iPhone 12 — Buy Now or Wait for iPhone 13? By Rene Ritchie

- The iPhone 12, mini, Pro, Max. All of them. All new retro-chic design, OLED across the line, Dolby Vision, LiDAR, MagSafe and of course, 5G. Starting at 729 for the Mini. I've been reviewing them all since they first came out and I'm here to tell you whether you should get one now or wait for the iPhone 12s or iPhone 13 or whatever Apple calls the next iPhone this fall. And I'll be doing this for every product Apple has coming out this year.

So hit that subscribe button and bell so you'll know how to best save and spend your hard-earned cash in 2021. The iPhone 12 kept the front and back look of the iPhone 11 but brought back the flattened sides of the iPhone 4 and 5. The result is something that looks just way cooler but isn't really as comfortable to hold. With black, white, red, green, and blue on a standard and silver, graphite, gold and blue on the Pro. And yes, there's still a notch right up on top, which I no longer even really notice but some people still treat like a splinter in their eye.

The iPhone 13 will keep the same design though there's almost certainly gonna be some variation in the colors. It'll also reportedly keep the notch though not quite as wide. So if you like the iPhone 12 design, especially the current colors, just go ahead and grab one now. But if you're hoping to get yellow or orange back or some other color entirely and especially if you want just a tiny bit less notch right up on top, wait and see what the iPhone 13 has to offer. The iPhone 12 displays are just better than they've ever been, OLED and HDR on all of them.

So you get high contrast, deep blacks and bright whites on all of them. They look absolutely terrific. And now it was ceramic shield, well, they still scratch but they're much less likely to crack. They're also still locked to 60 frames per second. No high refresh rate, no adaptive refresh rate.

That's only rumored to be coming with promotion on the next generation iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max later this fall. But if you don't care about that or don't even know what that is, then get the iPhone 12 now and enjoy. If you do though, if you're just all about the 120 Hertz, you're just all about to wait for the iPhone 13 Pro. The iPhone 12 got better cameras just across the board with deep fusion and night mode on all the cameras likewise Dolby Vision for HDR video. The iPhone 12 Pro got ProRAW and LiDAR for low light autofocus and night mode portraits.

And the iPhone 12 Pro Max got an even bigger sensor, longer telephoto and in-body image stabilization. Now I prefer the smaller iPhone Pro and kinda all shades adore the mini. But for me the cameras on the iPhone 12 Pro Max made it just the must have. So if you're cool using the Max or just cool with the regular cameras, you'll be cool with the iPhone 12. But if you aren't willing to go Max but still want maximum cameras, rumor has it the iPhone 13 may just have LiDAR and the better sensors across the line as well.

The iPhone 12 series are the first iPhones with 5G, integrating Qualcomm's X55 modem which supports both frequency range 1 for low and mid band and frequency range 2 for high band also known as millimeter wave. Only 5G itself isn't well supported, at least not yet. I have FR1 a few blocks around where I live and I get about double LTE speeds. But many people don't have any 5G or worse.5G is so bad, they're racing back to LTE. That the modem is also not very efficient yet means it drags down the iPhone battery life even with Apple smart data feature trying its best to balance things out.

But the iPhone 13 should integrate Qualcomm's X60 modem which is smaller and more efficient allowing for more battery but also placing less pressure on that battery. All the fingers crossed. So if 5G isn't in your area or just isn't high on your list or on your list at all, you can get an iPhone 12 now and be perfectly happy. But if you're willing to wait on 5G until it's in more areas and until it's more efficient, then there'll be more 5G in the future and better 5G radios to go with it. The iPhone 12 has Face ID, Apple's facial geometry identity scanner, same as the iPhone 11.

Like almost exactly the same. Despite supporting unlock on every orientation on the iPad since 2018, it's still portrait only on the iPhone. It does keep getting faster and smarter but in the age of masks, when you're out and about, it's just nowhere nearly as convenient as it used to be. The iPhone 13 is reportedly gonna be getting a new version of Touch ID. Apple's fingerprint identity scanner.

Not in the power button like the new iPad Air but under the display. And not instead of Face ID but in addition to it as in just the best of both biometric worlds. So if Face ID is still totally fine for you, it's gonna be totally fine to pick up the iPhone 12 right now. But if you need your Touch ID back, you're gonna need to wait for the iPhone 13 at the earliest. The iPhone 12 still has a lightening port.

The same one Apple introduced back in 2012, almost three years before USB-C became a reality. And despite literally all the nerds asking them to switch to USB-C, like Apple has done for the Mac and are continuing to do for the iPad, Apple is just steadfastly stubbornly even stuck to lightening on the iPhone. But there are reports that may be at least one model the iPhone 13 will finally delete the lightening port. Not for USB-C because that would be just too well received but to delete it just to watch it die like the headphone jack and instead to go with the recently introduced iPhone version of MagSafe or some hybrid of MagSafe and the iPad Smart Connector instead. So since the iPhone 12 currently has both lightning and MagSafe, there's no reason to wait for any of that.

But if you're at all nervous about Apple taking away your hard line, you might not even wanna wait on the iPhone 13 anyway. For more, much more on the iPhone, click on the playlist above. I'm breaking down every feature now and expected so that you can help choose which one is right for you. Just click on the playlist and I'll see you in the next video.

Source : Rene Ritchie