Etagege – As i’m sure you’ve noticed phones have been slowly getting bigger and bigger and bigger over the years this is one of the first iphones.
Well actually it’s one of the first ipod touches but the screen size and dimensions are nearly identical in 2007 and 2008 phones of this size would have been the norm.
But put it next to something like the iphone 12 pro and it looks like a toy this is a graph of the average phone screen size over time before 2010 the average screen size was below 3 inches but by 2015 sizes were approaching 5 inches and by 2019 we were hitting 6 inches.
Obviously this graph has to plateau at some point as the size can’t keep getting much bigger without becoming extremely inconvenient human hands only get so big after all.
But my point here is that we’ve gotten so used to these huge phones lately that when a truly small phone comes along that has very few compromises it’s refreshing exciting even quinn tweeted recently that the 12 pro max feels ginormous after using the 12 mini and that the 12 mini just feels like the right size now and that’s exactly how i feel about using this phone for a couple of months.
Yes initially the 5.4 inch display felt a little bit small and i had to get used to using a small keyboard again but i love the size of the 12 mini it just feels right.
Thankfully apple decided to use oled display tech in that 5.4 inch screen and it looks great it’s definitely on the small side for watching movies or tv shows but it’s a full 1080p display and for casually watching youtube videos in your spare time.
It’s excellent the new industrial squared off design with rounded bezels makes it feel very modern and it’s very enjoyable to hol especially since it has a weight of 133 grams.
I cannot overstate just how comfortable this phone is to use picking up a phone like the 12 pro not only feels huge now but it also feels heavy at 187 grams like i said the iphone 12 mini has very few compromises.
I’m not going to go in depth on the specific tech specs of this phone because i’ve already covered that ad nauseam in my full review but i do want to talk more about how this phone feels to use and the potential compromises you may run into if you decide to buy this phone as you would expect from a brand new iphone performance is top.
Notch i’ve had no real performance issues to speak of minus the odd ios bug here and there and although gaming on a smaller screen like this isn’t ideal it does perform very well graphically that performance does come at a cost though.
If you push this phone with a lot of gaming or a lot of photo or video recording the battery will take a hit that’s the biggest compromise you’re going to run into if you own the 12 mini if you’re just browsing social media you’re watching videos or calling and texting you’ll get some solid battery life out of this phone.
That’s the beauty of the a14 bionic inside it has two high performance cores and four high efficiency cores meaning that it has power when you need it and it can conserve power when you don’t people that are used to bigger phones with bigger batteries could be disappointed though.
You should expect around four and a half to maybe five hours of screen on time if you’re just using your phone for simple stuff but you’re going to get a bit less than that if you’re doing a lot of gaming or recording a lot of video before i talk about the cameras which are also great by the way.
Now let’s get back to the 12 mini okay the cameras the 12 mini shares the exact same cameras as the more expensive iphone 12 and 12 pro although the 12 pro comes with an extra telephoto and lidar sensor both rear-facing cameras are excellent the ultrawide can be a bit softer than the main camera but it still takes great photos and videos.
Nonetheless the normal wide-angle camera is now slightly brighter than last year’s and can take better shots at night.
The iphone 12 series did introduce dolby vision hdr video but honestly i find it a bit finicky to color grade and therefore i usually just turn it off in the camera settings.
It does look really cool when played back on an iphone or some other device that has hdr though either way you really aren’t compromising on cameras by going with the 12 mini.
In my opinion yes the telephoto camera and the lidar sensor can be useful but when i was using the 12 pro as my daily driver i rarely used them.
If you want to see exactly what the lidar does on the 12 pro i’ve got a pretty interesting video on that up here nope up here yeah over there the iphone 12 series also introduced a new-ish way of charging and connecting accessories called magsafe i say new ish because technically magsafe existed in the older max for charging but it’s completely different in the new iphone so yeah anyway.
I do like the magsafe charger it makes wireless charging a lot easier because it lines the charger up perfectly with magnets so that it gets the fastest wireless charging it’s capable of every single time which is 12 watts there’s also a few magnetic car mounts available.
Some cases wallets and a few other accessories but nothing that really makes the experience of using the 12 mini stand out from other smartphones in my opinion.
The last thing that could be annoying for you with the 12 mini is the problem that all high-end iphones are facing right now and that’s face id under normal circumstances face id is fantastic it’s fast it’s accurate and it works in the dark.
But in our current state of affairs in the world these are far from normal circumstances wearing a mask makes face id useless and you’re forced to use the passcode unlock in that scenario.
I really do wish apple started using the under the screen fingerprint readers or if they’re too scared to use that relatively new tech throw a fingerprint reading power button in there like they did with the new ipad air.
All right let’s talk about the price if you buy this phone without a carrier deal it’ll cost you 729 us dollars straight from apple that’s far from cheap particularly for a compact phone not only that but the phone doesn’t even come with a charging brick or headphones.
Just a usbc to lightning cable either way i don’t think the 12 mini has a
terrible price tag especially since i love the phone so much but i think it would be much more of a smash hit if it were priced at you know 600 or even 650 as opposed to 730. so here’s my final verdict after two months.
The iphone 12 mini is still a fantastic buy it’s fast it’s got a great display in cameras and best of all it’s small.