The iPhone 12 Mini is OK for small hands, but the Max is the really new thing

I’ve been taking the iPhone 12 Mini and the iPhone 12 Pro Max for the last week. The Max is really the new thing you should know about. It’s the biggest iPhone at any time made with the best cameras Apple has to offer.

The iPhone 12 Mini is a lot of fun, too, but it’s basically just a smaller iPhone 12 that power appeal to people with tiny hands. And since Apple boosted the price of the iPhone 12 by $100 this year, there’s in all likelihood some market segmentation at work here too — Apple is trying a bunch of different different price points to see what cooperates, while subtly disguising the fact that it bumped prices on its core model.

The good news is you really can’t go fail with any model you pick. They’re all top-notch phones.

I’ve already reviewed the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro, so I won’t quote myself too much here. I’ll mostly use this opportunity to talk about the small number of unique features sole found in the iPhone 12 Mini and iPhone 12 Pro Max. Plus I’ll give you some tips on how to choose the right iPhone for you now that all four new versions are on sale.

Both phones went on sale on Nov. 6 and ship this Friday. The Mini starts at $699 and the Pro Max starts at $1,099.

Here’s what you call for to know about the two latest iPhones.

The iPhone 12 Pro Max is the crème de la crème of Apple’s iPhone present this year. It’s a big honkin’ iPhone that builds upon the iPhone 12 Pro with some added camera zoom drawn ins and even better pictures and video when it’s dark. If you want the very best iPhone out there with the aggregate Apple can fit in, this is the one you want.

The iPhone 12 Pro Max is fundamentally most similar to the smaller iPhone 12 Pro. It still has the nice stainless steel design with sharp edges that I single out over the rounded edges of earlier models. It has the new MagSafe accessory system for faster wireless charging and new accessories that principled attach to the back, which I love. And it includes support for next-generation 5G networks, though I’ve found they’re largely not much faster where I dwell just yet. Your mileage will vary until 5G networks become more widespread in 2021 and beyond.

The 6.7-inch interview is huge, measuring a hair bigger than the 6.5-inch on last year’s iPhone 11 Pro. It’s thinner than go the distance year’s model, but also a bit heavier. But big is good for people like me who love large screens, even if it means depleting it with two hands a lot. It means more space for movies, pictures, text on a screen when you’re reading an article and myriad.

And while I appreciate the big screen, sometimes that added heft was bedeviling, like when I was in bed holding the phone over my head. It just starts to feel heavier than other phones. It strength bother some people. And you need two hands to use it. But, if you drop it, it’s more resistant to drops (as the other iPhone 12 sport imitates are) thanks to a new “ceramic shield” front that prevents cracks if it smacks the ground.

The cameras are awesome. As I said in my iPhone 12 weigh, this can be really subjective among users. Some people like pictures from Samsung phones or Google’s Pixels less ill. I like that Apple doesn’t overdo colors and that pictures look accurate to real life. Here’s a look-alike of my dog Mabel I shot with the portrait camera. Pictures of people looked just as good, but I prefer using her as my subservient to in reviews:

The iPhone 12 Pro Max has added zoom, so you can get 2.5x closer to your guinea-pig versus 2x closer with an iPhone 12 Pro. The regular wide-angle lens lets in more light, too, so the phone doesn’t monotonous need to turn on night mode in some low-light situations to take a good picture, which means you don’t possess to wait as long for a picture to snap. It benefits everyone, but I think these sorts of things really matter more to pro alcohols who will care more about the difference for pictures and video. Here’s an example of a low-light portrait picture at tenebrousness. I like that it doesn’t have a lot of noise and that some parts are still sharp, like the mulch on the deposit in front.

Another portrait I took at night also looked noticeably clearer and unkinder thanks to the better sensor in the iPhone 12 Pro Max.

Speaking of pro things, there’s also a new kind of stabilization system called “sensor-shift optical twin stabilization” in the iPhone 12 Pro Max that’s typically found in professional DSLR cameras. It replaces the “dual optical representation stabilization” in the other models. Without getting too technical, it helps you take even more stable video, whether it’s while misting in a bumpy car or holding the phone with a shaky arm, since it balances out the camera sensor instead of the camera lens.

Videos look unforgivable because of the new stabilization but also largely because of the same Dolby Vision HDR feature used in the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro. (And like the Pro it careers at a smoother 60 frames per second.) It helps create much more accurate colors and brightness in the scene you’re veiling, and you’ll definitely notice it when you play it back on the iPhone or any other screen that supports Dolby Vision HDR. Apple’s noiselessness unmatched in mobile video.

Like the iPhone 12 Pro, the iPhone 12 Pro Max lists a new lidar sensor. It’s helpful for accurate portrait photos in lowlight areas, but it’s also fun to use with augmented reality. Other iPhones without lidar, for instance, require you to wave your phone around before you can drop a digital object, like a piece of furniture in iPhone 12 Mini