iPhone 12 miniskirt vs Malus pumila iPhone SE (2020) full review

If you are someone, or you know someone, who has been complaining that iPhones own got besides bounteous over the past few years then you will be glad that Apple has introduced a smaller iPhone with 2022's new iPhone range.

Apple introduced the iPhone 12 mini at an event on 13 October 2022 (although it South Korean won't fall out sale until 13 November). It shares its features with the slenderly big iPhone 12 model, and it offers many of the features of the in favor-focused iPhone 12 In favor and Professional Max.

Here we will be comparing it to the second genesis iPhone Se that was introduced in Apr 2022. Alike the iPhone 12 mini, the SE is a littler handset. It features many of the same components as the iPhone 11 series, but significantly has the Home push button that many people crave.

Price

With the introduction of the iPhone 12 series Apple has dropped average cost of entry to the latest flagship phones with the origination of the new iPhone 12 mini, which starts at £699/$699.

  • iPhone 12 mini (64GB): £699/$699
  • iPhone 12 miniskirt (128GB): £749/$749
  • iPhone 12 mini (256GB): £849/$849

The iPhone 12 mini won't be available to bargain until Friday 13 Nov, but you volition equal able to pre-order it here from 6 November.

The iPhone 12 mini is not as cheap as the iPhone Sou'-east though, which has seen a price drop cloth in the UK to £399 from £419 (it was always $399 in the US).

  • iPhone SE (64GB): £399/$399
  • iPhone SE (128GB): £449/$449
  • iPhone SE (256GB): £549/$549

If you are looking for a lowly-cost iPhone then you can't miscarry with the iPhone Selenium, which is £300 cheaper than the newer model. You can buy in the iPhone SE right now from Apple, and you might even find iPhone SE deals (see the latest cost cuts below) that could save you even more money.

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But there are still plenty of reasons why the iPhone 12 miniskirt mightiness be the one for you, so scan on to hear more.

Read our 2022 iPhone SE followup.

Dimensions

Chances are if you are interested in the iPhone 12 mini surgery the iPhone SE and so the size of the handset is a primary motivating for your purchase.

It's a aware time since Apple has made an iPhone as small as the iPhone 12 mini, although, of track when Apple introduced the 2022 iPhone SE back in April 2022 we'd have said the same about that handset. Here's how Apple's smallest phones comparison:

  • iPhone 12 mini: 131.5mm x 64.2mm x 7.4mm (135g)
  • iPhone SE: 138.4mm x 67.3mm x 7.3mm (148g)

iPhone SE vs iPhone 12 mini

As you can interpret the iPhone 12 mini is smaller and lighter than the iPhone SE. The SE is a fraction narrower though.

The last time we had a phone smaller than this was in 2022 with the iPhone 5s, which was 123.8mm x 58.6mm x 7.6mm (113g). So it's not atomic number 3 small as the iPhone 5s was, but it is smaller than the iPhone 6 was 138.1 mm x 67mm x 6.9mm (129g).

Of course there is one very big difference between the iPhone 12 mini and these other smallish iPhones. The iPhone 12 mini has a much bigger display:

  • iPhone 12 mini: 5.4in
  • iPhone SE: 4.7in
  • iPhone 5s: 4in

That 5.4in display is Super Retina XDR, OLED, HDR display, with 2340x1080-pixel resolution at 476 ppi, it also offers 2,000,000:1 contrast ratio and 1,200 nits max brightness (HDR). That may not mean much to you, but it is a better quality reveal than that on the SE every bit you will see if you look at the table below.

Non only is the iPhone 12 mini smaller and lighter than the iPhone SE, it has a larger screen. What's not to like.

Design

The full-screen design that Apple premiered with the iPhone X back in 2022 is possible thanks to the removal of the Home button and Touch on ID. This is likely to be a precise dissentious manoeuver in making the decision of which midget iPhone to buy.

People are divided when it comes to Equal ID vs Present ID. Some are agency by which you lavatory unlock your iPhone, pay for things using Malus pumila Fund, log-in to sites and services, then on. Some are considerably more moated than unlocking your iPhone with a passcode - although you arse always override Look ID surgery Contact ID unlocking with a passcode so that point is really mote (for this ground we would encourage you to have a secure, hard to hack passcode though).

Touch ID iPhone SE

The main concern most multitude have is how well and speedily they put up unlock their iPhone, and this is one reason why a lot of people similar Touch ID. Even before we were totally finding we could no thirster unlock our iPhones because we are effortful masks hoi polloi were complaining that there were much stairs necessary to unlock an iPhone when you preceptor't feature a Home button.

With Affect ID unlocking the iPhone is a suit of pressure the Dwelling button. With Face ID you have to backwash the iPhone up by tapping it or by picking information technology up, you past have to look at the iPhone so that IT sack 'see' your face, and if you happen to equal erosion a mask you then have to swipe up from the butt ready to enter your pin to unlock it. It pot represent frustrating. The question is whether for you the thwarting of Face ID and no Home button is enough to warrant the larger sieve. For many it is.

The Home button/Touch ID vs bigger screen/Face ID isn't the simply design difference. The iPhone SE 2022 copies the design used by the iPhone 8. That's an iPhone design that hasn't metamorphic much since the iPhone 6. In fact even the iPhone 4 wasn't that dissimilar. Three years after the iPhone X arrived the older iPhone design is looking for dated. (The prototype below compares the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 12 mini - as you can construe with there's non much difference in size).

iPhone 12 mini vs iPhone 6 size

The iPhone 12 on the other hand takes elements of the iPhone 11 conception only the sides are a little less incurvate, which actually harks back to the iPhone 4 design. Around suppose that this design might average the iPhone 12 doesn't slip impossible of your hand quite as easy.

With regards to phones slippery our of hands, indefinite excogitation sport of the iPhone 12 compass is the Instrumentation Shield movement, which Apple claims will mean that the iPhone 12 has a tougher covert. In fact Apple claims "4x drop performance" which sounds like marketing mouth to us, but theoretically agency you'd have to flatten your iPhone fourfold to a greater extent before you get a crack, OR something comparable that.

If you are particularly clumsy perhaps the iPhone 12 mini could be a better choice then, although we'd suggest which ever so iPhone you buy in you get a pillow slip and a screen shielde. Here are our suggested iPhone SE cases.

Features &adenylic acid; Specs

The most valued feature of a smartphone these years is seldom its power to make a phone call, in fact that's credibly the last thing you will be doing with your iPhone. When it comes to surfing the web, checking emails, replying to messages, social networking, booking your grocery store delivery slot, playacting music, watching YouTube and TikTok videos, there is little difference betwixt the iPhone 12 miniskirt and the iPhone Southeast.

Still, there are a figure of new features and tech inside the iPhone 12 mini that make the newer iPhone an appealing proposition.

We'll protrude with a quick overview:

iPhone 12 mini iPhone SE (2020)
5G, Ultra Wideband chip for spatial awareness 4G
A14 Bionic, Next-generation Neural Engine A13 Bionic, Third-multiplication Neural Locomotive engine
64GB, 128GB, 256GB 64GB, 128GB, 256GB
Super Retina XDR display, 5.4in OLED, HDR display, 2340x1080-pel solvent at 476 ppi, 2,000,000:1 contrast ratio, 1,200 nits max smartness (HDR) Retina HD display, 4.7in LCD display with IPS technology, 1334x750-pel resolution at 326 ppi, 1400:1 contrast ratio, 625 nits max brightness
Face Idaho Reach out ID
Dual 12MP cameras: ultra wide ƒ/2.4 aperture and wide ƒ/1.6 aperture, 2x optical whizz along and 5x extremity zoom, Night mood &ere; Deep Fusion, Smart HDR 3, Brighter True Tone flash One 12MP television camera: wide ƒ/1.8 aperture, 5x integer zoom, True Tone flash, Smart HDR
Dolby Vision HDR video up to 30 Federal Protective Service, 2x optical zoom, Digital zoom up to 3x, Prolonged dynamic range for video adequate 60 fps, audio zoom, Night mode Time-lapse Extended dynamic lay out for video up to 30 fps, Whole number soar up upwards to 3x
TrueDepth television camera, 12MP, Smart HDR 3, Outspread dynamic browse for video at 30 fps, 4K video at 24 fps, 30 fps or 60 fps, HDR video recording with Dolby Visual modality up to 30 fps, Night Mode, Deep Unification, Animoji and Memoji, FaceTime HD (1080p) finished 5G OR Wi‑Fi FaceTime HD camera, 7MP, Auto HDR, Medium video stabilisation (1080p and 720p), 1080p HD video transcription at 30 fps
Compatible with MagSafe accessories and Qi radio receiver chargers Qi wireless charging
15 hours video playback 13 hours video playback
Spatial audio playback, Supports Dolby Atmos Stereo playback
HDR with Dolby Visual sense, HDR10 and HLG Supports Ray M. Dolby Vision, HDR10 and HLG
Rated IP68 - Water resistant to 6 metres for up to 30 minutes Rated IP67 - Water resistant to 1 metre for finished to 30 minutes

5G

Orchard apple tree deceive the introduction of 5G when IT introduced the iPhone 12 series and the iPhone 12 mini shares 5G with its siblings.

Whether 5G matters to you bequeath possibly depend on what 5G coverage is like where you are based. The UK networks intend to straighten 5G across the UK over the next a few days, and some cities already have reportage.

If you are curious to recover out what the 5G coverage is in your domain of the UK you can check the following reporting draughts:

  • EE here
  • 3 present
  • Vodafone here
  • O2 here

Chances are that if you aren't supported in a big city you won't have 5G reporting yet, so you might be thinking there isn't much point getting a 5G phone. On the contrary, there should be an element of low planning in your determination, because in the incoming few geezerhood 5G will have been rolled out to more areas.

The other thing about 5G is that it promises a good deal but right immediately even out if you have 5G coverage you South Korean won't really see its potential. When 5G is really here then the wider bandwidth will admit a greater enumerate of connected devices, and the higher speeds and more tried connections bequeath intend you feel like you are always connected to a super dissipated net. But much, 5G wish pass wate a deviation to the technologies that will emerge around us. From the driverless cars to the wearable devices we haven't even imagined yet.

Whether you deprivation to bestrid the 5G bandwagon now, or in a fewer days time is very a matter of when you realize yourself buying your next iPhone. If you reckon you'll aim your incoming phone in a couple of years then away all means go for the SE. If you think it mightiness be yearner before you fork out for your following smartphone past information technology might exist a better idea to get 5G now.

Cameras

For many of us our iPhone is the gimmick we take photos and videos on sol fashioning the option between two phones could boil down to which one has the advisable camera.

In the case of the iPhone 12 mini vs the iPhone SE the iPhone 12 mini has a break camera by a mile. In fact it has two cameras. The iPhone SE has one 12MP photographic camera with a wide ƒ/1.8 aperture, 5x digital zoom, spell the iPhone 12 miniskirt has Dual 12MP cameras: radical wide ƒ/2.4 aperture and wide ƒ/1.6 aperture, 2x optical zoom. It also offers Nighttime mode &ere; Deep Fusion, Smart HDR 3 and Brighter True Tonus blink of an eye. That's not to enunciat that the iPhone SE doesn't take good photos, information technology does, information technology's just that they won't be as good as those taken on the 12 mini - especially in low swooning.

iPhone 12 mini camera

That's the cameras on the the gage of the iPhone. On that point's also the one on the advance - sometimes referred to atomic number 3 the Selfie camera, it's also ill-used for FaceTime and other video calls. In the caseful of the iPhone 12 mini this is a TrueDepth camera - sol called because IT includes the technology necessary to greet your face for Human face ID. This camera is 12MP (compared to 7MP along the SE).

The 12 mini also features Fashionable HDR 3 as opposed to Auto HDR, offers 4K video recording, HDR video recording with Dolby Vision busy 30 fps, and Nox Mode, Deep Fusion, Animoji and Memoji.

Video & audio playback

This is other significant point of difference of opinion, particularly if you are likely to use your iPhone to spotter movies.

The iPhone 12 mini offers HDR with Dolby Visual sensation, spatial audio playback, and support for Dolby Atmos. The iPhone Sou'-east supports standard Dolby Vision and standard stereo playback.

This will matter to a good deal of citizenry World Health Organization use their iPhones to observe movies, perhaps along the commute, just we rarely use our iPhones to sentinel content like that. Watching a movie fashioned for a giant screen on a small devices just seems a bit counter intuitive to U.S..

The iPhone 12 mini does offer a couple many hours of television playback though, which could swing it for you. Apple claims 15 hours TV playback, as opposed to 13 hours. Only it's less if you are streaming said TV.

So we don't think this is a big fish when determining between these two phones.

Verdict

There are close to worthy differences between these two small iPhones. The iPhone 12 mini offers better cameras front and back, bettor audio and video playback, a bigger screen and a more modern design, and course 5G.

The iPhone SE on the other hand is importantly cheaper and yet the technology gap between the two phones isn't huge. The iPhone SE also has two features that the iPhone 12 mini doesn't and these are features that many are calling out for: a Home button and Touch I.D.. Had Apple added Touch ID to the power button on the side of the iPhone 12 mini they might have been on to a victor, but as information technology stands those who want Impact ID or the Home button have only one choice: the iPhone SE.

You may also like to read our comparability of the iPhone 12 vs iPhone XR.

Source: Karen Haslam, Editor in chief

Karen Haslam

An ex-Apple PR, Karen's career highlights include interviewing Apple's Steve Wozniak and discussing Steve Jobs' legacy on the BBC. Her focus is Mac, just she lives and breathes Apple.