The New iPhone 12 Pro Max Is Apple’s Biggest Phone Ever
Apple has recently revealed its iPhone 12 lineup, a class of four 5G-ready phones, at its “Hi, Speed” event — and it looks promising.
The hype around the iPhone 12 has finally been answered. At the recent Apple “Hi, Speed” event, the tech giant introduced the iPhone 12, featuring an improved camera system, a crisper display, and a superfast A14 Bionic processor. More importantly, though, is that it’s 5G-ready. The new family of flagships— comprising of the iPhone 12, 12 Mini, 12 Pro, and 12 Pro Max — certainly seems interesting, but definitely not cheap, with the cheapest phone, the 12 Mini, starting at $699. However, what are the biggest takeaways from the big reveal? Let’s find out, shall we?
A14 Bionic Chip: Faster, Yet More Efficient
Every year, Apple’s smartphone chips get better and better. For example, the A13 Bionic chip revealed in 2019 could do almost 600 billion operations per second. However, Apple has just topped that (by a lot) with the A14 Bionic, which can do 11 trillion operations per second using 16 Neural Engine cores (Apple’s neural network hardware), making it “80 percent faster at machine learning.” This means that the iPhone can carry out tasks faster and more efficiently than ever before, and they claim it's the fastest chip ever in a smartphone.
Additionally, the A14 Bionic sports a six-core design, allowing it to be high performing while being energy-efficient. The amount of transistors has increased to 11.8 billion, a 38.8% increase from the A13’s transistor count of 8.5 billion. And if you thought it couldn’t get better, you would be wrong, as the A14 Bionic is the world’s first 5 nm processor in a smartphone, which is insane!
Along with the six-core CPU, the A14 Bionic chip has a four-core GPU, which Apple claims will provide a better gaming experience, in terms of quality and speed.
This new processor is claimed to be faster than the best Windows laptops, Android tablets, and Chromebooks. However, this is yet to be tested and will be confirmed once the devices are shipped.
Innovative Camera System: A Serious Upgrade
One of the biggest things that brought attention to the iPhone 11 release last year was the Pro Max’s triangle camera system design. Aside from the meme-able camera design, the camera of the phone was seen as much better than the previous models, especially with its ultra-wide camera, allowing for large, decent-quality photos.
Secondly, it came with a night-mode, allowing consumers to take good pictures in dark environments. So, has the camera changed from its predecessor? Yes. How? Let’s find out.
iPhone 12 and 12 Mini
Similar to the iPhone 11 of last year, the iPhone 12 and 12 Mini both have two cameras — a 12-megapixel wide camera and a 12-megapixel ultrawide camera (It’s 12’s all around isn’t it?).
However, there are some changes to the camera system this year. For example, the main wide camera’s larger f/1.6 aperture lets 27 percent more light hit the camera sensor. Additionally, these phones include an f/2.4 ultrawide camera with a 120-degree field of view. This ultrawide lens supports Night Mode, unlike the iPhone 11.
The iPhone 12 can also shoot HDR video with Dolby Vision at 30 fps, allowing for better video and film quality than ever before, though we don’t know if it rivals the Samsung’s S20 phones, which have camera resolutions as high as 108 megapixels.
iPhone 12 Pro
On the Pro version of the iPhone 12, Apple added a 12-megapixel telephoto camera, but it looks the same as it was last year on the iPhone 11 Pro.
However, this camera can now be used to take photos with Deep Fusion, an AI system that improves the sharpness of images by capturing frames of differing exposures and merging them on its own. This camera system also has a LiDAR sensor, which can help take better photos with low light.
Along with 2x optical zoom and 10x digital zoom, you also get the same HDR and Dolby Vision video but at 60 fps instead of 30 like the iPhone 12 and 12 Mini.
iPhone 12 Pro Max
The 12 Pro Max is the best of the class of new phones this year.
The phone’s 12-megapixel f/1.6 aperture wide camera has a 47% larger sensor, and the system has a 2.5x optical zoom and 12x digital zoom.
The main camera on the 12 Pro Max has sensor-shift optical image stabilization, which makes photos more stable by offsetting any movement through the sensor moving inside the camera itself.
Revamped Design: Tougher, Sleeker, and More Durable
Apple has also gotten a lot of attention for the lineup’s new design. It has transitioned from the round edges of previous iPhones to more squared-off edges, making the phone look sleeker, kind of like the iPhone 5 and 5S.
Additionally, this new class of iPhones (according to Apple) is:
- 11% thinner,
- 15% smaller, and
- 16% lighter
The iPhone 12 and 12 Pro both have a 6.1-inch OLED display, while the iPhone 12 Mini has a 5.4-inch screen. However, the 12 Pro Max has a screen at a whopping 6.7 inches, meaning that the 12 Pro Max has the largest iPhone screen ever.
The display also includes a “Ceramic Shield,” which is made by infusing glass with nano-ceramic crystals to make them more durable and more resistant to drops. Speaking of safety, the phones have an IP68 water resistance rating, which means they can survive submersion.
The 12 and 12 Mini both have five outer finishes: black, white, (PRODUCT)RED, green, and blue. The Pro versions come in silver, graphite, gold, and Pacific Blue, along with a textured matte glass back.
5G: iPhones Have Entered the Market
5G has made waves in 2020, with many companies releasing amazing phones supporting the wide 5G infrastructure being planned and even built by companies such as Samsung. Now, Apple has joined that club.
Apple’s new family of phones all support 5G, even some of the fastest types of it like millimeter wave (mmWave). It also supports low-band and mid-band 5G, which offer a longer range but lower speeds. iOS has also been optimized to use 5G efficiently, which will provide a better experience using the new networks. Along with this, LTE speeds have been increased to support data speeds up to 2 Gbps.
Becoming More Wireless — Year By Year
To improve your wireless charging experience, Apple has placed magnets to better align your phone position for more efficient charging. Apple also revealed a new class of MagSafe accessories, including a charger that supports 15-watt wireless charging.
However, one big surprise is that Apple took out the wired EarPods and the charging brick that would normally come in the box, but there is a USB-C to Lightning cable now. This was a good decision because most people already have EarPods and the charging brick lying around the house, and without them, Apple reduces the amount of e-waste it produces and can make the box slimmer, which is more efficient.
Is iPhone 12 Worth It?
Well, maybe. Like most phones, we make our own opinions once people like tech reviewers, the general public, or even you get them and test them. Although I might be a little biased to Android, I am still pretty interested in what will happen in the future, since the iPhone 12 definitely looks promising.
In the past few decades, technology has been advancing so fast that it's hard to keep up, from 5G to artificial intelligence.
We are seeing this in smartphones too, from super-fast processors to advanced cameras that can zoom in on the tiniest of objects.
I’m excited for what the future holds for these phones, Apple, 5G infrastructure, and consumer tech in general. Additionally, Apple adding 5G support to their phones brings the technology out to many more people, as the number of Apple ecosystem users is very large.
The future is bright for smartphone technology —the advancements will only get larger and larger, and I can’t wait to see it.
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