Last year after taking a vacation back home for a few days, my at the time iPhone 8 Plus decided that it could go on no more. So, the next day, I went to my local Best Buy and purchased the iPhone 12 Mini.
Ever since I purchased it, I have been using it just about every day for a multitude of different purposes like my usual texting and calling, checking social media, playing videos, but also for Apple Maps, taking photos and playing music and podcasts.
What I can say for starters is even by 2022 standards, this is still a good iPhone to have.
When thinking about whether or not I would get this iPhone or the iPhone 13 Mini, battery life was a big aspect that played a major factor in my decision. I took input from multiple sources but still ended up going with the iPhone 12 Mini.
I can say that after having this iPhone as my daily driver for four months, battery life is not a huge issue. I typically always have a charger nearby, whether that is near my bed, in my car or at my desk at work.
Still, there have been cases where I have had to get as much juice out of this thing as possible without having a charger nearby and this iPhone keeps it together pretty well.
Audio quality is still great on this thing. I don’t always use my AirPods Max, AirPods 3 or Apple TV HD to play music off of, but when I play it from my iPhone 12 Mini (or even use it to play videos), the sound quality is always satisfactory enough for me.
I do like the fact that when it comes to cameras, I have that wide-angle option now, so if I do need it, it is there. Zooming in on photos is a lot clearer I have noticed too, compared to my previous iPhone 8 Plus.
The only fault that I see in this iPhone is the screen, as sometimes the OLED screen is not as bright as it should/could be. I typically have my brightness on all the way up unless I’m in bed or my apartment lights are all the way off. When it says the screen is fully bright in Control Center, sometimes it feels like it is about half of that and then later on I do get full brightness on.
Normally this is not an issue, but I was driving home last week and the screen decided to drop its full brightness and go down to its halfway screen brightness.
Thankfully, I was close to home and my Apple Maps screen was still readable, but I hope there is some sort of software way for Apple to fix this for us iPhone 12 Mini users.
Fortunately for me, this is not an issue that happens often. I do have my iPhone in Low Power Mode a lot of the time, so that could be a partial reason behind that issue.
With everything said here, the iPhone 12 Mini gets 3.5/4 stars from me. It looks and feels nice in the hand, and it gets the job done for me and probably a lot of consumers out there.
It may not be the newest iPhone on the market, but it is still one to consider when thinking about upgrading this year.
Rating: 3.5/4 stars
