Where is the real progress of iPhone 12?

 On October 14, 2020, Apple's postponed press conference finally released the annual new iPhone12. Compared with the previous iPhone, this generation of iPhone fully uses the Super Retina XDR OLED screen, the pixel density has reached 460 PPI, and the appearance design has returned to the iPhone 4 style.

In addition to the traditional processor upgrade, the iPhone 12 supports 5G this time, with upgrades in the screen, appearance, and camera.

For publicity, Apple has listed many innovations, but there are not so many real innovations and improvements. Compared with previous products, where is the real progress of iPhone12, let's take a look.

The truth about the A14 processor

The iPhone 12 series is equipped with the A14 Bionic chip, uses a 5nm production process, and has 1.18 billion transistors. According to Apple, the performance is 40% higher than that of the A13.

In fact, this processor is already used on the tablet. Compared with A13, A12, and A11, the big core of A14 processor is not much improved. Mainly rely on technological progress to increase the frequency to improve performance.

The single-thread performance of the A14 processor is indeed significantly improved compared to the A13, but this improvement is based on 3Ghz versus 2.66Ghz, and the actual IPC improvement is very small.

Apple's A-series processors are also squeezing toothpaste, and the previous IPC doubling is no longer visible.

However, it is worth noting that the small core of the Apple A14 has been significantly improved. The small core of the Apple A14 comes from the core technology of the Apple A6. After years of improvement, the performance/power ratio of this small core is very good.

Apple has further strengthened the small core this time, hoping that the main daily applications will run on this small core. The fewer opportunities the big core uses, the better the overall power consumption.

In terms of GPU, Apple has made enhancements. Apple claims to have game console-level performance. Actually, this game console refers to a game console many years ago, which is incomparable with the latest PS5. Apple's more enhancements are in AI. Apple doubled the neural engine to 16 cores, which can perform 11 trillion operations per second. This computing power can be used with software to do some real-time AI processing.

The transistors Apple added this time are mainly used in AI.

Screen progress and defects

This time, Apple has fully upgraded the OLED screen, which is equivalent to popularizing the previous high-end OLED screens to all products.

I won’t say much about the inherent contrast and color gamut advantages of OLED. The resolution advantage has something to do with the arrangement. It seems very high, but the actual progress may not be great. A side benefit of OLED is that the iPhone has a smaller frame, which is also a 6.1-inch screen. The iPhone 12 is 4mm narrower than the iPhone 11, which makes the iPhone 12 smaller in weight and volume and more portable.

What is interesting is the new material Ceramic shield from Corning. This material is a transparent ceramic-like material and has better strength than glass. This makes the new iPhone have harder front and back glass than any smartphone. The anti-fall performance is four times higher than before.

The shortcoming of Apple's screen is that it does not use 90hz or 120hz. The difference between 60hz and 90hz is still very large. Apple may be for battery life, but in terms of experience, there is a substantial gap between 90hz and 60hz. This is a shortcoming and I hope that Apple's next-generation products can make up for it.

Camera and 5G

Although Apple still has 12 million pixels this time, it has updated the size of the camera. In addition to the conventional improvements of 7 lens modules, the main reason is to increase the area of ​​CMOS.

Apple increased the unit pixel to 1.7 microns , which means that Apple's CMOS area has reached 1/1.88 inch, which is between the current mainstream 48 million and 64 million CMOS.

The larger area and constant pixels further improve the low-light performance, but the resolution is still weak.

Apple has greatly improved its AI capabilities this time, and there may be considerable progress in computational photography.

In terms of 5G, Apple used Qualcomm's baseband to support all 5G frequency bands, but removed the millimeter wave support in China because China does not use it.

What needs to be said is that Apple supports the n28 radio and television 5G frequency band, and currently not many domestic 5G mobile phones support.

In the future, the radio and television 5G put the number 192, and Apple mobile phones can be used directly.

More and more profitable Apple

Apple this time canceled the headset and charger for environmental protection reasons. However, the magnetic attraction function is added. How does this approach look like Apple is promoting its own wireless charging device. It's the same as Apple canceling its headsets and promoting Bluetooth headsets.

This time Apple has also launched official magnetic attachments, all of which are high-priced, and a card pack costs 399 yuan. This highly profitable product is a golden weapon.

The user bought a 10,000 yuan mobile phone and naturally wanted to be different. By the way, buying a 399 yuan magnetic suction card packaging card also made sense. Apple's money is also made.

Apple is becoming more and more savvy by making money with accessories that are differentiated in appearance.

For users, Apple iPhone12 is very attractive, but patient users can wait for the 2021 Apple iPhone SE 5.5-inch version.

Legend has it from 2020 that Apple will release a version of the iPhone SE that looks similar to the iPhone 8 Plus, with the latest processor, but only a single camera, unlocked with a front fingerprint, and the price will be cheaper.

If in 2022, Apple can release a 5.5-inch version of iPhone SE, it will use the A14 processor, support 5G, single camera, LCD screen, front fingerprint unlock, and use the new 1/1.88-inch 12 million main camera, it will be so fragrant .