'Hi, Speed' Recap: HomePod mini, iPhone 12 mini, MagSafe, and iPhone 12 Pro on the AppleInsider podcast

At today's "Hi, Speed" iPhone 12 event, Apple announced a new HomePod mini, redesigned iPhone 12, smaller iPhone 12 mini, new iPhone 12 Pro models and more. Here's what you need to know, on a special episode of the AppleInsider Podcast.

Apple announced the new HomePod mini for $99 and available for pre-order November 6th. This smaller HomePod will have a U1 Ultra Wideband chip and is powered by the S5 processor.

The HomePod mini can also be used as a smart home hub and Apple is bringing a new Intercom feature across its devices to allow broadcasting audio messages across HomePods, CarPlay, AirPods, and other Apple devices.

The iPhone 12 was announced with a 6.1-inch screen and 5G cellular connectivity. Apple has brought its Super Retina XDR OLED screen to this model iPhone and now has an improved "Ceramic Shield" glass technology that makes the display 4x more durable.

iPhone 12 has a new dual-camera system that brings Night Mode to all three cameras including the front-facing selfie camera.

Apple's new iPhone 12 will be available to pre-order at $799 in the US and most territories from November 6. Orders will begin to arrive for customers on November 13.

Next, Apple announced the iPhone 12 mini that has all the same features as the iPhone 12 but in a 5.4-inch screen size. The iPhone 12 mini will be available starting from $699, for a 64GB model with pre-orders starting November 6.

Coming to all new iPhone 12 models is improved wireless charging. Apple announced it's bringing back the "MagSafe" name to its new circular wireless charger that uses magnets to properly align the charger to the back of iPhone 12. New MagSafe accessories include cases with magnets built-in and even a magnetic wallet attachment for the back of your iPhone.

The iPhone 12 Pro models were announced bringing the new flat-edge design and four colors: Pacific Blue, Gold, Silver, and Graphite. These new Pro models come with the new A14 Bionic chip, improved cameras, LiDAR sensor, and larger screens. Previous iPhone 11 Pro models had a screen size of 5.8-inches or 6.5-inches for the iPhone 12 Pro Max model. Now iPhone 12 Pro models come in either a 6.1-inch or 6.7-inch display.

Other improvements include the ability to shoot video in 10-bit Dolby Vision HDR and a new photo format Apple is calling "Apple Pro Raw." This format available on the iPhone 12 Pro models have the benefit of all the computational photography Apple applies to its photos, but also gives photographers the ability to adjust White Balance, Tone Mapping, and edit in their professional software of choice.

The iPhone 12 Pro starts from $999 with a higher starting capacity of 128GB, $1,099 with 256GB of storage, and $1,299 for 512GB. This model will be available for pre-order on Friday, October 16.

The iPhone 12 Pro Max starts from $1,099 for 128GB, rising to $1,199 for 256GB, then $1,399 for 512GB and will be available for pre-order November 6.

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4 Comments

Beats 3073 comments · 4 Years

About 4 years ago

Underwhelmed. Probably the least amount of product reveals in a single Apple event.

MplsP 4020 comments · 8 Years

Beats said:

Underwhelmed. Probably the least amount of product reveals in a single Apple event.

Well, pretty much everything had already been leaked and was highly expected. If they hadn’t released what they did people would have been very disappointed.

Is the 5G support mmWave or just the sub-6GHz bands? I haven’t seen any mention here or on apple’s web site. Also, is there any way to turn it off? My main concern would be excess battery drain if you don’t have a 5G plan or are in the 99% of the US that isn’t served by 5G. I’m sure it depends on the Qualcomm modem; if it has dedicated 5G circuitry then it would be easily disabled. If it’s all integrated with the 4G sections then it wouldn’t be feasible.

Mike Wuerthele 6901 comments · 8 Years

MplsP said:

Beats said:

Underwhelmed. Probably the least amount of product reveals in a single Apple event.

Well, pretty much everything had already been leaked and was highly expected. If they hadn’t released what they did people would have been very disappointed.

Is the 5G support mmWave or just the sub-6GHz bands? I haven’t seen any mention here or on apple’s web site. Also, is there any way to turn it off? My main concern would be excess battery drain if you don’t have a 5G plan or are in the 99% of the US that isn’t served by 5G. I’m sure it depends on the Qualcomm modem; if it has dedicated 5G circuitry then it would be easily disabled. If it’s all integrated with the 4G sections then it wouldn’t be feasible.

5G support in the US on all the iPhone 12 models is in fact mmWave. What you get from that support will very much vary on where you are.

In regards to 5G battery drain, the presentation took about five seconds to note that if you don't need 5G radios, they won't be powered, and only 4G will. How well this works remains to be seen.