iPhone 12 Pro review: has an excellent camera and performance, Dolby Vision video is great, 5G can be very fast, but battery life is inferior to iPhone 11 Pro
5G, LIDAR, MagSafe — the new iPhone 12 Pro has a lot of things you won't be able to do much with right now
Context & Ripple Effects
The Verge's verdict on the 12 Pro lands alongside its sibling review of the standard iPhone 12, and both land on the same tension: a genuinely excellent camera and new hardware (5G, LiDAR, MagSafe) paired with a battery that steps back from the iPhone 11 Pro's endurance. The description says it plainly — these are capabilities you can't do much with right now.
The follow-on reviews complete the arc: Apple pushed the fixes into size and price with the 12 Pro Max (better battery, bigger body, still 60Hz), then delivered the balanced version a year later in the iPhone 13 Pro with improved battery and a high-refresh display. The 12 Pro reads, in hindsight, as the transition-year model.
First-order effects
- Buyers choosing between the 12 Pro and 12 Pro Max are effectively choosing between 5G/LiDAR novelty and battery life — CIRP's data showing roughly 20% of US iPhone sales going to the 12 Pro suggests plenty paid for the smaller compromise.
- Accessory makers now have a magnetic attachment standard to build for: MagSafe is rated promising in both 12-line reviews, making it the one new feature with immediate third-party leverage.
Second-order effects
- The 60Hz displays called out across the 12 Pro Max review put pressure on Apple to match Android rivals' high-refresh screens — pressure the 13 Pro review shows was answered a year later.
- Dolby Vision HDR recording plus LiDAR gives prosumer mobile video workflows new inputs on a mass-market phone, pulling capture features once reserved for dedicated cameras into Apple's ecosystem.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, iPhone Pro generations alternate between introducing capability ahead of its software/ecosystem use (LiDAR, 5G, MagSafe in 2020) and consolidating it with efficiency gains (13 Pro) — reviewers' 'nothing you can do with it yet' becomes next year's selling point.
- Being among the first mass-market phones with LiDAR sets a depth-sensing baseline that pushes AR feature development and component supply toward mainstream phones rather than niche devices.
The trend: Flagship phones are shipping enabling hardware — 5G, LiDAR, magnetic accessories — a year or more before the software and networks make them useful, with camera quality carrying each generation in the meantime.