iPhone 12: The Facts…

It’s easy to dismiss the new iPhone as just ‘more of the same from Apple’, but the performance of the iPhone 12 has been upgraded once again!

The A14 Bionic chipset is the most powerful in any smartphone, and the benchmarks bear that out as it annihilates the competition – and weirdly, doesn’t get outperformed by its bigger brother the iPhone 12 Pro. Let us explain why…

Camera:

Cameras-wise, you’re again getting the 12MP duo of the wide and ultra-wide cameras here. The former is even better in low-light this year, and both can now be used with Night Mode. This feature can improve your snaps in a way that’s genuinely staggering; however, it’s also available on the iPhone 11, and we would have liked to have seen it upgraded in 2020.

Video:

The video capabilities, including the ability to record in Dolby Vision in 4K, sound impressive, but for most this will be a rarely-used feature. That said, the output is strong to look at and something you’d be keen to share.

Battery:

Battery life is only average on the new iPhone 12; with heavier use your phone should see you through most of a day – around 17-18 hours at a push. Lighter usage will see you easily sail through to the night.

Design:

If you’ve had iPhones for a fair few years you’ll instantly be reminded of the feeling of using an iPhone 4 or 5, both of which had similarly squared sides, but the larger phone does push it into the hands a touch more. It’s an interesting design change from Apple, and one wonders if it’s been done to enable a stronger 5G signal. It’s also designed to make the rear of the phone twice as likely to survive a drop, even though it’s using the same glass as on the iPhone 11.

Durability:

The front of the iPhone 12 features a new Ceramic Shield to further protect it from shattering, with Apple claiming it’s four times less likely to break in a drop, so Apple is going big on durability this year. A number of drop tests have emerged from around the web testing this new idea, and most show what you might expect: the front glass is stronger than the rear (which appears to crack first when dropped from around head height) and the front screen does indeed seem to be more durable. 

However, taking all of this into account, THE most contentious changes with the iPhone 12 doesn’t revolve around the phone itself, but what does (or doesn’t) come with it. The charging block and EarPods have been omitted from the box, with Apple highlighting the environmental benefits of not cluttering the drawers of millions of people around the world with things they already have (as well as the reduced shipping costs from the boxes being slimmer).

The iPhone 12 is the most feature-rich Apple smartphone to date, but this comes with a significant price tag, placing itself very firmly in the superphone bracket alongside the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra and the OnePlus 8 Pro. Which all not only will make a severe dent in your pocket, they will take up a fair amount of space in it, but there is always the option of the iPhone 12 mini.

If you can manage its sheer gargantuan size and cost, the iPhone 12 Pro Max is one hell of a superphone.