Over the weekend, a friend held my phone for a moment. She immediately remarked at how light it was. I assumed that’s a good thing. No one wants a heavy phone.
Or maybe I’m wrong. It seems like many people want a heavy phone. And one that’s hard to hold in one hand. Also a phone that’s impossible to use with one hand. Pockets? Nah, we’d rather just hold a giant phone in a bag, or a hand, all the time! Finally, they really want to buy rings and Pop Sockets for the back, blocking wireless charging, or at least Phone Loops, to make up for the fact that their phone is too large to actually hold. Please, smartphone manufacturers, make only one type of phone: the most inconvenient size imaginable!
The iPhone 12 mini has none of those problems. It fits in a hand. It’s easy to use. The phone’s screen is still a surprisingly large 5.4 inches across, putting it firmly in “phablet” territory from just a few years ago. The screen is OLED, it’s bright, beautiful, and great for movies, reading content, or just, you know, using. Since it’s 5.4 inches across, you can actually reach the top of the phone and use it one handed.
Don’t even get me started on pocketability. We’re at the point where something like the iPhone 12 Pro Max barely fits in men’s jeans. The “medium” sized iPhone barely fits in women’s back pockets anymore.
When I first reviewed the iPhone 12 mini, I called it the best iPhone Apple has ever made. A little over 7 months of use later, I’d like to amend that statement.
The iPhone 12 mini is the best smartphone anyone has ever made. It’s also the only phone you should buy. Unfortunately, it’s still not selling well.
So here’s another post convincing you to take another look at the iPhone 12 mini.
In This Article:
Enough About the Battery Life!
Look at this. Over 8 hours of screen on time in an iPhone. That’s incredible for any smartphone! And I didn’t even use 100%. Not once in the past 10 days.
Every reviewer has been like, “I love everything about the iPhone 12 mini, but what a shame about that battery life.”
What?
Look at that screenshot above. It’s of my last 10 days of battery usage on my iPhone 12 mini. I’ve had an active week with phone calls, travel, and more (damn, it feels good to be vaccinated). Still, I never used 100% of my battery life. On one day, I used about 90% of my battery life. This was with a whopping eight hours of screen on time and nearly one hour with the screen off. It could have lasted a bit longer. That’s 9 overall hours of heavy use, and about 90% battery.
If you’re staring at your phone for 8 hours without charging it, that’s likely a personal choice. With the prevalence of chargers and battery packs, how do you actually go that long without power? I had a battery pack on me and decided not to use it to prove a point. I haven’t needed it yet.
The iPhone 12 mini can do 15 hours of video playback. 15 hours without charging. That’s insane. Sure, the iPhone 12 can do 17 hours… but when do you need that? Do you not sleep? Eat? Streaming playback for the iPhone 12 mini is 10 hours. The iPhone 12? 11. One hour. That’s the difference. Just one hour.
Is a single hour of battery life enough to use something that requires accessories just to hold with one hand and something that doesn’t fit in a pocket?
Still Worried? Get a Battery Pack!
Sure, it’s large, but you’ll rarely need it anyway.
Seriously? You’re still worried about battery life? Okay. Hey, maybe you’re sometimes away from a charger for 10 hours and staring at your phone for the entirety of those 10 hours. Fine. In those rare scenarios that you need a bit more battery life, just carry a battery pack. You can buy a battery pack and an iPhone 12 mini for less than the cost of an iPhone 12, and it’ll last much longer than an iPhone 12.
Furthermore, you get to enjoy your handheld iPhone 12 mini every time you use it. You only need that super long battery life maybe once in a blue moon? In that rare scenario, you can certainly stand to put a small battery pack in your bag, right? Personally, I grabbed Hyper’s MagSafe compatable battery pack, for an all-in-one solution. It’s still easier to use your iPhone 12 mini with a battery pack on the back than a phone that’s too wide to reach across!
The times you need additional battery life are so rare, you won’t mind having a bit of extra juice in a laptop bag, purse, or just a big pocket when you need it. To be honest, I’ve brought my battery pack with me for longer times away from home, but I haven’t needed to use it once.
Does the iPhone 12 mini have less battery life than the iPhone 12?
Yes.
Is it enough to matter?
No.
And don’t get me started on using a tablet. The iPhone 12 Pro Max? That’s a tablet. It’s a joke. Great battery life? Sure! It’s made even better by the fact that you won’t even want to pick the thing up to use it, allowing it to last on standby forever!
All the Power, for Less!
Speaking of the iPhone 12 Pro Max, perhaps you want to grab it for the additional processing power. That would be a poor choice. The iPhone 12 mini and the iPhone 12 Pro Max have the same processors. The exact same processors. The Pro models of the iPhone 12 have a bit more RAM for the camera, enabling the ProRAW feature (a raw photo with Apple’s automatic adjustments applied), but otherwise, the iPhone 12 mini and the iPhone 12 Pro Max have the same memory for apps and games, and the same processor.
Same power.
iPhone 12 mini: $699
iPhone 12 Pro Max: $1,099
Easy choice.
Fits Where It Belongs
Sometimes, the smaller versions are just better.
Of course the iPhone 12 mini fits in your hand better, making it more useful for photography and quick shots. Sure, my mirrorless camera is a better camera than my iPhone 12 mini, but the iPhone fits in my pocket. It can travel with me everywhere. It’s a portable computer that’s actually portable.
The iPhone 12 mini even fits in some of my front pockets. The front ones! Those tiny pockets on women’s jeans that are basically unusable? Well, now they’re usable. The iPhone 12 Pro Max likely won’t even fit in the back pockets of most women’s jeans, so, ladies, if you are looking at the Pro Max, be sure to get a nice wristlet that can fit a small tablet.
Your iPhone belongs in your hand, on your person, easy to reach for, use, and put away.
No Pop, No Loop, No Ring
The phone loop is the best thing for a large phone sufferer, but I’m glad I don’t need one anymore (photo of one here on an iPhone 11).
I’ve been using a Phone Loop on my iPhone since the iPhone X. It was just too big to hold in one hand without a strap or something on the back of the phone to support it. Plus, unlike phone rings or Pop Sockets, the Phone Loop works with wireless charging.
It’s also unnecessary on the iPhone 12 mini.
No additional accessories required. You can just hold and use this with one hand. That’s hold… AND use, all with one hand. Plus you don’t have to worry about anything blocking MagSafe or wireless charging. Imagine being able to use a phone comfortable out of the box. You don’t, if that phone is an iPhone 12 mini.
Surprisingly Large Screen (And Apple’s Sharpest!)
5.4 inches was considered a phablet in 2017. What changed? Did your eyes get bigger? Nope! Nothing changed. This is still a fantastically large screen, perfect for movie watching with its cinema aspect ratio. A 5.4 inch screen like that of the phablets of just a few years ago, but with small bezels, making the phone itself something hand-sized. You can reach every part of the screen, though Apple still has Reachability enabled on the phone, for people who feel like the iPhone 12 mini is still too big.
And, yes, people do think the iPhone 12 mini is still a bit too big. Don’t let the name fool you. The iPhone 12 mini is a normal, sane size for an iPhone. If anything, there should be a size smaller. Though, I’ll admit, I’d likely go for this size.
The cheapest iPhone has the sharpest display. Yes, for real. The iPhone 12 mini has a 476 pixels per inch display (ppi). A higher number means a sharper image. The iPhone 12 is 460ppi. The iPhone 12 Pro Max, Apple’s most expensive phone? 458ppi.
Well what about the contrast ratio? Color sharpness, darks and lights? That’s 2,000,000:1 on the iPhone 12 mini, the exact same as the iPhone 12 Pro Max. They even all have the same 1,200 nits max brightness with HDR content!
The iPhone 12 mini has the best display for sharpness and quality on top of the best one to hold and use. And it’s still 5.4 inches.
It’s Safer to Drop
Well, theoretically, anyway, though cnet did some testing, showing the same. Because there’s a smaller area of glass and the weight is lower, the iPhone 12 mini hits the ground with less force and there’s less glass to absorb that force over a large, unsupported area. If you drop the iPhone 12 mini and an iPhone 12 from the same height and they land in the same way, the iPhone 12 mini is probably more likely to survive. This isn’t just the perfect everyday carry (EDC) smartphone because of its size, but also because it’s likely more durable.
You didn’t wonder why you broke your iPhone less frequently when you had an iPhone 4 or 5? Really? We used to go case-free all the time because we didn’t need it. The iPhone 12 mini brings back that option.
Still more risky than using a case, of course. But now it’s not a stupid option to go case-free.
… And You’ll Drop it WAY Less
Of course, you’ll drop a phone less often if it fits in your hand better. You can get a far better grip on the iPhone 12 mini than you can any of Apple’s other phones. The fact that the sides are squared off also means it’s easier to grip than previous iPhones. Furthermore, it’s far lighter, so expect less finger fatigue. It also will stick to a MagSafe mount more securely, so it will work with a MagSafe mount in your car, on your desk, or on a tripod far better than any of the larger iPhones.
Want to know something else that’s cool? With the Silicone MagSafe case from Apple, I can stick my iPhone 12 mini on my fridge. Seriously! The magnets are more than strong enough to hold it on my fridge. Great for keeping a recipe or video up and in view when I’m in the kitchen.
You can simply use the iPhone 12 mini in ways you never thought possible with an iPhone before, like without a case or from your fridge.
A Design Sabotaged
Apple released the iPhone SE in 2016. People loved it. An iPhone 5 with the power of an iPhone 6s? Fantastic! Then Apple held off on updating it again until 2020. Four years of waiting. Small iPhone fans were very tired of waiting. The iPhone SE 2 had flagship iPhone 11 power in an iPhone 8 body. Many expected it to be the smallest iPhones were ever going to get, and just pulled the trigger and bought the 2020 iPhone SE.
And then Apple just dropped the iPhone 12 mini… on its face.
Seriously, why did Apple sabotage the sales of the iPhone 12 mini by releasing a smaller iPhone before it? They cleared out the market of people anxiously waiting for a small iPhone, then just released an “oh, and this one too, we guess” iPhone 12 mini. The iPhone 12 mini is a far better iPhone than the iPhone SE. It has a larger screen, smaller form factor, and better cameras. But the iPhone SE was a good pandemic phone, as it had Touch ID, which worked with face masks.
Many people who would have purchased the iPhone 12 mini instead bought an iPhone SE.
The iPhone 11 is ridiculous next to the appropriately-sized iPhone 12 mini
But Apple wasn’t done sabotaging the iPhone 12 mini. It’s not “mini.” The “mini” moniker makes it sound, well mini. Super small. Micro. Unusable. Instead, it’s exactly the size your hand expects a phone to be. It has the greatest utility out of any iPhone ever created. If anything, it should be just called the iPhone 12. Rename the lineup the iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Plus, iPhone 12 Pro, and iPhone 12 Pro Max. Easy. Now they all have cool names. That alone would lead to far more sales.
I can’t believe I ever thought the giant 6.1-inch iPhone 11 was acceptable!
Since these released when the Apple Stores were closed for the pandemic, you had no way to go out and test the sizes. You couldn’t hold it in your hand and remark about how perfect it feels. Instead, you just had to go off of it’s “mini” name, which just screams “too small.” Apple couldn’t have given it a worse chance if they tried. They should have made up for this with a large advertising push showing just how hand-friendly the iPhone 12 mini is. They didn’t.
Finally, there’s the fact that the best cameras are only on the massive iPhone 12 Pro Max. Apple could have put them on a mini iPhone 12 Pro. Easily. If given the choice between the same camera in a device that’s impossible to hold and use one-handed, and a device that fits in a pocket, more people would have chosen the smaller device. Many people only chose the iPhone 12 Pro Max for the cameras, and actually hate how large it is, but they wanted that enlarged sensor with sensor shift optical image stabilization. A mini iPhone with that camera would have been the perfect portable camera.
But Apple didn’t give us that perfect option.
I’m Not the Only One
Hey, don’t want to take my advice? Well, my two other friends who got an iPhone 12 mini love it and never want to go back to a giant >5.5-inch phone again. But don’t just take our word for it. Tech reviewers seemingly warmed up to the iPhone 12 mini as well. Many have made it their “daily driver” because it’s just easier to use every day. Many tech reviewers who tried all of the new iPhones landed with an iPhone mini, even serious tech nerds chose the mini over the Pro because it’s just so much better for everyday use.
Don’t believe me? Here you go:
“I call [the iPhone 12 mini] my favorite iPhone ever made, and it’s not even close.” – Mark Spurrell
https://twitter.com/SnazzyQ/status/1342316368721428483?s=20
Breaking the Cycle
Why, yes, that is an iPhone fitting in my front pocket. Thanks, iPhone 12 mini!
What I really want is a smartphone that sort of rolls out or folds out, that fits in something even smaller than the iPhone 12 mini. That might be my “perfect” device. But the iPhone 12 mini is the closest I’ve ever seen a phone get to the perfect form factor. It fits in the hand beautifully, you can use it with one hand, it’s pocket, bag, and MagSafe-friendly, and it has the power and battery life to do everything I want, all day long.
I buy a new iPhone ever year. There has been a rumor that there will be an iPhone 13 mini, but there won’t be an iPhone 14 mini. If that’s the case, the iPhone 13 mini may be my last iPhone for a long time. I know I’m not the only iPhone 12 mini owner who feels the same.
The iPhone 12 mini is Apple’s most affordable flagship device. It has the same processor as the iPhone 12 Pro Max, and the exact same wide and ultrawide angle cameras as the larger iPhone 12, and the same lenses and sensors as the iPhone 12 Pro.
The best smartphone is the smartphone you actually want to use, and the iPhone 12 mini nails it.