My Thoughts About iPhone 12 (Hands-on)
DISCLAIMER: This is NOT a sponsored writeup, so I’ll be giving my honest opinions.
Hi guys, Howard here. I know both the bigger and the smaller iPhone 12s will be on sale tomorrow, but I’ll still talk about my brief hands-on experience with the regular sized iPhone 12 and the 12 Pro.
The Apple Store Situation
Before COVID-19, everyone can enter the Apple Store freely whenever they like; whether to play with the products on display, service their own device or even buy their products. Currently, that freedom is taken away due to COVID-19 still existing here. To enter the Apple Store now, you must book a time slot and provide a valid reason due to safe distancing measures and to minimize the crowd. As a walk-in customer, the process to check myself in to the store is more difficult. If I go there to service my Apple device or buy anything from their store, I’ll most likely be given a slight priority to enter, but of course the ones that booked the appointment gets the highest priority. Likewise, if I go there to only browse their products, then I’ll be given the lowest priority (but that also depends on the crowd in the store too). My initial plan was to head to the store at Marina Bay Sands to have a hands-on on the iPhone 12s since I haven’t gone there before, but I was told that all the available slots were ‘filled’ on that day. So I went to the Orchard Road store instead and it gave me better results; they had an available slot 45 minutes after I reached there. Not wanting to waste any chance, I took that slot. Not more than 5 minutes after confirming my slot, I was surprisingly being let in by another staff, which is way earlier than my supposed time slot.
Getting my hands on the iPhone 12 and 12 Pro
However, I was only given 15 minutes to browse the latest iPhone 12s (and the iPad Air 4th gen), so I better make the best use of that short amount of time given. I’m not going to dive into the specs (you can find it elsewhere), but I’m only going to focus on the tangibles here.
Getting my hands on the regular iPhone 12, it does really feel grippy to the hand thanks to the flat-edged design of the phone, and I don’t feel uncomfortable gripping the regular iPhone 12 amid the concerns towards comfort of the flat edges (and likewise the regular Pro). The Pro however, definitely has more heft and the matte back feels slippery to the hand. I’d describe the material choices of the 12 and 12 Pro to be polar opposite; the 12 having the non-fingerprinty aluminium edges and a regular glossy back, the 12 Pro having the fingerprinty stainless steel edges and a premium feeling matte back. Since most people are going to put on a case anyway, the material choices won’t be an issue. But still, the regular 12 feels lighter than the 12 Pro despite having the exact same dimensions on all axes. Even the screens are also of the same kind and same size too (both have 6.1 inches OLED screens)!
Speaking of screens, they still have that same old notch on the forehead since the iPhone X. It still looks massive as compared to modern Android phones racing against one another to reduce the screen cutouts as much as possible for more expansive screens. That’s because most Android phones don’t need to scan faces to unlock… The highly anticipated high refresh rate screens are also absent on both iPhones however, whereas most modern Android phones already have them. Well, I dare say it’s a fair compromise because the iPhone 12 series, which are already capable of 5G, have reportedly smaller batteries than their predecessors. And if Apple adds high refresh rate screens onto the iPhone 12 series on top of 5G and smaller batteries, it’ll be detrimental to the battery life.
The A14 chip powering the iPhone 12s is expectedly snappy which should be unsurprising to anyone. I don’t feel the extra oomph while trying out the phones, maybe because the A14 chip is too powerful to show its potential today but possible to unleash it sometime in the near future; it just needs to be compared side to side with an A13-powered iPhone to make its performance obvious. I guess even people using iPhones powered by A11 chips don’t find it laggy today.
Oh, MagSafe makes a comeback but as a modular magnetic solution. All the iPhone 12 models will have this super cool magnetic attachment to charge wirelessly. Before this MagSafe wireless charger came about, you’d find it inconvenient to use your phone when charging wirelessly. Using magnets on both the iPhone 12 and the MagSafe charger, you can just use your phone freely while being magnetically attached to it. It does make a good fidget toy by attaching and detaching the magnetic pad onto the phone though, just that it’s advisable to cut off the power supply first!
And much to everyone’s disappointment, iPhone 12 still has Apple’s proprietary Lightning port when almost everyone was wishing for USB-C to be on iPhones. OH NOOOOOOO…! With MagSafe being a game-changer to wireless charging, I guess we all can give up hoping for USB-C on iPhones. To be fair, the MagSafe charging cable has a USB-C plug, BUT legend has it you have to shell out extra cash for a USB-C charger cuz existing iPhones nowadays (including non-12 models) don’t come with a charger or earphones… unless you already have one. Legend has it again it’s for ‘environmental purposes’. But if it’s for ‘environmental purposes’, why didn’t Apple use USB-C for its iPhones so that it can use the same charger as current Android phones or even MacBooks? Because MagSafe.
The 12 is the best choice for most people if all you want is a regular iPhone (though 128 GB storage is wiser). As for the regular Pro, it’s in an awkward position however; it has 3 awesome cameras and is better for multitasking but will be overshadowed by the bigger Pro Max which reportedly has an even better camera system than the regular Pro (basically rivalling Samsung Ultra phones).
iPad Air 4th Gen
The iPhone 12s aren’t the only new devices I wanted to get a feel of through hands-on; enter the iPad Air 4th gen. Basically an iPad Pro killer with some clever features, period.
See that power button above? That’s Touch ID fused right into the power button! It’s especially helpful during the mask-wearing times where it will bust Face ID unlocking on higher tier Apple devices. Well actually, this implementation isn’t really new; some modern Android devices and laptops (including MacBooks) all have a form of fingerprint sensors on their power buttons already. If you know how that implementation works, the Air’s one works the same way. Honestly, the iPhone 12s should also have this same clever way of Touch ID implementation on the power button like the Air’s, rather than sticking to only Face ID which was mostly rendered useless due to COVID-19.
The rest of the device is basically an iPad Pro lookalike with only the essential features. This meant no high refresh rate screens or any other unnecessary extras. The Air’s screen is reportedly 0.1 inch smaller in the same frame as the 11-inch Pro, but I don’t find that small difference hindering my experience at all. It’s basically just a mid-tier modern-looking iPad with more colour options and a USB-C port (finally). It’s also powered by the same A14 chip as the iPhone 12s, but reportedly performs better than the iPhone 12 Pro. Its new design also allows it to be capable of using the same Apple Pencil (that doesn’t look silly when charging) and Magic Keyboard case as the Pro’s. To be honest. I don’t really feel that missing the high refresh rate or Face ID are dealbreakers for an average user, since the performance is already excellent for a mid-tier tablet.
The iPad Air will sure appeal for its colours and its price, but the last gen iPad Pro will also be a good buy if you don’t care about its longevity.
15 Minutes Over
Okay, so my very brief 15 minutes in the Apple Store was well spent feeling the new devices by touch rather than ogling them on the screen, though I’d have wished to stay there longer if not for COVID-19 measures. Will I buy one of the new iPhones? Not at the moment, cuz my current iPhone is still working fine. I think I should see myself visiting the Apple Store again soon but for the 12 mini and the 12 Pro Max, hehe. Howard out!
