iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro, more similar than different

Apple iPhone 12

The iPhone 12 is almost identical to the iPhone 12 Pro including support for 5G, blazing fast A14 Bionic processor and the same stunning 6.1-inch Super Retina XDR OLED display.

Design

One of the design differences between the iPhone 12 and the Pro is the glass back is not frosted but instead shiny polished glass. Around the rear cameras, the glass is frosted on the iPhone 12 and glossy on the iPhone 12 Pro.

Instead of the gorgeous stainless steel sides, the iPhone 12 consists of a matte aluminium band which comes in blue, green, red, white and black colours.

Cameras

Apple iPhone 12 dual rear cameras.

The iPhone 12 features dual rear cameras, including wide-angle and ultra-wide lenses. From both the front and rear cameras, there’s Night Mode, Time Lapse, Slo-mo, Video, Photo, Portrait and Pano modes. What’s missing is the 2x telephoto lens from the Pro.

I love to take portraits and I don’t always use portrait mode. I prefer the longer 2x focal length over the standard wide lens for headshots. Portrait shots taken with the wide lens can make the face look terrible if taken too close to the subject. Also, when you use the 2x lens you can stand further back and take a more natural-looking shot that doesn’t distort facial features.

There’s also no LiDAR sensor for better-augmented reality and greater depth sensing for photos and videos. Even without it, the iPhone 12 does a fantastic job capturing excellent photos in portrait mode with natural-looking bokeh.

For some reason, only the Pro models get the new Apple ProRAW, which blends Apple's own computational photography with the typical benefits of editing in the RAW photo format. The non-Pro iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Mini can’t capture and edit video using Dolby Vision HDR.

Battery

In my testing, I couldn’t see any negligible difference in battery performance between the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro. Both provide an all-day battery life.

Features

Both iPhones feature IP68 dust/water resistant (up to 6m for 30 mins), Bluetooth 5.0, Qi fast wireless charging up to 15W with a compatible charger and 5G.

Hardware

The only real difference in hardware is the Pro comes with 6GB while the iPhone 12 has 4GB. In real-world use, it’s difficult to see a difference but the extra 2GB should help in multitasking and large apps that may come in the future along with iOS 15 and iOS 16 in the years to come. Storage options also differ with the base iPhone 12 starting at 64GB going up to 256GB while the base iPhone 12 Pro is 128GB topping off at 512GB.

Verdict

For many, the iPhone 12 will be the best value proposition if you’re looking at upgrading to the latest iPhones. Only you will know which iPhone suits you best. I can only say you really can’t go wrong whichever iPhone 12 you choose.

iPhone 12 prices start at €913.85 (64GB)