The reviews for the iPhone 12 Pro Max and iPhone 12 mini are finally in.
After it released the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro, Apple made fans wait for the iPhone 12 mini and iPhone 12 Pro Max. Now, every iPhone 12 model is on the market — and Apple fans have a big decision to make.
Here is a look at what reviewers across the internet thought of Apple’s smallest and largest iPhone 12.
Tiny iPhone.
Image: ZLATA IVLEVA / MASHABLE
Good news for people with smaller hands
The Verge, Dieter Bohn:
“To me, the iPhone 12 mini is most reminiscent of the iPhone 5. Yes, it is bigger and has a glass rear panel instead of aluminum, but it shares the squared-off aluminum sides and general feeling of being an object that was designed to be proportional to your hand. This is a phone that you can get a grip on, literally.”
Mashable, Brenda Stolyar:
“It’s really easy to hold one-handed. In fact, I very rarely used the phone with both hands for the majority of my time reviewing it. On a typical day, I’d have a cup of coffee in one hand while mindlessly snapping photos and answering texts with the other.”
The Pro Max is big. Like, really big.
Engadget, Chris Velasco:
“Apple also gets credit for managing to squeeze in an even bigger display. At 6.7 inches, this Super Retina XDR screen is the biggest that Apple’s ever packed into an iPhone, and it’s both gorgeous and a little daunting. The gorgeous part is self-explanatory: It’s plenty bright for outdoor use, and the OLED display ramps its brightness up even further to 1,200 nits when displaying HDR video.”
The Verge, Nillay Patel:
“There’s just no getting around it: the iPhone 12 Pro Max is a very big phone. The measurements don’t tell the whole story — by the numbers, it’s just a little bit bigger than the 11 Pro Max, but the new design with flat sides makes it feel much larger than it is, and makes it slightly harder to hold than a phone with curved sides. It’s also a bit heavier than other big phones like the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra and iPhone 11 Pro Max, which makes it feel even bigger.”
The Pro Max’s camera is better in low light …
Wired, Julian Chokkattu:
“One key factor to note is that because the Max’s sensor can take in more light, you don’t have to rely on Night mode as much unless you’re photographing a scene that’s much darker. That also means the Pro Max can capture low-light photos faster than the iPhone 12 Pro. Speed in low light is important—shaving milliseconds off the amount of time the shutter is open means less of your hand’s shaking is recorded, and fewer shots come out blurry.”
Wall Street Journal, Joanna Stern:
“After hundreds of lowlight photos, I’ve concluded that in dark situations, the Pro Max takes less-grainy, less-blurry photos and videos with more accurate colors than the other iPhone 12 models—and definitely better than the Google Pixel and the Samsung Galaxy Note 20. But when you have some street light, the difference fades.”
… but iPhone 12 mini camera is still pretty damn good
Tom’s Guide, Adam Ismail:
“But the iPhone 12 mini’s greatest advantage, in my opinion, is the way it navigates selfies and portraits. Compared to Google’s effort, I’d be much more willing to post Apple’s showing here to my Instagram. Not only is the iPhone’s shot generally sharper, retaining more warmth in my skin tone, but it also nails those especially minute details, like the fabric of my winter hat and the texture of the tag on the front. This is Apple’s Deep Fusion feature at work, snapping and melding multiple exposures together to dial up the fidelity on the most intricate aspects of every scene.”
TechCruch, Matthew Panzarino:
“The iPhone 12 mini is basically identical in the photography department to the iPhone 12. You lose nothing, it’s a great camera. Nothing much to see there though so I’m not spending any time on it. You will have a world class phone camera, just no telephoto.”
Big phone.
Image: ZLATA IVLEVA / MASHABLE
Battery life isn’t bad …
CNET, Patrick Holland:
“The sleeper feature on the 12 Pro Max is its large battery. Apple doesn’t say how big the battery is, but during the week I had the phone, it made it through a day and a half without a problem. Over the weekend, it made it all the way through Friday, and by Saturday afternoon at 1:30 p.m. it still had 40% left.”
Mashable, Brenda Stolyar:
“The chipset is supposed to be more efficient when it comes to optimizing battery life. And the 12 mini does have impressive battery life depending on how much you use it. During my time with the phone, I would consistently eke out 12 hours each day before reaching low battery. With its small size and therefore, smaller battery, that’s actually pretty impressive — it’s also longer than the 10 hours I managed to squeeze out of the iPhone 12 Pro.”
… but Apple may have sacrificed 120Hz refresh rate for it.
Engadget, Chris Velasco:
“The one real knock against it is that, unlike basically every half-decent Android phone, this screen only refreshes at 60Hz. Leaks published before Apple’s big event strongly suggested that the 12 Pros have all the hardware they need to actually do this — they just don’t. Maybe it’s to prolong battery life in the company’s first 5G phone, maybe it’s something else. Apple bet that people wouldn’t miss it and that’ll largely be true, but if you have experienced faster screens, it’s hard to go back.”
5G still isn’t that great
CNET, Patrick Holland:
“Currently, the iPhone 12 Mini is the smallest 5G phone you can buy. I tested it in Greenville, South Carolina, on both T-Mobile’s 5G network and Verizon’s Nationwide 5G. The consistency of 5G speeds weren’t consistent.”
The Verge, Nillay Patel:
“I tested the 12 Pro on Verizon’s network, which offers ultrafast millimeter wave (mmWave) 5G on various street corners and sports stadiums around the country, so for the 12 Pro Max I used AT&T’s network. And 5G in the US continues to be a deeply mixed bag that is barely worth discussing.
Anyway, I cannot stress this enough: 5G in the United States is more hype than reality, and you should not buy a phone because of it. Just ignore it for another year. It’ll be fine.”
The mini is worth the upgrade for a lot of people
TechCrunch, Matthew Panzarino:
“Of course, if you’re already self selected into the cult of Max then you’re probably just wondering if this new one is worth a jump from the iPhone 11 Pro Max. Shortly: maybe not. It’s great but it’s not light years better unless you’re doing photography on it. Anything older though and you’re in for a treat. It’s well made, well equipped and well priced. The storage upgrades are less expensive than ever and it’s really beautiful.”
Mashable, Brenda Stolyar:
“I also think it’s a worthy upgrade even if you currently have a more recent iPhone. But that’s really only if you’ve been settling for Apple’s larger devices for years now, and have been patiently waiting for something like the 12 mini to finally launch. With the latest specs under its hood, that price is easier to justify knowing the mini will last you through years of iOS updates.”