Well it's been six months since I got the Apple iPhone 12 and this has been the main
phone that I've been using over the past six months because of its camera system, design,
and the Apple ecosystem, so let's dive into some of my favorite things about the iPhone
12 with some downsides about the device along the way, and first up,
I want to talk about MagSafe.
MagSafe is both a new charging standard for the iPhone as well as a new way to accessorize
your iPhone.
It uses magnets to precisely align the MagSafe wireless charger, sold separately, to the
iPhone 12, so you can be confident that it's on the charger correctly.
And after using it for six months I got to say it's solved one of the main problems I've
had, and most people I think have had when they've used a wireless charger, where you
don't perfectly align your phone on the charger, and then you wake up the next morning and
you find out your phone didn't charge.
MagSafe also enables new accessories for your iPhone like a wallet attachment or something
like the new Belkin wireless charger stand, which has a place to stick your iPhone, AirPods,
and Apple Watch.
Another new thing with the iPhone 12 is its design.
Apple went back to the classic flat edges it originally debuted with the iPhone 4 which
came out into 2010.
It's not as comfortable to hold as Apple’s rounded sides in my experience but the aesthetic
of the phone is nice.
The iPhone 12 also saw weight reduction which is a big deal and makes the phone feel really
nice to hold for long periods of time with it weighing 164 grams.
It's not as lightweight as something like my Pixel 5, but it still feels nice and it
doesn't feel too heavy to hold.
The screen is still 60 Hertz which I'm hoping at this point Apple would have at least upped
it to 90 Hertz but the animations are so smooth on iOS, it does make it less noticeable that
you're on a 60 Hertz display.
Apple did upgrade the screen panel to OLED for the 12, so blacks look pure black and
overall the OLED panel looks really good.
And I've had no issues with it.
Next up battery life.
The battery life on the iPhone 12 is pretty good.
I see around 4.5 to 6 hours of screen time on a full charge depending on what I'm doing
with the phone so I'll typically see less screen time when I'm listening to a lot of
music or podcasts that drain the battery through background activity.
Overall though there's only been like one day where I've had to worry about the battery
life on this phone and that was on a day where I forgot to charge the phone the night before,
so I've almost been able to go a full two days on a charge with this phone, which is
great.
Next let's talk about performance.
The iPhone 12 delivers just absolutely buttery smooth animations and fantastic performance.
I haven't had a single issue with this phone's performance in the past six months, no lag,
no stuttering, nothing.
Just solid performance for capturing photos and video, playing videos and music, and podcasts,
etc.
The only thing I don't really do on my phone is game, so I can't talk about that as much
but pretty much everything else I've used my phone for has worked flawlessly.
All right, now let's talk about the camera.
Overall I think the iPhone 12 has a pretty good camera.
With both the ultra-wide and the regular lens you get some flexibility in the shots you
want to take but the digital zoom is definitely a bit lackluster and it's not something you're
going to want to rely on a whole lot.
The photos that come out of the iPhone's camera are pretty comparable to other phones in this
price category and the main thing you'll really notice is how the iPhone photos look compared
to photos from other phones like a Pixel or a Samsung phone.
Apple tends to have a bit of a warmer tone with their photos and they love to bring up
the highlights.
Sometimes a bit too much in my experience versus the Pixel which has a more cooler high
contrast look.
Now where the iPhone really shines for me is in its video quality.
It just produces some really nice footage.
Colors look great, the auto white balance and exposure adjustment works well in auto
mode for a phone camera the video footage is some of the best I've seen.
Now the iPhone 12 does come with Dolby Vision support but until more devices support it,
so far I've stuck with the regular H.26.4 codec.
Now another thing Apple has done quite well with the camera is put in some pretty powerful
photo editing tools directly into the photos app on iPhone.
And this is one area where you can definitely tell that this phone's processor can handle
almost anything you throw at it.
Edits happened pretty much instantaneously.
One thing this phone does exceptionally well and it's not exactly an exclusive feature
to the iPhone 12, but it is a big part of my experience with it, is handing off audio
from the iPhone to another device is a really smooth experience on the iPhone.
For example when I get out of my car and have headphones in as soon as I shut my door on
my Tesla it turns off the audio system from my phone and the iPhone immediately switches
to playing audio on my headphones again without me having to do anything.
The iPhone 12 also works really well with Apple's wireless headphones and earbuds specifically.
All you have to do is have your headphones on and then pick up the iPhone and start using
it and they'll automatically switch over to your iPhone.
The iPhone 12 also integrates pretty well with other third-party wireless earbuds.
I use my Pixel Buds all the time with my iPhone 12 and they work well together.
As soon as I put them in my ears the phone automatically connects to them too, though
it won't automatically switch them over to my iPad or Mac like my AirPods and AirPods
Max will.
Next iOS 14.
Now while IOS 14 is not exclusive to the iPhone 12 when you get an iPhone 12, it does make
it feel like a fresh new iPhone in a few key ways.
First home screen customization with widgets and the app library feature which basically
allows you to not have any more multiple pages of home screens.
It makes this phone feel new and not as bogged down by previous iOS customization restrictions.
iOS 14 has also gotten subsequent updates over the past six months and that's just another
benefit of having an iPhone you do get updates directly from Apple in a timely manner which
is not always the case if you have an Android phone though that has been getting better
from some of the big phones from big manufacturers like Samsung, OnePlus, and of course Google
with the Pixel 5, which we just recently reviewed.
The iPhone 12 can now pair with Apple's new AirTags thanks to a software update and utilizing
the U1 Ultra wideband chip found in the iPhone 12, as well as the iPhone 11.
It allows you to precisely find the location of an AirTag or tap a HomePod Mini to transfer
music from the phone to the HomePod which works really well.
Also, thanks to a new software update you can utilize an Apple Watch to unlock your
iPhone when you're wearing a mask.
Now, you'll notice a pattern here, all of the recent software updates of late make the
iPhone work better with other Apple products and that's one of the main reasons in 2021
to get or upgrade to a new iPhone:
The Apple ecosystem.
The iPhone 12 is one of the gateways into the Apple ecosystem.
With it, you can get all of your text messages on your other Apple devices like iPad.
So to all of your friends who have iPhones, you'll show up as a blue bubble not a green
bubble and that doesn't really matter to me at all but it may have ramifications for you
especially with your family or at school.
And Apple knows this.
It's using a bit of psychology and sociology to create an atmosphere of the haves and the
have nots, and that's why iMessage does not exist on Android.
Not only can you get texts on your other devices, but you can also make and receive phone calls
from a Mac, IPad, Apple Watch, or HomePod Mini, and Apple makes it ridiculously easy
to be able to transfer a call from one Apple device to another.
The same is true with AirPlay, the proprietary tech that Apple uses to be able to stream
media from one Apple device to another.
You can AirPlay pretty much anything on your iPhone to an Apple TV and if you have a HomePod
Mini or AirPlay to enabled speaker like a Sonos or Bose speaker or like my Onkyo receiver,
it's really easy to create speaker groups on the fly and move music from one speaker
to another.
The other two accessories that make my iPhone even better are the Apple Watch and AirTags.
Now the Apple Watch is basically an extension of your iPhone.
It helps me screen notifications, tracks my fitness, shows me the time and the current
weather, does sleep tracking, and more.
AirTags are a brand new accessory for your iPhone and allows you to attach them to things
like keys or luggage and the iPhone 12 will use its U1 chip to give you that precise location
of that item.
And the cool thing is Apple uses the iPhone 12s taptic engine to buzz the phone when you
get closer to the air tag and it gets more intense as you hone in on your AirTag.
Alright so those are all the things I really like about the iPhone 12 and before we get
to downsides I want to talk about one thing that is new with the iPhone 12 that for me
isn't really a plus or a minus and that's Apple removing the five watt charger from
the iPhone box.
I think Apple made the right call here.
It's very likely when people get an iPhone 12, they'll already have a charger they can
use to charge their phone and the 5 watt chargers that Apple was putting in these iPhone boxes,
anyways are just horrible.
They're terrible.
You shouldn’t use them to charge your iPhone if you want it to charge quickly, you should
use a 20 or 18 watt charger, not a 5-watt charger.
So I don't miss these things at all and I think it was the right call.
Now, let's talk about the downsides with the iPhone 12 and first up music.
You still cannot set a default music streaming service for Siri to play from on the iPhone
12 though during the six months I've had the 12, Apple did roll out an update where Siri
will ask you what app you'd like to use to fulfill music requests and then it'll remember
that.
So now you can just tell Siri to play whatever music you want and it'll play it from your
favorite service and not default to Apple Music.
Next up storage.
For an $800 US starting price this phone should start at 128 gigabytes of storage not 64.
Another issue I've had is with phone calls.
For whatever reason when you're on a phone call using wireless earbuds or wireless headphones
and it doesn't matter if they're made by Apple or somebody else, the lowest volume you can
set that call volume two is actually too high.
It's like the volume level is different for phone calls and music in terms of the volume
floor that Apple has implemented and it looks like I'm not the only one who's noticed this
and had this issue.
The final thing I don’t like about the iPhone 12 is the App Store.
You can't download anything you want from the web onto your iPhone.
You must go through the Apple App Store and this is the way it's always worked on iPhones
and I'd be okay with that if it was consistent with how Apple treats all of its platform
products, like say the Mac...but it doesn't.
I can download whatever I want from the web on my Mac without being required to go through
the Mac App Store.
So, why is the iPhone any different?
Is it a security thing?
Is the Mac Less secure than the iPhone?
Well we now know the answer to that question thanks to the Epic Games versus Apple lawsuit.
When asked if they thought the Mac was less secure than the iPhone during deposition in
the lawsuit,
Apple Executives said the Mac is just as secure as the iPhone.
So if the iPhone is no more secure than the Mac estated by Apple's own executives, the
only other reason I can think of why Apple would keep forcing everyone to download anything
on an iPhone through the App Store is because of revenue.
Because Apple gets a percentage cut for all subscriptions sold by major companies on the
App Store...and if that's the decision and that's the reasoning behind it, I'd argue
that, that decision is harming the experience on the iPhone.
Now, that's just my opinion on Apple's App Store Policies and I know this is a heated
subject so let me know in the comments what you think.
Should Apple open up the iPhone and make it more like the Mac?
I'm interested to see what people think.
Alright, so those are the pluses and minuses when it comes to the iPhone 12 experience.
Now, do I recommend getting an iPhone 12?
Yes.
Who do I think should get one?
I think the iPhone 12 is a great choice for anyone with an iPhone 10 or older who's thinking
about an upgrade or anyone enticed by the Apple ecosystem and wants a great phone that
will work well, have stellar performance, battery life, a great camera, and will get
updates for years to come.
The iPhone 12 can be purchased at a variety of retailers and starts at $799 US dollars
and comes in a variety of colors, including a newly released purple color.
Now if you're interested in Apple accessories, definitely check out the links below to some
of our reviews of other Apple products and links to some of my favorite Apple accessories
in the description below.
I hope you found this video helpful and if you did and liked it, make sure you hit that
thumbs up button below and subscribe to the channel to see more six months later reviews
like this one on Apple and other tech products.
For 6 Months Later, I'm Josh Teder, thanks for watching.