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Phones · Apple iPhone

Apple iPhone 12 mini

103owners with an opinion
71%of verdicts positive
57/25positive/negative since 2024
5 yrslongest happy owner
2happy after 3+ years

Praised for portability and design; criticized for battery and ease of use.

What owners wrote

NeutralOwned 5.5 years
> That's because they haven't came out with another small iPhone in more than four years. I kind of agree with the previous comment. I think if you spend a lot of time on the phone, have a lot of apps then it makes sense to upgrade your phone more frequently and also makes sense to have a larger screen and better battery life. So conversely, there is a correlation between people who have smaller phones and upgrade less frequently. I have my iPhone 12mini for 5-6 years now, and I'd upgrade it now if there was a new small iPhone. But I would upgrade it 3 years ago.
Likes itOwned 5 yearsStill going
I run ubuntu 2404 on my 2017 thinkpad fine, although I have replaced the battery (and about to again), upgraded the ram etc, not expecting to replace it for some more years yet. My iphone 12 mini is from 2020 and is fine, so 5 years. Next ios release still supports 2019 iphone 11s, dropping the 2018 era, so apple seems to give 7 years for a phone, which doesn't seem terrible for closed source software.
Doesn’t like itOwned 4 years
I switched to iOS about 4 years ago (want small phone, so iPhone 12 mini), from a OnePlus3 with Lineage. I thought indeed that it was all going to be much better, simpler, more elegant (phone was 2x the price so), but I ran into a lot of issues that I wrote down at the time (some things have been fixed by now): * Tried installing Signal 4 times, it failed on the apple account generation and no further clues that it didn't or did install Signal (it didn't) * Can't put icons on the bottom of screen, where your thumb is... need to fill other icons to get important stuff on the bottom. (Fixed!) * App store does not start with search... So one feels a bit lost, where are the apps? (Fixed! Now a beautiful bubble at the bottom, does require good eye-sight to notice). Still think app store is not really about apps? IDK, it's screaming, there are anime cat girls everywhere; feels cheap. * Absolutely maddening that it keeps correcting my .nl email adres to .nul (android leaves non txt field alone as far as I'm aware) * No intro at all into UI (although nowadays I see some hints in "sets") * Top suggestion in app store is never what you are looking for. Pretty strange. Can we change that? -> Later found out the top suggestion with dark blue around it is always sponsored... And since has NEVER been what I was looking for, never, I instinctively ignore it now like a vibrating "100.000th visitor" badge on a 90s webpage. * Spouse got stuck searching for app in the Apple store instead of the…
Doesn’t like itOwned 4 years
> Animations, interactions, etc just feel… off somehow, like I’m using an early alpha build of software that has placeholders strewn about. It's funny that I'm the complete opposite. I was fine with Android, switched to iPhone (as mentioned upthread) and everything feels off, like no one cared about the UI and UX, and bugs galore everywhere. If someone handed me my iPhone 12 Mini today I'd say they're running a beta version of iOS on it. Maybe it's just a "get used to" thing as we're surely not the only ones having very opposite feelings about this. I've now had my iPhone for 4 years it seems, but I still feel like the OS is beta-level quality, should have gotten used to it by now...
Likes itOwned 4 years
I was also big into Android and the Google system starting in the same era, when the Nexus 4 was taking the nerd world by storm with its crazy value. And stuck with Google devices from it, to the Nexus 5, the Nexus 6P, the first Pixel, and the Pixel 3. But the constant cancelling of service, rebranding, overhauling, and feeling like I'm paying to be a perpetual beta tester I finally bought my first iPhone in 2020 when the 12 line came out (the 12 mini was incredibly enticing) The one thing I thought I'd regret with switching from Android was the unlimited photo backups with Google Photos, and within a few months of my switch Google announced they were axing unlimited photo backups, even when you bought a Pixel. So they don't even have that to lure me back any more. I still keep up with what's going on in the world of Android and it seems to only be news that gives me even less reason to switch back. They're trying to turn it more into iOS but with zero of the grace of Apple, and continue to have the corporate equivalent of ADHD with their lack of being able to focus and commit to a plan. It's no surprise more and more people -- especially young people -- are switching to an iPhone. The iPhone keeps getting better and Android keeps getting worse. For the sake of all consumers, I hope they can continue to compete in the future, but as it is, I don't know who Android is for other than people who staunchly don't want to use an Apple product.
Likes itOwned 2 years
Apple said the mini iPhones underperformed, but they were not some sort of commercial failure. They sold millions of units. Numbers most Android OEMs could only dream of for a single flagship model. Current day Apple is all about optimizing and determined that still wasn't enough, and I imagine the manufacturing for small, specialized display panels certainly took a chunk out of those margins, so Apple decided to pull the plug. Myself and the people who said we wanted a smaller phone may be a vocal minority but we did buy the small phone when we were offered it. After I used the 12 mini for 2 years, I bought a 14 Pro since no mini was offered in the 14 generation, but I returned it a week later cause it was too big/heavy and bought a 13 mini. These days I'm using a 16 Pro since no mini is offered and the titanium did help a lot with the weight issue, but if they brought back mini phones I'd happily sacrifice the camera for a reasonably sized screen.
Neutral
Someone was complaining to me that Apple took a long time to add 120 Hz displays to phones. I didn't even know what my iPhone had, turns out it's 60 Hz cause it's a 12 mini. I've used 120 Hz displays before. Cannot tell the difference.
Doesn’t like it
Yes it changed, first it reduced the transparency in many places, most notably in notifications, and made the glass dark. Now it makes the glass just a black plastic, but also in the launcher, where dark icons don't pop out anymore. The old setting was the perfect balance for me. Ah well, iPhone 12 mini is nearly dead, am eyeballing something with GrapheneOS anyway...
Likes it
People that want small phones, me included, are unfortunately a vocal minority. The small flagship phones just don’t sell that well. Loved my iPhone 12 mini and rode it until Apple Intelligence was announced and I got suckered in because I love exploring AI.
Likes it
I keep waiting but the phones only get bigger. Seems I’ll have to eventually replace my iPhone 12 mini with a 13 mini, or ditch Apple entirely. The Google Nexus 4 was my all time favorite smart phone in terms of overall size. But I suppose it’s unlikely Apple will ever make a phone anywhere close to that size ever again.
Likes it
I would probably still have my iPhone 12 mini if not for what happened to its battery. Loved that form factor, but the battery went from bad to worse in just a couple of years. Hopefully these models have a longer lifespan before the battery life forces a replacement. If they truly offer 36 hours, there's more runway before they hit the < 18 hours point at which many people need a refresh
Likes it
I really liked my iPhone 12 mini. But Apple also makes a lot of money from app sales, so I wonder if there’s a connection between screen size and app purchases. Maybe users with larger screens spend more time in apps and are therefore more likely to buy apps or make in-app purchases. The more screen real estate people have, the more they might engage with apps, which could translate into higher spending.
Likes it
> Honestly if anything it’s still a bit too big. Stumbled on my old iPhone 5S in the back of a drawer recently and could not believe how good it felt in my hand, even having only used 12 and 13 Mini models since 2021. What an excellent form factor and construction. Would happily pay a big premium for a modern version of it. Dreaming of a sub-mini phone trend. Sell me a $1500 Zoolander phone—not even joking!
Likes it
> which takes ~180sec for my iPhone 17 to solve at ~100KH/s > so I really don't see why Safari on a modern iPhone should be so slow at this FWIW, my iPhone 12 Mini also does ~110KH/s with Anubis on lists.ffmpeg.org, so seems fairly likely that Safari somehow here isn't working as expected.
Doesn’t like it
I had the 12 mini (before it I had an iPhone SE, then iPhone X, then the 12 mini), which unfortunately did not work for me because the battery drained too fast. Really hope you're wrong and we do eventually get some more one-handed phones in the future, especially once battery tech evolves.
Likes it
I had Motorola Moto Gs all from the first generation to the fifth or sixth, cheap and worked great, had everything one could wish for in a daily smartphone. But eventually they too started growing in size, and so I got an iPhone 12 Mini instead, that I still use to this day. I'm currently hoping I'll find something released in 2025+ that is the same size as the Mini or the old Moto Gs, but they are nowhere to be found... I think I'll buy one of those new Motorolas with GrapheneOS just to hopefully vote with my wallet a bit, and make them port it/use it for more phones in the future, which just maybe might eventually be a "normal" sized phone again.
Doesn’t like it
I saved al my sons data from this Samsung S10 using their Dex thing after his screen broke. Was really nice. FP6+ would have been a no brainer for me if it had such a feature (would need to work on /e/ though) for some light dev work. Still going to buy one though (just messed up my iPhone 12 mini cams and faceID with some of Malaysia's high humidity.)
Likes it
I have a 2021 M1 pro and see no reason to upgrade it... ever? I do web & general java work on it and it's plenty fast even using a memory hog like IntelliJ (which is typically disk bound anyway). Claude tells me that a new macbook would feel about 1.8x faster in my CPU-bound cases, which is not common. If memory prices returned to normal and if local inference gets over the hump, I could see upgrading for local AI agents, but I'm fine waiting for a good long while on that. I say all this as someone who, five years ago, was a perpetual upgrader: immediately bought new product and got excited for next product. Wonder if the future will see the end of that culture in tech and, looking back, it was a little silly and wasteful anyway. I'm also using an iPhone mini 12 and it's fine.
Neutral
I have a 12 mini. I did have an XR briefly but had to send it back because it was terrible - far too large. When the 12/13 minis stop receiving updates I guess I’ll stop carrying a phone around. Which will actually be a good thing Nothing (handheld) is as good as typing as my old blackberry curve though. Not even my psion5
Doesn’t like it
Then I guess there is me with my iPhone 12 Mini. Replaced the battery some months ago, Apple techs broke the screen, so got a free new screen too. It's starting to get very slow though, every update it gets worse. I can feel that just running Spotify and Waze over CarPlay is starting to be too much, add in sending live location via Telegram at the same time and the phone almost grinds to a halt.
Doesn’t like it
I still have my iPhone mini 12, in the desperate hope that it can last until Apple have another outbreak of common sense and decide that a mini iPhone has a place in the market. Battery is starting to fade during the day, despite minimal use. I think replaceable batteries should be mandatory and 10 years of security updates. In these times, phones are really expensive (however you pay for them) and we shouldn’t stand for planned obsolescence in any form.