Should You Buy The iPhone 12 Now? (6 Months Later) By SuperSaf

(upbeat music) - What's up guys, SuperSaf here and Apple have just released their shiny new color of iPhone 12 in purple and it has been roughly about six months since the iPhone 12 was initially released so I thought this is a perfect time to revisit the iPhone, see how it's held up six months later and if you should buy this right now will wait a little bit longer. So I've had the iPhone 12 since the date was released, but I am primarily an iPhone 12 Pro Max user and I do switch back to the iPhone 12 from time to time and one of the things that I always appreciate whenever I come back to the iPhone 12 is just how much more compact and easier to use it is. As much as I love the iPhone 12 Pro Max, it is a very big and heavy device. And the iPhone 12, in my opinion, is the perfect balance. The iPhone 12 Mini is a bit too small for me and six months on, I'm still a fan of the design. I really do like the flat edges and this one might be a little bit controversial, but I actually prefer the aluminum frame on the iPhone 12 compared to the stainless steel frame on the Pro and the Pro Max.

Now, one of the main reasons for that is although the stainless steel looks really nice and of course it's more durable, it just gets fingerprints so quickly and it no longer looks that good whereas the aluminum frame on the iPhone 12, in my opinion, just looks better because of that matte finish. Now having said that, we do have a glossy finish on the back which has the opposite effect. Now I'm sure there's going to be a lot of people in the comments just saying hey, just use the case. And if you use a case, then you're really not going to be bothered about either of these things, but hey, I'm just mentioning it. Generally, if you do have Apple Care, then why not use it without a case.

I also like the fact that we've got lots more color options on the iPhone 12 compared to the Pro models. You've now got a total of six different colors. There's white, black, product red, blue, green, and now this purple. Now let me just say that there is literally no other smartphone company in the world that can create so much hype around a new color device. Only Apple can do this and I think they've done a really good job here with the purple.

I do like this color, it's nice that we've got the color coordinated aluminum frame, which really compliments the back. And this is more of a deeper purple compared to what we had on the iPhone 11, it's a little bit more vibrant. I'm sure a lot of people are really going to like this. I mean, if you really like this and you are waiting for it to come along, then I'm sure you've already pre-ordered it. Now let's talk about the display.

So I also really like the display on the iPhone 12. And for me personally, this was the biggest upgrade compared to the iPhone 11, which had an LCD display. We've now got an all LED display and you don't need to go technical, all you need to know that this is a much better display. You've got much more vibrant colors, you've got great viewing angles on a very nice contrast ratio as well. And this year, the iPhone 12 display's almost identical to that of the iPhone 12 Pro.

Unlike the difference that we had between the iPhone 11 and the iPhone 11 Pro, the iPhone 12 Pro does have a slightly bright display, but unless you're somebody like me who always wear sunglasses and you're fueling your smartphone out in the sun, I really don't think this is something you're going to notice much. Now being somebody that uses both Android and Apple smartphones, I definitely would have liked to have had a higher refresh rate. I also use my iPad Pro, which has a promotion display and that essentially just makes scrolling and transitions and animations look that much smoother. Now because this is the iPhone 12 model, not the 12 Pro, I can be a little bit more forgiving for this. Generally speaking, it's a very, very good display.

Something that I would like to see in the future is an always on display. This is something that I've used on many, many devices before and it's something that once you use it, it's really difficult to kind of not get used to it, just being able to see things at a glance and because this is an all LED display, it's perfectly possible. Yes, it'll have a slight impact on battery life, but this is something that I would like to see on future iPhones. Apple also use ceramic shield for the display. They don't even call it glass and this is supposed to be the most durable display on any smartphone.

Now, I've not dropped my iPhone 12 in the past six months thankfully, but from drop tests that we've seen, this has survived pretty well. However, one thing that you do have to consider is although ceramic shield makes this a lot more drop resistant, it doesn't really make it that much more scratch resistant. Now on my iPhone 12, I can notice some micro scratches that have developed over time. On my iPhone 12 Pro, I actually did the smart thing and got a screen protector on right away from our channel sponsor dbrand. So if you do want to keep your iPhone 12 display in pristine condition, I would definitely recommend picking up a screen protector.

dbrand screen protectors are ultra rounded with smooth edges, dbrand level precision, and top grade audio phobic coating. I've had my dbrand tempered glass screen protector on my iPhone 12 Pro for the last six months and it's been absolutely great. So I can definitely recommend it. I'll leave a link to dbrand down in the description below. Let's move on to the cameras.

So in my opinion, the iPhone 12 has some of the best cameras on any smartphone right now. You've got very consistent results with the primary as well as the ultra-wide camera and you get really good natural colors, excellent dynamic range, and lots of details. And the two cameras here are pretty much identical to the Pro as well so I've really liked shooting with these. Now you do miss out on the telephoto camera and this is something that I think most people are not going to have a problem with. Personally, I do miss the telephoto camera whenever I'm using the iPhone 12, and that's particularly for portraits.

Now, let me break this down. So the iPhone 12 can take portraits from the primary camera, but these are wide angle portraits. Generally, if you speak to a photographer, they take portraits with a telephoto camera. They just look more pleasing, in my opinion any way, and that's something that the iPhone 12 Pro and the 12 Pro Max allow you to do. So if you look at some of these examples here, when you're using the primary cameras for portraits, they're pretty much identical, but with the Pro and the Pro Max, you do have that ability to use the telephoto camera, which in my opinion just gives you much better portraits.

Now, some of you guys may disagree. A lot of people that I speak to think that telephoto portraits just make them look fat. I actually prefer portraits that make me look a little less slim shall we say because I am pretty slim, but yeah, if you're somebody who really doesn't mind wide angle portraits compared to telephoto portraits, I really don't think you're going to be missing that telephoto camera too much. And the selfie cameras on the iPhone 12 also identical to the Pro and the Pro Max. And they actually take good results overall.

Sometimes they can be a bit too much on the orange side I find, but generally speaking, very good cameras. And also for video, I still think that the iPhones take the best video on any smartphone right now and this is also the case for the iPhone 12, you get some really, really good quality video with excellent dynamic range. And now you also have HDR with Adobe Vision. Now on the iPhone 12, so you can only do this up to 30 frames a second, but generally speaking, I think unless it's something that you're actually looking for, having 4k 60 frames a second, you're going to be more than happy with what this smartphone offers at 4k 30 frames a second. Now, one of the things that you do miss out on on the iPhone 12 compared to the Pro models is Apple Pro Raw.

Now over the last six months of using my iPhone 12 Pro Max, I've only used Apple Pro Raw a very few times and that's because the iPhone already takes really good images. Having Pro Raw is great to be able to edit after the fact, but I think it's only for particular situations. Once again, I think you're really not going to miss out on this and it's not something that I've missed whenever I've been using the iPhone 12. And you also miss out on the LIDAR scanner that you get on the pro models, which is great for portraits in low light as well as advanced AR. But once again, it's going to come down to how much you actually value and use these things.

Personally, I didn't find myself missing them too much when on the iPhone 12. Right now, let's talk a little bit about the software performance. So we have recently got iOS 14.5 and this actually brought a lot of improvements which we've been talking about for the past few months, in particular the face ID situation. So let me just say I absolutely love face ID and it's something that's so convenient and I also love how much it's integrated with lots of apps, such as banking apps and stuff. I don't need to enter my password in or anything like that, I can just use face ID and it works and it's very, very convenient.

Now, of course, the problem that we've had over the past few months, which nobody really expected is with the whole pandemic, we're all wearing masks. And one of the things that I just find really frustrating was especially if I'm out in a supermarket, I'm out shopping, I want to see my shopping list, I'm trying to unlock my phone, I've got my mask on, I can't do it. I need to enter in my passcode. Now with iOS 14.5, there is somewhat of a solution. Now, there's a big asterisk here.

You do need an Apple Watch. What you can do with iOS 14.5 if you have an Apple Watch, you can enable a feature which will allow you to unlock your smartphone. If you have a mask on, it's going to notice you've got a mask on, but if you do have your Apple Watch, then it will still allow you to unlock your smartphone, which is something that's absolutely great if you have an Apple Watch. Now this isn't going to work exactly like face ID. If you do want to go into a particular app, then you're still going to have to enter in your passcode or remove your mask to use face ID in.

You're not going to be able to use Apple Pay like this on your smartphone. You'll still be able to use your watch. Now here's the thing, I think the perfect solution going forward for the next iPhone will be having touch ID alongside face ID. Now whether that's under the display or I think another solution would be on the power button here on the side, this in my opinion, would be a much better overall solution going forward and it's something that I would like to see. Apart from that, I also really like the additional privacy and security settings that you now have in the iPhone.

You can disable apps from tracking you which is something that's great and I'm glad that's there. You can just switch this off in the settings right away. And I also like how far iOS has come and there's lots more customizations if you'd like to use them such as widgets. Now I don't use widgets like all the time, but personally I kind of use widgets to kind of push everything down because I can never reach the top corners. Now, one of the things with iOS is that apps are always automatically organized.

You can't put some apps at the bottom and have an empty space at the top. And I kind of use widgets to push these apps down to make them a lot more reachable. So I guess this is somewhat of a solution. I would like a little bit more customization on iOS, but hey, generally I do like it. Now, one of the things that still frustrates me about iOS is RAM management.

Now, what does that mean? So RAM is just how many processes can be happening at one time and how many things can go on in the background. So let me give you an example. If I am on Instagram, I try to upload a story. Now if I leave Instagram and carry on doing something else, that story will not carry on uploading in the background. It will just stop until I come back onto Instagram and actually wait for it to finish uploading.

Now, this is a problem that I never experienced on Android smartphones because they have lots and lots of RAM and they can just carry on doing this in the background. And the iPhone 12 has less RAM compared to the Pro and the Pro Max, but this is something that I've experienced on the Pro and the Pro Max as well. So I'm assuming it's not just a hardware issue, I think it's a software issue and I hope in future iPhones, this can be improved. And if it is a case that I-phones need more RAM for this, then I hope the I-phones in future have more RAM. However, apart from that, the speed and performance has been absolutely fine.

Even six months on, this is just as snappy and as fast as it was on the first day. Right now, the new iPhones also come with 5G. So what has been my experience over the past six months with 5G? Well, if I'm completely honest with you, where I live right now, there is not that much 5G coverage, it's only in the central areas. So whenever I am in the central areas, I can experience great 5G speeds, but other than that, I've not really been able to experience 5G to its full potential. I think that's also mainly due to the fact that we have been stuck in lockdown and I've not really been traveling as much.

However, I'm glad 5G is here on the iPhone 12 because it just means that these devices are future-proofed. And I like that Apple included 5G across all of the models. So maybe you're not going to be able to take full advantage of 5G right now, but it's good to know that a couple of years down the line, if you're going to be keeping your iPhone, then you will be able to take advantage of 5G at a later point. Now let's move on to battery life and charging. So in my experience, the iPhone 12 has had really good battery life.

Even after six months, this really gets me through the day on most occasions unless I'm using the camera a lot or if I'm gaming a lot, then obviously it's not going to last as long. The iPhone 12 Pro Max is still the king of battery life in my experience. If you are somebody who's always on your phone and using it very heavily, then the iPhone 12 Pro Max is still going to be the better recommendation. But generally speaking, I think the iPhone 12 for most users is going to be absolutely fine in terms of battery life. Now, let's talk a little bit about the whole charging situation.

Now I've ranted about this in previous videos in my iPhone 12 Pro Max review so I'll link that video in the description, but Apple not including a charger out of the box on the iPhone 12 series. Now I get the whole environmental argument and I'm all for bettering the environment, but there's a few things that kind of contradict that which I've talked about. And the first thing is that these new iPhones support faster charging and if you do want to take advantage of fast charging, if you have an older charger, it's not going to be able to do that so you would have to go and buy this new charger separately which is going to cost around 19 pounds and that's obviously going to impact the environment. The other thing is that we now have Mac Safe. Now I'm a huge fan of Mac Safe.

And I think Mac Safe is really convenient especially for the times when you're half asleep and you're trying to put your smartphone onto a charger and it doesn't actually line up and you wake up to a dead phone. This is an issue that you really don't have with Mac Safe because it just snaps on, something that I really do like, but again, if you want to take advantage of Mac Safe, you're going to have to not only buy the Mac Safe charges separately, which is around 39, 40 pounds, but that Mac Safe charger has USB type C on the other side which means you can't use an older charger with that. So you're going to have to buy the faster charger separately, which is going to cost you around another 20 pounds so you're going to have to pay 60 pounds more and the environmental impact that you have from all of those additional products and the associated packaging kind of takes away from the saved environmental impact that you get from not including a charger out of the box. But anyway, let's now talk about pricing. So the iPhone 12, right now if you want to buy it from Apple directly, you're still going to be paying the same price as when it was released.

So it's about 800 pounds in the UK, and 50 pounds more you will get double the storage. Now the first thing that I want to say straight away is if you are considering buying the iPhone 12, I would definitely definitely recommend going for double the storage 128 gigabytes. You might not use it completely, but the fact that these devices can film up 4k, 50 pounds more in my opinion is definitely worth just spending for that additional storage and just that peace of mind especially if you're going to be using this for a couple of years, but to answer the question, should you buy this right now? Well, there's a few things here. I want to say firstly that the iPhone 12 is an awesome smartphone and it's still my recommended iPhone for most people even six months on, but you do have to keep in mind that it has been six months since this has been out, which means that in another six months time, there will be the next iPhone out. And if you're somebody who's going to pick up the iPhone 12 today, and then it's going to kick yourself six months down the line because now there's a new iPhone out and now your iPhone is the last year's model already just a few months down, then my recommendation would be just wait.

It's only a few more months and you'll be able to see what the new iPhone has to offer. And if you want to still get the iPhone 12, then it's going to be at a much reduced cost. However, if you are somebody who's maybe on an upgrade cycle and you have a very old iPhone and you want to upgrade now, maybe you really like this new purple color. Well, I can still recommend the iPhone 12 six months on and I think it's an excellent device, which will last you a good few years. That's what I think anyway.

What do you guys think? Drop me a comment below. Let me know your thoughts. I hope you enjoyed this video and found it useful. If you did, then do smash that like button for me, really does help me out. And if you haven't already, then be sure to subscribe and hit that bell icon for lots of more content coming up.

Thanks for watching. This is Saf on SuperSafTV and I'll see you next time.

Source : SuperSaf