Why buy an Apple iPhone 12 Pro?
Mozillion Apple iPhone 12 Pro review
Ridiculously fast and smooth
Beautiful photos on a beautiful screen
Useful upgrades over the standard iPhone 12
Not convinced? Try one of these alternatives to an Apple iPhone 12 Pro:
iPhone 12 - almost as good, but it costs a chunk less
iPhone 13 Pro - the newer, better version
Google Pixel 5 - less stylish and powerful, but still a great phone for less
Introduction
There can be little argument that the Apple iPhone 12 Pro is one of the greatest mobile phones. Building on the fantastic iPhone 12, it shares all the same strengths, but adds worthy upgrades - particularly to storage and camera performance. A true design icon, the iPhone 12 Pro is water resistant, has an all-day battery, and now supports a range of mag-safe accessories.
Design
The iPhone continues to set the benchmark for beautiful smartphones. The iPhone 12 Pro shares the regular iPhone 12’s gorgeous Super Retina XDR screen, which runs almost edge to edge. It looks incredible, particularly given the phone is barely any bigger. Apple says its Ceramic Shield technology makes it four times less likely to break - a good job: you’d be heartbroken if it did.
Like other iPhone 12s, the iPhone 12 Pro has only a single Lightning connector, used for charging and data. There’s a new family of MagSafe wireless chargers, and other accessories including cases and car mounts.
Camera
The iPhone 12 camera is one of the best you’ll find on any mobile phone, but the iPhone 12 Pro manages to improve on it. Here, the 12-megapixel system gets upgraded with a third, telephoto lens, offering improved optical zoom of up to 4X. Happily, it’s paired with dual optical image stabilisation to help offset any increase in camera shake.
Apple has added a LIDAR scanner, so the iPhone 12 Pro deals better with low light photography. There’s also support for the RAW image format, allowing greater control over the final quality of photos. With features to put pro cameras to shame, It’s an astonishing bit of kit.
Video
The iPhone 12 Pro manages to improve even on the video quality of the iPhone 12. It records 4K or HDR Dolby Vision video at up to sixty frames per second (60fps). Image stabilisation helps banish the shakes, while wider digital and optical zoom ranges help keep everything in the picture.
Display
The iPhone 12 Pro shares virtually the same 6.1” OLED screen as the regular iPhone 12. That means an incredible 460 pixels per inch for razor-sharp images, and a typical contrast ratio of two million to one. Maximum brightness is the same, but there’s a subtle boost to typical brightness, up by 28% over the iPhone 12. It really is one of the best phone screens you’ll find.
Processor
All the new iPhone 12 models benefit from the Apple A14 Bionic chip. Apple says it’s the fastest processor in any smartphone, and who are we to doubt it? Capable of one trillion operations a second, the A14 might seem like overkill for those group WhatsApp messages, but it helps make all iPhone 12 models great for gaming. And with its camera upgrades, the iPhone 12 Pro is an even more serious photography and filmmaking tool.
Battery
With its frankly bonkers processor, you might expect the iPhone 12 Pro to struggle keeping the lights on. Fortunately, Apple has engineered everything to conserve energy, resulting in a phone that plays back video for up to 17 hours on a charge - or audio for more than two days.
Colours & Options
While the regular iPhone 12 has an aluminium body, the iPhone 12 Pro is surgical stainless steel. You can have it in one of four colours unique to iPhone Pro models: Pacific blue, gold, graphite or silver. And if you don’t feel like leaving it naked, Apple’s range of MagSafe accessories includes cases and car mounts.
The iPhone 12 Pro gets a useful storage upgrade over the iPhone 12, starting out with a minimum of 128GB, and topping out at a whopping 512GB. There’s no SD Card slot, so you can’t add further space yourself. Like other recent iPhones, you won’t find earbuds or a charger in the iPhone 12 Pro box. The phone has no 3.5mm socket, but you can buy EarPods with a Lightning connector if you’re not ready to go wireless.
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