iPhone 12 Pro Review: Video Recording Champ By ben's gadget reviews

- Hey everybody. So, this is the iPhone 12 Pro, and this is the iPhone 12. So these are two of the four new iPhones that Apple launched last week. Now I've been using both of these for almost six full days now. So I think it's just about enough for review. So in this review, I'm gonna focus on the 12 Pro.

So, I guess the first thing we do is compare these two iPhones to see what's different. So the main difference you can see right off the bat is: this one has three cameras, this one has two. So just like last year's iPhone 11 series, the Pro line has an extra telephoto camera that the standard iPhone 12 does not have. But that's not all. The iPhone 12 Pro also has a new LIDAR sensor right here.

This is the tech that Apple first introduced in the iPad Pro this year. It's basically like a more advanced, more complicated ToF sensor. What it does is: it basically acts like a radar, it shoots out beams to map your immediate surroundings. And LIDAR is better than ToF sensors because it maps more thoroughly than ToF sensor. Now, although these two phones look the same, the chasis of the pro is also slightly more premium, because it's made of stainless steel whereas this is aluminum.

You can definitely feel it, if you really grip onto it a little bit more. But when you first pick up the 12, it feels every bit as nice as the Pro. They're the exact same size and this year, the standard 12 also has an OLED panel, whereas last year, the non-pro iPhones were LCD panels. So this is a big jump, if you're jumping from the 11 to the 12. Anyway, let's put away the 12 because this is what the review is on.

So what's new with the 12 Pro over last year's iPhone. So, you have a boxier design as you can see. To be honest, it doesn't feel as comfortable to hold in the hand as the more rounded iPhone 11 phones. But I like it, I think boxier gives you a more professional vibe for some reason, and this phone can stand on its own when you put it on a flat surface. The cameras have also been improved all around over the 11 Pro, even though the camera module looks exactly the same.

So the main camera now is an aperture of F/1.6. So it's a wider aperture that allows more light to come in. There's also the additional LIDAR sensor that's not seen in any of the iPhone 11s. And, the ultrawide angle camera now supports night mode, which is huge because the ultrawide angle camera on most phones, they're great during the day but at night they suffer because typically, the image sensor for the ultrawide angle camera cannot be that large, and there's just more to take in, more pixels, so you need more light. So the fact that now the iPhone ultrawide angle camera supports night mode is huge.

As you can see from these samples here, it's a big jump over the iPhone 11 Pro's ultra wide angle camera, as soon as it gets a little bit darker. There's also a new screen size this year. This is 6.1 inch. Last year, you could either get 5.8 or 6.5. And I think 6.1 inch is a much better option, because the 6.5 inch iPhone, that's the max ones, they're slightly too wide to comfortably use for one hand, while the 5.8 feels a little bit cramped.6.1 inches on iOS seems about perfect. And perhaps the most hyped new addition to the iPhones, even though it's a little bit overrated... is 5G.

Now, don't get me wrong, 5G is going to be game changing, life changing for all of us, just not right now; maybe it will happen in 2022, 2023. But in 2020, the state of 5G is that it's only a minor minor improvement over 4G, and reception area is not that strong. Hong Kong is already one of the better places for 5G. As you can see, I get full reception here, and most places. If you're in the US and you're not living in downtown Manhattan, you probably have to walk five blocks just to get a 5G signal.

But anyway, it's important that the iPhone's pushing for 5G, because as much as it pains me to say this as an Android guy, Apple iPhones are the products that set the new mobile trends. Think about it swipe navigation gestures, face unlock, FaceTime, these are all things that have existed in Android phones before, but they really didn't go mainstream until Apple did it. So now that Apple supports 5G, that means carriers will have step up the 5G development, and give you real 5G, not this 5G right now that's like this much better than 4G. And of course, there's a new chip inside this year's iPhone. This one runs on the Apple A14 Bionic and it's the world's first five nanometer SOC.

So in silicon technology, the smaller the number, the better. So five nanometer it's better than the 7nm and better than the 10nm from before. To be honest, Apple's 'A' line of chips, the A13 and the A12, have always been far better than whatever the snapdragon's best chip at the time is. So,the A14 Bionic is a lot more powerful than the Snapdragon 865 or the 865+, to be honest, probably even more powerful than the 875. Now the reason I say that is not due to basic things like opening an app, every phone can do that nowadays, where the A14 Bionic stands out is its Neural Engine, and the ability to process a hell lot of data at once.

So the key example of this is the new this year, they can shoot in Dolby Vision. So Dolby Vision, it's like the HDR 10+, that you've been hearing a lot on a lot of Android smartphones, except HDR 10+ is like the basic version whereas Dolby Vision is the more professional version. Dolby Vision actually cost money for phone brands to use whereas HDR 10+ is free. And Dolby Vision is used by Hollywood Studios like: Netflix supports Dolby Vision, and the new Microsoft Xbox supports Dolby Vision too. So the reason Dolby Vision is better than HDR 10+ is because, it dynamically adjusts dynamic range in real time on the fly.

So scene by scene, the clip will have various different metadata. So, Dolby can adjust the exposure and color science; all of that, whereas HDR 10+; it's a one time application that applies to the entire video. So the fact that iPhone 12 series of phones can shoot in Dolby Vision is huge. It's the first phone in the world to be able to do that, and to be honest, I don't think Android phones will be able to catch up to them anytime soon. Because to shoot Dolby Vision, you need a hell lot of processing power, and that's where the A14 Bionic comes in.

Not only can you shoot in Dolby Vision, you can edit the clip within iPhone's native photo app, and I'm not just talking about basic editing, like trimming the videos length, but also cropping in. So you can make videos like a square shape or rectangle shape in real time. Just look at what I'm doing here; I'm editing a 4k Dolby Vision video, I'm cropping it in, and then it's processing in real time in under 30 seconds, and I'm uploading it to YouTube, and look at how fast it's uploading this 4k Dolby Vision footage to YouTube. All that's made possible by the Apple A14 Bionic and 5G So what's it like using the iPhone 12 Pro as my daily driver. So I've already said I prefer Android over iOS, but the new iOS 14 actually looks pretty cool.

I like that you can finally put widgets on your homescreen, which is something I've wanted for years because I have a lot going on every day, and I like having a calendar widget that immediately reminds me what I am up to that day, whereas previously on iPhones, you have to swipe to see your widget and you know, just the fact that you have to swipe means you can forget to do that. I like it when it's in my face, so I don't forget, "Oh, at 2:00 today, I have a meeting" and overall, iOS 14 is super fluid and responsive even if the screen is only at 60Hz. I know, I know. I've been talking about how great 120Hz is. So I have here the Galaxy S20 FE and this is 120Hz.

And I will say, I like how more fluid the animation is. But Apple does a really good job of fine tuning the software. So even though it is not as fluid as the Galaxy S20 FE's at 120, I wouldn't say it's half as smooth. Because Apple does such a good job optimizing software and everything, the gap feels closer than the reality which is: this phone refreshes twice as fast as this phone. Okay, now let's look at the camera.

So in my opinion, the best Android phones like Huawei's flagships, have surpassed the iPhone in photography, since like 2017. But with that said, the iPhone for the last 2, 3 years, is still the king of video camera in terms of recording videos. I say that because iPhone cameras just have an extra level of stabilization fluidity, that Android brands do not have. By fluidity, I don't mean just stabilization as I'm walking. But also, when you're switching the camera lens: I'm gonna zoom in, zoom back out, zoom in, zoom back out... look at how fluid this is.

It's like a very natural motion. Whereas now I have the Galaxy S20 ultra. And you see, when you switch it looks a little bit janky, right? Especially when I switched to the ultra wide: you see how there's a little bit of a, like, pause before it jumps back? And, it's not just a Galaxy S20 FE, this is the case with the OnePlus 8 Pro, OnePlus 8T, Huawei P40 Pro... all of that. The iPhone just has a little bit more fluidity in videos, that other Android phones cannot match right now.

And this year, because the iPhone 12 supports shooting in Dolby Vision, and also because it has a wider aperture to take in more light videos are even better. Just look at these video samples right here. I think all around the iPhone 12 Pro is still the best video camera around. Now as for still photos the iPhone 12 Pro is very good. Apple does a wonderful job of keeping skin tones natural, and capturing the warm vibes of a sunny day.

The iPhone 12 Pro's camera is still among the very best in the market. Like I said, the main camera now is really good in low light performance, although not as good as Huawei smartphones. But the ultrawide angle camera being able to support night mode really makes a big difference. So overall, I would say, if we're talking about the absolute ceiling of the best camera around, like the best zoom, the best bokeh, the best, maybe lively, punchy colors, I think I still prefer a Google Pixel 5, or Huawei P40 Pro+. But, the iPhone 12 Pro's camera is the best all around for everything: for portraits for video for ultrawide for main camera, for fluidity when you're zooming in and out.

Now, if there's a weakness of the iPhone 12 Pro, it is battery life, probably because this phone is running on 5G, and also, I've been shooting a lot of videos and editing it on the phone, so it's using a lot of, you know, the power of A14 Bionic. But battery life just isn't that good. So yesterday, I stepped out of the house at 9am or 10am, and I had a really heavy day, and by three or 4pm, it was already down to like 30%. So that means, if I did not charge the phone, then it would have ran out of juice by 5 or 6pm. That's like, not even dinnertime in Hong Kong.

So as for today, it's fairing a little better, because I haven't shot as many videos, but I stepped out of the house at around 11, right now it's 4pm, and you can see, battery life's at 63%. And the last couple of days before that, the battery, I would say in general, because I'm a heavy user, this phone cannot last me the entire day out. So I step out at 10am, it would run out of battery by like eight or 9pm. So I would need to find a charger. Android phones can definitely do better, but I think that's acceptable battery life considering how powerful this phone is, and I'm a very heavy, heavy user.

I think for most people, it should be able to go 12, 13 hours for you without any issues. Now if you do want to charge iPhone 12, this thing charges via lightning cable, wireless charger, and also a new thing that Apple introduced this year, called a magsafe charger. It is basically another version of wireless charging except: it clips onto the back of the iPhone via magnets and the cable is a little bit longer. So that allows you to use the phone while it's still being wirelessly charged, as opposed to, you know, if you're doing traditional Qi wire charging, you have to leave it on the charger. Now you might be asking, what's the difference between that and just plugging in a lightning cable.

And I guess you'd be right: not a big difference. I guess you can argue it's much easier to put on a magsafe charger in the dark. You don't have to hunt around for the port, you just grab the magsafe, snap it on. And you know this phone is charging even if it's misaligned, whereas when you put a phone on a wireless charger, if you put it a little bit off center, it doesn't charge. Okay, so usually I will end my reviews by going over the competition, and tell you if the phone is worth it based on price.

But I don't think that's really a game you can play with iPhones, because iPhones are kind of reviewer proof, in that, most of the people who use iPhones, they're immersed in Apple's ecosystem, and they're perfectly happy with it, and they would just keep upgrading. So to those people... that's a chunk of Americans and like 75% of Japan and a lot of Hong Kong by the way, So to those people, the only thing that matters about iPhone 12 is: how much is it better than the iPhone 11. And I would say the iPhone 12 is quite a bit better, so for them, it will justify the upgrade, and they're gonna be happy because you're getting a pretty major camera upgrade, and 5G connectivity that right now in 2020 still doesn't matter, but maybe a year from now in late 2021, 5G will be real. And also, I think being able to shoot Dolby Vision is huge.

If you're a beginning YouTuber, you don't have to invest in a proper camera; just get an iPhone 12 and you can use this as your main camera for the first year or two, until your channel grows big enough that you want to have a more professional setup. But trust me on this: not just me but even bigger YouTubers like Mr. Mobile, he has said in the past that he carries an iPhone around, because he shoots a lot of BRAW with it. So, that means a lot of the footage you've seen his videos and in my videos, are shot with an iPhone, because the iPhone cameras is that damn good. So anyway, that's about it for this review.

I'm gonna have a lot more content coming up including on the iPhone 12, and iPhone 12 against the Google Pixel 5, Galaxy S20 FE, and Huawei Mate 40 Pro; all of that. So, if you're interested, subscribe to my channel, and follow me on Instagram at Bensgadgetreviews. Thanks for watching.

Source : ben's gadget reviews