Apple iPhone 11 Pro vs 12 Pro: Which iPhone Should You Buy?

Introduction

Alright, so you want something small but something better than the common iPhone that everyone has.

Whether you're considering an upgrade or you're actually considering both of them, we're going to check all their differences, and then you can decide for yourself.

In October of 2020, Apple started selling its iPhone 12 Pro, while Apple's iPhone 11 Pro hit the stores in September 2019.

In this article, we see how the iPhone 11 Pro and the iPhone 12 Pro compare to each other to help you decide and see which one of these is the right one for you.

For additional information regarding our smartphone comparisons, check this FAQ.

 Click here  to check who their rivals are.

Price*			vs.
Device	iPhone 11 Pro	iPhone 12 Pro
Release Date	2019, September	2020, October	1y.
OS Updates	6 years	6 years	0y.
Security Updates	6 years	6 years	0y.

*Reference: 100: Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max.

Which One Has The Best Performance?

About performance: Geekbench 5 scores the iPhone 12 Pro 18% ahead of its sibling in the multi-core ranking. You should notice that it is a bit faster if you test them side by side.  ? 

Are you looking for the quickest phone around? The iPhone 11 Pro is clearly above the average if you consider related-priced phones. About 31% above.

By the way, you can define both of them as high-end.

Performance*			vs.
Features	iPhone 11 Pro	iPhone 12 Pro
SoC	Apple A13	Apple A14
Graphics	Apple GPU	Apple GPU
Geekbench 5 Score	3428	4056	628
OS	iOS 13	iOS 14.1
Tek-Score	7.5	8.5	1.0

*Reference: 100: Apple iPhone 13.

Which Phone Has The Best Display?

It's a tie, so any of them will do. Although the iPhone 12 Pro has better glass protection.

If you're trying to keep your phone's display small, there aren't many devices to consider besides the iPhone 11 Pro. There are just not that many choices in its class.

If you're leaning towards the iPhone 11 Pro, you should know that 86% of its rivals can play HDR content, 96% have an AMOLED screen, and 93% have an Always-On display.

Considering the iPhone 12 Pro, as a reference, 94% of its rivals can play HDR content. Plus, all have an AMOLED screen, 88% offer you more than 60hz of refresh rate, and 82% have an Always-On display and have Gorilla Glass 6 or better.

Display Density (DPIs)*			vs.
Features	iPhone 11 Pro	iPhone 12 Pro
Size	5.8	6.1	0.3
Screen Type	AMOLED	AMOLED
Resolution (px)	1125x2436	1170x2532	221940
Refresh Rate	60hz	60hz	0
Dots per Inch	462.63	457.25	-5.37
Always-On-Display	No	No
Notch	Wedge	Wedge
Peak Brightness	811 nits	802 nits	-9
HDR	HDR10	HDR10
Sub Tek-Score	3.3	3.2	0.0
Protection	Corning toughened glass	Corning Gorilla Glass Victus
Tek-Score	5.9	7.6	1.7

*Reference: 100: Sony Xperia 1 II.

Which Phone Has The Best Cameras?

I don't see a meaningful winner in the camera department.

About the iPhone 11 Pro: Unfortunately, DXOMARK hasn't tested this camera, but by doing some math, it scored 134*. If you add the telephoto and wide-angle lenses, the final score goes up to 145** points.

I hope this helps: you should know that all of its rivals can record videos in 4K or more and have an ultra-wide-angle lens, and 93% feature Optical Image Stabilization. On the other hand, only 21% of them feature a macro lens.

About the iPhone 12 Pro: The guys over at the DXOMARK labs scored this camera with 135 points. And by adding the telephoto and wide-angle lenses, we end up with a score of 147 points. If you want to know more about it, check it here.

Winding it up, just to let you know, all of its rivals can record videos in 4 or 8K, feature a telephoto lens, have an ultra-wide-angle lens, and feature Optical Image Stabilization. Regardless, only 6% of them feature a macro lens.

If you prefer, we can grade these two as high-end.

Just in case it's a deciding factor, the iPhone 12 Pro telephoto lens is 54mm lower than the average in its class.

*I do recommend DXOMARK's reviews. I'd love to see more tests, but some phones are just left out. So when I get my hands on one of them, I do my best to get a comparable score by evaluating hardware specs only (sensor size, Aperture, HDR, OIS, Lenses, and so on). Our lastest test on our formula showed a borderline margin of error of 2 points.  ? 

**Consider this as an estimative, particularly on mid-end cameras with less than 40MP and no zoom lens. They moved to a new camera test protocol, and there aren't enough reviewed phones to extrapolate a backward-compatible score.

Picture Quality*			vs.
Primary Camera	iPhone 11 Pro	iPhone 12 Pro
Megapixels	12	12	0
Aperture	1.8	1.6	-0.2
Lens	26mm	26mm	0
Lens Type	Wide-Angle	Wide-Angle
Flash	4	4	0
HDR	Yes	Yes
OIS	Yes	Yes
Video	2160	2160	0
Score	145	147	2

*Reference: 100: Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra.

Extra Camera(s)	iPhone 11 Pro	iPhone 12 Pro	vs.
Megapixels	12	12	0
Aperture	2.0	2.0	0.0
Lens	52mm (2x zoom)	52mm (2x zoom)	0
Lens Type	Telephoto lens	Telephoto lens
Megapixels	12	12	0
Aperture	2.4	2.4	0.0
Lens	13mm	13mm	0
Lens Type	Ultra-wide-Angle	Ultra-wide-Angle
Score	11	12	1

Selfie Camera	iPhone 11 Pro	iPhone 12 Pro	vs.
Megapixels	12	12	0
Aperture	2.2	2.2	0.0
Lens	23mm	23mm	0

	iPhone 11 Pro	iPhone 12 Pro	vs.
Tek-Score	8.5	8.6	0.1

Who has the best frame?

None of them stands out, so there is no wrong choice here.

Both also have about the same weight: 188 g. (6.63 oz). But because this is a bit relative, I've created an adapted score for a "weight to display size" ratio. The iPhone 11 Pro got 3.0, which suggests it's kind of weighty for a 5.8 inches display. The iPhone 12 Pro, in its turn, has 3.8, which suggests it's considerably hefty too.  ? 

The iPhone 11 Pro is resistant to water up to 1 to 3 meters, identical to the iPhone 12 Pro. That shouldn't last over half an hour, and it's in standby mode only. So don't take photos underwater.

Looks*			vs.
Body	iPhone 11 Pro	iPhone 12 Pro
Size	144 x 71 x 8 mm (5.08 x 2.50 x 0.28 in)	146 x 71 x 7 mm (5.15 x 2.50 x 0.25 in)	-9230
Weight	188 g. (6.63 oz)	189 g. (6.67 oz)	1
Build	Front and back glass	Front and back glass
Colors	Space Gray, Gold, Silver, and Midnight Green	Silver, Gold, Graphite, and Pacific Blue
Screen To Body Ratio	80.80%	88.18%	7.38
Disp.Size To Weight Score	3.0	3.8	0.9
Looks	8.5/10	10.0/10	1.4
Waterproof	IP68	IP68
Biometrics	Face ID	Face ID
Tek-Score	7.3	7.6	0.3

*100% = 4+ colors + front and back glass + S2BR: 86+%.

Which has the best battery?

The iPhone 11 Pro features a 3046 mAh battery, while the iPhone 12 Pro has 2815 mAh. But as claimed by GSMArena, both should theoretically get the same battery life.

Battery*			vs.
Features	iPhone 11 Pro	iPhone 12 Pro
Capacity (mAh)	3046	2815	-231
1h Talk + 1h Web + 1h Video	79% left	79% left	0
1h Talk + 3h Web + 1h Video	63% left	63% left	0
1h Talk + 1h Web + 3h Video	65% left	65% left	0
Bat. To Phone Size Score  ?	6.0	5.7	-0.3
Sub Tek-Score	6.9	6.9	0.0
Fast Charging	18w	20w	2
Wireless Charging	5w	15w	10
Tek-Score	6.2	6.6	0.4

*Reference: 90: Samsung Galaxy A42.

Which has more storage?

The iPhone 12 Pro, for sure.

The iPhone 11 Pro comes equipped with 64GB of integrated storage and 4GB of RAM. I should also mention that most rivals have more RAM and more storage. They're around 8GB of RAM and 146Gb of storage.

In its turn, the iPhone 12 Pro features 128GB of storage and 6GB of RAM. Again, you can get more RAM and more storage from almost all of their competitors. 10Gb for RAM and 188Gb for storage, on average.

Neither storage nor RAM should be an issue on both iPhones. However, if you love to store 4k videos, 64 GB may be too short for you.

Storage*			vs.
Features	iPhone 11 Pro	iPhone 12 Pro
RAM (GB)	4GB	6GB	2
Internal (GB)	64GB	128GB	64
Micro SD	No	No
Tek-Score	2.8	6.0	3.3

*Internal Storage + 256GB Memory Card (Max: 512GB).

Which is the most connectivity-friendly?

I'd go for the iPhone 12 Pro if you really value 5G.

The iPhone 12 Pro has a single network variant: (LTE and) 5G.

Connectivity			vs.
Features	iPhone 11 Pro	iPhone 12 Pro
Network	LTE	5G
Bluetooth	5.0	5.0
NFC	Yes	Yes
3.5mm jack	No	No
Tek-Score	3.6	4.6	1.0

Which is more affordable?

Here's what we've found out:

Reference: $750

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$584.99

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Apple iPhone 11 Pro

Reference: $1,120

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$1,799.10

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Apple iPhone 12 Pro

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Prices on eBay are in $US but Europe-based. You can click to check the prices in your country.

Prices marked with ! are from renewed/refurbished/carrier-locked phones (except eBay prices that, as a last resort, can be from bids or used devices).

How much of a "phone" can your money buy?
That's how much "score" you can get with $100 based on the global score that you'll see in the next section (higher is better).

Have you found better prices elsewhere? The formula is simple: score/price*100.

Also, don't forget to check the latest deals from these four stores, and the state of the art on mobile technology, if you don't want to overpay on your next smartphone.

Related articles:

Best smartphone deals

The Best Unbiased Smartphones For All Budgets

Smartphone Specs Statistics: The State Of The Art (Q1 2021)

Are you ready for that final score? We're almost there. Just so you have an idea, take a look at where its adversaries average. It's 6.9 for the iPhone 11 Pro and 7.6 for the iPhone 12 Pro.

Verdict: What Makes the Apple iPhone 12 Pro Stand Out?

Besides their sizes, prices, and looks, you'll also have to consider other features that the iPhone 12 Pro can offer you that the iPhone 11 Pro won't.

It's not that the latter is slow, it actually is among the fastest phones in the market, but the iPhone 12 Pro takes that to a phenomenal 18% further.

Not only that, but it also has faster wireless charging, double the internal storage, and 2 extra GB of RAM.

And that's all that you should be taking into account.

Pros	iPhone 11 Pro	iPhone 12 Pro
#1	Performance	Performance
#2	AMOLED	AMOLED
#3	Cameras	Cameras
#4	Fast Charging	Fast Charging
#5	Wireless Charging	Wireless Charging
#6	Glass Protection	Glass Protection

Cons	iPhone 11 Pro	iPhone 12 Pro
#1	Always-On-Display	Always-On-Display
#2	MicroSD Slot	MicroSD Slot
#3	Weight	Weight
#4	3.5mm Jack	3.5mm Jack
#5	Price	Price

Relative Score*			vs.
Global Score	iPhone 11 Pro	iPhone 12 Pro
Gaming Score	6.1	6.8	0.6
Tek-Score	6.09	7.36	1.27
Your Score

*Reference: 100: Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra.

Scroll the sliders down below to get your own personalized score. Let's suppose you value performance and battery life, and you don't really care about anything else. Then, just set the "Performance" and the "Battery" sliders up to 5 (5+5=10), and then the other sliders down to 0. You'll know what's the best phone for you.

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