Apple iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro review: A tale of two iPhones

Note: This review was first published on 20 Oct 2020. It was updated on 26 Oct 2020 with information on battery capacities in the battery life section.

The iPhone lineup gets bigger and more confusing

The rumours were right. Apple announced four new phones last week. There’s the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Mini, and two “Pro” phones in the iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max. Apart from all the usual processor, camera, and feature upgrades, the big news is that, like all other flagship-class phones this year, the four phones will all support 5G

But, the 5G commonality aside, the new iPhone lineup is actually quite confusing. Let’s break it down a little. There’s now two flagship models – the iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max – and two more affordable ones – the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Mini. The iPhone 12 and 12 Mini are identical apart from the size of their displays. The iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro have quite a lot in common but the latter has an extra camera and features. And finally, the iPhone 12 Pro Max has an improved camera system over the iPhone 12 Pro and is the new big daddy of the lineup. This makes the purchasing decision a little tricky.

Anyhow, the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro will be available in retail later this week, while we’ll have to wait until 13 November for the iPhone 12 Mini and iPhone 12 Pro Max. Yes, that’s quite odd, I thought it would make more sense to release the iPhone 12 and 12 Mini together and then the two Pro iPhones. Anyway, this is the review of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro, and there’s a lot to cover, so let’s get right down to it.

Design

Last year’s iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro were distinctly different devices, but this year, the two have quite a lot in common. To begin, the dimensions are identical to the point where the two phones can share phone casings. They have a similar aesthetic too, with flat sides that we last saw on the iPhone 5 (remember that?) and also on the iPad Pro and recently announced iPad Air. This is all subjective but I quite like the way it looks. I always felt that the blockish design of the iPhone 4 was the best of all the iPhones, even if they do end up looking like slabs.

So how can you tell the two apart? Aside from the number of cameras, it is the materials and weight. The iPhone 12 has an aluminium chassis with clear back glass while the iPhone 12 Pro has a stainless steel chassis with a textured matte back glass. Because of its stainless steel body, the Pro phone is a little heavier – 189g vs 162g. It doesn’t look like much on paper but you’ll immediately notice the difference in the hands. The Pro model feels heftier.

The iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro come in different colours and finishes too. The iPhone 12 comes in five colours: black, white, blue, green, and (PRODUCT)RED. The iPhone 12 Pro comes in four colours: graphite, silver, gold and all-new pacific blue.

The non-Pro models have a matte finish on the flat sides whereas the Pro models have a special PVD finish. Since there’s no physical event this year, I wasn’t able to check out all the colours. I have the iPhone 12 in green and the iPhone 12 Pro in pacific blue.

The pacific blue model that I’m testing doesn’t really look blue at all. Depending on your environment and how light hits it, it almost looks black at times. That said, the flat sides are highly polished and reflective. One thing about it that irks me is that the polished sides are mega fingerprint magnets. They catch fingerprints and grime even if you just glance at it. I spent a lot of time wiping and cleaning to get these photos. If you are a hypochondriac, you'll be happy to know that the non-Pro models have matte aluminium sides that resist fingerprints and grime.

Apple says the two phones are now more rugged, with better resistance to water and drops. On the front, the two phones have a new type of glass on the front called Ceramic Shield which was developed with Corning to be the strongest smartphone glass ever. The glass gets its name from the tiny ceramic crystals that have been infused into the glass. Apple claims four times better drop performance which means these new phones are four times less likely to shatter if you should drop them.

As for water resistance, the two phones still have an IP68 water-resistance rating but Apple says they can now survive being submerged in up to six metres of water for up to 30 minutes. As good as this all sounds, I doubt anyone would want to subject their fancy four-figure phone to any form of abuse if they can help it.

Buttons and ports are unchanged and will be familiar to anyone who has been using an iPhone for the past few years. I thought we would be getting USB-C this year to suffuse at least some form of consistency across the iPhone and iPad range, but no, the two phones also continue to rely on the aged Lightning connector for charging and data transfer. The obvious upside is your Lightning cables will continue to work. The downside is that if you have an iPad Pro or if you are thinking of getting the new iPad Air, you'll have to deal with more cables. There’s also no headphone jack or memory card slot.

Now, iPhones and many other mid-range to flagship headphones have done away with headphone jacks for years, but it’s problematic now because Apple has said that it will stop including Lightning EarPods and wall chargers with all of its phones. I have some thoughts about this but I won’t get into it here. But Apple explained that this move was motivated by environmental concerns that you can read about here. Apple reasoned that there are already 700 million Lightning EarPods out in the wild as well as over 2 billion Apple power adapters. Even so, it could be troublesome if you are coming from a really old iPhone or another brand, and especially if you don’t have wireless headphones of your own. The only accessory you’ll find in the box is a single USB-C to Lightning cable.

MagSafe returns

Speaking of charging, one new feature of the new phones is MagSafe. Yup, Apple is bringing back the charging system that old Mac users like me love so much. MagSafe accessories will use carefully-placed magnets to connect magnetically to magnets placed in the back of iPhones. This ensures perfect placement, which is crucial for efficient wireless charging. The iPhone will still be compatible with Qi wireless chargers but an added benefit of using MagSafe wireless charging accessories is 15W charging – with Qi chargers, you’ll be limited to 7.5W. Unfortunately, I don’t yet have a MagSafe charger to test the charging speed.

Charging aside, Apple and third-party makers also have other accessories planned for the new phones. Apple, for example, has a snap-on wallet that attaches to the back of the phone and can be used to hold cards.

Display & audio

The iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro both have 6.1-inch OLED displays that Apple calls Super Retina XDR. For the iPhone 12, this is tremendous news because last year’s iPhone 11 had Liquid Retina LCD display. Not that the old Liquid Retina display was bad, it’s just that the Super Retina XDR display is clearly better.

They are similar but not completely identical. The two are the same 6.1-inch large, have the same 2,532 x 1,170 pixels resolution, support for TrueTone technology, and the P3 colour space. However, the iPhone 12 Pro’s display has a higher typical brightness of 800 nits versus the iPhone 12’s 625 nits. But you can’t tell when you are just doing normal smartphone stuff like watching videos, reading emails, and browsing the web. More crucially, both displays can turn up to a maximum of 1,200 nits when HDR content is being shown on the screen.

At any rate, the displays look fantastic. It’s everything you’d expect from a flagship-class device. Visuals are as sharp as a sushi master’s knife, colours are vivid, punchy and the display gets eye-searingly bright. Both devices support the P3 colour space and Apple’s TrueTone technology that adjusts the display’s temperature to match your surroundings. They also have measurably thinner bezels so they look more modern and fresh.

My only complaint is the displays don’t feature Apple’s ProMotion technology, so refresh rates are limited to 60Hz. Admittedly, higher refresh rates compromise battery life and perhaps that’s something Apple doesn’t want to deal with, but the advantage is that they make the phone look and feel more fluid and responsive. This isn't a dealbreaker but having seen the benefits of high refresh rates on flagship Android devices, it’s a trade-off I’m willing to make. Some people also take issue with the notch. It’s not ideal but after three years, I have gotten used it. Besides, it’s hard to argue against the convenience and effectiveness of Face ID (at least when we are not wearing masks).

Since we are on the subject of biometric authentication, it bears mentioning that there’s no Touch ID support on these new phones, they continue to rely exclusively on Face ID. Ordinarily, this won’t be a problem but because most of us have to wear masks daily, having Touch ID support would be helpful. This is one of the reasons why I’ve been using the iPhone SE for the past couple of months. Besides, Apple has already shown that they can integrate Touch ID into a small button with the new iPad Air so why not have it on the new phones. Furthermore, support for both fingerprint and facial recognition is something many flagship Androids have, and it would be good to see Apple match them in this regard, especially during these times when we have to wear face masks.

The phones have stereo speakers. The speakers are next to the Lightning port at the bottom and in the notch at the top. They get impressively loud. If you are living in a typical 4 or 5-room apartment, they get loud enough that you can easily hear them. There’s noticeable distortion at maximum volume and the sound is too bright for my tastes, but for playing music or podcasts in the background when I’m doing chores, they more than suffice.

A word on 5G

Apple spent a lot of time talking about 5G during the keynote so I quickly tested it at two areas. The tests were done with the following devices and networks:

• iPhone 11 Pro Max on Singtel 4G
• iPhone 12 Pro on Singtel 5G

And I tested them in two locations: outside Orchard Ion at the junction of Orchard Road and Scotts Road facing the underpass entrance, and at carpark 4 outside Leisure Park Kallang.

Orchard Road results:

Leisure Park Kallang results:

Though this isn’t an exhaustive test, the results speak for themselves, 5G was significantly faster.

But even though the benefits of 5G are very real, it’s not quite ready for the prime time in Singapore mainly because a) 5G coverage is still quite patchy and b) our 4G network performance is excellent. As much as we like to moan about our telcos, the fact is that our 4G speeds consistently rank amongst the highest in the world. Furthermore, the really fast version of 5G – mmWave – won’t be coming to Singapore until 2023 at least. In short, 5G shouldn’t be the deciding factor whether or not you upgrade to these new phones. At least, not this year.

Camera systems

The camera systems is where things get a little confusing. I’ve rewritten this section a number of times but I think I finally get it, so let me summarise things for you.

There are effectively three camera systems spread across four models. The iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Mini have dual-camera systems. And then there’s the iPhone 12 Pro, which has a triple camera system with a lidar scanner, but its wide and ultra-wide cameras are actually identical to the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Mini.

Finally, we have the iPhone 12 Pro Max, which also has three cameras and a lidar scanner, but then its wide camera has a larger sensor with sensor-shift stabilisation technology and its telephoto camera has a longer 65mm focal length with a slightly slower f/2.2 lens. The front-facing TrueDepth camera for all cameras are unchanged from last year but now supports Night Mode and Deep Fusion.

Alright, the table probably turned out to be a little more confusing than I had expected but the key takeaways are these:

• All main wide cameras have a faster f/1.6 lens that lets 27% more light in when shooting wide open
• New 7-element lens for sharper pictures for the wide camera
• Lens correction for the ultra wide and TrueDepth camera to correct edges
• The iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro have identical wide and ultra wide cameras
• Deep Fusion now work all cameras
• Night mode now works on both wide and ultra wide cameras
• Night mode still doesn’t work on telephoto (iPhone 12 Pro)
• All front-facing TrueDepth cameras have Night mode and Deep Fusion support
• Smart HDR 3 for all cameras
• Lidar for the iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max

This review might be of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro but it would be remiss of me not to mention the extra goodies that the iPhone 12 Pro Max have.

• 47% larger sensor for the wide camera
• Wide camera gets sensor-shift optical image stabilisation
• 65mm or 2.5x optical zoom with telephoto camera, but slower f/2.2 lens
• 12x digital zoom

For keen photographers, the iPhone 12 Pro Max is the clear choice on paper, but we'll have to wait for the phone to drop to be sure. For now, let's take a look at the new phones' imaging performance.

First, let's see how the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro's main wide cameras look versus the iPhone 11 Pro Max's main wide camera.

Can you see a difference? If you can, you have sharper eyes than I do. The new phones' main wide cameras continue to be excellent. But in good light, these cameras give just about the same results.

Now on to the ultra wide camera.

Thanks to lens correction, the new iPhones' ultra wide cameras capture noticeably sharper images with more details and less warping around the edges. However, this is appreciable when shooting objects up-close. For shots of landscape and scenery, the improvements are still present but less obvious.

Now, let's see the telephoto camera.

I don't see much difference here either. The two phones' telephoto cameras produced similar results.

Now let's take a look at low-light performance.

Night mode performance with the main wide camera is mostly similar. The only thing I have to note is that in the first pair of images, the iPhone 12 Pro’s rendering of light from the apartment blocks is more accurate. The iPhone 11 Pro Max’s looks much too blue. In the second pair of images, the two are almost indistinguishable from each other. But if you look very closely in the background, again, the apartment block in the back looks a little blue.

The ultra wide camera of this year's phones are able to shoot Night mode so let's see how it fares.

The increased sharpness and detail aside, I think Night mode for the ultra wide camera will only really benefit users in very challenging scenes. In the first set of images, there was still ample light coming from the street lamps and so even the iPhone 11 Pro Max could produce a pretty decent and usable shot. In the second set of images, however, which was much darker as the street lamps were much farther away, the iPhone 12 Pro produced a much more usable shot but at the expense of it looking a little artificial.

Does lidar help with night shots? Not really. I never found the old iPhones to have a huge problem focusing in the dark so I didn't feel that lidar made a big difference. There were only a handful of instances where I felt that the iPhone 12 Pro focused faster but those were in extremely dim environments.

Closing thoughts on imaging performance

I’m going to start with a complaint because this is one of my pet peeves. One annoying thing that persists from older iPhones is the inability to force the telephoto camera. If lighting isn’t optimal when selecting the telephoto camera, the phone would automatically use the wide lens instead and apply a 2x digital zoom to simulate the telephoto camera. You can try it for yourself, just cover the telephotos lens and select 2x zoom, if you still see an image that means the phone is using the wide camera. As I said before, some form of manual override would be welcomed for advanced users who know what they are doing and want to use the telephoto camera.

Putting aside this niggle, imaging performance is generally very good for both phones. The main wide camera, in particular, is excellent and produces very sharp images with lots of detail and punchy colours. Smart HDR 3 works well too and it gives very nice-looking pictures even in challenging scenarios. I don’t think the two phones are necessarily technically superior to the competition, but I do think the way Apple decides how photos should be processed and rendered often results in more pleasant-looking pictures. Night mode photos, especially, look a lot more natural than the competition’s implementation.

I found that the biggest improvements are with the ultra wide camera. Because of the new lens correction processing, photos taken with the ultra wide camera has a bucketload more detail and look less warped. The improvements are visible throughout the image but they are most noticeable at the edges and when shooting up-close. This matters because ultra wide cameras on phones are notorious for taking poorer images than the main wide cameras. With the new iPhones, the gulf in picture quality between the main wide camera and ultra wide camera has shrunk.

But even though these new phones take very nice pictures, it’s not a huge step up from last year’s models. Yes, Smart HDR 3 seems to be more intelligent at keeping detail and managing exposure, and photos taken with the ultra wide camera are a lot sharper, but overall, it’s not a huge leap forward in imaging performance. It’s certainly not as big as the jump going from 2018’s iPhones to 2019’s. If you are using an iPhone from last year, there’s no need to upgrade to take nicer pictures. Perhaps my opinion will change with the iPhone 12 Pro Max, we’ll have to see.

Why go for Pro?

So if the iPhone 12 is already such a good shooter, why might one consider the iPhone 12 Pro? Apart from the added telephoto camera, there’s lidar and a new feature called Apple ProRAW.

The first Apple device to have lidar was this year’s iPad Pro. It uses the Time-of-Flight (ToF) principle to understand its surroundings. In the iPad Pro, it was most useful for AR applications as it enables AR apps to build highly accurate depth map of the environment and it’s no different for the iPhone 12 Pro. However, Apple is also using the lidar scanner to improve night photography. With lidar, Apple claims focusing times at night can be reduced by as much as six times. Also, it’s using lidar to scan faces and enable Night mode portrait shots.

Unless you use a lot of AR applications, the lidar is going to be most helpful in the dark, but it seems to be beneficial only in the darkest of environments. The iPhone 12, even without lidar, focuses quite well in the dark and it only had trouble focusing a handful of times and only in very challenging environments.

Apple ProRAW, on the other hand, could be useful. What Apple ProRAW aims to do is give users the flexibility of editing typical RAW images but with Apple’s image processing features baked in. This way you can do stuff like adjust white balance, correct exposure, and recover highlights, while still enjoying the benefits of Apple’s computational photography features like Deep Fusion and Smart HDR. It’s not available now but Apple says it will be coming as a software update later this year.

Dolby Vision, a pretty big deal

Video has always been a strong suit of iPhones – there’s a reason why almost all late-night talk show hosts turned to iPhones to record their shows during pandemic – and it’s a highlight of this year’s iPhones.

Play

Just take a look at the short video I’ve taken above. It's sharp and the colours are bright and natural. What's notable also is how colours are managed even as I exit the shaded walkway and enter the garden in bright sun. Stabilisation is noteworthy too, so hand-held shots are manageable as long as you remember to slow down.

Apple also added a new feature called Night mode Time-lapse, which is exactly what you think it is, a time-lapse video that takes advantage of Night mode technology for better visuals. Local photographer Darren Soh (@darrensohphoto) was kind enough to share a video that he took demonstrating this new feature and it could open up doors to some really cinematic-feeling videos. He has more on his Facebook and Instagram pages.

Play

The headline feature is, of course, Dolby Vision, which I will get into later. But first, it’s worth reminding people that all of the rear-facing cameras of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro can shoot up to 4K 60fps with extended dynamic range. And even at 4K 60fps, you can get image stabilisation with the wide cameras. Even the front-facing camera can shoot at 4K 60fps with stabilisation – though turning on extended dynamic range limits it to 4K 30fps.

These might be largely the same as last year's iPhones but they are are things that most Android flagships still struggle to match, even if some models – like the Galaxy S20 and Galaxy Note20 – have made significant improvements in video and have included support for 8K recording. But Apple isn’t interested in increasing resolution. Instead, it wants to improve the quality of its video by boosting the quality of pixels that it captures.



Enter, Dolby Vision. Dolby Vision is an HDR (High Dynamic Range) format from Dolby and the new iPhones are capable of supporting this format because they can record videos in 10-bit colour – that’s 700 million colours. The result is much more vivid scenes. The iPhone 12 Pro can shoot in Dolby Vision up to 4K 60fps while Apple is limiting the iPhone 12 to 4K 30fps. Both phone’s front-facing cameras can shoot in Dolby Vision too at 4K 30 fps.



Apple says these are the first devices in the world to be able to capture, edit, and share Dolby Vision. That sounds incredible but I’m no video expert, so I asked local director Chai Yee Wei of Mocha Chai Laboratories what does the existing workflow for making Dolby Vision videos look like and why is Apple’s announcement such a big deal.

He told me that HDR is about improving the quality of pixels by widening the contrast between the brightest whites and deepest blacks. The result should be more realistic and life-like. To do that, video files have to be encoded with light data so that the display knows how to correctly render the scene. HDR10, the most common HDR format, optimises this data for the entire video. You don’t have to be a video expert to know that this isn’t ideal because if the video has wildly varying scenes, the light data won’t be accurate.

Dolby Vision is different because it encodes this light data for every single frame. And to create Dolby Vision videos now is a time-consuming and expensive process. This, Yee Wei said, to put it briefly, requires a license from Dolby, a high-end camera rig, and a powerful system to put it all together. And now, Apple is doing all of this on a phone. What used to take so many devices and money is now being done in real-time on a phone. Not only that, users are able to edit on device too. It’s amazing.



As impressive as all this is, there's a problem. The problem with Dolby Vision videos is that viewing it requires the device to support Dolby Vision. And right now, that’s not a very long list (usually limited to flagship-class phones and OLED TVs). Furthermore, if you want to share it online, the video-sharing service needs to support it too. And currently, YouTube, the world’s largest video-sharing platform, doesn’t, and neither does Facebook. Ultimately, what this means is that for most users is that the gorgeous Dolby Vision videos that you take right now are likely going to be only for personal consumption. That said, with the new iPhones now supporting Dolby Vision capture, I won’t be surprised to see platforms like YouTube and Facebook following suit. For professionals, however, the new iPhones open up filming opportunities and give you options.

Performance analysis

All four phones that Apple just announced will be powered by the new A14 Bionic processor. We first learned about this processor during the iPad Air announcement weeks ago.

A14 Bionic is the world’s first smartphone chip built on a 5nm process and it has an incredible 11.8 billion transistors – over 38% more than A13 Bionic. It’s still configured with six CPU cores and four GPU cores, but Apple claims it’s up to 50% faster than any other rival chip that’s not made by Apple. In fact, Apple boasts that the A14 Bionic’s only competition was last year’s A13 Bionic.

Machine-learning performance has been significantly improved this year. Apple doubled the number of cores of its Neural Engine to 16 and it can now process a staggering 11 trillion operations per second – that’s up from 6 trillion operations per second in the A13 Bionic.

Now let's see how it stacks up against the latest mobile hardware.

Geekbench 5

Geekbench CPU is a cross-platform processor benchmark that tests both single-core and multi-core performance with workloads that simulate real-world usage. Geekbench 5 scores are calibrated against a baseline score of 1000, which is the score of an Intel Core i3-8100. As a result, Geekbench 5 scores are not comparable against those of Geekbench 4, whose baseline score is derived from an Intel Core i7-6600 processor.

Single and multi-core performance have improved significantly. Compared to last year's iPhone 11 Pro Max which has an A13 Bionic processor, the new iPhones recorded 19% better single-core performance and about 10% better multi-core performance. The iPad Pro had the highest multi-core performance and that's because it has an eight-core CPU – two more than the A14 Bionic.

Against the latest Android hardware, the new iPhones blew the competition away. Single and multi-core performance was 65% and 29% greater respectively.

JetsStream 2

JetStream 2 is a combination of a variety of JavaScript and Web Assembly benchmarks, including benchmarks that came before like SunSpider and Octane. It primarily tests for a system’s and browser’s ability in delivering a good web experience. It runs a total of 64 subtests, each weighted equally, with multiple iterations, and takes the geometric mean to compute the overall score.

The new iPhones’ performance on JetStream 2 was impressive. They were about 21% faster than the iPhone 11 Pro Max. They also outperformed the iPad Pro by around 15%.

Against the highest-scoring Android phone (Huawei P40 Pro+), the new iPhones' scores were a staggering 258% better.

AnTuTu

AnTuTu is an all-in-one benchmark that tests CPU, GPU, memory, and storage. The CPU benchmark evaluates both integer and floating-point performance, the GPU tests assess 2D and 3D performance, the memory test measures available memory bandwidth and latency, and the storage tests gauge the read and write speeds of a device's flash memory.

The new iPhones managed scores that were around 13% higher than the iPhone 11 Pro Max, which are, once again, significant gains. Unsurprisingly, the iPad Pro with its eight-core CPU and eight-core GPU was the top performer by some margin.

The new iPhones also outperformed the Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra and Huawei P40 Pro+ by around 29%. That said, Samsung’s new Galaxy S20 FE was competitive as it trailed the new iPhones by only 4%.

3DMark Wild Life Unlimited

3DMark Wild Life is a new cross-platform GPU benchmark that was released only days before this review and it measures graphics performance on iOS, Android, and Windows devices. This means you can compare scores of devices regardless of platform. On iOS devices, it runs Metal; and on Android and Window devices, it runs Vulkan. This benchmark comes at a good time because prior 3DMark GPU benchmarks for mobile devices (like Slingshot and Ice Storm) are woefully old and use outdated graphics engines and rendering techniques. We are running it in Unlimited mode which renders the test offscreen and maximises the performance of the GPU.

Here, the new iPhones managed scores of around 8,650, which are about 7.8% greater than the iPhone 11 Pro Max’s score of 7,979.

However, the new iPhones left all of the tested Android flagships for dead. The highest Android performing phone, the Oppo Find X2 Pro, scored just 3,824 points and that means the new iPhones’ scores were about 225% higher. Against slower phones like the Galaxy Note20 Ultra, the new iPhones scored over 400% better.

3DMark Sling Shot Extreme Unlimited

3DMark Sling Shot is an older 3D graphics benchmark that tests the full range of OpenGL ES 3.1 and ES 3.0 API features including multiple render targets, instanced rendering, uniform buffers and transform feedback. The test also includes impressive volumetric lighting and post-processing effects. We're running this benchmark in Unlimited mode, which ignores screen resolutions.

Compared to the iPhone 11 Pro Max, the two new iPhones managed scores that were about 12% higher. Even so, they were no match for the iPad Pro and its A12Z Bionic chip which has eight GPU cores.

Against the Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra and Huawei P40 Pro+, their scores were around 23% and 58% higher. However, the Samsung Galaxy S20 FE put up a good fight and only trailed the new iPhones by 5%.

Anyone who says Apple isn’t innovating should take a long hard look at the graphs above. Apple has been consistently delivering double digit percentage performance gains for the past decade and that’s no small feat. The new A14 Bionic processor continues this tradition and delivered significant performance gains over its predecessor and continue to outperform the latest Android flagships in every benchmark. CPU performance, in particular, is stellar as the new iPhones comfortably swept away the competition. And GPU performance on the 3DMark Wild Life benchmark was jaw-dropping. It turns out Apple was right, the only chip capable of keeping up with the A14 Bionic is Apple's own A13 Bionic.

Battery life

Our standard battery test for mobile phones has the following parameters:

• Looping a 720p video with screen brightness and volume at 100%
• Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity turned on
• Constant data streaming through email

Apple made significant improvements to battery life last year by boldly increasing the thickness of the phones and battery capacity. This year, Apple claims the new phones will deliver roughly the same battery life as its predecessors even if the new phones are thinner.

According to Apple, the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro will both deliver the same battery life as the iPhone 11 but last one hour less than the iPhone 11 Pro. Our tests confirmed this, as the iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 both last almost just as long as the iPhone 11. However, since Apple doesn’t disclose the battery capacities of the new phones, it’s hard to say if this is down to the efficiency of the new A14 Bionic chip or other factors.

Android phones have typically excelled in this benchmark and it’s no different here. But this could likely be because they often have much larger batteries – the Android phones included for comparison are all larger models with at least 6.5-inch displays. I’ll update this section once I know more about the battery capacities of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro.

I also tested the phones by using them as I would normally do which consists a lot of emails, a fair bit of messaging and YouTube, some Genshin Impact, and a lot of scouring online shopping platforms and Carousell for deals, and the phones could easily last a day on a single charge. Unless you are trying very hard, these phones should easily survive a day.

Update on 26 Oct 2020: A teardown by iFixit has confirmed that the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro have 2,815mAh capacity batteries which is over 9% smaller than last year's iPhone 11. Despite this, the two phones lasted almost just as long as the iPhone 11, which is a commendable feat.

How much are these phones?

They are not cheap so let's talk a bit about prices.

These are four-figure phones with the most affordable being the iPhone 12 Mini starting at S$1,149. The iPhone 12 Mini follows the prices of last year's iPhone 11 while the iPhone 12 is S$150 more regardless of the capacity you pick – presumably due to its pricier OLED display.

A case could be made for the Pro models offering more value because these phones now come with at least 128GB of storage – double last year's Pro models. Prices have also been reduced for the 256GB and 512GB variants.

So do I upgrade from last year’s phones?

This is a question I get asked often when new iPhones come along and I don’t see an urgent need to this year unless there are certain features that you have to have like Dolby Vision recording or support for the upcoming Apple ProRAW.

The iPhone 12 and 12 Pro are better phones than last year’s models, but the difference isn’t tremendous, unlike the jump from 2018’s iPhones to last year’s. But if money is of no concern, then by all means. You’ll be very happy with this year’s iPhones.

What if I have something older?

If you have an iPhone from 2018 or older, the answer is a resounding yes. These year’s models are worthy upgrades. Support for 5G aside, compared to the iPhone XS and XS Max, the new phones take much better photos, have better displays, loads of new features, support Wi-Fi 6, and batteries that last longer.

iPhone 12 or iPhone 12 Pro?

This year the standard iPhone is even closer to the Pro model. The only things that it misses out on are:

• Telephoto camera
• Lidar scanner
• Dolby Vision record at 4K 60fps
• Support for upcoming Apple ProRAW
• 512GB option

You have to ask yourself just how much do you need the above features, because an iPhone 12 Pro with similar amount of storage is a S$280 premium – not what you'd call chump change.

Additionally, another problem, I think, is that unlike last year’s Pro models which were identical to each other, this year’s Pro models are not entirely the same. Unlike the larger iPhone 12 Pro Max, iPhone 12 Pro doesn’t have a larger sensor or sensor-shift image stabilisation, which are big headline features. Consequently, it feels like you’re missing out if you went with the iPhone 12 Pro.

Should I wait for the iPhone 12 Mini and iPhone 12 Pro Max?

If you prefer a more compact phone that'll slide into pockets easily, then the iPhone 12 Mini looks like it could be a great choice. It's said to be even smaller than the iPhone SE and I think it's a real breath of fresh air, especially now when everyone seems to be obsessed with larger screen sizes.

For photography enthusiasts, I think the iPhone 12 Pro Max could be worth holding out for. The larger sensor and better image stabilisation technology could lead to better photos especially in the dark. And even if it isn't a dark, a larger sensor is likely to give better images anyway.

At any rate, the wait isn't terribly long. The iPhone 12 Mini and iPhone 12 Pro Max will be available for pre-order soon on 6 November 2020, 9pm SGT, and will go on sale on 13 November 2020.

For more buying and selecting tips, check out our iPhone 12 buying guide.

Final thoughts

So, some 5,000 words later, how do I feel about these two phones?

They are undeniably solid phones. Performance is class-leading, build is first-rate, 5G is good if you live in an area with coverage, it takes nice photos and videos, and battery life is decent too. I also like the way it looks.

Cynics will say they aren’t that much different from last year’s models and they would be mostly right. But then, the same could be said for just about any phone released this year. Fact is, phones have come to a point where you are just not going to see huge leaps in performance and features year-on-year. What I will concede, however, is that they are very expensive. If I looked at the price chart above without model names, I would have thought I was looking at the prices of notebooks.

Prices of flagship phones are pretty nuts these days but such is the world we live in. But the way to think about it is that for a device that is such a huge part of our lives, it makes sense to get the best you can afford and then use it for as long as you can. Yup, these are great phones and I think owners will be very happy with their purchases.

	Click to see the score breakdown
	Click to see the score breakdown

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