Upgrading From an iPhone XR to an iPhone 12 mini
The good:
Overall, this is my favorite iPhone in a long time, and possibly ever. Design is about tradeoffs, and this particular phone is well balanced for my needs.
It feels great in my hand and in my pocket. I can once again hold it securely without a case.
Coming from an iPhone XR, which is physically much larger and also has Max resolution, I had been worried that the screen would feel too small. In practice, this has not been a problem. It feels much roomier than an iPhone SE (either model), perhaps because of the extra height from removing the forehead and chin.
Typing is also fine. It only took a few days to adjust to the much smaller keyboard.
The camera is way better, especially in low light.
The ultrawide lens is much more useful than I expected. I’ve gotten a lot of shots, especially indoors, that would not have been possible before because of walls or other obstacles blocking my feet.
The new Prioritize Faster Shooting option really helps.
Overall, it feels fast, especially booting and the camera. Some areas like share sheets and Siri still feel impossibly slow.
The blue color and pretty much everything about the physical design is great. I just wish the sides were a little more grippy.
The bad:
I don’t like the OLED display. I’m not running into the accessibility issues that some are, but I just don’t like the way text looks. Black and gray text has a colored halo reminiscent of ClearType, which I never saw on iPhones with LCD displays.
Despite Ceramic Shield, never dropping the phone, and only carrying it in an empty pocket, there are already two scratches—deep enough to feel—near the center of the display. The same thing happened with my iPhone XR, though my older iPhone displays remained essentially perfect for years.
Charging with the display on is much slower and doesn’t make progress at all with a regular speed power source, e.g. the USB hub I had been using, even when using Lightning rather than Qi. After multiple full workdays where it never got above 80% while plugged in, I contacted Apple’s support, who tested the phone and found it normal. After upgrading my chargers, the problem is “solved,” but charging still seems slower than with any previous iPhone.
Several times, with two separate chargers, Qi charging stopped working entirely until I rebooted the phone. I didn’t realize it wasn’t charging until I saw the red from Low Power Mode kicking in.
One-handed use is not as easy as I remember with previous iPhones, perhaps because with the taller screen I have to reach so much farther with my thumb.
Face ID still feels slower than Touch ID and doesn’t work with a mask.
Back Tap is hard to invoke and doesn’t offer many options.
I have yet to be able to make a local backup on my Mac. This is probably a Catalina issue rather than a problem with the phone. The interface makes it impossible to enter a password, and even an unencrypted backup never completes.
The battery life is only OK. With the iPhone XR, I never had to think about it. Now, I have to be mindful of charging and bring an external battery on longer excursions when I will be using the GPS and camera a lot. It remains to be seen how the battery will degrade over the next two years.
Previously:
- iPhone 12 mini and iPhone 12 Pro Max
- iPhone 12 Reviews
- iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro
- Upgrading From an iPhone SE to an XR
- Do the iPhone XS and XR Screens Scratch Less?
- Switching to an iPhone SE
- My iPhone 6s and iOS 9 Experience
9 Comments RSS · Twitter
Michael, as far as backups are concerned you might want to look into iMazing. Power user tools for backup of iOS devices and more, including cloning of one device to another.
It can use ITunes/Music/Catalina backups, but uses its own backup UI. It also runs WiFi backups every night on every device that’s been paired.
Coincidentally, I just got an iPhone 12 mini 2 days ago, upgrading from an iPhone 6S. I am really happy with the design, the size, the feel in my hand. Before the 6S, I had a 4S, and I realize I had been longing for that shape and the great grip it provides, together with a really nice look. I picked blue, I like it.
Thanks for reminding me of back tap! I find it works great, and I have set double-tap for the control center, which is otherwise hard to get to (on my 6S, swipe from bottom was in fact much better).
Missing from my 6S: word selection with force touch. I did not think I would miss it, but I keep trying to select words this way. I did easily pick up the long press on space to move around, though, which is in fact easier than force touch.
I barely notice Face ID and find it great. Well, except of course when wearing a mask. So sad...
@Leo Yeah, I should try iMazing backups. I already have the app.
@charles I haven’t missed 3D Touch. Double-tapping to select words has worked well for me.
I love that "I can once again hold it" is an actual benefit of a hot new telephone.
@Michael Did you upgrade your main Mac to Catalina? If so, did you have any trouble in Mail.app after the upgrade?
@Adrian Yes, I upgraded. I’m working on a follow-up post with all the issues I encountered. But, yes, I immediately ran into the Mail bug where messages disappear when moved between mailboxes and another bug where rules fail to move messages (they move temporarily, then bounce back to the original location).
@Ted - on the other side of the coin I was very happy to get the iPhone 6 plus and finally have a cell phone that was comfortable to hold. Not everyone has small hands.
I thought my Qi charger had broken since it was from Amazon, but I realized it would charge my partners phone fine. A restart solved the issue, but I am now worried it may be a larger scale problem.
Back-tap offers more options if you create custom shortcuts in the Shortcuts app.
For example, I have a shortcut that opens the Apple TV remote, then back triple back-tap to that shortcut.