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iPhone 12 mini Is the iPhone 12 mini a good choice or not?

T

tpcollins

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 17, 2012
171
19
When I was looking at these a while ago there seemed to be somewhat of a distaste for the 12 mini.

I have a distaste for my current XR and I’d like something better - AND SMALLER.

Just wondering if those earlier comments I read were unfounded or not? Thanks.
 
You said you like a small phone so you answered your own question, I don't see how asking random strangers will help. It's functionally identical to any other modern iPhone with a little less battery life.
 
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tpcollins said:
When I was looking at these a while ago there seemed to be somewhat of a distaste for the 12 mini.

I have a distaste for my current XR and I’d like something better - AND SMALLER.

Just wondering if those earlier comments I read were unfounded or not? Thanks.
Click to expand...
Definitely smaller but better except for the smaller screen (6.1" vs 5.4"). You will always have naysayers eg. re.the rMacBook12" (smaller but better than the 11")..
 
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If you want a small phone, the 12 mini checks those boxes. I've had mine since release and save for a very recent battery issue, I do love it. The keyboard isn't noticeably harder to use coming from an iPhone 8 that was a bit wider than the 12 mini. But I also have both TVs in our house hooked up to Airplay 2 so I find little to no reason to really watch a ton on the phone.
 
JBGoode said:
You said you like a small phone so you answered your own question, I don't see how asking random strangers will help. It's functionally identical to any other modern iPhone with a little less battery life.
Click to expand...

Obviously asking you isn’t going to help.

Now I recall about the short battery life but I don’t spend all day watching videos etc.

Just want make and receive calls, send and receive texts, take pictures, and not take up a lot of space in my pocket.

Hmm . . . iPhone 13 - if it’s the same size as my XR then I wouldn’t be interested.
 
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I was planning on replacing my X with a 13 but it died prematurely, forcing me to buy a 12 - and I went with a Mini. And it's been fantastic. My wife has the regular sized 12 and although it's a nice phone, I don't think I'm missing anything with the smaller screen and am happy to have the smaller form factor.
 
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I upgraded this weekend from a 2017 SE to the mini. I got it for $499 at Best Buy. $100 more than I wanted to spend but, wow, is it snappy, and feels good in my hand. Also upgraded from a Series 1 watch to the 6 as the watch was on sale for $279. I spent a ton but I’ve been struggling with a slow watch and being left behind with the phone.
 
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tpcollins said:
When I was looking at these a while ago there seemed to be somewhat of a distaste for the 12 mini.

I have a distaste for my current XR and I’d like something better - AND SMALLER.

Just wondering if those earlier comments I read were unfounded or not? Thanks.
Click to expand...
One issue I saw when seeing the XR in stores and of friends’s, it does feel heavier than it looks, which might make it feels larger than it is for some. I mean I have had larger Android phones, but not as heavy, thus it feels “smaller” than it is, if you know what I mean.

When handling the mini in store, it is quite a solid compact phone. It felt amazing that you can have a full screen phone that small and solidly built.

But you cannot cheat physics, which is battery. Smaller battery means less battery life. Watching videos actually doesn’t use as much battery as you would think since it’s a passive interaction (unless you’re streaming over cellular). Chatting/texting constantly is actually using up battery life a lot, since not only the screen is on all the time and probably in high brightness, you are interacting with the phone (typing) and the phone is also keeping internet connection all the time for notifications. Calls also use up battery, depending on signal of your provider.

I’m not trying to discourage you if you want the mini, but I just don’t want you to have too high of expectation since you’re coming from the XR, which has better battery life than the mini. Many people thinks that calls and texting are “light” usage. Although it’s true if you don’t do that often, they do use up battery if done constantly.
 
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Hi how are people finding the quality of the display for watching YouTube ect and the speakers

I've just bought the Lenovo dual 2 but it's too buggy so was looking to try a iPhone properly for the first time

And is battery life as bad as people are making out as I don't really game

Thanks
 
tpcollins said:
Obviously asking you isn’t going to help.

Now I recall about the short battery life but I don’t spend all day watching videos etc.

Just want make and receive calls, send and receive texts, take pictures, and not take up a lot of space in my pocket.

Hmm . . . iPhone 13 - if it’s the same size as my XR then I wouldn’t be interested.
Click to expand...

Honestly tpcollins, you cant get better than the 12 Mini if you want a small iphone with all the premium features of the larger iphone 12 models. There is no phone like this on the market right now. The distaste you see on the other threads is more about the fact that it has not sold well compared to the mainstream sized iphones, the actual phone itself is one of Apples best for a long time and many reviewers mirror the same opinion.

In terms of the battery, if you use it like you stated above, for calls texts etc, then you will probably get 36 hours of battery life on average, maybe even more. The battery is decent in my experience.
 
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If you are OK with a yellow tint then sure Mini is great! If not then get the SE. i am on my 5th replacement under the 14 day return period and all of then have had a terrible yellow tint. For some people that is OK but for me is not. It makes the screen look terrible and the letters are hard to read because of the yellow tint.
 
ranger052 said:
If you are OK with a yellow tint then sure Mini is great! If not then get the SE. i am on my 5th replacement under the 14 day return period and all of then have had a terrible yellow tint. For some people that is OK but for me is not. It makes the screen look terrible and the letters are hard to read because of the yellow tint.
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Yeah man. I remember going through that in December. It seems to be a feature of the phone. Hoping it improves on the 13
 
Well duh - if this works I’m home free.

https://video.search.yahoo.com/video/play;_ylt=AwrC5pZEYwFhEXsAmzY0nIlQ;_ylu=c2VjA3NyBHNsawN2aWQEdnRpZAMEZ3BvcwMy?p=yellow+tint+on+iphone+12+mini&vid=a9fc4bc5f8d2430de8a2be90231179d1&turl=https%3A%2F%2Ftse2.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DOVP.gy8mEiYK1gwmqvCnhWRkRQEsDh%26pid%3DApi%26h%3D225%26w%3D300%26c%3D7%26rs%3D1&rurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D7Lt9y9kOgEQ&tit=How+to+fix+%3Cb%3EiPhone%3C%2Fb%3E+%3Cb%3E12%3C%2Fb%3E+%3Cb%3Eyellow%3C%2Fb%3E+screen+issue+%7C+%3Cb%3EiPhone%3C%2Fb%3E+%3Cb%3E12%3C%2Fb%3E%2F%3Cb%3EMini%3C%2Fb%3E%2FPro%2FPro+Max+%3Cb%3EYellow%3C%2Fb%3E+%3Cb%3ETint%3C%2Fb%3E+Quick+Fix&c=1&h=225&w=300&l=206&sigr=8B8cVNcrQR92&sigt=Y9YQBUbNvOZg&sigi=IVWP0XEPKcSU&age=1607616786&fr2=p%3As%2Cv%3Av&fr=yhs-Lkry-SF01&hsimp=yhs-SF01&hspart=Lkry&type=ANYS_D3OJ8_gn_bsf_%2452462_000000%24&param1=mT_bPOl_AQhEOemAMvWBBd4DhuUrv31vH6OmNNEoZOje3VlySTAqtkDXHxL1-CQ23a6sm2SEtXwbqOaEK-y0hVPkqSOQQNkMLAjhEMxcC8PLnxeTIUct2FFi25yiGcoOy4p-7T-y4yuyRW_KPQ3cU5ZLSNixB0qatrwHPv7pQwNuhaY_EH-8DrkF5n18Gw5ub0qj9OU8Xg_U65B8b-i2feqbXhFxmwpOHloEVHN0ihd-Yd0LninLd-TKV-yFKMvuD0NPaA89zPRLgqaN804ik-P3l1We2dBvgnOlTUBbsomhU_VXDOMi_vUMWzrY&tt=b
 
Default setting affects tint colour. Try turning "auto-brightness" OFF in Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size
 
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It’s a good phone if you want a small phone. There is also the SE 2020 which is another small iPhone.
 
I started out with the Mini and the only time I had battery issues was when I was in CO shooting snowboarding videos and then taking it into the hot tub afterwards. It's a hearty little bugger and I think it would be perfectly fine for your stated use case.
 
The only thing I don't love about my mini is battery life. Sometimes when I talk much and use GPS it won't last even 12 hours.
 
I’ve had an iPhone XR since launch and it’s been great, but as mentioned - big and heavy. Over the last year I’ve gradually been more and more bothered with the size and weight of it. Got an iPad at the end of last year, which I find a lot nicer for casual browsing and watching content anyway.

Been thinking about getting a 12 mini or maybe the successor to it, but on the other hand I don’t really feel like spending lots of money on a new phone at the moment. So when I found the SE 2020 on sale last week I got that one instead.

Felt a bit weird to get a phone with big bezels and a home button, but apart from that, it’s been great really! Love the size and weight of it and the camera gives me good images. The newer generation smart HDR does a better job of processing the pictures I think. Battery life is of course worse than the XR, but that was expected and not really anything that bothers me yet. Having a phone once again that I can use with one hand without doing crazy hand gymnastics feels really good!
 
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