With so many possibilities, which one should you choose? iPhones are one of the top smartphones on the market; the current Apple iteration with iPhones includes four of them: the iPhone 12 Mini, iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, and iPhone 12 Pro Max.

In no particular order, the iPhone 12 series includes the following features:

1. MagSafe1

2. A new iPhone 12 Mini version

3. Squared design

4. 5G

5. A14 Bionic Chip

6. Apple ProRaw2

7. LiDar3

8. MagSafe Accesories4

9. Sensor-shift OIS5

10. Ceramic Shield front6

Anyway, I'd like to assist you in selecting an iPhone, so let's get started.

Size

The second and more essential question you must answer is if you will keep this phone for a few years, or at least one; and whether you will get the right size for you.

Let's look at this diagram to have a better idea of what you lose and get from each version:

The battery size of a phone is proportional to its size, the smaller the phone, the smaller the battery, and vice versa.

Storage Space

By far the most important feature of your phone; you could get by with a smaller or larger screen, but you won't be able to avoid space difficulties; iPhone storage can't be upgraded, which means that if you buy the wrong amount of space for your needs, you'll have to upgrade; or (1) delete things frequently, or (2) buy a bigger storage phone later.

Some considerations with the new iPhones are:

1. the Mini and iPhone 12 start at 64 GB up to 256 GB
2. while the Pro starts from 128 GB up to 512 GB

Tip: You can have an idea of how much space you use by:

On iPhones Settings > General > iPhone Storage.

On Android phones: Settings > Device Care > Storage.

Extra tip: My golden rule is to never buy the base model, for two reasons:

1. with media files getting bigger each day, is quite easy to max out the available free space
2. this is what most people buy, if you intend to resell your phone later, bigger storage space iPhones are in more demand than the base models

Additional note: Don't buy the 512 GB unless you require it, or you find it at a great discount; a couple of years back I bought the 512 GB iPhone 11 Pro just because it was $80 cheaper than the 256 GB, which was the one I was going to buy anyway.

Camera

I don’t love smartphone cameras (How terrible Smartphone Cameras are compared to a Pro Camera?), but I can highlight that iPhone cameras are still, if not, the best smartphone cameras. Video is the best on a smartphone, and you will be satisfied with the camera performance of any of the iPhone 12 lineup options.

There are also a couple of features you should know about:

LiDAR

This technology is great, and it helps with AR (Augmented Reality) and Portrait Photos, but for most of us it is completely unnecessary.

Apple ProRAW

Unless you are a Pro or knowledgeable about photography, ProRaw is not a necessity. Apple ProRaw allows you to capture more data of the picture for post-production editing, which unless you’re into Photo Editing (professionally graded) you will never use.

Note: The Pro Max has a Sensor-shift OIS7 which helps the camera lenses to be steadier, this reduces the photo and video noise shakiness.

MagSafe

This is non-essential, and it shouldn’t have to be the reason for you to upgrade to the new iPhone 12 lineup. Anyway, this GIF shows all you can do with MagSafe as of now, and it’s cool!

What do I recommend and what do I use?

Let me start by saying you DON’T need the iPhone 12 Pro Max, the only reason you would want to spend this much is that your phone is a work tool for you, or you have extra money to spend.

The iPhone 12 Pro is the better balance of the four new iPhone 12’s. It has a great camera (no Sensor-shift Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) but dual digital OIS 7), and all the new features: ProRaw, Dolby Vision 60fps video recording (smoother video recording compared to the non-pro variants), more optical zoom(x4), and Night mode portraits for better selfies at night.

If you are using a non-pro, the iPhone 12 should do the trick; if you’re coming from an older than the iPhone X, the iPhone Mini will be a fantastic device.

As for me, I picked the iPhone 12 Pro Max Gold 256 GB; my Phone is a work device for me, additionally, I change my phone more frequently than the average consumer so buying the best usually gives me the upper hand to have a better resell value to buy the newer version.