iPhone 12 Pro vs. iPhone X: The biggest changes to Apple's flagship

(Image credit: Apple/Tom's Guide)

These days, Apple is all nearly the iPhone 12 Pro, recognized by many every bit one of the all-time phones out there. But information technology wasn't that long ago that the original iPhone X was the talk of the town.

Debuting nearly four years agone, that first iPhone X rolled out a pretty radical pattern, one that Apple's used on all its subsequent flagship phones, including all iv iPhone 12 models that came out terminal fall. The iPhone Ten'due south expect proved so distinctive that Android phone makers rolled out a spate of lookalikes, fifty-fifty if they've afterward moved on to new models that don't utilise an X-style notch.

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That's a sign that the iPhone Ten is getting up there in years. If you're yet belongings on to yours, it'due south probably time to consider an upgrade. And the iPhone 12 Pro looks like a very worthy option.

The iPhone 12 Pro may share a wait with the iPhone Ten, but we that'south where the similarities stop. This iPhone 12 Pro vs. iPhone X face-off looks at what those differences are and why you lot'd be wise to consider an upgrade.

iPhone 12 Pro vs. iPhone 10 specs

	iPhone 12 Pro	iPhone 12 Pro Max	iPhone X
Starting cost	$999	$one,099	$999
Screen size	half dozen.1-inch OLED (2532 x 1170)	half-dozen.7-inch OLED (2778 x 1284)	v.8-inch (2436 x 1125)
CPU	A14 Bionic	A14 Bionic	A11 Bionic
RAM	6GB	6GB	3GB
Storage	128GB, 256GB, 512GB	128GB, 256GB, 512GB	64GB, 256GB
Rear cameras	12MP wide (f/1.six), 12MP ultra-broad (f/2.4), 12MP telephoto (f/two.0); LiDAR Scanner	12MP wide (f/1.6), 12MP ultra-wide (f/ii.iv), 12MP telephoto (f/ii.ii); LiDAR scanner	12MP wide (f/ane.viii), 12MP ultra-wide (f/2.4)
Front photographic camera	TrueDepth camera (f/2.ii)	TrueDepth photographic camera (f/2.2)	TrueDepth camera (f/ii.2)
Bombardment size	two,775 mAh	iii,687 mAh	2,716 mAh
Bombardment life (Hrs:Mins)	ix:06	10:53	ten:49
5G	Yes	Yep	No

iPhone 12 Pro vs. iPhone X toll

The iPhone X caused a stir at the time it launched, with the largest price e'er for an iPhone. At $999, the iPhone X cost $200 more than the iPhone 8 Plus that came out at the same fourth dimension as Apple's 10th anniversary phone.

These days, people don't even glimmer at the thought of a $1,000 telephone, as phone makers — including Apple — routinely offering phones with iv-effigy prices. The iPhone 12 Pro models continue that tradition, equally iPhone 12 Pro costs $999 and the iPhone 12 Pro Max starts at $one,099.

If you've held onto your iPhone X, there's another effigy that'south worth paying attending to — your phone's trade-in value. As of this writing, Apple offers upward to $220 off the price of your new iPhone 12 Pro if you trade in an iPhone X. We're also tracking the best iPhone 12 deals to find height discounts on the Pro models.

iPhone 12 Pro vs. iPhone Ten pattern

Apple's latest phones still have their cues from the iPhone Ten in one visible way — that notch housing the forepart camera and sensors that support features like facial recognition and Memojis will still dip into the elevation of the display. The bezels on the iPhone 12 Pro models accept gotten thinner, but the notch remains the same size. (If you desire a smaller notch, hold out for the iPhone 13, as Apple's rumored autumn release is expected to shrink the notch past as much as 25%.)

The new phones feature several design differences from the iPhone X, highlighted by flat edges reminiscent of the iPhone 5, instead of the slightly curved sides featured on the iPhone X and other recent Apple phones.

All of Apple tree's iPhone 12 models characteristic a Ceramic Shield display that makes the iPhone 12 Pro more likely to survive a drop without damage than older iPhone. The IP h2o resistance rating is more stringent, too — you can drop the iPhone 12 Pro into vi meters of h2o, and information technology will survive for 30 minutes. The iPhone SE could only withstand a meter of water.

The latest models have gotten more than colorful, with Pacific Blue joining Silvery, Graphite and Aureate every bit an choice. The iPhone X came in Space Gray and Silver.

iPhone 12 Pro vs. iPhone Ten display

The iPhone X featured a 5.8-inch Super Retina display, and the iPhone 12 Pro comes in two models with bigger screens. The standard iPhone 12 Pro offers a 6.1-inch display while the iPhone 12 Pro Max lives upwards to its name by turning to a vi.7-inch panel. Last year, Apple's Pro phones upgraded to a Super Retina XDR display that offers improved brightness and better support for extreme dynamic range content — a feature that persists with the iPhone 12 Pro.

The iPhone X shows off more of the colour gamut than the iPhone 12 Pro — 128.half-dozen% to 115.6%. Color accuracy is substantially the aforementioned with the iPhone 10 recording a 0.27 Delta-E rating to the iPhone 12 Pro'southward 0.28. (Numbers closer to zero are better.) We've since been able to test the iPhone 12 Pro Max, and information technology's one of the most color accurate screens we've ever seen, based on its Delta-Eastward rating of 0.07.

There'south no question which telephone's screen is brighter — we measured the iPhone 12 Pro at 742 nits on a light meter compared to 574 nits for the iPhone X. The iPhone 12 Pro Max splits the divergence at 662 nits.

(We're focusing on the iPhone 12 Pro — and the iPhone 12 Pro Max to a bottom extent — for this iPhone 12 Pro vs. iPhone X face-off, but Apple tree also introduced the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini. The former'southward half-dozen.1-inch display is larger than the iPhone X'southward, also, while the iPhone 12 mini goes in the reverse direction with a 5.four-inch screen. Both models offering OLED panels, just like the iPhone X and the iPhone 12 Pro editions.)

iPhone 12 Pro vs. iPhone Ten cameras

It's safety to say cameras have gotten more than sophisticated since the iPhone X made its debut. Dorsum then, the iPhone X looked pretty cut edge with dual rear 12MP cameras — a wide angle shooter with an f/1.eight discontinuity and a telephoto lens with an f/ii.four aperture. These days, the most expensive iPhones feature three lenses — a main camera, an ultra broad angle shooter and a telephoto lens.

And that'due south precisely what the iPhone 12 Pro has, though there are differences in the iPhone 12 Pro vs. iPhone 12 Pro Max photographic camera eyes. Both phones take a 12MP broad angle lens equally their main photographic camera, featuring a larger f/ane.6 discontinuity. On the iPhone 12 Pro Max, though, the sensor is bigger, improving low-light performance for that particular model.

There'southward no difference in the 12MP ultrawide lens on either iPhone 12 Pro version, but the telephoto lenses on both phones have dissimilar apertures. (It'southward larger on the iPhone 12 Pro.) More importantly, focal lengths of the telephoto lens are different — 52mm on the iPhone 12 Pro versus 65mm on the iPhone 12 Max. That allows the Max to savour a larger optical zoom range over its smaller analogue.

At that place's more than simply an extra lens separating the iPhone 12 Pro lineup from the iPhone X. Apple has added a LiDAR sensor to its new phones, which improves portrait shots and low-light performance.

Beyond hardware improvements, Apple tree has also tweaked its software for taking photos. The iPhone 12 Pro and 12 Pro Max tin can take Night mode photos from every lens, and features like Smart HDR and Deep Fusion accept been improved for the new phones. Equally good equally the iPhone 10 was at picture-taking in its 24-hour interval, we at present rate the iPhone 12 Pro Max as the best photographic camera phone — and the iPhone 12 Pro is almost every chip as good.

iPhone 12 Pro vs. iPhone X performance

The A11 Bionic chip inside the iPhone X earned information technology the title of the fastest telephone always when we tested the device in 2017. That's a title each successive iPhone release has held on to, and the iPhone 12 Pro has done the aforementioned, thank you to its A14 Bionic chip.

Our iPhone 12 benchmarks prove that the A14 non only outperforms contempo iPhones but also extends the gap Apple enjoys over Android phones. Nosotros don't accept an iPhone X around to run more than mod benchmarks on, but suffice information technology to say, with the iPhone 12 Pro outperforming an iPhone xi Pro Max on tests similar Geekbench 5 and our timed video-encoding test, nosotros wouldn't await the iPhone X to fare whatever better.

Apple doesn't disembalm how much RAM it puts into its phones, but the iPhone X came out at a time when Apple tree was a footling stingy with the retentivity. Teardowns revealed the iPhone 10 had 3GB of RAM; similar teardowns take shown the iPhone 12 Pro models to have 6GB.

Storage in the base of operations model of the iPhone 12 Pro has finally moved by the paltry 64GB Apple tree puts on its phones; both the iPhone 12 Pro and 12 Pro Max start at 128GB and scale up to 512GB.

The iPhone 12 Pro models can exercise something the iPhone X can't — connect to 5G networks. In fact, all four new iPhones include 5G connectivity, a commencement for Apple tree's phones. And thanks to extensive support for all kinds of 5G bands, the new phones work with every carrier's network in the US. If you're all the same using an iPhone X, you lot're losing out on 5G connectivity.

iPhone 12 Pro vs. iPhone X battery and charging

In addition to how much memory it includes in phones, Apple likewise doesn't talk upwardly battery sizes, just the iPhone Ten had a 2,716 mAh battery. That helped the phone last a little less than 11 hours on our battery examination, which was a pretty good result at the time.

We would have expected the iPhone 12 Pro to do better, but 5G is a demanding engineering. When we tested the six.ane-inch model using our Tom'south Guide battery test — continuous surfing over cellular networks until the telephone runs out of power — the iPhone 12 Pro died after 9 hours and 6 minutes. Turning off 5G improved things dramatically, as the iPhone 12 Pro improved to a time of eleven:24. That would have been expert plenty to country on the best phone battery life list.

At to the lowest degree things improved with the iPhone 12 Pro Max, which held out for 10 hours and 53 minutes on our battery test when surfing the web over 5G. That's better than the average smartphone and the best result of any iPhone 12 model by far.

The iPhone X was amidst the starting time Apple phones to support fast-charging, though you wouldn't know information technology from the 5W charger Apple included with its phones. But is it meliorate to have an underpowered charger or none at all? That'south a question iPhone 12 owners will enquire themselves, as there's no charger included with your new telephone. The move reduces e-waste, merely information technology ways people who want to take advantage of fast-charging support in the new iPhones volition likely accept to purchase their own charger, similar the 20W brick Apple tree offers for $19.

Apple added a new MagSafe characteristic to its iPhone 12 models that allows you to attach compatible accessories with magnets. In the case of wireless charging pads, that ways a more secure fit, which should improve accuse times. It besides means springing for more accessories to charge your phone.

iPhone 12 Pro vs. iPhone X software

Here, the iPhone Ten and the iPhone 12 Pro observe themselves on equal footing considering of Apple'due south comprehensive support for older phones with its iOS updates. iOS fourteen runs on phones as former as the iPhone 6s, and so if you've got an iPhone X, yous likely upgraded to the new Bone before the iPhone 12 Pro was even an official production. And you tin run iOS 14.v on both phones, at present that Apple'southward big software update is out.

That means yous'll be able to benefit from features like revamped Widgets, the new App Library, Siri improvements, and enhancements to the Messages and Maps apps.

The ane surface area where iPhone 12 Pro users might somewhen have an edge is on features that rely specifically on the hardware that comes with Apple's new phones. Specifically, the LiDAR sensor included with the iPhone 12 Pro models could work with augmented reality apps congenital using the ARKit 4 tools included with iOS fourteen.

Apple makes its software updates bachelor to all supported phones at once. And so when the iOS 15 update arrives this fall, it will likely run on the iPhone X but as easily as the iPhone 12 Pro.

iPhone 12 Pro vs. iPhone Ten verdict: Fourth dimension to upgrade

It'due south been more than three years since the iPhone Ten debuted, and Apple tree has introduced a lot of changes to its phone hardware since then. That's continued with the iPhone 12 Pro, making it a articulate upgrade over its 3-year-former predecessor.

The add-on of 5G connectivity, a new LiDAR sensor and a much faster processor place the iPhone 12 Pro well ahead of the iPhone X. What we've seen from the cameras and benchmark testing has only confirmed our suspicions about the new phones. Yous as well become a larger display with the 6.one-inch iPhone 12 Pro — and the option to go even bigger now that the iPhone 12 Pro Max is available too.

We hope iPhone Ten users have been budgeting for an upgrade because the iPhone 12 Pro definitely improves upon this older device.

Philip Michaels is a senior editor at Tom'due south Guide. He has potent opinions most Apple, the Oakland Athletics and old movies. Follow him at @PhilipMichaels.