The iPhone 12 Pro…Whats New, Whats good, and should you upgrade?
Hey, im Jerry and lets get right to it……The first thing you will notice
is the new flat design…..The rounded glass and frame that has been on iPhones since the iPhone 6
is now gone and replaced with a flat stainless steel frame
and a flat display. The display and back glass is completely flush with the frame on both sides.
This is….the best feeling iphone since the iPhone 5S.
The flat edges allow for more surface area to grip and it just feels more secure in my hands,
and less slippery than my iPhone 11 Pro. I have felt so comfortable with this phone over the last
few days that I have been using it more without a case than with.
With previous phones I would have been more worried about dropping it
but thankfully the new Ceramic Shield on the front is 4x more resistant to breaking……….Now………..thats
not going to protect from micro scratches so for that I installed the matte icarez screen
protector which I love, and have installed on most of my devices.
With the new design is a new color. Like the Midnight green iphone 11 Pro this pacific
blue is a beautiful muted color. It sits somewhere between the bright colors of the regular iPhone 12
and the pastel colors of the iPhone 11. ………..I really like this color and am glad that Apple
is adding color to the Pro devices after so many years of gray, silver, and white.
5G was the buzzword of the iPhone 12 announcement and it is there. I even get a little bit of 5G at
my home where 4g is frequently terrible. Instead of the 2-20mbps I usually get from lte at home I
was able to get 80mbps with ATT 5g and a little closer to Austin I was able to get 180mbps.
The dream of 5G is faster than gigabit speeds and super low latency and right
now that is more of a promise than a reality. There are a couple different versions of 5G
and getting either one is going to depend on where you live and what service providor you
have………….Right now, 5G is not really going to load that webpage any faster or show you more tweets.
…………5G needs to show us more use cases of why we need 5G and I don’t feel like we are there yet.
Apple Updated the camera hardware and software. They added LiDAR which can help with faster
low light autofocusing, Increased the sensor sizes, and added HDR Dolby Vision for Video.
Taking a couple test shots with the 12 pro and the 11 pro…both produced good photos. At first
nothing really jumped out at me when comparing these 2 photos
but then I realized that the 12 pro captured more area in focus
as you can see in the leaf on the left. I also noticed that the 12 Pro photo was much cooler
than the 11 pro, causing the greens to me more teal and less of the real life green that it was.
On this lawnmower man shot I can see the same issue with green but they both look pretty good.
The iPhone 12 seems to have more detail but the 11 Pro properly exposed the sky at the top right.
On the playground photo the sky is again blown out on the 12 pro.
Overall I think the photos out of the 12 Pro were nice and the video looked great.
The 12 Pro produced much brighter HDR video than the 11 pro. There
is more detail in the bright and dark areas.
The HDR video also really made the color pop on the frankinstein lawn decoration.
This photo is very low light had more detail than what I could get with the 11 pro.
Overall I think the photos out of the 12 Pro were nice and the video looked great.
Performance wise, the iphone 12 pro has zero issues. The new A14 chip is faster than last
years chips and are still best in class……….I can export a 4 minute video in lumafusion
in 50 seconds…….I can play FPS games from the app store……..For
those that are curious I was able to get a single core score of 1592 and a multicore
score of 3990 in geekbench which was about 20% faster than what I got on my iphone 11 Pro.
There isn’t really a lot to say about the performance. Apple is at the top of its
game with chip production and the a14 has more power than we can use in the iphone right now.
You can play any game, create graphic art, edit videos, surf the web, or tweet
without performance issues. My feeling is that all this power is for 2-3 years down
the road when there are new software updates and features that can really take advantage of it.
Battery life on the iPhone 12 Pro has been no issue. The battery is smaller than on
the 11 Pro and some tests have shown that the 11 Pro beats the 12 pro. I get through a full
day better than on my 11 Pro probably because the battery health has dipped down to 93%. I
have been getting more than 6 hours screen on time with a little mix of browsing, twitter,
some games, photos and video and I have not needed to go into low power mode
yet……………Battery life has not been an issue for me and I am sure it wont be for most people.
The newest physical feature of the iPhone 12 Pro is the addition of MagSafe. Magsafe is
a group of magnets that surround the charging coil in the back of the iphone that will allow
for magnetic chargers and other accessories. So far Apple has released cases, a magsafe
charger, and a wallet but also stated that they have licensed out the design for third parties.
The MagSafe Charger is……strange…….It does what Apple says it will do. It attaches to the back
of the phone and will charge at up to 15 watts. Where Apple whent wrong is they did not include
a charger in the $40 price tag, the cord is too short and the base is to light.
If you are going to use this on a desk or night stand there is a good chance that the cord will
not actually reach to a power outlet because of the short length. This also limits the ability to
use the device while it is charging unless you pull up a chair right next to a power
outlet……….Maybe you can plug it into a laptop or desktop but the length just seems too limiting.
The benefit to this MagSafe charger is that when connected it will stay connected and charge
correctly vs a standard QI charger which sometimes does not charge if it is placed improperly.
The benefit of a regular wireless charger is that you can quickly set it down
and remove it………With this you need 2 hands to disconnect it so I don’t really see
how this is any better than wired charging.
The Benefit, I feel, will be with third party options for wireless charging stands,
or car mounts like from Belkin. Apple Announced a MagSafe wallet and I am sure
there will be a number of cool accessories coming from other third parties soon.
I also have 3 MagSafe cases that work with the charger and other accessories. The Apple Silicone,
Clear plastic, and the Otterbox Figura……..This is kind of like the 3 bears. The Clear case is
slippery and the buttons too mushy. The silicone case feels nice but
picks of lint and th e buttons could be better. The Otterbox is just a tad bigger than the others
but has a nice feel that does not pick up lint and has good, clicky buttons.
So…..its 2020 and the iPhones 12 have arrived. They have an updated design,
improved cameras, better performance, 5g, and a new accessory ecosystem. The A14 and 5G provide
a future proofing for a device that will be supported for the next 4-5 years or more.
The cameras steadily bring new features like lidar for faster focusing and HDR
dolby vision for video. The addition of MagSafe offers a glimpse of where Apple
is headed with portless iphones and a new world of accessories.
……….the question I know you have is “should you upgrade?” …….ANd my answer...probably not……
I dont think there is any one feature of the new iPhone 12 pro that is worth upgrading for. 5G,
MagSafe, and HDR video will all be better in the future but right now if your phone runs the apps
you need and the battery gets you through a day I don’t see a reason to upgrade……………If you Need
a slightly better camera, a slightly faster phone, or just want the latest and greatest, go for it.
I upgraded because I have a disease that makes me want all shiny new objects,
no matter what little benefit they provide. I love the look and feel of the new iPhones
so much and so far I have used this iPhone 12 Pro more without a case than with over
the last few days. It feels really good in the hand and I am thinking I may need to try going
caseless again. If you struggle with wanting to use your phone without a case but have anxiety
about dropping it, you should check out this video over here………...hit the like button if you did,
hit the subscribe button if you want and i see you next time.