Apple has officially announced its 2020 flagship iPhones: the iPhone 12 Pro and 12 Pro Max, featuring support for 5G and a new squared-off design that’s reminiscent of the iPhone 4. It’s also the first major redesign for Apple’s full-screen smartphones since it introduced the bezel-less design with the iPhone X in 2017.
Both the 6.1-inch iPhone 12 Pro and 6.7-inch iPhone 12 Pro Max are bigger than last year’s 5.8-inch iPhone 11 Pro and 6.5-inch iPhone 11 Pro Max. The 6.7-inch iPhone 12 Pro Max, in particular, is notable for taking the crown as Apple’s biggest phone to date. The Pro models features a stainless steel design (instead of the aluminum on the iPhone 12), in four colors: gray, stainless steel, gold, and a new blue.
The new iPhone 12 Pro models will feature Apple’s A14 Bionic chip — first introduced on the refreshed iPad Air last month — which VP Greg Joswiak has previously said was the “most powerful chip ever made” by Apple. The new chip is Apple’s first to use a 5nm process (instead of the 7nm process used on last year’s A13 Bionic). Apple says that both the new 6-core CPU and the four-core GPU are the fastest ever, with performance that the company claims is up to 50 percent faster than any other phone.
One of the biggest new additions on this year’s models is 5G. The iPhone 12 Pro will support both sub-6GHz and mmWave 5G, meaning that both phones should work with all the various types of 5G networks from all three major US carriers. Apple says that it offers “the most 5G bands of any smartphone” promising that it’ll support a wide array of cellular carriers around the world and their various 5G standards.
The new iPhone 12 Pro models also offer “Ceramic Shield” technology, which Apple says offers glass that’s tougher than any other smartphone display, with four times better “drop performance” when it comes to preventing your phone from cracking when dropped.
Like last year’s iPhone 11 Pro models, Apple is once again offering a triple-camera system on both the iPhone 12 Pro, with 12-megapixel wide, telephoto, and ultra-wide camera lenses.
The iPhone 12 Pro Max also builds out the camera system even further. There’s a new 12MP telephoto with a 65mm focal length, that can optically zoom in up to 2.5 times. There’s a new wide camera with a f/1.6 apeture and a new OIS system. The wide sensor is also 47 percent larger, which combines with the lower aperture for 87 percent better low-light performance.
Along with the two flagships, there are also a two more new iPhones. The iPhone 12 and the iPhone 12 mini, which are set to replace last year’s iPhone 11 model, can be read about here.
Developing… we’re adding more to this post, but you can follow along with our Apple iPhone 12 live blog to get the news even faster.
