iPhone 12 Mini vs iPhone 12 vs SE - Full Comparison! By Max Tech

Hey guys its max, we just got in the brand new iPhone, 12 mini, and today we're not only gonna, compare it against the iPhone 12 see how much smaller is it really and how much more comfortable in the hand? Is it, but we're also gonna, compare it to the other small iPhone, the iPhone s e and see how big of a difference do we have we'll also compare the performance, we're going to take a look at the displays and see how much of a difference does OLED really make we're going to compare the speakers touch ID against face ID and much more? Let's go ahead and open up the mini, and I on purpose didn't even look at these at the Apple Store, because I wanted to have an honest first reaction. Okay, let's get this thing out, I'm going to peel this off right away: okay, wow, okay, so it's heavier than I thought it'd be a bigger difference. I didn't look up the specs side by side, but this thing is so mini when you put it up next to the 12. That's when you really notice it. It's really weird that size wise, it seems like a toy. It is so small, but the feel in the hand and the weight makes it feel really premium and honestly holding in my hands right now the 12 mini feels heavier than the 12.

Now I know that's not true. At least I'm guessing, so I'll have angelica put up the weights right here, but it's just because it's so compact and it's so much crammed into such a small device. It feels a lot denser. Now before I compare all the exterior differences with the 12 and SE. Let's talk about chargers.

Obviously you guys probably know the new phones don't come with chargers, but in fact the iPhone SE no longer comes with a five wall, brick either, so you're going to have to buy charger. If you don't already have one now Apple would be happy to sell you theirs for 19, but we would suggest anchors because look how much smaller this thing is, and it puts out the same 20 watts no winker's, not a channel sponsor yet, but I would still suggest this because it's not only is it cheaper, but with that, if you're going to be charging your phone with MagSafe, it actually charges faster, we actually did an ultimate charger comparison that you guys should check out after this video. Now that we're mentioning mac safe, I do want to say that the 12 mini does not accept the full 15 watt peak charging. It actually is limited to 12 watts. Now this is where it gets a little interesting.

The 12 will accept the peak 15 watts, but not for very long. Not a lot of people talk about this. It actually goes down to six watts after it starts heating up a little. So what I'm really interested to find out is if the 12 mini will go even lower than that, and that is something that we're going to cover in our review of the 12 mini. We'll make sure you get that info to you guys so make sure you guys hit that subscribe button and help us get to 500 000 subscribers before 2021.

Now I have to say that, even though I was majorly disappointed in MagSafe in my ultimate charger test, I'm still enjoying using it, there's something very satisfying about it, clicking on like that, and then you hear that little chime come up, and you can use it like this. As long as you don't need to fast charging, it is nice, and on top of that last few days I've been testing out the MagSafe wallet with my iPhone 12 Pro, and I liked it a lot more than I thought I would base on different videos. So let's go ahead and put it on look at that. It fits perfectly it's like it was made for the iPhone 12 mini wow, okay gripping this thing in the hand that feels incredible, it felt good on my iPhone 12 Pro it kind of filled in the way your hand holds, but it feels amazing here and the fact that it actually matches up the edges to the edges perfectly. It just feels so natural and with that look at that it doesn't pop off anywhere near as easily as on the other phones, because it matches up perfectly you're gripping the whole thing at the same time, and you can't just easily rotate it and get it off.

So, if you're somebody that wants to use the wallet, you want a minimalist kind of design and size. This is perfect, and it feels so good in the hand and, of course, with the SE, it is not going to work because we don't have any MagSafe magnets. Now, let's compare the design differences and I want to start off with the colors. Obviously, this blue pops like crazy, and I'm not typically a fan of blue, but I love this one and unfortunately, I have to say for the 12 mini. I have the product red.

I am not really a fan if we put it side by side with the SE, which is also product red, you guys will see how less rich of a red this is. Some people call it salmon. I don't know I'm seeing pink. I like the deep darker red of the product red model. If we take a look at the frame here, it is lighter.

It still looks like red on the mini, at least on the sides, but man I really wish they stuck with this color. I also have to say that I love the new camera bump they're etching into this glass. It makes it look very premium way better than the old-school way of just having a little lens with the little ring around it. Now. It's interesting that the camera bumps are the same between the 12 and 12 mini everything's identical, but the Apple logo is actually smaller.

Let's go ahead and stack these up. Next to each other- and this is probably the biggest difference I've seen so far- usually phones are fairly similar. The 12 is taller, but also quite a bit wider. The difference is pretty substantial. So what does that mean for comfort in the hand? Well, the 12 feels comfortable.

You have a really nice grip because of the flat edges, let's try out the 12 mini, and it definitely feels smaller in the hand but comfort wise. It's not as big of a difference. As I expected that's very interesting. Let's grab the SE all right. The SE is more comfortable honestly because of these rounded edges, it just feels a little softer against your palm, and it's weird.

It feels quite a bit thinner because of the raptor's edges as well, and technically it's 7.3 millimeters compared to 7.4, but it feels quite a bit thinner. Let's go ahead and stack these two up next to each other and wow, so the SE, even though it's tiny, it's still taller and wider than the new mini. So, that's very weird to see I wasn't expected to have as big of a difference and putting him in the hand. You honestly can't feel as much of a difference as you see visually and as far as the frame and the buttons, the 12 minis and the 12's button is much larger, and it's really click. It feels really nice, whereas the SC has this tiny one, it's not mushy, but it's definitely not as nice feeling and then on the opposite side.

Of course, we have the volume buttons that are slightly larger. Our sim tray actually moved as well and on the 12 and 12 mini. We have this 5g antenna on the side, and we're going to talk about 5g and data speeds in general in just a bit and now switch to the front. So you guys can see a massive difference. The iPhone 12 has a larger screen at 6.1 inches. The mini is a 5.4-inch screen and then the SC has a 4.7. Now the mini is a lot smaller than the SE, but the screen is much larger, fills in the whole phone, which is nice.

You don't have that big, chin and forehead, and I have to say that it feels weird holding the SE and seeing those massive you know forehead and bezel. It just feels so much nicer with the full screen. Now with that we have a difference in design all the new iPhones have a straight flat edge, so the screen is completely flat, and then it meets the frame, whereas the SE it curves over the side, and we have a little plastic insert that you probably can't see, but you feel the difference between the glass, the plastic and then the metal frame and the new designs definitely feel more premium. Of course, with the mini. We have this notch cutting into the display.

That's because we have face ID there and let's go ahead and do a quick test face ID versus touch ID. We just press down pretty quick. You can actually do it all in one step, just by pressing down, and you're there, whereas with face ID, you either have to raise it, and then it's going to turn on the screen and then swipe up, or you can tap on the screen and swipe up and as far as speed, I mean they're, both very quick, it's hard to tell a difference and for convenience. I love to face ID and times when you don't have a mask you, if you're wearing gloves it still works, whereas if you're wearing a mask touch ID is definitely nice. Now you might think that the face ID sensors are smaller because everything's smaller and that's actually not true if we put them side by side like this, the whole notch is identical in size, but because the screen is smaller, all the icons have to be cramped in there, and they're quite a bit smaller as well.

Now one thing that almost nobody knows about is that the bezel on the 12 mini is actually the thinnest bezel out of all the new iPhones, the pros. The pro max they're able to slim it down just a little and let's compare the display panels themselves, the brightness, the quality, the 12 mini, is identical to the 12 pro other than size. So I'm going to scoot this over, and we're going to compare LCD versus OLED. I'm surprised that I can actually tell a difference in terms of clarity or sharpness. The icons and the text look more crisp on the 12 mini than the SE, which still has a retina display.

That's because the 12 mini actually has the most detailed screen in terms of pixels print out of the iPhones now. The next thing I want to take a look at is the shift in brightness. We have LCD versus OLED and if we look from the side, the SE gets much darker. If we're not watching perfectly just facing us, whereas the OLED screen doesn't have any issues and the good thing is the new 12s. They have the best OLED screens that don't turn blue from the side.

And now, let's compare the brightness both are set to manual brightness, okay, very interesting. The new one does look brighter, but not by that much and that's because the 12 and the 12 mini their displays. Their OLED displays are limited to 650 nits, which is similar to a perfect lcd, like the one we have in the SE, the pro models those can actually get brighter. Now we also have a difference in terms of HDR, so these OLED screens they can actually get up to 1200 nits if it needs it. Okay, this is interesting.

We're setting up to compare HDR and I just updated the YouTube app, and not only does the SC now play back in HDR, but it also allows 4k60 playback. Now, as you can see, the SE actually has a larger video if we're not zooming in on the iPhone 12 mini now right away, I see a massive difference. The iPhone 12 mini looks like HDR. We have nice contrast. It actually is sharper, even though the video streaming is the same and the brights just pop.

So much not only that, but in the darker scenes we have a lot of contrast. Blacks are pure black because of the OLED screen. Instead of kind of gray and man, even the colors they're a little more saturated, they pop a little more. The 12-minute gives you a HDR viewing experience now. If we want to fill up the whole screen, you are going to cut out a part of your image, so some parts get cut out.

That does give you a little more of an immersive experience without the huge chin and forehead, but we do have that notch cutting into it. Overall, the iPhone SC HDR video doesn't look like HDR. It looks like just an option where the button comes up, whereas a 12-minute video looks great with that said. If you watch a lot of videos, the iPhone 12 gives you a much larger display. It's definitely noticeable, and it is more immersive because of that larger screen.

Now as far as actual quality, I can't really tell a difference. If I look close in this shot right there, the building it actually looks a little sharper with the finer detail, probably because of the extra pixel density, but it is almost identical, and now it's time for our speaker comparison, I have to say, I'm expecting the 12 mini to absolutely smoke the SE, because there's been so many generations of changes, and I guess it'll be cool to see how big of a difference there really is. But what I'm most curious about is how it stacks up compared to the regular 12. This phone is much larger. So are we still going to get the newer nicer loudspeakers, or do they have to downgrade them? So I'm going to go ahead and split this up into two separate speaker comparisons, so we can tell the actual difference go ahead and put on your best pair of headphones or the only pair of headphones.

You have and let's take a listen where we started you guys. Let me know your thoughts down in the comment section below which one sounds better, and why now I have to say that I was a little wrong. I was expecting a bigger difference now there are definitely some clear differences, some that you guys may not be able to hear because we're recording through a mono mic and going you know through YouTube, but uh. The bass surprisingly, was basically the same. Mid's were a little richer on the 12 minutes same thing, with the highs they're a little more crisp and sharp just like the rest of the new phones.

Now, where I noticed the biggest difference, was the stereo sound listening to the SE, a lot of the sound majorities coming from the bottom speaker and the earpiece speakers fling it in a little, whereas the 12 mini sounds perfectly balanced, much more immersive. Now, along with that, as far as the peak volume, this is actually the same. I use my Apple Watch to test and both of them peaked at the same exact 81 decibels. That's pretty close to the phone, so no differences in volume. Now the next thing that I'm curious about is how the 12 mini compares to the regular 12.

So let's go ahead and take a listen once again. Let me know your thoughts down in the comment section and I have to say yes, my speculations were correct. The regular 12 is louder than the 12 mini, and it definitely sounds better. The 12 mini it doesn't sound bad. It sounds nice and balanced, but the mid and the bass in the 12, my goodness it is a big jump, much deeper, much richer.

The high frequencies are basically the same, and then we do get a little more loudness as well. So with the larger phone, you do get better speakers and if you watch a lot of movies without headphones, it's going to help and now, let's get into performance starting off with data speeds, as you may know, Apple is really pushing 5g on all the new iPhones and not to say it actually does matter. Even if you don't have 5g in your city now, what's unique about this year is that for the first time ever all the iPhones, the 12, the 12 pro the pro max in the mini, have the same exact antennas with the iPhone SE. You actually had a worse antenna and modem than the iPhone 11 pros. The SE actually has two by two antennas instead of four by four, so you would take a hit in speeds and reception.

Now with the newer phones, we actually did a bunch of testing already here are some shots from our previous test and the new 12s are so much faster as far as internet speeds. Even if you don't have 5g in your city, the standard LTE is much faster. That is also because we're using snapdragon modems now and even the 12 mini the cheapest one has the very best x55 snapdragon modem, and if you look at some other android phones for the cheaper, smaller phones, you'll get worse quality, reception and speeds. In the last few weeks, I've seen a massive difference, both in terms of speeds and reception, and that's comparing uh 12 pro against my 11 pro max, which has even better antennas than the SE. So if you guys want to see a real world comparison go and check the video that I made, that also includes tethering.

If you use that, and now let's compare the processor and graphics performance, I have geek bench 5 opened up here, and we're going to go ahead and run the CPU test. One thing you'll notice is that we do have a difference in ram the iPhone. Se has three gigs of ram, just like the previous iPhone 11, whereas the 12 mini and the 12. They have four gigs of ram like the older 11 pros, so how much of a difference does that make in their real world? Well, I don't think it's a big difference as far as app loading with these newer phones there's a lot more processing going on, especially if you're taking photos and videos, and you really need the extra ram. In some cases, you'll have background apps that could close to make sure you have enough kind of ram for that task, whereas with the SE the cameras which we'll talk about in just a bit, the whole processing is much lower, much less intensive.

So as far as ram, I don't think that's going to make a big difference, and we have our scores, and I have to say that this is the closest scoring I've ever seen between the mini and the regular 12. They're, almost identical we're slightly under 1600 for single core slightly over 4 000 for multi-core. So these don't get as high of a score as the pro models. Do, I'm not sure why? Maybe because the pros have extra ram and with the SE it is still a shockingly good score. So the difference is about 20 both in single core and in multicore, and I also have to say that for 400 bucks, man you're getting some killer performance.

This thing's going to beat out all the android phones on the market, even like the 1400 ones, and now let's go ahead and take a look at graphics performance. I'm going to run geek benches metal test, and here are the scores it looks like the mini actually has the best score, which was surprising. I thought maybe because of thermals it'd be lower, but they are pretty close to the regular 12 and the SE. That is once again a really excellent score, so we're seeing that the minis close to 30 percent, better graphics performance in terms of metal and uh, the SE with the latest iOS 14. It actually jumped up by quite a bit in terms of performance now another difference that you're not seeing here is the new neural core, the neural engine with the new a14 bionic.

That has a massive improvement in yesterday's video. We actually did a video editing test, including some Dolby Vision, footage and that actually showed a perfect result between the 813 and the a14 processor, so make sure you guys go and check out that comparison. If you haven't seen that yet and now, let's talk about the biggest concern about the 12 mini, and that is the battery life first off, let's compare the William hours of the batteries we have about 1800 on the SE, about 2200 on the 12 mini so 400 more and then stepping up to the regular 12, 20 800, so 600 William hours more now. Obviously, we haven't been able to test these just, yet we'll talk about battery life in our iPhone 12 mini review, but I did watch a couple. Great comparisons, one from Mr who's, the boss, the other one from the tech chat and the iPhone SE will get you about four hours of screen on time.

Maybe five, if you don't use it as hard, whereas the 12 mini it looks to have about an hour to an hour and a half better screen on time than the SE and then the same thing goes when you upgrade to the iPhone 12 that one looks out of about an hour and a half more than the 12 mini. So if you're a power user, I definitely would not buy the iPhone SE. The battery is its weakest point. The 12 mini isn't great, but it's not bad. Surprisingly, especially if you don't do a lot of gaming and heavy tasks, whereas iPhone 12, that's clearly the winner jumping into cameras, the 12 and the 12 mini, thankfully, have the same exact camera.

So you don't miss out on anything which is really awesome and then comparing to the SE. Well, obviously, this one just has one camera you're missing out on the ultra-wide, so here's a comparison shot of the extra width that you can get now. As far as the standard wide camera, we also have some massive differences. The 12 photos look great. We have night mode.

We have smart HDR, 3 d, fusion, where's the iPhone SE. It has a camera from the iPhone 8. The software has been improved a little. But to be honest, if you care about photo quality, you definitely should be buying the 12 mini and as far as portrait shots, both of them can do it with the rear cameras, but the SE can not take it of regular objects just of people now. The really weird thing is that, with the front-facing cameras, the iPhone SE can also take portrait mode shots.

You guys see the comparison over here now. Of course, you can expect that with the 12 mini because it does have all those extra face, ID sensors, but the SE doesn't and on other devices like the iPads apple, won't, let you take portrait mode shots without having the face ID sensor. So that's very weird. Both of these phones have 12 megapixel front facing cameras. So here's a sample you guys, let me know which one looks better as far as the video quality and which one sounds better in terms of microphones now, the 12 mini can shoot 4k, instead of only 1080p on the SE, and not only that the SC can only shoot at 30 frames per second, whereas the 12 mini can shoot 4k, 60 frames per second, of course, with that we have Dolby Vision differences, so we can record HDR up to 30 frames per second.

So in general, if you care about video once again, the 12 mini is a much better phone and now, let's talk about the prices and then our final verdict. Now the iPhone SE comes in at a very low 399 dollars. So 400 bucks gets you an awesome performing iPhone. Now the 12 mini costs, 6.99 700 bucks and then a hundred dollars more for the 12. So for that price difference, is it worth spending the extra money in getting the 12 mini? Personally, I think, for most of you guys that are watching this video.

It is you're getting a lot better camera performance, massively better camera performance, and you're, getting that OLA display, which looks so much better when watching videos, it's full screen, it's a much nicer display and, of course, with that you're also getting about an hour to probably an hour and a half extra screen on time as well. If you're somebody that's upgrading from a ancient phone- and you don't really care about phones that much you just want something. That's gonna! Last for the next five years. That he's going to do a good job, but now that we have the 12 mini for those of you guys that want a small phone, I would go for that now. How does it compare to the regular 12? Well, as I mentioned in the beginning, as far as comfort in the hand, it's not that big of a difference not like I expected, and you are taking a trade off both in battery life, probably about an hour and a half, maybe even closer to two hours, depending on what you do and the speaker quality, and then the nice larger screen, which is a lot more immersive for watching video.

The last thing I want to add is gaming. If you are a gamer, I would absolutely deal with the extra size, because, when you're playing games, the regular 12 is so much more immersive with that screen. In fact, I enjoy the pro max for that larger screen when you're gaming and I feel like with the 12 minutes tiny screen. You're gonna cover up so much of the UI with your thumbs. It's just not going to be anywhere near as nice, so I would spend the extra hundred dollars for those of you guys that are really into media.

Let me know your thoughts down in the comment section below how badly do you want a tiny phone? Are you gonna? Take the extra trade-offs or are you just gonna, go with the 12 and if you really want the SE, let me know why make sure you guys click that circle above, if you guys want to see our full review of the mini, where we're going to investigate the charging performance with mac safe amongst a lot of other things, and of course you can help us reach 500 000 subs before the end of this year, click one of those videos over there. If you want to see our ultimate charger test or our 5g test, this been max, and I will see you in the next video.

Source : Max Tech