iPhone 12 Pro

When Apple announced iPhone 12 Pro on 13 October 2020, it was the first compact Pro with 5G and MagSafe. It was also the last with a 60Hz screen and a 2x telephoto, because iPhone 13 Pro moved to ProMotion and a 3x lens. Apple no longer sells it, so you’re buying used or refurbished, and the telephoto and LiDAR Scanner are what you’re paying for.

12 Pro or 13 Pro?

Spec	iPhone 12 Pro	iPhone 13 Pro
Refresh rate	No ProMotion	ProMotion, up to 120Hz
Typical brightness	800 nits	1000 nits
HDR peak	1200 nits	1200 nits
Telephoto	2x optical	3x optical
Cinematic mode and ProRes	No	Yes
Video playback	Up to 17 hours	Up to 22 hours
Streamed video	Up to 11 hours	Up to 20 hours
Audio playback	Up to 65 hours	Up to 75 hours
Top storage	512GB	1TB
Weight	189 g	204 g
Thickness	7.4 mm	7.65 mm

The 13 Pro is ahead on the screen and the zoom, and above all on battery, with nine more hours of streaming. The 12 Pro is fifteen grams lighter and a little thinner, and on paper that’s its only edge. Unless the gap in price is wide, the iPhone 13 Pro is the better used buy.

Cameras

Three 12MP cameras: a ƒ/1.6 Wide, a ƒ/2.4 Ultra Wide with a 120-degree view and a ƒ/2.0 Telephoto, with optical image stabilization on the Wide and the Telephoto. The telephoto gives 2x optical zoom in and the Ultra Wide 2x out, a 4x optical range in all, and digital zoom reaches 10x. The LiDAR Scanner makes Night mode portraits possible. On the front is a 12MP TrueDepth camera at ƒ/2.2. Every camera here is 12MP; 48MP came with later Pro models.

Video runs at up to 4K and 60 fps, and Dolby Vision HDR recording goes up to 60 fps too, with digital zoom to 6x. Cinematic mode and ProRes aren’t here; both came with iPhone 13 Pro.

Screen

This is a 60Hz screen with a notch: a 6.1-inch Super Retina XDR OLED at 2532 × 1170 and 460 ppi, rated at 800 nits typical and 1200 for HDR, with 2,000,000:1 contrast under Ceramic Shield. There’s no Always-On mode. iPhone 13 Pro kept the same pixel grid and added 120Hz ProMotion; iPhone 14 Pro moved to 2556 × 1179 and a 2000-nit outdoor peak.

Battery and charging

Battery life is the 12 Pro’s weak point: Apple rates it for 17 hours of video playback, 11 of streaming and 65 of audio. Over Lightning it charges to about 50% in around 30 minutes with a 20W or stronger adapter, and it can also charge from a computer’s USB port. MagSafe runs at up to 15W, with a magnet array that lines up the charger and identifies accessories, and standard Qi chargers manage 7.5W.

Design and connections

The stainless-steel frame and textured matte glass back come in Silver, Graphite, Gold or Pacific Blue, and the phone is rated IP68 for a maximum depth of 6 meters for up to 30 minutes. It measures 146.7 × 71.5 × 7.4 mm.

5G covers sub-6 GHz and mmWave on models A2341 and A2342, alongside Gigabit LTE with 4×4 MIMO and LAA. Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.0, an Ultra Wideband chip and NFC with reader mode cover the rest, and Apple Pay supports Express Transit in select cities. It takes a nano-SIM and an eSIM, and keeps the Ring/Silent switch. Through Lightning adapters it can mirror video at up to 1080p.

Price

At launch the 128GB iPhone 12 Pro cost $999 in the US, with 256GB and 512GB versions above it, and iPhone 12 Pro Max started at $1,099. Pre-orders opened on Friday, 16 October 2020. The Pro Apple sells now is iPhone 18 Pro. What a used 12 Pro is worth depends on its condition and storage, so check before you buy.