iPhone 12
Flat edges are back, OLED across the whole line, 5G, MagSafe and Ceramic Shield. The first 5nm chip in a phone.
Released October 23, 2020 · Discontinued September 7, 2022 · From $799 (64 GB, unlocked)
The 12 brought back flat edges. Apple had been rounding them since the 6 and went back to the squared aluminum sides of the iPhone 5, which made the phone easier to hold and considerably better looking. The screen moved to OLED across the whole line, so the cheaper model stopped being the one with the worse display. 6.1 inches, 2532x1170, 460 pixels per inch. 5G arrived, and it mattered rather more to carriers than to anyone actually using the phone in 2020. MagSafe returned as a ring of magnets in the back, for charging and for a growing catalog of accessories that stuck to it. Apple also stopped including a charger and headphones, citing carbon emissions, and shrank the box. Regulators in Brazil later fined them for it. The A14 Bionic was the first 5nm chip in a phone, and Ceramic Shield in the front glass made the thing genuinely harder to crack.
Reviews & Reception
Reviewers liked the flat edges, the OLED across the line and MagSafe, and were consistently unimpressed by 5G in practice, measuring speeds that matched existing LTE outside a handful of mmWave hotspots.
its blend of design, display, performance and price nearly make it a no-brainer, especially for anyone whose phone has seen better days.
I don't think this is one of those years where it's worth upgrading if you splurged on a new model last year.