Apple iPhone 12 (128GB) - Blue

Product Information

While at launch this feature is limited to cases and a charger from Apple, these accessories are an upgrade on previous years, and when third parties get involved we could start seeing some real innovation with the iPhone that other brands, with less scale, just couldn’t match. We also found that coverage of signal is improving – relying on 5G, we were able to send and receive messages on a portion of our regular train journey that previously was a blackspot for all data.

iPhone 12 review: a small phone with big potential | TechRadar iPhone 12 review: a small phone with big potential | TechRadar

The results are genuinely startling, with shots taken in complete darkness looking as clear as day – literally. It’s MagSafe, the same magnetic, snap-on technology that Apple has previously used on MacBooks to connect the power adapter. The portrait mode on the front-facing camera seems to be more effective at finding the edges of hair this time – we didn’t spot any examples where the iPhone 12’s attempts to blur the background yielded a foggy mess around the subject. That said, given that many are holding onto their phones for three or four years nowadays, this is a feature that will only become more useful over time – the iPhone 12 can connect to a huge range of 5G frequencies too, meaning that if there’s a 5G signal where you are you should be able to connect to it, whether on sub-6 or mmWave networks.While Night Mode can be startling in its ability to brighten an almost pitch-black scene, though, we would have liked to see more of an upgrade. These MagSafe accessories have a small chip inside them that the iPhone is able to read, so it can register what they’re supposed to do. With the iPhone 12 camera, you're left with a sense that Apple has done enough – by improving the sensor on the iPhone 12 a little here and there, the photographic results are a little more impressive, with the Night Mode upgrades in particular doing their job well. The cable that comes with the iPhone 12 is USB-C to Lightning, which means you probably won't have a charging block that works with it. The HDR-improved results are clearer and more colorful when viewed side-by-side with their non-HDR counterparts, but the difference isn’t that marked.

iPhone 12 (Blue, 128 GB) - Flipkart APPLE iPhone 12 (Blue, 128 GB) - Flipkart

Firstly, the 5G speeds you can reach when you do make a connection are mind-blowing… we clocked 200Mbps with ease on a train at one point (on the EE network in London, UK), and we downloaded a 110MB audiobook in half a minute, where a 4G connection was struggling at a much lower rate. It definitely works best with the ‘main’ wide sensor though – while in our tests while we found that both could capture some shockingly bright images, Night Mode with the ultra-wide sensor produced more ‘muddy’ pics, which makes sense given it’s not as adept at shooting in low light. The front of the iPhone 12 features a new Ceramic Shield to further protect it from shattering, with Apple claiming it’s four times less likely to break in a drop, so Apple is going big on durability with this model. One of the most contentious changes with the iPhone 12 doesn’t revolve around the phone itself, but what comes with it.It's also important to note this is just one member of the iPhone 12 family, which has a record four phones, including the iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max. But you might not notice a massive difference in the quality levels between the iPhone 11 and 12 (if you're trying to choose between those two models, for instance); you'll get good-looking, colorful snaps, but it's the iPhone 12 Pro (and especially the 12 Pro Max) that have some of Apple’s best cameras right now before you look at the iPhone 13 range. Rather than using it on the ultra-wide sensor, making the process speedier and sharpening the results would have been better to see. The phone got more features with iOS 15 and we can count on it getting newer updates for years to come. This is typical of Apple, which has kept 2019's phones and discounted them as cheaper alternatives, so we expect the iPhone 12 to not just be viable but crucial to Apple's strategy going forward.

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The main thing that impressed us with the iPhone 11 back in 2019 was Night Mode, and it's back with the iPhone 12 – plus you can now use it with both the wide and the ultrawide sensor too. Apple has made a huge deal about the fact that its iPhone 12 range can record video in Dolby Vision on the fly, and can also process it before displaying it in HDR (high dynamic range) quality on the display.It’s not as long-lasting as the competition (as ever), but most iPhone users won’t notice a significant issue when it comes to battery life – it’s on a par with iPhones of 2-3 years earlier, although not with the longevity of the iPhone XR and iPhone 11.

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It’s also designed to make the rear of the phone twice as likely to survive a drop, even though it’s using the same glass as on the iPhone 11. Motorola’s Moto Mods, in particular, were hugely impressive – being able to clip a game controller, battery pack, speaker or even 5G modem to your phone was a brilliant idea. The iPhone 12 design has been tweaked, with squared-off edges that are highly reminiscent of the iPhone 4 and iPhone 5 from yesteryear, and a new Ceramic Shield front that’s allegedly four times harder to shatter than the iPhone 11 (not that we were willing to drop-test our review sample).It’s easy to dismiss the iPhone 12 as just 'more of the same', especially when you consider the new and compact iPhone 12 mini is also an option, and you can always go for the iPhone 13 series now. The iPhone 12 feels like it's packed with potential – but Apple is relying on others to make it a success to a large extent. While we’re going to go into the more nuanced upgrades in the iPhone 12 compared to previous models later in this review, there are two key changes for 2020's model that will likely attract your attention.