Hey guys Adam Lobo here from Adam Lobo TV. So, here is the thing, in my iPhone 12 Mini review, I’ve mentioned how great the phone was and it was THE iPhone 12 series phone that you should get since it had all the great features with a great price, but as the title suggests, after using the iPhone 12, I was wrong… AGAIN, here is why.
Unboxing
The unboxing process was similar to the iPhone 12 Mini, where it comes with a slightly bigger white box with the visuals of the phone in front. Then at the back, there is the colour variant and storage specs over there.
Opening the box, you will immediately find the phone inside. Underneath that, looking below there is the USB-C to Lightning Cable. Then above, there is the Sim Ejector Pin, the user guide, and a small-sized Apple Sticker.
Specs
As for the phone’s specs, the iPhone 12 comes with:
- Apple’s A14 Bionic 5nm Chipset
- Apple 4-Core GPU
- 4 gigs of RAM
- option of 64, 128, and 256 gigs of storage
- iOS version 14.1, but the current update is version 14.4.1
Build Quality
Looking at the design and build, interestingly enough, the first time I held the phone, it immediately felt like a device that I was familiarized with, where the overall weight to size ratio was just perfect.
The matte finish on the sides made it even classier and very grippy at the same time and since the phone had a flat screen with a boxed shaped design, it really felt like I had the “guts” to rock the phone without a phone case, especially with the ceramic shield which Apple claims it has 4 times better drop protection, which you all know I don’t like doing drop test and murdering tech items but based on videos that I have seen, that is very much true.
You will find the camera module and the front screen notch the same for both the Mini and the iPhone 12 as well.
And in terms of colour choices, the one which I am reviewing is in Blue, and it is also available in White, Black, Green and Product Red.
Display
As for the phone’s screen, it has a 6.1-inch Super Retina XDR OLED display with a resolution of 1170 x 2532 pixels with HDR 10 and a very high peak brightness of 1200 nits, making the phone perfect to view even under a really bright and harsh daylight.
Using the phone daily, just felt great due to its screen quality and colour accurate screen when it comes to daily tasks like social media browsing and watching videos as well.
And consistent throughout all the iPhone 12 series is the Dolby Vision support, where you can actually see Dolby Vision Logo which is something that I have never seen on any Android phone that I have reviewed in this channel, where usually there is only an HDR logo instead of Dolby Vision.
As mentioned in my iPhone Mini review that everyone, including me, was expecting a high refresh rate but it didn’t come for any of the iPhone 12 series. However, one thing’s for sure, even with the 60-hertz refresh rate, because of the higher touch sampling rate of 120 hertz, it did make the screen feel very responsive indeed compared to any other 60-hertz display on any other phone with a way lesser touch sampling rate.
Yes, it would be nicer with the higher 120-hertz refresh rate like how Apple did with the iPad Pro models but rumour has it that it will be coming during the next iteration of the iPhone so let’s hope for that!
Cameras
Looking at the camera’s specs, it has the same exact cameras as the iPhone 12 Mini, which is:
- a 12-megapixel f 1.6 aperture 26mm wide lens, and the other is
- a 12-megapixel f 2.4 13mm ultrawide angle lens
As for the front camera, it has:
- a 12-megapixel f 2.2 23mm wide lens
Now since I have done an extensive camera review on the iPhone 12 Mini, I will leave a card link above and down below as well for you guys to check out.
But yes, you will be getting great photos on the phone, with nice dynamic range, even during a backlight situation whether it’s for the ultrawide angle lens or the main lens.
Portrait Mode on the phone is still top-notch both for the rear and the front camera with amazing subject to background blur.
With the latest software update, I noticed that the scene detection during low light mode and during at night has also improved significantly as well.
And having used the iPhone 12 for two weeks, while it may not have some crazy megapixel count or extreme zoom capabilities, Apple has always gone with the route of giving you simplicity within their cameras, whether you are taking photos, regular videos to HDR videos with amazing image stabilization.
It is a kind of smartphone where you can just point and shoot without worrying about tweaking later on.
Sound Quality
As for the phone’s sound quality, all the iPhone 12 series has stereo speakers.
The overall loudness was heavily upgraded from the iPhone 12 Mini at a massive 95.3 dB compared to 86 dB on the iPhone 12 Mini with better vocal clarity, mids and especially on the lower end.
(Check out my video review on YouTube for sound test!)
Navigation
In terms of the software, it is upgradable to the latest it comes with the latest iOS 14.4, where again I have gone through the new software features on my iPhone Mini review and while there are tons of great improvements with the new iOS 14 like the apps drawers and all, allow me to go through what I really liked and what I wish would have been better.
First, I really appreciated the widgets, especially the scrollable stack feature where we are slowly getting more widgets readily available which were nice.
While there is no swipe from the middle of the screen to go to the notifications panel for easier navigation of that, I really loved the Back Tap feature where it is available through the Accessibility Settings, that I have set it to the Notification Centre for Double Tap and Triple Tap to Control Centre.
From an app usage perspective, well you know what they say about apps are more optimized on an iPhone compared to Android, well that is actually TRUE, where there are more tiny little features that the iPhone has. For example in the YouTube studio apps, I can play the videos directly through there compared to the Android app.
Navigating through the menu system on Whatsapp also is way much better especially managing the media files over there.
And if you follow me on Instagram, I tend to always share what I am listening to on Tidal through Instagram Stories and there was NEVER a point where it hung or failed to post where sometimes on an android phone, especially a non-flagship, it tends to open up the camera app or just freezes over there as well.
Another cool thing that I have noticed is that when paired to my car, compared to ANY android device, when I am listening to Tidal I see the cover of the album on my iDrive Screen automatically and if I am playing YouTube videos, the thumbnails will be over there as well and this is without using Apple’s CarPlay or even using the app on the iDrive UI, just through Bluetooth which was really cool indeed.
And going back to “Basics” there are certain parts within my house where if I don’t use WIFI, the reception can be pretty bad, where I did see some improvement in terms of the overall reception, using the same Sim card, which was very interesting indeed.
And speaking of “Old School” feature, since I have been using a Mac for 18 years now, Air Drop is surely a huge blessing too for my daily usage.
Now to where that I feel like the iOS 14 should improve is of course, for us to have something like Touch ID or those side-mounted ones for all of us to be able to unlock the phone, while we are all wearing our “ninja masks”.
And of course, I am hoping for more app developers to bring more widgets moving forward as well.
Battery Life
Now on to the phone’s battery, oh guys, again, if you follow me on Instagram you saw the screenshot that I post of the amount of screen on time that I got on the phone because with a battery capacity of 2,815 milliamps of battery I got a total of 5 hours and 58 mins of screen on time when I was at 10% with dark mode turned on and this mind-blowing results really shows how amazingly powerful the A14 Bionic Chipset is.
And this makes me wonder how much I would even get with the biggest iPhone 12 Pro Max instead since it comes with a way bigger battery of 3,687 mAh capacity, which I hope to get my hands on the phone soon as well since I haven’t done a review on that.
It has fast-charging up to 20 watts which by all means is not the fastest but even as a person who doesn’t charge my phone overnight, I still didn’t have any battery anxiety issues, especially with the Magsafe charger which the more I use, the more I appreciate that accessory, even with a lower 15 watts.
What’s nice is that Apple also sells really great quality transparent cases that can also support the MagSafe charging as well and if the rumours of having a portless iPhone are true, I am all in on that!
Gaming
In terms of gaming, there were no issues at all during gameplay as expected. PUBG Mobile ran smoothly at Graphics at HD and frame rate set to HIGH.
And playing Asphalt 9 was great especially the sound experience through the stereo speakers and the phone did not heat up AT ALL, even during very long gameplay so that was really sweet!
Conclusion
Now in conclusion, although I am super late in reviewing the iPhone 12, as a tech reviewer, I am really glad that I did, as the annoying “YouTube algorithm” usually favours reviews of smartphones that is new and trending.
It was nice to be able to use the iPhone 12 and compare it with the likes of the iPhone 12 Mini, for me to be clear to recommend the iPhone 12 more than the Mini, due to its obviously bigger screen and the amazing battery life as well.
Looking at the phone’s price in Malaysia the iPhone 12 starts at a price of RM3,899, and I will leave links down in the comments section below.
All right guys, with this, do let me know what you guys think of the iPhone 12 down in the comments section below, would you get it?
