“Hi, Speed” was the tagline used by Apple for their event held yesterday. It was a virtual conference completely pre-recorded at Apple Park. This was the most expected event of the year as a brand new line of iPhones was going to be announced.

The Cupertino firm introduced the iPhone 12 line-up: iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Mini, iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max.

Oh, they also presented the HomePod Mini. Let’s start with this.

HomePod Mini

The HomePod Mini is the latest addition to the HomePod line. It’s more than just a smart speaker. This is a central hub or in other words a smart home experience. It’s 3.3” tall and covers similar functionalities compared to the original HomePod at a fraction of the price. Yes, $99.

The design is more of a spherical shape to keep up with Amazon Echo and Echo Dot speakers. In terms of fabric, it still has the traditional mesh fabric exterior as per the original HomePod.

There’s a new feature for Intercom. This means that if you have multiple HomePod devices at home in different rooms, you can communicate to each other. Messages will show up on iPhones, iPad and Watches.

Apple also promised later this year full support for third-party music services such as Amazon Music, TuneIn and Pandora for instance. But of course, not for Spotify.

iPhone 12

There are 2 versions: iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini. They have exactly the same features but the differences are just the screen size and weight. The iPhone 12 is 6.1” and 162 grams whereas the iPhone 12 mini is 5.4” and 133 grams.

5G speed. This is the biggest news. We needed to wait 12 years to go from 4G to 5G. A long time due for Apple. We can expect super-fast downloads and high-quality streaming subject to local data plans, networks and infrastructure in different countries.

Display. 6.1” for the iPhone 12 and 5.4” for the iPhone 12 Mini. Both Super Retina XDR display. OLED display edge-to-edge.

Ceramic Shield. More news here, especially if you tend to drop your phone few times. Apple says that this is “tougher than any smartphone glass” and offers greater resistance to damage from drops.

Camera. Dual 12 MP camera (Ultra-Wide f/2.4 and Wide f/1.6 aperture). Night mode. Optical image stabilisation.

Video. 4k at 24 fps, 30 fps or 60 fps as the previous iPhone but the new feature here is the HDR with Dolby Vision up to 30 fps as well as the Night mode Time-lapse.

Capacity. There are 3 options: 64GB, 128GB and 256GB.

Power and Battery. MagSafe is back. It can wirelessly charge twice as fast with a MagSafe charger. Another big change compared to the previous generation of iPhones where only Qi wireless charging was available.

Colours. Black, white, red, green and blue.

Price starts at $699 for the iPhone 12 mini and $799 for the iPhone 12.

iPhone 12 Pro

There are also 2 versions: iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max. They don’t have exactly the same features but the visible differences are the screen size and weight. The iPhone 12 Pro is 6.1” and 187 grams whereas the iPhone 12 Pro Max is 6.7” and 226 grams.

They both are 5G, have Ceramic Shield and come with a Pro 12 MP camera (Ultra-Wide f/2.4, Wide f/1.6, Telephoto f/2.0 aperture).

In terms of Video recording, similar to the iPhone 12 but better optical and digital zoom. The iPhone 12 Pro has a 4x Optical zoom range whereas the iPhone 12 Pro Max has a 5x one.

Both versions of the iPhone 12 Pro are compatible with MagSafe accessories and wireless chargers too.

Storage capacity has 3 options: 128GB, 256GB and 512GB. As expected, the greater the power, the greater the required storage.

Some of the biggest advantages compared to the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini are the LiDAR scanner for Night mode portraits, faster autofocus in situations of low light and advanced AR. If you’re not familiar with LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), it’s worth knowing that it’s a ground-breaking technology for scanning and surveying. It allows you to detect objects and build 3D maps almost in real-time.

The available colours for this line are silver, graphite, gold and pacific blue.

Price starts at $999 for the iPhone 12 Pro and $1099 for the iPhone 12 Pro Max.

Final Thoughts

In the previous Apple event, I was wondering if it was the most boring ever. At least for me it was not. But this is a world of expectations.

Last night’s event, Apple introduced 5G to all the new line of iPhone 12. This was also the first redesign since the iPhone X in 2017. What else did you expect?

Yes, we can highlight that Apple introduced the 5G more than a year later than its biggest competitors: Samsung and Huawei. But we also know that Apple evolved and they do things slower and prefer a more mature market before introducing new stuff.

It’s also fair to mention that Wall Street analysts might have expected the “One more thing” with new products such as the AirTags and the Studio AirPods. This might have influenced the stock volatility. However, this is still a big thing with 5G standalone… and don’t forget there’s one more event coming in November.

There will be a massive upgrade cycle now as many customers think that 5G is worth the upgrade as they’ll have the latest possible telecommunication tech because 6G won’t be coming for another decade.

Obviously, you have the right to be unhappy because you’re not getting power adapters. But take a step back and think that removing those items, having a smaller and lighter iPhone box, should cut 2 million metric tons of carbon emissions annually as Apple mentioned. In other words, removing almost 500,000 cars from the road.

You can take it as Apple trying to maximise profit which is partially true but it’s also about Sustainability where Apple is taking bigger steps every year.

Finally, when thinking about HomePod Mini and the small market share that Apple currently has in that market, then it’s just more good news. There’s only a way up for Apple from here. They introduced a smaller device with similar functionalities compared to the original and… at a fraction of the cost. Can the HomePod Mini be as successful as the AirPods when first introduced? Time will tell.