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Steve Jobs said that people don’t know what they want until they are shown it, and they have still been proven right. After repeatedly ordering a modern iPhone SE, Apple finally made one, but I can’t believe it.
The rumor that I thought you would probably change your mind was true: the iPhone 12 Pro Max has a significantly larger sensor. And that’s not all …
These are the key differences between the iPhone 12 mini and the iPhone 12 Pro Max. I’ve highlighted the features that sold me in bold and a couple of nice things in italics:
- 6.7-inch vs 5.4-inch screen
- Larger sensor
- Telephoto
- Dolby Vision HDR video at 60fps vs. 30fps
- LiDAR scanner for low light autofocus and night mode portraits
- 33% longer battery life
- Stainless steel versus aluminum
- Typical maximum brightness of 800 nits vs 625 nits
- Apple ProRAW
- Sensor Shift OIS versus Lens Shift OIS
Yes, all photography functions. The reason is simple: my iPhone is my main camera.
It is not mine best camera, I have a Sony a6300 and a DSLR, but my iPhone is the camera that I always carry, and therefore the one that I use 99.9% of the time. In fact, it would not be too much of an exaggeration to say that my iPhone is a camera, music player, and messaging device that I sometimes use for other things.
Like I said about the iPhone 11 Pro, I don’t expect the latest generation of iPhone cameras to completely replace a standalone camera. Long exposure night shots are an example where the iPhone just can’t compete. But every generation of iPhone camera is significantly better than the last, and I saw enough in the keynote to convince me that the iPhone 12 Pro Max is a real game changer.
The camera differences
So, let’s take a look at what I get for a much less pocket-sized camera:
Larger sensor. As I pointed out last time, the larger the sensor and the lower the pixel density, the cleaner the images will be. This is especially noticeable in low-light photography, and that’s a lot of my photos. Historically, this has been one of the main reasons to use a standalone camera. I previously pointed out this 100% crop comparison between the iPhone 11 Pro (left) and a very old full-frame DSLR (right). Look at the sky especially: a lot of noise in the iPhone shot, silky smooth in the DSLR shot.
Of course, the sensor in the iPhone 12 Pro Max is still a lot smaller than on a DSLR so obviously it won’t deliver this level of performance, but I’m still expecting a significant improvement, and that’s worth a lot to me.
LiDAR scanner. I’m not that interested in AR apps, but Apple is also using them for autofocus in low light. Autofocus can struggle in low-light conditions, and the speed with which the camera can focus can mean the difference between capturing a moment and losing it.
Also, the LiDAR scanner seems to allow for combined Night and Portrait modes, which will be a very nice feature for things like taking photos of your partner or friends on a night out.
Apple ProRAW. When I shoot with my DSLR, I always shoot RAW. It captures the maximum amount of detail throughout the entire exposure range, and the shadow and highlight details you can bring out in editing are astonishing. Consumer cameras have a different philosophy: have the intelligence of the camera produce what it thinks is the best version of the image and only offers a selection of modes for things like increased saturation or black and white.
The iPhone took this approach to the next level, offering some remarkably powerful built-in editing tools. But the weakness is that those edits are destructive – any changes you make to improve one look of the photo can degrade other aspects, and if you import that photo into Lightroom or Photoshop to make more edits, your starting point is that compromised version.
With Apple ProRAW, edits made on the phone will not be destructive, and that’s a huge Try if you want to do quick edits to post a photo on social media right now, but then work on it properly later.
Telephoto. I could live without this if I had to, and it’s a compromise I was willing to make for the iPhone 12 mini’s compact form factor, but it’s certainly nice to have, especially the added scope for portraits.
Dolby Vision HDR video at 60 fps. I keep saying I’m going to do more videos and I still don’t, so …
OIS sensor change. I think the difference here will be infinitesimally small in real life usage, but we’ll see.
But that price difference …
To avoid those inevitable folks in the comments who don’t understand why the apparent difference between the US and UK prices is mostly wishful thinking, I’ll use the US prices to discuss this.
- iPhone 12 mini (256GB): $ 879
- iPhone 12 Pro Max (256GB): $ 1,199
Let’s keep the math simple and call it $ 900 versus $ 1200.
Some people will see that $ 300 difference and see it as a significant part of the change. There are a lot of nice things you can buy for $ 300.
However, I have always said that the sensible way to look at price is cost over time. For example, if you keep the phone for two years and get, say, a 50% return on resale, then the cost of ownership for that two-year period is:
- iPhone 12 mini (256GB): $ 900 – $ 450 = $ 450
- iPhone 12 Pro Max (256GB): $ 1,200 – $ 600 = $ 600
So the difference in cost of ownership is $ 150, not $ 300. To put it another way, it’s $ 6.25 per month.
The question, then, is: is the difference in the feature set worth $ 6.25 per month to you? For me, it’s an easy yes if I get significantly better photos.
I will admit that there is a possible flaw in my argument. I have used two years as the ownership period, while my actual update times have been three years (4S to 6), one year (6 to 6S), six months (6S to SE, although I saved money on that one), 18 months (SE to X), two years (X to 11 Pro) and one year (11 Pro to 12 Pro Max). So the actual numbers are more variable and I am always shopping without knowing in advance how long I will keep it and therefore what the monthly cost of ownership will be. But hey, the principle still applies.
But that size …
I know. I would like love to have those same features on the iPhone 12 mini. I love the pocket-size ability of that device. But I can’t, and the quality of the photos matters a lot to me, so I’ll put up with the size.
Or I won’t. Maybe you’ll find out that I hate its size and end up returning it and getting the mini.
On the contrary, Steve may be right again. Once I get used to the bigger phone, maybe I’ll fall in love with the size of the screen and can never go back. Maybe I’ll even find out later that a big-screen iPhone and MacBook with iPad-like battery life will render my iPad obsolete. Which would change the math again.
So there are a lot of uncertainties here, but one thing is for sure: the iPhone 12 Pro Max will be an interesting experiment.
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