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Other Who else is buying iPhone 12 Mini?

Was sure I was gonna go for the 12 Pro but seeing just how much wasn’t taken away from the mini, that I instantly changed me mind!

iPhone 5 was my favourite iPhone, both in size and form factor. Can’t wait.
 
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iPlaid said:
The reason for the delay is at the end of the trailer. The Mini has yet to be authorized for sale by the FCC.
Click to expand...

I was taking a trip down memory lane yesterday and watched the original iPhone 1 keynote. The case was the same for the iPhone 1 that it was announced but didn’t yet have FCC approval. Steve’s explanation was that they wanted to announce it before the FCC did. Interesting 🤔
 
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Can’t wait to ditch my Xr for the 12 Mini , can’t stand the size of this phone.

was looking at the 256gb blue but then noticed the coloured phones don’t blend as much in coloured cases so I’m just going with black!
 
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I'm still planning to buy the iPhone 12 mini, but it has one downside compared to the rest of the iPhone 12 lineup.

A little bit of background: a point is a standard unit of measurement in iOS development to keep everything the same size across all devices. With non-Retina, 1 point corresponds to 1 pixel. With Retina, 1 point corresponds to 2×2 pixels (2×) or with the newer models 3×3 pixels (3×). As you can imagine, 3× results in a higher density and thus a higher level of detail. Ideally, 1 point corresponds to exactly 3×3 pixels. This is indeed the case with the iPhone 12, 12 Pro and 12 Pro Max. Sadly, this is not the case with the iPhone 12 mini.

The point resolution that developers see in Xcode for the iPhone 12 mini is 375×812 points (the same as the iPhone X/Xs/11 Pro). With 3×, the pixel resolution would then be 1125×2436 pixels. But this is not the 12 mini's actual resolution: its resolution is 1080×2340 pixels. What does this mean? That the 3× image is downscaled before it's displayed on the iPhone. And it's not pretty:

1125 ÷ 1080 = 1.041666666666667.
2436 ÷ 2340 = 1.041025641025641.

We've had downscaling before with the Plus models, but at least those were downscaled exactly 1.15.

All this is probably not a problem in practice, but it might be good to know before you order your iPhone 12.

More info here: https://www.paintcodeapp.com/news/ultimate-guide-to-iphone-resolutions
 
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Heatherra said:
Wow! So in theory, how might this affect what we see on the screen? Smaller? Distorted? Or just a hurdle for devs?
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That things won't be pixel perfect. If you have a one-point-wide line, it won't be exactly 3 pixels wide. The system will work with colors to simulate this. You'll see the imperfection if you have a big magnifying glass, but you probably won't with the naked eye since there are so many damn pixels. See here and scroll to the bottom: https://www.paintcodeapp.com/news/iphone-6-screens-demystified
 
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daanodinot said:
That things won't be pixel perfect. If you have a one-point-wide line, it won't be exactly 3 pixels wide. The system will work with colors to simulate this. You'll see the imperfection if you have a big magnifying glass, but you probably won't with the naked eye since there are so many damn pixels. See here and scroll to the bottom: https://www.paintcodeapp.com/news/iphone-6-screens-demystified
Click to expand...

Thank you! This link is great and I appreciate your digestible overview!
 
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daanodinot said:
I'm still planning to buy the iPhone 12 mini, but it has one downside compared to the rest of the iPhone 12 lineup.

A little bit of background: a point is a standard unit of measurement in iOS development to keep everything the same size across all devices. With non-Retina, 1 point corresponds to 1 pixel. With Retina, 1 point corresponds to 2×2 pixels (2x) or with the newer models 3×3 pixels (3x). As you can imagine, 3x results in a higher density and thus a higher level of detail. Ideally, 1 point corresponds to exactly 3×3 pixels. This is indeed the case with the iPhone 12, 12 Pro and 12 Pro Max. Sadly, this is not the case with the iPhone 12 mini.

The point resolution that developers see in Xcode for the iPhone 12 mini is 375 × 812 points (the same as the iPhone X/Xs/11 Pro). With 3x, the pixel resolution would then be 1125 × 2436 pixels. But this is not the 12 mini's actual resolution: its resolution is 1080 × 2340 pixels. What does this mean? That the 3x image is downscaled before it's displayed on the iPhone. And it's not pretty:

1125 ÷ 1080 = 1.041666666666667.
2436 ÷ 2340 = 1.041025641025641.

We've had downscaling before with the Plus models, but at least those were downscaled exactly 1.15.

All this is probably not a problem in practice, but it might be good to know before you order your iPhone 12.

More info here: https://www.paintcodeapp.com/news/ultimate-guide-to-iphone-resolutions
Click to expand...
Thanks a lot lol
Now I’m back to considering the 12 pro. It’s just heavier than my 6s by 46 grams.
 
travelsheep said:
Without fingerprint sensor and the corona face-mask problem it's a big downgrade in terms of security and log-in... also, you're going to miss the 2nd port that can be used for microphone and headphones... (although this can be "emulated" by buying a lightning-to-2-ports hub)
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Yes, I'd definitely prefer to still have both. Having said that, we haven't had any cases of COVID where I live (a city of just under half a million people) for several months and we're not wearing masks. Obviously we are very fortunate and that could change quickly, but even then I still won't be in many situations where I would need to use my phone at the same time as wear a mask. I have AirPod Pros, but they aren't 100% reliable (gotta keep an eye on the battery!), so I would like the headphone port. Alas, Apple doesn't ask for my opinion before making their decisions :D.
 
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I still find it hard to consider any screen size at 5.4" as 'mini' when it's just one decimal smaller than my Galaxy Note II. I'm still used to screens around 4-4.8" max, but maybe I'm just old school.
 
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daanodinot said:
The point resolution that developers see in Xcode for the iPhone 12 mini is 375 × 812 points (the same as the iPhone X/Xs/11 Pro). With 3x, the pixel resolution would then be 1125 × 2436 pixels. But this is not the 12 mini's actual resolution: its resolution is 1080 × 2340 pixels. What does this mean? That the 3x image is downscaled before it's displayed on the iPhone. And it's not pretty:

1125 ÷ 1080 = 1.041666666666667.
2436 ÷ 2340 = 1.041025641025641.

We've had downscaling before with the Plus models, but at least those were downscaled exactly 1.15.
Click to expand...

While all this is technically accurate (and that page is a nice guide on showing the effects), I’m going to nitpick because this math isn’t a great way to describe the effect, and makes it harder to understand the effects on top of that. Especially since it doesn’t tell you much about things like pixel coverage. The more relevant number is the scaling factor from points to pixels. Since that tells you if downscaling is needed, and the sort of effect you’ll get much more clearly. Using the 6+ example, it’s scaling factor is a hair over 2.6. The Mini is:

Width from pt to px: 2.88
Height from pt to px: 2.881773399

So to make it clear that “exactly 1.15” doesn’t mean a whole lot, one example I can make here is that a black line that’s a single point wide with a white background. On the 6+ you will have two black pixels, and one middle gray (where it’s about 40% white). The iPhone 12 Mini in the same situation will have two black pixels, and one very dark gray one (12% white). So it will look much more like it’s 3 pixels wide, closer to the intent.

This isn’t a perfect example, but you can see that in this case, the Mini could very well have better contrast and appear less fuzzy compared to the 6+ since these blended pixels will be more dominated by a single color, rather than getting multiple colors smeared together.

I find it interesting that the aspect ratio of 1080x2340 is slightly different than the aspect ratio of 375x812. I wonder if that’s an artifact of the pentile layout or not. But pentile displays are a whole other bag of hammers, and partly the reason for jumping to 460px/in.

daanodinot said:
That things won't be pixel perfect. If you have a one-point-wide line, it won't be exactly 3 pixels wide. The system will work with colors to simulate this.
Click to expand...

I will point out that Apple abandoned subpixel AA on iOS long before they did on the Mac. Neither one does it today, so the highlighted is not true in this case. You’ll get grayscale AA, as best as is possible with a pentile OLED display, so there could still be some false color if you look real close from the pentile display’s own pixel blending.

daanodinot said:
All this is probably not a problem in practice, but it might be good to know before you order your iPhone 12.
Click to expand...

Agreed. At this pixel density, it should be fairly hard to pick out

Now, I’d be more concerned if it turns out the Mini’s non-integer scaling screws up GPU perf somehow.
 
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As long as the scaling ratio of width and height are that close, 1.04 vs 1.04, it will be perfect.
If the ratios were 1.04 and 1.10 then it would be all messed up.
 
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