is probably just right on the limit of what I would consider to be comfortable, and then I have to switch stretch my hand all the way. You know if I'm clicking something like say um. I do this a lot like when I'm walking on the street right, I'm just like typing with one hand, I'm holding something with the other hand, but I had to stretch my thumbs like this, and it can be uncomfortable with the phone as big as the 11 pro and the 12 pro is actually a little bigger than 11 pro. Even so, that's another reason I didn't get the pro um but yeah.

This is just on the limit of what I would consider to be comfortable, whereas with the 12 mini right, I can easily very easily stretch my thumb across any of these. I don't need to show you guys, the camera, I'm pretty sure that you guys know that the iPhone 12 mini camera is just as good as the iPhone 12 camera, which is to say that it's a very good camera right. So you have the standard wide angle and of course you can zoom out for the ultra-wide right here right. So you have that um ultra-wide and standard wide angle, it's an iPhone camera. It's going to be pretty good and, like I said on a device like this, that's so small and reasonably priced.

I think it's a pretty good deal. You get those top end specs, including the camera, but yeah um, very, very comfortable to hold easy to stretch my hand across easy to do one-handed typing on right. For me, since I got like smaller hands um as an Asian person right um, I think yeah, it's very, very comfortable for me. So I actually prefer these smaller phones and in some ways the iPhone 12 minis. Camera is actually better than the iPhone 11 Pro's camera, because the iPhone 11 Pro didn't have any kind of night mode on the ultra-wide, which is kind of a shame, because I use the ultra-wide like again, maybe like 25 percent, maybe 30 of the time, and I use it a lot for low light as well um.

But the unfortunate thing is that the ultra-wide lens on the 11 pro doesn't have good low light. Um bunny on the um 12 mini they added the night mode on the ultra-wide. So it's actually better than the 11 pro in some ways, even though it's missing that telephoto lens compared to other android phones. I also think that the Google Pixel 4a is one of the best deals on the market as well, so um. This is double the price of the 4a, but I think amongst iPhones at least this is definitely the best value, and this does have a much better camera compared to the pixel as well, and it's a lot faster and stuff.

So you got to take that into consideration as well. Ip68 water resistant, that's something that the Pixel 4a does not have actually so uh. Take that into consideration as well, so guys, um again the original iPhone SC, which is a perfect phone. I've used this phone for quite a bit quite a bit. It was my main phone when I was in the second year when I was in Korea, and it was my secondary phone for another year after that, and I still keep it as my main small phone and the iPhone 12 mini has pretty much replaced it now, um yeah, almost better in every way and even brings back the same rectangular form factor as before.

It's only slightly larger yeah, not too big of a difference. Although I do like, I still do think that the original 5s design has its charms um. I actually even like the original 4s design. I think the 404s design are really nice, too um. Furthermore, I think that after the iPhone 7 came out, the design really started faltering a bit.

So personally, I do like this rectangular design, but uh yeah anyways guys. Let me know in the comment section below uh: if you guys still have an original first generation iPhone SE, and would you replace it with the iPhone 12 mini right, because this to me is the best one of the best value phones on the market right now it is the best value apple phone on the market, and it is also now the most powerful smartphone that you can get, and it's if you're, looking for a small phone on the market right now pretty much the 12 mini is the way to go so uh. Let me know what you guys think this is the iPhone 12 mini, I think, for 700 and having almost all the flagship specs. This is one of the best phones to get on the market right now, plus the tiny size and everything and the lovely colors and everything else that apple added as well. I think apple has hit it out of the park with the 12 mini, and that's it guys, thanks for watching.

Source : Tong Zou