October 13th 2020, saw Apple unveil the iPhone 12 in a typically stylish and highly anticipated event. The future is 5G.

Hi, Speed. This teasing message accompanied Apple’s announcement with Tim Cook and company, certainly not disappointing. The celebration lasted around an hour with a variety of hosts detailing the specs of each new device. In total they announced 5 new products, each containing a bevy of new features. 

What you need to know about the new iPhone

With the focus on speed, it should come as no surprise that 5G is coming to the iPhone, a focus on lower latency and less network congestion. That, along with the all new A14 Bionic chip, means that it’s up to 50 times faster than any other smartphone.

As far as design is concerned, iPhone 12 is 11% thinner, 15% smaller and 16% lighter than its predecessor, with a Super Retina XDR display (Apple OLED) it offers more detail and clarity in a comprehensive design. The iPhone comes in five different colours, including the all new Pacific Blue, which is this writer’s personal favourite. 

Ceramic Shield

If you are someone who has a tendency to drop their phone, (we’ve all been there, have no fear) The iPhone 12 features a Ceramic Shield screen that has four times the chance of surviving any ill fated drops, tougher than any smartphone glass out there.

MagSafe

New and improved wireless charging is offered through MagSafe. We can also expect a multitude of products in development from third parties organisations such as Belkin. 

Magsafe lets chargers, cases and other accessories snap onto the back of the device. Apple also made its own new MagSafe charger that can charge your watch and iPhone simultaneously.

Seven-Element Camera

Lastly the camera has seen an upgrade to a seven-element lens giving a 27% improvement in low light in addition to night mode time lapse and computational photography to make night mode even better.

iPhone 12 mini

Apple have also revealed the smallest, thinnest and lightest 5G phone in the world with the iPhone 12 mini!  The mini has identical features to the iPhone 12, the only difference being a more compact 5.4 inch screen.

The iPhone 12 will be released to the UK on October 23, with pre-orders available from your favourite networks from this Friday (October 16). 

iPhone Pro 

In addition to the 12, Apple announced the iPhone Pro which has all the features of the iPhone 12 and more! One of the standout features of this is the 7 element lens on the camera. An 87 improvement in low light along with a new telephoto camera with 65mm focal length. The storage size has also doubled to a whopping 64GB and the screen has increased from 5.8” to 6.1”, it is an absolute beast and has the power needed for everything you could ever imagine.

What is LiDAR?

Apple’s iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max feature a new lidar sensor on the back.  LiDAR technology (Light Detection And Ranging) bounces pulses of light off objects in the environment and measures their distance based on how long it takes for the light to reflect back. It’s a fantastic feature that has been incorporated into a lot of AR applications.

Key features of the iPhone 12 Pro

One distinguishing feature between the Pro models and the main iPhone 12 is that the Pro phones will have an additional camera lens. The Pro models include a telephoto lens in addition to wide and ultrawide lenses and bigger camera sensors.

Find out more about the iPhone 12 Pro here. 

HomePod mini

After the successful launch of the HomePod in 2018, Apple used the October event to launch the HomePod Mini. This smaller version can be used to control numerous smart home gadgets. Not only that, but new experiences will be powered by Siri intelligence, offering personalised updates and user profiles identified by voice recognition (Pretty cool if you ask us).

Pre-orders begin on November 6, 2020. The first smart speakers will start to drop through letterboxes and appear on store shelves worldwide on November 16, 2020. You can take a closer look at the HomePod mini here 

Environmental impact

One of the big takeaways of the event was Apple’s focus on the environment. The company officially announced that they plan to have all their partners certified carbon neutral by 2030.

Not only that, all new iPhones will ship without wall chargers or Lightning EarPods in the box to reduce the phone’s environmental impact. Instead, they come equipped with just a USB-C to Lightning cable. Not only that but they will also be taking out all the accessories from its existing iPhone models going forward. 

The company says the move means it has to consume fewer raw materials for each iPhone sold. It also allows for a smaller retail box, which means 70 percent more units can fit on a single shipping pallet and reduce carbon emissions. Overall, Apple estimates the changes will cut over 2 million metric tons of carbon emissions annually. The equivalent of removing 450,000 cars from the road each year.

If you did miss the event, Apple has made a 60 second summary video which you can watch by clicking this link. Thank you for reading and please let us know your thoughts on the launch, send your questions.