iPhone 12 mini vs iPhone SE 2020 - Which should you choose? By zollotech

Hi, everyone. Aaron here for Zollotech and the iPhone se second generation and the iPhone 12 mini are both the smallest phones offered from Apple in either the Apple store or apple. com. And so I wanted to help you decide which one would be best for you. And so we're going to cover everything from the price to the storage, to the speed and the cameras and more. So the first thing is the price.

The iPhone se starts at $399 and goes up to $549. The iPhone 12 mini starts at a much more expensive $699. And it goes up to $849. However, if you want the iPhone 12 mini carrier unlocked, meaning you can use any SIM card to use it around the world. You'll have to pay an additional $30 unless you get it directly through a carrier.

So that's something that's a little bit new this year on the iPhone 12 and the iPhone 12 mini, both of them are offered in the same storage options of 64 gigabytes, 128 gigabytes or 256 gigabyte options. They also have a little bit different color offerings. The iPhone se only gets three different colors, black white, and this product red where the iPhone 12 mini comes in quite a few different colors, black that I have here, white, red, green, and blue. The blue is the new color this year. Now both are made out of aluminum.

They have an aluminum frame or on the outside edge and they have glass front and back. But the iPhone S E is sort of the older style where it has the rounded edges and the buttons are a little bit different. So what I mean by that, as you can see here, the iPhone 12 mini is more squared off and has a much larger, more pronounced power button. And then below the power button on the iPhone, SE is the SIM card tray, but below the power button on the iPhone, 12 mini is the 5g millimeter wave antenna. That's specific to the United States.

We don't really have a standard for millimeter wave too much around the world right now. So it's only in the United States and mostly on Verizon, somewhat on a T and T. Now on the top of the phones, they're exactly the same on the left-hand side of the phone, you'll have your silent switch and your volume buttons, but below that on the iPhone, 12 mini is the SIM card tray. We don't have anything else on the iPhone S E on the bottom. They're also a little bit different this year.

So I'm the bottom of the phones. You can see that we have lightning on both, but we have symmetrical speaker and microphone holes on the iPhone. S E whereas on the iPhone 12 mini they're asymmetric, meaning the microphone has two holes and there's four holes for the speakers on the iPhone, 12 mini. So it's something a little bit different there. Everything else is basically the same.

Now the weight is also a little bit different as well. The iPhone 12 is a little bit smaller than the iPhone se coming in at 4.7, six ounces or 135 grams versus the iPhone SE at 5.2, two ounces, or 148 grams. You can see there is a slight size difference with the iPhone 12 mini being a little bit shorter. And if I put them side by side, you can see that it's also a little bit narrower. The iPhone 12 mini is narrower.

It seems to be about the same thickness, but it's also narrower and shorter based off the overall dimensions. So fitness-wise, they're very similar, but with the squared off edges, the mini is easier to hang on to and less slippery, at least in my opinion. And like I said, they're both glass front and back, and they're both fingerprint magnets. This is just fingerprints from filming the video already. And the iPhone 12 mini has the new ceramic shield, which makes it four times less likely to break in the event that you drop your phone.

Now, if you're not using a case, of course, it's still four times less likely, but it still should be a little bit more durable that way. Scratch resistance should be about the same. There's really not a difference there whatsoever. Now, as you can see, we have touch ID and face ID. Both are very subjective.

Meaning if you really like touch ID, that's going to be better for you. Face ID works well, too. They're both very secure. Technically face ID is more secure unless you have a twin for example, but they're both equally fast and it's really just comes down to preference as far as what you like there. Now, of course, another huge difference is the displays, the display on the se, despite it having larger bezels and the phone being larger overall is actually smaller at 4.7 inches. And it's an LCD display.

It's 1334 by 750 pixels with a density of 326 pixels per inch. The iPhone 12 mini actually uses an Ola display or a super retina XDR display. That's capable of HDR where the iPhone se is not. It's a 5.4 inch display with 2340 by 10 80 pixels or 476 pixels per inch. So it's a much more pixel dense display, both look great and go to the same 625 nits of brightness.

They're plenty bright, but when playing HDR content, the iPhone 12 mini can go all the way up to 1200 nits of brightness. So it is technically a little bit brighter, but in normal use, you won't see a difference. Both have great viewing angles, both are phenomenal displays, but the iPhone 12 mini being that it's OLED has PWM or pulse with modulation to control brightness. That means it's flickering the display faster or slower, depending on how much the brightness is set to the top or bottom. So meaning if the super bright it's going to flash faster.

Now this is something you can't see with your eyes, but can cause some people to feel nauseated or create headaches for that person. And in the newer phones with the iPhone 12 series, it doesn't seem to be a problem for me, but if you are sensitive to those things, you'll want to go with the iPhone se or an LCD display because it is always on, it's not flickering at all. So that may be a consideration for some, of course, with the display, with the iPhone 12 mini, even though it's a little bit bigger, you do have the notch that may bother some people personally, it's never bothered me, but if it's something that bothers you again, you could go with the se. Now, when it comes to specs, both are very fast phones. They both have great processors in them.

The iPhone se second gen has the A13 bionic with three gigabytes of Ram where the iPhone 12 mini has the A14 bionic with four gigabytes of Ram. Now that extra Ram helps with the display, but also helps with the newer processor. So both are phenomenal, both are really fast. So let's go ahead and open up the phone here. And if we open certain apps like music, they're going to load basically the same.

So if we go into music, it's the first time I've opened it on the 12. You'll see it was fast. If I opened weather, for example, it takes a moment to load and refresh. Both are equally fast. That way, if I open a game like Minecraft, we'll run it here on both.

We'll wait for it to load. We'll get to the main loading screen here. And if we hit play on both, then we create an create new world, create new world. And then we hit create at the same time, we'll let it process and load the world. Both we'll play it just as fast we'll hit, proceed on both.

And they should both load about the same. Sometimes you get surprised and the older phone will load faster. So they're very similar, but you'll see now it's building the world. It says, generating world. We'll wait for it.

And you can see in real time how long it takes. Now, this is the first time opening this app. So this should give you an idea. This isn't really a general overall test of how fast it is per se, but it gives you an idea of what's going on. And it is taking a while.. And like I said, the older phone or the iPhone se is actually a little bit faster this time.

So it's kind of strange that it's doing that, but there we go. It took a moment that could be internet. It could be other things, but both should be equally fast. Sometimes that can just be the processor ramping up. And it was opened for the first time on the iPhone, 12 mini, but both will play it just fine either way.

You'll have smooth frame rates on either, but that's kind of an interesting result. And I do see that from time to time now, other than games like Minecraft, you have among us or call of duty. And if we just go into free play here and there we go, free play select. And of course, we're in very quickly, it's going to be fast on just about anything. Of course, there shouldn't be an issue there.

I'll just close that for now, but anything from call of duty to Minecraft should be fine. So no issues with playing any of the most recent games, you can use an Xbox controller. You could use a PS4 controller. It really doesn't matter, but doing something really intensive, such as exporting 4k video should show us the true power of either processor. Now, it's really hard to show you the actual power of the processor with the neural engine, but exporting a 4k video is pretty intensive.

So let's try that. Now I've opened, I'm moving closed all other apps and created a movie. So you see, I movie is the only thing running. I've imported the same clip into both recorded from an iPhone. And then what I'll do is I'll just add a title here, just a simple one that says Zillow tech, that way it has to do a little bit extra work.

There we go. And again, we'll do the same on the other phone here, the same exact title. Okay. And it's a little bit difficult for me to type on the small keyboard, but you get the idea. It has a title there's me in the video.

So we'll set it to the beginning of both. We'll hit done, and then we'll share slide these over. And then I'll bring in my iPhone 12 pro max is a stopwatch here and we'll go save video. Start. And let's see what it does.

So this is going to save it and export it in 4k. Let's see if there's a difference between the two of them both have the clip downloaded and it's moving along pretty quickly on both. So if you've ever exported video, you know that the iPhones are very fast at doing this. They're both almost done. And you'll see that the iPhone 12 mini finished maybe two seconds before the iPhone se.

So it's really not that big of a difference between both of them and after doing an intensive task like that, they're not very warm on the back. There is a little bit of heat on the side of the iPhone se and the iPhone 12 mini feels basically a little bit warm in the same sort of area. So no real issue there. It's pretty impressive that they can export video that quickly. Now let's talk about the cameras.

The forward facing cameras of both are very different. So on the iPhone se second generation, it's only a seven megapixel camera with an F 2.2 aperture that can record up to 10 80 P on the iPhone mini or iPhone 12 mini it's a 12 megapixel true depth camera. That is an F 2.2 aperture, but can record 4k 60 or HDR. So they're very different cameras. And I'll show you some samples in a moment on the back of the phones.

That's where it's very different. In fact, the 12 mini is leaps ahead. When it comes to the camera on the iPhone, se you have a singular camera camera, that's actually a 12 megapixel camera with an F 1.8 aperture and can record up to 4k 60, which is actually quite good. I filmed the entire iPhone se review with an iPhone se, but the iPhone 12 mini, like I said, is leaps above. You get two cameras, both 12 megapixels, but you get an F 1.6 aperture as well as an ultra wide F two points for aperture. Both can record 4k 60, but there's extra features as well, 4k 30 and Dolby vision HDR, as well as some additional features, such portrait modes and night modes as well.

So let's first go into our camera options so I can show you the difference there. We'll go down to camera here. There's camera on the iPhone, 12 mini camera on the iPhone se. And like I said, you have 4k 60 on both, but if you scroll down on the iPhone, 12, many, you have HDR. You can record up to 30 frames per second in 10 bit high dynamic range with Dolby vision, which is really phenomenal.

If we go into the cameras themselves again, you have different features. So you have portrait modes on both, but the portrait is a lot better on the iPhone, 12 mini, and it can recognize objects, objects where it can't on the iPhone. Se you have to recognize a person. You also have slow-mo time-lapse and you have night modes when it's dark as well on the iPhone 12 mini. So let's go ahead and take a look at the photo and video from the forward facing and the rear cameras as well.

So you can see the difference The forward facing camera of the iPhone, S E two, and the iPhone 12 mini. And so you can see how it's handling the background with the sky. And also you can hear the audio from the iPhone se two and the iPhone 12 mini. Let me know what you think sounds best in the comments below. So hopefully that gives you a good idea of what the cameras are like.

Now, internally, these are very different when it comes to the cellular modems, the iPhone se has a 4g Intel modem. That's capable of 4g LTE, where the iPhone 12 mini has a Qualcomm modem capable of 5g. The Qualcomm modem seems to hold onto connections better. Doesn't seem to drop phone calls and has faster speeds. Overall.

It's just a much better modem in my specific use or anytime I've ever used it. Wifi is about the same though. Now, when it comes to the water resistance of both, both are IP certified, but the iPhone se is IP 67 rated for up to one meter for 30 minutes. The iPhone 12 mini though has a much better rating of IP 68 for up to six meters for 30 minutes. So it seems to be a much better sealed phone and more resistant to dust and water.

Now, when it comes to the battery, you would think with the iPhone se being larger and having a lower resolution display, it would have better battery life, but the battery is actually smaller. It's an 1,820 1 million power battery in the iPhone se which Apple says is good for 13 hours of video playback. That means just video downloaded and playing that back with the iPhone 12 mini though, you get up to 15 hours of video playback where the larger 2,227 million power battery. In my general test, when I did a review of both, I got about four hours of screen on time with the iPhone. Se some people may get more, but that's generally what I got four to four and a half hours with the iPhone 12 mini.

You get about five hours in my general, use five to five and a half hours, depending on how you're using it. So you did get, do get a little bit more. You've got a little bit nicer display pushing a lot more pixels. So that's basically the difference there. Now when it comes to charging them though, both don't come with a charger in the box anymore.

If you buy an iPhone se there will no longer be a charger. If you buy one new, if you find one used, you may have that charger, but charging using a 20 watt adapter, Apple says you'll get 50% charge in 30 minutes, and it will take a little bit longer after that both will wirelessly charge, but with the iPhone 12 mini, you can use mag safe accessories, such as the mag safe adapter and wirelessly fast charge for up to 15 Watts. So it does help. It's not super fast, it's slower than just plugging it in, but you can fast charge and you have this magnetic adapter, which helps align the charger. You also get MagSafe accessories such as this leather case that also has magnets in it to help secure it to the case.

Hold it on a little bit better. Although I don't see much of a difference there. I don't think it's the magnet securing it as much as the lip on the case, but again, you can use MagSafe accessories that are magnetic and hold, hold it to different things such as car mounts that you've seen from Belkin. For example, with the iPhone se you can use mag safe to center on the back and it will start charging. You can see it's charging now, and it will charge, but you won't get the fast charging from it.

So you still can wirelessly charge through that, but you can use any cheesy certified wireless charger with either of these phones now, which one is right for you? Well, that really depends on a couple of different things. First of all, your budget, the iPhone se second gen is definitely less expensive for the same storage options, but you don't have some of the nicer things such as the forward and rear facing cameras or the battery life of the 12 mini also size is a consideration. The iPhone 12 mini feels more premium to me personally, with the squared off edges and is much smaller in your hand. So it feels different. It feels more premium and has more similar to what you would have with say an iPhone five, for example.

So it reminds me of that quite a bit. However, with the iPhone SE again, you're getting touch ID, which some people would prefer over face ID. They're both secure, like I said, but they are different. And if you prefer touch ID or you prefer LCD displays because the Ola displays bother your eyes. Well then obviously go with the iPhone.

S E both are great phones. They're both very capable and they both work really well, but it really just comes down to whatever your personal preference is with the things I've already mentioned. So let me know what you chose in the comments below. And I would love to hear which one you chose, which color, and maybe you decided to stick with an older iPhone or pick up something different, like an iPhone, 12 pro or 12 pro max, something like that. Let me know in the comments below, if you'd like to get your hands on this wallpaper, of course I'll link it in the description like I normally do.

And if you haven't subscribed already, please subscribe. And if you enjoyed the video, please give it a like, as always. Thanks for watching. This is Aaron. I'll see you next time.

Source : zollotech