Specs are important but at a time when every brand is trying to improve the hardware game, all focus is on the camera, which distinguishes Brand A from the nine that follow. I have been taking photographs around the city for some time now, which means pushing my way through the narrowest of lanes and moments when I get maybe a minute to shoot something awesome before a security guard (or two) comes running with queries.

On the one hand, there is the duty to review phones, which means I get to take the latest devices around town, and on the other, are the iPhone 12 Pro and Pro Max, which I have been using for some months now. Here are a few observations about the iPhone 12.

Reliability

Every phone that’s coming out now claim to be the best point-and-shoot option but somehow the end results don’t highlight that. At times, the user has to take five-six (at times more) photographs of a scene to find the best shot and then there are occasions when a lot of editing is required to make a photo shine.

When Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone in 2007, he focused on two things — ease of use and the element of smartness. Well, what do you do with your phone camera? Take it out of the pocket, point, shoot and share. Sounds easy but it’s something very complicated for brands.

The iPhone camera is designed to be as simple as possible without making you feel that you need to do something extra. On the iPhone, the camera app can’t get any simpler. Just point and shoot. You rarely need to tap on focus but go ahead, if you want to. If you need extra controls, these are just a tap or swipe away. All the heavy lifting is done by things like smart HDR, multiple exposure shots, computational photography and the image signal processor. The chip running the iPhone — the A14 Bionic — makes all of these things happen at the blink of an eye. The shots are saved immediately and there is zero delay.

This is not the case with most other brands. We keep having phone manufacturers seek help of established camera companies to offer a better experience but there is something missing. The camera brands that are coming on board have little knowledge of the software running the show or how the overall hardware functions. Plus, some camera brands are good at still photography but absolutely nowhere when it comes to videos. The truth is, so far we have been buying phones to take photographs but now more and more people are shooting videos.

Apple brings its own hardware and software to the party, making every feature work seamlessly. A photo taken on the iPhone is not over-sharpened or over-processed and it always has plenty of dynamic range and details. People will want to point and shoot. Apple knows that and nails it.

All the details have been captured of a house in Calcutta’s Pathuriaghata neighbourhood with the iPhone 12 Pro

The colour scheme inside New Market captured using the ultra-wide mode of the iPhone 12 Pro Max

The details hidden in the shadows of this tea shop inside a lane in north Calcutta captured using the iPhone 12 Pro

Day, night… and in-between!

Whatever the texture or colour, the iPhone captures still-life subjects at different focal lengths the same way. If there is hue of pink, the camera will pick up the same and the same goes for orange and blue… the colours are true to life. At times, wandering through narrow lanes, I have used the camera torch to see the road ahead, yet the iPhone has managed to capture photos of these lanes. The Lidar sensor found on the iPhone 12 Pro and Pro Max is essentially a building block to a lot of exciting features that should soon come our way. What the Lidar sensor does is measure distances accurately and it makes the camera see a lot better in low-light scenarios. Pair this with the night mode and things get really interesting. At the moment, the iPhone 12 Pro Max has good telephoto capabilities but it can be improved to match the level of Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, which has been a game-changer for Android phones.

Biggest winner

Separating iPhones from the Brady Bunch of Android phones is videos. Be it stabilisation or capturing every detail, the iPhone is miles ahead. Here’s something interesting. Try to capture a video using the camera that’s inside Instagram or Snapchat on an iPhone and then on an Android phone. There is a clear winner. A video from an Android phone may even appear pixilated but the one from an iPhone looks great. App developers usually come up with two versions of their apps — one for the iPhone and the other is for Android. Within Android, there are hundreds of phones, each with differing camera capabilities. It just doesn’t make sense for an app developer to continuously work on different versions for Android phones.

A street photographer’s companion

I like capturing life on the street. It takes hours to get the moment I want and when that moment comes, I don’t want to miss it. When you are on the iPhone, you simply stop thinking about hardware malfunction. I know it will work like clockwork and the software is perfectly optimised to take full advantage of the hardware. The iPhone 12 Pro constantly encourages the user to take better photographs and improve his or her skills. That’s what a good phone camera is supposed to do — encourage users to become a photo hobbyist.