Apple iPhone 12 Pro MAX Detailed Review in Romanian (Mobilissimo Evaluation) (Multimedia, Camera, Benchmarks)

Multimedia Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max

Fills the ears with satisfaction

For some time now, Apple has been spoiling us with stereo speakers and some of the quality I would like to point out. The story repeats itself from the iPhone 7 onwards, and I don't recall having doodled on any iPhone since then. More recently, we do not receive any kind of headphones in the package, according to the model of many Chinese companies.

Video-review Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max, section Acoustics

Finally, what I can tell you is that the acoustics are impeccable on the iPhone 12 Pro Max, although you might think that the volume is not very well balanced. Why? Because the top and bottom speakers seem to deliver different numbers on our decibel meter test. In fact, in reality they sound balanced, and this is because the bottom speaker holes are directed to the side, and the top ones... directly towards you. Thus, the lower ones, even if they have a higher power, send the sound to the side, and the upper ones send it directly towards you.

I felt a pleasant surround sound in Asphalt 9 and in the videos watched on YouTube, the bass was very strong and the highs were tasty in EDM music. The voices have the warmth and expressiveness desired in Netflix movies. You won't cover the speakers when you hold the phone in landscape, and the vibrations aren't excessive either. Let's see now how we fare in the tests with the decibel meter!

Test- Front volume power (top)

Test- Front volume power (bottom)

In the first series of tests, the one with the acoustic sample, we reached 81.4 dBA at the bottom speaker and 77.1 dBA at the top one. They are not record values ​​for sure, but in reality I perceived the volume as higher. With such values, we are above the iPhone XS Max and very slightly below the Galaxy S20 and S20 Fan Edition. The Huawei P40 Pro is much higher, with 12 decibels. Games are a different story and the iPhone XXL delivers with 100.6 dBA. Just above OnePlus 8T and iPhone 11, but below Galaxy S20 FE 5G and several dozen high midrange phones.

Test- Multimedia Volume Power

At least we surpassed the basic Galaxy S20 series.

Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max camera

Unprecedented zoom and stabilization for Apple

Fasten your seat belts and keep your eyes open because technical data is coming! But first, a summary: if you want to buy a 2020 iPhone 12 for camera innovation, get the iPhone 12 Pro Max. It makes much bigger leaps compared to the iPhone 12 generation compared to the other 3 models.

Video-review iPhone 12 Pro Max, Camera section:

And this especially through the 12 megapixel main sensor, which comes with F/1.6 aperture, 26 mm focal length and 1.7 micron pixels. It has Dual Pixel PDAF and perhaps most importantly it comes with Sensor Shift stabilization. Thus, instead of the lens moving or being a gyro-assisted system, the sensor itself moves to compensate for your movement. The sensor used here is huge, 47% larger than the iPhone 11 Pro.

Then we have the 12 MP telephoto camera, with F/2.2 aperture and 65 mm focal length. Here we have a 1/3.4 inch sensor with 1 micron PDAF pixels and optical stabilization. Stranger is that we have 2.5X optical zoom, but Apple promises on paper "5X optical zoom". And from what I understand, the 2.5X zoom is actually made with the ultrawide camera...

And we got to this ultrawide camera, 12 MP, with a focal length of 13 mm and a field of view of 120 degrees, but also an F/2.4 aperture. The sensor measures 1/3.6 inch. The big news is the LiDAR sensor, borrowed from the iPad Pro 2020. Its role is to improve the appreciation and measurement of distances, augmented reality functions, Portrait capture and Night capture. By the way, all cameras now have Night Mode (apart from telephoto) and we also have a Portrait Night Mode. Let's not forget the dual LED dual tone flash and the 4K recording at 60 FPS, now also in 10 bit HDR, and even in Dolby Vision HDR and stereo audio capture.

The selfie camera has 12 MP, 23 mm focal length and F/2.2 aperture, on a 1/3.6 inch sensor. It comes bundled with a 3D sensor for Bokeh and facial unlocking and it also knows how to film 4K at 60 FPS. Attention, the selfie camera only has fixed focus!

We also get Apple ProRAW capture, Smart HDR 3 with scene detection, red-eye correction and Panorama up to 63 MP. The Portrait Lighting function offers 6 effects: Natural, Studio, Contour, Scene, Scene Mono and High Key mono. The camera interface is unchanged, minimalist and stingy with options. Night Mode automatically triggers when it's dark around and will increase the exposure when necessary, but you can walk around the exposure seconds yourself if you want. We also have Deep Fusion, which combines Smart HDR and Night Mode, which takes a series of frames in a row before you press the shutter button and then others after you press it. The best one is chosen by AI.

My biggest joy is that for a year I no longer have to go into the settings to choose the video capture resolution, we have a shortcut in the upper left corner of the camera application.

And here we come to the photo gallery. In general, we associate iPhones with a failure rate that tends to zero when taking pictures. Now you simply cannot take a bad picture with this smartphone. I'm referring to the fact that it can't come out moving or out of focus, not even in low light. I really like the colors, which are no longer too warm like they were for a long time on Apple phones. Now they have perfect accuracy, reproducing exactly what my eye saw on the spot. I would also mention that there are no color differences between the 3 rear cameras.

And the details are satisfactory, even if we only work with 12 megapixel cameras. It is clear, however, that the rivals with 64 and 108 megapixels have more space for cropping. I really appreciated how the natural blurred background of the camera looks.

The green of the vegetation is natural and I notice here that famous "shadow separation", mentioned by me for the first time on the Mate 30 Pro and also mentioned on the Mate 40 Pro. When the sun falls on a building or a landscape, it creates multiple degrees of shadow, not a single unitary one, and all the shades are clearly visible here. The zoom doesn't feel any complex compared to rivals and looks as good at 3X and even 5X as we've seen on phones with 5X optical zoom, or very, very close.

I would still say that it clearly beats many phones with 3X optical zoom, the Galaxy S20 FE, S20+ and OnePlus 8 Pro. We also have pictures near Bega in Timisoara with the sun in front and without chromatic aberrations, loss of clarity or other problems. The focus on the cranberries is perfect, and the background blur brings that of a DSLR.

Selfie photos are expressive, very detailed and have excellent colors, whether we are talking about "peonies in the cheeks" or the more tanned areas of the skin. I notice that my impression from past years is also preserved: Bokeh lagged behind Samsung and Huawei. I see a miss at the earlobe and a catch that eats from the background in black and white Portrait. I like how the texture of the hair and beard is amplified though.

We return to the main room to find a texture excellently reproduced at the level of the water gloss on the Bega, of the toys in the park, where you "feel" the sand through the pictures, the wood, the metal, the plastic. I'm also excited about the close-ups, where Apple beats the Huawei P40 Pro and the Galaxy S20 Ultra. The minimum focus distance is between 10 and 15 cm, so we can handle closeup shots for food blogging without problems. You can take pictures of Christmas presents, snowflakes, toys received by the little one and others.

We have plenty of shots with reddish, yellow or green leaves in the sun, just good to put in the frame. Be careful though, Macro remains Macro and we can't do it here, but only with the dedicated cameras on other phones, which let you get closer to 4 cm, but at tiny resolutions.

In the interior, I like the wide dynamic range in the Iulius Mall in Timisoara, but also the balance in terms of exposure/lighting and color. Note also the clarity of the underwater trinkets under the water lilies in the lake at Iulius Town.

I have also saved you some appetizing pictures of duck leg, mash and beetroot, where the crispy crust of the duck appeals to that side of your brain that deals with smell and memories.

The low light photo capture evokes the winter holidays and is perfect in the following areas: colors, details and clarity. I notice, however, that the ultrawide photos amplify light sources and do not have such wide angles as the ultrawide cameras on Samsung phones. The Santa Claus in the pictures is on the border between charming and scary, but I would go with the second option anyway, being so spiky and with eyes closed in color. The conditions were clearly unfavorable for good pictures: a slight fog, many lights, sparkles, tinsel, ideal to create color aberrations and reflections. And yet no trace of such a thing.

It should also be noted that we have a correct camera that does not try to compensate and keep the nuances under control. The way the purple light reflected on the grass coming from that purple globe is perfectly rendered, as if the light were leaking onto the ground. I also caught dewdrops near that orb that looks like Shelob from Lord of the Rings. I see that in the very dark situations at the entrance to The Rat Pub, the ultrawide camera no longer copes with light capture, however.

Overall I got enough architectural detail, correct yellow hues, correctly sized light poles, but I can see some grain in the distance if I look closely. Night mode accentuates the contours of statues and monuments in the frame, slipping less into the sin of the "painting look" that some Samsung and Huawei phones suffer from in Night Mode. We are already approaching the Google Pixel phones, and we have even surpassed them, thanks to the power to reproduce other colors besides the yellow influenced by street light. Bonus: everything happened in the fog!

A mention though: Huawei P40 Pro and Mate 40 Pro go higher with exposure and lighting though.

How are we doing with the filming? Let me start by telling you that any hands-on (or 90%) you saw in 2020 from January onwards at Mobilissimo.ro was filmed with the iPhone 11 Pro. We already consider Apple phones to be excellent substitutes for handycams, camera gadgets. Moving on to the iPhone 12 Pro Max, I honestly haven't seen better stabilization than that, maybe only with a gimbal or cameras worth thousands of euros. I also improvised by chasing a pigeon and still did not lose focus and clarity.

I tested the focus speed and accuracy on the cranberries near the Bega and on the turbine dam and I dare say the Apple focuses even faster than the Samsung. 4K footage at 60 FPS has a LOT of details, which are not lost even at 2X zoom, I would even say 3X. In general, the iPhones were weak in this regard, implicitly also weak in filming when you have a bad seat at a concert or a match. Here I notice the texture of the wooden house from Baraj captured by filming and advanced zoom.\

Vegetation has the correct exposure and color compared to what the Galaxy S20 series offers and the sky looks much more believable. The stabilization is more correctly applied than on the Huawei P40 Pro and Mate 40 Pro, which were also not bad. We are already fighting with the Galaxy Note 10 and Note 20 series, which were milestones in stabilization. Maybe we can overtake them? It should also be noted that I always filmed with the sun in front, even ultrawide without problems. We also manage in conditions of flashing carousel lights, but also a shoot with a building under construction where everything had a golden patina from Golden Hour. Photographers long for the Golden Hour to capture perfect shots.

It should also be noted the way in which the focus and clarity is stabilized at an advanced level of zoom on those two girls who were gossiping on a bench.

Lily shot is instant zen and the camera can handle fast panning and a blinding red jacket towards the end. I also want to recommend you to see these videos on a setup LIKE THE WORLD: if possible on a 4K HDR TV and with a wide range of colors. If it can be 10 bit that screen would be even better. And I would also like to mention that the filming with the rotating carousel gave me motion sickness, they were so realistic.

The low light filming was seriously affected by the fog, but the focus was OK, the colors quite vivid. I notice that we still have reflections and artifacts, hard to avoid when you have a trillion light sources in the frame. What I shot is usable on social media with no regrets and the stabilization still works. It's also the first time we do our classic linear walk towards the fountain and the statue in Piaţa Unirii in Timisoara WITHOUT any flicker and loss of stabilization. No other phone can boast that. Too bad about those reflections that appear... By the way, the zoom is not bad either, but avoid the ultra-wide.

The conclusion? The Huawei Mate 40 Pro has a rival, and the iPhone 12 Pro can compete with it for the title of "best camera in 2020".

Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max benchmarks

Everything is rosy except the GPU, apparently

Apple made the switch to 5nm processors with this iPhone 12 Pro Max and we're dealing with Apple's A14 Bionic processor here. It's not really the second coming of a technological Messiah as some thought, and neither he nor the Kirin 9000 let us down as we expected. It's a hexa-core CPU clocked at 3.1 GHz, with a 4-core GPU and accompanied on this phone by 6 GB of RAM and from 128 GB to 256 or 512 GB of storage.

Video-review Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max, Benchmarks section

We don't have a bit of lag and if you didn't know better, you'd say we have a screen with a high refresh rate, given how fluid the interface is. Any game you dream of runs great and probably will for another 3-4 years from now. As for benchmarks, the palette is not as wide as on Android, but we still have some relevant tests. We start with AnTuTu 8, in which we rank 2nd, only behind the ASUS ZenFone 7 Pro, but still 20k points below it. In the rest, I surpassed ALL phones, including gaming ones like ROG Phone 3 and Nubia Red Magic 5G.