This is a long-lost historical review series on this site. This time we are going to review how Apple has changed the way of life of human beings with smartphones in the past 15 years from the release of the first generation of iPhone in 2007 to today, and how Apple has changed the way of life of human beings and influenced the whole world. The development process of one of the companies.
Entering the 5G Era (2020 – 2021)
Basically, starting from the iPhone 11 series in 2019, the product line division of the iPhone has no longer changed significantly. It is divided into two main product lines, the standard series and the Pro series, which are updated once a year, and the SE product line launched from time to time. Three, and Apple chose to use “Hi, Speed.” as the theme for the 2020 iPhone conference. Obviously, what it wants to highlight is that the iPhone has added support for 5G mobile networks from 2020. At the same time, this is also the beginning of the COVID-19 epidemic. After the first Apple presentation.
In this press conference, Apple announced the iPhone 12 series and the iPhone 12 Pro series, which are the direct follow-up models of the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro respectively. First, let us start with the iPhone 12 Pro series.
iPhone 12 Pro series (2020)
| release date | October 13, 2020 |
| Model ID | iPhone 12 Pro : iPhone13,3 (D53pAP) iPhone 12 Pro Max : iPhone13,4 (D54pAP) |
| Dimensions | iPhone 12 Pro : 146.7 x 71.5 x 7.4 mm iPhone 12 Pro Max : 160.8 x 78.1 x 7.4 mm |
| body weight | iPhone 12 Pro : 189g iPhone 12 Pro Max : 226g |
| chip | Apple A14 Bionic (APL1W01) 2x Firestorm P-Core + 4x Icestorm E-Core + Quad-core GPU |
| Memory | 6GB LPDDR4X-4266 |
| support system | iOS 14.1 (18A8395) to present |
| storage space | 128GB、256GB、512GB |
| main camera | iPhone 12 Pro: 12.0 MP (f/1.6 aperture, auto-zoom support, back-illuminated sensor, 4K 60fps photography, seven lens groups, optical image stabilization, 26mm focal length) iPhone 12 Pro Max: 12.0 MP (f/1.6 aperture, auto-zoom support, back-illuminated sensor, 4K 60fps photography, seven lens groups, sensor-shift optical anti-shake, 26mm focal length) |
| telephoto camera | iPhone 12 Pro: 12.0 MP (f/2.0 aperture, auto-zoom support, back-illuminated sensor, 4K 60fps photography, six lens groups, optical image stabilization, 52mm focal length, 2x optical zoom) iPhone 12 Pro Max: 12.0 MP (f/2.2 aperture, auto-zoom support, back-illuminated sensor, 4K 60fps photography, six lens groups, optical image stabilization, 65mm focal length, 2.5x optical zoom) |
| ultra wide-angle camera | 12.0 MP (f/2.4 aperture, back-illuminated sensor, 4K 60fps photography, five lens groups, 13mm focal length, 120-degree viewing angle) |
| front camera | 12.0 MP TrueDepth Camera (f/2.2 aperture, 4K 60fps photography) |
| monitor | iPhone 12 Pro : 6.1″ Super Retina XDR Display，OLED，2532×1170，460 PPI，P3，HDR iPhone 12 Pro Max : 6.7″ Super Retina XDR Display，OLED，2778×1284，458 PPI，P3，HDR |
| Splash and water resistance | IP68 rated according to IEC 60529 (up to 30 minutes in water up to 6 meters deep) |
| suggested price | iPhone 12 Pro : From USD$ 999 iPhone 12 Pro Max : From USD$ 1,099 |
After the iPhone X opened the era of full-screen design, three consecutive generations of iPhones have used very similar designs. This situation has finally changed in 2020. The iPhone 12 Pro is the first design since the iPhone entered the era of full-screen design. Big change.
Although double-sided glass and stainless steel metal middle frame are still used in terms of material, the edge design of the middle frame of iPhone 12 Pro has changed from the roundness of previous generations to a completely straight cut edge, and the front and back glass have also changed from curved glass to Full flat design, in addition, the front glass of the iPhone 12 Pro uses a new super-ceramic crystal shield material, which can improve the drop resistance by four times according to Apple’s official statement.
In terms of splash and water resistance, the iPhone 12 Pro series has also been upgraded to withstand a depth of six meters for 30 minutes.
As for the display part, the size of the iPhone 12 Pro series has increased slightly due to factors such as a slightly larger body and a slightly narrower screen frame. The iPhone 12 Pro Max has increased from 6.5 inches to 6.7 inches (resolution from 2688×1242 , 458 PPI increased to 2778×1284, 458 PPI), iPhone 12 Pro increased from 5.8 inches to 6.1 inches (resolution increased from 2436×1125, 458 PPI to 2532×1170, 460 PPI).
The improvement introduced by the second iPhone 12 Pro series is the new Apple A14 Bionic chip. According to Apple’s official statement, this is the world’s first mass-produced 5-nanometer process chip, using TSMC’s N5 process. The CPU part is made of 2 Firestorm performance cores (P-Core) and 4 Icestorm energy efficiency cores (E-Core), but this time Apple did not compare the performance with the previous generation A13 Bionic, but chose the A12 Bionic as the opponent, which shows that The performance improvement range of the new generation is further narrowed again, and the overall computing performance is only improved by about 20%.
As for the GPU part, this time it adopts the fourth-generation Apple-developed GPU architecture, which improves the performance of memory compression, but the overall performance improvement is also not large.
In the absence of significant improvements in CPU and GPU performance, the most significant improvement on the A14 Bionic is in the neural network engine. Since the core size has doubled to 16, the performance has also jumped directly to twice that of the previous generation. Theoretically, The performance has reached 11 TOPS. As for the memory part, the memory capacity of the iPhone 12 Pro series configuration has been increased to 6GB.
The third point of improvement is in the camera system. The iPhone 12 Pro series is the first time that Apple has configured different camera systems in two models of the same series, so the introduction of this part will be a little more complicated. First, Let’s look at the main lens. Both iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max are equipped with new lenses with seven lens groups, f/1.6 aperture, and 26mm focal length. They also have optical anti-shake capabilities and 100% Focus Pixel Coverage support.
However, the main camera of the iPhone 12 Pro Max additionally uses a sensor with a higher specification and 47% larger size than the iPhone 12 Pro, increasing its pixel size from 1.4 microns to 1.7 microns, and changing the optical anti-shake to photosensitive Component displacement optical anti-shake.
As for the telephoto lens, the iPhone 12 Pro is equipped with a telephoto lens with a 52mm focal length, optical anti-shake capability, f/2.0 aperture, and six lens groups, which can provide 2x optical zoom capability (0.5x with an ultra-wide-angle lens). The optical zoom capability can achieve a total of 4x optical zoom range).
The iPhone 12 Pro Max uses a telephoto lens with a 65mm focal length and an f/2.2 aperture, which can provide 2.5x optical zoom capability (with the 0.5x optical zoom capability of the ultra-wide-angle lens, a total of 5x optical zoom range can be achieved).
Finally, some of the ultra-wide-angle lens models use f/2.4 aperture (instead of smaller than the previous generation’s f/2.0), five lens groups, ultra-wide-angle lenses with a focal length of 13mm, and the viewing angle is also maintained at 120 degrees.
In addition to a series of new lenses, the iPhone 12 Pro series also introduced LiDAR (Optical Radar Scanner) for the first time, which can improve the accuracy when using the rangefinder, improve the depth of field effect when shooting, and assist AR amplification. Reality, scanning objects for three-dimensional modeling, greatly improving the autofocus speed in dark places and other functions.
In addition to hardware improvements in the camera section, the iPhone 12 Pro series has also added the ability to record Dolby Vision videos (up to 4K 30fps, applicable to all lenses including the front lens) and take Apple ProRAW photos, night mode and The support of Deep Fusion has also been extended to the front camera and added portrait shooting mode and time-lapse photography support. Smart HDR has also been upgraded to the third generation.
The fourth improvement point, which is also the most emphasized feature of Apple in this press conference, is the addition of 5G mobile network support (4×4 MIMO). It is also from this generation that Apple has once again chosen Snapdragon from Qualcomm. X55 5G Modem (SDX55M) baseband chip.
The fifth point of improvement is MagSafe. In the past, MagSafe refers to the magnetic charging port on the MacBook, while the MagSafe function on the iPhone refers to the addition of a circle of magnets and magnetic induction to the original wireless charging coil. It can use magnets to automatically attach the mobile phone to the correct contact position on the MagSafe device (such as a charger) and identify the type of device attached (the model shown in the figure below is the iPhone 12 that will be mentioned later).
Other detailed improvements include the iPhone 12 Pro series adding support for GPS alternatives such as Galileo, QZSS, and Beidou positioning system.
In terms of series composition, the two models of the iPhone 12 Pro series each provide four color options of Pacific Blue, Gold, Graphite and Silver. The storage space capacity option is adjusted to start at 128GB, and 256GB and 512GB versions are also available.
The last part is the packaging. The iPhone 12 Pro series uses a black color box with a photo of the front of the phone. It is worth noting that the packaging has become very thin this time. The main reason is that starting from the iPhone 12 Pro series, Apple has adopted “environmental protection” as The excuse is that the USB adapter and earphones are no longer included at random. The contents of the box are only the phone body, the USB transmission cable (USB-C to Lightning), some documents, stickers, and the SIM card slot ejection pin.
iPhone 12 series (2020)
| release date | October 13, 2020 |
| Model ID | iPhone 12 : iPhone13,2 (D53gAP) iPhone 12 mini : iPhone13,1 (D52gAP) |
| Dimensions | iPhone 12 : 146.7 x 71.5 x 7.4 mm iPhone 12 mini : 131.5 x 64.2 x 7.4 mm |
| body weight | iPhone 12 : 162g iPhone 12 mini : 133g |
| chip | Apple A14 Bionic (APL1W01) 2x Firestorm P-Core + 4x Icestorm E-Core + Quad-core GPU |
| Memory | 4GB LPDDR4X-4266 |
| support system | iOS 14.1 (18A8395) to present |
| storage space | 64GB、128GB、256GB |
| main camera | 12.0 MP (f/1.6 aperture, auto-zoom support, back-illuminated sensor, 4K 60fps photography, seven lens groups, optical image stabilization, 26mm focal length) |
| ultra wide-angle camera | 12.0 MP (f/2.4 aperture, back-illuminated sensor, 4K 60fps photography, five lens groups, 13mm focal length, 120-degree viewing angle) |
| front camera | 12.0 MP TrueDepth Camera (f/2.2 aperture, 4K 60fps photography) |
| monitor | iPhone 12 : 6.1″ Super Retina XDR Display，OLED，2532×1170，460 PPI，P3，HDR iPhone 12 mini : 5.4″ Super Retina XDR Display，OLED，2340×1080，476 PPI，P3，HDR |
| Splash and water resistance | IP68 rated according to IEC 60529 (up to 30 minutes in water up to 6 meters deep) |
| suggested price | iPhone 12: from USD$ 799 iPhone 12 mini : Starting at USD$ 699 |
In the same press conference, the iPhone 12 series with a slightly lower positioning was also released. Although the positioning roughly takes over the position of the iPhone 11, there is actually a big difference in the design strategy between the two. Compared with the iPhone 11 Compared with the iPhone 11 Pro, it is more like the direct successor of the iPhone XR. The iPhone 12 series is more like a direct and simplified version of the iPhone 12 Pro series (the middle frame material is changed from the surgical grade stainless steel of the Pro series to the same as the previous generation. Aerospace-grade aluminum alloy and back glass design are also changed from matte matte to bright surface treatment), from the appearance design to most configurations, it can be seen that it is directly inherited from the iPhone 12 Pro series. Talking about the display specifications can actually see it.
The iPhone 12 series abandoned the Liquid Retina HD display (based on IPS panel technology) used in the previous iPhone XR and iPhone 11, and replaced it with the same Super Retina XDR display (based on OLED panel technology) as the iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro series, except for daily use The peak brightness is reduced from 800 nits on the iPhone 12 Pro series to 625 nits. The specifications are the same as the iPhone 12 Pro series. Since then, all iPhone product lines except the iPhone SE have been replaced with OLED panels and support HDR. In terms of splash and water resistance, the iPhone 12 series has been upgraded to the same specifications as the iPhone 12 Pro series.
It is worth noting that the iPhone 12 series also introduced a member with a smaller display size and the rest of the specifications are basically the same as the iPhone 12 – the iPhone 12 mini, whose display size is reduced to 5.4 inches, with a resolution of 2340×1080 and the full iPhone. Series highest pixel density (476 PPI).
In the press conference, Apple officials also specifically explained the reason for choosing this size. In fact, it was chosen to maintain a similar body size to the previous iPhone 8 and iPhone 7.
In terms of the camera system, the iPhone 12 series maintains the configuration of the iPhone 11 with only the main camera and the ultra-wide-angle camera (thus also canceling the 2x optical zoom capability and the night mode portrait shooting function that requires LiDAR assistance), the main camera part The specifications use the same seven-element lens group, f/1.6 aperture, and 26mm focal length new lens as the iPhone 12 Pro, and they also have optical anti-shake capabilities and 100% Focus Pixel coverage support.
The ultra-wide-angle camera part also uses the same f/2.4 aperture as the iPhone 12 Pro series (instead, it is smaller than the previous generation’s f/2.0), five lens groups, and a 13mm focal length ultra-wide-angle lens, and the viewing angle is also maintained at 120 degrees. In addition, the iPhone 12 series does not have the ability to take photos in ProRAW format.
As for the chips, part of the iPhone 12 series uses the same Apple A14 Bionic chip as the iPhone 12 Pro series. Only the memory capacity is reduced to 4GB. exactly the same.
In terms of series composition, the two models of the iPhone 12 series provide six color options of blue, green, red, white, black and purple (later added), and the storage space capacity is 256GB more than the iPhone 11 option, but it still maintains 64GB starting.
As for the packaging part of the iPhone 12 series, a white color box with a photo of the front of the phone is selected. The content is the same as that of the iPhone 12 Pro. The earphones and USB transformer are canceled. There are only the phone body and the USB transmission cable (USB-C to Lightning) in the box. , some documents, stickers and SIM card slot eject pin.
iPhone 13 Pro series (2021)
| release date | September 14, 2021 |
| Model ID | iPhone 13 Pro : iPhone14,2 (D63AP) iPhone 13 Pro Max : iPhone14,3 (D64AP) |
| Dimensions | iPhone 13 Pro : 146.7 x 71.5 x 7.65 mm iPhone 13 Pro Max : 160.8 x 78.1 x 7.65 mm |
| body weight | iPhone 13 Pro : 203g iPhone 13 Pro Max : 238g |
| chip | Apple A15 Bionic (APL1W07) 2x Avalanche P-Core + 4x Blizzard E-Core + 5-core GPU |
| Memory | 6GB LPDDR4X-4266 |
| support system | iOS 15.0 (19A341) to present |
| storage space | 128GB、256GB、512GB、1TB |
| main camera | 12.0 MP (f/1.6 aperture, auto-zoom support, back-illuminated sensor, 4K 60fps photography, seven lens groups, optical image stabilization, 26mm focal length) |
| telephoto camera | 12.0 MP (f/2.8 aperture, auto-zoom support, back-illuminated sensor, 4K 60fps photography, six lens groups, optical image stabilization, 52mm focal length, 2x optical zoom) |
| ultra wide-angle camera | 12.0 MP (f/1.8 aperture, supports auto zoom, back-illuminated sensor, 4K 60fps photography, five lens groups, 13mm focal length, 120-degree viewing angle) |
| front camera | 12.0 MP TrueDepth Camera (f/2.2 aperture, 4K 60fps photography) |
| monitor | iPhone 13 Pro : 6.1″ Super Retina XDR Display，OLED，2532×1170，460 PPI，P3，HDR，ProMotion iPhone 13 Pro Max : 6.7″ Super Retina XDR Display，OLED，2778×1284，458 PPI，P3，HDR，ProMotion |
| Splash and water resistance | IP68 rated according to IEC 60529 (up to 30 minutes in water up to 6 meters deep) |
| suggested price | iPhone 13 Pro : From USD$ 999 iPhone 13 Pro Max : From USD$ 1,099 |
After the major design changes of the iPhone 12 Pro series in 2020, the iPhone 13 Pro series that will debut in 2021 will naturally be a generation with relatively small changes. The theme of “California streaming” basically highlights that this conference is also affected by the COVID-19 epidemic and has changed to the form of online broadcast of pre-recorded videos.
In terms of appearance design, the iPhone 13 Pro series is basically the same as the iPhone 12 Pro series. The difference visible to the naked eye is that the lens area in the upper left corner of the back becomes larger and the radius of the lens body increases.
However, in fact, the improvement of some iPhone 13 Pro series on the display is quite significant. In addition to the reduction in area of the bangs area above with the new TrueDepth camera module, ProMotion technical support has also been added for the first time. (That is, the 120 Hz display refresh rate that many people are quite looking forward to), and the peak brightness has also been increased from 800 nits to 1,200 nits.
In terms of chips, the iPhone 13 Pro series uses a new generation of Apple A15 Bionic chips based on TSMC’s N5P process. The CPU is equipped with two Avalanche performance cores (P-Core) and four Blizzard energy efficiency cores (E-Core). , both have introduced some minor architectural improvements and the size of the system-level cache memory has been doubled compared with the previous generation, but it is worth noting that Apple also avoided talking about the A15 Bionic chip compared to the A14 Bionic chip in this presentation. In fact, the performance improvement of the A15 Bionic is indeed not significant.
In terms of GPU, A15 Bionic uses the fifth-generation Apple self-developed GPU architecture, and the core size is increased to five cores. The overall performance is about 30% higher than the previous generation. As for the neural network engine, it benefits from the architecture The upgrade has a performance improvement of about 40% (15.8 TOPS). From these data, it is obvious that compared with the performance, the more important improvement of the A15 Bionic generation is mainly to reduce power consumption.
As for the baseband chip, Apple chose the Snapdragon X60 5G Modem (SDX60M), which is also from Qualcomm, but overall, there is no change in the connection capability.
As for the camera part, unlike the iPhone 12 Pro series, Apple has adopted different camera modules for the iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max. This time, the camera systems of the two models of the iPhone 13 Pro series are exactly the same. The aperture size of the main camera is enlarged from f/1.6 to f/1.5, and it is equipped with a larger photosensitive element to further increase the pixel size to 1.9 microns, which greatly increases the amount of light entering (compared with the iPhone 12 Pro, the increase rate is 2.2 times, Compared with the iPhone 12 Pro Max, the increase is 1.5 times).
The part of the super wide-angle camera is equipped with a six-element lens whose aperture has been greatly increased from f/2.4 to f/1.8, and is equipped with a sensor with a faster response speed. Support for distance photography mode (the minimum shooting distance is 2 cm).
For the telephoto camera, the focal length is changed to 77mm again, and the aperture size is reduced from f/2.0 to f/2.8. Due to the replacement of the focal length, the optical zoom range of the iPhone 13 Pro series is up to 3 times, but the original 2 times The optical magnification mode has been cancelled, and the Smart HDR function on the iPhone 13 Pro series has also been upgraded to the fourth generation.
Other important improvements are that the iPhone 13 Pro series has added the ability to shoot ProRes format videos (but only supports up to 4K 30fps, and only supports 1080p 30fps on models with 128GB storage space) and can be used to shoot shallow depth-of-field effects. Cinematic mode (1080p 30fps).
In terms of series composition, both models of the iPhone 13 Pro series provide five color options of Tianfeng blue, graphite, gold, silver and pine cyan (added later), and the storage space capacity is higher than that of the previous generation iPhone 12 Pro The series has an additional 1TB option.
The last thing to talk about is the packaging design. The packaging design of the iPhone 13 Pro series uses a black color box with photos printed on the back of the phone. The overall design is very similar to the iPhone 12 Pro series, but instead of using plastic sealing film, it uses The sticker is sealed, and the contents are also only the phone body, USB transmission cable (USB-C to Lightning), some documents, stickers and SIM card slot ejection pin.
iPhone 13 series (2021)
| release date | September 14, 2021 |
| Model ID | iPhone 13 : iPhone13,2 (D53gAP) iPhone 13 mini : iPhone13,1 (D52gAP) |
| Dimensions | iPhone 13 : 146.7 x 71.5 x 7.65 mm iPhone 13 mini : 131.5 x 64.2 x 7.65 mm |
| body weight | iPhone 13 : 173g iPhone 13 mini : 140g |
| chip | Apple A15 Bionic (APL1W07) 2x Avalanche P-Core + 4x Blizzard E-Core + 5-core GPU |
| Memory | 4GB LPDDR4X-4266 |
| support system | iOS 15.0 (19A341) to present |
| storage space | 128GB、256GB、512GB |
| main camera | 12.0 MP (f/1.6 aperture, auto-zoom support, back-illuminated sensor, 4K 60fps photography, seven lens groups, optical image stabilization, 26mm focal length) |
| ultra wide-angle camera | 12.0 MP (f/2.4 aperture, back-illuminated sensor, 4K 60fps photography, five lens groups, 13mm focal length, 120-degree viewing angle) |
| front camera | 12.0 MP TrueDepth Camera (f/2.2 aperture, 4K 60fps photography) |
| monitor | iPhone 13 : 6.1″ Super Retina XDR Display，OLED，2532×1170，460 PPI，P3，HDR iPhone 13 mini : 5.4″ Super Retina XDR Display，OLED，2340×1080，476 PPI，P3，HDR |
| Splash and water resistance | IP68 rated according to IEC 60529 (up to 30 minutes in water up to 6 meters deep) |
| suggested price | iPhone 13: from USD$ 799 iPhone 13 mini : Starting at USD$ 699 |
In the same press conference, Apple also announced the iPhone 13 series with a relatively low positioning. The 13 Pro series comes even smaller.
In terms of display, the only improvement of the iPhone 13 series is that the peak brightness of the daily environment that was deliberately lowered by the previous generation to differentiate it from the iPhone 12 Pro series is returned to the iPhone 13 series, making it the same as the iPhone 13 Pro series. nits of daily ambient peak brightness.
As for the chip, it is upgraded to the new Apple A15 Bionic chip like the iPhone 13 Pro series, but it may be due to factors such as the small improvement of the iPhone 13 generation, the increase in manufacturing costs of high-end process chips, and the poor initial yield. , The Apple A15 Bionic chip on the iPhone 13 series has only four GPU cores, while the baseband chip and connection capabilities are exactly the same as the iPhone 13 Pro series.
As for the camera part, the most notable difference in appearance of the iPhone 13 series is that the arrangement of the two lenses on the back is changed from a top-down arrangement to a diagonal arrangement (according to the official statement, it is to have more space to fit in a larger lens. sensor), while the lens used in the iPhone 13 series is actually the same as the lens in the iPhone 12 series in terms of literal parameters (so no lens is shared with the iPhone 13 Pro series).
Although there is no change in the literal parameters, the main camera of the iPhone 13 series is actually equipped with a sensor displacement optical anti-shake function for the first time in addition to a larger sensor.
The ultra-wide-angle lens is replaced with a faster-response sensor. In addition, in terms of software, the iPhone 13 series also includes the fourth-generation Smart HDR function and a movie-level mode (1080p 30fps) that can shoot shallow depth-of-field effects. However, it still does not support shooting Apple ProRAW format photos, and because there is no autofocus support like the iPhone 13 Pro series, the iPhone 13 series does not add macro shooting capabilities, and it does not support shooting ProRes format videos in the video section.
In terms of series composition, the iPhone 13 series has six body color options: midnight color, starlight color, blue, pink, red and green (later added), and the storage space configuration is double that of the iPhone 12 series, providing 128GB , 256GB, 512GB three options.
As for the packaging design part, the packaging of the iPhone 13 series uses a white color box with a photo on the back of the phone, and like the iPhone 13 series, it no longer uses plastic sealing film but uses stickers for sealing. The contents also only include the phone body, USB cable (USB-C to Lightning), some documents, stickers and SIM card slot ejector pin.
