iPhone 12 Pro Max: for better or for worse
5/3/2021
Translation: machine translated
The iPhone 12 Pro Max is an iPhone. Which surely makes it a good phone. But like everything else, it has its faults and its qualities, so I won't spare you anything today. Finally, let's get the nonsensical debates over with.
Since its launch, the iPhone 12 Pro Max has retained its top spot as a long-term test device. Of course, in the meantime I've tested others, but I always come back to the iPhone. And for good reason, the iPhone 12 is a real Apple success story. That says it all. What else can I say? When Apple launches a device, it works. Whether you like Apple or not and, whatever your reasons, the quality of their technologies is undeniable.
In order to avoid this article turning into outright glorification with phrases like "The camera plays in the big leagues", I decided to return to the tops & flops format. This article therefore highlights the three best and three worst aspects of the phone.
Top: flat edges
The iPhone 12 has flat edges and ridges. The screen is flat, has contours, a notch at the top and a small one at the bottom. So far, nothing exceptional. What is new, however, is the flat edges on the side. While they were rounded on the iPhone 11 Pro Max, Apple is going backwards and signing the return of flat edges.
You may be thinking I'm really not up to date, brands like Essential have been doing this for years, it's nothing new. And you're right. But it was good then and it's good now. Or has it become good again? The behemoth version of the iPhone and its 6.7 inches offers a good grip, I never felt like it was going to slip out of my hands.
Flop: the gesture to go back
The operating system installed on iPhones is called Apple iOS. It can only be found on Apple phones. Previously, iPads were also equipped with it, but the tablets now have their own operating system with iPadOS. Like its Android rival, iOS can be controlled using gestures. If you swipe up from the bottom of the screen, the application on the screen closes. If you make the same gesture, without removing your finger from the screen at the end, you see all the apps open.
And to go back, i.e. to return to the previous page in a browser or to the previous menu in the settings, you have to swipe the screen from the left edge to the middle.
Unfortunately, this gesture doesn't work at all.
You have to move your finger to the left edge of the screen and drag it to the middle of the screen. Woe betide you if you're not quite at the edge, because if you are, either the iPhone won't do anything or it'll opt for a completely different action. What's more, the gesture itself isn't easy to perform: you still have to slide from the far left of the screen to the middle. On a screen the width of the iPhone 12 Pro Max, this is complicated and time-consuming.
On Android, the gesture doesn't have to be as precise, depending on the manufacturer, you can even start it from the middle of the screen and it can be shorter. The result is fast navigation, an easy and effortless user experience.
Like all other gestures on the iPhone, "Close application" is quick and efficient, as is "Show all applications". Only going back is a problem. Funnily enough, you can do this without twisting a finger on the iPhone SE, which suggests that Apple was too lazy to adapt its larger screen to human hands from a software point of view. Or maybe they just forgot. Fingers crossed that it'll be added as a special feature soon.
In the meantime, I press the iPhone's 'Back' button, which is usually at the top left of the screen. Exactly where my right-handed thumb never is. In other words, I'm constantly fiddling with my iPhone 12 Pro Max with both hands, yearning for the one-handed simplicity of an Android phone or the compromise of the iPhone SE.
Top: the sound
We always hear about the camera and the screen: megapixels, their density, screen diagonals and sensors seem to be the focus of all attention. But nobody ever talks about the sound of a phone, i.e. the built-in speakers.
On the iPhone, this is a real success story. The built-in speakers are powerful, but that's not all, especially as it's not so rare these days. The music doesn't lose any of its quality, bass or volume. The speakers are as good in the treble as they are in the bass and are never overwhelmed.
I listen to podcasts and greatly appreciate the clarity of the voices. I listen to music while cooking and can hum along with Tones and I.
I listen to podcasts and really appreciate the clarity of the vocals.
That's her real voice, by the way.
Flop: the scratches
The iPhone 12 Pro Max's Amoled screen isn't covered in Corning Gorilla Glass. Instead, it has Ceramic Shield, also from Corning. This is supposed to be better than Gorilla Glass, although both products come from the same manufacturer. Unlike Gorilla Glassn, Ceramic Shield is not a composite glass, but a material with ceramic crystals embedded in it.
Apple claims that a Ceramic Shield is more resistant in the event of a drop. But they almost never mention scratches.
My iPhone has strange scratches.
It's still in my left pocket. On its own. No headphones, coins or anything else to keep it company. No nothing. What scratched my iPhone? On the bottom right of the screen, there are rounded scratches that I can't find an explanation for.
Certainly, I'm not particularly careful with the phones I test. At a stretch, I could understand if the screen was cracked. But scratches?
Since my iPhone 11 Pro Max didn't have any scratches, I rely on Youtubeur JerryRigEverything, who makes his living smashing phones. Life Goals, my friend, you have to aim high. According to him, the iPhone 11 and its Gorilla Glass are easier to scratch than the latest iPhone.
That doesn't help me. At the very least, I recommend a layer of Nano Protection or a protective film. You can have the latter custom fitted in our shops when they're not closed due to the health situation. They are a little more expensive, but hold up better than the ones we buy and are more sensitive to the touch. Believe me, it's worth it.
Top: drop height
My iPhone 12 Pro Max can fly. Or to be precise, fall gracefully. I've lost count of the number of times it's fallen off the sofa and landed on the tiled floor. There's not a scratch on the metal frame and the screen is still intact. And that's despite the fact that there's always a not-so-reassuring bang when the phone and its 228 grams crash to the floor.
That's a good point about the phone and its flat-edged design, which is otherwise right up my street. The non-curved edges of the screen seem to help its stability. That should be obvious, but in my opinion it's proven with the iPhone 12 Pro Max. But other phones are also very stable. My Oppo Reno 4 Pro and Huawei Mate 40 Pro suffer the same fate and sometimes slip out of my hands.
It's nice to know, however, that your iPhone won't break at the first opportunity. Regardless of whether its competitors have the same resistance or not.
Flop: battery life
Is it just me, or does the iPhone 12 Pro Max consume a lot more power than the 11 Pro Max? Where the 11 Pro Max's battery easily lasted a day and a half to two and a half days, the iPhone 12's battery is dead after two days max. Of course, user behaviour has a big influence on battery life, so here's my typical use of my phone: I test smartphones full-time. I focus on the hardware, the operating system, the camera, the applications - pretty much everything your phone can do. I'm also interested in what it's capable of with external devices like microphones.
This is why my smartphones, iPhone or not, are likely to last less time than the average user's. The iPhone, in that sense, wasn't designed for me, it was designed for the average user. So if you use your iPhone less often than I do, your battery should last longer.
But that doesn't change the fact that the iPhone 11 Pro Max battery lasts longer than the iPhone 12 Pro Max.
This may be because the 3678mAh battery also has to power the A14 Bionic SoC's 5G platform. 5G needs more energy than 4G. Especially since a year ago, the iPhone 11 Pro Max had a battery capacity of 3969 mAh.
Top: blue
Last year I had already described the green iPhone as "gorgeous". The Pacific Blue is a class above. It's not just blue, but sometimes appears grey, or even green.
The blue is also a shade seen nowhere else. So Apple has managed to create a phone that looks like no other, behaves like no other and hopefully will finally help people have fewer black and white phones. Seriously, it can hardly get more boring.
In these days of containment, it's a bit of a shame.... But wait until you see the iPhone 12 in Pacific Blue in real life before you buy a new black or white phone. The official photos don't do justice to the colour and the play of light.
Bonus: a few points that everyone's talking about, but which have no impact on practice
There's no shortage of things the community likes to gush about. Stuff that usually starts with interjections like "Pfff! Samsung's been doing this for ages..." or "Lame as hell...". The iPhone 12 Pro Max is no exception, so here's a non-exhaustive list of things that look weird on paper, but don't really make a difference in real life.
No fast charging
The iPhone 12 Pro Max charges at a maximum of 20 watts. 20 watts. A high-end phone in 2020 was already charging at 20 watts. Oppo's competitor hits 65 watts, Huawei 66 and what about Xiaomi and its 120 watts. That's enough to trigger the ire of internet users.
Except that, in real life, all this makes absolutely no difference.
20 watts isn't fast, it's true. But if you plug your phone in, you'll have 55% battery in 30 minutes if you charge from scratch. With 36 hours of battery life, that's more than 18 hours of battery life gained in just half an hour.
Could Apple do better? Of course. Smart charging lets your iPhone know when you plug it in next to your bed and go to sleep. It then schedules the charge to be 100% charged an hour before your alarm goes off. This saves the battery in the long term, and in the morning you have a full battery. By the way, Xiaomi and co do exactly the same thing. Fast charging only comes into play when you need more battery power at lunchtime. Or between work and play. But let's be honest, you're never out more than 6pm if you want to "take a quick ride into town" or something.
I am, however, impressed with Quick Charging, Flash Charging, Vooc Charging and the like. And, of course, it's good for marketing and advertising. But for the user, 20 watts is more than enough on a day-to-day basis.
That said, at home all the chargers are 65 watt Oppo chargers. Just in case the phone I'm plugging in can charge at more than 20 watts.
Only a 2.5x zoom
Huawei can zoom 50x. Samsung boasts a 100x spatial zoom. The iPhone makes do with a 2.5x optical zoom and a 10x digital zoom.
But then, how do you see clearly in the distance?
You'll see about as well with it as you will with the zoom monsters of the competition. A zoom system and binoculars are different. The former requires physical space that neither Apple nor any competitor can provide. Instead, Apple's rivals make do with poor images and use artificial intelligence to get what they can out of them. Apple doesn't even try, since it doesn't make much difference anyway.
We may be talking about this again in a few years.
So it doesn't matter whether or not you can see the cat scratching its ear in the Hermetschwil-Staffeln valley from Oberwil-Lieli with your iPhone. You wouldn't be able to do it with any other phone either.
That's it, we've come full circle. And if someone comes along and writes something along the lines of "But the $ brand is better", all I have to say is "Yes, so what?"
Journalist. Author. Hacker. A storyteller searching for boundaries, secrets and taboos – putting the world to paper. Not because I can but because I can’t not.
