iPhone 12 review
Our Verdict
The iPhone 12 sports a gorgeous pattern, full 5G support, great cameras and strong functioning. However, the limited base of operations storage is a drawback.
For
- Bonny new design with MagSafe
- Comprehensive 5G coverage
- Impressive dual cameras
- Fastest performance in this cost range
- Solid battery life
Against
- Merely 64GB of base storage
- 60Hz display
- Digital zoom could still use work
Tom's Guide Verdict
The iPhone 12 sports a gorgeous design, full 5G support, great cameras and strong performance. However, the limited base storage is a drawback.
Pros
- +
Attractive new design with MagSafe
- +
Comprehensive 5G coverage
- +
Impressive dual cameras
- +
Fastest performance in this price range
- +
Solid bombardment life
Cons
- -
Only 64GB of base storage
- -
60Hz display
- -
Digital zoom could still apply work
iPhone 12 review: Specs
Price: $729 unlocked; $699 on contract
OS: iOS 14
Display: 6.i-inch OLED (2532x1170)
CPU: A14 Bionic
Storage: 64GB, 128GB, 256GB
Rear photographic camera: 12MP wide (ƒ/1.6), 12MP ultrawide (ƒ/2.four)
Front camera: 12MP (ƒ/two.2)
Battery: two,815 mAh
Bombardment life: 8:25 (5G), 10:23 (4G)
Size: five.78 x 2.81 10 0.29 inches
Weight: five.78 ounces
The iPhone 12 is one of all-time iPhone values around now that information technology has a discounted price of $699. Even with the iPhone thirteen offer more speed, slightly better cameras and longer battery life, the iPhone 12 is notwithstanding among the best phones you tin can purchase overall. Y'all get an bonny design, full 5G connectivity, skilful cameras and better performance than most Android phones.
There'due south some things we don't like nearly the iPhone 12. There's a low corporeality of base storage, and you don't go the powerful zoom or fast refresh display that the Samsung Milky way S21 offer.
The iPhone 12 mini is worth a look if you lot desire something cheaper and smaller, and the iPhone 12 Pro series is better if you lot want a telephoto lens. Simply the regular iPhone 12 gets our nod for being a bang-up accommodating phone. See our iPhone 13 vs. iPhone 12 comparing for more than info.
Our total iPhone 12 review below shows why this phone is notwithstanding very much worth your consideration.
- Want better cameras? Check out our iPhone xiii Pro review
- Best iPhone 12 cases
iPhone 12 review: Release date and toll
The iPhone 12 was released in October of 2021 and information technology remains available from Apple likewise as a number of carriers. The newly reduced cost is $699 for 64GB of storage. Upping that to 128GB costs $749 and 246GB costs $849.
In the U.Yard., the iPhone 12 at present tarts at £679 for the 64GB model, but pay an actress £30 and you tin can get 128GB of storage for £849. The 256GB handset at present costs £829.
If you desire the lowest price, nosotros proceed to track iPhone 12 deals for all of Apple tree's phones. You can save anywhere from $110 to $790 on an iPhone 12 when you buy from Apple and trade-in your electric current iPhone, assuming you've got an iPhone 8 or later. (Newer models fetch the highest return.)
Apple isn't shipping a charging adapter or headphones in box with the iPhone 12, so you'll demand to pay extra if you lot need i.
iPhone 12 review: Pattern
Apple tree rarely alters the physical pattern of the iPhone from generation to generation, and thus whatever change — no affair how modest — is typically received with enthusiasm. Yous can chalk upwardly the iPhone 12's new apartment-border aesthetic as ane of those more pocket-size revisions.
Certain, the apartment edges look nice plenty and offer a much appreciated change of pace from the concluding several sequent years of rounded iPhones. What's more, they improve the iPhone 12'southward durability in tandem with Apple's new Ceramic Shield cloth, every bit the rounded frames of previous iPhones actually made them more fragile.
We will be conducting our own driblet tests, only the Ceramic Shield display held up well in EverythingApplePro's torture test on YouTube. Both the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro did not crack at hip or shoulder height when dropped, and the brandish on the regular iPhone 12 didn't even crack from x feet, though the dorsum did.
All that said, I can't say my hands accept actually taken to the sharper design. Few smartphones employ flat sides these days, and the iPhone 12 reminds me why. The edges dig into your palm, and make the entire device a scrap harder to grip. For example, the iPhone 12 measures 0.29 inches thick — which is perceptibly identical to the 0.31-inch-thick Pixel 5. However, the Pixel 5 feels more slender in the hand, because it naturally fits the curvature of your palm.
Additionally — and I won't blame y'all for dismissing this as a nitpick — as a longtime iPhone 11 Pro user, I can't help merely experience the 6.one-inch iPhone 12 is a hair taller than it really needs to exist. I find the v.8-inch size the perfect compromise between display real estate and pocketability, merely with the iPhone 12 series, Apple has left that grade gene to die. Now, those who desire a more meaty device will have no choice but to get for the v.4-inch iPhone 12 mini. And though I commend Apple tree for making a small flagship telephone in the yr of our lord 2020, I can't assist merely feel a 5.4-inch display might exist a bit too tiny for modern users.
Yet, I'1000 generally smitten by the iPhone 12'due south design. I like that Apple tree's shaved downwards the bezels considerably compared to the iPhone 11 and XR, though a slightly reduced notch would have been appreciated. And while I'm non a huge fan of the new blue color — I discover this sort of navy a bit tiresome — I like the mint green on offer, and I especially like the elegant simplicity of this design. The iPhone 12 comes 3 other colors — black, white and cerise.
The iPhone 12 feels substantial and premium, and not necessarily whatsoever less luxurious than the iPhone 12 Pro. You lot even get the same quotient of IP68 water resistance here as in the Pro (twenty feet for 30 minutes) which far exceeds other handsets on the market, likewise equally the aforementioned crystal-infused Ceramic Shield material protecting the display, which Apple tree estimates is iv times less likely to shatter when dropped — a claim we wait forwards to testing ourselves soon.
iPhone 12 review: MagSafe
While the phenomenon of magnets continues to bamboozle the world's top minds, Apple has made them a cardinal aspect of the iPhone 12's blueprint. A ring of magnets centrally placed on the back of the iPhone 12 enable Apple's new MagSafe ecosystem of accessories, from wireless chargers to cases and wallet attachments that simply snap on and off.
At that place'due south naught inherently unique nearly Apple's brand of wireless charging hither. The company's own $xxx MagSafe charging puck uses the very same Qi standard every bit any other wireless charger for any other phone — it just incorporates magnets, besides. Your iPhone 12 will nonetheless be compatible with whatever wireless chargers or Qi accessories you already have, though to get those meridian 15-watt speeds, you'll need a commencement- or third-party solution that incorporates MagSafe.
The bad news is that MagSafe is slower than Apple tree's 20W wired charger. Much slower. In a third-party charging test, the iPhone 12 charges to 50% full in 28 minutes using the 20W fast charger. The 15W MagSafe charger took an hour.
Withal, that's non to discredit the philosophy behind MagSafe, which makes a lot of sense. The magnets help localize the iPhone 12 on chargers and makes accompaniment zipper more user-friendly. And information technology's surely easier to top off your telephone by setting it down a puck that instantly aligns itself perfectly, rather than fumbling around at your bedside to plug in a tiny Lightning connector.
I think it's going to accept more third-party involvement and experimentation earlier we actually come across MagSafe reach its full potential. Case in indicate, Apple tree's leather wallet attachment. It's a clever idea, and I have no doubt some iPhone owners will dearest it. But the magnets within the iPhone 12 aren't quite strong enough to go on the wallet rigidly attached in all instances. In fact, the friction of pulling the iPhone 12 out of my jeans pocket was enough to knock the wallet off center on a few occasions, which to me doesn't evoke very Apple-like design.
iPhone 12 review: Display
The iPhone 11'southward LCD display has unquestionably been the Achilles' heel of Apple's entry-level premium iPhones in recent years, simply the iPhone 12 alleviates that. It'due south all thanks to a new half-dozen.1-inch Super Retina XDR OLED brandish that matches what yous arrive the iPhone 12 Pro.
This console packs a 2532x1170 resolution, making for a dramatic increase in the clarity of on-screen content compared to the iPhone 11'south dated 1792x898 brandish. It'due south as well HDR10 rated, assuasive yous to lookout man any videos recorded with the device'due south Dolby Vision-equipped rear camera the way they were intended to be seen.
Watching the trailer for the upcoming Monster Hunter film that really looks as though it never should have been made, I at least came abroad pleased by the allegiance of the scales, horns and teeth on a Black Diablos glinting in the desert sun. The blackness smoke from an explosion too contrasted heavily against the otherwise bright daylight scene in a way that wouldn't take looked well-nigh as alluring on the iPhone 11's LCD panel, with its inability to display true black.
The iPhone 12'due south screen still isn't perfect, and the reason why is clear to anyone who has used a contempo Galaxy, Pixel or OnePlus phone for whatever length of time. Post-obit months of rumors suggesting the opposite, Apple decided to forgo high refresh-rate displays on the entire iPhone 12 line, which accept actually become quite common in the flagship smartphone space over the by twelvemonth.
As a event, animations aren't as smooth and taps and scrolls don't respond with the aforementioned immediacy on Apple tree's latest handsets as they do on, say, the 90Hz Pixel 5 or 120Hz Milky way S20. Even though the iPhone 12 is more powerful than those devices — as we'll shortly see later in the review — it feels slower to utilise at times, simply because the display isn't every bit athletic. And that'due south something Apple should surely effort to rectify by the time the iPhone 13 becomes reality.
In terms of effulgence, under our light meter the iPhone 12 topped out at 569 nits at its highest setting, which actually falls considerably short of Apple'due south 625-nit estimate. It was able to return 114.5% of the sRGB colour space — just shy of the 122.8% of the Samsung Galaxy Annotation 20 — indicating slightly more restrained and natural hues, rather than oversaturation.
Looking to the Delta-Due east color accuracy exam, the iPhone 12 scored a result of 0.29, which is surprisingly a scrap worse than the iPhone 11'due south 0.22 result. (Numbers closer to nada indicate more than accurate hues.) Nevertheless, colors seemed appropriate to my heart, and the switch to OLED lonely makes this a massive spring compared to the previous generation, by and large speaking.
iPhone 12 review: Cameras
Judging from the outside, yous wouldn't retrieve a whole lot has changed in the camera department for the iPhone 12. The dual-lens rear shooters are bundled in a similar fashion as they were for 2019, and both of the wide and ultrawide optics are backed past 12-megapixel sensors.
Don't let your optics deceive y'all, however, every bit upgrades have been made. The master camera in particular at present benefits from a new 7-element design with an ƒ/ane.half dozen aperture, the largest yet in an iPhone. The upshot of both of these changes is a 27% improvement in low-light functioning, which, coupled with advancements to Smart HDR and Deep Fusion, should translate to more than particular in even the to the lowest degree favorable conditions.
And then let's begin, and so, with a couple of Night Way shots that illustrate what a yr's worth of improvements have washed for the iPhone's low-light functioning. Both of these photos make for dramatic, stunning dark scenes, only the iPhone 12'south rendition is slightly sharper across the board, with more lifelike hues inside the shadow-clad brick and meliorate sensitivity to specular highlights, evident in the manner the brick picks up the light from the lamps to a higher place. Still, the iPhone eleven Pro doesn't lose out by much at all to the newer handset.
That said, Apple tree's got some work to do. Google looks to have the upper hand at night, judging by how the iPhone 12's best work compares to the Pixel 5'southward in the case in a higher place. While Apple's software emboldens object boundaries, giving everything in the frame a tinge more depth, Google's algorithms evangelize a universally more visible effect, in tandem with far less overall noise. There'south some ugly vignetting going on around the edges of the iPhone 12's shot that obviously isn't there in the Pixel'due south shot.
In daylight, the iPhone 12's main photographic camera gives you lilliputian to complain about. While the Notation xx painted this idyllic lakeside scene a bit more sharply, particularly within the distant trees, I largely prefer the iPhone 12's effort for its more realistic treatment of colors, from the deep bluish mid-afternoon heaven to the yellows, oranges and greens encircling the h2o. Samsung once over again went overboard with mail-processing here, as it has a habit of doing.
When nosotros zoom into that fountain off to the right, though, the iPhone 12'south limitations become painfully obvious. There's no optical zoom on offering with the iPhone 12 — for that, y'all have to spend more on the iPhone 12 Pro or Pro Max. But even then, you wouldn't go the aforementioned crystal clarity provided by the Notation 20'southward 3x hybrid zoom, which nails the chaplet of water, the ripples on the lake'due south surface and the wall of trees in the groundwork.
Here we run across the very same lake, now viewed through the ultrawide lenses of the iPhone 12 and $749 OnePlus 8T. Both of these shots autumn astray in different respects; the iPhone 12 bungles the white balance, producing a green cast in the water and clouds, while the OnePlus 8T's photo only isn't sharp enough at all, and heavily distorts the epitome along the perimeter.
Rounding out this fall-themed photo op is a pair of portraits of my colleague Jesse, taken with the iPhone 12 and Pixel 5. Interestingly, the iPhone 12 defaults to a more pulled-out perspective for portraits than the Pixel 5, which automatically applies some cropping.
Still, the iPhone 12's version nevertheless looks a bit sharper to my center, with better treatment of Jesse's skin tone, and Smart HDR deftly managing the contrast betwixt the deep shadows blanketing his right shoulder and the residue of his hoodie. The iPhone 12 likewise applies a more than precise bokeh around Jesse's hair and ears, which is oft the claiming of simulated shallow depth-of-field portraits similar these.
To test out the capabilities of Apple's Deep Fusion mode, which favors scenes with granular details in medium-calorie-free scenarios, I used the iPhone 12 and Pixel five to grab a shot of a painting on canvas. Deep Fusion is designed to composite various exposures of different lengths for optimal sharpness, only I was surprised to notice Google's handset actually generated the most precise output here, cartoon the hatchwork texture of the canvas with a crispness the iPhone 12 couldn't quite match. Notwithstanding, I think the iPhone'southward treatment of colors at large — and the warmth it lends to the reds, whites and the neutral-toned groundwork — ultimately results in a more appealing image.
A better instance of Deep Fusion at work may be this selfie I took as the sun was going downwardly, where the iPhone 12 rendered the individual fibers in my sweater with richness and nuance compared to the Annotation xx's blurry output. The iPhone 12's 12MP front-facing photographic camera unsurprisingly captures more detail than the Note 20'due south 10MP sensor, but Apple tree'southward algorithms too don't uncannily over-burnish shadows and drain contrast from my confront like Samsung's practise. If I was forced to postal service one of these to Instagram, the choice wouldn't be difficult.
Overall, the iPhone 12 lands among the top tier of its price bracket where camera performance is concerned, but it'due south not the best in every scenario. For night shots, I'd withal rather have a Pixel, which can paint the same challenging scenes with less racket. And if I was working from a distance, I'd rather have the Pixel 5 as well for its superior digital Super Res Zoom, or i of Samsung'south devices — either the Galaxy S20 FE or the Annotation 20 — for their 3x optical and hybrid zoom systems.
iPhone 12 review: Video
Apple tree has gone all in on 4K HDR video recording with the iPhone 12 line. Similar the iPhone 12 and Pro Max, the regular iPhone 12 (and the smaller iPhone 12 mini) can record Dolby Vision video, albeit only at thirty frames per second to the Pro models' 60. Dolby Vision is a type of HDR encoding that goes beyond the standard HDR10 format to provide superior color depth, while ensuring a consistent visual presentation as closely aligned to the source material as possible, no matter where or how the content is viewed.
It may be hard to visualize, only trust united states on this ane — the difference is immediately clear when observing the aforementioned content side-by-side in HDR and SDR. I recorded a brusk video in a park as the sun descended behind the trees, and the gap in contrast in each instance was eye-opening. For one, the heaven was markedly brighter in the Dolby Vision capture, and I could actually make out individual leaves and trees reflecting the sun. These aspects were faded, done out and obscured in the SDR take, and as someone who has been using an iPhone xi Pro for video for the ameliorate part of a twelvemonth, I had no idea what I'd been missing.
Now, to be off-white, the iPhone 12 is far from the simply smartphone out there that can shoot HDR video. Yet, it is the but Dolby Vision-certified one, and I can definitely say that HDR video I've shot on our Galaxy S20 Plus has never looked anywhere near every bit good unedited every bit what the iPhone 12 churns out by default.
iPhone 12 review: 5G
Lots of smartphones today back up 5G, and y'all don't even really need to pay more for the privilege anymore. Even so, Apple's philosophy toward 5G is what distinguishes the iPhone 12 from all other 5G phones.
Whereas the vast majority of 5G handsets back up one kind of 5G and not another, or but the specific bands necessary to work on a certain network, the iPhone 12 goes all out. It is built to run on the most bands of whatever 5G phone, which means a greater chance of 5G coverage, especially in these spotty early days of the technology. What's more, the iPhone 12 works on both sub-6GHz 5G — the nationwide 5G that has formed the backbone of T-Mobile and AT&T's service equally of yet — in addition to much faster and shorter-range millimeter-moving ridge 5G, like what Verizon has focused on deploying in America's cities.
This dual-pronged arroyo to 5G is disquisitional, because it means when 5G eventually does become ubiquitous, your 5G-capable iPhone won't be hamstrung with a modem that but supports some networks and not others. Mind you, that twenty-four hours could be far off in the distance; on AT&T's network in a Pennsylvania suburb, I tended to see downloads in the neighborhood of 85 Mbps on our iPhone 12 while pulling a ii-bar signal. That'southward serviceable, but simply about equally third as quick every bit the fastest LTE Avant-garde networks we've tested.
5G does increase demand on the iPhone'due south battery, however, and then to that end, Apple has developed Smart Data Mode. This feature intelligently switches between LTE and 5G depending on whether or non the device really needs the actress speed. For example, if you're simply streaming music over Spotify with the screen off, your iPhone 12 may elect to remain on 4G to save power. Simply the second you lot brainstorm actively web browsing or attempting a FaceTime Hd call, 5G will kick in in full outcome. Smart Information Way is totally optional; if y'all'd rather have 5G firing at all times, yous can deem it and then in the phone's settings.
iPhone 12 review: Functioning
Armed with the offset 5-nanometer processor e'er embedded in a smartphone — Apple's new A14 Bionic — the iPhone 12 delivers best-in-form performance that never wavers. The A13 Bionic chip in the iPhone 11 serial was already faster than Qualcomm's pinnacle-tier 2020 silicon, the Snapdragon 865 Plus, but the A14 extends that gap farther however. Now that it'southward 2021, however, nosotros're starting to see more than Snapdragon 888 phones, including the Galaxy S21 series.
Well-nigh phones need about a minute or more to complete our video encoding test, where a short 4K video is transcoded to 1080p using Adobe'southward Premiere Rush app. The iPhone xi Pro needed 46 seconds to complete this task; the 888-equipped Galaxy S21 Ultra, 1 minute and 2 seconds. The iPhone 12, though? But 26 seconds.
The Geekbench 5 test, which measures overall system performance, shows a like advantage for Apple tree's newest CPU. Here, the iPhone 12 set a blistering footstep with a score of iii,859 in the multicore portion of the criterion. The Milky way S21 Ultra garnered iii,440 points.
And Apple hasn't skimped on the graphics side of things, either. Apple says the GPU inside the A14 Bionic is 50% faster than the one in the A13. While the latest mobile games don't e'er take full advantage of telephone makers' rapid innovation, I can say that Asphalt 9 Legends — a game that can occasionally be chuggy on some college-end Android phones — felt smoothen and precipitous on the iPhone 12. (Of course, a faster refresh-rate display would have heightened the illusion of responsiveness and immersion, but that's another consequence.)
A meliorate mensurate of performance is 3DMark's Wild Life graphics benchmark, which tasks devices with rendering circuitous, taxing scenes in existent-time. The Galaxy S21 Ultra tops out at 34 fps in this test. The iPhone 12 hitting 39 fps in our testing.
iPhone 12 review: Battery life and charging
Apple never reveals bombardment capacity figures for its devices, which makes it challenging to glean any insights regarding longevity from a spec canvas. A recent teardown suggests the iPhone 12 could be working with a two,815-mAh unit of measurement, which translates to roughly 200 mAh less capacity than the iPhone 11 Pro had at its disposal.
However, larger screen iPhones tend to perform decently in our custom battery test, where devices continuously surf the web over cellular at 150 nits of screen brightness.
For a chip of perspective, the iPhone 11 tallied 11 hours and 16 minutes in this test, and nosotros deem anything over the 11 hour mark to exist very good. The iPhone 12, however, averaged 8 hours and 25 minutes in the very same test, which would appear to be a significant subtract.
Yet, there is a deeper story here. Similar the iPhone 11, Apple rates the iPhone 12 for an identical 17 hours of video playback, along with 65 hours of audio. However, the iPhone 11 didn't have 5G to contend with. And when we ran our examination over again with 5G switched off in favor of LTE, the iPhone 12 performed better — a lot better.
The iPhone 12 lasted 10 hours and 23 minutes on 4G — two hours longer than its 5G time. If we had to gauge, the culprit could be that 5G consumes more than ability, or that the express span of 5G networks makes information technology difficult for the iPhone 12 to maintain a consequent 5G connection, forcing information technology to switch back and forth between 5G and 4G. It could very well be a combination of both factors, as we noticed some switching in our testing, but ultimately information technology'south as well early to conclusively say what the culprits are.
The battery story gets a bit worse as nosotros approach the elephant in the room — Apple tree'southward decision to forgo a charging brick and wired headphones with every iPhone going forward.
Say what you like about how much of this tin exist chalked up to Cupertino's environmental initiative, but the fact of the matter is that this will exit prospective iPhone buyers without the fastest-charging solution for the iPhone 12 unless they vanquish out an additional $twenty for Apple'south 20-watt USB-C adapter. And, to add insult to injury, the Lightning-to-USB-C cablevision that Apple does pack in with the iPhone 12 won't piece of work with older chargers, and won't be of much utilise to you unless you buy a new brick.
The charger situation is the same for U.M. buyers, with Apple tree wanting £39 for the MagSafe charger and £19 for the wired 20-watt charging block.
In our testing, the new 20-watt adapter got the iPhone 12 from empty to 57% in 30 minutes. That exceeds Apple tree's own 50% estimate, though you convincingly won't run into that kind of speed if you depend on your one-time 5-watt brick from iPhones of yore to accuse your new device. The iPhone 12 can also now charge wirelessly at a peak speed of xv watts, which is noticeably better than Apple'due south lethargic old vii.five-watt mandate.
iPhone 12 review: iOS 15
Equally you lot'll see in our iOS fifteen review, Apple's OS delivers some welcome improvements to your iPhone, many of which focus on shared experiences. FaceTime will let you listen to music or watch movies or Television receiver shows with friends or family. And the Messages app delivers a new Shared with You section for photos, articles and more than.
A new Focus feature in iOS 15 lets you filter notifications based on what you're doing. And notifications themselves have been refined, consummate with a new summary view. Other iOS fifteen highlights include a redesigned Safari and an enhanced Maps app with more detail and better road views.
Live Text bites is similar to Google Lens, as information technology recognizes text in real time via the camera when you desire to wait things up or get translations.
iPhone 12 review: Verdict
I'm of 2 minds well-nigh the iPhone 12. At that place's no question this is a great phone overall, and many of the changes Apple tree has made to its most pop iPhone are for the meliorate. The new Super Retina XDR panel is a phenomenal improvement over the disappointing LCD panels in previous models at this price, even if it lacks a high refresh rate. And the design, MagSafe system and excellent dual-photographic camera system all earn the iPhone 12 high marks.
But Apple'due south resistance to change in fundamental areas is still disappointing. Practically every major phone maker has stopped existence stingy with base storage. The fact the iPhone 12 still only starts with 64GB is borderline criminal, specially in calorie-free of the iPhone 13'due south expanded storage.
In fact, some should opt for the iPhone 13 instead, even though the iPhone 12 costs $100 less. The new iPhone delivers delivers faster functioning, ameliorate cameras, and a smaller notch, plus longer battery life. Merely about a year after its arrival, the iPhone 12 is still worth buying.
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/news/iphone-12-bad-news-production-delayed-by-up-to-2-months
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