Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “iPhone 12: Still Good?”.
So when the iphone 12 line first came out, at least to me, it felt, like apple, was kind of giving fans what they want. It was a fan service, but now that the whole iphone 12 line has been out for crazily six months now kind of wanted to revisit it re-look at the iphone 12 see if it fulfilled the promise that apple said it was going to do how it’s worked For me, in my life or at this point, is it better off just waiting for the iphone 13.? So we’re going to get to the video? But i do want to give a shout out to the sponsor esr and they’re: pretty awesome wireless magnetic car charger for the iphone 12.. There are four things in the world, especially in tech that are certain. You got death and taxes and the other two is every year. Apple will say: their newest flagship is the fastest. It’S ever been and they’ve got the best camera. Yet it’s it’s true, i guess, and the camera system on the iphone 12, regardless of which iphone 12 model you’re going for it’s better than previous years.
Technically for the regular iphone 12. It’S got that slightly wider aperture and a faster processor inside and on paper. All recipes for improvements in application, though it does not seem to be a huge obvious leap, at least that i was expecting. My wife, for example, uses an iphone 11.
oftentimes taking pictures of the same things, usually kids in the backyard. I look at both photos side by side. I am hard pressed to really see any difference whatsoever between those two phones. So, while technically the iphone 12 can take better photos, it can do a lot more. The reality. The difference is very subtle, especially from last year’s iphone, 11.
and now, if anything, looking at pictures for six months, the camera stuff was more like an s upgrade um things that were better, though portrait mode and night mode. I think those were improved. The ultra wide angles also were noticeably sharper, but again the main shooter does not appear much different at all. So one feature that i was excited about at the announcement was pro raw right, something that only the two pro phones can do. I was excited to try.
It to test it, i had it in my head that i was gon na start editing pictures and it was gon na, be amazing, uh and since i took the first like five pictures, when pro rock came out, i have used it exactly zero times and again It might just be me, being lazy um, but if that’s a reason that you were excited to get the pro really ask yourself if you’re going to use it. In my case it just hasn’t really been anything. I’M utilizing at all.
What has made me eternally glad that i generally have a pro device with me. Is that telephoto lens – and i wish that – was something that all phones had um but right now, both pro models have it and alone. I think it’s worth the extra cost.
For me, the pro max has a slightly larger sensor and slightly farther zoom capabilities, and i do mean, like 0.5 slightly. I found myself using it a lot, though, in video and sort of the combination of having you know the slightly extra zoom on telephoto the ability to have that’s her censorship, tech, i’ve gravitated towards the pro-max. But it is a big fat boy of a phone and it’s really big in the hand, so i wish that there was sort of that technology filtered its way down to the smaller phones. So after six months, looking at photos, all these phones have taken the difference between photos taken from each iphone 12 from the mini to the pro max is almost nothing, no matter which one you pick up. Uh you’re gon na be hard-pressed to take a bad photo and, while again it’s not a huge jump from previous years, let’s not take away that the photos are still really good.
I think they’re still some of the best that you can get from a smartphone camera and when it comes to video side, the iphone is still the best in the world. So this is a phone that, like we’ve, shot entire videos with and we’ve interlaced footage from. The 12 pro max with our studio, camera and people can’t tell the difference.
Apple has given people in the creative space. I think the opportunity to use a phone as a dedicated camera, and it is really really good. I mean there’s nothing else. I can say about it: i love having the flexibility. It’S been another reason that i’m glad i opted for the pro max i use zoom on video.
I use it all the time it’s been amazing to have so one thing that was new on the video side. At the 12 was dolby vision and you can we can back up in time a little bit when the iphone 12s came out. There were a bunch of fires going on here in southern california, and i was forced to evacuate with my brand new phone and i was taking a lot of video of what the fires looked like. So i could document it and i didn’t realize that i had the dolby vision turned on.
I was trying to share these videos on social media platforms. They look like just blown out messes, and so i had to turn that feature off. That’S been fixed, which is really nice, and that was more of an issue of the sharing platforms and the phone itself, but it’s nice that you can take advantage of that sort of better video. If you want to you, can share it, something that wasn’t there.
At least when the phone launched as much as i love sensor shift and having the better zoom there, i still look at the photos my wife’s taking i’m like those still look really good and if i wasn’t in this industry, i didn’t do this as a job. Um, i would probably still be very okay with photos that were taken from an iphone 11. if you’ve held out this long with an iphone 11 or anything older.
That’S still working for you at this point we’re like six seven months away from the iphone 13 you’re. Probably better off just waiting and see what comes next. So after six months, i have not once regretted getting the larger screen and the larger phone. It’S been nice and i tend it to gravitate towards the larger phone and i’ve said it in a lot of videos.
I’M going to die on this hill, the low refresh rate is becoming more and more apparent and the more phones i use, maybe because i see a lot of devices. But i look at this phone that is theoretically the one of the pinnacles of modern technology and there’s such a glaring feature, that’s missing from it and every time i pick up this phone. I still i feel like it’s missing that feature. It’S always in my mind. I might be in the minority here for folks that have always had iphones and they haven’t sort of seen a high refresh rate.
Then you’re not going to know what you’re missing. But if you’re coming from android you’re coming from another phone that has a 90 or 120 hertz, it is very apparent that apple is behind and what i think is a really important feature of the phone. So if you drive a car – and you have any of the iphone 12s chances are you’ve got some sort of mount in your car to be able to see your screen without using maps or just to make phone calls uh. The folks at esr have your back. You’Ve never heard of them they’re one of the top ranked sellers on amazon and they have their halo lock magnetic wireless card charger. It’S actually one of the first in the world for the iphone 12. uh. So, first and most importantly, it’s going to keep your iphone.
Whatever 12 you’ve got really held securely, there are 18 magnets built in and they’re using non-slip silicon pads around the charger, so obviously really easy to charge. Just clips on and sticks there uh it uses qi charging and supports 7.5 watt wireless charging, which is relatively fast, especially for a car. It can also do fast charging if you want, requires a car charging, adapter or usb a port. That’S going to support uh the 18 watt qc fast charging, so it’s fully compatible with any of the iphone 12s, as well as the esr halo, lock and apple’s official magsafe cases stay, secure, anything you’re doing in the car, even like bumpy roads or swords.
You have to jam on the brakes, which is awesome, and it’s also 35, so it’s pretty affordable, especially you compare it to apple’s first part accessories if you want to check it out or pick it up for yourself link to it down below so after six months. I am still very disappointed. The screen doesn’t have that high refresh rate, it is still a very good screen. Anything that i watch on.
It always does look awesome. One area, though that has not disappointed me, is the design and obviously it’s a harkening back to the iphone 4 or iphone 5 design. I love that i’ve really liked the squared edges and maybe it’s because it’s new and different again, but i still like picking this phone up. I like the way it feels i know it makes phones feel bigger because of the squared edges um, but i enjoy it.
I like it as much as i did six months ago as i do right now, and it’s nice. I think this year, that apple has given a lot of size choice. I mean, with both the regular pro and the 12 being 6.1 inches. You’Ve got that option.
I think for a lot of people that 6.1 inch size is probably more ideal and you got the baby phone at 5.4 inches which to me seems like a zoolander comically small phone. I just i can’t use it. It is too small, but you’ve got choice. I don’t know if it’s because of the design but like when the day winds down. I just want to chill on a couch – and maybe you know, watch some video on my phone or go through social media, i’m still grabbing for the iphone 12 more than i’ve grabbed really any other iphone over the past few years. It might be due to the design – maybe it’s the newness, but it hasn’t worn off.
I think it’s because of that square design. It still just feels really good and feels premium in the hand and it kind of does whatever i need it to do. I’M gon na throw a curve ball at you here. This phone is still fast it’s as fast. Now, as it was six months ago, apps maybe have gotten more intensive, taking advantage of the processor here, it’s still incredibly fast. I think the only relevant thing nowadays to performance sections and reviews revisits is how good the battery performs with all of that power, so oddly apple actually decreased the milliamp hours of the phones that were around last year.
Obviously the mini didn’t exist and then added 5g on top of that which is not like a recipe for amazing battery life uh. But surprisingly, battery life has actually been pretty consistent with last gen’s 4g. Only phones which i maybe it’s, the efficiency of the a14 or just ios itself, but i’ve been pleasantly surprised to not see a gigantic hit in battery when i’m using 5g. The mini, though, is a totally different story and perhaps in a pandemic role than everybody’s working from home, when you can put the mini on a charger battery life matters a lot less.
But when i have been using the mini and i go out and about uh that thing dies fast and certainly a mag safe battery would be really nice to have that ever comes out, but do not expect to get through a day plus with your mini. No matter what you do, that thing is going to need a charger at some point or, however long you can put it on it. So, like i said, the battery life has been pretty consistent after six months. One area that was surprising to me the past, like i’ve gotten into tick-tock.
I’Ve got one now i’m trying to learn the platform, i’m on it more and i’m sure it’s a tick-tock inefficiencies and it’s a third-party issue, not an iphone issue uh, but the more i’ve used tick-tock, the worse. My battery life has become that used to be something that was reserved for, like snapchat, was a notorious battery destroyer. So if you are on tick tock, quite a bit, you might find battery life to be atypical to what other people who aren’t uh using it are gon na get. So it’s been mostly good a little bit of bad and some like neutral stuff when it comes to the iphone 12 line.
I haven’t been disappointed and i think what i expected the phone to do and live up to expectation wise. It’S mostly done that, and i can’t be too upset about high refresh rate, because i knew it didn’t have that when i bought the phone so overall i love the design. I’Ve been surprised with battery life, the screen has been good enough. Performance has been amazing, and the camera has done everything that i’ve asked it to do, even if we are kind of hitting that ceiling on what smartphone cameras are capable of problems.
I had at the beginning, like the dolby vision, stuff, not being able to be shared. Have all been fixed and worked out and now six months later got a phone that is absolutely humming along. But if you are debating upgrading now and you’ve got a phone, that’s working at this point. You might as well wait the six months and see what comes next or get discounts on the iphone 12 line now, but if you are debating jumping in or maybe you want to make sure that the purchase you made a few months ago, your iphone 12 is Still worth it, i think you’re gon na get, or you already have a great phone. That is quite obviously, and not surprisingly, the best phone apple’s ever made.
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