5G —

Apple announces new iPhone 12 family with 5G and MagSafe

It's the first iPhone with 5G.

Today, Apple announced the iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Mini, iPhone 12 Pro, and iPhone 12 Pro Max, all with 5G wireless capability. Each of the phones is a metal and glass sandwich with flat sides that are very reminiscent of the iPhone 4. The iPhone 12 and 12 Mini are aluminum, while the Pro line is stainless steel.

The iPhone 12 has a 6.1-inch display—the same size as the iPhone 11—but the body is 15 percent smaller, 11 percent thinner, and 16 percent lighter than last year's iPhone 11. The iPhone 12 mini is 5.4 inches, the 12 Pro is 6.1 inches, and the 12 Pro Max is 6.7 inches. The screen are all 60Hz OLED displays, and Apple has teamed up with Corning to make a new display cover material called a "Ceramic Shield." Apple claims it is tougher than any other smartphone glass.

5G connectivity is a headline addition to the new iPhones. 5G has been hyped up by the carriers as the next big thing in smartphones. The quick primer is that there are two kinds of 5G: a potentially very fast "mmWave" network (Verizon calls this "Ultra Wideband") that is short-range, has poor signal characteristics and is hard to roll out, and a "sub-6GHz" 5G, which is closer to an iterative step of 4G, with better signal characteristics and a better shot of a world-wide rollout but with less of a revolutionary speed increase.

MmWave (or Ultra Wideband) doesn't exist in the wild much. Carriers have said mmWave won't scale beyond cities, and a recent survey from PCMag put Verizon's mmWave coverage at only 4 percent of the overall network. Verizon took the virtual stage at Apple's event today and promised it would "double the coverage" of mmWave. Verizon also announced a "Nationwide 5G network" which sounds like the company is rolling out sub-6GHz across its existing 4G spectrum.

Apple says it designed custom 5G antennas and radio components for the iPhone 12 and that it's including the most 5G bands of any smartphone. The phone also includes a "smart data mode" that can switch between 5G and LTE depending on what speeds you need, which should save battery.

iPhone 12 Mini iPhone 12 iPhone 12 Pro iPhone 12 Pro Max
STARTING PRICE $699 $799 $999 $1099
SCREEN 5.4-inch 2340×1080 OLED 6.1-inch 2532×1170 OLED 6.1-inch 2532×1170 OLED 6.7-inch 2778×1284 OLED
CPU Apple A14 Bionic, 5nm
STORAGE 64GB, 128GB, or 256GB 128GB, 256GB, or 512GB
CAMERA 12MP Main
12MP Wide Angle
12MP Front
12MP Main
12MP Wide Angle
12MP 2x Telephoto
12MP Front
LIDAR
12MP Main
12MP Wide Angle
12MP 2.5x Telephoto
12MP Front
LIDAR

As usual, the new iPhone comes with a new Apple chip, the A14 Bionic, which debuted on the new iPad Air. The A14 is Apple's first chip built on a 5nm process. This is a six-core chip with two high-performance cores and four high-efficiency cores. There's also a four-core GPU and 80 percent faster machine learning performance. Apple says the A14 is "up to 50 percent faster" than the leading Android chips.

One surprise is the resurrection of the MagSafe brand. Apple combined a wireless charging pad (it's actually still Qi-compatible) with magnets, so the 15W wireless charger securely attaches to the back of the phone. Getting traditional Qi chargers to line up and charge correctly can be very finicky, so the magnet should help with confident charging placement.

For cameras, the iPhone 12 Mini and iPhone 12 get dual 12MP cameras, one main camera and one ultra-wide, while the 12 Pro adds a 12MP 2x optical zoom, and the 12 Pro Max has a 2.5x zoom. The Pro models have Lidar, just like the 2020 iPad Pro, and in addition to the usual 3D scanning augmented reality benefits, it's also being used as a laser autofocus for the camera and can be used for camera depth effect data in low light.

Other specs include Wi-Fi 6, NFC for Apple Pay, IP68 water resistance, and Face ID. For wired charging, there's still a single lightning connector on the bottom. Apple will be including a lightning-to-USB-C cable in the box, but it won't be including headphones or a power adapter, which it says is an attempt to reduce e-waste.

As for prices, it's $699 for the iPhone 12 Mini and $799 for the iPhone 12. The iPhone 12 Pro is $999, while the Pro Max is $1,099. The launch dates are not in the pairings you would expect, with the iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, and their related MagSafe accessories are going up for pre-order October 16 and shipping October 23, while the Mini and Pro Max are up for pre-order November 6 and ship November 13.

Channel Ars Technica