After being delayed by a month, Apple’s iPhone 12 event has finally happened. With it came four new iPhone 12 devices and we have all of the Australian price, specs, pre-order and release date information for you right here.
The entire range comes with mmWave 5G functionality that has Smart Data mode. This allows the devices to automatically drop back down to 4G in an effort to save battery.
The only problem for us Aussies is that our iPhone 12 devices won’t have mmWave access. However, they will still work with Sub 6 5G. You can read our full report about this here.
As for the design, this year Apple has opted for a flatter look (rather than curved edges) that may remind you of the iPhone 4 days, or the newer iPads in market. You’ll also find that most of the devices are slimmer and lighter than previous years but with more screen real estate.
The iPhone 12 range also comes with a new Ceramic Shield tech that has been co-developed with Gorilla Glass, making it tougher and more drop resistant.
Under the hood of the iPhone 12 is Apple’s latest A14 Bionic chip. In addition to 5G and new Night Mode photography features, Apple says the new chipset allows for 50 per cent improved performance. The company has stated that the A14 Bionic has 40 per cent more transistors and 70 per cent faster machine learning capabilities.
Lastly, the rumours were true about wired headphones and power adaptors being removed from the iPhone 12 boxes. We assumed this would be the case back in September when the adaptors were also removed from the new iPad and Apple Watch 7 devices. According to Apple, this is to keep in line with its ‘carbon-neutral by 2030’ policy.
However, you’ll still get a power cable with the new iPhone 12, and it’s a bit different this year. Instead of the classic lightning cable it will be a new USB-C to lightning cable.
Now it’s time to look at some of the differences between the four iPhone 12 devices.
iPhone 12 Specs
First up we have the OG iPhone 12 which comes with 5G and has upgraded from an LCD to OLED display this year.
On the camera front it has a new dual-camera 12MP wide set up and 12MP ultra-wide setup with 120-degree field of view. It also has a new 7-element lens which, amongst other things, Apple says improves its lowlight performance.
Here’s all the key specs:
- A14 Bionic chip CPU
- 6.1-inch OLED display
- 64GB/128GB/256GB storage (no word on the RAM as Apple doesn’t disclose this)
- 5G connectivity
- Dual rear camera: 12MP Wide (Æ’/1.6 aperture) 12MP Ultra Wide (Æ’/2.4 aperture) and 12MP (Æ’/2.2 aperture) front facing camera.
- Up to 17 hours video playback with Qi and new MagSafe wireless charging (Apple doesn’t disclose battery mAH)
- 146.7 mm x 71.5 mm x 7.4 mm, 162g
- IP68 water resistance
- Black, white, project red, blue, and green colour options
The iPhone 12 starts at $1,349 in Australia and it’s available now.
iPhone 12 Mini Specs
This year Apple added a Mini device to its line up. The iPhone 12 Mini has almost exactly the same specs and inclusions as the regular iPhone 12, but in a smaller package. It’s battery is also slightly smaller, offering two less hours of video playback.
Here’s the full list of specs:
- A14 Bionic chip CPU
- 5.4-inch OLED display
- 64GB/128GB/256GB storage (no word on the RAM as Apple doesn’t disclose this)
- 5G connectivity
- Dual rear camera: 12MP Wide (Æ’/1.6 aperture) 12MP Ultra Wide (Æ’/2.4 aperture) and 12MP (Æ’/2.2 aperture) front facing camera.
- Up to 15 hours video playback with Qi and new MagSafe wireless charging (Apple doesn’t disclose battery mAH)
- 131.5 mm x 64.2 mm x 7.4 mm, 133g
- IP68 water resistance
- Black, white, project red, blue, and green colour options
The iPhone 12 Mini will start at $1,199 in Australia. I guess if you wanted a sub-$1000 device you won’t find it here. We’d suggest looking at the 2020 iPhone SE instead.
Pre-orders will begin on Saturday, November 7 at midnight. Double ooft. It will then go on sale on Friday, November 13.
iPhone 12 Pro Specs
If you want to kick things a notch, the pro series is back this year. The real heroes of these devices are the triple-rear camera systems. The Pro has 2.5x optical zoom this time around, with the Pro Max upping it to 4x optical zoom.
Apple is claiming that the iPhone 12 Pro camera features has 87 per cent better low light performance than the previous generation. There is also a slight difference in the telephoto lenses in both phones.
Both the iPhone 12 Pro and Pro Max have LiDAR support and a new ProRAW image format. The latter won’t roll out until later in the year but it combines RAW photo format with multi-frame image processing through computational photography
This basically means that the layers of photo data are held separately from one another. ProRAW then allows you to have control over and edit this separate elements (such as tone mapping and dynamic range) natively in the iPhone camera app.
And when it comes to video, the iPhone 12 Pro and Pro Max can now record in HDR and supports Dolby Vision. These phones will be able to shoot in 4K at 60 fps, which is a first.
Here’s the key specs for the iPhone 12 Pro:
- A14 Bionic chip CPU
- 6.1-inch OLED Super Retina XDR display
- 128/256/512 GB storage (no word on RAM as Apple doesn’t disclose this)
- 5G connectivity
- Triple rear cameras – 12MP ultra wide (Æ’/2.4 aperture), 12MP wide (Æ’/1.6 aperture) and 12MP telephoto (Æ’/2.0). 12MP (Æ’/2.2 aperture) front-facing camera
- HDR 4K video recording
- Face ID
- Up to 17 hours video playback with Qi and new MagSafe wireless charging (Apple doesn’t disclosed the battery size)
- 146.7 mm x 71.5 mm x 7.4 mm, 187 grams
- Gold, silver, graphite, and blue colour options
The iPhone 12 Pro starts at $1,699 in Australia. It’s available for purchase now.
iPhone 12 Pro Max Specs
- A14 Bionic chip CPU
- 6.7-inch OLED Super Retina XDR display
- 128/256/512 GB storage (no word on RAM as Apple doesn’t disclose this)
- 5G connectivity
- Triple rear cameras – 12MP ultra wide (Æ’/2.4 aperture), 12MP wide (Æ’/1.6 aperture) and 12MP telephoto (Æ’/2.2). 12MP (Æ’/2.2 aperture) front-facing camera
- 4K and HDR video recording
- Up to 20 hours video playback with Qi and new MagSafe wireless charging (Apple doesn’t disclosed the battery size)
- 160.8 mm x 78.1 mm x 7.4 mm, 226 grams
- Gold, silver, graphite, and blue colour options
The iPhone 12 Pro will start at $1,849 in Australia. Pre-orders will begin on Saturday, November 7 at midnight. It will then go on sale on Friday, November 13. This means it will release alongside the iPhone 12 Mini.
iPhone 12 Plans
And now that the iPhone 12 and 12 Pro are available in Australia, Telstra, Optus and Vodafone have their plans live to. We have them all below for you! Or if you’d like a bit of guidance, we have listed the best plans available here.
Telstra iPhone 12
As we reported last this week, Telstra has a hefty iPhone 12 pre-order offer that at the time of writing is actually still available now the phone is on sale.
The telco is slashing $50/month its XL plan (which comes with a huge 180GB data), bringing it down to just $65/month before you add handset repayments on top of it. This is applicable for both the 12 and iPhone Pro.
You only get the discount for the first 12 months but you could always swap to a cheaper plan after that time if you wanted.
Now, if you’re looking for the cheapest iPhone 12 plan with Telstra that would be the 64GB model on Big T’s ‘Small’ Plan across 24-months. It’s $55 per month plus $56.20 per month handset repayment. This comes to a total of $111.20 per month. But it only comes with 10GB/month data.
This is where the massive pre-order offer becomes attractive. For just $10 more per month you will bump that data up to 180GB. And if you need more storage, you could also go for the 128GB model instead. All together this would come to $121.20/month/month (for the first 12 months, remember!) for 180GB data. Not bad.
24-month Telstra (64GB) plans
24-month Telstra (128GB) plans
24-month Telstra (256GB) plans
It’s worth noting that Telstra also offers 12 month plans and you can view them over on its website.
Telstra Pro
The same goes for the iPhone 12 Pro – the cheapest option is the ‘Small’ plan but you’re going to get better value from the XL pre-order offer.
For the 128GB iphone 12 Pro this would come to a total of $135.79 a month for the first 12 months and you’d get 180GB of data to play with.
Here’s all the plans.
24-month Telstra (128GB) plans
24-month Telstra (256GB) plans
24-month Telstra (512GB) plans
It’s worth noting that Telstra also offers 12 month plans and you can view them over on its website.
Telstra Mini
The cheapest Phone 12 Mini plan from Telstra is the $55/month small plan combined with the 64GB device. The total comes to $104.95/month on a 24-month contract with 40GB data to play with each month.
When it comes to best value for money our pick is still the $65/month XL special offer combined with a 128GB device. This comes to a total of $118.29/month across 24 months.
But if you’d rather have a browse of everything Telstra has to offer, here are all of its iPhone 12 Mini plans:
24-month Telstra (64GB) plans
24-month Telstra (128GB) plans
24-month Telstra (256GB) plans
Telstra Pro Max plans
The cheapest Phone 12 Pro Max from is the $55/month small plan combined with the 128GB device. The total comes to $132.04/month on a 24-month contract with 40GB of data.
Telstra’s hefty pre-order offer also applies to the Pro Max, which makes the XL plan the best value for money here, too.
If you’re looking for a bit more storage to go with the 180GB of data our recommendation is the 256GB device on a 24-month XL contract, This comes to $149.12 a month. If this is a bit steep you could drop back down to a 128GB device instead,
24-month Telstra (128GB) plans
24-month Telstra (256GB) plans
24-month Telstra (512GB) plans
It’s worth noting that Telstra also offers 12 month plans and you can view them over on its website.
Optus iPhone 12
The cheapest iPhone 12 plan is the 64GB on a 36-month plan when you combine it with an Optus Small plan. The total comes to $76.46 per month across 36-months and it comes with 10GB data.
But if you looking for more data, more storage and a shorter plan life, our recommendation is the 128GB iPhone 12 on a 24-month ‘Medium’ plan. The total comes to $108.52 a month and it has 60GB data. If you really want to get this below $100/month you could consider opting for the 36-month contract length instead.
Here are all the iPhone 12 plan options Optus has on offer:
24-month Optus (64GB) plans
36-month Optus (64GB) plans
24-month Optus (128GB) plans
36-month Optus (128GB) plans
24-month Optus (256GB) plans
36-month Optus iPhone 12 (256GB) plans
Optus Pro
If you’d rather an iPhone 12 Pro, the cheapest option is the 128GB model. Again, this is when you combine it with the Optus ‘Small’ plan on a 36-month contract. It comes to a total of $86.18 a month with 10GB data a month.
And if you’d rather more data we still recommend the Medium Plan that comes with 60GB/month across a 24-month contract. With the 128GB iPhone 12 Pro it comes to $119.77/month.
Here are all the plan options:
24-month Optus (128GB) plans
36-month Optus (128GB) plans
24-month Optus (256GB) plans
36-month Optus (256GB) plans
24-month Optus (512GB) plans
36-month Optus (512GB) plans
Optus Mini Plans
The cheapest Phone 12 Mini plan from Optus is the $39/month small plan combined with a 64GB device on a 36-month contract. The total comes to just $72.30 a month with 10GB of data per month.
That being said, not everyone likes committing to that long a contract. So when it comes to balancing values for money and data inclusions, our pick is the 128GB device on a 24-month ‘Medium Plan’. It comes with 60GB of data each month and comes to a total of $102.28.
If you want to bring that under $100/month you could consider bumping back down to the 64GB handset instead.
Here are all the iPhone 12 Mini plan options Optus has on offer:
24-month Optus (64GB) plans
36-month Optus (64GB) plans
24-month Optus (128GB) plans
36-month Optus (128GB) plans
24-month Optus (256GB) plans
36-month Optus (256GB) plans
Optus Pro Max
The cheapest iPhone 12 Pro Max plan from Optus is the $39/month ‘Small’ plan combined with a 128GB device on a 36-month contract. The total comes to just $90.36 a month with 10GB of data per month.
In terms of value for money and contract length, our pick is the 256GB device on a 24-month ‘Medium’ plan. It comes to $143.12 a month and bumps the data inclusion right up to 60GB/month. You can always make this a bit cheaper by either dropping back to a 36-month plan or opting for the 128GB device instead.
Here are all of Optus’ Pro Max options:
24-month Optus (128GB) plans
36-month Optus (128GB) plans
24-month Optus (256GB) plans
36-month Optus (256GB) plans
24-month Optus (512GB) plans
36-month Optus (512GB) plans
Vodafone iPhone 12
Vodafone is knocking between $5 and $20 off all its iPhone 12 plans right now. As such, the cheapest iPhone 12 plan from Vodafone is the 64GB on a 36-month plan when you combine it with a $35/month Lite plan. The total comes to $72.47 per month across 36-months. And thanks to yet another deal Vodafone is running right now, it comes with 50GB data rather than the usual 10GB.
For that reason, I’d actually recommend the Lite plan. 50GB is a great chunk of data. However, if you don’t want a 36-month contract and need more storage, I’d consider opting for the 128GB iPhone 12 on a 24-month Lite plan. This one comes to $94.54 a month.
And if you really want to go hard, there’s always the pre-order offer on the 200GB plans.
Here are all the iPhone 12 plan options vodafone has on offer:
24-month Vodafone (64GB) plans
36-month Vodafone (64GB) plans
24-month Vodafone (128GB) plans
36-month Vodafone (128GB) plans
24-month Vodafone (256GB) plans
36-month Vodafone (256GB) plans
It’s worth noting that Vodafone also offers 12 month plans and you can view them over on its website.
Vodafone Pro
The cheapest iPhone 12 plan in Australia from Vodafone is the 128GB across 36-months when you combine it with a $35/month Lite plan. The total comes to $82.19 per month. This still gets you the 50GB of data thanks to the current deal the telco is running.
If you want to decrease the plan length on this, you could knock it down to 24-months. This would bring the cost to $105.79 a month.
And here’s all the iPhone 12 Pro plans Vodafone has available:
24-month Vodafone (128GB) plans
36-month Vodafone (128GB) plans
24-month Vodafone (256GB) plans
36-month Vodafone (256GB) plans
24-month Vodafone (512GB) plans
36-month Vodafone (512GB) plans
It’s worth noting that Vodafone also offers 12 month plans and you can view them over on its website.
Vodafone iPhone 12 Mini Plans
The cheapest iPhone 12 Mini plan from Vodafone is the $35/month ‘Lite’ plan combined with a 64GB device on a 36-month contract. The total comes to just $68.30 a month with 50GB of data per month. It’s usually only 10GB so this is a great deal from Voda.
In fact, the telco is offering a HEAP of data across all of its iPhone 12 plans right now — particularly on its Super+ plan. As such, our pick is the 128GB Mini on a 24-month Super+ plan contract.
It comes with an insane 500GB data and comes to $108.29. If you don’t quite need that level of data intensity, you can get the the regular ‘Super’ plan for $98.29 a month and it still comes with 100GB data.
Here are all the iPhone 12 Mini plan options Vodafone has on offer:
24-month Vodafone (64GB) plans
36-month Vodafone (64GB) plans
24-month Vodafone (128GB) plans
36-month Vodafone (128GB) plans
24-month Vodafone (256GB) plans
36-month Vodafone iPhone 12 mini (256GB) plans
It’s worth noting that Vodafone also offers 12 month plans and you can view them over on its website.
Vodafone iPhone 12 Pro Max Plans
The cheapest iPhone 12 Pro Max plan from Vodafone is the $35/month ‘Lite’ plan combined with a 128GB device on a 36-month contract. The total comes to $83.36 a month with the same 50GB data deal as the Mini.
Again, all of Voda’s big data deals are available across the iPhone 12 Pro Max as well. If you need a metric ton of it, you might want to look at the 256GB Pro Max on a 24-month Super+ plan contract.
It comes with 500GB data and costs $139.12. This is pretty damn good for the Pro Max and the amount of data you get. But if you don’t quite need that level of data intensity, you can get the the regular ‘Super’ plan for $129.12 a month and it still comes with 100GB data.
And here’s all the iPhone 12 Pro plans Vodafone has available in Australia:
24-month Vodafone (128GB) plans
36-month Vodafone (128GB) plans
24-month Vodafone (256GB) plans
36-month Vodafone (256GB) plans
24-month Vodafone (512GB) plans
36-month Vodafone (512GB) plans
It’s worth noting that Vodafone also offers 12 month plans and you can view them over on its website.
Disclosure: the author owns 12 shares in Apple.