Apple’s “Hi, Speed” event finally kicked off last night where the company unveiled the highly acclaimed iPhone 12 series including the iPhone 12, 12 Mini, 12 Pro, and Pro Max.
Just like last year, the Pro and Pro Max models max out on display sizes and bring improved cameras as well as more storage options. We’ll be looking at the iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max only for this article.
Let’s have a look.
Design and Display
Design-wise, the new iPhones are not much different from before. There is still the same wide notch on the display, small bezels, and a large camera bump on the back with three big lenses, but now there is an additional LiDAR sensor at the bottom.
The display sizes on the Pro and Pro Max are 6.1″ and 6.7″ respectively, both of which are slightly larger than their iPhone 11 counterparts. These are 60Hz OLED panels with FHD+ displays and 1200 nits peak brightness. Apple has once again partnered with Corning to produce a ceramic shield material to increase drop resistance.
Water and dust resistance has been slightly improved as well.
Internals and Storage
All the new iPhones feature Apple’s latest A14 Bionic chip, which is the world’s first 5nm SoC touted to be 40% faster than last year’s A13 Bionic. The CPU has two big cores and four smaller cores which, the company claims, will deliver 50% better processing speeds. The GPU, on the other hand, is marketed to be 50% better than before with 70% better machine learning capabilities.
The iPhone 12 Pro and Pro Max start at 128GB storage options but go all the way up to 512GB variants as well. As always, RAM capacity is yet to be revealed.
All phones will boot iOS 14 and will get regular updates for the next 5 years.
Cameras
The iPhone 12 Pro keeps the old camera sensor, while the Pro Max gets a newer and larger one that allows it to capture more light. It is equipped with improved sensor-shift OIS, letting it react faster with around 5,000 adjustments per second. The Pro Max also has an improved focal length, allowing it to reach 5x optical zoom, while the Pro is limited to 2x zoom.
Otherwise, the two phones have identical camera setups, with a 12MP main camera, a 12MP telephoto camera, and another 12MP lens for ultrawide shots. The new LiDAR sensor enables Night Mode portrait shots and improves autofocus in low lighting as well.
All camera lenses except for the telephoto have Night Mode support, and this is thanks to the improved performance brought in by the A14 chip. This applies to the 12MP front camera as well, which also gets Night Mode this time around.
Battery and Pricing
Battery capacity was not revealed as per usual, but these power cells have support for 20W wired charging and 15W wireless charging through MagSafe. The wireless chargers can be magnetically attached to the back of the new iPhones.
The iPhone 12 Pro will start at $1000, whereas the Pro Max will go for $1,100. Sales will start next month on November 13.
Specifications
iPhone 12 Pro | iPhone 12 Pro Max | |
Chipset | Apple A14 Bionic, 5nm | Apple A14 Bionic, 5nm |
CPU | Hexa Core | Hexa Core |
GPU | Apple GPU | Apple GPU |
OS | iOS 14 | iOS 14 |
Supported Networks | 2G, 3G, 4G LTE, 5G | 2G, 3G, 4G LTE, 5G |
Display | 6.1″ Super Retina XDR OLED, 1170 x 2532 pixels, 460 ppi | 6.7″ Super Retina XDR OLED, 1284 x 2778 pixels, 458 ppi |
RAM | N/A | N/A |
Storage | 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, NVMe | 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, NVMe |
Card Slot | No | No |
Main Camera | 12 MP, f/1.6, 26mm (wide), 1.4µm, dual pixel PDAF, OIS 12 MP, f/2.0, 52mm (telephoto), 1/3.4″, 1.0µm, PDAF, OIS, 2x optical zoom 12 MP, f/2.4, 120˚, 13mm (ultrawide), 1/3.6″ TOF 3D LiDAR scanner (depth) |
12 MP, f/1.6, 26mm (wide), 1.7µm, dual pixel PDAF, Sensor-shift OIS 12 MP, f/2.2, 65mm (telephoto), 1/3.4″, 1.0µm, PDAF, OIS, 2.5x optical zoom 12 MP, f/2.4, 120˚, 13mm (ultrawide), 1/3.6″ TOF 3D LiDAR scanner (depth) |
Front Camera | 12MP | 12MP |
Fingerprint Sensor | Touch ID | Touch ID |
Colors | Silver, Graphite, Gold, Pacific Blue | Silver, Graphite, Gold, Pacific Blue |
Battery |
N/A, 20W fast charging, 15W wireless charging | N/A, 20W fast charging, 15W wireless charging |
Price |
$1000 | $1100 |