iPhone 12 Pro - FULL Review (After Almost 2 Months of Use) By ZONEofTECH

So, so I've been using the iPhone 12 Pro in pacific blue for about a month and a half now as my main smartphone and since I've been an iPhone user since the iPhone 3g from 2018. Well, I do have a lot to say about this phone and in this video I'll be covering the design the display camera performance, software experience, special features, battery life and value so get our snacks ready and enjoy what looks good on every device out there. My face, of course, but also raid shadow legends, our sponsor for this video, which works on anything from a mobile phone to a tablet to even a laptop and a full desktop PC. My favorite part about raid is that it offers so much to do, and now raid has 16 different factions from onyx to dwarves under hordes and much, much more, and each faction has many unique champions. Personally, I think the dark elves are the coolest, as they not only look pretty sleek, but they also focus on intellectual abilities or then strength abilities, and this month raid got a massive update, they've added a doom tower, a gigantic 120-floor, tower, full of secret challenge rooms and 20 bosses to take on it's super challenging and also super fun to progress through the floors and then upgrade your champions with the rewards you get by completing them. On top of that, they're also releasing 14 other new champions right in time for the holiday season, simply click the link in the description and if you're a new player, you get a free champion.

The void champion bulwark as well as on exp booster, three energy refills, one ancient chard and 50 gems. All the treasure will be waiting for you right here, so hurry up, as these rewards will only be available for the next 30 days. Now when it comes to the design, the iPhone 12 Pro is honestly, my favorite smartphone design. In years before this, my favorite smartphone design was the Galaxy Note 20 ultra, which, from the front it still is, but when it comes to the overall form factor and how it feels in the hand, this is definitely the iPhone 12 Pro. Now you see, I was a big fan of the squared off shape of the iPhone 4 and the iPhone 5 back in the day, and I really missed that form factor after apple moved to the wet shape design with the iPhone 6.

, but seven years later, and that form factor is finally back and in some ways it is even better than ever before. You see the iPhone 12 Pro is not only thinner than the iPhone 11 Pro max that I was using before, but is also thinner than the iPhone 5 was. This makes it feel incredibly sleek on the hand, not only that, but the fact that it's all flat makes it extremely easy to grip and having these flat sides not only means that I can easily grab it when it's sitting flat on a table, but I can also place it vertically or even horizontally, and the phone will stand on its own, simply perfect, for when you're in a FaceTime call, and you're doing something else. But you still need that person to kind of see you or for when you're watching a video now going back to gripping it. The iPhone 11 pros were a slippery mess, but this phone is a completely different story.

You see ever since the iPhone 6 came out, I've always had a case on my iPhone, and that was because, due to their insane thinness and the wet shape design, they were very slippery, especially after apple switched to a glass back design, with the iPhone 8. With the iPhone 12 Pro. However, I'm actually fully careless sure an apple cure, plus monthly subscription does help reinforce my courage of not using a case on it, but at the end of the day, I'm mostly doing that because I love how this phone feels naked in the hand and that extra group ability of the form factor makes dropping it. A concern of the past. Speaking of dropping it apple, is now using something called ceramic shield on the front, so they're, essentially using ceramic particles to enhance the durability of the front screen.

But this enhanced durability only applies to drops and not scratches. So after about a month or more than that of daily using the iPhone 12 Pro, I don't seem to have any major scratches, but I have also been extremely careful with it now. The back glass is identical in terms of the durability to the back glass on the iPhone 11 pros, which apple claimed back in 2019 that it was the most durable back glass on any smartphone. They also kept the frosted glass back texture, which I'm a massive fan of so compared to the iPhone 10s. The iPhone 12 Pro does not leave any fingerprints at all.

The inside of the camera. Module still has a regular glass look which combines with a very shiny, stainless steel frame, makes the entire phone look absolutely stunning. I just love how apple is transitioning from the frosted glass to the regular glass perfectly. There is no seam or anything, and this is because they seem to be using just one piece of glass which seems to be coated by this matte texture in all areas, except for the camera module and the Apple logo. Speaking of the logos, there are no more regulatory logos on the European models of the iPhone 12s, at least not on the back, because they have now been repositioned onto the frame of the phone which I actually do prefer.

As you know, you end up looking at the back of the phone, far more than the frame and having a perfectly clean back is definitely a plus interesting enough. The regular iPhone 12 is a completely opposite story, as this one has a regular glass back, but a frosted glass, camera module and then a matte aluminum frame, as opposed to a glossy stainless steel frame like on the 12 pro, and, to be honest, even though I do prefer the back on the 12 pro, I do actually prefer the frame on the 12. The 12 pros frame is super fingerprints, so I wish that apple would have done something similar to what they've done with the iPhone 4, where they still had a stainless steel frame, but it was brushed steel rather than polished, steel, so uh. You know, fingerprints wouldn't have been that obvious, so, hopefully, next year now, when it comes to the colors same thing as with a case really, I always used to do the same thing year after year, and that was getting the darkest color of every new phone, but this year, since the space gray is actually lighter than last year. I got the pacific blue instead, and I do not regret it.

The single bit, depending on the angle, that the light hits it from this blue might appear even gray, and that's what I really like about it. The fact that it's not just one color but a wide spectrum of gray and blue, which also happen to be you, know the colors of the channel. My last point when it comes to the design is that this is my first non-plus slash, non-maxi phone since the iPhone 7 plus you see, I was never a fan of big phones. I always prefer being able to use a phone in one hand, but when the iPhone 7 plus came out, and it introduced that dual camera module on the back, I had to just get it for that camera module and I never looked back until now. That is, and that's because we do actually have the iPhone 12 Pro max right here and I have to say that phone is gigantic.

It is extremely wide and therefore very difficult for me at least to hold and use. So I'm not a big fan of that, and the fact that I also have galaxies at full two right now, which I'll actually be using as my main uh phone after this review and my 12 pro max will become my secondary. That was another reason uh for getting a smaller iPhone. I didn't want to have two gigantic phones in my pockets. Moving on to the display now, the iPhone 12 Pro has pretty much the same display quality as the iPhone 11 Pro and the 11 pro max and the 12 pro max from this year.

That means a peak brightness of 1200 nits when watching hr content and a maximum nonuser brightness of 800 nits, the iPhone 12 and the iPhone 12 mini, for example, still have a 1200 nitpick brightness for watching HDR content, but they only have 625 nits for nonuser content, so the iPhone 12 Pro will actually be a bit brighter than the regular iPhone 12 is now. The 11 pro from last year came with a smaller 5.8 inch display, which apple has removed entirely this year, as the smallest option. Right now is the iPhone 12 mini, which has a 5.4 inch display, and the next one is the 6.1 inch iPhone 12 and 12 pro, and I do actually think that 6.1 inches is the perfect display size for most people, as it's quite large enough to read and watch content very comfortably, but small enough to be able to use it with one hand. It does support true tone which automatically adjusts the color temperature of the display in order to match the lighting conditions around you, making it easier on the eyes. So overall, this is a very, very good display.

It's of course, an OLED panel, like all 2020 smartphones should be. This means that the blacks are perfectly deep. The colors are super vibrant and viewing HDR content on this phone looks stunning. However, the iPhone 12s do seem to have a widespread display issue where the display looks like an LCD panel, a lot of the times when it's displaying black we've actually done a more detailed video right here, which you can watch but long story short. We still do not know if this is a software issue or a hardware issue.

This OLED glow isn't something that most people will be able to notice, but I for sure, was able to see this in person and uh. Some of you guys have also sent emails that you've been experiencing this too. So I don't think it's a massive issue, but it's just something that I really wanted to point out overall still a great display, but I do have three more complaints here. The first one is the notch. Apple introduced, the notch back in 2017 on the iPhone 10, and while it does indeed serve a purpose which is to house that 3d dev sensing camera system aka face ID, it isn't hard not to compare this against other android smartphones.

You have a very small cutout or in some cases no cutout at all, and you know say that the iPhone 12 Pro doesn't look a bit outdated from the front because by all means it do I'm really hoping that apple integrates the face ID camera underneath the display, as the design will look even more incredible now. My second complaint here is obviously the lack of a high river freight display in 2020. So here's the thing apple was one of the very first companies to add a high river freight display on the mobile device, and that was in 2017 with a 2nd gen iPad Pro and the difference that the 120 hertz river freight made on the iPad was massive. The iPad failed twice as fast as any iPhone released, since even with a weaker processor and ever since then, android manufacturers have also started implementing high referee displays onto their phones, racer being the first and now in 2020. It's actually very hard to find the standard, 60hz refresh rate smartphone at pretty much any price point as most have either a 90 hertz or even a 120hz refresh rate.

What this means is that navigating your phone scrolling through social media and just using the phone in general feels 50 to 100 more fluid and faster than it does on a 60hz iPhone and same goes for games. If you have a high rip, trade display games will be visible in a higher frame rate, which can give you a competitive advantage now. The reason why Apple hasn't added a 120 hertz panel, even though there were even prototypes that did have it was simply volume apple, sells significantly more identical. Phones than the competition does in a short amount of time and apple, just like the competition relies on the same suppliers. What apple needed was a LPO OLED display with a custom display controller which could adjust the refresh rate from one hertz all the way up to 120 hertz, which only two phones on the market currently use the Samsung Galaxy note, 20 ultra and the Samsung Galaxy zoo.

Now, according to a well-known display analyst Ross, young uh, they did manage to secure these displays, but not the custom display. Controller apple could have used a standard 120hz panel, which could only switch between 60hz and 120hz, which is what most android phones actually use, but that would have had a severe impact on battery life. And, finally, the third major complaint that I have is the fact that we still do not have an always on display, like we have on so many android phones. Now this allows you to see the notifications and the time all the time without needing to unlock your phone. So, overall, the display on the 12 pro is good, but it is for sure not a pro display, sorry guys.

So what about a camera? Do we get a pro camera? And the answer is yes for the most part, so we still have three modules on the back, just like on the 11 pros from last year, and two of these modules are actually identical to last year and that's the ultra-wide and the telephoto module the ultrawide offers you a 120 degree field of view, which is actually identical to other high-end smartphones like the note20 ultra and the results are actually very similar between the two. The colors are bright. The exposure is pretty much perfect all the time. So I'm a huge fan of that lens. We do get a night mode on the ultra-wide angle module this year, which is something that the iPhone 11 pros did not have, but unfortunately the 11 pros will not be getting this, even though this is strictly a software feature which even 200 android phones have now.

The good news is that uh. It does indeed make a massive difference when it comes to shooting in low light, then the telephoto module is identical to the 11 pros from last year. It does support night mode too, so this is pretty much unchanged here. Unfortunately, this module only offers 2x optical zoom and 10x digital zoom, which is a far cry from the 4x or 5x optical zoom and 50x, or even 100x digital zoom, that other smartphones offer the telephoto module is good but disappointing when it comes to the zoom range compared to the competition. And finally, we have the main module, which uses the exact same sensor as the 11 pro and even the 10s from two years ago, which itself is notably smaller than what the galaxy s20 uses, for example.

But we do at least get one improvement here, which is a larger f 1.6 aperture, coming from the f 1.8 on the 11 pro or the 10s. It does let more light into the sensor, which does result in slightly better low light shots, but the improvements here aren't massive. However, don't let that discourage you, because the iPhone 12 Pro's camera is still outstanding in low light, sometimes even better than the competition. So, so far, it seems like the improvements are quite minor over the 11 pro, but we do actually get some more changes. The biggest one would be the addition of that LIDAR module, which now lets you focus extremely fast in the light, and you can even take low light portrait mode shots which look miles better than before and even miles better than on any other smartphone out right now, daytime HDR shots have also been improved, but not massively over the 11 pro.

We do get a brand-new feature called pro raw which lets you take raw photos straight from the camera app, and I have to say the dynamic range that you get out of these raw photos is very, very impressive. Then the video quality coming out of this iPhone is just mind-blowing. The iPhone 12 Pro can record in 4k 60 on all lenses front and back, and it can also record in Dolby Vision, HDR, which significantly brightens up the image, while also retaining a lot of shadow detail. Aside from maybe the iPhone 12 Pro max, there isn't a phone on the market right now that can match the video quality coming out of this phone and what really makes this camera so special is just how well apple has optimized the transition between those three camera modules. Long story short: they all feel like the same camera, even though they are indeed completely different sensors.

The color science that apple is using is very, very good here. We also got night mode time-lapse this year, which is a big upgrade over the 11 pro's time-lapse. Unfortunately, this is still a 1080p file rather than a 4k file. Now you're, probably wondering is it worth getting the iPhone 12 Pro max instead for an even better camera performance? And my answer, is it really depends on you see in daytime photos? You won't really notice any major difference between the two. The iPhone 12 Pro max does have better stabilization compared to a 12 pro, but not by a lot where you would really see a difference is in low light.

Since the TORRO max has a larger sensor, it will activate night mode less and instead use the standard mode more often giving the photos a more realistic look. Also, if you plan on shooting in raw using apple's pro raw formats, the iPhone 12 Pro max will look noticeably better in low light just because of the size of that phone. I wouldn't go with a 12 pro max myself, as I do believe that the 12 pro already has an outstanding camera. Also, this is the phone that you know I'm using. So if it's good for me, it's probably good enough for you as well.

Also speaking of sensor sizes, the iPhone 12 Pro max does indeed have a noticeably larger sensor than the 12 pro the 12 and the 12 mini, which all use the exact same sensor. But even this is smaller than what you would find on a 600 pound, galaxy s20 Fe, which I know costs less than the iPhone 12 mini yeah, just something to keep in mind guys in terms of the actual performance. The iPhone 12 Pro is really the most powerful smartphone in the world. Right now, with the Apple A14 processor, which really outperforms even some laptops and six gigabytes of ram up from four the iPhone 12 Pro is better than ever before. But the real question is: does that extra power translate into the real world usage too? Well from just using the phone in my everyday life? I can indeed tell that it is snappier and just a bit faster, probably about 20 or so compared to my 11 pro max.

So I have actually noticed that extra bit of performance. However, I do feel like the a14 is really held back by the fact that this phone does not have a high refrigerated display. So it is very clear that the UI renders at possibly way over 60 fps, possibly even around 100 fps, if not even higher than that. But the fact that the display cannot show more than 60 is really a missed opportunity for apple here. Think of the iPhone as a Lamborghini driving on a public road, even though it can go up to 218 miles per hour.

The public road aka, the 60 hertz refresh rate in this case limits it to 30, whereas let's say an OnePlus phone, which is more of like a BMW m3, even though it is not as powerful and can only go up to 155 miles per hour, that high rift rate display is kind of like being on a highway where you can go up to 70 miles per hour. Hopefully you guys get my analogy so, even though something like OnePlus 8 pro is weaker than the iPhone 12 Pro. By quite a significant margin, it will actually feel faster in the everyday use because of that high refrain display now, with those extra 2 gigabytes of ram, which we only get on the 12 pro and the 12 pro max. I was actually able to go back to previous apps and see them fully open in the background more than I could on my iPhone 11 Pro max. However, while six gigabytes of ram is indeed an improvement, YouTube still decides to reload on me, quite often, which is super frustrating and the number of apps that you can go back to.

While this has been improved uh from the four gigabyte of ram models, it is still extremely low when compared to something like my Galaxy S8 fall 2, which has 12 gigabytes of ram like on that phone. I can literally go back to apps that I've opened like a week ago and still find them fully open in the background which is nuts so in terms of the ram management, the iPhone 12 Pro is better, but definitely not the best. But all that power is nothing if you don't have great software, and I'm pleased to say that the iPhone 12 Pro, for me at least, has proven to be the very best software experience yet on an iPhone. The fact that we get widgets just like on android is something that I've been requesting for, probably about five years now. The fact that we also get an app drawer.

This is something that I've been requesting for, probably about three years now so yeah, I'm extremely happy to see both of them here, and I do actually believe that apple's implementation of widgets is far better than on android, as the design language is consistent between every widget. However, there are two big things that apple still refuses to add to iOS, which android has had since the Stone Age really and those two things are well. One of them is one that I mentioned before, which isn't always on display, and then the second is true, side-by-side multitasking. I want to stress this again having the ability to see your notifications and the time all the time on the display is such a great feature, as I don't have to wake up my phone to check if I got any messages or emails since that info will already be there and the second thing that's still missing- and this is a really, really big one for me is the fact that you cannot run two apps. At the same time now, apple fanboys will probably say that.

Well, that's stupid! You never need to run two apps at the same time come on, but here's the thing at some point. You will find yourself in a specific scenario where you will need to run to apps side by side. I don't know, maybe you got an important email that includes a timetable for your busy next week, and you need to add those events onto your calendar, which fun fact actually happens to me uh. So you need to open up the calendar app and going back and forward between those two apps and trying to memorize. The info in your head is trust me.

It's going to be a pain, especially if there are loads of events to add in the iPhone still doesn't have this implemented, side-by-side, multitasking and all the android phones do, and because of this, I honestly cannot recommend the iPhone to any business users as a business user myself. The iPhone is a major downgrade over an android phone here, but if you don't care about any of that, then iOS 14 on the iPhone 12 Pro is still very well-made. So what about special features now? Is there anything that makes the iPhone 12 Pro unique when compared to the competition and the iPhone 11 line from last year? Well, there are three major things: 5g, max safe and LIDAR 5g is pretty straightforward. You get faster speeds, and you also kill your battery faster. Now, with the iPhone 12 Pro, I finally upgraded my phone plan to a 5g plan and interesting enough in my area on 4g, I was getting about 240 megabits per second, which is insane.

Can you guess the speeds on a 5g, uh 320 so faster, but you know 240 was already very fast? Also, you don't get that superfast. One gigabit per second and higher minimum wave 5g unless you live in the US, and you have a US model of the iPhone 12, which does have this very ugly antenna cutouts in the actual frame. So I'm not a big fan of that. So overall, my point here is that if you already get more than 40 megabits per second on 4g, you don't need 5g. Now.

The second big new feature is mac, save and mac. Save is, unfortunately, a big scam, I'm not even joking and here's. Why number one not only is max safe, expensive at 40 dollars, but you also need to buy the charger separately, which will cost you 20 more dollars, so you're, really looking at a 60 dollar price point then number two. It attaches to the back of your iPhone, which might seem great, but since it has a cable, this isn't any different from plugging your lighting, cable and then number three. It gets really, really hot, meaning that using your iPhone when the maxi charger is connected will be far more inconvenient than when you're using lightning, oh and number four.

Furthermore, it is very slow through lightning. You can charge your iPhone up to 50 percent in just about 25 to 30 minutes with max save this takes a full hour and when you're in a rush, and you're looking for a quick charge, you don't have that time and why not number five uh the fact that, even though this is a wireless charger which automatically aligns when you put your iPhone on it, you do have to pull the cable manually so to say, when you want to disconnect it, which is pretty much the same as how you know, disconnect a lightning cable. You need manual intervention, so the only max safe accessory that, I would say, is worth it is the welkin charging station, but unfortunately, that one isn't out just yet. Oh, and the MagSafe cases that apple sells, don't actually snap in magnetically or anything like that. Like we expected, there are just regular cases and when it comes to the MagSafe wallet, even though this is quite a nice wallet overall, it is very easy to snap it off when you put it in your pocket, so the magnet is actually very weak here.

So yeah MagSafe isn't great right now, hopefully it will be improved in the following years and finally, we have the LIDAR scanner. I mentioned that this is mostly used for focusing on low light and portrait mode, but you can also use it to 3d scan objects and even entire rooms, much more accurately than you could ever do before. By using cameras, you can try. Apps such as the IKEA place, app the measure tool that comes built in iOS, which allows you to measure things quite accurately and even measure people with it. The best use case scenario that I found is an app called 3d scanner, app, which fully utilizes the lighter scanner and allows you to scan individual objects and even entire rooms.

And finally, we have the battery life, so the iPhone 11 Pro max that I've been using before had the best battery life out of any smartphone that I've ever used, and I've used loads. So that says something. However, the 12 pro is actually a major downgrade over the 11 pro max with 11 pro max. For example, I could get a day and a half of good usage out of it, whereas with my 12 pro um at the end of the day, it gets about 10 or even lower so yeah that kind of sucks and I barely use it at work by the way um, mostly on my laptop. So I almost never use this thing so yeah, it's not great uh.

So, for my usage at least the 12 pro is definitely not a full day smartphone, but more like a 70 of a day, whereas the 11 pro max that I was using before that was a day and a half so 150, but don't get me wrong if you have an iPhone, 10s or older. The iPhone 12 Pro will be a notable upgrade in terms of the battery life when compared to that. So in the end, is the iPhone 12 Pro worth it? Absolutely. Not. No honestly, don't get the iPhone 12 Pro if you're looking for the best overall iPhone 12, then just get the standard iPhone 12 model, if you're looking for the biggest and the best camera and an iPhone.

That is the iPhone 12 Pro max if you're looking for the smallest new iPhone, that is the iPhone 12 mini. So who is the iPhone 12 Pro for then I mean you know I got one. So why should you well, if you need some higher end pro features, but you don't like the form factor of the 12 pro max, or you just want something smaller and more portable, then the iPhone 12 Pro is the one for you sure it doesn't have the impressive new camera sensor that a 12 pro max has or that massive 6.7 inch display or the amazing battery life, but the fact that you get this much nicer, looking phone when compared to the 12 and the fact that you get the lighter module and the pro raw. Those are massive pluses for me, and this is why I have actually picked the iPhone 12 Pro for myself and yeah. Like I said, the Galaxy S8 fall, 2 is still my main phone after this review.

Um and I just didn't- want to carry two gigantic phones with me. So that's also another reason, but let me know in the comments your thoughts on the iPhone 12 Pro in general and the 2020 iPhones. If you want to purchase an iPhone, 12 or 12 pro or anything really uh, it would be awesome if you could use the affiliate links below, because when you get a commission from Amazon, you don't have to pay anything and definitely subscribe and hit the bell icon. If you want to see more in dev tech videos like this one, hopefully it was. This is literally the very last outro like this yeah.

I think I'm going to miss it thanks for watching I'm Daniel. This has been enough tech, and I'll see you guys in the next one. It's not fact standing out cheers you.

Source : ZONEofTECH