iPhone 15 vs iPhone 12: What’s changed in three years?

Apple lovers will be waiting on tenterhooks to find out if they should update their outdated handsets for a shiny, new model. But is the new iPhone 15 really worth the upgrade?

The Apple Wonderlust event announced more hardware and software than we could ever have hoped, from the Apple Watch Series 9 all the way to the brand-new iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max.

But all this new hardware doesn’t mean much of anything if you don’t think it’s worth the upgrade. The iPhone 12 only launched three years ago, and there is a good chance that many readers are still using it as their main headset.

So with that in mind, we are going to run through the iPhone 12 and the iPhone 15 to see if the latest addition to the Apple family is really worth the investment, or if you would be better off with your old but reliable iPhone 12.

The unavoidable switch to USB-C

Thanks to new laws brought in by the EU, Apple has finally been gently forced to remove the iconic Lightning charging solution from its Apple products. The iPhone 15 range is not the first Apple device to shun Lightning in favour of USB-C, but it may be one of the last.

The iPhone 12 uses the Lightning port as a way to charge the device and send data. Out of the two, USB-C is a lot faster at data transfer and overall more convenient for most users, but this may not be a big game-changer if you’ve been using Lightning cables for the last few years.

Dynamic Island made its way to the iPhone 15

Dynamic Island was introduced with the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max last year and was exclusive to the Pro lineup until now. Dynamic Island replaces the notch on the iPhone and instead works as a small area to read surface-level information, like what song’s playing on Spotify or when the device is charging.

The iPhone 12 does not come with this feature but sadly does include the dreaded notch. Dynamic Island can be seen either as an eyesore or a helpful way to quickly glean information from your device, depending on your standpoint, so this one may come down to personal preference.

Brand new 48-megapixel camera

The iPhone 15 has upped the camera game by coming with a brand-new 48-megapixel main sensor and a 12MP telephoto sensor. It also comes with 4K Cinematic Mode, TrueDepth in the front camera as well as Smart HDR support.

The iPhone 12 has a rather meagre camera selection in comparison; it comes with two 12-megapixel sensors on the rear, with one having ultra-wide capabilities and a larger field of view. If you want a premium camera experience then you should probably opt for the iPhone 15, since the larger megapixel count and updated AI will come with some vast improvements.

A16 Bionic chip vs A14 Bionic

Apple pulled the same move as last year, featuring the same chip in the iPhone 15 that was used in both the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max. The A16 Bionic chipset is built on a 4nm process node and has 16 billion transistors, with a 6-core CPU and 4-core GPU.

The iPhone 12 comes with a much older chipset in comparison, the A14 Bionic. This chip is built on a 5nm process node with just 11.8 billion transistors, which is a large step down from what the A16 is packing. The A16 Bionic is more capable than the A14 Bionic overall, making it the better option for anyone interested in gaming or other intensive graphical activities.