The iPhone 12 & 12 Pro Review: New Design and Diminishing Returns
by Andrei Frumusanu on November 30, 2020 8:30 AM EST- Posted in
- Mobile
- Apple
- Smartphones
- Apple A14
- iPhone 12
- iPhone 12 Pro
System Performance
System performance of the new iPhones should be again excellent given the hardware advancements on the part of the new A14 chip. Alongside iOS14, we should really see no problem with everyday tasks on the phone.
Unfortunately, our benchmark suite for iOS here is still relatively barren, and we have to mostly rely on web browser benchmarks – which isn’t all too much of an issue given that’s the heaviest and most demanding every-day workload for mobile devices.
In Speedometer 2, the new A14 showcases a large performance boost of 30% for the new iPhone generation. This is likely both due to the clock frequency increase of the new CPUs as well as the fact that the new microarchitecture has in particular a larger amount of FP/SIMD resources available to itself.
Usually at this point we would point out that it’s an apples-to-oranges comparison to other devices in the chart, and that Apple’s Nitro JavaScript engine could simply be much superior to Google’s V8 engine, but the new release of the Apple Silicon Macs where we could finally compare Safari versus Chrome has shown very little performance discrepancy, meaning the performance here is actually due to the CPUs themselves.
Having that in mind, it means that Apple’s performance advantage over Android devices has grown even bigger this generation, with little hope for upcoming Cortex cores to catch up with such a gap.
JetStream 2 has heavier workloads and also make uses of WebAssembly, averaging out a smaller performance increase for the new A14 chip, but still showcasing class-leading performance amongst the competition.
WebXPRT is a browser workload that tries to mimic real-world interactions and workloads. The new iPhone 12s here actually show very little progress in terms of performance.
This small progress in WebXPRT is actually quite representative of my overall impression of responsiveness of the new iPhones: The A13 and iPhone 11 devices were already so performant and responsive that the actual speed limit for user interactions nowadays are just OS animations and just general SoC DVFS, the latter which Apple has already optimised to an ideal operation a few years back.
I would be lying if I were to say that I noticed that the new iPhone 12s are any faster than the iPhone 11 in everyday usage, but that’s simply because these are already are outstandingly fast devices.
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Ranger1065 - Wednesday, December 2, 2020 - link
I understand some members of your staff have problems, but this is ridiculous. In the interests of self preservation, isn't it time to get a GPU review done?29a - Wednesday, December 2, 2020 - link
Let me guess, no 3060 ti review?zeeBomb - Thursday, December 3, 2020 - link
that's tough!!!Frantisek - Friday, December 4, 2020 - link
Phones looks simmilar. Difference is much bigger then you picture even it does not look like that in normal use. Let see all differences.128 GB so real difference is 150 (130) USD
6 GB RAM
Telephoto: ƒ/2.0 aperture with OIS
2x optical zoom in, 2x optical zoom out; 4x optical zoom range
Digital zoom up to 10x
Lidar
Night mode portraits enabled by LiDAR Scanner
Apple ProRAW
Dolby Vision recording up to 60 fps
Durable steel frame you do not preffere
Brighter display
I think RAM, extra lens with OIS, Lidar and brighter screen can easily justify hugher cost.
And 100 USD for Max is really small difference for bigger screen and battery, better image sensor with extra stabilisation when we speak in Apple prices.
I hever had rounded phone so can not comment your feelings from flat edges. ... Sorry I had 3/3GS but it so long time ago and were quite bulky.
I would try to compare those phones in cases as many ppl wear them anyway.
s.yu - Friday, December 4, 2020 - link
Not exciting at all...Personally that move back to the iP4 design is the biggest "upgrade", as I've always felt that to be more premium, just like Razer etc. are all making their laptops more boxy. The camera would be more of a sidegrade.sharathc - Friday, December 4, 2020 - link
Boring 🙄iphonebestgamephone - Sunday, December 6, 2020 - link
More exciting than whatever you are doing, atleast.gerard143 - Thursday, January 28, 2021 - link
Outstanding review! Seriously, props to you for not being one of those Apple can do no wrong reviewers.You hit the nail on the head about the regression to square edges and the fingerprint magnet stainless steel.
The sqaure edges are a massive step backwards. I hate my 12 pro because of it. The stainless looks like garbage and is heavy. I’d prefer alum and rounded edges. When I hold my XS in my hand again it feels amazing compared to the 12 pro.
I feel your review was very accurate and well written. Great job!
mobilecampus - Monday, September 6, 2021 - link
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