Uh oh. Our son texts me yesterday from work and asks for the passcode for our AT&T account because he wants to upgrade his iPhone 8. He’s handled my 12 and my wife’s 12 Pro and he said the 12 Pro was TOO heavy and seemed to like my 12.
So he comes home to my surprise with a 12 Mini! He’s a big boy 6’ 3” large hands. I was like what the heck. He said he much prefers a phone that’s comfortably pocketable and more compact. He also said after comparing the mini has a larger screen anyway vs the 8.
I haven’t had the desire to go out and handle the mini but when he came home I handled his.
Uh oh! This device is bad a*s. It’s so comfortably pocketable and the screen is nice. I’m able to whip around 1 handed with no problem and typing isn’t bad.
I seriously like the mini BUT battery life is a concern for me. Having an SE2020 the battery life was horrible. Yes a smaller phone = less battery life. When I had the SE2020 it would go down to 20% at least 2x in an 8 hour workday so I had to charge at least 2x within a work day and maybe 1x after. With the 12 I’m usually at 20% - 35% at 6-7 hours in. At work I’m mostly on cellular because where I’m at the WiFi doesn’t reach.
I get the mini has a smaller battery than the 12 because it’s a smaller device. But it’s such a pleasure to not really worry about the battery with the 12.
My situation is I spend 8 - 10 hours at work during the week mostly on cellular data and use the phone pretty heavily mostly streaming and other battery draining apps. Plus I don’t have access to power where I can plug in or wireless charge but I do have a USB C power bank that charges pretty fast. When I had my SE2020 the power bank I used a lot but the problem is since I’m mobile and needed a charge I would have to carry the SE2020 plugged into the power bank which was extremely inconvenient. With the 12 I don’t have to do that except 1/2 hour - 45 minutes before I leave work then I charge via the power bank or since I’m ready to punch out I then have access to a plug. Then my iPhone can to to 80% charge within 1/2 hour to 45 minutes and I’m good to go for the rest of the day when I get home because I’m mostly on WiFi.
Darn the mini would be perfect for me if the battery life was not significantly worse than the 12. However I’m pretty dialed into the 12 and it’s size.
Why did he come home with a mini!?
For me I don’t have to worry about the battery as much. I just worry about the pwm being hard on my eyes.
I forgot to charge my 11Pro so I’m “borrowing back” my red 12 that I haven’t sent back yet. (I want to compare it to the mini first). I can definitely feel some eye strain there. If the mini is actually as bad as I have heard, I probably won’t spend enough time on it to worry about battery. It would just be the phone I keep in my pocket because I can’t really text or talk-text on my Apple Watch. I mean it’s possible, I just hate using the watch for that.
You’d think during the kind of pandemic lockdown we are observing (very strict) I wouldn’t need to keep a communication device on me. Well it’s actually much much worse now with kids learning at home via Zoom. When they were in class, they weren’t allowed to use phones. Now they can text me or dear old dad constantly. Mainly to freak out about a quiz or to ask where a comma is supposed to go or something zany like their teacher’s cat just took over the Zoom or something. Once it was to tell me there was a turtle on zoom. 😯Yes, a turtle. I didn’t ask for details. I do feel blessed that I’m kept in the loop like that. I’ve even been included on group texts with their friends. But yeah the phone is constantly alerting me these days.
Also now that he’s working permanently from home, my husband is texting me sort of like one would use an intercom. We could actually do that on our watches, too. Except I hate using my watch for that. I just don’t like sticking my wrist up to my face and try to talk into it. Feels weird
ugh after not using this phone much for a few days it’s hard to look at. Nice feel in the hand, though. So anyway if I keep the mini it will be used to keep track of my texts. And do quick snapshots.
I do hope that my Pro Max will be easy on my eyes. So far my husband’s phone has been okay with me. But I won’t really know until I try to use one full time.
As far as the weight goes, it’s awful. But it’s very much like handling my iPad mini. I handle them the same and so I avoid the concentrated strain on one hand that I am more or less forced to deal with on a slightly smaller 12 Pro. There’s comfortable room for both hands to be used
Rene Ritchie was showing off the mini, a 12 and a 12 Pro Max. They all had their displays on. I could see the mini did have really noticeable flicker. The 12 had moderate flicker. I barely saw any on the 12 Pro Max. I hope it works out. I wish I didn’t have to wait until middle of December to find out.