 Apple finally did it. It made a small iPhone again. Well, small, it's pretty small. Look, it's not big and it's probably about as small an iPhone as you're ever likely to see again. This is the iPhone 12 mini. And normally when a company makes a mini version of a phone, you expect there to be a lot of compromises. But with the iPhone 12 mini, you only have to make one. Well, two technically, I'll explain. Look, let's just talk about this little sucker. There are a couple of ways that I could do this review. The first and most obvious is to compare the iPhone 12 mini to the regular iPhone 12 and tell you what's different between these two phones. Basically, what do you lose from going from the big iPhone 12 to the mini iPhone 12? OK, well, here goes. The iPhone 12 mini does everything that the iPhone 12 does. But since it's smaller, it has a smaller screen. And it also has a smaller battery. That means that battery life is a little bit worse. And if you're going to try to make it through a full day of intense use, you're really going to want to keep an eye on the battery meter and probably turn on battery saver. Also, there is no also. That really is the whole story. It really is an iPhone 12, but smaller. It costs $729 for the 64 gig model and $779 for the 128 gig model, which really is the one that I think most people should get. That is $100 less than the regular iPhone 12, which means that this is a small phone, but it's not necessarily a cheap phone. You're still paying some kind of 5G tax on this thing. But you know what? Just to remind you what the iPhone 12 series is and what it can do, let's go through it real quick. The iPhone 12 is a complete redesign from earlier iPhones with flat aluminum rails, a really good OLED screen that's more resistant to drops, and a slightly improved camera setup. See, the main camera has a slightly wider aperture, which means that it's better in low light. But more important is Apple's powerful A14 bionic processor system helps the iPhone do even more computational photography in more situations. So you get more detail in low light and you can do portrait mode in more situations. There's also an ultra wide camera here too, but there is no telephoto. And the pictures are great. If you're upgrading from anything older than say an iPhone XS or XR, you're really going to be blown away. Video quality also continues to impress. It just effortlessly handles a bunch of different lighting conditions. Now you should know that this camera defaults to HDR Dolby Vision in video mode. So if you're trying to shoot professionally with professional desktop video editing apps, you need to be aware of what all that HDR stuff means. This phone also works with Apple's new MagSafe system, which attaches cases or wireless chargers with magnets. And one tiny quirk of the iPhone 12 mini is that it maxes out at 12 watts of wireless charging instead of 15 watts. But overall the charge time is the same since the iPhone 12 mini has a slightly smaller battery. Apple also has this sort of leather case thing and it has a little credit card slot in it and you put the phone in and it shows you the time in this little window. It's kind of neat, but it's not for me. And finally, there's 5G. It is fast if you can find it, but it's not so pervasive that I think you should rush out to buy this phone just to get 5G. Now the fact that Apple could even fit 5G in something this small is impressive. And yeah, without it, they probably could have made it a little bit smaller and also a little bit cheaper, but Apple decided to include the millimeter wave version of 5G, which can provide ridiculous download speeds. I've seen over 2000 megabits per second if I'm standing in exactly the right street corner, not around the block or in a building. Look, 5G is fine, but it's not the reason to buy this phone. So that is the first way to review the iPhone 12 mini, but it kind of misses the point. The second way to review this phone is to actually talk directly to the people who have been waiting for something like this for years. These are the people that are hanging on to their small iPhones for dear life. And I mean the truly small iPhones, the ones that are based on the iPhone 5 or 5S or more likely the original iPhone SE, the ones that look like this. Well, not like this. I got mine custom anodized in orange because back in the day, Apple hated fun colors. Not like now, by the way, you can get the iPhone 12 mini in black, white, blue, red, or a kind of a seafoam green. Anyway, there may be a larger group of people. These are the people that have a newer iPhone that they think is just too damn big. People who wanna go back to the good old days of having a phone that doesn't feel like a little ping pong paddle when they hold it, and who want a phone that fits in their damn pocket. Because even though the phones that are based on the iPhone 6 through the 8 or this newer iPhone SE, they're not that big by recent smartphone standards. When they were released, they were first thought of as big phones. So, you know, I personally am not actually that mad about the size of phones these days, even though I generally prefer smaller phones. You know who is mad though? My friend and our deputy editor, Liz Lopato. Look, if I wanted an iPad, I would buy an iPad, okay? Like, I want a phone. I would like something that fits in my hand that I can operate with one hand. Portability, real big for me. I like this is my current phone. It's an 11. I resisted buying it for a really long time. The phones are too damn big. That like, I have jerry-rigged this with a handle on the back and it's still too big. So I have to prop it up and then I can operate it, but. Okay, so I'm not as mad as you about big phones because I am lucky. I have large pockets in my pants. However, I've got the iPhone 12 mini here. It is my favorite of the new iPhones. I just wanna know what you think of it. Ooh, oh, it's so small. I can hold this and also reach the other end of the phone. This feels like it's a little bigger than the SE was. Is that right? Yeah. It's just a little bit taller. No, but this is, I could even go smaller if I'm honest about it. Yeah. But it's exciting to be able to actually operate a phone one-handed again. Yeah. How do you feel about the sides being a little bit more squared off than more recent iPhones that are curved? I don't care. You don't care? I mean, look, I understand that I work at a site with a lot of people who get really excited about these sorts of design things. Yeah. But I'm just much more of a functional user than that. Like, I don't mean to blame anybody who does. I don't care. Yeah. So that is probably about as small as phones are ever gonna get because all phones have to have 5G now and they need to fit the 5G components in there. So I don't know, did they do it? Is it small enough for you? Yeah, I mean, look, I'll be honest with you, it's not gonna fit in my pocket probably. So I could do smaller. But the basic thing is can I operate it while holding it? Yeah. And I can operate it while holding it. My thumb reaches the entire phone. So yeah, it is small enough. I said at the top of this video that there were two compromises you make by getting this smaller iPhone 12 mini instead of the default iPhone 12. So let's talk about them. The first one is battery life and I know it's a big question mark. So I just am gonna tell you what my experience has been. I definitely noticed a difference between the regular iPhone 12 and the iPhone 12 mini. And the upshot is that while I kinda had to work to kill the iPhone 12 by the end of the day, with the iPhone 12 mini, I could do it pretty easily. Now, with a little bit of care in how you use it and strategic use of battery saver, I do think you can get through a full day with no problems, but you gotta keep an eye on it. Apple doesn't give out specs for its battery sizes, which, you know, it's really annoying. I get that lots of things affect battery life and you can't tell everything from just the milliamp count of the battery, but it's still really helpful information. Anyway, all we know for sure is that the battery is smaller, but then the screen is smaller too, so that takes up less power. With battery saver and a little care in how you use it, you can get through a full day. It's a disappointment, but it's not a surprise. But it does mean that I use this phone a little bit differently from how I use big phones. Look, I don't know if this is coming through in the video yet, so I just have to tell you, I love the iPhone 12 mini. It just feels so much better to hold, it's more ergonomic. I can even reach the control center panel swipe down thing by reaching my thumb up to it without contorting my whole hand. I know that it's not like the itty bitty smartphones we used to get back in the day, and I know it doesn't fold in half like the Z Flip or the Razr, but it is still way more pocketable than most smartphones today. And it manages to do all that without making you give up too much to get a smaller phone. I think the regular iPhone 12 is probably still a better bet for most people, but this one, this one's my favorite. Hey everybody, thanks so much for watching. Of course we have reviews of the iPhone 12 and 12 Pro, but if you're looking for a review of the iPhone 12 Pro Max, the big one, Neal has a review of that, and you should check it out.