Apple Announces iPhone 12 Series and HomePod Mini at October Apple Event

Apple has today unveiled their latest smartphone, the iPhone 12 and it was right on the money from the leaks we have seen all year.

The iPhone 12 still maintains the same design aesthetic from the iPhone 11 series. There is still a huge notch at the front and giant camera lenses at the back. It is still made from either aluminium or stainless steel but this time round, they are boxy like the legendary iPhone 4.

This year, the other big upgrade is the inclusion of 5G to the next generation of iPhones. The next generation of cellular network is finally on iPhone and it promises way faster download and upload speeds than the current 4G speeds.

This year we have 4 new iPhone 12 models: iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max which are segmented on various price levels.

The iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini

These are the two iPhones in this generation that are expected to sell the most. They start at $699 for the 12 mini and $799 for the regular 12 and they share the same features.

They have a Super Retina XDR display with a ceramic shield front cover which Apple says gives 4X more impact resistance.

They also both feature the A14 Bionic which Apple boasts has 50% more power compared to competing chips. They didn’t compare it with the A13 which was weird which I guess it is because the jump was smaller this time round.

The cameras have been improved. The main 12MP camera has a wider f/1.6 aperture which provides 27% more light to the sensor for better low light shots. Speaking of low light, night mode and deep fusion will work on all cameras. Smart HDR 3 will also use machine learning to adjust white balance, contrast, texture and saturation of a photo for better images.

iPhones shoot great video and the 12 series follow that tradition. They are the first to shoot in Dolby Vision which is a HDR standard.

The iPhone 12 and 12 mini come in (PRODUCT) red, green white, black and blue.

iPhone 12 Pro and 12 Pro Max

Apple finally made the ‘Pro’ iPhones more ‘pro’ in this generation and that was made sure with the cameras.

Starting with the display, the 12 Pro has a 6.1 inch OLED XDR Retina display like the regular 12 but the 12 Pro Max has an even bigger 6.7″ OLED XDR display. They have the ceramic shield tech present on the regular iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini.

The Pro models still have the stainless steel design which is chamfered this time round for a better finish. There are 4 colours: Blue, Graphite, Gold and Silver.

The camera system on the iPhone 12 Pro is akin to what we saw with the regular 12 Series. The iPhone 12 Pro has the same 12MP f/1.6 main camera and the same 12MP wide angle camera as the other iPhone 12. but adds a 12MP telephoto camera However the iPhone 12 Pro Max takes it to a whole new level with a bigger sensor on the main camera (47%) which makes it have larger pixels (1.7μm size) while still maintaining the f/1.6 aperture. The 12 Pro Max also has a longer 65mm telephoto camera that enables it to have 5x optical zoom

The Pro iPhones also do something cool with video. In addition to Dolby Vision video shooting like the regular iPhone 12, they also add AppleRAW photo shooting so that you can adjust values later on (great for pro photographers).

The Pro models also have a LiDAR scanner which allows the iPhone to have better AR experiences due to the sensors ability to measure light distance and use pixel depth information of a scene. Combined with the power of the A14, apple claims that improves autofocus by 6 times in low light scenes for photography and helps night mode portraits as well as more realistic augmented reality (AR) experiences.

New weird accessories

Apple also introduced a whole new of categories that they call MagSafe. They brought back the MagSafe brand which was dumped after they dropped the magnetic chargers from their Macbooks in 2016.

MagSafe will improve wireless charging according to Apple. It features an array of magnets around the wireless charging coil of the iPhone for better alignment. These MagSafe chargers will provide upto 15W of power while still accommodating existing Qi-enabled devices. They also have weird MagSafe accessories like the leather wallet that clips at the back of the iPhone.

Apple also announced new HomePod

Today, Apple also unveiled their new HomePod mini. This is the latest smart speaker from Apple that follows the old HomePod.

It is powered by the S5 chip that is used for processing and they boast its sound relative to its size. It also looks like a fancy candle unlike the old HomePod which looked like a tissue role.

Apple claims that this will have an “incredibly rich and detailed acoustic experience” which is not hard to believe since they proved it with the original HomePod.

The interesting bit is the integration with various streaming services. In addition to Apple Music, it will also support Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, and Amazon. This is unlike the old HomePod which only supported Apple Music. However, they left out support for Spotify, Tidal and Deezer which is unfortunate.

There is a new feature called Intercom which makes HomePod work like a walkie talkie around the house.

It will start at $99 which is pretty great pricing and will be available in white or space grey