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It’s been a rough year for everyone, and even the behemoth that is Apple faced some unusual disruptions. It needed to fix many supply and manufacturing hurdles to offload its sizable fleet of devices this year. It even needed to push the announcement of its chicken that lays, the iPhone line, up to two months due to the pandemic.
But still, 2020 has been a spectacular year for Apple. Building on the strong sales momentum of its iPhone 11 and XR series in 2019, Apple started the year a little later than it perhaps marked, but with a bang.
Winner: Apple iPhone SE (2020)
The iPhone SE (2020) arrived in April and it turned out to be a winning move for Apple. He used a lot of iPhone 8 parts out there, upped the camera to the 12MP of the iPhone XR, snatched the A13 Bionic chip from the iPhone 11, and ended up with a price tag of less than $ 400.
Since its announcement, the iPhone SE (2020) has been sold in droves, behind only the iPhone 11.
Winner: Apple iPhone 12
The iPhone 12 is a wonderful follow-up to the iPhone 11, which is Apple’s best-selling phone since its launch in September 2019. Apple added a high-resolution OLED display, a new slimmer design with smaller bezels and flat sides. a brighter main camera, new colors, and most importantly a similar price ($ 100 more at launch, which is more than reasonable for additional updates).
Loser: Apple iPhone 12 Pro
However, by making the iPhone 12 such a good phone, Apple made the iPhone 12 Pro rather poor value for money. Add 2GB of RAM (for a total of 6GB), a 2x telephoto camera which is nothing if it doesn’t work from the factory, a nicer build, and higher base storage, but which ultimately costs $ 200 / € 200 more than iPhone 12. Better to save money and get iPhone 12.
Winner: Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max
The iPhone 12 Pro Max is Apple’s best and most expensive phone and has reportedly sold well, making it a win for the company. It has the largest camera sensor in an iPhone with very uncommon sensor shift stabilization (for the smartphone world), a longer zoom camera, and the largest screen. It’s the biggest and best iPhone ever – win!
Loser: Apple MagSafe
Apple incorporated small magnets on the back of the iPhone 12 series, which allow attachable accessories such as a wallet case or a wireless charger. MagSafe accessories are still in their infancy, but early reports suggest that Apple’s wallet accessory can easily fall off the phone, which isn’t great for a $ 60 / € 63 accessory. And don’t get us started with the $ 130 / € 145 leather case or the basic clear case that sells for $ 49 / € 54.
Winner: Apple Watch SE
Seeing that affordable versions of a product sell very well, Apple made an Apple Watch SE with most of the features of the Watch Series 6, but at a price that’s easier to swallow $ 280 / € 292 (40mm), $ 309 / € 321.
Winner: Apple iPhone 12 mini
Apple made the best compact phone of 2020. The iPhone 12 mini is really mini. Compared to the Xperia 5 II, or the Google Pixel 5, the 12 mini is considerably shorter (13.2 mm), narrower (3.8 mm), thinner (0.6 mm) and lighter (16 g), while retaining the heavyweight features: the A14 chipset, OLED display, Face ID, two flagship cameras, water resistance, wireless charging, stereo speakers, etc.
And it’s the cheapest device in the iPhone 12 series, which more than guarantees that it will sell well. But since it is the only really small and powerful phone, it can influence various Android users to migrate.
Loser: Apple AirPods Max
Apple finally released its over-ear AirPods, and by all early accounts, the AirPods Max deliver powerful, high-quality sound and are adept at canceling noise. But they cost $ 550 / € 600. You could literally get both the Sony 1000-XM4 ($ 300 / € 380) and the Bose 700 ($ 300 / € 250) for roughly the same amount of money, crazy!
AirPods Max don’t fold, are much heavier, and come in an ugly, impractical case.
Winner: Apple M1
Finally, Apple Silicon. Apple’s One More Thing for 2020 was the first ARM-based laptop and desktop chip, the Apple M1, and it’s a definite win. The M1, which is essentially a more powerful version of the A14 Bionic inside the iPad Air and iPhone 12, brought productivity improvements over the Intel chips inside the MacBook Pro 13, Air, and Mac mini.
Thanks to the precise optimizations that Apple has built into OS X Big Sur and the sheer capabilities of the ARM-based M1 chip, the MacBook Pro 13 and MacBook Air can perform well at editing and encoding videos and photos to a level previously. reserved for MacBook Pro 16.
