Other 12 vs 12 pro brightness comparison

[WhatEverItTakes]

I want to buy a new iPhone and I have to decide between 12 and 12 pro.

I am definitely not a "pro" user and I really don't care about the third camera and the lidar thing. Materials go in favor of the pro but I am going to use a case most of the time.
It's not the only thing but what matters the most to me is the display.

So I went to a shop here in Prague this morning to take a look and I noticed what follows.


iphone 12 pro - iphone 12 - my gf's iphone 11 pro

(photo taken with my XS)


iphone 12 pro - iphone 12 - my iphone XS

(photo taken with my girlfriend's 11 pro)


Settings: 100% brightness, no truetone, no night shift, auto-brightness toggled off, no filters.

In person the differences were more clear than in the pictures.
The 11 pro has the brightest display. I would say the best one in general.
The 12 pro a little worse, still a very good display but nothing crazy.
The 12 and the XS are similar and are clearly less bright than the other phones. The 12 even worse maybe.

Now I don't know if I should buy the 12 pro although I'm not going to use its extra features.
Apart from this, I think I'm not going to need a powerful brightness so often. Maybe in spring/summer under the sun this might become an issue.

Have you done a comparison like this? What do you think?

 

[ericwn]

While interesting at first I don’t think your comparison does much in the real world as most of the time I don’t need full brightness on my devices. That may be different for you but Max brightness just isn’t that much of a deal breaker anymore on my end.

 

[pbonitati]

While interesting at first I don’t think your comparison does much in the real world as most of the time I don’t need full brightness on my devices. That may be different for you but Max brightness just isn’t that much of a deal breaker anymore on my end.

True, but they are sold as being the best, brightest displays as always. Attention was brought to the fact that the regular 12 has less overall brightness than the pro which seems to be true here.

Let's face it, we have Covid displays. While people were rightfully so worrying for their lives and others, they were making displays for our over critical society. LOL - Not sure where that came from.

I am in the camp of the 11Pro screen seemed better overall as well.

Carefully worded I'd say.

Apple:
"How do you make our brightest display even better? Make it bigger. A new design with flat edges and our flexible custom OLED allowed us to push the screen’s amazing color, brightness, and contrast right to the very edge."

 

[Lammy]

I went with the pro because I couldn’t deal with the non-pro display when outside.

 

[1rottenapple]

Wow the 11 pro seems to be the best for so many features. Best battery life too. I remember there was a macrumors article where they said Apple was cutting down cost for the battery presuming use of lesser materials to bring the 12 cost down to accommodate higher cost of 5g modem. This is why I’m kinda glad I got the mini and returned the 12 Max since it has compromises or cost. Like less efficient modem. The 13 should feature an integrated model that’ll offer more efficient 5g. Likely better battery life.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

My iPhone is always on 45% brightness as that is bright enough in use for me. This sort of comparison may only suit certain individuals.

 

[Robbosan]

Could see it being a problem for someone who works outside all day especially here in Australia.

 

[WhatEverItTakes]

Thanks guys for your opinions, they all make sense. ASAP I will do more testing with a friend of mine, maybe under the sun.

If someone else can share his/her experience about this matter, I will appreciate it.

 

[blatantblue]

The iPhone 12 Pro only reaches the maximum 1200 nits under conditions HDR is enabled. Movies, videos and photos.

 

[James Godfrey]

Issue is all the screens will come from different manufacturing lines, some will be brighter than others, some will have a yellow hue, some will have more of a blue hue... my partner and myself have the 12 pro but mine seems brighter overall.