Apple iPhone 12 Pro

The Apple iPhone 12 Pro is the comprehensive and professional iPhone with triple camera on the back. You can't tell by looking at the spec sheet alone, but the cameras are a lot better than last year. Other differences are very subtle and require some explanation. And that is exactly what we are going to do here.

Same screen but a little bigger and a little brighter

The iPhone 12 Pro has a slightly different look with flat sides in glossy stainless steel. The screen edges are slightly thinner, allowing Apple to fit a larger 6.1-inch panel while the inclosure is almost the same size. It's still a Super Retina XDR display with HDR10 and Dolby Vision support. But there's something else. The panel now has a maximum brightness of 1200 nits. The higher this number, the more light it can produce and the better it can be read outdoors. Disappointingly, Apple hasn't increased the refresh rate. Where the competition is already at 120 Hz, resulting in much smoother images when scrolling, for example, the iPhone 12 Pro is still at the now old-fashioned 60 Hz.

27% more light-sensitive camera

On the back we still find three camera lenses with all three a 12MP sensor. The first is a wide-angle lens with a bright f/1.6 lens, the ultra-wide-angle camera gets an f/2.4 lens with a 120° angle of view and the telephoto lens has a maximum aperture of f/2.0. Combined, you can zoom in and out 2x optically or 10x digitally. If you want to be able to zoom in even more, you will need the iPhone 12 Pro Max which goes up to 2.5x optical and 12x digital. On paper the improvements look minimal but the camera of the iPhone 12 Pro is 27% better in catching light and you can see that difference. All this should result in sharper images, a longer shutter speed and therefore better exposed and perfect photos. All automatic thanks to the renewed Smart HDR 3 algorithm that works in the background. There is now also a LiDAR scanner on the back for depth recognition. This makes numerous AR applications and games possible.

Main Apple iPhone 12 Pro specifications

• Larger 6.1 inch Super Retina XDR screen with higher maximum brightness
• 12+12+12 camera system with wide-angle, ultra-wide-angle and telephoto lens for 2x optical zoom
• 12MP selfie camera (TrueDepth) with Nite Mode
• Apple A14 Bionic with choice of 128, 256 or 512 GB storage
• Water and dustproof housing made of frosted glass, stainless steel and Ceramic Shield
• 5G support for high-speed mobile internet
• MagSafe support for 15 Watt wireless charging or compatible accessories

The return of MagSafe

A high-end flagship is only worth its price if it is powerful and tactile. To guaranty this, Apple has equipped the iPhone 12 Pro with its new A14 Bionic chipset. This is 50% more powerful than the A13 and thus handles all tasks you throw at it almost immediately. Slowly your iPhone 12 Pro will never feel like it even after a few years of use. It's great that this year's entry-level model comes out with 128GB of memory instead of 64, and you can go all the way up to 512GB. Totally new this year is the presence of MagSafe. Magnets in the back allow you to quickly and accurately attach Apple's own MagSafe charger. Charging with the MagSafe charger is 2x faster than before with any Qi charger; 15 watts instead of 7.5 watts. Wired charging is possible with a maximum of 20 Watt, but then you first have to buy a charger, which is not in the box this year. Apple does this to conserve the environment. Hope you still have one, or you'll have to buy one.