Many of the previous iPhones have been good. They may have even been the best smartphones of the year. But I haven’t truly loved any of them. Not since the iPhone 5. The iPhone 6 design, with its curved sides and oversized body, followed each iPhone, all the way up to the iPhone 11. All of them were just dull. Slippery. Fragile. The new features were great. A larger screen, better camera, improved performance, greater battery life, but I could never get past the fact that I really didn’t care for the physical design. Pretty? Sure. Usable? No.
But Apple finally did away with that tired old design with the iPhone 12. They even released a smaller version that can give you the screen real estate you expect without being too large for one hand or a pocket.
It’s a miracle. Something good happened in 2020.
I’ve now been using the iPhone 12 mini for over a month. It’s been with me every day. I’ve taken photos of the night sky, used it all day without a charge, tested it out with MagSafe, and ran it through my favorite apps. Most importantly, it became a part of my everyday life. And I took notes.
So here it is, the iPhone 12 mini review, over one month in.
In This Article:
Design 9/10
It might look thicker at first glance, but that’s because the iPhone 11 design used optical illusions to look thinner. It’s actually Apple’s thinnest iPhone.
The iPhone 12 mini is peak iPhone design. Fits in your hand and pocket, one handed design, and squared-off edges that make it easier to grip. Plus, it’s gorgeous. It takes the elegant design of the iPhone 4 and gives it the flat edges of the iPhone 5. I can even feel comfortable using this phone without a case. It’s that much easier to hold. Think about that. This is the first iPhone since the first generation iPhone SE that didn’t require an additional accessory just to hold the damn thing. I don’t even need a phone loop for this, and I love phone loops. But I just don’t need one. This iPhone is designed for human usage. I can carry it around, I can use it without dropping it, I can use it with one hand. It’s so liberating to actually be able to completely use your device. When it comes to the size and shape of the edges, Apple absolutely nailed it.
That’s Not Red
Apple’s iPhone 12 comes in a variety of colors. There’s just one problem with the iPhone 12 mini (Product)Red version… it’s not actually red. Make no mistake, it’s a shade of red, but it’s got more apricot influences in it. It’s closer to hot pink than the deep red of the iPhone 11 (Product)Red model. It doesn’t look bad, and it still looks reddish, but in bright light, it’s very clearly not red.
Still, color issues aside, the iPhone 12 mini is the best iPhone Apple has ever designed. It just has one glaring flaw…
Get Rid of the Damn Camera Bump!
Seriously, Apple? This giant-ass camera bump? It’s huge, especially in comparison to the rest of the iPhone 12 mini. On larger devices, it’s not so noticeable. The camera bump on the iPad Pro doesn’t even cause the device to rock around on a flat table. But on this smaller, pocket-friendly, finally usable iPhone size? That camera bump is like walking around with a giant rock in your shoe. My phone can’t sit on a flat MagSafe charging stand because of this giant thing.
Enough with the posturing. No one cares about device thinness anymore. It’s always been a bragging point with no purpose. Apple could have made the iPhone 12 mini just a tiny amount thicker to reduce the wobble. They could have used the extra space for a larger battery, solving another issue for the iPhone 12 mini. Instead, the device rocks around like a seesaw.
If not for this giant thing, the iPhone 12 mini would have been perfect. The camera bump has been the worst part of iPhone design for years, and the iPhone 12 mini continues that sad tradition and makes it worse than ever. Want to see a cool camera design? Take a look at the LG Velvet. One small camera bump for the main camera and an attractive “water droplet” design as the lenses go down in size. This is a bump that only has what it needs, instead of pretending the bump is a selling point because the camera is just “too good to fit” in a device without a huge bump. Apple has always had options here, they just keep choosing the worst one.
It Fits in a Pocket
It fits in a front pocket. Ladies. It. Fits. In. A. Front. Pocket.
Holy crap.
Granted, not all of my front pockets can fit it. After all, I have front pockets that are barely deep enough to hold a tube of lip balm. But on a not insignificant number of my jeans, I can put the iPhone 12 mini in my front pocket. Who knows if it’s because Apple finally decided to listen to women or what, but we got it, a phone that doesn’t stick out of all of your pockets.
Rejoice.
Performance 10/10
You ready for this? This is the fastest iPhone yet. Shocking, right? Did you think it was going to be slower than the iPhone 11? Nope! Fooled ya!
Okay, joking aside, how much faster is it? I noticed apps, especially games with loading screens that can take a few seconds to load (more than 5), take a second or two less on the iPhone 12. Some games were able to start loading the game save itself before others could load up the title screen. That’s impressive. It’s not something that’s likely on your “need to have” list if you currently have an iPhone 11, but if you’re using an iPhone 8 or an iPhone X, it’ll be a significant upgrade.
According to Geekbench, the iPhone 12 Pro scores best in the single-score averages, with a score of 1586. The iPhone 12 is just right behind it with 1585. One point. On the other hand, multi-core performance, which is often more important, the iPhone 12 is actually a little faster than the Pro model. It scores a 2955 compared to the 3933 on the iPhone 12 Pro. Similarly, the iPhone 12 outperforms the iPhone 12 Pro slightly in graphics benchmarks, with a 9230 compared to the Pro’s 9216.
How much faster is the fastest iPhone 12 than the fastest iPhone 11?
- Single-Core: ~19%
- Multi-Core: ~19%
- Graphics: ~25%
These aren’t huge differences. The better comparison comes out when you look at the 2-3 year upgrade cycle. Consider the iPhone 12 vs the iPhone XS:
- Single-Core: ~43%
- Multi-Core: ~60%
- Graphics: ~72%
That’s a huge difference. So, if you’re upgrading every year, you’ll only notice a small difference. Maybe a second faster loading times in some games, a few milliseconds faster in other apps. Video processing may take a second or two less time on an iPhone 12 than an iPhone 11. However, it will be significantly faster than an iPhone XS, and explosively faster than anything as old as an iPhone X or older. The A14 is an impressive chip, but Apple’s been making sizable steps forward in performance with each of their chips.
Fast Face ID
This is also the fastest I’ve seen Face ID. It’s so unobtrusive that it’s now almost as convenient as Touch ID. Using it at home during quarantine, not when I’m out, it has been actually more convenient than Touch ID. Crazy, right? Now that I’m not on the move as much, I don’t need to use my iPhone without looking at it as frequently. However, Face ID is still an awful thing. I have my face covered when I’m out now, as everyone should, and have to enter a long passcode every time I want to use my iPhone. Apple solved this with the iPad Air, with the Touch ID in the button. They could have done the same with the iPhone 12 series, and saved us another year of awkward phone usage in public.
Battery Life 7/10
This is the worst part of the iPhone 12 mini. Fortunately, it’s not too bad. The iPhone 12 mini lasts about 12 hours during general use in my testing. This entailed a small amount of gaming here and there, web browsing, chat apps, dating apps (hey, quarantine is lonely), music, and the occasional video. 11 to 12 hours for my average usage throughout the day, on full brightness, without charging.
Apple says about 15 hours of video playback on the iPhone 12 mini, compared to 17 hours for the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro. So, if you had an iPhone 11, imagine between one and two hours off of your battery life. If you have an iPhone X or older, the battery has likely degraded more than this by now. The battery in the iPhone 12 mini may be slightly better off than a larger battery from two or more years ago. However, this is the starting point. It’s only going to get worse from here as batteries degrade over time. The battery life you get just a year after owning a smartphone is noticeably worse. In two years, the battery life on the iPhone 12 mini may be terrible.
My worst battery life, without charging, was about 10 hours. That’s still enough to get through a full day away from a charger. Fortunately, I’m rarely away from a charger anymore. I work from home now. Thanks, pandemic. Still, even before that, I had a wireless charger at my office. When I was wandering around Google IO, far away from a charger, using my LTE on my iPhone to take notes on my iPad? I was able to use my solar battery pack to keep my devices juiced up throughout the day. The truth is, in the modern world, you’re rarely without power for your device for 10 hours anyway.
Besides, maybe Apple or another reliable company will introduce a cool MagSafe charging pack for those days when you just can’t make it to a charger.
Screen 9/10
The iPhone 12 mini is the best display out of Apple’s new models. No, I know, you’re likely shocked, but wait! The iPhone 12 mini has the same contrast ratio and same maximum brightness as the iPhone 12 Pro. Even the iPhone 12 Pro Max! However, it has a higher pixel density than any other iPhone 12 model. That means it has the highest resolution, the most clarity. Sure, the screen is smaller. That’s how you get something that fits in your hand. But the screen itself is sharper than any other iPhone 12 display. It’s only by a small amount, but it’s there.
The color is excellent. It’s accurate, but colors that are supposed to pop still do so. As an OLED display, an improvement over the iPhone 11’s LED display, the contrast is much better. Blacks on the screen, rather than being a deep gray, are instead a deep black. Even with a video playing, it can be hard to tell where the notch and screen begin and end. This is because OLED pixels are individually backlit. So, when a pixel is supposed to be black, the display can dim the pixel or turn it off entirely. It gives you fantastic contrast, which the iPhone 11 and other LED displays lack. It may even be a better display than your TV. In fact, it may have enough detail in dark pixels to allow you to watch that episode of Game of Thrones! But we all know no one is watching Game of Thrones ever again.
There are two problems with the display on all iPhone 12 models. First is the refresh rate. Many Android phones in this price range have a >60fps refresh rate. People had hoped that Apple would bring the 120fps display from the iPad Pro to the iPhone. This allows fluid motion and scrolling on a display. It’s really something you have to see to believe, but it makes a big difference in the perception of quality of a display. Furthermore, for using the iPhone with something like Google Cardboard or another VR/AR applicaiton, it can reduce motion sickness.
The biggest problem I have with the display is fortunately a rare one. I found that sometimes the screen may dim to 50% when the battery is below 80%. You can still move the slider from 50% up to 100%, but after 50%, the display won’t get any brighter. I found restarting the device or charging it to over 80% of the battery fixes the problem when it comes up. It seems to be a clear firmware issue, which Apple could fix in an update to iOS. It mostly happens when the Face ID overlay comes up on an app. After it disappears, the brightness doesn’t return. Other users have reported this issue, though it doesn’t seem to be a hardware bug, since charging the device up or restarting it fixes the issue. This is an annoyance, and a bad one. Apple has to fix it, if they haven’t already. To be honest, I haven’t noticed it in a while.
Camera 7.5/10
The iPhone 12 camera module looks just like the iPhone 11 camera module from the outside. Internally, it isn’t much different either. Over the iPhone 11, it can claim slightly better “Smart HDR 3” photos and slightly better low light photos.
Apple says the new main wide angle camera brings in 27% more light, and the ultra-wide angle lens now can do night mode shots. The difference is minimal though, thanks to Apple’s fantastic image processing on the iPhone 11. You may notice low light and HDR shots are a little sharper though, because they’ll require a lower ISO and less automatic retouching to remove noise. It’s definitely a better camera, you can look at photos from both devices, especially in low light, and see quite plainly that the iPhone 12 has a better camera than the iPhone 11, but it’s a small difference, especially when using night mode and a tripod.
The above photo is from Apple’s website. It’s meant to show the iPhone 12’s ultrawide night mode shots. We’re supposed to notice the color and texture of the woman’s top. But look at the smoothing of details around her eyes. The posterization of colors in her cheek. Look at the lights in the background, how they’re washed out, and the sizing is warped at the edges. This isn’t an impressive photo. Is it decent for a photo taken at night? Yes. Does it prove that the wide angle lens has night mode? Also yes. But it’s not an extraordinary photo. Apple’s night mode excels with fabric and textures because it uses AI to fill in detail gaps. It’s still not taking photos that are good enough to compare to better-lit photos.
There is one little quirk with the iPhone 12 mini camera module. Apple swapped the cameras. The lower camera is now the main camera. This means you may be more likely to get a finger in it, but it also means that your finger is less likely to end up in your ultra-wide photos. It seems every time I tested the iPhone 11 ultra-wide lens, I had to be mindful of my finger. I don’t have to with the iPhone 12 as much, at least not for the ultra-wide. Still, I use the main camera far more often, and I have gotten my finger in a few test shots. It’s especially bad with a case that smooths out the camera bump so you don’t realize how close your finger has gotten to the camera.
The Wrong Secondary Lens
The ultra-wide lens is great. I rarely use it, but it’s great. It does what it’s supposed to, capturing a extremely wide photo in just one shot. It does so with some perspective play and edge distortion though.
I remember a wedding a while back. I took a portrait photo with the zoom lens on my iPhone XS and it looked so much better than the same portrait with a wide angle lens. It’s the zoom lens. It gives you a more realistic view of a person’s face, without making their faces seem thinner and their noses larger. Apple’s standard wide-angle lens is a ~28mm equivalent. Good for landscapes, not good for portraits. Their zoom lens comes in around a ~50mm lens, which is perfect for portraits. It gives you the view of a person that looks more like what you see when you look at them.
Now, technically, the photo was worse. There was graininess in it that wasn’t present in the wide angle portrait. This is because, on the iPhone X and iPhone XS, the telephoto camera was a joke. It had a tiny sensor and very small aperture, leading to blowing out the ISO. The result is grainy photos with less detail and plenty of smoothing to try to hide the high ISO. Clarity is lost, details are lost. But the photo itself, from a composition standpoint, looks better.
A zoom lens like those on the iPhone 12 Pro models, with a larger aperture and larger sensor size to match the wide angle lens would be a much better option than the ultra-wide. When do you use an ultra-wide? Perhaps to take a cool fish-eye shot? Or when you have extremely limited space and want to take a group photo? Maybe if you want to take a landscape photo? Well, no, that last one would be better with a panorama, since it’s likely not moving much. And the group photo? Take it outside for better lighting and more room. Yes, even in the rain, especially in the rain! Give me a group photo that’s not just a bunch of people standing together or sitting on a couch!
You got me on the fish eye angle though. There’s just no other way to replicate that. Of course, it’s quite rare that you’d want to take shots like this. You’d be better off buying a lens kit for your iPhone to add it on when you do want to take those shots.
But a telephoto lens? You can use that to capture wildlife that would run or fly away if you got too close. You can capture details on architecture that you couldn’t get closer to without the power of flight (coming in the iPhone 24 Pro Mega Max model). And, yes, you can capture the best portraits. If this camera is to only have two lenses—despite Android competition in this price range having three or more—then that secondary camera should be a zoom lens.
You can always take more photos to capture a landscape, you can’t get closer to the duck sitting out on the pond without getting wet.
Having an ultra-wide angle lens instead of the more useful zoom lens shows that Apple’s just including a secondary lens because they know they have to for new devices. The telephoto lens is much more useful, and they know people won’t buy the iPhone Pro for a ultra-wide, because it just isn’t a necessary lens.
No ProRAW?
The iPhone 12 Pro has the exact same camera module and sensor as the iPhone 12 mini and iPhone 12. However, it has memory dedicated to the camera that the non-pro models lack. This, supposedly is the only reason it can capture ProRAW format photos. ProRAW photos are RAW format photos. RAW photos carry more image data, and haven’t been compressed, like HEIC or JPEG images. However, Apple’s implementation also includes the automatic adjustments Apple does. What you get is a much better looking starting point than simply taking a RAW photo, which requires retouching for sharing. While every iPhone can still take RAW photos for editing later, only Apple’s ProRAW photos have their magical AI processing applied to them.
And I hate that.
I want to be able to take ProRAW photos as well! But the sacrifice for that is a larger iPhone. Sure, it costs more too, but, let’s be honest here, I would have gotten an iPhone 12 Pro mini for the iPhone 12 Pro camera. The idea that dedicated camera memory is the only thing in the way seems odd as well. This seems more like an arbitrary limitation than a technical one.
No Night Mode Portraits
Without LiDAR, the iPhone 12 mini camera (and iPhone 12 camera) cannot do night mode portraits. This is just something you have to pay more for to get the pro model, and it’s understandable that Apple didn’t provide it on the iPhone 12 mini or iPhone 12. However, it’s a mark against the camera in the iPhone 12. When comparing cameras, I don’t just look to the previous version of the iPhone, but the current models as well. The iPhone 12 mini camera just doesn’t have all of the features of the iPhone 12 Pro, and taking portraits in low light is one of them. This is one of the few understandable compromises of the iPhone 12, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t consider it in the rating.
iPhone 12 Pro Max Sensor
The improvements over the iPhone 11 camera were minimal. Slightly better low light photos and a little more detail in HDR photos. Both of those improvements disappear if you use a solid surface or tripod for your photos, as the iPhone 11 will simply use a longer exposure or series of stacked exposures to improve the low light photo quality.
You’re not upgrading from an iPhone 11 to an iPhone 12 for the camera. However, the iPhone 12 Pro Max is a significantly better camera, even better than the iPhone 12 Pro. The sensor is much larger, allowing it to capture more light. Furthermore, the entire sensor array is part of the optical image stabilization. Most implementations only move the camera lens around to compensate for motion. The iPhone 12 Pro Max also shifts the sensor. This allows it to take longer exposures in low light, producing significantly better photos. Longer exposures and more low light sensitivity make for a much more versatile camera.
The iPhone 12 Pro Max is a much better camera than the one in even the iPhone 12 Pro. In fact, it’s practically a generation gap. You’d expect that kind of difference between iPhone cameras over a year or two, not within the same generation!
But why? Apple just wanted to differentiate the devices to rationalize spending that much for an iPhone? The iPhone 12 Pro Max has a 6.7″ screen. It feels like holding a tablet, not an iPhone. It’s unwieldy, uncomfortable, and would never fit in a women’s pocket. Hell, it might not fit in a man’s jeans pockets! Many people with smaller hands won’t even be able to hold it in one hand without an accessory to add grip, like a Pop Socket or Phone Loop. It’s ridiculous. Every review for it says come for the camera, hate it for the size.
Why would Apple force us to buy such a thing just for the camera? The price is fine, but buying that unusable behemoth? No thanks.
The iPhone 12 Pro or iPhone 12, even the iPhone 12 mini could have had the same sensor. Apple likely didn’t add it to increase their margins on those devices. If you had asked me to pay $200 more for the camera of the iPhone 12 Pro Max in the iPhone 12 mini, I would have done it. I’m sure many iPhone 12 mini owners who bought it for the size, not the price, would agree. So why is Apple leaving so much innovation and, let’s face it, money, sitting on the floor, unused and unclaimed? People want small smartphones, that’s more of a draw to the iPhone 12 mini than the price.
Video
I mostly take stills. However, the video in the iPhone 12 is improved over the iPhone 11 more significantly than the stills. This is because it’s harder for video to do the frame stacking of multiple exposures that still photos can do to compensate for low light. With 60fps 4K video, the sensor is already doing what it can to capture everything in view. The sensor, capturing 27% more light than the sensor on the iPhone 11, just gets more data to work with. That means more detail in the dark, better views of colors in low light, less noise, and sharper images. It also means Apple can capture more frames, using them to smooth out motion in videos. The iPhone 12 still has a mode of HDR for video though, and it’s significant.
The iPhone 12 has Dolby Vision HDR. This likely isn’t even something you can enjoy on most devices yet. However, on the iPhone and other devices that can display Dolby Vision HDR, the video will have far more details in the dark and a greater color pop. It may look lightly better than your other videos even on devices that can’t accurately display the format, after processing. The iPhone 12 is something historic: it’s the first camera to shoot in Dolby Vision 4k HDR. Most others require processing later to bump it up to Dolby Vision. It’s almost overkill, seeing as most displays can’t make use of it yet, but your videos will look incredible on your iPhone.
This is one of those cases that I’m okay with Apple outpacing technology. Sure, 5G isn’t useful yet, but with video, you’re recording something specifically for the future. You want to be able to look back on those memories later. When you one day have a display and machine that can show you the full details of your video, you’ll be glad you recorded it on an iPhone 12 mini. Plus, those videos will display in all their splendor on your iPhone 12-series screen.
Camera: Overall
The iPhone 12 mini has a great camera, no doubt about that. It is, upon inspection, a clearly better camera system than the iPhone 11. Best of all, due to its smaller size and shape, I found it’s easier to shoot with than my iPhone 11. However, because it exists in the same generation of the iPhone 12 Pro Max, I just can’t give it a great score. It’s lacking night mode portraits, it has an almost useless ultra-wide lens instead of a telephoto lens, there’s no ProRAW, the sensor is smaller, and it doesn’t have sensor shift OIS.
The difference between the iPhone 12 Pro Max camera and the iPhone 12 camera is what the difference between the iPhone 12 camera and the iPhone 11 camera should have been. That’s the kind of camera upgrade we should expect over a year. Instead, it captures only a little more light than the previous camera, and has a few more processing improvements. It’ll definitely capture slightly better photos, but you likely won’t notice the difference unless you’re comparing them side-by-side. It’s not a shockingly better camera, just a slightly better one.
I took points off because it’s time for Apple to stop being lazy with camera development. They need to know that the smaller iPhone is just that, a smaller iPhone, not the one they can fill with the cheapest features. This also lead me to take the overall score down. Because it lacks zoom, I’d even say the iPhone 11 Pro camera is a better system than the iPhone 12 camera, even with the low light improvements. Apple dangled what they could have done with the iPhone 12 camera with the iPhone 12 Pro Max, and, at this point, that’s just a little insulting that the rest of the lineup only got this.
Sound
You are mostly going to hear anything coming out of your iPhone that you care about through headphones or speakers. I doubt that you care much about sound quality if you’re playing music over your phone speakers. Still, I tested the smaller iPhone 12 mini against the iPhone 11. Larger speakers can produce more volume with more accuracy. The iPhone 12 sounds a very small amount louder than the iPhone 11, but it still sounds tinny. That is, the smaller speakers, while louder, lose sound clarity and bass, but still have decent enough mids. So, if you’re listening to a podcast, you can hear it with maximum volume just fine, even in another room in your house or apartment.
Apple shrunk the speakers and tried to make them louder. That hurts sound quality. The iPhone 11 sounds better for music than the iPhone 12, but the iPhone 12 is louder for podcasts and other spoken-word audio. My suggestion? Just get some headphones or a Bluetooth speaker. I haven’t tested a phone yet that sounds even remotely comparable to even the cheapest Bluetooth speakers, and that includes HTC’s “Boomsound” speakers.
MagSafe
MagSafe is new on the iPhone 12 series. It’s a ring of magnets around the charging coil and a small line of them under that coil. It’s for use with cases, accessories, and, of course, charging. I have only one MagSafe accessory: the MagSafe charger. That’s because it’s currently the only accessory I’d recommend. Apple’s transparent cases are fragile and often break the first time you put them on your device. Their silicone cases aren’t bad, neither are the leather cases. However, I think you should spend your money on recycled and recyclable cases instead.
MagSafe could be convenient, but not with the charger alone. The charger feels like half a product. The wonderful thing about wireless charging is that you can just put your device down and it starts charging, then pick it up. However, the MagSafe charger clings to your phone. It’s as difficult to remove as a wired connection. Plus, the wired version charges much faster! Using a MagSafe charger alone is just plain stupid.
However, using MagSafe with another product is actually pretty cool. If you use Apple’s MagSafe charger with a dock or stand, it’ll hold Apple charger in place. This means you can just put your iPhone down, it’ll snap in place for the most efficient charge, and then pick it up. With a stand, it’ll even “float,” and you can easily go between landscape and portrait orientation.
MagSafe won’t work well with a case. I have only one case that supports charging on my stand, and, even then, only after I added little bits of rubber to add some friction. It’s as though Apple made the magnets just weak enough to require an Official Apple™ Certified MagSafe® compatible case. Is it a cool feature? Yes. Would it be cooler if it didn’t require magnets in the case to work perfectly? Also yes. Especially since any case with those magnets won’t be recyclable or compostable.
MagSafe shows potential, and it’s definitely a cool feature. However, it’s going to need third party support to really shine, and that’s just not there yet.
Get a Sticker
The dbrand Skin didn’t add much grip, but it does look nice.
Another piece of advice for anyone getting a MagSafe charger? Get something to protect your device. Some people noted that the aluminum parts of the MagSafe charger marked up the glass on the back of their device or their cases. So, along with a stand or base for your MagSafe charger, you should also get a skin or protective sticker. You can find some protective stickers on Etsy, or grab a skin from dbrand. I did the latter, and it works quite well.
So, yes, if you want to use MagSafe, be sure to get a protective sticker as well as a base or stand.
Or just grab literally any other wireless charger.
5G
The iPhone 12 mini has 5G.
Carriers and Apple wanted us to think 5G is a big deal. It’s not. It won’t be for a while. It’s a bragging point, a marketing gimmick. I live in a city with 5G and, due to not traveling much from COVID-19, I still haven’t used it once. Since the radios use so much power, it’s likely that, even when you’re in an area with 5G, your iPhone 12 will just continue using 4G because the improvement isn’t enough to warrant the battery drain. Don’t buy the iPhone 12 for 5G.
There, I mentioned it, and already spent too much time discussing it.
Odds & Ends
I always have this section for little things I noticed that don’t fit squarely into any section. This one could fit into design… or perhaps charging? Regardless, I almost didn’t include the section until I remembered my old wireless charging stand.
You see, my old wireless charging stand is simple. It holds your device up and has a single coil behind it. It’s really only made for portrait orientation, but it could work for landscape. Turns out, however, it really only supported devices down to about 5.7″ screens. My 5.4″ iPhone 12 mini needed a little booster seat to reach the coils. I had some stick-on foam, which I cut into the right shape using a sharp knife, and stuck in place. It was just the right height to bump it up to the coils. I could continue to use it for the office, but this prompted me to consider a MagSafe-based charging stand. I got one and love it. I’ll likely use the original charging stand if I ever go back to working in an office again. Maybe late 2021?
Regardless, remember that this is a smaller device than your accessories may be accustomed to. That could mean chargers, selfie sticks, car mounts, tripod mounts, carrying pouches and sleeves, or anything else. The iPhone 12 mini is the smallest flagship device on the market, and accessory makers aren’t completely designing for it yet. Expect more Android phones in this size category once they notice the popularity of Apple’s smaller iPhone. Following that will be more accessories that work with smaller devices.
Wrap-up: 9/10
Pros:
- Best iPhone design ever
- One-handed use!
- Extremely fast performance
- Fantastic display
- Great camera for stills and video, and better than previous models in low light
Cons:
- Lower battery life than I’ve become accustomed to
- Camera bump is more pronounced on smaller device
- Missing camera features from Pro model
- Telephoto lens would be more useful than ultra-wide, but Apple should include three lenses at this price point anyway
Overall, I consider this to be Apple’s best iPhone ever. And, yes, I do mean that the iPhone 12 mini is a better iPhone than the iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, and iPhone 12 Pro Max. Oh, you think that Pro Max camera is fantastic? Let’s see you take a good photo in one try with one hand. Yeah, make sure you have a case on that massive thing, because you’re going to drop it. Good thing it has in-lens and in-body OIS, right?
There’s a saying in photography: the best camera is the one you have with you. Well, the best camera is one that you can use whenever you want, even when your hands are full. The iPhone 12 mini has effortless one-handed use. You can actually fit it in a pocket! For many women, the iPhone 12 Pro Max would have to go into a purse or bag. That’s not convenient. That’s not accessible.
Which brings me to my final point. This is the best iPhone because it’s usable. However, if you were to take the features of the iPhone 12 Pro Max and put them in the body of the iPhone 12 mini, it would blow everything else away. There’s no reason Apple couldn’t do this. A larger camera bump? That’s fine! The extra memory will require a larger battery anyway. Just make the body thicker and improve battery life. Done!
I want an iPhone 12 Pro mini. I’d pay iPhone 12 Pro Max prices for it. But Apple just couldn’t think that maybe, perhaps, people would care about fitting their smartphones in pockets or hands. The fact that most of Apple’s leadership and engineers are men certainly contributes to this issue, as I mostly hear from women complaining about phones that don’t fit in pockets or hands. Still, many men hold the same stance: smaller phones are better. They just are. It’s also the fact that Apple’s trying to sell the same thing companies have always tried to sell us: bigger is better.
They’re wrong.
I’ll take a fun sports car like a Miata over a Hummer any day, and I think many people would too.
So, while the iPhone 12 mini is the best iPhone you can buy today, I wish Apple would give it just a little more horsepower. There’s certainly a market of people who want to fit their iPhone in their hand as well as their pocket who want all the performance and features Apple can dish out.
Oh, and I want my iPhone 12 Pro mini in red, Apple. Not rose gold, not deep green or blue, red. Bright, vibrant, red. Make it happen. “Professional” and “colorful” aren’t at odds.