This article is sponsored by numobile.
Has shopping for a new phone overwhelmed you? With so many moving parts in modern smartphones it can be hard to tell which of these parts are essential components, and whether the latest and greatest new features are worth paying top dollar for.
We recently published guides that helped to highlight how buying a refurbished phone is a great way to save money, but choosing between the latest flagship and a pre-loved hero isn’t an apples for apples comparison — even when we’re talking about iPhones. Apple lists about 30 categories of technical specifications on its iPhone webpage and each is just another point of difference to weigh up and mull over.
But when you boil it down, there are really just a handful of meaningful features to consider. If, for example, you were choosing between a new iPhone 12 or a refurbished iPhone X, you needn’t comb through the dozens of different specifications for each model, in fact, we’d recommend just focusing on two key areas: the quality of the screen and the camera.
These are the areas where phone makers tend to make the most significant improvements from year to year -- or at least they say they do. In reality, these enhancements can be difficult to identify and may not be worth the premium in the price tag.
Speaking of price, as we compare the pros and cons of these handsets, keep in mind that the cheapest iPhone 12 64GB plan over 24-months is $91 per month with Vodafone, $95 per month with Optus and $111 with Telstra, at the time of writing. Below is a table for similar 24-month repayments options for a refurbished iPhone X with numobile where the difference in cost per month can be as much as half of those listed above.
iPhone 12 vs iPhone X: Screen
Screens are arguably the most important component in a modern mobile phone, and you’d expect that the quality of displays would leap forward from year to year, but this is not the case with Apple devices. Despite these iPhone models being released three years apart, there is remarkably little difference in the displays used in each of these handsets.
The iPhone 12 display is slightly larger at 6.1-inches next to the 5.8-inch screen in the iPhone X, and the iPhone 12 has a slightly higher resolution which is just enough to cover the extra screen space. But more importantly, each phone has roughly the same pixel density. This is the number of itty-bitty digital dots that make up the image on the screen, and equal pixel density means that the screens look equally sharp and clear.
This is compounded by both screens displaying at a typical brightness of 625 nits and that both support Dolby Vision and HDR10 compatible content. I’m geeking out a bit here, but only to make the point that the similarities in these screens goes beyond the size of the glass. Apple says it upgrades elements of the display each year, and this is true, but fundamentally these screens are the same, especially to the naked eye.
iPhone 12 vs iPhone X: Camera
Apple’s product announcements focus on photography each year, and we do tend to see incremental improvements over time. In fact, as a rule of thumb, you can pretty safely assume that a newer phone will have a better camera than an older model.
The question is: how much better? On paper, the iPhone 12 and iPhone X appear to have the same camera options; both have two 12-megapixel cameras on the back, with different lenses to help you take photos zooming in and out.
Below the surface, the iPhone 12 definitely has the edge though. For example, the image sensors in the iPhone 12 are larger. This translates to bigger pixels, which means the camera captures better detail as light comes in through the lens. This is especially true at night, where the improved sensors help the camera “see” more clearly in dark places.
Yet, three years of camera updates hasn’t translated into a revolutionary shift in photo quality. Certainly not enough to double the price of the phones. We could keep prattling on about pixels and sensors but an image tells a thousand words, as they say. Below are photos we took while reviewing the iPhone X in 2017 and the iPhone 12 in 2020.
Pixel peepers will be able to see differences in these photos, but it’s difficult to argue that the iPhone 12 photos are significantly better, or that the iPhone X photos are bad in any way. The fact is, both phones take great pictures.
iPhone 12 vs iPhone X: Other things to consider
Beyond the screen and camera, there are other features that will appeal to certain phone owners more than others. For example, battery life is important, but when it comes to iPhones there is negligible difference from year to year. In general, iPhones batteries will last for about a full day’s worth of use.
Processing power is another factor, and an area where it can be shown empirically that the iPhone 12 is faster and more powerful. But similar to photography, it is tougher to see this extra horsepower when you’re using apps and playing games. Because all iPhones use the same iOS operating system, all iPhone models are compatible with the same enormous library of apps. There are very few things an iPhone 12 can do that an iPhone X cannot.
Finally, you might weigh up whether you need 5G networking for faster internet speeds or not. The iPhone 12 is the only iPhone with 5G support, but whether this is worth paying for will be a personal choice. 5G makes downloading apps faster and will subtly speed up web browsing. But it isn’t an essential component in smartphones yet, and it will be a couple of years before we see apps and services that really need the increase in speed.
As you can see from all of the examples above, the difference between a new phone and an older model may not be as big as the phone makers want you to think it is. You would argue that the iPhone 12 is better in all aspects of the comparison, but is not better value overall. A refurbished iPhone X offers much of what you’d expect from a new model but, in some cases, for less than half the price.
The skyrocketing cost of new smartphones has many of us pausing at the checkout and considering our options. It’s great that we have some many solid smartphones to choose from, but the smart money will see that some bleeding edge features just aren’t worth the extra cash.
Joseph Hanlon
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