Even though Apple always holds their September keynote, the COVID-19 pandemic has made them revise their plans. It’s already October and the event came in as Apple officially unveiled the iPhone 12 and a small yet equally powerful iPhone 12 mini.
For many who have traded and followed every iPhone, you’d probably thin that the physical design almost resembles the iPhone 5. You wouldn’t be wrong, but sometimes looking back at the past is a great way to build the future.
Power of 5G
While so many Android smartphone brands started to join the 5G bandwagon to showcase leadership and get head of the pack in 2019, everyone had their eye on whether Apple would join the trend with the iPhone 11 family.
The wait is over as the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini bring 5G to their devices. They’re even touting support for the most 5G bands as well to ensure compatibility across different networks worldwide. This also includes suppler for the millimeter wave variant, a higher frequency version that works in densely-populated areas to give you great ideal speeds up to 4Gbps.
Knowing the power consumption required to power it, all iPhone 12 models also feature Smart Data mode that help extend battery life by intelligently assessing 5G needs and balancing data usage, speed, and power in real time.
Snap and click with MagSafe
Remember MagSafe on the pre-Touch Bar MacBook models? Well, it has re-emerged for the iPhone 12 models. The aim is offering high-powered wireless charging with up to 15W of power. At the same time, it accommodates existing Qi-enabled devices.
MagSafe on the iPhone 12 is powered by an array of magnets around the wireless charging coil, optimized for alignment and efficiency. They will help not just chargers but also accessories to perfectly connect to your iPhone.
Brains of the iPhone 12 with the A14 Bionic
Every iPhone has always served as the opportunity to showcase the new generation of A-series SoC that powers it. Then it trickles down to some of their other devices. Apple broke away from that tradition when it unveiled the new iPad Air as the first one sporting the A14 Bionic, and that now makes its way to the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini.
Built on 5-nanometer process that also makes it faster and more efficient than ever, A14 Bionic has the fastest CPU and GPU by up to 50 percent compared to the fastest competing smartphone chips. As always, unparalleled performance and power efficiency with great battery life is a pillar of the A14.
Machine learning (ML) gets a significant upgrade with a 16-core Neural Engine — for an 80 percent increase in performance. It’s capable of completing 11 trillion operations per second, enabling improved performance on even the most intense ML models.
Durable Design and Immersive Display
The new design of the 6.1-inch iPhone 12 and 5.4-inch iPhone 12 mini sport the new Super Retina XDR display. With thinner bezels, it stretches further to the edges with 2,000,000:1 contrast ratio.
Both models feature a sleek new flat-edge design with an aerospace-grade aluminum enclosure. If you’re scared of dropping it and seeing cracks on the display, there’s a Ceramic Shield front cover which goes beyond glass by adding a new high temperature crystallization step. This helps grow nano-ceramic crystals within the glass matrix, which Apple claims “increases drop performance by 4x”.
Newer and more Advanced Dual-Camera System
iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini deliver powerful computational photography features enabled by A14 Bionic and a new dual-camera system.
Cameras may look the same, but there’s been under-the-hood revamps to make them even better. Both models come with a Dual Camera system, featuring the Ultra Wide camera and a new Wide camera with an ƒ/1.6 aperture (27% more light for even more amazing low-light photos and videos).
Computational photography is taken to the next level on iPhone 12 models with Night mode and faster-performing Deep Fusion now on all cameras — TrueDepth, Wide, and Ultra Wide — for improved photos in any environment. That means brighter pictures and better contrast for photos shot in low-light settings with Night mode, and more texture and less noise in Deep Fusion photos.
Smart HDR 3 uses ML to intelligently adjust the white balance, contrast, texture, and saturation of a photo for remarkably natural-looking images.
Video is equally matched, as these models feature the first camera to shoot HDR video with Dolby Vision. That also makes it the the first and only device in the world to enable an end-to-end Dolby Vision experience: capture, edit, and share cinema-grade videos natively on iPhone 12.
Dolby Vision grading is processed live while recording, and sustained during editing, whether in the Photos app or iMovie (expect an update for the app to support it).
Both models also now feature improved cinematic video stabilization, even more true-to-life selfie videos with Dolby Vision, and Night mode Time-Lapse, offering longer exposure times for sharper videos, better light trails, and smoother exposure in low-light scenarios when used with a tripod.
Other nifty improvements
Both models will be available in five beautiful aluminum finishes: blue, green, black, white, and (PRODUCT)RED.
While pre-orders for iPhone 12 begin Friday, October 16 with the first-wave of launch markets, expect the Middle East to have pre-orders up and running from October 23. The iPhone 12 mini should be available for pre-order beginning November 13.
While the competition may have larger phones that come with 5G, you can agree that the iPhone 12 mini is the smallest and thinnest 5G phone in the world. Now there’s an iPhone for those who want something small in their hands or something bigger if you require it.
