October 14, 2020

Apple Officially Announces The new iPhone12 Pro and 12 Pro Max

By Lillian Searles

Apple has officially announced the new iPhone12 Pro and 12 Pro Max, featuring support for 5G and a new squared-off design.

 

The phone is 11% thinner, 16% lighter and 15% smaller in volume than the iPhone 11. Much of that reduction in size is down to the flat sides of the iPhone 12.

 

Like its predecessor, the iPhone 12 comes in a myriad of colors – Green, Product Red, White, Black and a new Blue. The phone’s sides are matte, while its back is glossy, the opposite of the iPhone 12 Pro models. The Pro models feature 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 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 and Pro Max, with 12-megapixel wide, telephoto, and ultrawide camera lenses.

 

The new iPhone 12 Pro phones will also be able to shoot in HDR video, a first for the product line, including support for shooting directly in Dolby Vision HDR. The iPhone 12 will also be able to edit Dolby Vision HDR video straight from the Photos app.

 

The iPhone 12 replaces its predecessor’s IPS LCD with a Super XDR OLED display of the same 6.1-inch diagonal and a much higher 2532x1170px resolution (460 pixels per inch), advertising 1200 nits of peak brightness, matching the Pro models.

 

The new iPhone 12 Pro models will feature Apple’s A14 Bionic chip. Apple says that both the new six-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. 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.

 

Also new — and exclusive to the iPhone 12 Pro models — is a LIDAR sensor, which, similar to the iPad Pro, will be used for additional AR effects. Apple also says that the LIDAR scanner will be used to help focus in low-light situations, making autofocus for low-light photography up to six times faster. It also enables Night Mode portrait photography shots.

 

Apple will be removing its included USB wall bricks and wired EarPod head. Apple will, however, still include a USB-C to Lightning cable in the box for charging. What’s new this year is the return of MagSafe, which enables Apple’s special new wireless charger to snap onto the rear of the iPhone 12 and deliver up to 15W wireless charging. 

The iPhone 12 Pro will start at $999, and the iPhone 12 Pro Max will start at $1,099, with 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB storage options. 

 

Preorders for the iPhone 12 Pro will start on Friday, October 16th and will ship a week later on October 23rd, while the iPhone 12 Pro Max will see preorders on November 6th and ship on November 13th.

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