Phones · 2020 · Apple

Apple iPhone 12

Name: Apple iPhone 12
Brand: Apple

The iPhone 12 is Apple’s 6.1-inch phone from 2020. It brought an OLED Super Retina XDR display, the A14 Bionic, 5G, MagSafe and a Ceramic Shield front to the standard iPhone. It keeps the Lightning port and a 60 Hz display. In testing, battery life on 5G was clearly shorter than on 4G.

iPhone 12; 64, 128 and 256 GB. Apple’s UK spec page lists model A2403; bands depend on the model number. The iPhone 12 mini, 12 Pro and 12 Pro Max are separate models.

Apple iPhone 12 — Apple image of the iPhone 12 in six colours (Black, White, (PRODUCT)RED, Green, Blue, Purple). — Apple image of the iPhone 12 in six colours (Black, White, (PRODUCT)RED, Green, Blue, Purple).

Specifications

Specification	Value
Display	6.1-inch Super Retina XDR OLED; 2532 × 1170 at 460 ppi; HDR display, True Tone, Wide colour (P3), Haptic Touch The display is 60 Hz; Apple does not list ProMotion for this model. Because of the rounded corners the rectangle measures 6.06 inches and the actual viewable area is slightly less. True Tone adjusts white balance to ambient light.
Brightness and contrast	625 nits max brightness (typical); 1,200 nits max brightness (HDR); 2,000,000:1 contrast 1,200 nits applies only to HDR video and photos; the normal interface tops out at 625 nits. The 2,000-nit outdoor mode of newer iPhones is not on this model.
Design and materials	Ceramic Shield front, glass back and aluminium design; fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating
Chip	A14 Bionic chip; 6-core CPU with 2 performance and 4 efficiency cores, 4-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine The Neural Engine speeds up photo processing such as Deep Fusion and Night mode and other on-device machine-learning tasks.
Storage	64 GB, 128 GB or 256 GB There is no memory card slot; formatted capacity is lower.
Rear cameras	Dual 12MP: Main (ƒ/1.6, OIS, seven-element lens, 100% Focus Pixels) and Ultra Wide (ƒ/2.4, 120°); 2x optical zoom out, digital zoom up to 5x There is no telephoto camera; 2x optical zoom out means switching to the ultrawide. Night mode and Deep Fusion merge several frames in low light to reduce noise. Smart HDR 3 and Portrait mode with six Portrait Lighting effects are supported.
Video	HDR video with Dolby Vision up to 4K at 30 fps; 4K at 24/25/30/60 fps; 1080p slo-mo at 120/240 fps; cinematic stabilisation; HEVC and H.264 Dolby Vision recording is limited to 30 fps at 4K; 4K at 60 fps does not use Dolby Vision HDR. 8 MP stills can be taken while recording 4K.
Front camera and Face ID	12MP TrueDepth (ƒ/2.2); Dolby Vision HDR up to 4K at 30 fps; Face ID
Wireless	5G (sub-6 GHz) with 4x4 MIMO; Gigabit LTE; Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) with 2x2 MIMO; Bluetooth 5.0; Ultra Wideband chip; NFC with reader mode The UK page lists model A2403; bands depend on the model number and this page has no mmWave. Express Cards with Power Reserve keep some transit cards usable for a few hours after the battery runs out.
Battery and charging	Up to 17 hours video, 11 hours streamed, 65 hours audio; built-in rechargeable lithium-ion; up to 50% in 30 minutes with a 20W or higher adapter; MagSafe up to 15W, Qi up to 7.5W No power adapter is included; the box contains only a USB-C to Lightning cable and documentation. MagSafe uses a magnet array on the back to align chargers and accessories.
Port	Lightning connector It is not USB-C. Wired video out through the Lightning Digital AV Adapter is limited to 1080p; AirPlay to Apple TV mirrors up to 4K HDR.
SIM	Dual SIM (nano-SIM and eSIM) eSIM use depends on carrier support.
Durability	IP68 (maximum depth of 6 metres up to 30 minutes, IEC 60529)
Operating conditions	Ambient temperature 0–35 °C; relative humidity 5–95% non-condensing; tested up to 3,000 m altitude
Size and weight	146.7 × 71.5 × 7.4 mm; 162 g
Colours	Black, White, (PRODUCT)RED, Green, Blue, Purple
Service programme	Free service programme for receiver (earpiece) no-sound issues; iPhone 12 and 12 Pro made between October 2020 and April 2021 Apple says a very small percentage of devices may have a failing component in the receiver module, so no sound is heard on calls. The programme covered units for 3 years after first retail sale and does not extend the warranty; other damage such as a cracked screen may need fixing first. The iPhone 12 mini and 12 Pro Max are not included.

From the manufacturer

Apple presents the iPhone 12 with 5G, an OLED Super Retina XDR display, a Ceramic Shield front, the A14 Bionic chip and the MagSafe accessory system. Apple Support

Strengths and limitations

In Tom’s Guide’s continuous web-surfing test over cellular at 150 nits, the iPhone 12 lasted 8 hours 25 minutes on 5G and 10 hours 23 minutes on 4G; the iPhone 11 had lasted 11 hours 16 minutes in the same test. It reached 57% in 30 minutes on a 20W adapter. A light meter recorded 569 nits maximum, below Apple’s 625-nit figure. The display covered 114.5% of the sRGB colour space.
Tom’s Guide review, launch-period tests (2020); cites a third-party test for MagSafe charging speed.
Tom’s Guide: iPhone 12 review

Owner experiences and issues

Reviews of refurbished iPhone 12s sold by Best Buy Canada describe different device complaints: one buyer said the back glass cracked within two months, after which Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and wireless charging stopped working, and that the glass cracked again after repair (the same story was posted under two names and counted as one owner). Jody said the top speaker did not work at all, Jae said the phone restarted every two minutes, and Satya said the battery drained in two hours. These are refurbished units with unknown history, so they should not be read as a failure rate or a chronic fault of the model. The top-speaker complaint resembles the symptom in Apple’s receiver service programme, but whether that unit qualified is not known.
Best Buy Canada, 72 reviews across three refurbished iPhone 12 listings (2024–2026); seller, shipping and cosmetic-condition complaints were not counted as device findings.
Best Buy Canada: Refurbished (Excellent) Apple iPhone 12 64GB Black customer reviews
Many owners on the same listings are satisfied: snoorevelation and Ronald said the phone works like new, and Steff updated to the latest iOS without problems. Battery health varies between buyers (reported values from 85% to 100%). Nick found the screen less sensitive than his previous iPhone XR, especially near the bottom, and said it barely worked with a screen protector; this is one owner’s observation.
Best Buy Canada refurbished iPhone 12 reviews, 2024–2026.
Best Buy Canada: Refurbished (Good) Apple iPhone 12 64GB Black customer reviews

Apple iPhone 12

Specifications

From the manufacturer

Strengths and limitations

Owner experiences and issues

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