Apple officially announces iPhone 12 Pro, iPhone 12 Pro Max

Iphone 12 Pro Colors
Iphone 12 Pro Colors (Image credit: iMore)

What you need to know

  • iPhone 12 Pro is here.
  • It comes in two sizes, 6.1 and 6.7-inches.
  • It features an all-new design, triple-camera, A14, 5G, and more.

Apple has officially announced the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro models of its iPhone 12 lineup. And they're looking pretty great.

Just as expected, the new iPhone 12 Pro is the best iPhone yet and features a LiDAR Scanner for the first time. Apple says that will give us 6x faster autofocus, even in low light, with improved Portrait shots.

Specific to iPhone 12 Pro Max, Apple says the wide-angle lens is now 47% larger than before, too. It'll also offer a new telephoto camera with a 65mm focal length for longer framing. Optical zoom has also been increased to 2.5x for those who like to save their shoe leather.

iPhone 12 Pro Max takes the pro camera experience even further. The new ƒ/1.6 aperture Wide camera boasts a 47 percent larger sensor with 1.7μm pixels for a massive 87 percent improvement in low-light conditions. It also includes the expansive Ultra Wide camera and a 65 mm focal length Telephoto camera for increased flexibility with closer shots and tighter crops. Combined, this system offers 5x optical zoom range.

A surgical-grade stainless steel construction looks great with the new Graphite and Pacific Blue colors. Just like iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro gets the impressive new MagSafe charging capability as well.

Iphone 12 Pro Gold

Iphone 12 Pro Gold (Image credit: Apple)

Apple also announced Apple ProRaw, a new photo format that will be available on iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max. It won't be available until later this year, but Deep Fusion and Smart HDR are both included. Apple also claims there will be no shutter delay, with Photoshop able to take advantage of all the new data collected by Apple ProRaw.

For the first time, HDR video recording is available on iPhone 12 Pro with support for Dolby Vision HDR as well. Every single frame of 10-bit video will run through Apple's image processor, even at 4K and with 60 frames-per-second. You can even edit video recorded in Dolby Vision right on-device.

The world's best pro camera is an even more versatile tool for all levels of photo and video enthusiasts with state-of-the-art camera hardware powered by A14 Bionic. Together with the new image signal processor (ISP), A14 Bionic drives increased image quality and enables powerful computational photography capabilities not possible with traditional cameras. iPhone 12 Pro models also feature the new Apple ProRAW, coming later this year,5 which combines Apple's multiframe image processing and computational photography with the versatility of a RAW format. Users can experience full creative control over color, detail, and dynamic range natively on iPhone or with other professional photo editing apps.

The super-quick Apple A14 Bionic chip is included, with computational photography taking advantage of all it has to offer.

Like the entire iPhone 12 lineup, the iPhone 12 Pro models are powered by that new A14 processor and feature all-new 5G capability – including mmWave 5G in the United States.

The 6.1-inch and 6.7-inch devices feature more powerful camera setups compared to the iPhone 12. Prices start at $999 and $1,099 respectively for 128GB of storage, 256GB and 512GB options are also available. Pre-orders for the 6.1-inch iPhone 12 Pro go live this coming Friday, October 16 – shipping a week later. You'll have to wait until November 6 to pre-order the 6.7-inch iPhone 12 Pro Max, however. Again, they'll ship a week later.

Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.