iPhone 12 iPhone Mini First Impressions

[kovalchuk71]

Love the 12 mini so far. It’s EXACTLY what I was looking for (coming from an iPhone X). Glad to have the hard edges back!

It’s honestly the perfect size. I just wish they would have kept the aluminum trim silver. I think the anodized trim “cheapens” the look a bit, but that’s just me being nit-picky.

 

[Knowlege Bomb]

I upgraded to a white iPhone 12 mini today from my 2016 iPhone SE. Before that, I had a 5S -- so I had been on the same design for 7 years!

Overall, I think the mini is great. I had been waiting so long to have an iPhone X style device in the form factor of the iPhone 5, and we got that, flat sides and all. I'm amazed by how much better the camera and screen are. And the speed and battery life are so much better than on my aging phone.

It's a little bigger than I would have liked -- it's funny that that wasn't an option in the poll for this thread. It's also funny to read all of these people amazed at how small it is -- from my perspective, this is a big jump in screen size. I could go a bit smaller -- I personally would like a 4.7" inch screen.

I do not like that the white and silver color on this model is a warmer tone. It looks almost like a gold band in certain lighting. I would have preferred a pure white/silver. I am debating switching it for the blue, which was my other front runner. I ruled out black because of fingerprints. Red was too extreme of a color in store. Green was OK. (I saw them all in person today.)

The 5G antenna cutout on the side is an eyesore and takes away from the design. I do not care about 5G and would rather they have left it out.

Overall I'm quite happy.

I originally ordered a black and the a dbrand matte black film for the back. Would have been a perfect matte black all around.

 

[laestrella]

Thanks, but I mentioned that already in my post. It's not really much better and still a usability regression.

Yea the back tap is still a bit weird because you do have to adjust.

Not sure this will make any sense to you, but the only thing that I’ve found that works is that you can tap on the back almost side with your middle finger that way you don’t have to adjust your grip. Most people will try to tap with the index finder.

 

[shr631]

This is not the type of question to do a poll. The choices don’t even begin to cover what someone’s first impressions of a phone would be and the last two shouldn’t even be there.

Interesting viewpoint. I voted and the poll seemed perfectly fine to me. Even if it violated some formal survey design principle or something, I mean it’s fine...really.

 

[laestrella]

I upgraded to a white iPhone 12 mini today from my 2016 iPhone SE. Before that, I had a 5S -- so I had been on the same design for 7 years!

Overall, I think the mini is great. I had been waiting so long to have an iPhone X style device in the form factor of the iPhone 5, and we got that, flat sides and all. I'm amazed by how much better the camera and screen are. And the speed and battery life are so much better than on my aging phone.

It's a little bigger than I would have liked -- it's funny that that wasn't an option in the poll for this thread. It's also funny to read all of these people amazed at how small it is -- from my perspective, this is a big jump in screen size. I could go a bit smaller -- I personally would like a 4.7" inch screen.

I do not like that the white and silver color on this model is a warmer tone. It looks almost like a gold band in certain lighting. I would have preferred a pure white/silver. I am debating switching it for the blue, which was my other front runner. I ruled out black because of fingerprints. Red was too extreme of a color in store. Green was OK. (I saw them all in person today.)

The 5G antenna cutout on the side is an eyesore and takes away from the design. I do not care about 5G and would rather they have left it out.

Overall I'm quite happy.

The blue picks up fingerprints too. That’s part of the reason I stayed away as well. I think the white is the only one where that won’t be an issue. You should definitely check out some YouTube videos or see it in the store if you can.

 

[MJedi]

I got a Pacific Blue mini. I have an 11 Pro Max. The mini is so small in a good way, and I'm amazed that all the tech can fit in a small iPhone. Unfortunately, my eyes aren't what they used to be. The text is too small for me. Enabling zoom helps a bit, but third-party apps aren't optimized for this resolution and are presented with black bars above and below the screen. Increasing text size doesn't work on all apps, and doesn't work in Safari. It's probably going back. I really wanted to like it because of the physical size.

 

[Supermallet]

Literally just got the phone 20 minutes ago and it’s still setting up so these are true first impressions:

The first thing I said when I opened the box was “wow!” This phone feels tiny coming from an 11 Pro but also absolutely the right size. I let out another wow when I picked it up. The 11 Pro is fine weight wise but it feels like a concrete block compared to the mini. I often watch videos at night before bed and holding up the 11 Pro would make my hands ache. That will not be a problem with the mini. And while it’s light, it still feels substantial thanks to the metal frame and glass back.

When edge to edge screens were first coming up in the mobile world, I remember hoping for exactly something like the Mini, a phone with a small body but a large screen (compared to other phones of a similar size). When the X was announced and then the next year only big phones were available, I figured Apple had given up on the idea of maximizing screen space on a smaller phone. I was genuinely surprised at the Mini announcement. At first I thought it wasn’t for me because I had adapted to the size of the 11 Pro, but I knew the 12 would be even bigger and a voice in the back of my head kept telling me I’d be much happier going to the mini than trying to make the 12 work. A major factor in this decision was that my toddler loves to be held for a lot of the day so a single handed phone has now become more of a necessity than a feature I could reasonably drop in favor of other features like the biggest battery and best camera.

The Mini feels like the phone I had forgotten I needed in my life and now that it’s here I wonder how I got by without it for so long. I think the mini is going to be a surprise hit as people see and more importantly handle it for themselves. It just feels right.

Also I must say the green is something special this year. It’s subtle and playful, light enough to say I’m not drab or stuffy but not so bright that it shouts “LOOK AT ME I HAVE A COLORFUL PHONE” (to be clear I have no problems with phones that are super colorful). Additionally it’s a light enough shade that fingerprints on the back glass are nowhere near as obvious as on the darker colors. I know blue is getting the bulk of the attention this year but I think green is where it’s at.

 

[happy orchard]

Pro Max!

Are you keeping just the Max? Or finding a use for both?

 

[DeanL]

Are you keeping just the Max? Or finding a use for both?

I'm only keeping the Max
Can't wait for the mini to be available at work as the work phone to replace my iPhone 7!

 

[aakshey]

So I love my new Mini. First timer with FaceID and the UI is very fast and slick.

However, compared to my 6S the Mini is noticeably dim. I looked up the specs, the 6S is supposed to be 550 nits versus 625 for the Mini. So something is wrong. I'll be making an appointment at the Apple store.

As an aside, I'm on Verizon. Read online that a 4G sim card should work fine. Doesn't and got a text from Verizon when I tried my old sim card. So I'm off to the Verizon store tomorrow to reprogram the 5G card that came with the Mini to my phone number. Pretty sure doing it online or via customer will result in an activation fee. I did make a trial phone call though - wifi calling! Worked fine.

Oh, and I find the speaker fine. I had two 6Ss two weeks ago and gave the better newer one to the system. So all I have now to compare is the 6S that plays at half the volume of the other one (a defect I'm sure). Of course the Mini does better than that.

It is defective. Turning off Auto Brightness will make it much brighter. But this is still a defect. And common with OLED iPhones. Return and buy new. Will be fine.

 

[CmdrLaForge]

I love my mini. Finally the perfect iPhone size. For me ! But I have plenty of „screens“ all day.

 

[CmdrLaForge]

Here next to my Xr

 

[Davelfc]

Battery life can't be judged properly yet because of course the phone has been updating, downloading etc and the new toy has been getting used a little more often than it would. Sticking a battery case on it would defeat the purpose of having a lighter phone. for those thinking that Apple will release a MagSafe portable battery, the efficiency of MagSafe from a battery would be ridiculous. For a company preaching its environmental concerns so much such a device would waste so much it would be a laughing stock, so expect it to be on sale in the second quarter of 2021.

The keyboard, well I'm having to be a little more careful when typing but that's something I was prepared for when I decided I would have a little less screen to play with. I don't watch movies or play games with my iPhone so for me the smaller screen isn't that much of an issue. Some website sign ins use a verification method of clicking boxes with certain things in them, click all the boxes that have cycles for instance, well that's going to be slightly more difficult I agree.

The weight and size mean I'm not resting the phone on my little finger, which had developed a dent. Hopefully over the next few weeks the noticeable dent will disappear.

For everything I use my phone for so far I'm not seeing much of a difference really. Which is exactly what I wanted, although obviously there's less weight and it's smaller.

Apart from the screen size it's just an iPhone 4s isn't it. It's small enough that it isn't uncomfortable in my hand although since March I've used my AirPods for nearly all calls.

I'm very happy so far, I just hope they sell enough of them to keep this size of iPhone in the product line up.

 

[JM]

Not sure what you mean?

What does so much sad mean?

Your post made me sad again, that's all. It made me very sad. 😂 haha

I hated and felt very let down that the mini cost $699 for only 64 GB; without a charger; without headphones;.... and then felt even more terrible when I found out it actually costs $729 and there's no getting around the ******* carrier "upgrade" we-don't-do-****-so-give-us-money-for-the-privilege-of-you-deciding-you-want-to-buy-a-new-phone.

The whole delivery of the 12 just made me feel terrible and depressed after saving up my birthday and Christmas money, and selling off old things around the house, to get the 12 mini specifically. I was so excited at first, and I still just feel like garbage about getting a mini because I feel like it's a terrible deal compared to what was offered last year.

Who knows, maybe this year has just been a bunch of disappointments and I was hoping that I would be really excited about the mini finally coming out, but it was way over what I was hoping for, and then when I got more bad news about the specifics, I just felt even more terrible.

For $729 they should include the charger and headphones, or given 128 GB to everyone. $729 is a LOT of money for a tiny cellphone, and we all got WAY more for our money last year.

That's why it's so much sad, man. haha.

Why couldn't Apple just delight their customers this year? That $699 price reveal for the 11 last year was AMAZING. The 11 sold SOoooooo dang well.

Not expecting a response 😂 Just a late night "rant" I guess... carry on, lol.

 

[RRC]

I don’t see the option to turn on battery percentage in settings with the mini. Was it removed?

There’s no room for it on screen, it is the same on all the Face ID phones I believe.

Just swipe left to check your battery widget or move it onto the Home Screen.

 

[Supermallet]

Battery life can't be judged properly yet because of course the phone has been updating, downloading etc and the new toy has been getting used a little more often than it would. Sticking a battery case on it would defeat the purpose of having a lighter phone. for those thinking that Apple will release a MagSafe portable battery, the efficiency of MagSafe from a battery would be ridiculous. For a company preaching its environmental concerns so much such a device would waste so much it would be a laughing stock, so expect it to be on sale in the second quarter of 2021.

The keyboard, well I'm having to be a little more careful when typing but that's something I was prepared for when I decided I would have a little less screen to play with. I don't watch movies or play games with my iPhone so for me the smaller screen isn't that much of an issue. Some website sign ins use a verification method of clicking boxes with certain things in them, click all the boxes that have cycles for instance, well that's going to be slightly more difficult I agree.

The weight and size mean I'm not resting the phone on my little finger, which had developed a dent. Hopefully over the next few weeks the noticeable dent will disappear.

For everything I use my phone for so far I'm not seeing much of a difference really. Which is exactly what I wanted, although obviously there's less weight and it's smaller.

Apart from the screen size it's just an iPhone 4s isn't it. It's small enough that it isn't uncomfortable in my hand although since March I've used my AirPods for nearly all calls.

I'm very happy so far, I just hope they sell enough of them to keep this size of iPhone in the product line up.

Yes, the efficiency of a MagSafe portable battery charger would be terrible, because wireless charging is highly inefficient. However the convenience would be significant. Instead of keeping your phone in a case with a big fat lump on the back, you could use a MagSafe compatible case (or no case!) and only slap on the battery pack as needed. So you get the benefit of the small size of the phone and the extra battery capacity when you need it. You could keep the battery in your pocket and attach the phone to it when it’s not being used, then you could disconnect the pack while grabbing for the phone to take it out of your pocket and you now can use the phone without the extra weight and size. No, it won’t be as efficient as a lightning port connected case, but given how the Apple battery case works (the case depletes before the phone battery gets used), the battery pack could absolutely be used in the same way without a problem.

 

[MartyvH]

Here next to my Xr

The Xr looks enormous. I think the 12 mini I’m typing this on right now has such a large screen. It feels almost like the Xs I had for two years which I thought was more screen than I need.

Battery life? It’s gone down by 5% in 35 minutes while browsing in Safari, from 81% to 76%. That’s like my Xs. I don’t think there’s a need to worry.

 

[okieoutwest]

I upgraded to a white iPhone 12 mini today from my 2016 iPhone SE. Before that, I had a 5S -- so I had been on the same design for 7 years!

Overall, I think the mini is great. I had been waiting so long to have an iPhone X style device in the form factor of the iPhone 5, and we got that, flat sides and all. I'm amazed by how much better the camera and screen are. And the speed and battery life are so much better than on my aging phone.

It's a little bigger than I would have liked -- it's funny that that wasn't an option in the poll for this thread. It's also funny to read all of these people amazed at how small it is -- from my perspective, this is a big jump in screen size. I could go a bit smaller -- I personally would like a 4.7" inch screen.

I do not like that the white and silver color on this model is a warmer tone. It looks almost like a gold band in certain lighting. I would have preferred a pure white/silver. I am debating switching it for the blue, which was my other front runner. I ruled out black because of fingerprints. Red was too extreme of a color in store. Green was OK. (I saw them all in person today.)

The 5G antenna cutout on the side is an eyesore and takes away from the design. I do not care about 5G and would rather they have left it out.

Overall I'm quite happy.

I agree with pretty much everything you said! SE user here, first time with Face ID.
The only concern I have about going slightly smaller is that with the keyboard taking up almost 50% of the screen, too much smaller and you're getting closer to what the SE's biggest problem had become: not seeing the screen while typing.

 

[sheetgoose]

Got the black Mini yesterday and it's a sweet little phone. Perfect size for me. And the build quality is better than any Android phone I've touched. However, this is my first time with an Apple phone and I'm not enjoying IOS for some reason. Gonna give it some more time to see if I can get use to it because I love the hardware.

 

[C. Robert]

Coming from iPhone X. I love the mini. Such a relief on my pinky fingers as mostly my phone would rest on it when typing.

My pinky finger is in hell with the 12 pro Max.

 

[ericwn]

Please post your battery life guys. I want to know how much worse is it compared to 11(Pro)/12(Pro). As long as I can get 80%+ of my 11 Pro, I’ll jump.

Isn’t that a bit early given that lost existing users are transferring data and spending more time exploring their new device. I doubt you get much data with real world relevance in the launch week.

 

[ericwn]

And you thought the MINI might achieve this? Sounds like you need a 12 Pro Max MAX.

Sounds like common sense.

 

[iApple_man]

First impressions, coming from an SE1:

The mini is heavier than I expected. According to my scale it’s 133 g, consistent with the specs (European model), but that’s still a stark difference to the SE1’s 112 grams, subjectively. The mini is also slightly larger than I expected (I had made a paper mockup which now turns out wasn’t accurate). The chassis size is not as handy as the SE1, it’s a different size class IMO. The poll really needs a “bigger than what I was hoping for” option.

The camera bump makes the phone unstable when it lies on a flat surface; it tilts diagonally. You can't operate the screen without a lot of wobble in that position.

The white color (back side) is darker and more reddish (creamy) than on the white SE1 and on the white iPad mini that I own. I would have preferred a lighter and more neutral white. Maybe I should get a different color for the mini after all. The silver band is also a slightly warmer color than the silver on the two other devices, but still in the "neutral" ballpark.

No surprise: The display goes brighter than both the SE1 and the iPad mini. The maximum brightness is okay, but I wouldn’t mind for it to be somewhat brighter yet. (Yes, I turned auto-brightness and TT off.) It’s cloudy today so I don’t know yet how it performs in sunshine.

The display does have a slightly yellow tinge, unfortunately (with TT turned off; it’s very yellow with TT turned on). I’ll try to see what my colorimeter says, although it probably doesn’t have exactly the right profile for that OLED panel. I’ll be receiving another mini on Monday, we’ll see whether the display is the same.

Good news: I can’t reproduce the raised blacks issue. Unfortunately I am now able to reproduce the raised blacks (see this post).

Good news #2: So far I don’t seem to be sensitive to OLED PWM flicker.

On the other hand, now that I have an OLED display, I noticed that the text color in Safari reader view isn’t 100% black, but a dark gray (#1a1a1a according to a screenshot). If anyone knows how to make it #000000, please drop me a note. This has nothing to do with the mini per se, just a random realization, and the OLED display makes it a bit more noticeable.

The bottom swipe is less obnoxious than I expected, but it’s still a bit annoying to have to do it twice to (a) dismiss the lock screen and then (b) to get to the home screen from the previous app. On the SE1 you can basically double-click on the home button, which is a quicker gesture. It would be nice if at least the app tray would appear on swiping, like on the iPad.

The control center is awkward to reach when holding the mini in the left hand, which I do quite often while multitasking doing something else with my right hand (no, not what you think). I know that you can assign Reachability to Back Tap, but then you still need to somewhat adjust your grip to perform the back-tap.

EDIT: Similar for scroll-to-top. I feel compelled to use my other hand to touch the top of the screen.

After transferring the data from the SE1, free storage on the mini is ~3GB less than on the SE1, but that may be due to iOS 13 vs. 14.

So, at this point I’m not sure yet I’ll keep the mini, vs. staying with the SE1 for another year. The yellow screen is my biggest issue to be honest.

If I missed it, sorry but umm battery 🔋 life???!!!

 

[Apple_Robert]

If I missed it, sorry but umm battery 🔋 life???!!!

It is too early to speak of that with any meaning, in my opinion. We haven’t even had the phone set up for 24 hrs. I can say standby usage is good and the phone doesn’t readily drain while streaming Apple Music.

 

[ascender]

Its the little things (no pun intended) I’m enjoying, like being able to put it in the pocket of my pyjama trousers (rock and roll) and listen to music while doing stuff round the house this morning and really not even knowing sits there due to the small size and weight.