I have had every iPhone since the 4S so can have my opinion, if i see a problem with one for me i call it out, there is 12 apple products in my house but i am not blind folded lol.
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iPhone 12 mini Undecided - 12 or 12 mini?
- Thread starter prazakj
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It should've been called iPhone 12 Compact.
Mini sort of puts you off, you don't want to pay a lot for mini.
The Mini brand of autos are not economy cars. Both brands are a lot of fun at a fair price.Mini sort of puts you off, you don't want to pay a lot for mini.
If history repeats itself, and remember with Apple, they are creatures of habit, not until the next iPhone is released. They've never listed a current year's model under their refurbished section.
The battery life is ”ok”but it could be better. I’d love a slightly thicker mini with 50% bigger battery life. Heck I’ll give up the lightning port for thin mini with 100% increase in battery Life.
It took Apple 4 years to come up with a form factor similar to what Steve Jobs thought optimal. We've been complaining about battery size for what, 8-10 years? Maybe with Jony out of Apple (but still a consultant), thin will be out? Doesn't seem so. Apple thinks eventually battery life will be OK with more efficient screens and CPUs (or perhaps a battery tech breakthrough in the next 10 years). So the long wait continues.
One reason is correct, but you have the wrong reason. It is to make iPhones thin. Easy to replace the battery every few years far cheaper than buying a new phone.
Its actually a bit wrong, iPhone are not that thin nowadays
If you compare side by side with iPhone 6/7/8, its sightly thicker
They cant make 12 Mini thicker than 12 because of design continuity
There is more consistence and coherence when you buy an Apple device than any others devices
Let takes an example, every year or so, Samsung will change their Galaxy flagship design, size (S10e is gone)
The downsides:
If you compare side by side with iPhone 6/7/8, its sightly thicker
They cant make 12 Mini thicker than 12 because of design continuity
There is more consistence and coherence when you buy an Apple device than any others devices
Let takes an example, every year or so, Samsung will change their Galaxy flagship design, size (S10e is gone)
The downsides:
- Economy of scale for Apple but for their own benefit not our (sadly)
- They keep recycling same design over and over with same principle of recycling design
- Of course you pointed it out, because of this continuity in the design, 12 Mini has worse battery life
Iphone 7=7.1 mm
Iphone 8=7.4 mm
Iphone X=7.7mm
Iphone XS/max=7.7 mm
Iphone XR=8.3 mm
Iphone 11=8.3 mm
Iphone 11 pro/max=8.1 mm
Iphone 12/12 mini=7.4 mm
12 series phones are relatively thin when compared with recent models. The iPhone 13 could easily be a few .mm thicker to accommodate a bigger battery; in fact leaks/rumours so far have indicated the 13 (12S) series phones will be a bit thicker.
That's why iPhone 11 Pro was also a first iPhone without 3D Touch which helped the battery capacity. Together with a bit of thickness it came out as one of the best iPhone with battery life.
It alsways depends on the daily basis. Mini feels light because of it's size and also it depends on from which device are you coming from. For me personally it feels so light because I was moving from XS.
Very interesting is comparing first gen. of SE (7,6mm) to 12 mini (7,4mm). I thought about it otherwise in a first impression.
I also don't think that Apple can make a better batteries these days. If we look at speed on chips, there are always so big improvement year over year. Batteries doesn't have these improvements that quickly. Sadly.
It might seem small, but recent history (say the last 15 years) show lithium battery capacity (or power density) increasing 5% a year (some cite as much as 8%). That means every year, without breakthroughs, the same size battery has longer life. That gets pretty significant eventually. I've noticed replacement batteries always have more capacity than the originals myself. One year by itself is hard to notice. Anyway, I can speculate that without such increases in capacity, Apple may have not been able to continue its thin is better culture.
More efficient processors probably have an even larger gain annually, but a good bit of that extra power does not go to battery life gains as they are used for extra processing for such things as smooth and fast user interface and app performance, and major power for things like computational photography.
However, both more efficient processors and gains in battery capacity (and lower power screens) does increase battery life year over year for the same size battery. The larger the phone (despite larger screens) the larger size battery does increase battery life over smaller models. Thus the reason why forum posters focus on the difference between large models versus smaller models, even though even current smaller models have battery life unimaginable only a few years ago. Getting through a full day of heavy use per day without plugging in. But now the bar has been raised and now complaints are focused that you cannot go through two days without recharging now!
More efficient processors probably have an even larger gain annually, but a good bit of that extra power does not go to battery life gains as they are used for extra processing for such things as smooth and fast user interface and app performance, and major power for things like computational photography.
However, both more efficient processors and gains in battery capacity (and lower power screens) does increase battery life year over year for the same size battery. The larger the phone (despite larger screens) the larger size battery does increase battery life over smaller models. Thus the reason why forum posters focus on the difference between large models versus smaller models, even though even current smaller models have battery life unimaginable only a few years ago. Getting through a full day of heavy use per day without plugging in. But now the bar has been raised and now complaints are focused that you cannot go through two days without recharging now!
Weird. I own a 12 Mini and have seen the screens of several 12/12 Pros/12 Minis and I would wholeheartedly without a doubt say the 12 range has the best screen on an iPhone ever. It's fantastic. The auto brightness is bright for me even when it adjusts to a low level.
12 Mini is pretty close to perfect in every aspect IMO.
Great in depth view. Thank you for your concluding which is the thought I had for a few years in my mind. Everybody complains about not going through the two days but in the era of 4s or 5 nobody cared.
@yticolev, @prazakj I'm on the same page as you both. Just a few short years ago, you were lucky to get an entire day from your smartphone. How quickly we forget. Now sure, everyone'e usage is different, but I find it hard to believe that all those so-called "power users" who complain about battery life, don't have access to a charger throughout their day. With all of the desktop/auto/portable charging options available, I can't understand how people get so up in arms about battery life in 2021.
Hi guys again. As long as I didn’t have specific thread about this and also don’t want to start a new one, I try to ask you here. I’m thinking about getting my first Apple Watch. I never saw much usage for me personally before and nowadays I mostly workout with YouTube videos as none of downloaded apps were OK for me. So here is that question: how much battery can Apple Watch pairing takes you from your iPhone? For me personally, iPhone 12 mini to be exact. Maybe @stanza.richi could help me with this. 🙂
Like you, I never saw much need for a smartwatch. In fact I'd briefly used a series 0 for 2 months, then a series 2 for a few weeks. It wasn't until the 3 that I realized it was something I didn't want to be without. I ended going for a series 4 with LTE and I honestly feel lost if I don't have my Apple Watch on. Didn't see enough reason to upgrade to the 6, so I'm excited to see what the 7 offers this year.
Sorry for the long winded reply, but to answer your question: there's no noticeable hit in my phone's battery life with the watch that I've encountered. Think of it as being about the same as using Bluetooth earbuds. Indoors I'm on WiFi so there's minimal battery loss on the phone if any. Again, other's may have different use and may disagree, but in the end, I love my Apple Watch very happy with it, I'm sure you would be too.
I’ve used an Apple Watch for years. Yes, it does impact the battery life of the iPhone somewhat, but it’s not significant enough for me to ditch the Watch. It really is a great accessory, but be prepared to charge it every 2-3 days (using battery save mode during night helps a lot). At least the watch charges fast 🙂 And with the new updates of both the watch and the phone, where you can now use the watch to unlock the phone while wearing a face mask, makes it even more useful. Also, you don’t have to get the newest Apple Watch. I have the older series-4 and it still works great.
Thank you for your input. Sadly there is no LTE version of Apple Watch in our country, but for me as a starter in Watch I think I would prefer to go for SE model. Maybe it wouldn’t convince me in the end and letting go for the half of the price the Series 6 wouldn’t hurt me that much.
I don’t turn off wifi even outside, same applies for cellular and bluetooth. I do use AirPods almost daily so I can figure it out the usage. For example today I have 43% of battery on my 12 mini in 8pm and usage of 4hours and 32minutes. So give or take, Watch could take me around 10% daily?