iPhone 12 e iPhone 12 Pro are finally available on the shelves of shops and e-commerce. We have tested both of them to understand which of the two is preferable to choose (in case of indecision). After long reflections we have the answer and we will tell you everything in this review with a comparison between the two “median” models of the range.
Apparently the two new top of the range from Apple are twins but if we go to investigate, you will find that the differences between the two are there and can be felt… especially on the wallet.
iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro: different twins
iPhone 12 and 12 Pro are very similar. And so far it was really clear to everyone. Let's analyze the similarities right away.
They both show up with the flat edges like on the iPad Pro, which among other things allows them to remain perfectly balanced even "standing". Personally, I really appreciated this choice. In fact, Apple is standardizing the design of its products by proposing a slightly more squared variant but in my opinion very modern. The strong lines, however, do not perhaps make it less ergonomic. It is actually very comfortable to hold and remains firmly in your hands.
The materials change. iPhone 12 in fact relies onaluminum while the 12 Pros to stainless steel. This obviously affects the weight: iPhone 12 weighs 162 grams while the Pro reaches 187 grams.
The back cover, on the other hand, is made of glass on both models and boasts an excellent oleophobic treatment to avoid retaining fingerprints. We can't say the same for the Pro's frame, the steel one, which still captures a lot of fingerprints.
In addition, both models provide the IP68 certification, so if they accidentally fall into the water - up to 6 meters and for up to 30 minutes - they won't break.
On the front we find the display 6,1″ Super Retina XDR. It remains the same for both smartphones: it is always a custom OLED, always has a resolution of 2532 x 1170 pixels and is always protected by the new Ceramic Shield. Here, a small note on the Ceramic Shiel should be done. According to Apple it should be four times stronger than previous models but our iPhone 12 Pro already got slightly scratched during the first unboxing video. It has not fallen, mind you. Simply placed on the surface of the study table it brought back a couple of lines. I was expecting a little more in terms of endurance.
Ah, I forgot. There is a difference between the two displays: the brightness. iPhone 12 Pro averages 800 nits while the 12 stops at 625 nits. In real life, however, it is very little noticeable and in reality both have the same peak of 1200 nits.
The difference is barely noticeable to the naked eye.
The color rendering of the display, on the other hand, is truly perfect in every situation, the blacks are very deep and the contrast is very high. Using it is really a pleasure.
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Novità Apple iPhone 12 (64GB) - (PRODUCT) RED
- 6,1 "Super Retina XDR display
- Ceramic Shield, harder than any smartphone glass
- 5G for lightning-fast downloads and high-quality streaming
Macano i 120 Hz, which made users turn up their noses. It is true. Apple today is probably the only company a not have a top of the range with a refresh rate higher than 60 Hz. I actually don't think it's such a terrible choice. It is true that the difference is there and it shows (as you can appreciate in our video review, in which iPhone 12 is compared with Samsung Galaxy S10 Ultra with 12 Hz display).
A 90 Hz or 120 Hz display is in fact more fluid and offers a definitely better use and gaming experience but all this affects the autonomy. Apple therefore preferred to remain anchored to 60 Hz rather than lose hours of use. All in all I find it a sensible decision.
The battery of the iPhone 12 fares much better than the 12 Pro
At this point, let's spend a few words to talk about the battery. Apple is not used to declare the mAh of the battery but a little research is enough to find them. Both models have one 2775 mAh battery: apparently they might seem very few on paper but in reality the optimization is extreme.
With iPhone 12 I covered 2 full days of use with over 6 hours of access screen. But without using 5G because the area I live in is not covered. In fact, I remind you that the entire range of iPhone 12 supports the new standard so you are ready for the future.
With iPhone 12 Pro I got similar results to 12, so always two days of use and about 6 hours. Wanting to look at the nit, I would say that the 12 Pro resisted slightly less than the 12 but we are not talking about significant differences.
Both devices support fast charging but remember that the power supply is not included in the package. Then there is the support for 7,5 W Qi wireless charging which becomes 15 W using the MagSafe, which you must, however buy separately by spending 45 euros.
Is it worth it? Honestly, it didn't quite convince me. In the sense that it is necessary to hit the right spot and if you are in bed it is not really easy. If you then want to detach it, you have to keep the MagSafe still and unhook the smartphone. Perhaps I would have preferred a slightly more stable base to facilitate the attachment / detachment operations and some magnetic guides that automatically put it in position.
Ah, I absolutely did not miss the charger. I didn't use the cable in the box, that's true, but that's because I never needed it. I am full of cables at home of all kinds, but most of all I use a USB hub with 5 slots that I have on my work desk. In extremis I used the Macbook Air charger.
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Apple MagSafe Power Adapter
- Compatibili with iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max
- Faster wireless charging with magnetic alignment
- 100% rare earths recycled into magnets
Outstanding performance, but we weren't expecting anything different
We come now to the performance. iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro they use the new processor Apple A14 Bionic with 16-core Neural Engine while RAM and internal memory are different. iPhone 12 has 4 GB of RAM and is available in 64/128/256 GB while il Pro 12 PRO it has 6 GB of RAM and is available in 128, 256 and 512 GB of memory versions. We remind you that the SIM tray for both models does not have an SD card slot, this means that the memory is not expandable.
In everyday life you will not notice any differences. Both smartphones are a real splinter, they do not heat up and show no hesitation. You can do anything with it, in total serenity. We played Genshin Impact which is a fairly demanding title for the CPU and GPU, we surfed the net, made calls and video calls, managed mail and much more. No problem. I wasn't expecting anything different.
The only time when iPhone 12 Pro heats up a lot is when using the LIDAR, but we will talk about this later.
If everything works fine and they deliver similar performance, why does one have more GB of RAM? iPhone 12 Pro actually has a feature that is absent on the regular 12. I'm talking about the Lidar scanner.
The difference between the two is called Lidar
Il Lidar is a scanner that measures the time taken by a laser pulse to be reflected by a surface: in other words it is able to determine the distance to an object. However, Lidar is a demanding technology because it records and uses a lot of data. And here is the need for additional RAM.
But what are the concrete applications of this technology? Well, you find many apps that can use it to scan environments, objects and even people and then reconstruct everything in 3D. Not only that, it is used for all applications that exploit the augmented reality such as Ikea Place.
Given its ability to "read" the distance, it obviously represents a valid help also for the photographic sector, which brings us to our comparison between the two models.
The photographic sector compared
Let's start with this view of Lake LEcco.
As we know the main cameras of the new iPhone 12 and 12 Pro are the same and in fact I challenge you to find differences in these two photos. Very good yield in the shadow area where you can also read the details in the lower left corner
Now it's up to Super Mario to explain the differences between optical and digital zoome.
iPhone 12 and 12 Pro from the photographic point of view differ in fact for the telephoto optics. On the Pro we have an optical 2x which is missing on the normal 12. So let's see if using the digital zoom of the 12 we can get a photo comparable to that with the 2x optical of the Pro. Looking at them from the smartphone or in any case in small dimensions, the differences almost do not seem to exist. But if we zoom in we can see how on the photo of the 12 the engraving that we find on the Pro is missing. The image of the 12 is more mixed, but from a chromatic point of view the rendering is identical. In short, you must have a sharp eye to be able to notice the differences. To be taken into consideration, when you have to choose which of the two to buy.
Now let's talk about the 12 Pro's ultra-wide-angle sensor (which is identical to that of the iPhone 12).
We begin to see a first comparison with the 11 Pro Max. And we do it in one of the fields on which Apple says it has worked a lot: the wide angle. The 11 Pro Max had quite noticeable barrel distortion problems - and we can see them in my beautiful picture, look at the lines on the wall, they look like parabolics! The same photo taken with the iPhone 12, in addition to a more natural rendering, no longer presents this problem. The new optical structure composed of 7 elements evidently also aimed at greater precision in this sense, even if certainly the major correction intervention takes place digitally.
But we didn't stop there! Apple said it has worked hard on the night photography and so here we are with some shots in the dark still made with the iPhone 11 Pro Max and with the new 12 and 12 Pro models.
Let's take this first photograph for example. At first glance they look really identical, but looking for the needle in the haystack, we can see some very slight chromatic variations between the three photographs and an extra bit of sharpness with those taken with the new iPhone 12.
When stated by Apple on the decidedly improved performance of the new iPhones in night shots, we begin to see it in this image. Once again at first glance the three results seem identical, but in reality only the two made with the iPhone 12 and 12 Pro are. The one with the "old" iPhone 11 Pro Max does not offer the same management of artificial light on the tower that it is not natural as in the other two shots. A colder dominant can also be seen on the pavement in the foreground. The improved low-light capability of the new iPhones, however, in situations like this could in part be counterproductive by creating almost excessive glare around light sources. But otherwise the overall management is much more natural.
To better understand how much night mode has been improved, I'll show you another example.
I photographed this Land Rover Defender with iPhone 12 in three different ways that we are testing for a test drive. I was in complete darkness and only in the background could some light source be glimpsed. These three images are taken in order: without night mode, with active mode and 3 seconds of exposure and the last one always in night mode but with a shutter speed of 5 seconds.
Obviously there is some noise, there is no escaping, but what is impressive is the amount of light that the sensor is able to store and above all the efficiency of the optical image stabilizer that shows us everything nice and sharp!
Let's now move on to the front camera and its night mode. I don't know why one would ever want to take selfies in complete darkness, but so be it. If with iPhone 11 Pro Max the result leaves a lot to be desired, even with 12 and 12 Pro we are not in front of a masterpiece, but surely being able to take advantage of the night mode even with the front camera is a great advantage. Let's say that I really wanted to undermine the three smartphones with this test.
Finally, we come to the videos that are really great on both devices. I remind you that we now have HDR with Dolby Vision support. Of course to play them correctly you will need a screen that supports Dolby Vision but that does not mean that on all other displays you will see horrifying things. On HLG standard screens they will use this playback format while on those that have nothing you will see the SDR version therefore without HDR.
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New Apple iPhone 12 Pro (128GB) - Pacific Blue
- 6,1 "Super Retina XDR display
- Ceramic Shield, harder than any smartphone glass
- 5G for lightning-fast downloads and high-quality streaming
iPhone 12 vs iPhone 12 Pro: which one to choose?
The time has come to draw the necessary conclusions and answer the original question: compro iPhone 12 o iPhone 12 Pro?
Personally I would opt without a shadow of a doubt for the classic iPhone 12 because basically it offers you everything you find on the Pro: same display, same performance, same autonomy, same photo and video quality. And while you're at it, you keep it in your pocket well saved 250 euros which nowadays never hurt.
What changes? In summary on the Pro you have Zoom and Lidar in addition to the steel frame and I understand that it may seem tempting but it is also true that the Pro Max will soon arrive and will offer you this and a little more.
It is a very complicated choice and we will obviously see how the Pro Max performs but, as it stands, I think the iPhone 12 is the wisest choice. If, on the other hand, you want the top on the camera front, I would suggest you wait for iPhone 12 Pro Max which will be bigger and more expensive.
It is a difficult situation. I therefore invite you to think carefully before deciding which one to buy.
Unfortunately, Apple's strategy has made the choice even more difficult. We used to have an iPhone and several cuts. It was easy. Today we have several models that cover different price ranges and which sometimes really differ in small things. This allowed us to have a lot more choice and variety but also led to some confusion.
iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro prices
Before concluding, here is a quick summary on the prices of the two "median" Apple smartphones:
- iPhone 12 starts at 939 euros for the 64gb to get to 1019 euros for the 256.
- iPhone 12 Pro instead starts at 1189 euros for the 128gb to get to 1539 euros for the 512GB.
We just have to understand what the iPhone 12 Mini and iPhone 12 Pro Max will be like.
Tagsiphone 12 iphone 12 pro review IPhone 12 vs iPhone 12 PRO review: which one to buy?
