iPhone 12 Pro + Pro Max Unboxing & Review: A promise of the future By 9to5Mac

What's up guys miles here with magnify mac the iPhone 12 Pro and 12 pro max are a great refinement over last year's 11 pro and 11 pro max. But there have been some letdowns in certain areas. A lot of people wanted a high refresh rate display. It's not something we got this year. Battery performance has gotten down a bit and then, of course, apple's making the phone a bit more expensive for you. If you don't already own a type c charging brick, but is it still worth it? We're going to get into all this plus my general thoughts after a month of usage, but first, a word from our sponsor nine to five mac on YouTube is sponsored by nimble.

The disc case from nimble is the world's first and only iPhone case made from recycled compact discs, in addition to 100 free plastic, free packaging, a slim compact profile and crystal clear design allows your iPhone's awesome, color to be showcased and as well as being aesthetically, pleasing. It's been certified to survive, drops up to six feet and that's all due to the impact absorbing outer band in the race front. Lip the disc case features a permanent antimicrobial coating and anti-yellowing to maintain the clean, look and feel, and the case is 100. Wireless charging compatible get 20 off your first order with promo code 9 to 5 mac links in the description, and thanks again to nimble for sponsoring nine to five mac on YouTube. The unboxing experience and what you get in the box with the iPhones this year has been quite the point of controversy, because you're no longer going to be getting the headphones and a charging brick and a lot of people have expressed their feelings towards the matter and how they feel as though the whole environmentally friendly thing is just a ruse for apple to make more profits.

And I feel as though, if you truly don't stand by apple's claims, and if this is too much of an inconvenience for you, you probably just shouldn't, buy these phones most people buying. This phone is likely to already have some sort of charging solution for it, and anyone who can afford these phones and like the AirPods that much probably already have AirPods or would prefer AirPods anyway, so take that for what you will me personally, I'm not really bothered by these things, especially because I already have a million charging bricks as a tech reviewer, of course, and the AirPods that come in the box with the iPhone are not good they're, just not, although, generally speaking, the design isn't the most substantial change to the iPhone 12 pros this year, it's going to be one of the most noticeable differences for the average user. Quite honestly, the 11 pro and 12 pro now have completely different feels in the hand. The difference is quite honestly, night and day. Some people have said that this flat edge can have an uncomfortable feel in the hand after a while- and I can see that being the case for some people, but it personally hasn't been an issue for me.

Overall usability hasn't been compromised in the slightest. Even the massive 6.7 inch 12 pro max feels just as good to use as the 6.5 inch 11 pro max. The 12 pros are about 7 millimeters thinner than last year, but that isn't noticeable visually or in the feel of the phones at all. The 12 pro max technically has larger lenses than its predecessor as well, and I honestly like this, because I think it helps visually emphasize the max in iPhone 12 Pro max and overall I'm a fan of both phones design. I like the way the phone looks and feels, especially in this new pacific blue color.

I think that's the perfect blend of suppleness and elegance, both the iPhone 12 and 12 pro feature slightly larger displays than their predecessors coming in at 6.1 and 6.7 inches, as opposed to 5.8 and 6.5 inches. The display's gotten a slight bump in resolution because of this, and it isn't noticeable by any means. But, generally speaking, the displays on both phones are great because of the HDR capability on both of these phones. The displays can get extremely bright and offer really punchy and vibrant colors. I think the iPhone 12 Pro is no different from any flagship iPhone made in the last three years, in the sense that it's got one of the best displays in the biz, but the lack of a high refresh rate or pro motion display in this year's models is really disappointing.

Quite honestly, not only is this a feature apple offers on their pro version of the iPad, but it's basically become a standard amongst all android flagships as well. However, I'm well aware of the struggles every company faces here, trying to get new products built and assembled, and so I think apple can get a pass on it this time around, but there will be almost no excuse for a lack of promotion next year. Other than that, the toll pros are telling me the same story that the 11 pros did that super retina Dr display is sauce. One area where apple did make changes is with the display's durability. The iPhone 12 and 12 pro max have what apple calls a ceramic shield, which was achieved by implementing NATO ceramic crystals into the display, because of this you're supposed to be getting four times.

The drop performance and I'll tell you what I'm not going to put that to the test, but I'm sure durability has improved a little. The display definitely doesn't seem any more scratch resistant, though, as I was able to unknowingly scratch my 12 pro within the first day or so just using it normally NATO ceramic crystals are no ceramic crystals, glasses, glass, and so I'd still recommend using some method of protection with these phones, the new iPhones once again have fantastic audio quality as well. It honestly blows me away still how good the speakers are in these phones for being so thin and light. Both the pro and pro max deliver an excellent, sound with very punchy, mid and highs. The high-end performance is probably what amazes me the most, though it honestly puts a lot of other smartphones to shame and paired with that super retina Dr display you've got yourself a very solid multimedia experience in the palm of your hands this year.

The iPhone 12 pros are rocking the a14 bionic chip, in addition to six gigabytes of ram, and that performance on paper is substantially better than last year's 11 pros with the a13 and 4 gigabytes of ram. But honestly, there isn't a noticeable difference in speed for the day-to-day tasks. Opening and launching apps is fast and fluid, but not noticeably faster than on the 11s I'd say. The biggest long-term benefit of the pros is probably going to be having that extra memory. That will give you a bit more breathing room for multitasking or using ram heavy applications.

Gaming on the 12 pro and pro max is definitely an enjoyable experience and for anything else, you want to do like photo editing or video editing. The 12 pros are going to get the job done with flying colors. I think the performance capability of these phones would pair really nicely with a high refresh rate display, because that would be far more noticeable to the daily user than a CPU bump. But hopefully, next year, max safe is apple's kinda new magnetic wireless charging solution for the iPhones max safe on the iPhone was quite the surprise to a lot of people, but I think the letdown from all the MagSafe charging controversy has some people feeling a bit disappointed and I completely get that. But the thing to realize here is that the charger alone wasn't the sole intention of MagSafe making its return.

The charger is only useful for charging your iPhone wirelessly at a slightly faster speed, but the majority of third-party cases don't maintain that magnetization. So at this point, using the charger at all is something I barely think to do. But if you watched our top 20 features video of the iPhone 12 and 12 pro, then you saw how MagSafe can do more than just charge. It can wirelessly transmit data between a MagSafe accessory and the iPhone, and if this functionality gets fleshed out, the accessory game is going to get a lot more interesting, portable battery packs add-on camera modules or storage devices. I think this is all possible with MagSafe, but for now we're stuck with this hockey puck and a 60 wallet that you have to practice using in order to work.

Well, we're still very much in the infancy stages of MagSafe right now it doesn't offer a lot, but with the proper execution and support by third party manufacturers, it could definitely be a big deal in the near future. Battery life on the 12 pro and 12 pro max are two completely different stories. So, let's start with the regular 12 pro I'm thoroughly disappointed in the battery life on this phone apple decided to throw in a slightly smaller battery in both the pro phones this year, but between the two. The 12 pro's battery downgrade is much more noticeable than on the 12 pro max on a good day. You can get close to six and a half is hours of screen on time, but that'd be with pretty light usage, I'm not much of a power user on my smartphone, because I've got other devices like my iPad or my macs to do more intensive work, and given that I still struggle to make the phone last all day for me with basic usage, messaging using social media and the occasional 5g speed test, the phone could easily be at about 20 to 30 battery life by Sunday, which is like 4 30 p.

m. Right now so yeah it hasn't been great and all this is without fully utilizing the 5g radio which can affect battery life as well. The 12 pro battery life is quite simply not great. It's good enough to be a usable phone, but not good enough to live up to the thousand dollar price tag. In my opinion, you're gonna need to keep a charger handy with the standard 12 pro the 12 pro max, on the other hand, has much better battery life and still noticeably worse than its predecessor, but not substantially worse, because the 11 pro max already had amazing battery performance.

I can get 6 and a half hours to 7 hours of screen on time with ease, unlike the 12 pro I'd say. The 12 pro max still got a true all day battery slightly worse than last year, but still very good.5G has been apple's huge marketing push for the iPhone 12 lineup this year, and the potential of 5g, especially with millimeter wave, is obviously insane getting gigabit. Internet speeds on the go is extremely impressive, but millimeter wave has such a long way to go before you can access it in more than just the top three cities in America and in a few streets in those top three cities, millimeter wave isn't the only form of 5g, though it's just the best version of it. Sub 65g is much more widespread and provides substantially faster speeds on the go than regular LTE and many people have seen improvements with standard, LTE and general reception in areas where their previous smartphones could barely pull in a signal. So, while you're not likely to experience millimeter wave on a daily basis, there are general performance gains that you're getting with 5g capability but depending on your lifestyle, none of this may matter for some people, 5g alone can be a reason to upgrade, whereas others won't ever have the need to take advantage of that, but either way it's there, and it's something that's going to be heavily present in the future.

Just not right. Now. The camera system on the 12 pro and pro max are further refining the experience you got on the 11 pro and pro max with some new and useful features being implemented, the first of which being the LIDAR scanner. The LIDAR scanner originally found on the iPad. Pro is a sensor that measures light between it and a subject using lasers that you cannot see, and not only can this be extremely beneficial for AR applications.

It can improve. Autofocus and low light photography as well apple, now lets you use night mode when taking portraits and that's because of the LIDAR scanner. Based on my testing, I don't really feel as though the ladder scanner is a critical component in apple's camera performance, but it's definitely a nice bonus if it is doing what it's supposed to be doing. The standard 12 pro gets a slightly lower aperture wide angle lens than the 11 pro from last year, meaning that the camera should be a bit better for low light, but I think the biggest improvement photography wise for both models is the ability to shoot in night mode on all three lenses. This was something that was previously disabled for the ultrawide lens, but given that I personally use the ultrawide lens much more than the telephoto lens.

This is a really nice addition and dramatically improves general low-light performance. It's night and day in general. Photo quality on the 12 pro is better than the iPhone 11 Pro, but not by a lot, and quality alone wouldn't be a reason to upgrade to these from the 11. In my opinion, the 12 pro max, however, offers some more notable improvements that the standard 12 pro doesn't have, the first of which being is that it has a larger sensor which slightly improves low light performance and detail compared to the standard pro. This is something that apple and a lot of other people hyped up, but in real world usage at least for me, it's really only marginally better than the standard 12 pro I can't say.

I can tell that big of a difference. I really have to go in and look at a photo to really notice how the 12 pro max is better a feature exclusive to the 12 pro max. That's a lot more noticeable, however, is the sensor shift image stabilization for a device? That's pretty much always used in the handheld sense having decent image. Stabilization is important, and it's not bad on the standard 12 pro by any means, but with the 12 pro max. It definitely takes it up a notch, and it's probably the biggest benefit of going with the max's camera over the regular 12 pro and then.

Lastly, you've got a 2.5 times optical zoom lens, which, compared to the two times lens from last year, feels a lot more like a true telephoto lens quality, wise they're, not really differentiable, but it is nice to get a higher focal length with that 12 pro max. So the 12 pro max does objectively offer more features as far as the camera than the standard 12 pro does, but I wouldn't say that makes it a much better camera system. Overall, it's just a bit more refined. It's really up to you whether that 100 is going to be worth getting those refinements, one new feature exclusive to the 12 pro and pro max this year. That might pique your interest is pro raw.

This is the first time apple's allowed you to take raw photos directly from the stock camera app and, if you're heavy, on iPhone photography. This is definitely a feature. You'll like having raw capability allows for so much more flexibility when editing, and it's a great way to make small tweaks to a photo to get it just right. You can do a lot more than far as playing with the exposure, the highlights the shadows and the files are pretty much recognizable by any photo editing app as pro raw files are saved in ROG and while third-party apps have supported raw output for a while now on the iPhone having it built into the stock. Camera app definitely makes me more inclined to take raw photos because it's just there outside all these little camera improvements, though the most important improvement by far is the HDR video recording capability.

The iPhone 12s can record Dolby Vision, HDR at up to 60 frames per second on the rear cameras and at up to 30 frames per second on the front-facing camera. You might have noticed that we started shooting all of our videos in HDR recently and that's because if you have a HDR capable display of some kind you're pretty much aware that it's all upside from a viewer's perspective, the contrast ratio you get with HDR video is insane. If you're viewing this on a HDR display like the iPhone 10 or newer, then you can immediately tell the difference in the video quality you get. Everything just seems so much more true to life because of that dynamic range. It's been a lot of fun, shooting HDR video on the iPhone, and now that HDR is trying to standardize it within their own smartphone lineup.

You can be sure that support for HDR video will come to more video sharing and social media platforms soon, if you're, a content creator looking to use their phone as their primary device for photography and videography the 12 pro and even more, so the pro max are by far the best smartphones you can get your hands on. The only complaint I have with the cameras is this effect that you get when taking photos with a certain lighting frame. Sometimes those lights can cause these little light dots to show up everywhere, and it's not exactly stylistic in my opinion, but it isn't something that bothered me too much, and even if you're, on the 11 pro or 11 pro max. These new camera features alone could be enough to justify an upgrade if, like I said, you're using your phone as your primary device for photography and videography pro raw and HDR video. Those are some killer features overall.

The iPhone 12 Pro and 12 pro max are great phones, but they're, not revolutionary upgrades, and that's because a lot of these new features implemented are just still in their infancy stages. MagSafe is already showing its potential as more and more third-party manufacturers release useful accessories, but for now we're just stuck with an underwhelming charger and a wallet HDR video was one of the biggest features for the iPhone's camera system since 4k, but HDR isn't exactly standardized yet even YouTube's HDR support is somewhat half-baked and the 12s are capable of fully utilizing the potential of 5g speeds, but right now there are only so many places that you can truly access it. These are the things to consider if you're looking to upgrade and want the best iPhone money can buy. I will point you in the direction of the 12 pro max every single time and if the max is too big for you, there are really only a few reasons why the regular 12 pro is worth it over. The even cheaper iPhone, 12 and that'd be for better build quality, the telephoto lens and double the storage.

Otherwise, you could definitely save more money and go for the 12 or 12 mini those phones are nearly a couple of hundred bucks less and offer a lot of the best benefits of the 12 pro. These are great phones, but I think next year should be a lot different. But what are you guys, thoughts on the iPhone 12 Pro and pro max? Are you picking one up? Have you already done so? Are you waiting till next year? Let us know in the comments down below and if you enjoyed make sure to give this video a thumbs up and subscribe for future content like this. Thank you all for watching, and I will talk to you guys in the next one. Nine to five mac on YouTube is sponsored by nimble over a trillion plastic CDs and DVDs have been created since 1982.

That's enough to circle the earth 30 times so to help reduce discarded plastic from the ocean. Nimble, collects these old disks and turn them into high-grade case. Material called replay. The disc case from nimble is the world's first and only iPhone case made from recycled compact discs, in addition to 100 free plastic, free packaging, a slim compact profile and crystal clear design allows your iPhone's awesome, color to be showcased and as well as being aesthetically pleasing. It's been certified to survive, drops up to six feet and that's all due to the impact absorbing outer band and the raised front lip the disc case features a permanent antimicrobial coating and anti-yellowing to maintain the clean, look and feel- and the case is 100.

Wireless charging compatible get 20 off your first order with promo code, 9-5 mac links in the description, and thanks again to nimble for sponsoring nine to five mac on YouTube.

Source : 9to5Mac