Today we’re talking about the iPhone 12 versus the 12 Pro. I have both of these phones in hand I’ve actually had them in my hand and my sim card in one of these phones for the last 10 days or so and today I’m going to explain why I think the iPhone 12 is the much better choice overall when compared to the iPhone 12 pro. So if you’re on the fence between these two phones this is going to be a detailed breakdown of the similarities and differences and you’ll get to decide for yourself whether or not those differences are worth the increased cost.
So first up how much of a difference are we talking about between these two phones the iphone 12 comes in at $799 for a 64GB version but you have to keep in mind that is only with a carrier deal you’ll pay $829 full price if you get the unlocked version, now with the iphone 12 pro you get 128GB at $999. So at both base prices assuming you’re getting the carrier version. It’s a $200 difference in price now if you go up to the 128GB version versus the 128GB version. It’s a $150 difference for the same exact storage. So that means the iPhone 12 has a cheaper bottom and at 64GB well the iPhone 12 pro can go all the way up to 512GB.
So there’s one potential reason why you might want to pick one over the other if you’re someone who really wants lots and lots of storage the iPhone 12 pro has a higher potential storage cap through 256GB of storage is quite a lot in my opinion. Anyway, I think the primary people that will want a high storage iPhone are gonna be the people that either want to store lots of files like music files on their phone or perhaps record lots of videos that take up a lot of space but for the vast majority of users 64GB or 128GB should do the trick. So the question becomes is this $200 gap in price worth it how many extra features are you getting with the iPhone 12 Pro versus the iPhone 12.
I think that is the key question to talk about so let’s dive into some of the similarities first so when I had these two phones I’d have them on my desk there and I’d pick it up and I’d start using it and I wouldn’t even realize whether I was using the iPhone 12 or the 12 pro most of the time the only time I’ve noticed is when I got to see the side as I picked it up or when I was using the camera app but we’re gonna get into the camera differences here in a little bit but that was something that was really interesting to me because this is the first time that the iPhone 12 versus the 12 pro has been essentially the exact same phone in almost every respect aside from a handful of differences. Now apple rates the iPhone 12 pro for 800 nits of brightness versus the iPhone 12 625 nits of brightness. Now i measured the iPhone 12 pro’s brightness at 492 knits with my spider 5 elite while my iPhone 12 registered at 487 nits. So that is such a small difference that it’s likely the exact same screen on both of these devices. So in terms of practically usable brightness as far as I can tell there’s literally no difference same resolution same brightness same color gamut the same display. I don’t know why apple rates the iPhone 12 pros display higher when I don’t think it really deserves that higher rating.
Now the iPhone 12 has more color options we got five total different colors we have the black-white project red green and blue. The iPhone 12 pro comes in silver graphite gold or pacific blue. We have more I think classier professional-ish-looking colors especially since we have the stainless steel sides and I gotta say I do like the way the iPhone 12 pro looks a little bit better overall especially between these two in particular but it’s such a minor difference. Especially, if you’re gonna put a case on your phone now both of these phones have the same face id and ugly notch as well so you’re not getting a difference there. They both are 60-hertz displays so you’re not getting an increased refresh rate.
Between the two which was one of the key features that people were predicting the iphone 12 pro would have but it doesn’t and of course both of these phones are rocking the a14 bionic which is arguably the fastest smartphone chip in any smartphone both phones also feature the same meg safe accessories and magnetic charging through wireless charging on the back i really really like this feature and i can’t wait to get my magnetic charger in the mail it’s coming one of these days soon i also ordered one of the wallets but i haven’t again got to try it out yet but i’m assuming it’s going to be fantastic from everything else that i have read about it both the iphone 12 and 12 pro utilize the ceramic shield front glass protection which i did test out in my drop test if you’d like to check out my iphone 12 drop test i’ll have a link in the description or a link at the end of this video so if you want to see how much more durable that ceramic shield is i think that drop test is a pretty good example of the increased durability.
Both phones also feature the ip68 water and dust resistance according to apple they have tested this at six meters of depth inside of water for up to 30 minutes and that is really impressive water resistance. Both the iPhone 12 and 12 pro have had exceptionally good battery life. In my own usage, I have not had any problems at all basically in terms of battery life. I’ve had the iPhone 12 go through three days of moderate to light use depending on which day it was i mean if you’re a pretty casual user I would expect two to three days of charge on one of these phones. Now of course if you’re a heavier user you may be able to kill it in one day. Especially if you play a lot of video games but if you primarily use it for lighter tasks like email, web browsing, and video watching you should be able to get through about a day and a half of heavy usage on this device and that is really really impressive to me.
Now let’s talk about the camera setup on the back of these two phones we have three cameras on the back of the iPhone 12 pro as well as a lidar scanner. Now another difference is that the 12 pro is going to feature apple’s pro raw this will be a software update that will be available only to the pro users of the 12 pro and 12 pro max. Now, this is going to add some additional post-processing flexibility to pull out all the details you want from your photos. Now as far as i can tell the wide and ultra-wide cameras are identical between the 12 and 12 pro but the iPhone 12 pro max does have an improved wide-angle camera as well as an improved telephoto compared to the iPhone 12 pro. So i mean if you’re really trying to push for the best possible camera in an iPhone the iPhone 12 pro max is the phone to get this year you’re paying for an upgrade to the iPhone 12 pro but it feels like you’re not really getting that much of an upgrade because I find myself talking about 97 of my photos with just the regular wide cameras for me the fact that we don’t have a dramatic upgrading camera quality between these two makes the iPhone 12 that much more attractive. The iPhone 12 pro is a more versatile camera setup the telephoto zoom does provide optical zoom meaning you don’t lose detail when you zoom in at least on the two times zoom now, of course, both of these can do a digital crop. So if you don’t care about having as much detail the iPhone 12 can still technically do a zoom now the lidar scanner on the iPhone 12 pro does allow for more precise portrait photos as well as portrait photos. In night-time settings, the iPhone 12 relies on a good amount of light so that the portrait distance can be calculated with the difference between these two cameras. So if you’re someone who’s always taken nighttime portraits small feature that you might use some of the time.
Now i did go ahead and test some night portrait shots and surprisingly the iphone 12 did do the blurred background mode even when there was very very little light in the room that said i think the edge detection of the iphone 12 pro was a little bit better with less bleeding around the edges of darren’s face let me know in the comments down below whether you think the iphone 12 pro’s camera improvements are actually worth it or if you really want to have a camera upgrade you should really be upgrading to the iphone 12 pro max which is kind of the way that i’m leaning right now in conclusion the iphone 12 comes in at 200 less comes in with almost all of the primary features of the iphone 12 pro which to me makes it the far better choice for the vast majority of people now if some of the specific features like a telephoto camera or nighttime portraits really stand out to you or perhaps you just love the way the iphone 12 pro looks with the stainless steel finish then perhaps the iphone 12 pro will be worth that increased cost but for most people on a budget the iphone 12 is certainly the better choice in my opinion.