Introduction
It's been quite a while since we had a compact flagship iPhone in our pockets. In fact, the last time we remember this happening was back when it was the only iPhone available.
The iPhone mini has been rumored since 2013, but instead, we got the iPhone 5C with C standing for either Colorful or Cheap (who knows!), even if we would have called it Controversial.
After that, the iPhones grew larger (iPhone 6), and taller (iPhone 6 Plus), and bigger (iPhone XS Max). The original iPhone SE was a breath of fresh air in 2016, and ever since, many of us have been longing for an all-screen iPhone SE. We didn't get that with the second-gen SE last March, but we finally saw it happening in October.
Without a doubt, the iPhone 12 mini is best described as a compact version of the iPhone 12. This means it comes with a smaller display (5.4" vs. 6.1") and tinier battery (2,227mAh vs. 2,815mAh) while retaining everything else that makes the iPhone 12 cool.
The iPhone 12 mini has a 5.4" OLED screen of extended 1080p resolution and the latest Apple A14 Bionic chip, which makes it the world's smallest 5G-capable phone to date. Also lifted from the iPhone 12 is the dual camera with Night Mode and Dolby Vision video capturing and the stereo speakers.
The mini uses the same IP68-rated glass body with Ceramic Shield as the rest of the bunch. It also packs MagSafe support on the back, though the wireless charging is limited to 12W vs. 15W on the rest of the iPhone 12s.
Apple iPhone 12 mini specs:
- Body: Aluminum frame with matte finish, Ceramic Shield front with oleophobic coating, Glass back with glossy finish, IP68 certified for water and dust resistance. Black, White, Green, Blue, Red color options. 131.5 x 64.2 x 7.4 mm, 135 g.
- Display: 5.4" Retina XDR OLED screen of 1,080 x 2,340 px resolution, 476ppi, 600 nits, 120Hz touch sensing. HDR10, Dolby Vision support, wide color gamut. True Tone.
- Chipset: Apple A14 Bionic chip (5nm) - Hexa-core (2x3.1 GHz Firestorm + 4x1.8 GHz Icestorm with 3.1GHz Turboboost) Apple CPU, four-core Apple GPU, 16-core Apple NPU 4-gen
- Memory: 4GB of RAM; 64/128/256GB of internal storage
- Rear camera: Dual 12MP camera: 26mm main wide-angle, F/1.6, OIS, Dual Pixel AF; 13mm ultrawide-angle, F/2.4, 120-degree field of view; dual-LED flash with slow sync. Night Mode, Smart HDR 3, Deep Fusion.
- Video recording: 2160p@60/30fps, 1080p@30/60/120/240fps video recording with wider dynamic range and spatial sound, OIS + EIS, Dolby Vision (30fps only)
- Front camera: Dual camera - 23mm 12MP F/2.2 front-facing camera with HDR mode + 3D TOF camera; Night Mode, Smart HDR 3, Deep Fusion. 2160p@60/30fps, 1080p@30/60/120fps video recording with wider dynamic range and spatial sound, EIS.
- Connectivity: Dual SIM, 5G, 4G; Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac/6; Bluetooth 5.0; Lightning port; GPS with A-GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, QZSS; NFC; Apple U1 chip ultrawideband
- Battery: 2,227 mAh battery, 20W fast charging, 12W Qi wireless charging (MagSafe)
- Misc: Face ID through dedicated TrueDepth camera, stereo speakers, Taptic Engine
By being a smaller version of the iPhone 12, the iPhone 12 mini keeps both the good and the not-so-good stuff. This means you are not getting any accessories but a USB cable in the box, there is no HRR screen, no 3.5mm jack, and whatever else you might have hoped for.
Unboxing the Apple iPhone 12 mini
All of the new iPhone 12s, including the mini, come packed within a thin paper box that contains the iPhone and a USB-C-to-Lightning cable.
In a controversial move, Apple no longer bundles a charger and headphones with its phones.
If you don't have compatible ones available, Apple's 20W charger will set you back €25, while the MagSafe wireless charger costs some additional €50. And then, you may want to think about EarPods (€20) or AirPods (€180).
There is a silver lining, though - once you buy yours, you can keep them for yourself when you pass forward your old iPhone.
Design, build, handling
Imagine an iPhone 5 or SE with an all-screen front and glass back. Well, that's the iPhone 12 mini, give or take a couple of millimeters.
Apple iPhone 12 mini and iPhone SE
The iPhone 5 design has been reimagined for the iPhone 12 series, and that's a dream come true for many. It's an iconic shape with great grip and excellent pocketability, and it's been appropriately refreshed for 2020. This signature design is the phone's standout feature, a rare feat in the age of glass slab phones. More people will probably remember the iPhone 12 release for this design change rather than 5G support. Yes, 5G! You forgot already, didn't you?
Apple iPhone 12 mini and iPhone SE
So, the Apple iPhone 12 mini is your typical glass-sandwich smartphone with tempered glass panels and an aluminum frame. But don't be fooled by the small size and lightweight body - the iPhone 12 mini is, in fact, one of the most durable non-rugged smartphones you can get today. And Apple deserves all the praise it can get for that.
iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro Max and iPhone 12 Pro
See, the iPhone 12 mini is just 131.5 x 64.2 x 7.4 mm big and weighs 135 grams - that's ridiculously small and light for a flagship phone. But Apple has come up with this new Ceramic Shield glass that's more shatter-resistant, while it's also improved the iPhone's assembly and it can now sink into up to 6 meters deep water and stay there for half an hour.
The iPhone 12 mini uses a flat Ceramic Shield at the front and the iPhone 11's variation of the Gorilla Glass 6 on the back. The Shield is also a Corning-made glass with added microscopic ceramic crystals that have made the new glass up to four times resilient to shattering.
iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro Max and iPhone 12 Pro
The screen glass is also ion-strengthened for enhanced scratch-resistance, and it comes with oleophobic coating for improved smudge resistance. Fingerprints do stick eventually, but this coating makes them easier to clean with just a quick wipe.
Under this Ceramic Shield, you can see the new 5.4" Retina XDR OLED screen of extended 1080p resolution. It seems Apple is done with the low-res LCD screens, and that's great. The display has thin bezels, but its notch is as large as the one on the iPhone 12 Pro Max, which means that it takes up more space on the screen proportionally to its surface area.
Apple's consistency about the notch size is unavoidable due to the identical Face ID tech, 12MP selfie camera, the earpiece, and the other sensors. Regardless of the reasoning, however, the iPhone 12 mini has the biggest eyesore of a notch we've seen.
Max notch vs. mini notch
The OLED seems quite bright and very responsive. The sharpness is expectedly great, and the only thing we miss is a Touch ID beneath the screen. Apple has given us no plans of adding the feature in future iPhone either.
The iPhone 12 mini may be small, yet Apple still managed to fit stereo speakers in it, and they are as loud as the ones on the iPhone 12 and 12 Pro. The earpiece acts as one of the speakers while the other speaker is next to the Lightning port at the phone's bottom.
Let's look at the back now. We have the Black model, which is probably the model to get covered in fingerprint smudges the easiest. The back glass is flat, obviously, and it's all glossy. The Apple logo in the middle is a tiny mirror, and if it gets scratched or scuffed up, it will easily add a blemish to the phone's entire look.
Then there is the square camera glass, frosted this time, housing the primary and ultrawide snappers, the dual-LED flash, and a mic for stereo sound capturing. This piece of glass isn't flush with the back panel, but it's no biggie either, and the iPhone 12 mini won't wobble on a desk as much as some recent Android phones.
Camera: mini vs. Max
The lenses of the dual camera are protected by sharp metal rings and sapphire glass. Those two can and will scratch whatever delicate surface you put them on, so be very careful where you leave case-free iPhones.
The aluminum frame is flat, but its edges aren't sharp like the iPhone 5/5s/SE or even the new 12 Pro Max. Its matte finish makes for some good hand grip, and everything on the frame is easily reachable.
The silencer, the volume keys, and the SIM slot are on the left, while the Side (Power/Lock) key is on the right.
The mouthpiece, the Lightning port, and the second stereo speaker are at the bottom.
The iPhone 12 mini is just about 7mm taller, 5mm wider, and merely 22g heavier than the iPhone 5/SE. But it is also 15mm shorter, 7mm narrower, and 30g lighter than the already lightweight at 165g iPhone 12.
The iPhone 12 family
The iPhone 12 mini is one of the most pocketable smartphones we've used in a while. It slides so well in a pocket that sometimes we had to check if it's in there. It is also thin yet grippy. In fact, we are impressed with the grip the iPhone 12 mini provides - its brushed aluminum frame helps a lot when handling, and in day to day use, the glossy rear glass didn't compromise the handling as much as we expected.
Whether you are coming from an iPhone 11, Pro, Max, or even from an iPhone SE (2020), the iPhone 12 mini feels incredibly compact and comfortable in hand. It is a joy to operate with one hand, with excellent grip and durability.
Smudges are what could be an issue for some people, and rightfully so. Nobody likes a messy phone. Those are quite easy to clean on the iPhone 12 mini thanks to its oleophobic coating, but still. If you don't like seeing fingerprints and pocket dust, you can get a white or green iPhone. We have the black iPhone 12 mini, and we've seen the blue one, and without sugar-coating it - these colors quickly turn into smudge-fests.
Finally, if you are seriously considering this mini, we recommend you to go and see it first and get a feel for it. It is so small that it feels like a remnant from a past era, and you may not appreciate it as much you'd think. Photos look incredibly small on this screen, videos are no longer as fun to watch. The on-screen keyboard feels more cramped than ever. Don't get us wrong, the 12 mini is everything Apple promises it to be. Still, our perceptions and preferences sometimes evolve without us even noticing, so make sure you double-check you are in love with the phone in person and not just in love with the concept of having a compact phone yet again.
The iPhone 12 is really not much bigger, and in our experience, it provides a more universally appreciated balance between body size, screen size, and battery size. But we're getting ahead of ourselves. Next, let's see how this mini fares in our battery of tests (pun intended).
One small and bright Retina XDR OLED
The entire iPhone 12 generation uses OLED panels, even this iPhone 12 mini. It packs a 5.4" Super Retina XDR OLED with one very Android-ish resolution of 1,080 x 2,340 pixels or 476ppi - the highest pixel density on an iPhone so far.
The giant notch has the same size across all iPhones, and thus it becomes an enormous eyesore on the 5.4" screen of the iPhone 12 mini. Apple is very punctual when it comes to consistency, and sometimes it's not for the best.
The entire front of the iPhone 12 mini is flat and is protected by the new Ceramic Shield glass by Corning.
The Super Retina XDR OLED screen supports HDR10 and Dolby Vision content. Like the iPhones before the 12th generation, this one also comes with True Tone adjustments, Wide Color support, and it has the Haptic Touch feature provided by the Taptic Engine beneath the screen.
The screen works at a 60Hz refresh rate though nobody really expected the cheapest iPhone to come with a 120Hz display. Not that Apple introduced this feature on any of the iPhones this year. On the other hand, there is 120Hz touch input making the iPhone displays very responsive.
Apple promises 625 nits of typical brightness on the iPhone 12 mini and a peak brightness of up to 1,200 nits.
We did our usual display measurements, and we measured 627nits of maximum brightness on the iPhone 12 mini. The minimum brightness is impressively low at 1.8 nits.
There is no maximum auto boost on any of the iPhones, but this max brightness level is respectable enough for convenient use on an OLED panel.
| Display test | 100% brightness | ||
| Black, |
White, |
||
| 0 | 627 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 639 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 802 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 822 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 820 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 805 | ∞ | |
| 0.428 | 644 | 1505:1 | |
| 0.77 | 618 | 804:1 | |
| 0.434 | 670 | 1544:1 | |
| 0 | 679 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 660 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 653 | ∞ | |
| 0.425 | 700 | 1647:1 | |
| 0 | 397 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 814 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 404 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 823 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 497 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 802 | ∞ | |
The iPhone 12 mini display offers excellent color accuracy - we measured an average deltaE of 1.8 and a maximum deviation of 2.7 against sRGB targets. The iPhone 12 mini fully supports DCI-P3, and it automatically switches to this gamma when DCI-P3 content is sent to the screen.
Battery life
The Apple iPhone 12 mini packs a 2,227mAh battery - that's about 20% smaller than iPhone 12's but about 25% larger than the one inside the iPhone SE (2020). The battery life of the iPhone 12 mini is probably the biggest concern for every potential buyer's, and rightfully so.
Our battery life test is now complete, and the iPhone 12 mini did surprisingly well. It posted very decent numbers in our screen-on tests - the mini can manage 12 hours while playing videos or browsing the internet. The talk time isn't impressive though - it's also about 12 hours.
Finally, when we add the okay-ish standby performance to the mix, we calculated a total endurance rating of 69 hours - that's 10 more hours compared to the iPhone SE (2020) and 15 hours less than the iPhone 12.
Our battery tests were automated thanks to SmartViser, using its viSer App. The endurance rating above denotes how long a single battery charge will last you if you use the Apple iPhone 12 mini for an hour each of telephony, web browsing, and video playback daily. We've established this usage pattern so that our battery results are comparable across devices in the most common day-to-day tasks. The battery testing procedure is described in detail in case you're interested in the nitty-gritty. You can check out our complete battery test table, where you can see how all of the smartphones we've tested will compare under your own typical use.
Charging speeds
The Apple iPhone 12 mini supports fast battery charging via USB Power Delivery. Apple ships the phone without a charger, but you can opt for Apple's 20W PD charger or another 20W+ USB-PD compatible adapter.
If you recharge your dead iPhone 12 mini with Apple's 20W charger, it will refill 60% of its battery in 30 mins and 85% in 60 mins.
30min charging test (from 0%)
- OnePlus 8T
94% - Apple iPhone 12 mini
60% - Apple iPhone 12 Pro
59% - Apple iPhone 12 (20W)
58% - Apple iPhone 11 Pro
58% - Samsung Galaxy S20 FE (25W)
57% - Apple iPhone 11 (18W)
55% - Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max
50% - Samsung Galaxy S20 FE (15W)
37% - Apple iPhone 12 mini MagSafe 12W
30% - Apple iPhone 12/Pro MagSafe
30% - Apple iPhone XS
22% - Apple iPhone 11 (5W)
18% - Apple iPhone XS Max
18%
A full charge with Apple's 20W adapter takes 89 mins. And you have to admire Apple's consistency with the charging speeds - no matter the battery capacity - you'd get a similar charging level for 30 mins, and a full charge will always take 90mins.
Time to full charge (from 0%)
- OnePlus 8T
0:36h - Samsung Galaxy S20 FE (25W)
1:10h - Apple iPhone 12 mini
1:29h - Apple iPhone 12 (20W)
1:30h - Apple iPhone 12 Pro
1:30h - Samsung Galaxy S20 FE (15W)
1:35h - Apple iPhone 11 Pro
1:50h - Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max
2:00h - Apple iPhone 12/Pro MagSafe
3:00h - Apple iPhone XR
3:00h - Apple iPhone 11 (5W)
4:00h
The iPhone 12 mini supports fast wireless charging but only when using MagSafe chargers. Oddly, while the rest of the iPhone 12's support 15W wireless charging, this one is limited to 12W. We think that's necessary as the phone is smaller and thus heats up faster.
Still, if you opt for a regular Qi-compatible charger, you'll be limited to 5W-7W or so.
We charged the iPhone 12 mini with Apple's own MagSafe wireless charger. It took 5 minutes to wake up our dead iPhone 12 mini, and then it lifted the battery to 30% in 30 minutes. A full charge on that charger requires a total of 3 hours, just like the rest of the iPhone 12's.
The MagSafe charger gets quite hot when charging the new iPhones, and we are not sure if this affects the charging speed. Anyhow, we don't see the point of upgrading to this expensive MagSafe wireless charger just yet.
Speakers
The iPhone 12 mini, just like the rest of the iPhone 12 phones, offers a hybrid stereo speaker setup. There is one speaker at the bottom and another one inside the screen notch, which also doubles as an earpiece. The output is reasonably balanced even if the top speaker seems quieter and bass-less when the bottom is muted.
The speakers support spatial audio, and subjectively the sound indeed seems less directional and more, well, spatial when compared to other phones we've tested so far.
The iPhone 12 mini scored a Very Good mark in our loudness test just like its siblings. It has the worst sound quality, though - there is little to no bass, and while the high-notes are great, the mid-tones could have been better presented.
It's great Apple offers similar loudness across the series, but it seems the speakers' size does matter, and the maker has tuned them the best it could to match the loudness instead of the excellent quality of the bunch.
Use the Playback controls to listen to the phone sample recordings (best use headphones). We measure the average loudness of the speakers in LUFS. A lower absolute value means a louder sound. A look at the frequency response chart will tell you how far off the ideal "0db" flat line is the reproduction of the bass, treble, and mid frequencies. You can add more phones to compare how they differ. The scores and ratings are not comparable with our older loudspeaker test. Learn more about how we test here.
iPhone 12 mini comes with iOS 14
All new iPhones come with the iOS 14.1 pre-installed, but the iOS 14.2 will be already waiting for you in Settings. It's a minor update over the iOS 14.1 containing mostly bug fixes, 8 new wallpapers, and over 100 new emojis.
Let's take a closer look at iOS 14 on the iPhone 12 mini now.
Its focus falls on the new widgets and App Library, which will improve your experience should you decide to use them. It's nice to see Apple has decided to make new features as optional as possible, instead of forcing them on you right away. The rest of iOS remains mostly unchanged since iOS 13, with some minor UI improvements across different system apps. Some new apps and features are available, too.
The lockscreen on iOS 14 remains intact - it's one with the Notification Center and houses your notifications (privacy options are available), plus shortcuts for the torch and the camera. You can get past it via Face ID or PIN if you've opted for secure unlock.
Your apps usually populate the homescreen(s) and widgets - the leftmost Today page. Now there is also a rightmost page - the App Library.
A new option allows you to hide specific homescreens - you may have a page that's full of games and hide when at work or hide the two pages of work apps when on vacation. You can't opt-out of Today and App Library, though.
Lockscreen • Homescreen • Homescreen • Today • App Library • Hide homescreens
You can continue to use iOS 14 the old way if you like and completely ignore the App Library. There is no option to disable the App Library entirely, though.
The new Widgets can be placed on any of the homescreens and the Today page, and they can coexist with app icons. There are three widget sizes supported by iOS 14 - 2x2, 4x2, and 4x4.
You can stack widgets of the same size on top of one another. Once you have a stack, you can either have the OS automatically choose which is the most relevant widget to surface to the top of the stack automatically. You can also flip through the stack manually by swiping up or down until you find the widget you need. We love this idea of stacked widgets - it's a real space saver - especially if you combine a frequently used widget at the top with less frequently used ones in the stack below it.
Widgets • Widgets • Widgets • Stacked Widgets • Settings
The App Library is an app drawer, which is always your rightmost homescreen pane. Apps are added automatically to the App Library upon installation. The sorting is also an automatic process, and you can't edit the categories or move apps to other categories. The app sorting depends on the App Store tags the developer has used upon uploading the apps.
The App Library has three settings only - Add new apps to Homescreen and App Library, Add to App Library only, and Show Notification Badges in App Library. That's it.
The App Library is where you will ditch your least used apps to die. (With Thanos's voice) It's inevitable.
App Library
We bet the Today page will slowly go away, but for now, it is only for widgets. You put the same widgets and stacks you can on your homescreen(s). Here you can also use the old third-party widgets that haven't been optimized yet for iOS 14. The old widgets come right after the new one, should you choose to use some new ones.
In time, we guess all developers will update their widgets to support iOS 14, and that will be the death of Today as we know it.
The Notification Center is summoned with a swipe from the left horn or the notch. The pane was unified with the lockscreen in iOS 11, and that's why you can have different wallpapers on your homescreen and notification center.
The Control Center, which has customizable and (some) expandable toggles, is called with a swipe from the right horn. You can use haptic touch to access additional controls. And the battery percentage is also here.
Today • Today settings • Notification Center • Control Center
The navigation gestures stay the same as they were on the iPhone X. Swipe upwards from the bottom line to close an app, swipe and stop midway for task switcher, swipe from the side of the screen for back and forward. You can also swipe on the line left or right to switch to your recently used apps instantaneously.
The Back Tap is a new accessibility shortcut. It recognizes double and triple tap on the phone's back, and you can assign whatever you like. We chose 'Take a screenshot' and 'Control Center,' but it is really up to you. Overall, it has to be one of our favorite features in iOS14.
Gestures • Task Switcher • Moving between apps • Back • Closing an app • Back Tap
There is a system-wide Dark Mode. You can enable it manually or schedule it from within Display Settings, and it switches to dark all-white backgrounds across iOS. The Dark Mode affects all system apps, but also apps that rely on system backgrounds. You can also check the option to darken the homescreen wallpaper when in Dark Mode.
Dark Mode
The App Clips service is a major part of iOS 14 even though it is yet to become widespread. An App Clip is a pop-up window where you can use a small part of an app that you don't have installed on your phone without going to the App Store and downloading it. Basically, iOS 14 downloads this "clip" for you in real-time, you use the function, and then it goes away.
For example - you browse burgers in your browser, you see a place with nice burgers, you tap on a burger you want to order. A small pop-up window appears of, say, Foodpanda's app where you can order the said burger without installing their app and making a proper registration. The same goes for taxis, bike, or scooter rentals, among others.
Siri - Apple's digital assistant - is used by 400+ million people monthly. You summon it by holding the 'side' key (the Power key). You can do all sorts of things with Siri - from questions and translations through setting up reminders and sending replies to asking for reservations or tickets, directions, and whatnot.
Siri Shortcuts are available within a standalone app. You can assign a shortcut to so many things that it will take many pages to describe them. You can script almost anything available within iOS itself, a lot of stuff from within the system apps, and some advanced actions from any well-known apps such as YouTube or Facebook.
Another new feature in iOS 14 is the more compact Siri interface. Upon summoning Siri, you will see a small ball around the bottom, and your answer will be provided in a small pop-up window. This way, you can still see what's happening in your active app.
Speaking about compact interfaces, Siri isn't the only app getting such refresh. The Phone app is still the same, but receiving a call while your phone is unlocked has become a much more unintrusive thing with the new compact UI. Instead of pausing everything you were doing and throwing you the black call screen, now you get a small pop-up with Green and Red receivers and the caller ID.
PiP or Picture-in-Picture mode is a very welcome and long-overdue feature in iOS. It does precisely what the name suggests - minimizes your currently playing video within a hovering pop-up over the iOS UI or other apps.
PiP is supported in Apple TV, Podcasts, Safari, FaceTime, iTunes, Home, YouTube, and any other third-party app that chooses to add support for it.
Now, can we get PiP for Maps next, Apple? Pretty please?
The new Siri UI • Compact Siri answer • Compact phone call • Picture in Picture • PiP
The multimedia is handled by Apple's default apps - Photos, Music, TV - and they are mostly unchanged since their iOS 13 versions.
The Photos tab has four different views - Years, Months, Days, and All Photos. Days, Months, and Years tabs use what the AI considers as best pictures at a glance, and this way, all the clutter gets filtered - you won't see screenshots, notes, or even duplicates. When you scroll through your images in these three categories, all live photos and videos will play automatically (muted). Also, your best photos or videos will show in bigger thumbnails.
AI-powered search option and powerful photo and video edit modes are available, as usual.
Photos
The Apple TV app is part of iOS 14, and it is your default video player for locally stored movies and shows you've added via iTunes. This is also the digital store for movies and TV shows, but it is also where you find the Apple TV+ streaming service.
Apple TV
Music has a new homescreen icon. It is the default player, and it relies heavily on Apple Music. But even if you decide not to use the streaming service, it can still do an excellent job if you have a few minutes to add your songs via iTunes. Realistically, adding music tracks via iTunes requires as few clicks as it would take to copy them via Windows Explorer, so there is no overhead. The requirement to download and install iTunes in the first place, however, can be off-putting to Windows PC users.
Music
Books are here for your documents, PDFS, and eBooks. Stocks and News are onboard. Safari is your default web browser, and it has a Download manager and some enhanced privacy options we will talk about in a minute.
Apple Maps will be bringing its new, enhanced mapping solution to the UK, Ireland, and Canada "later this year." It adds cycling directions, complete with elevation info, and a new "avoid stairs" option for New York, LA, San Francisco, Beijing, and Shanghai.
The new EV routing will factor in necessary charging stops along the way.
Guides let you discover restaurants, popular attractions and explore recommendations from "respected brands."
The maps also show known speed cameras and red-light cameras.
Maps
Some of the new Privacy features include options to change default browser and mail client, Safari's Privacy report about website trackers, the option to report approximate instead of precise location, and also the green and orange indicators for camera or microphone in use.
Default browser • Privacy report • Approximate location • Mic indicator • Camera indicator
Finally, Apple Pay is on board, of course, and Sign-in with Apple is pushed everywhere. You can use this to quickly sign into apps with your Apple account, authenticating with FaceID and with two-factor authentication included. Apple will send the app a unique random ID. If an app demands your email address, you can choose to give it your actual email or a random one automatically created by Apple for you with built-in forwarding.
Performance and benchmarks
The new Apple A14 Bionic chip powers the entire iPhone 12 series. It is the first 5nm chipset in the world, packing a whopping 11.8 billion transistors - that's 40% more than the A13.
The A14 has a six-core processor, just like the recent Apple chips. It has 2 big Firestorm cores clocked at 3.1GHz and 4 small Icestorm cores working at 1.8GHz with TurboBoost capability to go to 3.1GHz when necessary.
There is also an updated 4-core Apple GPU, which should offer some increase in performance over last year's iPhones.
Then there is the new 16-core NPU for machine learning that brings a 70% increase in AI performance.
The iPhone 12 mini has 4GB of RAM, while the Pro models enjoy 6GB of RAM.
The Apple A14 Bionic also comes with Qualcomm's X55 5G modem, and that's why the entire iPhone 12 lineup supports 5G connectivity.
The new A14 Bionic chip and its ISP are also a the heart of the improved camera quality - the Smart HDR 3, Deep Fusion, Night Mode, Dolby Vision recording, and more - these new features are all possible thanks to the sheer power of the A14.
The iPhone 12 mini is among the fastest iPhones. It has the most powerful processor a mobile phone has had to this very day and is about 20% faster than the A13-powered iPhone 11 series.
GeekBench 5 (multi-core)
Higher is better
- Apple iPhone 12 mini
4174 - Apple iPhone 12
4067 - Apple iPhone 12 Pro
4056 - Apple iPhone 11 Pro
3466 - Samsung Galaxy S20 FE
3296 - Apple iPhone SE (2020)
3237 - OnePlus 8T
3126 - Apple iPhone XR
2690 - Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G
2603
GeekBench 5 (single-core)
Higher is better
- Apple iPhone 12 Pro
1611 - Apple iPhone 12
1605 - Apple iPhone 12 mini
1599 - Apple iPhone SE (2020)
1334 - Apple iPhone 11 Pro
1333 - Apple iPhone XR
1115 - Samsung Galaxy S20 FE
906 - OnePlus 8T
893 - Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G
880
The improved GPU indeed offers more raw power, though about 10% increase over the A13's.
GFX Manhattan ES 3.1 (offscreen 1080p)
Higher is better
- Apple iPhone 12
132 - Apple iPhone 12 Pro
132 - Apple iPhone 12 mini
131 - Apple iPhone 11
121 - Apple iPhone 11 Pro
118 - Apple iPhone XS
98 - Apple iPhone XR
97 - Apple iPhone X
65
GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (onscreen)
Higher is better
- Apple iPhone 12 mini
60 - Apple iPhone 11
60 - Apple iPhone 12
58 - Apple iPhone 12 Pro
58 - Apple iPhone XR
58 - Apple iPhone 11 Pro
57 - Apple iPhone XS
47 - Apple iPhone X
28
Of course, the latest iPhone is doing great on the AnTuTu test, though once again - its score is about 10% higher than the iPhone 11 Pro's and its A13 chip.
AnTuTu 8
Higher is better
- Apple iPhone 12 Pro
596244 - Apple iPhone 12 mini
589616 - Apple iPhone 12
579048 - Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max
536883 - Apple iPhone SE (2020)
462253 - Apple iPhone XR
422465
The iPhone 12 mini is so tiny yet so powerful. Apple A14 Bionic, even if it's probably the fastest smartphone chip on the planet, isn't among the reasons to get a new iPhone - it never has been.
Performance has always been impressive on the iPhones, even if it's a three-year-old model. It's the chip's new features that matter - such as the improved machine learning and the new ISP, which take computational photography on the next level.
As far as gaming is concerned, it's somewhat flawed on the iPhone 12 mini. You will start with the maximum quality a game has to offer and a smooth framerate, but once the phone starts to heat up, the frame rate will eventually drop. This applies to the most demanding games and benchmarks, of course, but this doesn't mean you shouldn't be aware of it.
The iPhone 12 mini is so packed with features that there was probably little space to implement proper heat dissipation. We ran the 3D Mark Wild Life Stress Test - it runs 20 loops of the Wild Life graphic test - and the iPhone 12 mini posted a performance stability score of 32%, which is quite poor.
Looking into the chart, we can clearly see where the iPhone 12 mini overheated on the 13th loop. It then throttled a lot to keep temps in check - and then ran the rest of the loops rather well.
Obviously, the iPhone 12 mini is not the best device for gaming, even with the sheer power of the Apple A14 chip. It will surely impress with performance, but every now and then, you can expect some noticeable throttling so the chip can cool down a bit.
A dual-camera for the iPhone 12 mini, too
The Apple iPhone 12 mini has the same cameras you'd find on the regular iPhone 12. There are two 12MP snappers on the back and one 12MP selfie at the front. The SL 3D scanner for Face ID assists the Portrait mode in selfies, too.
The primary camera uses a 12MP sensor with 1.4µm large pixels and a 26mm wide lens. The aperture is brighter at f/1.6 vs. f/1.8 on the iPhone 11 series. Optical image stabilization is available, as well as dual pixel autofocus.
The second camera is another 12MP imager with smaller 1.0µm pixels and 13mm f/2.4 lens for ultrawide photos. The focus is fixed, and there is no OIS.
The selfie camera uses a 12MP sensor with 1.0µm pixels and a 23mm f/2.2 lens. The focus is once again fixed. When using portrait mode on this camera, it captures depth info with the structured-light 3D scanner, so should be taking some impressive selfies portraits.
All three snappers support up to 4K@60fps video capturing with Cinematic Stabilization (EIS, EIS+OIS) and Expanded Dynamic Range. Dolby Vision HDR capturing is possible on all cameras in all 30fps modes.
Camera app and features
The viewfinder is mostly unchanged since iOS 13 and iPhone 11 - you can see outside of the viewfinder thanks to the precise calibration of the two cameras that allows seeing what will be left outside the frame in real-time. This really makes for a more immersive camera experience, and if Photo/Video Capture Outside the Frame is enabled, then you can later expand your footage from the Photos app if something important was cut.
The new Apple image processing that's possible thanks to the new A14 chip includes Smart HDR 3, Night Mode on all cameras, and Deep Fusion.
The Smart HDR 3 name speaks for itself - it's improved HDR processing used in challenging conditions and scenes.
The Night Mode icon pops up automatically when a low-light occasion presents itself, and it will take a pseudo-long-exposure shot, handheld, of course. You will see the seconds suggested next to the Night Mode icon, but you can change the simulated long exposure or altogether disable it if you tap on it. Usually, it's between 1 and 2 seconds, but sometimes the phone allows you to go for up to 30 seconds depending on the environmental light or its lack. You can use this mode on the main, the ultrawide, and even the selfie snapper.
Deep Fusion is used when light conditions aren't ideal, say, indoors. It triggers instead of Smart HDR and Night Mode. Deep Fusion uses four frames before you hit the shutter, four more once you do, and one long exposure shot. The 16-core Neural engine will select the best frames and create a high-quality HDR photo that is very detailed, sharp, and more natural-looking. The Neural processor's machine learning process analyzes the image being taken and processes them differently depending on what's in the frame - say, sky, foliage, or skin tones. Meanwhile, structure and color tones are based on ratios obtained by the Neural unit on the A14 CPU.
As usual, all cameras talk to each other, so they already know the correct exposure and tone mapping settings when you switch between them. This applies for both stills and videos.
The camera interface is mostly unchanged. You swipe between modes and have a couple of settings you can uncover with an upward swipe - flash, night mode, live photo, photo aspect, exposure compensation, and filters. In video mode, you can change the resolution and frame rate from the viewfinder.
Camera app
Portrait mode is available on the main and the selfie cameras. There is no RAW mode on the iPhone 12 mini.
Photo quality
The primary camera shoots good-looking photos though imperfections begin to pile up under scrutiny. Looking at 100% zoom, you will see that intricate details such as grass and other foliage are rendered rather mediocre. Complect objects like bushes, blinds, people, car plates, etc. present a challenge for the camera, and their sub-par rendition is often masked with over-sharpening.
On a positive note - all photos show well-handled noise, accurate white balance, and colors, as well as high contrast. The sharpness seems balanced outside of the tricky areas we mentioned.
The dynamic range is well above the average - it seems the Smart HDR aims to achieve a balanced and realistic look without going over the board with the dynamic range, and we are liked what we saw.
Main camera, 12MP
The iPhone 12 mini has the same ultrawide camera as the rest of the Series 12, and it's very wide, alright. The mini supports automatic distortion correction is it is done with excellent proficiency.
The 12MP ultrawide photos from the iPhone 12 mini have average detail, and foliage is an even tougher challenge here. Still, these photos show reasonably low noise, good contrast, and accurate white balance. The snappers are calibrated well, and the colors are once again true to reality.
Ultrawide camera, 12MP
All cameras on the iPhone 12 mini support Night Mode, which automatically gets triggered in low-light scenes. You can opt-out of it using it or correct the suggested exposure time, but we strongly recommend leaving it on automatic. It usually uses 1s or 2s exposures, the image is saved instantly, and it's won't turn the night into day.
The images shot with the Auto Night Mode are excellent - they are with well-balanced exposure and preserved highlights. The photos are sharp and detailed, with low noise levels and yet gentle noise reduction. The color saturation is kept natural without going overboard, and the contrast is great.
Main camera, 12MP
If you turn off the Night Mode where it was suggested, you'd get a photo with lower sharpness and contrast. Noise is a bit more too, and the colors are not that well saturated. You'd still get a good shot, but why not a great one, right?
Main camera Night Mode OFF, 12MP
The ultrawide camera supports Night Mode as promised, and it always triggers at night. The resulting ultrawide photos are pretty usable with balanced exposure and restored highlights. There are enough details and true-to-life color saturation. Sure, these are noisy and soft, yes, but usable, nevertheless.
Ultrawide camera, 12MP
Finally, you can check these ultrawide shots taken without Night Mode. These are not pretty - the detail is low, and the images are very soft, then the noise is too high, and the colors are sometimes completely desaturated.
Ultrawide camera Night Mode OFF, 12MP
You can also look at our photo compare tool and see how the Apple iPhone 12 mini stands against some of its rivals.
Apple iPhone 12 mini vs. Apple iPhone SE (2020) and the Samsung Galaxy S20 in our Photo compare tool
Shootout with iPhone 12
We imagine many people will be choosing between the iPhone 12 mini and the iPhone 12. Apple has promised consistent camera performance, but doubt is part of our human nature. And so we did a small shootout between these two phones, and the photos are in.
First, we shot some scenes with the main snappers. These are virtually identical - with all the pros and cons we observed through our reviews.
iPhone 12 mini main cam, 12MP
iPhone 12 main cam, 12MP
Same applies for the ultrawide shooters - those snap identical images under the same conditions.
iPhone 12 mini ultrawide cam, 12MP
iPhone 12 ultrawide cam, 12MP
The photos we took at night-time with automatic settings are also identical across the board, not that we expected anything else. Both phones snap balanced and realistic night shots.
iPhone 12 mini main cam, 12MP
iPhone 12 main cam, 12MP
Finally, the ultrawide photos shot with automatic settings are good on both phones, while their quality is once again the same.
iPhone 12 mini ultrawide cam, 12MP
iPhone 12 ultrawide cam, 12MP
Obviously, if everything boils down to the choice between the iPhone 12 and the 12 mini - their camera should be of no concern to you. Only their size and battery life will matter in this case.
Portrait mode
Portraits are available on the iPhone 12 mini, and those are shot with the main camera. And the portraits we took with the mini are brilliant. They are sharp and rich in detail, with true to life colors, superb contrast, and very natural looking blur. The subject separation is quite competent and will rarely clip an ear or hair and clothes.
Portraits, 12MP
We've already established in our previous iPhone 12 reviews that you can, in fact, get good portrait photos in low-light scenes even without the presence of a LiDAR scanner. Here, check these out.
Nighttime portraits, 12MP
These images are a bit darker than expected though the Deep Fusion puts up a good fight, a bit desaturated, too, but still very much usable. They can get better, though!
Just put these default portraits through Photo's Auto Enhance feature, and you'd end up bright and saturated portrait photos, similar to what you'd get with the iPhone 12 Pro.
Auto-enhanced portraits, 12MP
Selfies
Apple offers two Field-of-View modes on the selfie camera - the slightly zoomed-in 7MP crop that is equivalent to a 30mm field of view and the full 12MP mode, which has a 23mm equivalent FoV.
If you hold the phone in portrait orientation, selfies are cropped to 7MP to provide a tighter framing but rotate the phone horizontally, and you get more of the scene with the phone automatically switching to the wider 12MP mode. You can also switch between those two modes manually.
The 12MP selfies are class-leading - high in detail and contrast, with great colors and well-handled noise. The HDR isn't as aggressive on many of the Android phones and provides for a natural and balanced look.
Selfies, 12MP
Portrait mode is present on the front camera, and it is assisted by the SL 3D snapper. Quite expectedly, the subject separation is outstanding with impressive background blur. These are shot in 7MP, meaning the camera crops a part of its available FoV and shows a zoomed-in shot.
Portrait selfies, 12MP
Night Mode is available on the selfie camera, too, and it does brighten the whole photo and exposes more detail. The images are still soft and noisy, yet rather usable.
Auto • Night Mode OFF • Auto • Night Mode OFF
Video recording
The iPhone 12 mini captures video at various resolutions and framerates with all three cameras, and it can even do it simultaneously if you have the right app.
All videos are digitally (also optically where available) stabilized thanks to the cinematic video stabilization. All modes, including the 4K@60fps, feature an expanded dynamic range thanks to the Smart HDR. The slow-mo options max out at 1080p at 240fps.
The iPhone 12 series is the first to allow video capture straight into the Dolby Vision dynamic HDR video format. You can edit these videos on-the-go on your phone, you can upload them on YouTube or any other popular platform, or even send them to your friends. The Dolby Vision information is saved outside of the video stream, so the video will look normal to any non-HDR player/screen and will be color-boosted on any Dolby Vision-compatible player and display. HDR video capturing is available in all resolutions at 30fps.
Note that if you want to transfer Dolby Vision video file to PC or Mac, your iPhone transfer options should be set to Keep Originals. Otherwise (Most Compatible), you will get a converted non-HDR video for better compatibility.
If your display isn't Dolby Vision-capable - Dolby Vision original files will still play. They would still appear with low dynamic range and duller colors compared to non-HDR or converted (Most Compatible) files.
The iPhone 12 mini captures wide stereo audio for the videos at 192kbps. This means spatial sound, just like some HTCs and some old Nokia phones did, as well as the iPhone 11 Pro duo, and you should enjoy richer and deeper sound if compared to just regular stereo.
The 4K videos captured both at 60 and 30 fps with the main camera are quite vibrant and show excellent contrast, low noise, impressive dynamic range, while colors stay true to life.
Rendering fine detail isn't great, but unlike photos, you don't normally zoom in videos to inspect details, so you are unlikely to notice it.
The 4K footage from the ultrawide snapper is also identical in both 30fps or 60fps options. The resolved detail, however, is mediocre, and the corners are plenty soft though not warped. The dynamic range, colors, and contrast are superb, as usual.
The low-light 4K videos look good - they are detailed enough, with good colors and reasonably low noise.
Cinematic stabilization is available on all cameras, resolutions, and fps options. It works peachy, as it always has on the iPhones.
The iPhone 12 phones can all do Night-Mode Time-lapse. You just select Time-lapse, mount your iPhone on a tripod, and hit the shutter. The camera app offers no settings whatsoever, and the videos are saved in 1080p@30fps format. We shot such a time-lapse for 25 minutes (compressed in 25 seconds), and it is indeed stunning. Everything looks great, and we can only imagine such a video shot in the right place and at the right time.
And here is a selfies 4K sample from the front camera. The clip is very good in detail and excels in everything else.
All videos we've posted here are non-HDR. We tried shooting them in HDR, and they look exactly the same to any non-HDR player and monitor. When we watched these HDR videos on the iPhone's screen, we did notice somewhat richer colors and expanded dynamic range - but that's hard to show online. If you do have a Dolby Vision-capable TV or monitor and opt for an iPhone 12, then you could enjoy the said boost in colors and dynamic range as well.
You can also look at our video compare tool and see how the iPhone 12 mini stands against some of its rivals.
4K: Apple iPhone 12 mini vs. Apple iPhone SE (2020) and the Samsung Galaxy S20 in our Video compare tool
Alternatives
If you are after a compact flagship, your choices are quite limited. And Apple's bid for this niche is long overdue.
The first alternative that comes to mind is the iPhone SE (2020). It has one of the fastest Apple chips - the A13, but everything else is borrowed from the 2017's iPhone 8. Still, Apple has already slashed its price, and the second-gen SE goes for as little as €480 or less. If the small size is a must, but you don't need a flagship iPhone or a bezel-less design, the SE is a very reasonable choice.
Apple iPhone 12 series
The Apple iPhone 12 is a full-blown flagship within a lightweight body, and for Max-like users, it could already feel as mini enough. It has everything the mini offers but comes with a bigger 6.1" screen and a larger battery. It costs €100 over the iPhone 12 mini, and it could be the size you are looking for after all.
Apple iPhone SE (2020) • Apple iPhone 12
Our verdict
This tiny iPhone was a long time coming, and we are glad it's finally here. It's also an incredible feat that the smaller model has all the great features of the bigger model.
We fear the iPhone 12 mini might be arriving a little bit too late. Mainstream smartphones have grown a lot in the last five years. The iPhone 12 already feels like a mini as it is. And the iPhone 12 mini is even smaller. The sale reports also suggest people are more interested in the iPhone 12 than the mini, further proving this point.
Still, we doubt Apple considered the iPhone 12 mini as a best-seller of the Pro Max caliber. It just adds a long-requested option for a small flagship that was unavailable for years, and it will surely add more sales to the already overwhelming iPhone 12 purchases.
The iPhone 12 mini is suitable for everyday use, and none of its shortcomings matter if you are after this particular extra small size. It can take high-quality photos and videos; it is great for videos or reading, and it will last you through a busy day on a single charge. Gaming is good, too, unless it's a very demanding app where the poor heat dissipation may lead to a bottleneck for a couple of minutes.
Aside from being compact, the iPhone 12 mini's other virtue is the fact that it's the cheapest of the iPhone 12's. Many people who just want the latest Apple hardware for its performance or future-proofing might go for this one for its 'reasonable' price.
If the price is the major draw, we can definitely understand that. If you are after the compact size, that's fine, too, but our only advice is to make sure you still want it by trying it out in person before committing to a purchase.
Pros
- The cheapest in the iPhone 12 series
- The most compact flagship smartphone you'd find today
- Attractive design with great grip and premium durability
- Excellent OLED screen
- Good battery life for such a small cell
- Loud stereo speakers
- The fastest smartphone chip on the planet, 5G, too
- Good photo quality across the board, day and night
- Apple iOS 14 is fast and easy to use, 5 years of guaranteed major updates
- MagSafe is a promising accessory concept
Cons
- No charger or headphones in the box
- iOS needs better file management
- We miss TouchID as FaceID does not work with a mask on
- Prone to performance throttling
- The notch looks bigger than ever on this small phone
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