Here is a quote from a reviewer that pretty much sums up everything:
“The iPhone 12 Pro Max is pretty much the closest we have seen a phone come to a high-quality point and shoot camera. No, it does not bring the sort of shooting variety as regards to zoom that something like the
Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra brings to the table, but in terms of realistic detail and sheer consistency, it is unmatched.
We knew almost exactly what we were going to get every time we hit the shutter on the iPhone 12 Pro Max, and that is something that is very rare in phone camera territory, where brands do have a tendency to mess around with software tweaks, call it computational photography or whatever you wish. It is not as if the iPhone 12 Pro Max is immune to this – it only seems to tweak images for more realistic shades and details rather than going for the “pleasant looking” images that are the flavor of the day. Even selfies are (sometimes painfully) realistic.
The results the cameras of the iPhone 12 Pro deliver are frankly the closest thing we have seen to a high-class point and shoot camera.”