Apple announces iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Mini

This was the big one, folks. While it might be coming a little later than usual (what hasn’t in this lovely year) Apple has finally confirmed and unveiled the iPhone 12 series. Announced tonight during the company’s press conference, we now know exactly what the iPhone 12 is all about and, shocking absolutely no-one, it’s not exactly all that much of a deviation from previous devices.

Having said that, it would be unfair to just say they’re like all the others because there are some cool new additions to the phones, so let’s break down exactly what we’re working with here.

What’s special about the iPhone 12?

So the two most basic phones announced this evening, although “basic” seems a touch excessive, are the 5.4in iPhone 12 mini and the 6.1in iPhone 12. Both of these devices will support OLED panels and 5G functionality.

The big new feature that Apple seems to be pushing is 5G which, well, at this point it’s not all that special but it is new to iPhones. Whether you’ll be able to use 5G to such a vast extent in South Africa, well that’s yet to be seen.

Smooth, flat edges are part of the iPhone 12’s new design and were apparently built with 5G in mind. It’s 11% thinner than the iPhone 11 and 15% smaller too! It also comes equips with a new OLED display with twice as many pixels as last year’s iPhone.

The iPhone 12 is also reportedly the most durable phone in the industry (according to Apple anyway). With some kind of sci-fi breakthrough, Apple has worked with its partners to develop what it’s calling a “Ceramic Shield”. What this entails is the insertion of nano-crystals embedded in the phone’s glass that are constantly growing and replacing themselves. This apparently improves the drop performance of the phone by 4x, meaning it’s less likely to break than ever before.

How fast?

The iPhone 12 comes equipped with a brand new processor chip: The A14 Bionic. Built on the latest 5nm processing units, this new sports consists of a 6 core CPU and a 4 core GPU which are both reportedly the fastest in any smartphones. Moreover, the A14 Bionic features an improved neural engine, from 8 to 16 cores, to further enhance its machine learning capabilities and is able to calculate 11 trillion operations per second. Wow!

In terms of camera, the iPhone 12 has a 12 MP f/1.6 main camera Ultra Wide and 12MP Wide lens. It also features better low-light performance and computational photography to deliver such features as Night Mode (apparently the best in the industry, what isn’t at this point?) and enhanced Ultra Wide photos. Oh, and the front camera is also getting that Night Mode, for those poorly lit selfies when you’re out on the town.

Magnets! How do they work?

While it might seem small, MagSafe is actually really cool. Inserting a newly designed and robust magnet into the back of the iPhone 12, Apple hopes to improve charging speeds with the wireless charging mount and make improve how users accessorise their phones. It’s a small feature but really cool!

iPhone 12 Mini is also here!

Yeah, it’s an iPhone 12 but actually smaller! Weirdly enough, it has the exact same specs as its bigger sibling but it’s just a little smaller. So all that 5G talk, the A14 Bionic chip and that crystal clear camera? Yeah, they’re all present here but the device is just smaller, measuring in at 5.4″. That means the screen is larger than Apple’s current smallest phone, the iPhone SE but the actual build of the phone is smaller than even that! In fact, Apple has stated that the iPhone 12 Mini is the smallest 5G phone in the world. That’s super neat!

If those specs are to be believed then the iPhone 12 Mini could maybe be the most powerful compact phone on the market. Only time will tell and a thoroughly robust test of the device when we eventually get our hands on the device.

The iPhone 12 launches on 23 October in the States while the iPhone 12 Mini will drop shortly after that, in November, alongside the iPhone 12 Pro Max.