CNET’s Dan Ackerman spent a little hands-on time with the iPhone 12 Mini and the iPhone 12 Pro Max and gives his initial impressions on the design, size, weight and feel of the newe iPhones.
While it’s not as flashy, there’s a real hunger out there for premium phones in smaller sizes, and I hear all the time from people how the latest super-premium smartphone is “just too big.” With a 5.4-inch screen and the same features as the regular iPhone 12, this 4.8-ounce phone could be just right for anyone with small hands or small pockets, or who just wants something less tablet-like.
In my average-size hands, it felt incredibly small, which really just shows you how much we’ve been acclimated to huge phones.
Seeing the 12 Pro Max in person for the first time, I really appreciated the small design differences between the Pro and the non-Pro models. All the new iPhones have a metal outer border, but the stainless steel version on the Pro phones looks much nicer than the aluminum band around the non-Pro phones. It’s a little more subdued in the stainless steel version, shinier in aluminum.
And yes, it’s very big, but not outlandishly so. We’ve slowly been getting used to larger and larger phone screens, and while the 6.7-inch Max is a stark contrast to the iPhone 12 Mini, when put in context with the entire product line, from Mini to iPhone 12, 12 Pro and on to the 12 Pro Max, it tells a much more linear story.
MacDailyNews Take: The design of the iPhone 12 Pro and Pro Max models is now the ultimate in iPhone design history; they just look and feel so rich and precisely made!