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iPhone 12 iPhone Mini First Impressions

Are you happy with the size of your mini?

  • It's perfect!

    Votes: 231 64.5%

  • No, smaller than what i was hoping for.

    Votes: 18 5.0%

  • Could have been a little wider

    Votes: 29 8.1%

  • Bought another model (12 / Pro / Pro max)

    Votes: 79 22.1%

  • Bought a different brand

    Votes: 1 0.3%
  • Total voters
    358
My thoughts, after agreeing with elephantnut on most points:

Size​

  1. The size is nice. Quite happy, but this is the only reason I bought this phone, so not really surprised there. Yay for easy one handed typing again.
  2. Getting Control Center down still requires a hand shuffle and I don't have small hands. 😣
  3. Edge to edge screen helps this not feel as tiny as going back to a SE 1st gen would have.

Display​

  1. OLED flicker is already driving me nuts since about 3 seconds after turning the device on.
  2. Screen sharpness is ok, but I can tell it is pentile so "460pp" is not as sharp as I was expecting.
  3. The screen is far dimmer than my old iPhone 11 - I would say max on iPhone 12 mini is like 70% on iPhone 11.
  4. Personally prefer the slighly cooler (bluer) screen of iPhone 11
  5. Following on from 3, during restore the phone got hot and limited the screen brightness to 60% automatically -- the slider did nothing between 60-100%. This seemed to fix itself later on. My iPhone SE 1st gen did this often when the phone got warm - with the A14 chip I can only imagine this will be a frequent occurrence...
  6. The screen picture itself appears to be further under the glass than on iPhone 11 LCD.

Sound​

  1. Noticeably 'thinner', less full sounding. Significantly less bass than iPhone 11.
Network
  1. A casual test in a location that did have 5G ... 724Mb down, 80Mb up. Not shabby. Note: Not mmwave model.

Battery Life
  1. Quite satisfactory so far, even compared to iPhone 11.
Bugs
  1. Unlocking the mini does not work after you reboot the phone - can't swipe up to unlock, face ID doesn't seem to work, and the number pad is extremely glitchy. Putting it to sleep and waking a few times seems to solve it. This was supposed to be fixed in the latest software update but is still happening on my mini. Did not happen on my 11 which this mini was restored from.
  2. There's some kind of bug with the lockscreen torch button... I also can't get it to activate half the time.
  3. Apparently these bugs are now well known:
    https://www.reddit.com/r/iphone/comments/jtxe3l
 
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Got my blue one this morning in Hong Kong.

Absolutely loving the size and weight – my X died 2 weeks ago (great timing!) and I've been using my old 7 in the interim so I was already used to the smaller form factor before I picked up the mini. It's certainly much nicer for one-handed use than the X, and feels a lot more secure in the hand.

The colour and fit and finish are all excellent. The only little downside is the screws on the bottom not being colour-matched; the bright silver stands out quite a bit against the blue aluminium. Aside from that niggle, the blue colour is beautiful.

Colour and sharpness on the display look great. It does seem warmer than my old phones, but got used to it quickly.

5G performance seems good – easy 500Mbps in a crowded square (no UW as I'm outside the US).

Can't comment on battery life yet, obviously, but like in Panzarino's review I have found wireless charging to be a bit finicky on standard-sized mats as the camera bump gets in the way and the phone sits at an angle. It does work, but you have to be careful about placement.

Overall very pleased so far!
 
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Should've been an option for a little too big. My wife has only held the case but she wishes it was the same size as her older SE. But even so, she said it was smaller than she had feared and seemed to accept it. She much prefers smaller phones. She complained when going from an iPhone 4 to 5 because it was taller, lol. She still complains about it sticking out of the top of her tiny women's jeans pockets.
 
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Coming from the SE I’ve had for 4 years it’s going to take a while to get used to the bigger size and weight, but I’m quite happy with it.
It’s very fast, especially on 4G.
 
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pinchies said:
My thoughts, after agreeing with elephantnut on most points:

Size​

  1. The size is nice. Quite happy, but this is the only reason I bought this phone, so not really surprised there. Yay for easy one handed typing again.
  2. Getting Control Center down still requires a hand shuffle and I don't have small hands. 😣

Display​

  1. OLED flicker is already driving me nuts since about 3 seconds after turning the device on.
  2. Screen sharpness is ok, but I can tell it is pentile so "460pp" is not as sharp as I was expecting.
  3. The screen is far dimmer than my old iPhone 11 - I would say max on iPhone 12 mini is like 70% on iPhone 11.
  4. Personally prefer the slighly cooler (bluer) screen of iPhone 11
  5. Following on from 3, during restore the phone got hot and limited the screen brightness to 60% automatically -- the slider did nothing between 60-100%. This seemed to fix itself later on. My iPhone SE 1st gen did this often when the phone got warm - with the A14 chip I can only imagine this will be a frequent occurrence...
  6. The screen picture itself appears to be further under the glass than on iPhone 11 LCD.
  7. Edge to edge screen helps this not feel as tiny as going back to a SE 1st gen would have.

Sound​

  1. Noticeably 'thinner', less full sounding. Significantly less bass than iPhone 11.
Battery Life
  1. TBC.
Bugs
  1. Unlocking the mini does not work after you reboot the phone - can't swipe up to unlock, face ID doesn't seem to work, and the number pad is extremely glitchy. Putting it to sleep and waking a few times seems to solve it. This was supposed to be fixed in the latest software update but is still happening on my mini. Did not happen on my 11 which this mini was restored from.
Click to expand...

Your display is defective. Trust me and get it swapped. You’ll see.
 
Mines arriving between 13.00 and 14.00 today UK time (in about 2 hours). I’m at work though as a key worker so won’t be able to see it until about 22.00 tonight, and will be too tired to do back up and restore, which I will do tomorrow, but I will at least open the box and have a look/feel.
 
Won't get past "Updating iCloud settings". It keeps going back to Hello or a very grey transparent and glitchy passcode screen. Tried restarting.

I had first set it up by transferring by being close to my SE 1st gen (on iOS 13.7....) but would not accept my correct Apple ID password and kept referring to my purchases on "another Apple ID" even though it wanted the password for the only Apple ID I have ever had.

I reset my password but It tried to reset the password by referring to my usual mobile number OR another phone number that I have never had.

Weird stuff.

It SEEMED to update to 14.2 successfully.

I'm going to erase using iTunes, my only option, and set it up as a new phone. See what happens.
 
MartyvH said:
Won't get past "Updating iCloud settings". It keeps going back to Hello or a very grey transparent and glitchy passcode screen. Tried restarting.

I had first set it up by transferring by being close to my SE 1st gen (on iOS 13.7....) but would not accept my correct Apple ID password and kept referring to my purchases on "another Apple ID" even though it wanted the password for the only Apple ID I have ever had.

I reset my password but It tried to reset the password by referring to my usual mobile number OR another phone number that I have never had.

Weird stuff.

I'm going to erase using iTunes, my only option, and set it up as a new phone. See what happens.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I also have a different ID for iTunes than iCloud and your post reminded me that it was an issue whenever I set up a phone (which I had to do several times this spring). I wish I’d have taken notes on which workflow required the fewest steps to migrate to a new phone with Apple Watch in tow.
 
In iTunes it said the backup there is from my XS from March. The 12 mini may also see another backup on my iCloud from God knows what and when, probably the SE from last week but I tried that backup. Yeah I'm setting up as new haha....
 
A little comparison of my old SE and the case for my (soon-to-be-mine) iPhone 12 Mini:
61AB49BC-4C83-4143-94B6-5F5A4DABA6D3.jpeg
 
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Mines got a very yellow screen, at least compared to my SE. Not sure what to do really.
 
Received mine a few hours ago. Very happy with the size having previously used an 8 plus and found it a little clumsy / unnecessarily large for me.

Put on a Otter Pop Symmetry case and a screen protector.

Doesn't feel small at all to me which I am relieved about. Happy !
 
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I had a mini panic today! Got a text from DPD (the courier company) saying "Sorry we missed you"! I'd forgotten my phone's set to silence incoming calls, and apparently my building's intercom is broken, so they hadn't been able to get hold of me! I grabbed my ID and ran out into the street as soon as I saw the text. Tracked down the delivery van at the end of the road and got my parcel from him :)

--

My first impression was not about the size of the phone - it was how light it is! It's strange - if I hold this and my 11 Pro at the same time they don't feel that different in weight, but when I just pick this up it feels really, really light.

--

As for your poll - you're missing an option for me: I'd actually go a little smaller. The width of this one is perfect, but I still can't comfortably hold it in a way where my little thumb can easily reach the bottom and top corners, so I'd prefer it shorter. The screen size of the 5 series is perfect for me - my ideal phone would be that screen size with no forehead or chin.
 
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snipr125 said:
Mines arriving between 13.00 and 14.00 today UK time (in about 2 hours). I’m at work though as a key worker so won’t be able to see it until about 22.00 tonight, and will be too tired to do back up and restore, which I will do tomorrow, but I will at least open the box and have a look/feel.
Click to expand...
And you call yourself an Apple fan. We don’t want excuses about working 23 hrs straight with no rest, food or water. What should be important, is getting that new phone set up and ready. :p We at MacRumors want results. :D
 
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I’m scared of the results now. Apparently the yellow screen issue is a thing with the mini’s too.
 
Here's a first impression! A very bright spot about the mini software: the keyboard is great!!! It's fine. Just peachy after entering my email address three times trying to sign in. Yes, the SE 1st generation's keyboard is tight and I bought and loved the thing 3 years ago.

But this keyboard is like a 6/7/8 in terms of the size it feels like. Don't know comparative widths tho as I don't have access at home to any of those. Typed on quite a few at work. Keep in mind I'm also used to the keyboard of the XS I had for two years.

There you go, MacRumors!
 
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the future said:
Please keep in mind that on most of the iPhones the initially apparent „yellowness“ goes away after a few days. IIRC it has something to to with the lamination of the screen that is changed when the phone is used (because of the heat).
Click to expand...
Hmm, that's interesting. Hopefully that is it.
 
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