Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iPhone 12 Pro iPhone 12 Pro is here! First impressions and photos thread
- Thread starter Boardiesboi
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I had no wrap on the back of my 12 Pro. The only covering on any part of the phone was a white sticker, covering the screen.
Those pictures have made me glad I didn’t go through with swapping my graphite for the Pacific Blue.
It’s nice but it’s TOO blue.
For those who like to use the Otterbox Defender case, the iPhone 12 Pro weighs in at 265g and ~13mm thick in the case. The iPhone 11 Pro weighs in at 271g and ~15mm thick in the case.
I wouldn’t mind it looking that blue all the time, but it rarely does. That was full sunlight next to an open window. It normally looks various shades of gray-blue depending on the lighting.
Yeah I’ve got a neighbor that goes a little nuts for Halloween. lol
I’m having the same issue with the MagSafe charger using my 11 Pro charging brick. I ended up losing about 40% battery capacity overnight because the phone expended more energy restoring some data like photos than it took in from the charger. The heat was pretty bad. I was worried about the phone after that but it’s been functioning just fine after charging normally via the lightning port.Very nice review, and as others have said, what a beautiful cat and such well-taken pictures, too! Based on your description, I take it you literally turned on the camera and pushed the shutter button. Or did you apply any settings (Night Mode, exposure modification, etc.) before taking them?
I also received my iPhone 12 Pro 256Gb Pacific Blue yesterday, and I mostly agree with your sentiments. It’s a stunning color. I had the 11 Pro Midnight Green and grew a bit weary of it over time - it began to look “dingy“ to me at points. This color does not give me that sense, and only time will tell if the same thing happens here. But I’m not anticipating that. The OP is right about the handling and feel. I remember thinking the iPhone 5 felt a little uncomfortable to hold as a result of the flat sides, but this phone is a pure pleasure to manipulate. And superficially speaking, I LOVE that the design language is now more unified with the iPad Pro!
Time will tell as far as performance goes. I can’t make any big assumptions yet because I think the phone is probably still setting up stuff / indexing in the background, and like every new iPhone I get, it’s a bit more sluggish in the first couple days. That always goes away in a day or two, and at that point, my experience is that there is a significant speed jump.
My biggest frustrations this year may have nothing to do with the phone. First, I always set up my iPhones as “new” and for the life of me, I can not understand why every time I do, certain apps like Apple’s Notes do not update themselves in the background. The only way I can get my notes to populate is by keeping the Notes app open, and the moment the phone goes into Standby mode or I change to another app, it stops updating. I’ve checked every relevant setting and they all appear to be correctly set. This is only a problem when bringing in the notes the first time; after they finally do all show up, it seems to push updates as expected (if I create a new note on my iPad, it is immediately synced to the iPhone, etc.). It’s bizarre to me that this seems to happen every year/every new iPhone, and I have to assume it has something to do with the fact that millions of people are simultaneously hitting Apple’s iCloud servers, and it’s causing an intended or unintended limitation on automatic “push” of data to individual users. The frustration is that it takes a day or two to get all the notes and requires me to constantly initiate it by opening the Notes app. A first-world problem, for sure, and it’s not the end of the world (just frustrating, is all).
Second, I have had a very mixed experience with this year’s crop of accessories. So far, the MagSafe charger is just abysmal for me. Using an Anker 30W per port USB-C Power Delivery charger, it charges so slowly that I have to believe there is something wrong with it. I would estimate about a one percentage-point increase every 10-15 minutes. It also seems to generate an inordinate amount of heat. I’ll give it a few more days to see if Apple provides more news about what’s going on here, but if nothing changes, the two I purchased will be going back.
I also disliked Apple’s clear case; I found it very hard to attach and detach from the iPhone and immediately began worrying about scratches while doing so (I tend to use the iPhone caseless, but always buy one case for times when I want a little extra protection).
The Apple silicone cases, on the other hand, seem really nice this year. They are easy to take on/off, feel really nice in the hand, have responsive and tactile buttons, and come in attractive colors. I bought the Product (RED), Kumquat, and Plum with the intention of keeping the Kumquat (or the clear one) and probably returning the others. However, the Plum is just gorgeous and it’s the one I’ll probably keep. And that’s with me having an inherent bias towards Kumquat because orange is my favorite color. All of them are great; but in the case of the Kumquat color, I couldn’t remove the image of “Circus Peanuts” (Google it if you don’t know what these are) from my head when this case was on my phone!
I don’t think I have the photographic skills of the OP, but here are a few pictures of our little guy, taken with the 12 Pro. I made no edits at all; I snapped the photos and uploaded them here. The first two are “Photo” mode; the third was shot in “Portrait” mode.
I’m also including a shot of the Graphite 12 Pro and Pacific Blue 12 Pro side-by-side. I couldn’t decide which one I would like, so I purchased both. Both are beautiful, and I struggled with the decision. The Graphite is gorgeous and is a perfect aesthetic match for my Graphite Series 6 and would have fulfilled my neurotic tendency to match stuff, but in the end, I couldn’t pass up the beauty of the blue.
View attachment 973163
View attachment 973164
View attachment 973181
View attachment 973182
All in all, I’m excited about this year’s iPhone, but am extremely disappointed in the MagSafe charger. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this is a correctable issue, however.
I bought the clear case but now am afraid to try it and scratch my iPhone if it’s hard to remove. I’ve had my pacific blue 12 Pro 256 GB in a red Apple silicone case since I got it so I don’t even really know what the blue color looks like! I took a quick look at it to make sure it was in good shape and put it into the case immediately. My screen protectors haven’t arrived yet so I’ve been babying my new iPhone.
I wanted to go from 11 pro max to 12 pro, but using it for 24 hours I miss the screen size and when I put it in my pocket I don’t even know it’s there. Thinking about returning it and waiting for 12 pro max.. any thoughts ?
Mine is very snug. It’s actually so snug I had a hard time trying to remove it so I gave up and left it on! It covers all sides of the phone this year. I’m sure dust will find a way in somehow because dust is magic that way. But I have to say mine is forming a pretty tight seal around the frame. I don’t know if they’re all like that. It seems there’s a little bit of variation this year according to some people not even having speaker holes cut in theirs and some people reporting a loose fit. Mine is pretty perfect.
Just took it out of the box, slapped on a screen protector and popped in a T-mobile sim into the Sprint iPhone 12 Pro.
After making that video, I did use it for the rest of the afternoon, took some photos:
Ran a speed test for Austin's 5G performance vs LTE.
Wasn't that much of a difference so I switched it to LTE. The battery does drain noticeably faster on 5G.
When using it, I don't really feel that it is THAT much smaller in terms of viewing the content on the screen compared to my 11 Pro Max. Physically, it's more pocketable and easier to hold and so far I haven't missed the larger sized screen. In terms of performance, it's too early to say how much better it is than the previous generation.
Still interested in the Pro Max and want to see if the new physical design is better to hold in the larger size than the 11 Pro Max and how much better the camera performance is, because specs don't really equate to real world performance. I love the size of the regular Pro but think the battery life might be an issue for me. Hopefully that improves over the next week!
Last edited:
Man so jealous of you guys lol, the 11/6 date can’t get here soon enough! I hope I can get my 12 pro max release day!
Surprised to see actual 5G when going out on Saturday. Best cellular speed I’ve yet seen (the previous record was ~300Mbps on the 7 Plus with 4G).
I went back to my 11 Pro Max. Give it a few more days and be honest with yourself. Do you see yourself being comfortable with the 12 Pro for the next year?
Maybe this guy needs to wash his hands. Why is he so greasy? Mine doesn’t look anything remotely like this after using it all day for pictures, including a cider mill trip and a pizza party.
But as with my iPhone 11 Pro Max and the iPhone X before it, if I do happen to notice any fingerprints, the sides can be immediately cleaned by a quick swipe against my shirt or pants.
iPhone 12 Pro Silver:
At first I wasn’t sold on the design, but now I have it I am not complaining. The last iPhone design to wow me was the X as I had wanted a stainless steel iPhone for years in order to match the watch, and also edge to edge screens. This isn’t similar quantum leap but it is nice.
I like the 6.1’ form factor, I would not want a bigger phone than this right now as to me it balances the portability perfectly. The 5.8 iPhone range was much smaller of a device to my 7 Plus but maintained a slightly larger screen.
Compared to the X I have gained much better battery life, although this is compared to one with 79% health which skews the comparison to if a user would change their battery instead.
There is no 5G coverage where I live but I am 5G ready as it were with a new sim.
Safari seems snappier...”
- Night mode is impressive even in the rain
- Design isn’t as revolutionary as the 7 to X changebut is nice. Flat edges good to hold. Contrast white silver black edges I like.
- Battery life on wifi / 4G is very good, cannot test 5G.
- 6.1’ might be the perfect balance for my user case between more screen and most portability.
Upgrading from a X, this is my first introduction to night mode and have already had some impressive results in the rain!
At first I wasn’t sold on the design, but now I have it I am not complaining. The last iPhone design to wow me was the X as I had wanted a stainless steel iPhone for years in order to match the watch, and also edge to edge screens. This isn’t similar quantum leap but it is nice.
I like the 6.1’ form factor, I would not want a bigger phone than this right now as to me it balances the portability perfectly. The 5.8 iPhone range was much smaller of a device to my 7 Plus but maintained a slightly larger screen.
Compared to the X I have gained much better battery life, although this is compared to one with 79% health which skews the comparison to if a user would change their battery instead.
There is no 5G coverage where I live but I am 5G ready as it were with a new sim.
Safari seems snappier...”
Attachments
Last edited:
I had my first phone-call on mine last night, and the battery dropped from 100% to circa 82% in around an hour. I had them on speaker, but still slightly concerning. Hoping it is an indexing/background drain that will go away. According to battery usage over 24 hours, "Phone" has used 30%!
I've moved from an iPhone 7 to the 12 Pro so noticing a big difference.
I was worried it would feel to big and heavy in the hand but actually it feels comfortable and solid. Not too big for my pockets either. The edges do feel quite sharp but of course it has a protective case on already. I went for the Torras Diamonds case which still shows off the back colour nicely. The lips are slightly raised, which should protect the glass better, but not so intrusive as to make 'swipe up' unlock awkward. It feels comfortable to use, but is obviously a bit plasticky. Might look at the Apple leather cases when they come out - they do have a lovely hand feel.
The screen was yellow initially, when transferring data, but I switched off True Tone after set up and it now looks fine. Coming from the IP7 it looks huge but also incredibly sharp - the detail in previously stored photos, taken on my DSLR, really pops out. Transferring data from the old phone was a doddle and only took half an hour.
Speed is hard to quantify but everything on the phone just feels quicker and smoother, whether using wifi or 4/5G. 5G works but I have to go to the front of the house to find a signal - will only be an issue when my flaky (Virgin Media) wifi conks out.
Haven't done any battery testing but initial impressions are OK. Will need to use it for a few weeks before I can really tell. An hour long Facetime call, which would have killed my IP7, drained 15% of the battery. Wireless charging overnight using a cheap Anker Qi charger was silent and effective (with the Torras case on). I don't see the need for MagSafe.
I've been out for a bike ride using Strava and can report that the GPS seems more sensitive and accurate than on the IP7. Had an opportunity to test the camera out too. Again, this isn't a formal test, but I've loaded the images onto a 27 inch Mac and they are definitely crisper than similar photos taken with the IP7. I haven't tested the night mode functionality yet, or the LiDAR sensor (except to try the Measure App to see how tall my family are!).
One little wrinkle, which has been picked up in the Press - the NHS Covid-19 App failed to work after transfer from the IP7. So I deleted it, then downloaded and set it up again. It's working again, but it's lost my previous data.
I haven't really tested out the additional benefits of the IP12 Pro over the IP12 yet, so all of these comments would apply equally to the IP12, which is also 25g lighter. But, overall, I'm really pleased with this upgrade so far.
I was worried it would feel to big and heavy in the hand but actually it feels comfortable and solid. Not too big for my pockets either. The edges do feel quite sharp but of course it has a protective case on already. I went for the Torras Diamonds case which still shows off the back colour nicely. The lips are slightly raised, which should protect the glass better, but not so intrusive as to make 'swipe up' unlock awkward. It feels comfortable to use, but is obviously a bit plasticky. Might look at the Apple leather cases when they come out - they do have a lovely hand feel.
The screen was yellow initially, when transferring data, but I switched off True Tone after set up and it now looks fine. Coming from the IP7 it looks huge but also incredibly sharp - the detail in previously stored photos, taken on my DSLR, really pops out. Transferring data from the old phone was a doddle and only took half an hour.
Speed is hard to quantify but everything on the phone just feels quicker and smoother, whether using wifi or 4/5G. 5G works but I have to go to the front of the house to find a signal - will only be an issue when my flaky (Virgin Media) wifi conks out.
Haven't done any battery testing but initial impressions are OK. Will need to use it for a few weeks before I can really tell. An hour long Facetime call, which would have killed my IP7, drained 15% of the battery. Wireless charging overnight using a cheap Anker Qi charger was silent and effective (with the Torras case on). I don't see the need for MagSafe.
I've been out for a bike ride using Strava and can report that the GPS seems more sensitive and accurate than on the IP7. Had an opportunity to test the camera out too. Again, this isn't a formal test, but I've loaded the images onto a 27 inch Mac and they are definitely crisper than similar photos taken with the IP7. I haven't tested the night mode functionality yet, or the LiDAR sensor (except to try the Measure App to see how tall my family are!).
One little wrinkle, which has been picked up in the Press - the NHS Covid-19 App failed to work after transfer from the IP7. So I deleted it, then downloaded and set it up again. It's working again, but it's lost my previous data.
I haven't really tested out the additional benefits of the IP12 Pro over the IP12 yet, so all of these comments would apply equally to the IP12, which is also 25g lighter. But, overall, I'm really pleased with this upgrade so far.
I am really struggling with the blue. In all the photos I've seen it looks a lot more blue than I imagined, I was expecting it to be more subtle. However, people are also saying it's just the light but surely it can't change colour that drastically? My blue arrives tomorrow so I guess I'll have to see it in the flesh and make up my mind but having seen the graphite version photos my gut is now leaning towards that one....decisions, decisions!
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
I think I hate my blue pro
it just feels so close to graphite
might go silver but need more pics of it first
it just feels so close to graphite
might go silver but need more pics of it first