iPhone 8 is the latest compact flagship compatible phone from Apple. Three years later, the company finally has a suitable successor to it in the form of the iPhone 12 mini. If you own an iPhone 8 and are wondering if the upgrade to the 12 mini is worth it. The iPhone 8 is still a powerful phone, but its design, camera, and battery life are past its prime. Meanwhile, the 12 mini offers more than that in the same compact form factor, making it a very enticing upgrade. Let’s find out the difference in this article “iPhone 12 mini & iPhone 8 comparison: The upgrade is more impressive” with Bestechz!
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iPhone 12 mini & iPhone 8 comparison: The upgrade is more impressive
Design
It’s amazing to see how much the design of this smartphone has changed in just 3 years. The design of the iPhone 8 was very old at launch, and in 2020 it looks very old. What’s impressive is that the iPhone 12 mini is smaller and more compact than the iPhone 8 despite being equipped with a more powerful chipset, a better camera, and a larger display. You’re giving up on the iPhone 8’s home button, but in return, you get a lot that makes this sacrifice well-deserved. The 12 mini also have more durable glass including Ceramic Shield on the front. Additionally, the device comes in 5 oddly different colors while the iPhone 8 comes in only 3 colors.
Screen
The iPhone 12 mini has a 0.7-inch larger display than the iPhone 8 despite having a smaller design. It is also a higher resolution OLED panel that offers better contrast ratios and supports HDR, Dolby Vision and True Tone. While the 12 genuine mini doesn’t have 3D Touch on the Super Retina XDR panel, with Apple completely ditching the feature, I doubt someone will miss it.
Processor
The iPhone 8’s A11 Bionic chip was ahead of its time when it first debuted in 2017. The on-chip Neural Engine is a relatively big deal as it helps speed up certain ML tasks.
Three years later, the A11 Bionic chip is slowly showing its age. Meanwhile, the A14 Bionic inside the iPhone 12 mini is completely different. With the 5nm fabrication process, this chip’s 6-core CPU delivers a 40% performance increase while the 4-core GPU delivers a 30% performance increase. The Neural Engine also received a big boost and now boasts 16 cores making it twice as fast as before. Finally, 2nd Generation ML enhances machine learning by 10 times. What’s surprising is that Apple is using the same A14 Bionic chip found in other larger iPhone 12 models. This says a lot about the chip’s performance and energy efficiency.
Apple claims the new CPU is 50% faster than other CPU smartphones in the market. The GPU is also 50% faster than any other smartphone GPU. With the massive performance increase across the board, the iPhone 12 lineup will once again set a new threshold in performance. The faster Neural Engine, ISP, and ML will also benefit a lot for applications that are increasingly relying on them for specific and complex operations.
Storage
Both phones have basic storage, but Apple offers a 12 mini version with three different storage options. The device also has 4GB of RAM while the iPhone 8 has only 2GB. The extra 2GB of RAM will allow the iPhone 12 mini to run smoother heavy apps and games.
Camera
The main camera resolution may not change between iPhone 8 and 12 mini. However, the camera sensor and pixel size have. The iPhone 8’s primary 12MP shooter looks good on paper but completely blurred compared to the 12 mini. The latter has a newer and larger camera sensor along with a wider aperture that allows it to capture more light, which helps in low-light situations. Then there’s an improved processing power thanks to Smart HDR 3 and Deep Fusion.
The Apple 12 mini has Night Mode support for all of its cameras – a feature missing from the iPhone 8 series. The 12 mini phone also has an ultra-wide 12MP secondary camera that lets you take pictures with a completely different perspective. . The device is also much better than the iPhone 8 when it comes to video recording capabilities. Additionally, it can record 4K 60fps videos in Dolby Vision with HDR.
Connect
iPhone 8 single sim, LTE – Advanced, Wifi ac with MIMO, Bluetooth 5.0, VoLTE, NFC with reading mode.
iPhone 12 mini – 5G, Gigabit LTE, Dual SIM, Wifi 6 with MIMO, Bluetooth 5.0, NFC with reading mode, Ultra – Wideband chip, GPS.
Battery
When comparing directly in terms of battery life, the 12 mini version lasts significantly longer than the iPhone 8. And that’s despite coming larger, a more powerful chipset, and more. While the two devices both support Qi fast charging and wireless charging, the 12 mini also supports MagSafe. So the 12 mini can charge wirelessly up to 15W. MagSafe support also allows compatible accessories and wireless chargers to simply attach to the back of new iPhones.
