The exclusive iPhone 12 launch event for Apple has just finished. Finally, the long-rumored HomePod Mini and AirPods Studio were revealed, but the new iPhones were certainly the stars of the show.
There are four distinct versions this year: the iPhone 12 Mini, the iPhone 12, the iPhone 12 Pro and the iPhone 12 Pro Max. In addition to global availability, Apple's new online store brings products to India. All the smartphones are also 5 G capable this time.
Right in time for the festive season, new Apple items will be available in India. They should also be available on Amazon and Flipkart eventually.
HomePod Mini
A smaller variant of the original Apple HomePod is the Apple HomePod Mini. The smart speaker comes with an acoustic performance mesh fabric and lights up when you communicate with Siri, its built-in voice assistant.
Apple says the new speaker will serve as the "brain of your smart home" and has "privacy and security" at its forefront, adding some cool new features with updates to Siri.
Sound-wise, the latest HomePod Mini comes with an acoustic waveguide that sends sound out in all directions with a full range dynamic driver that is aimed down. Apple says that a UI chip for a new 'handoff' feature is coming later this year, enabling the audio to seamlessly switch devices.
Apple HomePod Mini price in India: Rs 9,900
iPhone 12 Mini
This is the first time Apple has used the "mini" moniker on its iPhone line, having previously used it on the iPod mini, iPad mini, and Mac mini. The new iPhone 12 mini has a 5.4-inch screen, which means that Apple has squeezed a bigger display into an iPhone 12 mini handset that is smaller overall than the 4.7-inch screen found on this year's iPhone SE.
The cameras here are a 12MP primary and 12MP ultra-wide snapper, and that's exactly the same as the iPhone 12, much like the screen specs. There are 4 K 60fps video clips that are pretty good.
iPhone 12 Mini price in India: Rs 69,900/Rs 74,900/Rs 84,900.
iPhone 12
There is a 6.1-inch Super Retina OLED (828x1792) XDR display on the Apple iPhone 12 with an Apple A14 Bionic hexa-core chip inside. It is powered by iOS 14 and supports both wireless charging and proprietary fast charging. It features 5 G technology for Sub-6GHz.
With both cameras being capable of 4 K 60fps shooting, there is a dual-camera system on the rear. It is a 12MP wide camera with an aperture of f/1.6 and an ultra-wide shooter of 12MP with an aperture of f/2.4 and a 120 degree video field.
iPhone 12 price in India: Rs 79,900/Rs 84,900/Rs 94,900.
iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro max
The iPhone 12 Pro features a 6.1-inch display, while a 6.7-inch display is available for the iPhone 12 Pro Max. The two handsets have the same water resistance IP68, MagSafe ceramic shield screens as the iPhone 12.
They feature two ultra-wide 12 MP lenses with a wide-angle 1.6 aperture. They also sport a 52 mm comparable telephoto camera in addition to this. Apple has also announced that all cameras on the Pro would receive Deep Fusion. Both models of the iPhone 12 Pro support 4X optical zoom and come with a scanner from LiDar. This will allow these devices to deliver AR capabilities, which can also be used in low light for auto-focus.
The iPhone 12 Pro Max also features optical image stabilisation for sensor-shift and a new optical image stabilisation that is used instead of only on the lens on the sensor.
- iPhone 12 Pro price in India: Rs 1,19,900/Rs 1,29,900/Rs 1,49,900
- iPhone 12 Pro Max price in India: Rs 1,29,900/Rs 1,39,000/Rs 1,59,000
LiDAR scanner
The idea behind LiDAR tech allows you to scan and map your environment by firing laser beams out, then timing how quickly they return. This makes it even cooler than Batman's Batarang, a bit like how bats 'see' with sound waves, only with lasers.
The LiDAR system used in the "scannerless" iPhone 12 Pro and iPad Pro 2020 systems seen so far on smartphones.
The latter use a single infra-red light pulse to create their 3D maps, but over a short period of time a scanning LiDAR system fires a train of laser pulses at different parts of a scene.
This brings up to five metres of enhanced range and better 'occlusion' object, which is the presence of virtual objects that vanish behind real ones like trees.
Impressively, it's also a rapid process, but only with the latest mobile processors is that speed really possible.
The A14 Bionic processor of the iPhone 12 provides good support for the LiDAR scanner from Apple, there is plenty of space for the scanner itself to be improved.
In IKEA 's Place app, the iPad Pro's LiDAR scanner is designed more for room-scale applications such as games or moving around AR furniture. It doesn't currently let you 3D scan objects with greater precision than other techniques like photogrammetry, which instead incorporates high-resolution RGB images taken from various vantage points.
Source: Techradar
iPhone 12 vs iPhone 11
The iPhone 11 is not much different from the iPhone XR and iPhone XS, although it comes in six different colours, including some fun pastels.
The screen is a 6.1-inch Liquid Retina display with very small bezels, and it's rated IP68 for water resistance. The resolution is 1792 x 828, giving it 326 pixels per inch, 1400:1 is the contrast ratio, and it reproduces both True Tone and P3 Wide Color.
It is made of aluminium and glass, and on the back it has the familiar notched Face ID display and a prominent camera housing.
The iPhone 11 is a twin-camera phone with dual 12MP medium and ultra-wide cameras. The ultra-large camera has an aperture of f/2.4 with a field of view of 120 degrees, and the wide camera has an aperture and optical image stabilisation of f/1.8. The optical zoom is 2x and up to 5x digital zoom.
4K at up to 60fps for video, optical image and video stabilization, 2x optical and 3x digital zoom for video. Also, the front camera is 12MP, this time with f/2.2 aperture and stabilisation of both image and video.
The iPhone 12 's new dual-camera system features the same ultra-wide 12MP camera and a new wide f/1.6 aperture camera. For better detail, there's a new seven-element lens, providing 27 percent better low light output.
Ultra Wideband technology was also implemented by the iPhone 11 so that the iPhone 11 can compare its location with other devices. It is described by Apple as your living room GPS. It allows directional features such as pointing to the person to whom you want AirDrop on your phone. The iPhone 11 additionally contains iBeacon for short-range location recognition.
There is a 3,110mAh battery on the iPhone 11. Though the charger in the box is a 5W charger rather than the 18W charger that comes with the Pro edition, it supports Qi wireless charging and fast charging. A Lightning port is the charging connector.
The iPhone 12 is, but has said that video replay will last up to 17 hours-it says the same for the iPhone 11, so expect life to be identical. Much like the iPhone 11, it also supports fast charging and Qi wireless charging.
The iPhone 11 was shipped with iOS 13 and upgraded automatically to iOS 14, the new version. The new iPhone 12 comes pre-installed with iOS 14.