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iPhone 12 Pro vs. iPhone 15 Pro Buyer's Guide: 50+ Differences Compared

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The iPhone 15 Pro brings over 50 new features and improvements to Apple's high-end smartphones compared to the iPhone 12 Pro, which was released three years prior. This buyer's guide breaks down every major difference you should be aware of between the two generations and helps you to decide whether it's worth upgrading.

iPhone-12-Pro-vs-15-Pro-Feature.jpg

The iPhone 12 Pro debuted in 2020, introducing the A14 Bionic chip, MagSafe, improved water resistance, Ceramic Shield glass, 2GB more memory, a LiDAR scanner, Night mode portraits and Apple ProRAW images, HDR video recording with Dolby Vision, and a larger display on the smaller model. The iPhone 12 Pro was discontinued upon the announcement of the iPhone 13 Pro in 2021, but it is still possible to get hold of it at fairly low prices second-hand.

Our guide helps to answer the question of how to decide which of these two iPhone models is best for you by clearly showing all of the differences that the iPhone 15 Pro brings to the table. This article focuses on the iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro, but to understand the differences between the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro, see our other buyer's guide:


Although the iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro share most of their basic features, the iPhone 15 Pro offers a large number of notable upgrades, such as a titanium design, always-on Retina display with ProMotion, Action button, USB-C port, 48-megapixel main camera, A17 Pro chip, and longer battery life... Click here to read rest of article

Article Link: iPhone 12 Pro vs. iPhone 15 Pro Buyer's Guide: 50+ Differences Compared
 
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https://www.macrumors.com/guide/iphone-12-pro-vs-iphone-15-pro/
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If you're using the iPhone 12 series [Pro and non-Pro], just upgrade... It introduced 5G network, yet have a smaller battery capacity compared to the iPhone 11 series... Even if you don't use 5G, just get away from the iPhone 12 series...

It does not matter which series, iPhone 13, iPhone 14, iPhone 15, just upgrade...
 
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Reactions: Pinkyyy 💜🍎, amartinez1660, Jovijoker and 7 others
I guess this is a good argument for refreshes being spaced over 2 to 3 years rather than smaller iterations every year.

That way they can focus on making the best hardware possible, and more testing!

It makes sense from a business and environmental sense in that there would be a bigger incentive to upgrade on the refresh. Better hardware released, fewer products for Apple to support with repairs etc, and a bigger incentive for people to upgrade when the refresh does arrive. They could then have more focus on optimizing the software for the two to three years that a product is out.

More and more people are keeping their phones longer.
 
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The jump from 12 Pro to 14 Pro was already a huge jump and was the upgrade path I took. Pro Motion on the 13 Pro was very tough to resist for a year but I'm glad I waited. Similarly, the look and feel of the titanium body and USB-C port of the 15 Pro is also tempting but very much nice-to-haves for me personally.
 
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winxmac said:
If you're using the iPhone 12 series [Pro and non-Pro], just upgrade... It introduced 5G network, yet have a smaller battery capacity compared to the iPhone 11 series... Even if you don't use 5G, just get away from the iPhone 12 series...

It does not matter which series, iPhone 13, iPhone 14, iPhone 15, just upgrade...
Click to expand...
That’s only if the battery capacity actually gives you any trouble in your normal usage. I did upgrade from a 12 mini to a 13 mini, but mostly because of color, the battery was fine for my usage.
 
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Make sense. Three year or generation improvements are expected to be and generally a big deal compared to two or one year/generation. Off course, iPhone 15 technology or features are so much better than iPhone 12😊
 
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Fuzzball84 said:
I guess this is a good argument for refreshes being spaced over 2 to 3 years rather than smaller iterations every year.

That way they can focus on making the best hardware possible, and more testing!

It makes sense from a business and environmental sense in that there would be a bigger incentive to upgrade on the refresh. Better hardware released, fewer products for Apple to support with repairs etc, and a bigger incentive for people to upgrade when the refresh does arrive. They could then have more focus on optimizing the software for the two to three years that a product is out.

More and more people are keeping their phones longer.
Click to expand...
In terms of planning, production and logistics a 2 or 3 year update cycle seems almost undoable. Apple could start production earlier but wouldn't want to produce too many. The wait times would increase even more. And how do you ship 2 or 3 times as many phones compared to a yearly cycle. So were looking at a reduction in revenues, less predictable revenue
(shareholders!), a increase in wait times for consumers, more inventory before release, etc. From an environmental perspective it makes sense, for the rest I don't see any advantage for Apple to switch to a 2 or 3 year cycle.
 
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Fuzzball84 said:
I guess this is a good argument for refreshes being spaced over 2 to 3 years rather than smaller iterations every year.

That way they can focus on making the best hardware possible, and more testing!

It makes sense from a business and environmental sense in that there would be a bigger incentive to upgrade on the refresh. Better hardware released, fewer products for Apple to support with repairs etc, and a bigger incentive for people to upgrade when the refresh does arrive. They could then have more focus on optimizing the software for the two to three years that a product is out.

More and more people are keeping their phones longer.
Click to expand...
Except the competition will continue to update yearly and jump out ahead. They are forced to because of that to do yearly.
 
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gatorvet96 said:
Except the competition will continue to update yearly and jump out ahead. They are forced to because of that to do yearly.
Click to expand...
Id counter that by saying alot of apples technology is ahead of the competition… their processors in particular.

An iphone that is 3 to 4 years old is still ahead of most competitors phones on performance and build quality.
 
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MercuryNL said:
In terms of planning, production and logistics a 2 or 3 year update cycle seems almost undoable. Apple could start production earlier but wouldn't want to produce too many. The wait times would increase even more. And how do you ship 2 or 3 times as many phones compared to a yearly cycle. So were looking at a reduction in revenues, less predictable revenue
(shareholders!), a increase in wait times for consumers, more inventory before release, etc. From an environmental perspective it makes sense, for the rest I don't see any advantage for Apple to switch to a 2 or 3 year cycle.
Click to expand...
I find it highly unlikely that they will remain on a yearly update cycle for iphones and watches… eventually the environmental pressure impacts the economics of the operation.

Phone companies used to have much longer update cycles… it was only in the past 10 or so years that the update cycles changed as more and more people updated contract phones yearly. But the incentive for that has kind of gone… i rarely hear many people now mentioning they have the latest iphone. Its become such a common and mundane device that most people are not bothered much. They all look the same anyhow… so the pressure to have the latest goes too, when they all look the same.
 
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PhoenixAnhart said:
Funny how the metric is now the current phone vs the phone from three generations ago. It's indicative of how much this industry has inevitably levelled off.
Click to expand...
It makes the upgrade look much much more sensible and appealing.. your getting a big upgrade in performance and features. You're getting way more value for your money if you update every few years. And more excitement when you get it :)
 
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The real iPhone 12 Pro is the 13 Pro. The worst iPhone in history after the 6. Why? 60Hz, bad battery, micro issues, yellow tint oled display.
Glad I not buy this corona supply chain issue phone.
 
GuruZac said:
That’s a big jump in features, just with display alone between ProMotion, Always On, and Dynamic Island. Add the USB-C and those alone would prompt me to upgrade if I had had a 12 Pro/Pro Max.
Click to expand...

The more I think about it the more I’m deciding to stick with my 13 Pro another year. The dynamic island just looks so intrusive every time I see it. There really just was no good reason to move the notch further down into the main area of the display and then add a tiny little useless sliver of display above it.
 
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Fuzzball84 said:
Id counter that by saying alot of apples technology is ahead of the competition… their processors in particular.

An iphone that is 3 to 4 years old is still ahead of most competitors phones on performance and build quality.
Click to expand...
However currently the biggest draws seem to be from the cameras which each company one-upping each other very rapidly.
 
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gatorvet96 said:
However currently the biggest draws seem to be from the cameras which each company one-upping each other very rapidly.
Click to expand...
Although they are getting better and better…. for most users they don’t need the extended zoom levels.

The majority of advancements have been on the software/processor side.
 
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