Apple Unveils iPhone 12, No Longer Includes Charger and EarBuds

Tech | October 14, 2020 | By PDee

screengrab from the Apple website.

Last October 13, in the event called "Hi, Speed", Apple introduced their newest flagship smartphone, the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro. They also introduced the smaller variant of it, called the iPhone 12 Mini, which Apple claimed as the smallest, thinnest and lightest 5G smartphone in the world. The event which was held virtually and live streamed from the Apple Park in Cupertino, California did not end without any controversial announcement.

This year, the announcement that the new iPhone 12 will no longer include a wall pin-charger and earbuds is the one that creates so much noise in social media. These accessories are now needed to be bought separately from the iPhone 12.

The USB-C to Lightning cable is the only accessory included in the iPhone 12 box. Apple cited environmental reasons for removing the other accessories in the iPhone 12 box claiming that they will cut their carbon emissions by 2 million metric tons annually.

MagSafe Wireless Charging

screengrab from the Apple event: Hi, Speed.

iPhone 12 will have a new technology called MagSafe, an improved version of wireless charging technology that is fully compatible with Qi, Apple's previous wireless charger. MagSafe will come with a new set of smartphone-centric accessories that will resolve the issue on wireless charging where users miss the exact center of the charger. Moreover, MagSafe does many other things other than supporting an efficient wireless charging process.

Aside from providing an easier way for the iPhone 12 to connect to supported wireless chargers, like the Qi, MagSafe by design, will also be the gateway to a whole new set of accessories for iPhone 12 users. The Verge reported that OtterBox reveals the first MagSafe cases for iPhone 12. MagSafe will also come with another variant called MagSafe Dou, that will allow users to wirelessly charge their iPhone 12 and Apple Watch.

OLED Display and Ceramic Shield

The iPhone 12, when compared to iPhone 11, is said to be 11% thinner, 16% lighter and 15% smaller in volume. It has a standard 6.1-inch OLED screen and comes with a Super Retina XDR display. The Apple-customed OLED will definitely rendered a superb and vibrant display as each of the OLED pixel has its own light that can be controlled individually and ultimately provide a pixel precision brightness, high contrast and true black to the iPhone 12 display.

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The OLED display also offers higher resolution as compared to iPhone 11 and has ~460 pixels per inch (ppi). It has a peak brightness of 1200 nits and supports Dolby Vision and HDR10. The glass is also coated with a “ceramic shield” making it more durable and 4x better performance drop. Apple said that they are working with Corning on this innovation, the leading provider of highly durable glass for smartphones like the Corning Gorilla lineup.

Camera

screengrab from the Apple event: Hi, Speed.

iPhone 12 has dual camera system. It has a 12-MP Ultra Wide with an aperture of 2.4, 5-element lens, 13 mm focal length and a 120-degrees field of view. It also has a Wide camera, with an aperture of 1.6, the fastest aperture in any iPhone. The wider aperture has dramatically improved the low-light performance of iPhone 12 camera and with its 7-element lens, the camera allows up to 27% improvement in low performance.

iPhone 12 also comes with a new feature called Computational Photography with their smart HDR3 that will understand scenes with the aid of Machine Learning. This I think is one of the best features that iPhone 12 cameras have. As shown in the Apple event, you can take good shots with your subject even if you are taking the shot against the light. With the help of Machine Learning, the picture is automatically adjusted revealing the important details of the picture. Impressive! The computational photography also enables night mode that will allow us to capture stunning photos in low light.

There is not so much highlight about the front camera but it was mentioned that it renders a true depth in low light. There is also no remarkable highlight on the video capabilities of iPhone 12, other than adding a nigh mode time-lapsed feature. I think, iPhone videos are still by far one of the best in the industry.

5G-Capability

iPhone 12 is going to be Apple’s first 5G wireless network phone. A “smart data mode” uses LTE when the user’s current activity doesn’t demand 5G speeds.

iPhone 12 lineup has been designed to balance the battery life so users don’t have to worry, as iPhone 12 only uses 5G when necessary to save battery life. In ideal condition, iPhone 12's 5G capability will reach a 3.5GB-peak download speed; it will also reach a 1GB-peak download speed in typcial condition.

The A14 Bionic

iPhone 12's processor is the A14 Bionic, claimed by Apple as the first smartphone chip built on 5-nanometer(NM) process technology. The A14 Bionic has 11.8 Billion transistors, an increase of 40% from A13. It has a 6-core CPU, that again Apple claimed as the fastest CPU in any smartphone. It also has a 4-Core GPU which delivered 50% faster graphics, a feature that is perfect for mobile games like League of Legends and other complex Machine Learning computations.

Talking about Machine Learning, the A14 Bionic has a dramatic increase in Neural Engine as they increase the cores from 8 to 16. Apple claimed that A14 can deliver up to 80% faster performance for critical Machine Learning models. The neural engine is capable of conducting 11 trillion operations per second. Cool, right?

Mobile Games in iPhone 12

With faster and more powerful A14 bionic chip and a 5G-Capability playing mobile games in iPhone 12 is a sure fun. In the event, Michael Chow, an Executive Producer at Riot Games, said that playing League of Legends in iPhone 12 has literally blown them away. The gameplay, he said, is always responsive and unbelievably smooth. This is definitely true because I have tried playing League of Legends'early access in my Samsung A50 and everything works just perfectly fine. How much more in a new flagship smartphone with powerful and cutting-edge chip and 5G connectivity.

iPhone 12 will have 5 colors — black, white, blue, red and green. The storage will have 64GB, 128GB and 256GB and the price will be at around $799 that is around Php38,871. It willsoon be available on October 23.

iPhone 12-Mini, Pro and Pro Max

screengrab from the Apple event: Hi, Speed.

Apple also introduced a smaller version of iPhone 12 called the iPhone mini. It is smaller but has exactly the same feature as iPhone 12. The same A14 Bionic chip, same camera, and the same 5G-capability. The only difference of the iPhone 12 mini is that it is smaller and lighter. Its display is at 5.4 inch and 576 ppi.

iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max are also available with slight difference in features compared to iPhone 12. The Pro models of iPhone 12 has new and exclusive features and one of this is is the LIDAR sensor which will be used for additional AR effects. Apple says that the LIDAR scanner will be used to help focus in low-light situations, making autofocus for low-light photography up to six times faster. It will also enable Night Mode portrait photography shots.

Like the iPhone 11 Pro models, iPhone 12 Pro models will also have a triple-camera system on both the iPhone 12 Pro and Pro Max, with 12-megapixel wide, telephoto, and ultrawide camera lenses. The wide camera will have a faster f/1.6 aperture and is 27 percent improved low-light performance, while the 52mm focal telephoto offers a 4x optical zoom range.

For the iPhone 12 Pro Max, it will have a new 12MP telephoto with a 65mm focal length that can optically zoom in up to 2.5 times. A new wide camera with an f/1.6 aperture and a new OIS system. The wide sensor is also 47 percent larger, which combines with the lower aperture for 87 percent better low-light performance.

Also, another exciting feature of the new iPhone 12 Pro models is that users will be able to shoot in HDR video, which is a first in iPhone including support for shooting directly in Dolby Vision HDR. Another thing is that the iPhone 12 users will also be able to edit Dolby Vision HDR video directly from the Photos app.

The iPhone 12 Pro models feature a stainless steel design (unlike the aluminum on the iPhone 12) with four colors: gray, stainless steel, gold, and a new blue. The storage will have 128GB, 256GB and 512GB. iPhone 12 Pro price starts at $999 or around Php48,951 and iPhone 12 Pro Max price starts at $1,099 or around Php53,851.. Preorders for the iPhone 12 Pro will start on October 16, Friday and its shipment will be on October 23 while the iPhone 12 Pro Max will have its preorders on November 6 and shipment will be on November 13.

If you think all the information presented here is not enough, you can visit the official website of the iPhone 12 here.

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