iPhone 12 review: has an excellent camera, display, and design, promising MagSafe ecosystem, but battery life is inferior to iPhone 11's and it's more expensive
It's the one you should get unless you're waiting for the Max or mini — More than most years, there are a lot of things that are new in the iPhone 12.
Context & Ripple Effects
This lands alongside The Verge's same-day iPhone 12 Pro review, and the two verdicts rhyme: excellent cameras, displays, and performance, with battery life stepping back from the iPhone 11 generation on both models. Earlier in 2020, the iPhone SE 2020 review had already framed battery life as the budget tier's strength against a tired design, so Apple's fall lineup inverted that trade — premium design and camera, weaker endurance, higher price.
First-order effects
- Buyers deciding this week face a sharper split than usual: the standard iPhone 12 is the pick unless they are waiting for the Max or mini, while anyone prioritizing battery life has a concrete reason to hold an iPhone 11 rather than upgrade.
Second-order effects
- MagSafe's arrival as a 'promising ecosystem' opens a fresh accessory market for case and charger makers, but the redesigned chassis also resets compatibility — confirmed a year later when the iPhone 13 review noted iPhone 12 cases don't fit.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, Apple alternates redesign years that reset accessory compatibility and squeeze battery against refinement years that restore endurance — forcing the accessory industry to re-tool annually and buyers to time purchases around the cycle.
The trend: iPhone generations now alternate between redesign years that trade battery life and accessory compatibility for new form factors like MagSafe, and refinement years that claw endurance back.