Holy smokes, I never knew about that! 😀

I’ve just switched from an old SE to the new SE2.

Can’t stand it, awful phone. It’s too big, and the virtual/haptic button is a truly shit piece of design.

@zilog6128

you know you can just hold down the spacebar and it turns the keyboard into a trackpad to position the cursor?

That is brilliant, thanks
Never RTFM obviously

I was disappointed that they lost the old SE form factor but TBH with age and degrading eyesight the new SE fills the bill pretty well for me. Anything bigger really would get to be a struggle for pockets etc. Though I said that before upgrading as well 🙂

Never RTFM obviously

Well, there isn’t really one. This is one of my few gripes with iOS: the usability is good once you know (and remember) all the tricks but Apple aren’t so good at discoverability.

(Mind you, you can drag the cursor itself in much the same way; the space bar mainly just helps you do it with your finger well out of the way.)

I just swapped from an SE 2020 to a 12 pro.

The UX is (obviously) unchanged and I have used Face ID before with the iPhone XR… it totally doesn’t work with masks.

The camera is absolutely stunning, a game changer for me.

I also like the return to a chunkier design, it reminds me of a jacked up iPhone 4

Lifeproof fre cases work for me. Had them on all my iPhones back to a 4 and they are waterproof, drop proof and pretty low profile, not tacky so they go in your pocket easily. Even the contactless charging thing in my car works with it. Not cheap though but worth it for protecting an £800 quid phone or whatever.

I also like the return to a chunkier design

Yeah, the angular sides are so much better when it comes to actually holding the thing. (Mine always lives in a case, but case designs tend to follow the cues of the actual phone.)

Well, there isn’t really one. This is one of my few gripes with iOS: the usability is good once you know (and remember) all the tricks but Apple aren’t so good at discoverability.

Of course there is! (Even covers turning the keyboard into a trackpad 😀) Whether anyone has actually ever read it is another matter 🤣
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/iphone/welcome/ios

Lifeproof fre cases work for me.

it’s a nicer & much slimmer case than an Otterbox, however I went through 2 with my 6S! Otterbox also fell apart eventually but it’s a LOT cheaper to replace.

Whether anyone has actually ever read it is another matter 🤣

Back to my previous remark about discoverability 😀

That’s only because no-one can be bothered though! It’s actually a testament to how well the devices are designed that no-one even thinks they need to read the instructions. I bet it’s mentioned somewhere in the iPhone packaging anyway… It’s also the first link when I google “iPhone manual”!

Compare it to tech devices from back in the day which could be virtually indecipherable despite having read the massive instruction book cover to cover!!

You have tried cleaning the inside of the port out with a thin stick? It doesn’t take a huge amount of lint to jam it up.

This – I was struggling with my XS disconnecting so I cut a matchstick in half down its length and used it to poke out the fluff that had built up.

I haven’t tried re-scanning my face for Face ID while wearing a mask, I wonder if that would work..

… having now bothered to look, I see an option to “Set Up An Alternative Appearance” under Face ID and Passcode settings.

Update: No. You get a “Face obstructed” error if you try scanning your face while wearing a mask.

I haven’t tried re-scanning my face for Face ID while wearing a mask, I wonder if that would work..

It doesn’t. At least, not for me. There is apparently a ‘trick’ where you cover half your face with a (folded) mask when training FaceID, but that didn’t work for me either.

I’d be interested to hear how anyone has got FaceID to work with a mask.

I went from the 8+ to the 11, the camera is much better.  I’m sure the 12 would be even better but I can’t justify it at this point.  Maybe when we have the next Family phone shuffle down.

As far as cases go, I went for a Mous Limitless case having used a variety of Supcase and Spigens on previous phones .  It’s much nicer not massive but has protected it from a fair few clumsy drops onto a variety of surfaces.

Regarding the discoverability of features, use the “Tips” app by Apple. I’ve discovered a few useful features using that, very useful tool, especially when there is a iOS update and they have changed existing features or added in new one.

A few weeks later than hoped for, my new 12 Pro Max arrived yesterday.

It’s taken a little bit to get used to the ‘non home button’ way of working it, but it’s okay… I wonder if a virtual home button might have been a good idea, but hey.

As for the rest:

It’s way too big, this is my fault, I went ‘balls out’ and it’s too big. Even after I drew the size of the thing out said “it’s too big” I still ordered it because I wanted to be a flash git and it’s too big – have I mentioned the size? maybe there’s a function to shrink the home screen a bit to use it one-handed, but I haven’t discovered it yet, but it’s not really possible to use it one handed.

The camera is amazing. With my 8 you could take ‘snaps’ with this you can take ‘photos’ if that makes sense, that said it’s not all the camera, some of it is down to digital effects that make them look better, and some of it is down to the screen, they lose a little bit of their sparkle viewed on say a Monitor.

As above, the screen is amazing, I read an article on the BBC yesterday saying that we should watch vids on our phones in SD to help the environment, not HD as it’s not really visible on such a small screen… anyway, 4K youtube vids are lovely…

General Performance, snappy, responsive, quick and other meaningless words. Yes, one of the most powerful phones in the world is unsurprisingly quick to use, but it’s only really about as quick as every iPhone I’ve had since about the 6 I think was, on the version of iOS it launched with. My 8 was very quick on iOS 11 and 12, a little buggy on 13 and frankly a buggy, laggy crashy mess on 14. I’m sure 2 years from now, even though it’s the baller Pro, it’ll run like hot crap on iOS 17 or whatever.

The device it lovely, I like the Blue colour I chose (which caused the delay) the weight doesn’t bother me, it’s not heavy, the battery supposedly last two days… given the level of use for ours in work, going 8-6 without a charge would be nice, but nothing can hide the massive bulk of the thing. I struggle to understand why such a thing exists really, other than for stupid flash gits like myself to buy. I’m due an operation in the next few weeks/months, it’ll mean I’ll have my hand bandaged for a few weeks, I’m keeping my 8 to use when I’m down to one hand because the Max is too big to use one-handed, which is mad when you think about it.

I like your honesty P-Jay 🙂 I got the 12 mini and it’s fantastic. All the good things of the 12 but it actually fits in my hand/pocket!

Yeah was seriously tempted by the Max myself mainly for the slightly better camera and battery life, but it is obviously too big (plus I asked everyone I knew who had a “max” sized phone and 9/10 regretted it 🤣)
If you need a way to feel better and justify your decision, the big screen & battery would make it an excellent monitor for a drone such as the new Mavic Mini 2 😃… I bet it’s not even too much of a chore to do video editing on the phone due to the screen size

I read an article on the BBC yesterday saying that we should watch vids on our phones in SD to help the environment

that is bollocks though, they keep publishing variations of the same claim, despite the (BBC!) podcast More or Less having thoroughly debunked it.

maybe there’s a function to shrink the home screen a bit to use it one-handed

Reachability?

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/iphone/iph77bcdd132/14.0/ios/14.0#iph145eba8e9

Re: issue of phone being too big…

Back in the good ol’ days when apple took away the headphone jack you could drill a hole where it was in previous models and keep using your headphones.

In the max models a friend tells me you can use a hacksaw to trim it down from the top by 1.5cm. The phone will recognise you’ve done this and move the notch down accordingly.

You’re welcome.

Seems legit.

I got the 11 earlier in the year. All I can say is I have my fingers crossed for the new Blackberry in 2021.

The wife regrets not going for more storage than her 64gb iPhone 11. She got an unexpected bonus so I think she’s going to trade her 11 in for a 12 Pro.

I went for the middle-ground 256GB – the 512GB is a massive price bump. I use a lot of cloud storage these days as well as streaming so there’s less I need to actually keep on the phone, however if you’re going to be shooting a lot of Pro Raw and especially Dolby Vision HDR, that’s going to chew through a fair bit of space.

iPhone 12 pro max user here. I’m used to the size because I had the Xs Max before and it’s not that much bigger. Yes it’s bigger than the Nokia 8800 I found in the bottom of the drawer the other day but it can do a helluva lot more, better and quicker (that was a proper 2000’s bling phone)

It still goes in my pocket easily enough and I like the larger size for watching videos, sailing through the south atlantic, reading the forum etc. If needed you can use the accessibility shortcut to swipe down and bring the top icons down but to be honest I rarely do.

Camera quality improvement is very noticeable from the Xs Max.

I do have to declare that I’m an Apple fanboy though so this may jade my view a little when comparing to other handsets.

So… having decided it’s a Pro (for ProRaw, mainly) or not bothering to upgrade at all, I’m leaning towards the “in for a penny, in for a pound (well, lots of pounds)” Pro Max.

The battery life and the improved main camera are the compelling factors… but the size… oof. Jersey pockets will be marginal, and my Rickshaw Pipsqueak will barely close over it, but I dunno… it’ll probably be things like being able to use the Waitrose app one-handed while shopping that will determine whether it drives me nuts. I type two-handed even in the SE, and a bigger screen will be a big bonus for photo editing, but if it’s too hard to hold without it toppling out of my hand then maybe it’s too much. And at the moment no phone shops I’ve tried are letting anyone actually pick phones up.

Aside from the contrasting views above, anyone else finding the Max great/awful?

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jk1980
Free Member

I’ve just switched from an old SE to the new SE2.

Can’t stand it, awful phone. It’s too big, and the virtual/haptic button is a truly shit piece of design.

Posted 1 month ago

Did you get used to the size of your phone?

Pro max here, love it. Came from a Xs but had a 6S+ in the past. I am big tho.

I like the 2.5 tele (on the Xs in 2 years 47% of my pics were with the tele) – wanted the tele so had to be pro.

Battery, screen obviously ace.

Video is phenomenal, really the big camera step up more so than stills.

Stills vs my Xs, I notice better low light (night mode and shorter exposures) and the newer smart HDR is more subtle (better).

Ultra wide is nice to have but I prefer teles in general, but that’s a personal preference.

It’s heavy but that’s fine. I don’t use a case.

Bear my “it’s great and I love the camera” in mind against:
– I’m big (6’4” so phone not so big for me)
– I made cameras for a living (effectively) so I care about and notice cameras.
– I’d had a plus before.

That all said, buy from Apple you’ve 14 days to return it.

Jersey pockets will be marginal,

Not had a problem there.

Zippykona – A little more comfortable with it, but still find it bigger than I’d like. Decent battery life is welcomed of course!

Despite my outburst above, it only took a little while to get used to the size of the Max. It manages to sit on my pocket when I’m riding etc

Battery life is amazing for a smart phone, despite how much we use them in work I’m getting about 3 days from a full charge, admittedly it’s plugged in when I’m in the car, but that’s pretty rare these days. I’d risk saying it’s getting close to Nokia levels of battery life… it’s only taken a decade.

Fired up the new Pro Max yesterday. First impressions:

– Still not sure about the size. I mean, it’s too big, obviously, but it’s not as daunting as when I first picked up a 7 Plus. The question is whether the main camera and improved battery life are worth it—if not then I might return it and get the smaller Pro.
– Face ID works great. Haven’t yet figured out how to open Wallet from the lock screen; need to do some reading. Haven’t tried face masks but I picked up a cheap Apple Watch which will eliminate mask-related payment faff.
– I was wondering whether the screen would blow me away compared to the older tech on the SE. It doesn’t. It’s fine, it’s just not much different. (Haven’t watched any HDR video yet but that’s not something of great interest to me).

Beyond that, it’s an iPhone, works like any iPhone. Just a really bloody expensive one 😀

Time to get out and test the camera against the SE. Hoping for big things, we’ll see. Again, if it doesn’t blow me away then I’ll probably swap for the more sensibly-sized Pro.

Haven’t yet figured out how to open Wallet from the lock screen

double click the side button.

I was wondering whether the screen would blow me away compared to the older tech on the SE. It doesn’t.

the resolution is massively higher (as well as bigger), so you can fit more stuff on in webpages etc, which is great. The pixel density is about 40% greater, so if you can’t tell the difference, maybe time for some (new) glasses? 😉 I also really like the TrueTone mode, which wasn’t available on my previous phone – looked a bit weird at first, but it’s a lot kinder on the eyes!

Time to get out and test the camera against the SE.

don’t forget to turn on the ProRAW mode! Don’t think it’s enabled by default.

The pixel density is about 40% greater, so if you can’t tell the difference, maybe time for some (new) glasses? 😉

Heh. Already well into glasses age, and to my eyes resolution is good enough on all of them. But I was mainly thinking of contrast and colour reproduction; I was anticipating more difference in shadows and blacks. Might become more apparent once I start editing photos if different environmental lighting.

double click the side button.

That was what I thought, didn’t seem to work. I’ll give it another go.

don’t forget to turn on the ProRAW mode!

Main reason I went for a Pro model, so one of the first things I did 😉

Haven’t yet figured out how to open Wallet from the lock screen

As above, double click the side button – which is also exactly what you do on the Watch if you haven’t got that far. There’s also location awareness going on eg. when I am in Tescos the phone puts the Clubcard in my wallet on the home screen, so no need to go into the wallet to ‘grab’ my clubcard to scan the barcode to get a shopping scanner.

I was wondering whether the screen would blow me away compared to the older tech on the SE. It doesn’t. It’s fine, it’s just not much different.

It’s all about the black levels. I’m used to watching content on an OLED TV, and combined with my OLED phone that I must spend hours a day looking at, non OLED screens just look broken to me now with their horrible approximation of black. eg. I now find my $$$$ iPad Pro with it’s top spec LED screen a grim experience to watch stuff on if it is in a dark room.

And I should offer up those 3D printed dummies for anyone else who’s contemplating different sizes, too. PM me if you want them.

I’ve gone from a 7 to 12 mini, and it’s been great! Upgrade in photo quality is the main benefit (especially at night), but I like that it’s slightly smaller, and I was constantly hitting the storage limit on the old phone.

Face ID is much better than I was expecting, works well from a variety of angles and distances, and either with or without glasses on. Mask thing is annoying, but hopefully that’s a relatively short term problem.

I did make the mistake of not putting a screen protector on straight away, and now have a scratch on it; apparently their new glass is more shatter resistant but softer!

Well it eventually dawned on me why Wallet isn’t opening… I haven’t added my cards yet 😉 (I’d confused myself by adding them to an Apple Watch around the same time.)

Also tried watching a film on Netflix with the two phones side by side and yes, the blacks on the new screen are properly black, unlike the SE. A definite improvement.

Not yet blown away by the camera (though I’ve only been in the house so far and need to get out, I”m sure it’s got much more potential) or ProRaw (which doesn’t have the texture I saw from some of Halide’s initial sample images—it’s much more noise-suppressed and less detailed than I was expecting, which is a shame—and editing it seems a little challenging at times; Lightroom in particular seems to be a bit inconsistent in figuring out whether an image is raw or not).

In any case, still very much undecided as to whether the 12, Pro or Max is the one for me (I suspect it’s the Pro… the Max has become largely a question of whether the size is worth the battery life), but I have a week or so to figure that out 🙂