T3 - UK (2020-12)

first phone with 5G, and it comes at a
good time, when 5G is arriving in a lot
of cities but isn’t so widespread that
Apple looks late to the party.
We took it for a 5G speed test, and
hit 500Mbps. We were able to
download a nearly 2GB film in a little
over two minutes. Even just regular
web browsing is so quick it feels weird

• no waiting for images and text to
  pop in as a page loads. You hit go and
  the whole thing just appears at once.
  This is next-gen stuff.
  5G does prove to be fairly battery
  hungry – those two minutes to
  download a film ate 3% of our
  battery. But Apple has introduced 5G
  with an interesting default option:
  the iPhone will monitor how
  intensive your internet needs are
  when you begin a task, and will use
  4G for simpler stuff or open the 5G
  floodgates for anything big. The idea
  is to help avoid 5G having a major
  battery impact.
  Speaking of battery, we usually
  hope for year-on-year improvements
  to iPhone battery life but, compared
  to the iPhone 11, you’re not really
  getting one here. The iPhone 12 is
  perfectly solid for battery life but not
  excellent. With light use you can
  make it through two days – with

typical lockdown use, expect to

recharge it every night. If you use 5G

regularly, that will also bring things

down a little. The gist is: the battery

life is fine. It’s just not an advance,

and it’s pretty average compared to

similarly priced phones.

5G isn’t the only speed upgrade

here. The new Apple A14 processor

that powers it is around 20% faster

than the A13 chip in the iPhone 11,

and around 40% faster than the A12

in the iPhone XS and iPhone XR. The

main point of the advances in the A14

chip aren’t so much the speed,

because opening apps and moving

around iOS are already really slick –

there are lots of other things the chip

does that are important.

It’s lower power than ever,

balancing out some of 5G’s drain; it

can do more with photos, enabling a

bunch of the new camera features we

mentioned; and it’s comfortably

future proofed to make sure the

iPhone 12 can run whatever upgrades

Apple has planned for years. That it’s

also more powerful than most laptops

(and every other phone on the planet)

is just bragging rights.

Ultimately, the iPhone 12 is the

iPhone most people should get in 2020

• it gives you a stunning new design,

a fantastic new screen compared to

the iPhone 11, excellent cameras with

a few new tricks, plus 5G and the

world’s fastest phone processor for

future-proofing.

It’s slick, it’s beautiful, and

everything works so damn well. But

the price rise compared to the iPhone

11 means it’s wandered back into

flagship price territory, really, rather

than the upper-mid-tier it’s aimed at

• and it doesn’t offer the triple-lens
  camera system we’d expect at that
  level or the extra storage.

WE’RE IMPRESSED Fab HDR screen; quality

cameras; 5G; powerful innards; new design.

WE’D IMPROVE iPhone 11 cheaper; just two

lenses; okay battery; 60Hz screen.

THE LAST WORD It’s ideal for most people but

its high-quality features come at a higher price.

VERDICT

Find the best deals for the Apple iPhone 12

at: bit.ly/t3iph12

DECEMBER 2020 T3 77

Apple iPhone 12

There are some

superb new

features, but

battery power is

about the same

RIOT OF COLOUR

The iPhone 12 comes in

many new colours, including

a vibrant red, a pale and ice

cream-y green and a blue

as deep and luxurious as an

influencer’s velvet sofa.