The iPhone 12 Pro: A Worthwhile Upgrade?

If you're considering purchasing the new iPhone 12 or 12 Pro, you may be wondering whether the additional features and upgrades are worth the extra cost. In this article, we'll delve into the key differences between the two models and help you decide which one is right for you.

The Camera: A Notable Upgrade

One of the most significant differences between the iPhone 12 and 12 Pro is the camera. While both models feature excellent cameras, the 12 Pro takes it to the next level with its improved optics, including a new telephoto lens and lidar scanner. This enables features like night mode portrait shots, Apple's new pro raw format, and 10x digital zoom. The 4K Dolby Vision HDR recording at 60fps also gives the 12 Pro an edge over the standard iPhone 12. If you're an avid photographer or videographer, these features will make a noticeable difference.

The Camera: A More Precise Experience

Another area where the 12 Pro shines is in its ability to capture more precise portraits. The additional camera lens and lidar scanner work together to create stunning images with better depth and dimensionality. The 12 Pro's camera also offers improved low-light performance, making it ideal for capturing photos in dimly lit environments.

The Camera: A New Level of Augmented Reality

The 12 Pro's camera is not only better than the standard iPhone 12 but also enables a more immersive augmented reality (AR) experience. With AR applications, you can expect more detailed and accurate results, making it ideal for gaming, education, and other industries that rely on AR.

Gaming Performance: No Notable Differences

One area where the 12 Pro doesn't offer any significant improvements is in gaming performance. Both models have the same hardware specifications, which means they will perform equally well when it comes to playing games. However, the extra RAM on the 12 Pro may make a slight difference in terms of app loading times and multitasking.

Gaming Performance: A Close Call

While the 12 Pro's additional RAM may provide some benefits, the real-world differences in gaming performance are negligible. In practice, you won't notice any significant differences between the two models when it comes to playing games or opening applications.

Performance: A Slight Advantage for the Pro Model

In terms of overall performance, the 12 Pro has a slight advantage over the standard iPhone 12. The extra RAM on the Pro model means that apps will be launched more quickly and with fewer relaunches. This is because the Pro model's memory management system can handle more applications at once, making it ideal for heavy users.

Performance: A Close Call

However, if you're not a heavy user or don't need to launch multiple applications simultaneously, the difference between the two models will be negligible. In general, both phones perform equally well when it comes to everyday tasks like browsing the web, checking email, and social media.

Battery Life: A Surprising Difference

One area where the 12 Pro truly shines is in battery life. Despite having the same-sized battery as the standard iPhone 12, the Pro model tends to outlast its competitor by several hours. This is largely due to the improved memory management system on the Pro model, which reduces power consumption when launching and closing applications.

Battery Life: A Close Call

However, if you're not an extreme user or don't need to keep your phone charged throughout the day, the difference between the two models will be minimal. In general, both phones can last a full day with moderate use.

Should You Buy the iPhone 12 Pro?

When it comes to deciding whether to buy the iPhone 12 Pro, it ultimately comes down to your specific needs and budget. If you're an avid photographer or videographer who wants access to advanced features like night mode portrait shots and Apple's new pro raw format, the 12 Pro is definitely worth considering.

Should You Buy the iPhone 12 Pro?

However, if you're on a tight budget or don't need these advanced features, the standard iPhone 12 is still an excellent choice. With its improved camera and sleek design, it's sure to satisfy your basic needs.

Conclusion

In conclusion, while the iPhone 12 Pro offers several notable upgrades over the standard iPhone 12, it's not necessarily worth the extra cost for everyone. If you're an avid photographer or videographer who wants access to advanced features like night mode portrait shots and Apple's new pro raw format, the 12 Pro is definitely worth considering.

Conclusion

However, if you're on a tight budget or don't need these advanced features, the standard iPhone 12 is still an excellent choice. With its improved camera and sleek design, it's sure to satisfy your basic needs. Ultimately, the decision comes down to your specific needs and budget.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwhat's up guys my name is brandon and i've been using the iphone 12 and the iphone 12 pro on and off as my daily driver for well over a month now and i feel like i've experienced enough to share my thoughts on each device and which one i think you should buy because my initial thoughts were completely wrong so first off the biggest difference in the iphone 12 and the iphone 12 pro this year aside from the usual better cameras is that they both have the same display so unlike previous years where the base model iphone would have an lcd display and the pro would have the oled display this year we get the exact same oled display on both now apple did artificially limit the max brightness on the iphone 12 to 625 nits of max brightness compared to 800 nits of max brightness on the pro but aside from that they both have the exact same 6.1 inch super retina xdr display now i don't want to just brush over the brightness thing because that difference in max brightness is definitely noticeable especially here in florida so you get the same peak brightness of 1200 nits when watching hdr content but that's not going to be an everyday thing that's not like just browsing through your phone and responding to text messages and things like that so when i was on a bike ride using the iphone 12 a couple weeks back i was wishing that i was using the iphone 12 pro because i had to take off my sunglasses and you know kind of shade the screen to read a text message i got and that just simply never happened while using the pro i never had to shade my screen i never even had to take my sunglasses off but i did when i was using the 12. but again aside from that the displays are identical so they're going to be great for watching videos great for gaming and just your basic texting and web browsing as well i mean everything is going to be exactly the same the speaker quality is also the exact same on both the 12 and the 12 pro now looking around the two phones you're going to notice a few differences so the first thing you're probably going to notice is going to be the back so we have a glossy glass back on the iphone 12 versus a textured matte glass back on the 12 pro now i prefer the textured matte back not only because it does not attract fingerprints like this glossy backing does but also because it just simply feels better in the hand and i think it looks better as well it's not as reflective and light and i just think it looks a lot more premium than the glossy back of the 12. also you will notice that the iphone 12 has brighter colors whereas the 12 pro has more subdued colors and if we look at the sides of both phones you will notice that we have an aluminum frame on the iphone 12 versus a stainless steel frame on the iphone 12 pro so of course the stainless steel frame is going to feel a lot more premium in the hand however it does attract more fingerprints so you will see smudging on the edges versus no smudges really on that aluminum side of the iphone 12 but they kind of you know cancel each other out because you get the fingerprints on the back of the iphone 12 and not on the back of the 12 pro and then also the camera bump is slightly larger on the iphone 12 pro versus the iphone 12 because we do get that additional telephoto lens and that lidar scanner down there as well so it is a slightly larger camera bump but nothing too noticeable when you set it on a table or anything like that and then we also get the flat edges on both phones so they both feel excellent in the hand but of course the 12 pro is going to feel more premium in the hand because it is a little bit heavier and it does also have that stainless steel frame and of course that matte textured backing which just feels more high-end in my opinion now going back to those cameras this is always an area where the pro models shine over the base model so this year is no different now the iphone 12 has a lot of the same features that the iphone 12 pro has however the 12 pro does have a lot of exclusive features this year so first off both do have a lot of the typical things that you would expect both phones to have so we have night mode we have smart hdr3 we have portrait mode we have deep fusion we have all of those things on both the 12 and the 12 pro however the iphone 12 pro has 2x optical zoom so when you go into the camera you'll see down here that we only have the 1x and the 0.5 x on the iphone 12 whereas we have the 0.5 x the 1x and the 2x optical zoom which is something that i really miss every time i use the iphone 12. i really wish we had that 2x optical zoom and that of course is thanks to the telephoto lens on the iphone 12 pro and if you wanted to zoom in even more than 2x you can go all the way up to a 10x digital zoom on the iphone 12 pro whereas on the regular iphone 12 you can only go up to 5x on the digital zoom we also get apple's new pro raw format on the iphone 12 pro this is not available on the regular iphone 12 and this will allow us to shoot photos in the raw format for more manipulating and editing later down the road like if you use photoshop or even just editing in apple's built-in editor you can retain a lot more detail and information in a raw photo compared to like a jpeg photo so that's a big advantage there as well if you are into editing photography after you take it we also get that lidar scanner on the iphone 12 pro like i was talking about earlier and when i first heard this was coming to the iphone 12 pro and pro max i originally thought that it would be great for like augmented reality and the obvious things and maybe it would improve face id or something like that but i did not realize how much this would actually improve day-to-day things when it comes to the camera so not only are portrait mode shots and night mode portraits especially much better but also autofocus is improved thanks to that lidar scanner so you get some really nice benefits from having this on the pro over just not having it at all on the regular iphone 12. now when it comes to video both can shoot video in the all new dolby vision hdr format but the iphone 12 is limited to 4k 30 whereas you could shoot 4k 60 on the iphone 12 pro also the zoom you can see we can go up to a 6x digital zoom whereas we can only go up to a 3x digital zoom there on the iphone 12 so you get double the zoom range on the pro but when it comes to the front-facing camera you're not going to notice any difference in these two because of course we don't have the lidar scanner on the front-facing camera so we have the same exact 12 megapixel f 2.2 camera that can shoot 4k 60 and can also do portrait mode you know you can also do the night mode shots from the front-facing camera and you have every feature available on the 12 that you have on the 12 pro so even though you would think that you're just missing out on the telephoto lens you're actually also missing out on the lidar scanner which improves autofocus and again is great for future proofing with augmented reality so for that reason i think the iphone 12 pro is definitely worth the extra money especially if you shoot a lot of portrait shots if you shoot photos or videos in low light if you use optical zoom a lot if you just zoom in general a lot or if you just want to use the new pro raw format but if you're just an average consumer i will say that the iphone 12 camera is going to be perfectly fine and it's a nice upgrade even over last year's iphone 11 so don't get caught in all these things that you may not use only if you're really into photography and videography will you appreciate the features that the lidar scanner and just the overall features that the iphone 12 pro camera offers over the iphone 12. now another area where i noticed a difference is in the performance so we have four gigabytes of ram on the iphone 12 versus six gigabytes of ram on the iphone 12 pro so i did notice that there's not as many relaunches like app re-launches on the pro and i actually noticed this like pretty much every other day i would notice and i would think to myself like wow the pro would not have relaunched that application you know if i was on it whereas the iphone 12 will relaunch applications more frequently which can be kind of annoying it's not a huge deal and again you won't notice unless you've used both of them you know in hand but it is something i noticed so i will say though that gaming is the exact same on both i didn't feel one phone getting hotter than the other one phone stuttering more than the other they both play games exactly the same and both open applications pretty much just as fast on both really the only difference is going to come down to the ram so applications will be you know in memory more often on the iphone 12 pro whereas they'll relaunch more often on the iphone 12. and then battery life is another area where i didn't really know what to expect in terms of how much better the battery life would be on one phone versus the other given the fact that they have the exact same battery size they have the exact same display and they have the exact same screen size but after using them both i realized that the iphone 12 pro got better battery life consistently and even in my big battery test video where i compared all the iphone 12s and the iphone 10r and things like that the 12 pro did outlast the iphone 12 and i think that's because you know it uses less power to relaunch apps and maybe just better optimization due to the ram so i do usually last you know most of the day with battery on both usually like 12 hours of usage on both phones so on a day-to-day basis you're really not going to be able to tell a difference unless you just compare them side by side like i do so i would not buy one over the other strictly for battery life because there's not a massive difference there so now which one should you buy so when the iphone 12 and 12 pro were first announced i did say that most people should just go with the iphone 12 since they now both have the same oled displays and the camera differences probably won't be a big enough difference to spend up but after spending several weeks of using both phones i have to admit that i was wrong i think it is worth it now to spend the extra 150 to 200 to get the pro model and i say this because not only does the iphone 12 pro look and feel much more premium in the hand but that additional camera lens and lidar scanner make a noticeable difference and bring features to the camera that you just simply cannot get on the iphone 12. so we're talking about things like night mode portrait shots things like apple's new pro raw format the 10x digital zoom the 4k dolby vision hdr recording at 60fps versus 30fps and also a much better augmented reality experience with ar applications not to mention the additional 2 gigabytes of ram actually makes a slight difference in applications launching from memory and that's something i did not expect i would notice as much as i have so for all those reasons i will be using the iphone 12 pro as my main phone and be happy knowing that the extra money was well spent not just for now but also for years to come so there you have it guys that is my comparison between the iphone 12 and the iphone 12 pro after a couple of months of usage so let me know what you guys think about this video did you enjoy it do you agree do you disagree let me know all your thoughts down there in those comments below make sure you give this video a thumbs up if you enjoyed it and of course make sure you subscribe for a lot more iphone comparisons and iphone reviews in the future but anyways guys thanks again for watching and i'll see you soon youwhat's up guys my name is brandon and i've been using the iphone 12 and the iphone 12 pro on and off as my daily driver for well over a month now and i feel like i've experienced enough to share my thoughts on each device and which one i think you should buy because my initial thoughts were completely wrong so first off the biggest difference in the iphone 12 and the iphone 12 pro this year aside from the usual better cameras is that they both have the same display so unlike previous years where the base model iphone would have an lcd display and the pro would have the oled display this year we get the exact same oled display on both now apple did artificially limit the max brightness on the iphone 12 to 625 nits of max brightness compared to 800 nits of max brightness on the pro but aside from that they both have the exact same 6.1 inch super retina xdr display now i don't want to just brush over the brightness thing because that difference in max brightness is definitely noticeable especially here in florida so you get the same peak brightness of 1200 nits when watching hdr content but that's not going to be an everyday thing that's not like just browsing through your phone and responding to text messages and things like that so when i was on a bike ride using the iphone 12 a couple weeks back i was wishing that i was using the iphone 12 pro because i had to take off my sunglasses and you know kind of shade the screen to read a text message i got and that just simply never happened while using the pro i never had to shade my screen i never even had to take my sunglasses off but i did when i was using the 12. but again aside from that the displays are identical so they're going to be great for watching videos great for gaming and just your basic texting and web browsing as well i mean everything is going to be exactly the same the speaker quality is also the exact same on both the 12 and the 12 pro now looking around the two phones you're going to notice a few differences so the first thing you're probably going to notice is going to be the back so we have a glossy glass back on the iphone 12 versus a textured matte glass back on the 12 pro now i prefer the textured matte back not only because it does not attract fingerprints like this glossy backing does but also because it just simply feels better in the hand and i think it looks better as well it's not as reflective and light and i just think it looks a lot more premium than the glossy back of the 12. also you will notice that the iphone 12 has brighter colors whereas the 12 pro has more subdued colors and if we look at the sides of both phones you will notice that we have an aluminum frame on the iphone 12 versus a stainless steel frame on the iphone 12 pro so of course the stainless steel frame is going to feel a lot more premium in the hand however it does attract more fingerprints so you will see smudging on the edges versus no smudges really on that aluminum side of the iphone 12 but they kind of you know cancel each other out because you get the fingerprints on the back of the iphone 12 and not on the back of the 12 pro and then also the camera bump is slightly larger on the iphone 12 pro versus the iphone 12 because we do get that additional telephoto lens and that lidar scanner down there as well so it is a slightly larger camera bump but nothing too noticeable when you set it on a table or anything like that and then we also get the flat edges on both phones so they both feel excellent in the hand but of course the 12 pro is going to feel more premium in the hand because it is a little bit heavier and it does also have that stainless steel frame and of course that matte textured backing which just feels more high-end in my opinion now going back to those cameras this is always an area where the pro models shine over the base model so this year is no different now the iphone 12 has a lot of the same features that the iphone 12 pro has however the 12 pro does have a lot of exclusive features this year so first off both do have a lot of the typical things that you would expect both phones to have so we have night mode we have smart hdr3 we have portrait mode we have deep fusion we have all of those things on both the 12 and the 12 pro however the iphone 12 pro has 2x optical zoom so when you go into the camera you'll see down here that we only have the 1x and the 0.5 x on the iphone 12 whereas we have the 0.5 x the 1x and the 2x optical zoom which is something that i really miss every time i use the iphone 12. i really wish we had that 2x optical zoom and that of course is thanks to the telephoto lens on the iphone 12 pro and if you wanted to zoom in even more than 2x you can go all the way up to a 10x digital zoom on the iphone 12 pro whereas on the regular iphone 12 you can only go up to 5x on the digital zoom we also get apple's new pro raw format on the iphone 12 pro this is not available on the regular iphone 12 and this will allow us to shoot photos in the raw format for more manipulating and editing later down the road like if you use photoshop or even just editing in apple's built-in editor you can retain a lot more detail and information in a raw photo compared to like a jpeg photo so that's a big advantage there as well if you are into editing photography after you take it we also get that lidar scanner on the iphone 12 pro like i was talking about earlier and when i first heard this was coming to the iphone 12 pro and pro max i originally thought that it would be great for like augmented reality and the obvious things and maybe it would improve face id or something like that but i did not realize how much this would actually improve day-to-day things when it comes to the camera so not only are portrait mode shots and night mode portraits especially much better but also autofocus is improved thanks to that lidar scanner so you get some really nice benefits from having this on the pro over just not having it at all on the regular iphone 12. now when it comes to video both can shoot video in the all new dolby vision hdr format but the iphone 12 is limited to 4k 30 whereas you could shoot 4k 60 on the iphone 12 pro also the zoom you can see we can go up to a 6x digital zoom whereas we can only go up to a 3x digital zoom there on the iphone 12 so you get double the zoom range on the pro but when it comes to the front-facing camera you're not going to notice any difference in these two because of course we don't have the lidar scanner on the front-facing camera so we have the same exact 12 megapixel f 2.2 camera that can shoot 4k 60 and can also do portrait mode you know you can also do the night mode shots from the front-facing camera and you have every feature available on the 12 that you have on the 12 pro so even though you would think that you're just missing out on the telephoto lens you're actually also missing out on the lidar scanner which improves autofocus and again is great for future proofing with augmented reality so for that reason i think the iphone 12 pro is definitely worth the extra money especially if you shoot a lot of portrait shots if you shoot photos or videos in low light if you use optical zoom a lot if you just zoom in general a lot or if you just want to use the new pro raw format but if you're just an average consumer i will say that the iphone 12 camera is going to be perfectly fine and it's a nice upgrade even over last year's iphone 11 so don't get caught in all these things that you may not use only if you're really into photography and videography will you appreciate the features that the lidar scanner and just the overall features that the iphone 12 pro camera offers over the iphone 12. now another area where i noticed a difference is in the performance so we have four gigabytes of ram on the iphone 12 versus six gigabytes of ram on the iphone 12 pro so i did notice that there's not as many relaunches like app re-launches on the pro and i actually noticed this like pretty much every other day i would notice and i would think to myself like wow the pro would not have relaunched that application you know if i was on it whereas the iphone 12 will relaunch applications more frequently which can be kind of annoying it's not a huge deal and again you won't notice unless you've used both of them you know in hand but it is something i noticed so i will say though that gaming is the exact same on both i didn't feel one phone getting hotter than the other one phone stuttering more than the other they both play games exactly the same and both open applications pretty much just as fast on both really the only difference is going to come down to the ram so applications will be you know in memory more often on the iphone 12 pro whereas they'll relaunch more often on the iphone 12. and then battery life is another area where i didn't really know what to expect in terms of how much better the battery life would be on one phone versus the other given the fact that they have the exact same battery size they have the exact same display and they have the exact same screen size but after using them both i realized that the iphone 12 pro got better battery life consistently and even in my big battery test video where i compared all the iphone 12s and the iphone 10r and things like that the 12 pro did outlast the iphone 12 and i think that's because you know it uses less power to relaunch apps and maybe just better optimization due to the ram so i do usually last you know most of the day with battery on both usually like 12 hours of usage on both phones so on a day-to-day basis you're really not going to be able to tell a difference unless you just compare them side by side like i do so i would not buy one over the other strictly for battery life because there's not a massive difference there so now which one should you buy so when the iphone 12 and 12 pro were first announced i did say that most people should just go with the iphone 12 since they now both have the same oled displays and the camera differences probably won't be a big enough difference to spend up but after spending several weeks of using both phones i have to admit that i was wrong i think it is worth it now to spend the extra 150 to 200 to get the pro model and i say this because not only does the iphone 12 pro look and feel much more premium in the hand but that additional camera lens and lidar scanner make a noticeable difference and bring features to the camera that you just simply cannot get on the iphone 12. so we're talking about things like night mode portrait shots things like apple's new pro raw format the 10x digital zoom the 4k dolby vision hdr recording at 60fps versus 30fps and also a much better augmented reality experience with ar applications not to mention the additional 2 gigabytes of ram actually makes a slight difference in applications launching from memory and that's something i did not expect i would notice as much as i have so for all those reasons i will be using the iphone 12 pro as my main phone and be happy knowing that the extra money was well spent not just for now but also for years to come so there you have it guys that is my comparison between the iphone 12 and the iphone 12 pro after a couple of months of usage so let me know what you guys think about this video did you enjoy it do you agree do you disagree let me know all your thoughts down there in those comments below make sure you give this video a thumbs up if you enjoyed it and of course make sure you subscribe for a lot more iphone comparisons and iphone reviews in the future but anyways guys thanks again for watching and i'll see you soon you\n"