The iPhone 12 mini is set to be the smallest iPhone in many years, with a screen size of just 5.4 inches and a body size smaller than anything we’ve seen since the original iPhone SE. While fans of smaller form-factor devices have craved a modern small iPhone for years, there are five notable features that you’ll be giving up if you get the iPhone 12 mini, if you believe the current rumors about the upcoming lineup.
Display Technology
The iPhone 12 mini is expected to have a flexible OLED display with Y-OCTA integrated touch, for richer colors and truer blacks than an LCD.
However, the iPhone 12 mini’s display is expected to have some slight drawbacks. The iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max will reportedly have 10-bit color for more vibrant, true-to-life colors, and a richer variety of color gradations, as well as XDR classification.
In addition, although rumors have been highly mixed on some iPhone 12 models having a 120Hz ProMotion display, rumors about the iPhone 12 mini not having a 120Hz display have been consistent. If the feature does appear for the iPhone 12 lineup, it is likely to be reserved for the Pro models or even the Pro Max model only.
LiDAR Scanner
The iPhone 12 Pro models are rumored to have a LiDAR Scanner, the likes of which premiered on the iPad Pro earlier this year.
Telephoto Lens
Much like the iPhone 11, the iPhone 12 mini is expected to have two camera lenses on its rear; a wide-angle lens and an ultrawide-angle lens. However, the iPhone 12 mini misses out on the telephoto lens, which makes up the third lens on the higher-end Pro models.
The high-end 6.7-inch iPhone 12 Pro Max is rumored to be getting sensor-shift image stabilization technology, which could potentially bring image stabilization to the ultra wide-angle lens on those devices. Sensor-shift technology allows the optical image stabilization to be applied to the camera sensor, rather than the individual lenses. This feature is not expected to trickle down to the iPhone 12 mini.
The iPhone 12 mini may still benefit from Apple’s new “high-end” lens arrays and improved Smart HDR for better low-light performance.
Faster 5G
Rumors suggest that the iPhone 12 Pro Max will also be the only model to have faster mmWave 5G. Sub-6GHz 5G, which is the slower but more widespread form of 5G, is expected to be present on the iPhone 12 mini. Only the largest iPhone in the lineup supposedly has the internal space to accommodate the antenna design needed to implement mmWave at this time, along with the larger battery needed for its higher power usage.
In spite of these missing features, the iPhone 12 mini is still expected to get the latest A14 Bionic processor, an OLED display, and a brand new squared-off design. For many fans of small phones, the iPhone 12 mini will be the device that they have long been waiting for.
