iPhone 12 Pro Honest Review after 1 week!

Welcome to Max Tech and this is our review of the iPhone 12 Pro. On the surface, the iPhone 12 Pro seems like it's basically the same phone from last year, just with an updated design and a couple of added features, but in reality, it's actually the biggest generational leap since the iPhone 6s, which was such a solid phone that Apple struggled for years trying to get people to upgrade to a newer iPhone. So in this review, I'm gonna explain why the iPhone 12 Pro is so good that it's following in the 6s' footsteps. Going back to Apple's iPhone event, a lot of people were quite disappointed with the iPhone 12 lineup, saying that nothing has really changed, but that's far from the truth. Just like the iPhone 11 Pro from last year, the iPhone 12 Pro ended up being so much better than I expected when I finally got my hands on it and started testing it out. In fact, there are so many improvements that Apple didn't mention during the event, so in this review, instead of just giving you guys all the specs you've already heard in other reviews like the new A14 Bionic chip, the LiDAR scanner, the 6GB of RAM and everything else, I'm gonna talk about the things that actually matter in everyday life. And I'm also gonna talk about the most controversial topics, like the real reason why Apple got rid of the power adapter and the wired earbuds that used to come inside of the box, and also the whole thing about 5G and battery life which a lot of people are misunderstanding and throwing under the bus, so let's get right into it! This year, things are a bit different because I can't order the 12 Pro Max that I want until next month, but I did buy my wife the 6.1 inch 12 Pro, which she's been using for the past week. So for this review, I asked her if she noticed anything different coming from her iPhone 11 Pro, and I was shocked by the amount of improvements that she noticed. But before we get into that, I want to talk about why I think the iPhone 12 Pro is so great that it's easily worth upgrading from an older iPhone, maybe even the iPhone 11 Pro. I personally believe that there are 3 reasons why people should upgrade to a new phone, and the iPhone 12 Pro completely nails all three of them. The first one is that the phone has to feel different, because when you're spending much money, you don't want it to feel like your previous phone. That exact reason is why so little people upgraded from the iPhone X to the iPhone XS, they were so similar that you couldn't even tell them apart. But when I first got the iPhone 12 Pro in my hands, I was completely blown away because it feels like a totally different phone, and I'm reminded of that every time I pick it up. Yes, that's due to the new flat sides, which Apple executed perfectly. The edges are barely rounded into the flat sides, but at the same time, both the glass on the front and the glass on the back are perfectly flush with the stainless steel band. Seriously, if you haven't held the iPhone 12 in your hands, you have to go find one because it feels so much better than you'd expect. My wife was initially stunned by the new design, but after a couple of days, she fell in love with her iPhone 12 Pro, saying that it's so much easier to hold, and she absolutely loves how clean and smooth the new design looks, being flat all the way around. And because the front glass is also now completely flat, Apple was able to make the bezels quite a bit more thin, and thanks to bumping up the display to 6.1", my wife told me that she loves how much more immersive the display in the phone feels. And on top of that, Apple has improved the speakers, being louder and sounding better than the ones on the iPhone 11 Pro, which were already a massive improvement compared to older iPhones, so this really helps it feel like you have a totally different phone. Now the second reason why people should upgrade to a new phone is reliability. Yes, we've got the new A14 Bionic chip which is the fastest iPhone chip ever, obviously, but honestly, it doesn't really make the iPhone feel any faster than before. And like I say every single year, the performance differences actually go directly towards efficiency and camera improvements, which I'll get into in just a minute. One major thing I complained about last year was that the 11 Pro still only had 4GB of RAM, and that led to apps closing in the background, which was extremely annoying. But now, the iPhone 12 Pro finally has 6GB of RAM, and so far, I haven't experienced any issues yet. We also now have the ceramic shield front glass, which is supposed to have much better And since I use my iPhones naked, without a case, this gives me a lot of extra peace of mind. And now, let's get into all of that 5G and battery life controversy. Yes, the battery is quite a bit smaller than it was last year, and that's because Apple had to make the iPhone quite a bit thinner so the squared off edges don't make it feel too thick. And because of the smaller battery, the 12 Pro now gets about 1 hour less of battery life compared to the iPhone 11 Pro, according to MrWhosetheboss. And I think it's because of the A14's killer graphics performance, which demands more power in the AnTuTu graphics test that he was running. But considering the fact that the display is now larger, 6.1 inches compared to the previous 5.8, it's actually not too bad of a hit. And that brings us to the controversy of 5G, which can lead to even worse battery life, but there are two very good solutions that people aren't talking about, or at least, they're misunderstanding. Apple created the Smart Data mode which only turns on 5G when you actually need it, which means that you could potentially go through a full day without 5G being turned on even once, which means that it doesn't impact battery life at all. Now I know what you're gonna say, what's the point of upgrading if it's not even using 5G? Well, this might surprise you, but the even bigger deal is the fact that Apple is finally using Qualcomm's Snapdragon X55 modem in the new iPhone 12 lineup, and this new modem is the real game-changer. So here are a couple of screenshots I took using my iPhone 11 Pro and the new 12 Pro in my basement, and as you can see, the reception is terrible on my 11 Pro. And simply switching to the 12 Pro using LTE, I got 25x faster download speeds, and 5G was actually slower because it doesn't seem to penetrate into basements that well. I then went upstairs, and now 5G is actually giving us a huge advantage, as high as 87 megabits per second using T-Mobile's low-band 5G which is basically everywhere in my city, and not the mmWave 5G which I think shouldn't even matter because you can move a couple of feet and lose mmWave. And now while upstairs in my house, the LTE on the 12 Pro isn't much faster than the 11 Pro for download speeds, the upload speeds improved quite a bit as well. So here's the thing about 5G and the new iPhones, if you're worried about battery life, just turn off 5G and enjoy very reliable LTE speeds that are now much faster, as you guys saw in my basement. Not only that, but after only a week, my wife has already noticed much better cellular service all over town, including a friend's house where she always struggled with bad service on her previous iPhone 11 Pro. But now, this Qualcomm modem is a game-changer without even considering 5G, so I ended up simply turning off 5G on my wife's iPhone 12 Pro because she honestly doesn't like 5G and she would much rather have better battery life instead. Now let's finally get into the third reason why I think people should upgrade to a new phone, and that's the feature set. I think one of the biggest deals for the iPhone 12 lineup is the new MagSafe feature. Apple basically created a new ecosystem of accessories that can more conveniently attach to the iPhone using magnets, like of course, the MagSafe wallet that I'm still patiently waiting for. There are also now popsockets that are coming to the iPhone 12, no longer requiring a sticky adhesive to hold on. Car mounts are about to become so much more convenient with magnets built into the iPhone And there are so many possibilities that we haven't realized yet since this is the first week since the iPhone 12 has been released. And I honestly believe that after a full year, the market is gonna be flooded with MagSafe accessories, and this feature itself is gonna get people to upgrade. Now beyond that, the absolute number one feature that I didn't expect to get improved this much is the camera performance. That was the one thing that my wife wouldn't stop talking about. She was so impressed by how every photo looked more sharp on the iPhone 12 Pro, especially the ultrawide camera which looks so much better than before. And this is odd because it's literally the same exact camera sensor and lens from the 11 Pro's ultrawide camera. The big difference is in the new software improvements. We now have Smart HDR 3, which uses AI to optimize various parts of the scene. We also now have night mode on every single camera, which is a game-changer because you'd be limited to the wide lens on the 11 Pro if you wanted great-looking nighttime shots, and now, selfies look amazing in the dark, even pitch black, as you can see right here. And on top of that, the iPhone 12 Pro comes with a new LiDAR scanner, which is basically like an upscaled version of Face ID that helps with 3D depth mapping and tracking. The LiDAR scanner enables nighttime portrait photos, which we've never had before because portrait shots require much more light, and as you can tell, these photos turn out great. But what you might not know is that the iPhone 12 Pro actually uses the LiDAR scanner for video recording in the dark as well. Check out the difference between these three generations of iPhones. The iPhone XS doesn't even try to focus, while the 11 Pro hunts for focus non-stop, but the 12 Pro gets it spot on every time, thanks to using the LiDAR scanner. But the absolute biggest deal of all is getting deep fusion on every single camera, including the selfie camera. It basically takes multiple photos in the blink of an eye, and then combines the data from multiple photos into one, compressing the detail into a tightly packed and incredibly sharp photo. That's why everything from ultrawide photos to zoom shots and even selfies look so much more detailed than before, even though the actual megapixels of the sensors haven't changed. And I need to remind you that all of these major software improvements are possible because of the massive performance improvement of the A14 Bionic chip. Since all of this happens in real-time, unlike other phones like the Pixel 5, which makes you wait for seconds to finish processing before you can see things like the background blur and the true dynamic range. Apple wants this type of processing to happen right away, and the A14 chip allows them to enable processor-heavy features like Deep Fusion and Smart HDR 3 on all of the lenses. So with all of that said, the iPhone 12 Pro absolutely nails the three things that I believe matter the most in terms of iPhone upgradeability. And with that, I want to finish with the real reason why Apple didn't include a charger or wired earbuds in the box. Yes, I guess in a way it does help the environment, but it honestly helps Apple much more. Because they ditched the charger and the earbuds, they not only save money on those two items, but they're now able to make every iPhone box twice as small as before, saving them massive amounts of cash in terms of material, transportation, inventory and shipping costs. Not only that, but it forces people to buy wireless AirPods and a fast charger, which means even more potential profit for Apple. Now while that makes them seem very evil and greedy, let me remind you that Apple kept the price of the iPhone 12 Pro at the exact same $999 while adding a bunch of expensive features. The top of the line 5G modem from Qualcomm definitely wasn't cheap. We now have 6GB of RAM instead of 4, 128GB of base storage instead of 64, a brand new flat-edge design which requires retooling, better water resistance, a brand new 5nm chip from TSMC, a brand new wide sensor from Sony, new ceramic shield glass from Corning, a new LiDAR scanner for the first time ever on any iPhone and of course, the new MagSafe built right into the iPhone. We're basically getting a lot of extra features and hardware this year at the exact same price, while a lot of other Android phones are getting more expensive thanks to 5G support, or in the case of the Pixel 5, which sacrifices flagship specs and features to save money. Instead, Apple is giving us brand new tech and top of the line hardware for the same price as before, and they're sacrificing the charger and earbuds to do it, which is actually okay with me because I already have a fast charger and I already have AirPods, like many other people out there. So with all of that said, let me wrap up this review with the three biggest reasons why anyone should upgrade to the iPhone 12 Pro. Fast and reliable LTE cellular service, major camera improvements thanks to the A14 Bionic chip and finally, the new flat redesign which makes it feel like you have a totally different phone, and that truly matters for upgradability. So if you choose to upgrade to an iPhone 12 or 12 Pro, it's gonna feel modern for the next few years since the rounded side redesign of the iPhone 6 lasted for 5 generations before this flat-side design change, so to be completely honest, there has never been a better time to upgrade to a new iPhone. Hopefully you guys enjoyed this review, and if you did, click that circle above to subscribe because I'm gonna be reviewing the iPhone 12 Pro Max as soon as I get my hands on it next month, and also be sure to check out our camera comparisons right over there. Thanks for watching, and we'll see you in the next one!