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Art et designTranscription
00:00Hey what's up, MKBHD here, and this is the iPhone 12, and I feel like we've all seen
00:14an iPhone before at this point, this is a pretty familiar iPhone, we've seen the rounded corners
00:18and the notch and the lightning port, but there are a couple key changes this year that
00:23are a first in the iPhone.
00:25So I've been using this iPhone 12 for a bit, since my impressions video, and it's my favorite
00:30iPhone ever, mostly because of this design, but if you're considering getting one, there's
00:36some stuff you should know.
00:37Now I'm gonna do a separate video on the Pro, in this sweet blue color, I think it's the
00:42best color, but these two phones are very similar, same exact size, like a case that
00:46works for one, works for the other, same main cameras, almost the same screen, same battery,
00:51same charging, but there's a couple things that only apply to the Pro, and I'll go over
00:56those in that video.
00:57But let's just start with the 12, with this new design, shall we?
01:01I love this super flat design, it is so flat, it's not the typical almost flat, where the
01:08screen is flat right up to the edges and then it curves over the very edge and they call
01:12it like 2.5D, no, this is flat flat, like the phone happens to be a little bit thinner
01:18and a little bit lighter than last year, but I'm not as concerned with that, but the square
01:22sides are actually the most efficient way to pack in those internals into the phone
01:26as efficiently as possible, and I happen to think it looks and feels super premium and
01:31modern on top of all that.
01:33Now, this kind of red, but also kind of salmon sometimes, product red version, after seeing
01:39it in person, I'd probably not go for this, I'd go for either the blue or the black,
01:44but yeah, those aluminum rails are everything, they're more grippable, maybe a little less
01:49comfortable at first, but hey, the buttons are clicky, the power button is a little bit
01:54bigger, it's still IP68 water resistant, you've got your 5G antenna cut out on the right
01:59hand side in some regions, which trust me, I'll get way into that in a second, and yeah,
02:03I just like holding this phone.
02:04Now, if you put a case on it, I guess a lot of that doesn't matter as much, you'll notice
02:08it less obviously, but still, even some cases are flattening out their dimensions for the
02:13iPhone 12, so that again will make it easier to grip, harder to drop.
02:17And speaking of dropping, all these new iPhones come with on the front, something new called
02:23ceramic shield, and this is basically this specialty hardened kind of glass with crystal
02:30structure inside it, and it's on the front of these phones over the screen, and it's
02:34supposed to offer four times better drop protection, so shatter protection, basically, which is
02:40great, but I typically care just as much, if not more, about scratch resistance, all
02:46the little micro-scratches that your phone gathers over time, and the thing about scratch
02:50resistance is it's typically inversely proportional to shatter resistance, so if you think about
02:55it, the softer something is, the less likely it is to shatter, but then the easier it is
02:59to scratch it, and vice versa, the harder something is, the less likely you are to scratch
03:04it, but the more brittle it is, and the more shatterable it becomes.
03:07So, I see the headline of better drop protection, and that's great, but I'm not about to drop
03:12my phone to find out if it works, I'm sure people are already on that, I have no idea
03:16how they'll land on that 4X number, but alright, all I know is, I already have a little gash
03:21in my screen on the left hand side here, which is so sad, but that's probably at a level
03:266, no idea how that happened, but I'm feeling like the iPhone is not significantly more
03:32scratch resistant than before.
03:33Of course, Zach will probably tell us the truth there.
03:35So, if it shatters a lot less when dropped, we'll see, that would be nice, but I feel
03:39like a lot of the drop stuff is happenstance, like if I happen to drop my phone a certain
03:44way, it's definitely gonna crack, right, and if I happen to drop my phone another way,
03:48it's probably not going to, so, I don't know, I don't wanna worry about it too much, use
03:53a case if you want to, use a screen protector if you really want to, I'm just gonna live
03:57my life.
03:58So, possibly the biggest external hardware feature of the new iPhones is MagSafe, and
04:08I think it has bigger implications for the future of the iPhone, but right now, MagSafe
04:12is the optional new magnetic charging accessory standard on the back, like right behind the
04:19Apple logo.
04:20So, the number one MagSafe accessory that Apple sells is the puck charger, it doesn't
04:25come with a brick, by the way, so if you buy the charger for 40 bucks, make sure you
04:29have a USB-C charging brick, but yeah, just kinda slaps onto the back of the phone, you
04:35line it up with the magnets, you kinda get used to where it places right over the Apple
04:38logo, and that's all good.
04:40This charges at 15 watts, while every other wireless charger on the iPhone still charges
04:43at 7.5 watts, and a couple other FAQs on this.
04:47Number one, yes, it is still Qi charging, so you can still charge the iPhone 12 with
04:51other wireless chargers, and you can charge other phones with the MagSafe puck, if you're
04:57into that.
04:58Number two, the durability concern with MagSafe leaving marks on the iPhone, I have noticed
05:03that on mine too, but I don't think it'll turn out to be a long-term problem, it just
05:08seems to wipe off every time, like you might remember how the HomePod was leaving these
05:12little white stain rings on certain wood tables, which is kind of understandable, because not
05:18every table is the same, but I feel like, I guess I hope, Apple's probably tested this
05:24like a hundred thousand times, and probably determined that it's not an issue about the
05:29way they made this, so it should be okay.
05:31And then number three, I was getting a lot of questions about this, yes, you can MagSafe
05:34charge through most non-MagSafe cases, as long as they're thin enough, and even that
05:40magnet will actually still work through some thin cases, so I don't really have any non-MagSafe
05:45cases here to test, but of course channel sponsor dbrand sent over a grip case, and
05:49I can confirm, it's thin enough to work just fine with a MagSafe charger, kind of like
05:54it is a MagSafe charger.
05:55And yes, all the other benefits of a case, grippiness, protection, they all still apply,
06:00so since I know most people end up looking for a good one, I'll leave a link to this
06:04case below.
06:05Now at the beginning of this MagSafe bit I said something, I said it was optional, which
06:11it is for now, but I feel like we can all sort of see where this is going, which is
06:15Apple is slowly moving towards eventually making a portless iPhone, which I think that's
06:22a whole separate video's worth of rant, but bottom line is their solution to wirelessly,
06:28conveniently charging a phone that doesn't have a port, is gonna be MagSafe.
06:33This thing right here.
06:34So, eh, it's not amazing, but I guess it's fine.
06:38The couple of accessories they've made for it so far, not bad.
06:42There's a regular case of course, so you can continue to stack things through.
06:45There's a kind of weird looking clear version of the case for some reason.
06:49There's a wallet that I mentioned that doesn't have very strong magnets, but if you think
06:54about it, it's not so peculiar that the one accessory they chose to make outside of the
06:58case is a wallet.
07:00Like let me know if there's any flaw in this series of logic, right?
07:04So Apple wants to get rid of the port on the iPhone and go totally wireless charging
07:08for everything at a certain point, maybe next year, whatever, right?
07:12So they already see ahead of time this particular headline, which is people who use wallet cases
07:18can't wireless charge their iPhone, so they can't charge their iPhone at all.
07:22So Apple needs to invent a way for people who use wallet cases to continue to charge
07:27their phone.
07:29So they invent an accessory, which is a removable wallet bit, so you can charge the phone and
07:34when you don't need to charge it, you can put the wallet back on.
07:38That seems to check out.
07:40Like I said, it's a whole thing, but today, optional.
07:44Battery life on these phones has actually been pretty good, but not noticeably better
07:48than last year at all.
07:49Matter of fact, it's actually a slightly larger, higher res display and actually a smaller
07:55physical battery.
07:56So it's pretty impressive that the phone still does okay.
07:59You can kill it in a day with six hours of screen on time or just a lot of heavy use,
08:03but this isn't new with this standard size iPhone.
08:05If you want a real battery champ, you can go for the bigger phone.
08:09The actual best new piece of the iPhone 12 though, is definitely the new display.
08:15It goes from being that 720p LCD with bigger bezels that was really easy to make fun of
08:21to this much better and even slightly bigger 6.1 inch 1080p OLED.
08:25It's like night and day.
08:26It's basically on par with the pro, which is actually pretty surprising to me.
08:30Just a slightly lower peak brightness.
08:33Now it's 60 Hertz again.
08:35And while that's kind of a missing feature at this point on an $800 phone in 2020, I
08:41was actually kind of expecting that.
08:42I was just thinking the pros would get 120 Hertz displays this year, but obviously none
08:47of them did, which is a bummer.
08:49But let's be honest, they probably saw that as a battery saving measure since this phone
08:54did also just get 5G.
08:57So let's talk about 5G.
08:59I kind of love and hate 5G right now.
09:02So this slogan, Apple, and I guess the carriers too really keep pushing that 5G just got
09:08real.
09:095G just got real, really?
09:12Just now?
09:135G just now got real?
09:14Last time I checked, like this year, I reviewed like 30 phones with 5G.
09:19So clearly 5G has already existed, but there's a reason they're saying it this way.
09:24So first of all, I did a video all about 5G where I went to a 5G area, testing it,
09:29explaining it, showing what's good about it and what its limitations are.
09:32I'm going to leave it linked right below the like button if you want to watch it, catch
09:35up on that.
09:36But the bottom line is it's really promising, but it's still being built right now.
09:40But carriers, and I guess Apple, really liked the message that 5G just got real because
09:46now that all of the new iPhones have 5G built in, there's about to be millions and millions
09:52more people walking around with 5G capable phones in a few very short months.
09:57And when that happens, that tends to accelerate development.
10:00That sort of makes it real, which I get it.
10:03But also the carriers would very, very much like you to upgrade to their 5G plan, please.
10:08But we got to remember, 5G in 2020 has its ups and its downs.
10:13Like this iPhone 12 I'm using here has Verizon 5G, which is surprisingly actually in my area.
10:19It's not millimeter wave, it's not ultra wide band, but it can still give me roughly
10:2320% faster download and upload speeds.
10:26But 5G radios are also pretty power hungry.
10:30And the more time you spend on 5G, the more battery you bleed through.
10:34Now Apple's thought a lot about this, of course.
10:35So their solution, and you might have caught it on stage during the announcement, is called
10:39smart data mode.
10:41And basically it tries to only use 5G when you actually need it to save battery.
10:46So when you're in a 4G area, you're on 4G speeds, everything works with LTE, no problem.
10:52You're good.
10:53It'll feel normal.
10:54When you're in a 5G area and you're doing a lot of bandwidth intensive stuff, you're
10:58downloading a bunch of videos and music, you're FaceTiming in crispy HD, you're doing a lot
11:03of that high bandwidth stuff, that's going to use 5G and that's going to improve that
11:07experience a lot.
11:09But if you are in a 5G area, but not really doing anything that benefits from 5G, then
11:15your phone will actually switch off and stick with 4G.
11:18And as The Verge reported, it'll actually still show you the 5G indicator in the corner,
11:23but you'll get 4G speeds, which we'll probably find, but that also explains this sort of
11:29weird speed test result.
11:30So look, my take is, I get it.
11:33The best technologies are supposed to be invisible.
11:36Like you shouldn't even notice they work.
11:38You go to download something while walking around, you're in a 5G area, boom, 5G turns
11:42on, your downloads go super quick, and then it turns off to save battery.
11:45It's kind of like ProMotion on the iPad Pro.
11:48It goes up to 120Hz when you're scrolling and playing games and actually using it, but
11:54when you're not, you're just sitting on the home screen or watching a video, it will go
11:58down to 24Hz to save battery.
12:01So it's sort of not there when you don't need it, it's there when it helps you.
12:06It's just weird that the whole messaging has been, in your face, 5G, 5G, 5G.
12:13So yeah, I would say, don't buy this phone now because you want to get a 5G phone, but
12:20if you do get this phone now, then maybe it will be a nice bonus if you're in a 5G area
12:25or in the future when you end up in a 5G area, you'll be able to use that too.
12:30Cool.
12:31Alright, new iPhone equals new best camera ever in an iPhone, right?
12:39Well sure, iPhone 12's got a slightly updated dual camera system with a standard and an
12:43ultra-wide.
12:44The standard has a slightly wider aperture at f1.6 instead of f1.8.
12:49And to be honest, it's not really much of a difference in the camera, it's just not.
12:55Same as the Pixel.
12:56They're not really doing anything too drastic.
12:58If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
13:00Really the hardware improvements are almost impossible to notice in regular photos, but
13:05they will get you an improvement in like the edge cases, the most difficult photo and
13:10video taking scenarios.
13:12So like handheld in low light, that'll be better.
13:15Night mode will be better.
13:17Autofocus on fast moving subjects, super high dynamic range shots like shooting straight
13:22into the sun thanks to smart HDR 3, stuff like that.
13:25Other than that, it still looks like iPhone photos, which is to say some of the absolute
13:30best and most consistent crisp photos on any smartphone.
13:34So that's not a letdown.
13:35But iPhone video though, firmly in a league of its own.
13:39Firmly, like every time I test a new iPhone camera, it's just, the video camera is so
13:44much better.
13:45And people care a lot about video.
13:46They take a lot of videos.
13:47So you'd want to know, yeah, the iPhone takes great video.
13:49And that's despite not shooting 8K and not having a huge new sensor or anything crazy
13:55like that.
13:56It's just so fine-tuned and so reliable.
13:58But I want to save my full analysis of that for the video about the pros, because I think
14:02pros care even more about video stuff and there's potentially, well, there's even new
14:07hardware of the sensors in the 12 Pro Max.
14:11So that could be interesting to see.
14:12My one knock is it does seem like there's more flaring in low light video, like just
14:17a ton of little orbs for every little point light source, but it's still very usable though.
14:22Now you might've heard about Dolby Vision HDR.
14:25These new iPhones are the first cameras, the only cameras in the world to shoot 10-bit
14:29high dynamic range, Dolby Vision 4K video.
14:33And that's awesome.
14:34HDR video is awesome.
14:35Higher, brighter brights, deeper shadows, overall better images, even better perceived
14:40quality.
14:41I love HDR.
14:42But here's the thing.
14:43Dolby Vision is just one HDR standard or format by Dolby.
14:49And there are other HDR standards that have been out.
14:52You might've heard of.
14:53HDR 10 is one of them.
14:54And that some other smartphones have actually started enabling you to shoot.
14:58You might have a smartphone in your pocket right now that is already capable of shooting
15:01HDR 10 video.
15:03But the issue with new formats is always compatibility.
15:07So some TVs are HDR 10 certified.
15:10Some aren't.
15:11Some displays are Dolby Vision certified.
15:13Some aren't.
15:14So you can look at the display, the video you take on the iPhone and it's Dolby Vision
15:18certified and it looks amazing.
15:20And if you send this video to another iPhone 12, it'll look amazing on that iPhone.
15:26But as soon as you upload it to Twitter or Instagram or TikTok or kind of anything at
15:31this point, even YouTube, it doesn't show up as that HDR on most people's screens.
15:38It's back to SDR.
15:39But the big deal here again is kind of like 5G, because there's about to be so many iPhone
15:4512s in the world, there's about to be millions of new devices and new people out there shooting
15:50tons of HDR video and looking to share it.
15:54And so now there's more incentive for places and apps like Twitter and Instagram and TikTok
16:00to support HDR.
16:03So maybe the tagline should have been, HDR just got real.
16:06Anyway, the rest of the iPhone is pretty familiar.
16:09And that's a good thing for most people.
16:11iOS 14, we've all seen it by now.
16:13It's familiar, even though there's a couple bugs and apps that will probably get updated
16:18pretty soon.
16:19Face ID, it's completely unchanged.
16:21Even performance is familiar since there's nothing super new like high refresh rate.
16:27There is the new A14 Bionic inside, which is one of the very first 5 nanometer chips
16:31in any device, which is a more powerful CPU and GPU and is paired with 4 gigs of RAM and
16:36everything's great.
16:38But that's mainly for speed that you're going to notice later down the road when the phone
16:43is two, three, four years old and hopefully still feeling really fast.
16:47But fundamentally, there isn't really that much of a difference in these iPhones and
16:50the performance you get this year versus what last year didn't already do, just a little
16:54bit faster.
16:55But yeah, even at a somewhat premium 830 bucks, that's the actual price.
17:01Apple's website shows carrier pricing at first, so it's a little misleading.
17:04But even at that price, yeah, this phone with best in class cameras, best in class performance,
17:11much better screen is pretty damn good.
17:14This is the one to get for most people.
17:15Here's the too long, didn't watch version for those of you lazy people that I know
17:18just went down to the chapters and skipped to this.
17:20It's a great phone.
17:21The best new parts of it are definitely the display, which was a huge knockup from last
17:26year.
17:27Knockup.
17:28Why did I say it like that?
17:29The display is better.
17:30Battery life is about the same.
17:31Cameras are a little bit better.
17:32Build quality and design are also an awesome improvement.
17:35And MagSafe, it's optional for now, but might as well start getting used to it.
17:39And the worst part is the price is a little higher because also 5G is built into the phone
17:44even for people who are never going to use it.
17:46But that being said, there you have it.
17:48Great work, Apple.
17:49And definitely stay tuned for the review on the Pro.
17:52I want to dive into what makes it a pro.
17:55You know, as a YouTuber, I think a lot about this.
17:57As a content creator, am I a pro iPhone user?
17:59I don't know.
18:00There's a lot to talk about there, but that's been the iPhone 12.
18:03Thanks for watching.
18:04Much coming up very soon because, you know, techtober, guys.
18:07Techtober.
18:08Catch you guys in the next one.
18:10Peace.