A tough question for someone looking for an upgrade from Iphone 9, X, or any other device is to go and buy iPhone 12 or wait for the iPhone 13 launch. Don’t worry. By the end of this, you would have a clear-cut idea about all the variables to make the most reasonable decision of

Should I buy iPhone 12 or Wait for iPhone 13?

So let’s start,

Looks and design: iPhone 12 VS 13

The iPhone 12 kept the exterior looks, i.e. front and back look of the iPhone 11 but have brought back the flattened sides of the iPhone 4 and 5. The result looks just way cooler and modern but isn’t as comfortable to hold with a wide variety of colour options of black, white, red, green, and blue on a standard and silver, graphite, gold, and blue on the Pro. And yes, there’s still a notch right up on top, which you won’t be noticing after some time, but some people still treat it like a splinter in their eye.

The iPhone 13 will keep the same design though there’s almost certainly going to be some variation in the colours. It’ll also, reportedly, keep the notch though not quite as wide & noticeable. So if you like the iPhone 12 design, especially the current colours, go ahead and buy one now. But if you’re hoping to get yellow or orange back or some other colour entirely, and especially if you want just a tiny bit less notch right up on top, wait and see what next has to offer.

Display iPhone 13 vs 12

The iPhone 12 displays are just better than they’ve ever been on any of their devices, OLED and HDR on all of them. So you get high contrast, detailed colour, deep blacks, and bright whites on all of them. They look terrific. And now it was a ceramic shield, well, they still scratch, but they’re much less likely to crack. They’re also still locked to 60 frames per second. No high refresh rate, no adaptive refresh rate. That’s only rumoured to be coming with upgradation on the next-generation iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max later this fall. But if you don’t care about that or don’t even know what that is, you know what to do next. If you do, though,

if you’re just all about the 120 Hertz, you’re just all about to wait for the iPhone 13 Pro.

Camera iPhone 13 vs 12

The iPhone 12 got better cameras across the board with deep fusion and night mode on all the cameras, likewise Dolby Vision for HDR video. The iPhone 12 Pro got the ProRAW and LiDAR for low light autofocus and night mode portraits providing excellent picture quality. Plus, the iPhone 12 Pro Max got an even bigger sensor, in-body image stabilization, and longer telephoto in it. Now I prefer the smaller iPhone Pro, and kind of all shades adore the mini. But the cameras on the iPhone 12 Pro Max made it just the must-have. So if you’re cool using the Max or just ok with the regular cameras, you’ll be cool with the iPhone 12. But if you aren’t willing to go Max but still want full cameras, rumour has it the iPhone 13 may have LiDARand the better sensors across the line as well.

5g 

The iPhone 12 series are the first-ever iPhones with 5G, integrating Qualcomm’s X55 modem, which supports both frequency range 1 for low and mid-band and frequency range 2 for the high band, also known as millimetre wave. Only 5G itself isn’t well supported or have grown to its most, at least not yet. I have FR1 a few blocks around where I live, and I get about double LTE speeds. But 5G isn’t still the widespread technology, and even if it is available, 5G is so bad, they’re racing back to LTE.

The modem is also not very efficient, yet it drags down the iPhone battery life even with Apple smart data feature trying its best to balance things. But the iPhone 13 should integrate Qualcomm’s X60 modem, which is smaller and more efficient, allowing for more battery and placing less pressure on that battery. So if 5G isn’t in your area or isn’t high on your list or your list at all, you can get an iPhone 12 now. But if you’re willing to wait on 5G until it’s in more areas and until it’s more efficient, then there’ll be more 5G in the future.

Face ID or better?

The iPhone 12 has Face ID, Apple’s facial geometry identity scanner, same as the iPhone 11. Like almost the same.

Despite supporting unlock on every orientation on the iPad since 2018, it’s still limited to portraited only on the iPhone.

It does keep getting faster, better and smarter, but in the age of masks, when you’re out and about, it’s just nowhere nearly as convenient as it used to be. The iPhone 13 is reportedly going to be getting a new version of Touch ID. Apple’s fingerprint identity scanner. Not in the power button like the new iPad Air but under the display, which, to be quite honest, is already normal and widespread & available on other devices.

And not instead of Face ID but in addition to it as in just the best of both biometric worlds. So if Face ID is still totally fine for you, it’s going to be fine to pick up the iPhone 12 right now. But if you need your Touch ID back, you’re going to need to wait for the iPhone 13 at the earliest.

iPhone USB-C

The iPhone 12 still has a lightning port, which apple introduced back in 2012, almost three years prior, USB-C became a reality. And despite literally all the nerds asking them to switch to USB-C, like Apple has done for the Mac and are continuing to do for the iPad, Apple is just steadfastly stubbornly even stuck to lightning on the iPhone. But some reports may be at least one model; the iPhone 13 will finally delete the lightning port.

It is not for USB-C because that would be just too well received, but to delete it to watch it die like the headphone jack and go with the recently introduced iPhone version of MagSafe or some hybrid of MagSafe and the iPad Smart Connector instead. So since the iPhone 12 currently has both lightning and MagSafe, there’s no reason to wait for any of that. But if you’re at all nervous about Apple taking away your hard line, you might not even want to wait on the iPhone 13 anyway.