Following small delay owing to the coronavirus pandemic, Apple have unveiled the latest iPhone models: iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, and iPhone 12 Mini.
Last month, Apple’s traditional September keynote unveiled the Apple Watch Series 6 and the new iPad, but one notable absence was the iPhone. This was expected, as Apple had revealed way back in July that problems across supply chains and manufacturing due to the coronavirus pandemic had disrupted their plans for a September release. While this isn’t the first time Apple has had to delay the release of a new iPhone – the iPhone X and iPhone XR in 2017 and 2018 respectively were both delayed due to production issues – but it was still disappointing news for many.
Perhaps the most notable feature of the new iPhones is the jump to 5G. The newest generation of mobile internet, 5G offers fast, seamless performance, with speeds ten times faster than 4G. Average speeds are around 150-200Mbps, but the technology has the potential to reach a whopping 1Gbps. 5G coverage in the UK is currently very patchy, concentrated on major towns and cities, and even then, connectivity isn’t guaranteed. 5G is expected to fully roll out across the country over the next year or two, and these new iPhone models will be the first capable of taking advantage of the superfast speeds. Apple CEO Tim Cook remarked that "5G will bring a new level of performance for downloads and uploads, higher quality video streaming, more responsive gaming, real-time interactivity and so much more”.
The design of the new iPhone models has changed fairly significantly. While 2019’s iPhone 11 was pretty much identical to its predecessors the iPhone XR and iPhone XS, the iPhone 12 is something of a departure. The so-called “notch” at the top of the screen is smaller, and the standard iPhone 12 model is 11% thinner, 15% smaller and 16% lighter than the iPhone 11, all without reducing the screen size, 6.1-inch. Most notably, however, is the return to a more angular form factor more reminiscent of the iPhone 4. The casing of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Mini is aerospace-grade aluminium, while the iPhone 12 Pro’s is surgical-grade stainless steel.
The new display is dubbed the Super Retina XDR, an OLED display with more pixels than the iPhone 11 – 2532 x 1170. The improved screen is behind a layer of protective “Ceramic Shield” glass that claims to be the toughest glass on a smartphone. The iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Mini are IP68 certified, and are safe underwater in depths of up to 6 meters for up to 30 minutes, and improvement on the iPhone 11’s 2 meters.
The iPhone 12 features 12MP Ultra Wide and Wide camera lenses with optical image stabilisation, while the iPhone 12 Pro features an additional Telephoto lens with dual optical image stabilisation. Both models allow video recording in the Dolby Vision HDR format, with the iPhone 12 allowing recording up to 30 fps and the iPhone 12 Pro up to 60 fps.
