iPhone 12

Apple on October 13, 2020, introduced the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini, which offer powerful features at an affordable price tag. Originally sold alongside the more expensive and now-discontinued iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max, the iPhone 12 and 12 mini remain ideal for anyone who doesn't need pro-level camera features.

The 6.1-inch iPhone 12 was a successor to the iPhone 11 from 2019, while the 5.4-inch iPhone 12 was an all-new size and marked the smallest iPhone Apple had introduced since the 2016 iPhone SE. Aside from screen size and battery size, the two phones are technically identical. With its small size, the iPhone 12 mini is ideal for those who prefer an iPhone that can be used one-handed.

The iPhone 12 and 12 mini feature Super Retina XDR OLED displays, with an edge-to-edge design with the exception of the Face ID notch and small bezels around the edge.

The 5.4-inch iPhone 12 mini has a resolution of 2430 x 1080 with 476 pixels per inch and the 6.1-inch iPhone 12 has a resolution of 2532 x 1170 with 460 pixels per inch. The displays offer HDR support with 1200 nits peak brightness, Wide Color for vivid, true-to-life colors, Haptic Touch for feedback, and True Tone to match the color temperature of the display to the ambient lighting for a more natural viewing experience.

Apple overhauled the design of the iPhone 12 lineup in 2020, introducing flat edges that were a departure from the rounded edges of prior models and are similar in design to the iPad Pro. The front of the iPhone is protected by a Ceramic Shield cover that replaces the standard cover glass of previous models. Apple says the Ceramic Shield is infused with nano-ceramic crystals and offers 4x better drop performance. Apple largely carried over the iPhone 12 design and Ceramic Shield for the iPhone 13, and the two generations look very similar to one another.

As with other recent models, the back of the iPhone 12 is made from glass, with the two halves of the device sandwiching an aerospace-grade aluminum enclosure that comes in six colors: blue, green, black, white, (PRODUCT)RED, and purple, an extra color added in April 2021.. The iPhone 12 models offer IP68 water and dust resistance and can hold up to submersion in 6 meters of water for up to 30 minutes.

The iPhone 12 models were the first to support 5G connectivity for faster downloads and uploads, better quality video streaming, improved gaming, and higher-definition 1080p FaceTime calls. 5G coverage is available worldwide, but only iPhone 12 devices sold in the United States support mmWave 5G, which is the fastest 5G technology available.

iPhone 12 models sold in other countries are limited to the slower but more widely available Sub-6GHz 5G connectivity. In the U.S., 5G speeds can be as high as 4Gbps, even in highly populated areas.

Gigabit LTE is supported when 5G isn't available, and to preserve battery life when using 5G, a Smart Data Mode reverts to an LTE connection when 5G speeds aren't necessary.

The iPhone 12 and 12 mini support WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0, plus they include a U1 Ultra Wideband chip for spatial awareness and interactivity with other devices that include the U1 feature such as the HomePod mini.

There's an A14 chip inside the iPhone 12 models, and it was the first chip in the smartphone industry built on a 5-nanometer process for performance and efficiency improvements. Apple said at launch that the 6-core CPU and 4-core GPU in the A14 were 50 percent faster than the fastest competing smartphone chips, although the A15 chip in the latest iPhone 13 models has pushed things even further. The A14 chip also includes a 16-core Neural Engine that offers an 80 percent increase in performance for machine learning tasks compared to the previous A13 chip.