Apple iPhone 12 mini: The Best iPhone on the Lowest Rate:
By: M Usama
Tags: iPhone, Review, Mobile, Apple, Productivity

The iPhone 12 mini is the smallest and most affordable phone in Apple’s late-2020 iPhone quartet. It’s sure to appeal most to owners of older iPhones (particularly the iPhone 5 through 8) as well as anyone fed up with a handset that doesn’t fit into their pocket. The 12 mini is also the best value in the iPhone 12 family, packing premium power and the latest features (including 5G and a very capable Night photo mode) into a smaller build for less money than its siblings. It’s our top-pick iPhone this year and easily earns our Editors’ Choice award.

PROS: Perfect hand-friendly form factor. Excellent performance. Better battery life than other small iPhones.

CONS: Shorter battery life than larger iPhones.

BOTTOM LINE: The Apple iPhone 12 mini delivers the best price-to-power ratio of any 2020 iPhone, bringing top-of-the-line features to a phone that easily fits into smaller hands.

WHERE THE 12 MINI FITS IN THE IPHONE 12 LINEUP

Apple has on offered a rich crop of phones this year. In addition to the iPhone 12 mini are the iPhone SE ($399), the iPhone 12 ($799), the iPhone 12 Pro ($999), and the iPhone 12 Pro Max ($1,099). Last year’s iPhone 11 is also still available, for $599.

The 12 mini looks and feels like an iPhone 12 — just smaller. Like the iPhone 12, it comes in glossy black, blue, green, red, or white, with a new “ceramic shield” glass front that Apple claims are less prone to smashing than previous iPhone fronts. The backs of our iPhone 12 review units haven’t yet shown scratches after being knocked around, which is a good sign. You’re probably less likely to drop a small phone, but in case you do, it’s IP68-rated and should survive a voyage to the bottom of the bathtub.

At 5.18 by 2.53 by 0.29 inches (HWD) and 4.76 ounces, the 12 mini is the smallest, lightest premium phone I’ve seen in a while. That 2.53-inch width measurement is the key since width affects how easily you can reach across a phone. In my experience, when you get over 2.7 inches, you have to stretch, and many people’s comfort limit is at just about 2.8 inches. The main iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro are 2.83 inches wide; the Pro Max is over 3 inches wide.

The 12 mini’s luxury experience starts with the screen. The highly saturated OLED display makes the iPhone SE’s LCD looks washed out. At 5.4 inches and 2,340 by 1,080 pixels, it’s even denser than the iPhone 12’s display, with 476 pixels per inch. Yet it’s the same brightness, averaging 625 nits, brighter than previous-generation iPhone screens. Removing the big top and bottom bezels gives the phone significantly more screen real estate than the iPhone SE, 6, 7, and 8. With a Microsoft Word document open in portrait mode, with very small type, I saw nine more lines of text on the 12 minis than on the iPhone SE. On NYTimes.com, which has a more readable text size and freer line spacing, I got three more lines of text. Of course, bigger phones with larger screens will give you more, but it’s impressive that the 12 mini delivers more information than the SE despite being smaller.

LITTLE BUT FIERCE

All the new iPhone 12s are powered by an Apple A14 processor running at 3GHz with 4GB of RAM. Like the iPhone 12, the 12 mini comes in 64GB ($699), 128GB ($749), and 256GB ($849) storage sizes. Those prices are for carrier models; the unlocked model costs $30 more.

“It’s pleasantly surprising to me that the 12 mini even benchmarks the same as the iPhone 12 Pro Max.”

Our benchmark results were the same as those of the iPhone 12, as you’d expect. Its Geekbench scores of 1,602 single-core, 4,029 multi-core, Basemark Web score of 593, and GFXBench graphics benchmark scores were all very similar to both the iPhone 12 and the 12 Pro. They’re also all the better than the iPhone SE, to the tune of 20% higher on Geekbench Multicore and 10% on the Web browsing benchmark. It’s pleasantly surprising to me that the 12 mini even benchmarks the same as the iPhone 12 Pro Max, which costs $400 more and feels twice as large.

Like the other 2020 iPhones, the 12 mini runs Apple’s iOS 14.

TOP-NOTCH NIGHT VISION

No expense was spared for the cameras on the iPhone 12 mini; they’re the same as on the iPhone 12. On the back are 12-megapixel regular and ultrawide cameras. On the front is a 12-megapixel selfie camera. Both the front and back cameras feature Apple’s excellent Night mode, and they can record 4K video at up to 60fps.

I took care to compare the 12 mini directly with the iPhone SE. The biggest difference is the Night mode. The SE doesn’t have it, and Night mode makes a huge difference in the quality of low-light pictures. That alone is a reason to upgrade to the 12 mini. The SE also lacks the wide-angle camera, has slightly less light gathering in the main camera, and has a 7-megapixel — not 12-megapixel — selfie camera.

The 12 mini also has better HDR than the SE. That means you get richer colors in shots with bright backgrounds and darker foregrounds, for instance.

If you want a better iPhone camera, you have to step up to the 12 Pro, which starts at $300 more than the 12 mini. With the Pro, you get a 2x zoom lens and LiDAR, which improves focusing and gives you a gorgeous Night bokeh mode. I found that when I tried to focus on very close-up berries and branches with the iPhone 12 mini or the regular iPhone 12, the phones had trouble figuring out what the foreground object was, but the LiDAR on the iPhone 12 Pro and Pro Max really locked that in.

In test shots of complex, non-human objects, the iPhone 12 Pro performed better than either the iPhone 12 mini or the iPhone 12. On a portrait-mode shot of an apple, the 12 mini and the 12 had some trouble keeping the whole fruit in focus while also blurring the background; the 12 Pro handled it well. When I photographed a cup, the bokeh blur went a bit wonky around the handle with the 12 mini and the 12, but the Pro’s LiDAR focusing clearly helped it judge focus there. I didn’t see any difference between the models in my portrait-mode photos of myself, a human.

CLEAN AND CLEAR AUDIO

The iPhone 12 mini has the same 4G and 5G capabilities as the bigger iPhone 12 models. That means much better cellular connections than the iPhone SE, the iPhone 11, or any previous iPhone. It supports all US carriers, including Verizon’s millimeter-wave 5G network, and is the first line of phones to be certified for the “C-Band” networks that will be coming in late 2021.

Voice call quality is very good. It’s worth noting that the dual (top and bottom) stereo speakers on this phone are much louder, clearer, and richer than the single speaker on the bottom of the iPhone SE and older iPhones. Of course, they don’t have bass, but they’re surprisingly non-tinny considering the size of the phone, with treble that’s rich, not squeaky.

I tested the 12 mini against the iPhone 12 and SE on the Bell and Rogers networks in Canada. Speeds and reception were very similar between the 12 mini and the iPhone 12. On Bell’s 5G network, the 12 mini averaged 366Mbps down while the iPhone 12 averaged 393Mbps; on Bell’s 4G network, the 12 mini averaged 296Mbps down while the 12 averaged 261Mbps. Given the relatively small number of samples I took, both of those differences are within the margin of error.

But wow, the 12 mini and the 12 deliver much better performance than the SE does. The SE doesn’t have 5G, so I compared 4G results with 4G results. On Bell’s 4G network, the 12 mini got 296Mbps down, while the SE got 147Mbps. On Rogers’ 4G network, the 12 mini got 111Mbps down, while the SE got 77.8Mbps. That is a significant, real performance improvement, probably down to the 12 mini’s improved carrier aggregation and 4x4 MIMO antennas. I’d expect to see the same gains over the iPhone 11 or XR as well (they don’t have 4x4 MIMO antennas), though the iPhone 11 Pro should perform closer to the 12 mini and 12 (it does have 4x4 MIMO).

For those wondering whether these are Canada-specific results, never fear; the iPhone 12 and 12 Pro were tested in the US and showed good results, so I’d expect the same from the 12 mini.

Dual-band Wi-Fi performance is similar to the iPhone SE’s. Range on 5GHz Wi-Fi was a few feet short of the iPhone 12, meaning the 12 could get past one more wall where the 12 mini and SE couldn’t.

BATTERY LIFE: NOT BAD FOR THE SIZE

Battery life is the biggest concern with the iPhone 12 mini. It’s a smaller phone, and it has a smaller battery than the bigger phones do. Comparing it to the iPhone 12, Apple says it gets 10 rather than 11 hours of streaming, and 50 rather than 65 hours of audio playback on a charge.

Our video streaming test didn’t reveal much here: I got 10 hours and 37 minutes of streaming video over Wi-Fi, similar to the iPhone 12. But when left alone all night, the 12 mini’s battery dropped 9%, while the iPhone 12’s battery dropped 6%; I saw a similar difference on the second night. If you often forget to charge your phone, you might find that difference frustrating.

The 12 mini’s stats look better when it’s compared with other small iPhones. Apple says the 12 mini has better battery life than the iPhone 6, 7, 8, or SE. Overnight, the SE dropped 14% and the 12 mini dropped 12%. Running some speed tests for two hours killed 13% of the 12 mini’s battery but 18% of the SE’s. So yes, the 12 mini does have more battery capacity than the 2020 iPhone SE.

The speed test suggests that the iPhone 12 mini’s battery can handle 7 to 8 hours of heavy use; my video rundown test and Apple’s estimate put its use time around 10 hours on a charge. So the 12 mini will last you a day if you aren’t looking at it the whole time.

There’s no charger in the box, but lots of options exist for charging your iPhone. The 12 mini works with up to 20-watt wired charging and with Apple’s own MagSafe wireless charger. I also have a Qi wireless charging stand, and the 12 mini worked on it once it had been propped up with a folded piece of paper — unassisted, the phone is just a little too short to properly link up with the coil on the stand. It’ll work better on flat pad-style chargers.

MINI PRICE, MINI SIZE, MAXI POWER

I really like the iPhone 12 mini. Now, I am biased. For years, I’ve wanted phones to be much more manageable in one hand. When there isn’t a pandemic happening, I spend a lot of time out and about, holding on to a subway pole or a shopping bag or a child’s hand. I gave into the large phone trend a while ago, but I definitely felt like I was giving up a bit of facility in the world in exchange for the big screen.

This year, we’ve spent a lot of time sucked into our phones. But just for today, I’m going to dream of the future when we’ll go outside to shop and hold hands again. The iPhone 12 mini isn’t the phone for the life I’ve had in 2020, but it’s the phone for the life I want.

The 12 mini has the best price-to-power ratio of any iPhone right now, with a beautiful screen, a lovely design, a terrific camera, and 5G for $100 less than the iPhone 12. It will serve you well for up to four years; it’s a good investment. If I had to choose one iPhone right now, this one is it.

“The 12 mini has the best price-to-power ratio of any iPhone, with a beautiful screen, a lovely design, a terrific camera, and 5G.”

I won’t fault you for choosing a different one, though. Bigger screens may appeal to you more than they do to me. Larger phones have bigger batteries; that’s just physics. The Pro models also have better features for serious photographers, such as their LiDAR focusing system, 2x or 2.5x zoom lenses, and improved Dolby Vision color video capture.

Should you upgrade from an earlier iPhone? If you want 5G (especially on T-Mobile, Bell, or Telus, where it makes a real difference) or photo Night mode (which makes a big difference for everyone), then yes! Many potential iPhone 12 mini buyers are likely currently using the iPhone 6, 7, or first-gen SE models, which probably feel sluggish at this point. The 12 mini will zip right along. All of this makes the 12 mini our Editors’ Choice winner for iPhones — and one of the best phones of the year. ■