Here are the features of the newly announced iPhone 12 Pro max with its last year’s counterpart
Screen size
Both iPhones feature the Super Retina XDR display which is OLED based. But, the iPhone 12 Pro Max has a slightly larger screen 6.7″ vs 6.5″ in the last year’s model. This means that the resolution of the iPhone 12 Pro Max is higher at 2778 by 1284 due to its larger screen but the ppl for both phones is 458. Ppi stands for Pixels per inch and the higher this number the higher the definition (and quality) of the display.
Wireless and Cellular support
Both models support Gigbit LTE and have support for Wifi 6 with MIMO. Here, the iPhone 12 Pro Max adds substantial support for 5G for faster downloads and better streaming. Both models support Bluetooth 5.0. (Here is a link of my article about Bluetooth 5.0).
Both models support Gigbit LTE and have support for Wifi 6 with MIMO. Here, the iPhone 12 Pro Max adds substantial support for 5G. Both models support Bluetooth 5.0. (Here is a link of my article about Bluetooth 5.0). The iPhone 12 Pro Max also increases GPS support to include BeiDou (China), QZSS (Japan), Galileo (Europe) and GLONASS (Russia). I will be writing another article to talk about the different satellite network constellations in greater detail soon.
Design improvements of the iPhone 12 Pro Max
The new iPhone 12 Pro Max reduces the display bezel and uses surgical grade stainless steel. The display adds a Ceramic Shield front compared to the glass front which is much stronger and delivers 4 times better drop performance. It has distinct flat edges like the new iPads and it definitely has improved the water resistance from 4m / 30min in iPhone 11 Pro Max to 6m / 30 min for the new model.
The iPhone 12 Pro Max adds MagSafe technology that features new accessories that magnetically snap together. Accessories include a case or a wallet or both as well as wireless chargers.
CPU, GPU improvements
The iPhone 12 Max Pro also features the new A14 Bionic chip which is a 5 nm chip with an all new image signal processor that enables cool features like 4K HDR recording using Dolby Vision. Please read my article demystifying all the HDR formats including Dolby Vision here. Battery life is about the same as the previous model.
Camera, LiDAR and more on the iPhone 12 Pro Max
The cameras in the new model are pretty much the same as last iPhone with 12MP sensor and three lenses in back and front camera with same 12MP f/2.2. Here are the few notable differences. This year’s iPhone wide camera lens features an aperture of f/1.6 compared to f/1.8 compared to the iPhone 11 and is a new designed 7 element version. Basically, the smaller the f-stop value, the more light (27% more) enters the lens so iPhone 12 Max Pro should excel in low light photography.
Night mode portraits are also new as well as LiDAR support which really helps in low light autofocus with accuracy. Lidar is a method for measuring distances by illuminating the object with laser light and then detecting the reflection with the built-in sensor which enables 3D versions of the object. The pixels in the Wide camera are also larger in the iPhone 12 Pro Max (1.7 μm) which further improves the low light photography. Night mode and Deep Fusion technologies have been added to the front camera as well. Video improvements in the new iPhone 12. Pro Max are the most earth shattering with both front & back cameras capable of recording 4K videos in Dolby Vision. The only difference is that the front camera can only do 30fps vs 60fps in 4K Dolby Vision using the rear cameras.
Facetime improvements and other notables
The iPhone 12 Pro Max supports FaceTime HD at 1080p over 5G or WiFi which is a welcome addition. The connector is still lightning as the previous year but as mentioned earlier the new model supports Qi chargers as well as new MagSafe wireless charging.
That’s it for now, as always I am including a few affiliate links here for the upkeep of this website and to enable me to keep writing.
Onwards,
–Gary Saggu
Gary Saggu has been coding since the 80’s. He has been programming in C, C++,C#, Java, Objective C and Swift for many years. He has an interest in tech startups, blockchain & big-data technologies. He is a certified Yoga instructor & a scuba diver. Visit Gary Saggu’s tech blog here. Check out my new app Yogamap.
