Thinking of buying an iPhone 14? Why the iPhone 12 may be a better bet

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The Apple iPhone 14 is finally here with this latest smartphone getting new features including Crash Detection which could literally save your life. As you can read in our full iPhone 14 review this is a solid upgrade. However, with this handset now priced from £849 it’s not exactly cheap – in fact, it’s now around £60 more than the iPhone 13 cost at launch.

If that sounds like too much for your wallet to cope with, then the older iPhone 12 could now be a much better bet.

The iPhone 12 can be purchased brand new from the Apple website for £649 for the 64GB model, which is £200 cheaper than the iPhone 14 begins from.

That’s a big difference in price, especially at a time when saving money has never been more important due to the cost of living crisis.

If you’re worried that you’ll be saving money at the expense of performance, you needn’t fret. Those that haven’t upgraded for a while will still be blown away by the iPhone 12.

The 2020 handset was one of the biggest leaps forwards in recent years for the entry-level iPhone, as it became the first entry-level iPhone to ditch LCD displays for an OLED.

OLED displays were introduced to the iPhone with the iPhone X in 2017, and in the years that followed were only available on the most premium Apple devices – with the cheaper handsets boasting less pixel-packed LCD displays.

This all changed in 2020 with the launch of the iPhone 12. It came fitted with a 6.1inch OLED panel that revolutionises the quality of your movie and boxset viewing on your phone.

And the striking panel still holds up years later. In fact, this screen has a better resolution rate than the Samsung Galaxy S22 (1170 x 2532 pixels compared to 1080 x 2340 pixels) which was released earlier this year.

Elsewhere on the spec sheet, when looking at performance the iPhone 12 also manages to beat the Galaxy S22 in Geekbench single-core testing – registering a score that was over a third faster than the S22.

So, even though the A14 Bionic chip that powers the iPhone 12 is two years old it will still offer plenty of grunt and power.

Speaking of chips, unlike previous years the iPhone 14 isn’t powered by the latest and greatest silicon from Apple.

That honour goes to the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone Pro Max which are fitted with the A16 Bionic. The entry-level iPhone 14 is instead powered by last year’s A15 Bionic chip which featured on the iPhone 13 range.

So even though the iPhone 12 is two years old, when looking at the CPU there’s really just a year’s difference between the iPhone 12 and the entry-level iPhone 14.

The iPhone 14 does – of course – have a number of advantages over the iPhone 12. This 2022 handset comes with a new Crash Detection feature which automatically calls emergency services if it detects a car crash has taken place – which could literally be a lifesaver.

While the camera set-up in the iPhone 14 is far superior than the iPhone 12, with the main sensor essentially the one seen on the iPhone 13 Pro that’s fitted on this year’s entry-level iPhone.

The iPhone 14 also has a brighter display than the iPhone 12 and a larger battery.

iPhone 14: Apple’s Tim Cook introduces new phone

Plus, the iPhone 14 will also offer you longer software support. Apple typically provides updates and software support for five to six years, so if you buy an iPhone 14 now you may not need to upgrade until 2028 at the very latest. Whereas if you picked up an iPhone 12 the last point you may be able to upgrade could be in 2026.

In the long-run, this means you will need to upgrade and buy a new phone sooner if you pick up an iPhone 12 right now. But up to four years of software support from now is still better than a lot of Android phones.

The question remains though – are all of the advantages the iPhone 14 has enough to make you spend an extra £200 over the iPhone 12?

For anyone that hasn’t upgraded their iPhone since the iPhone 11 or before then, it’s definitely worth considering the iPhone 12. You will still get a huge leap forward when upgrading to the iPhone 12 and save hundreds of pounds in the process when choosing that over the iPhone 14.

iPhone 12 @ O2

There are some stunning freebies available with O2, including a FREE subscription to Apple Music for six months, and another FREE subscription of your choice of Prime Video, Disney+, Audible and more. O2 also boosts the hardware warranty to three years – that’s two years longer than you’ll get from Apple itself

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iPhone 12 @ EE

Get access to EE’s 5G mobile network, which boasts some of the fastest download speeds and most widespread coverage across the UK. If you want to pay a little more each month, you can enjoy free access to Apple Music, Apple Arcade, or Apple TV+ on EE

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iPhone 12 @ Three

For a limited time, Three is giving away a £200 Gift Card that can be spent anywhere that accepts Mastercard which is, almost, anywhere! That’s enough to treat yourself to a free pair of AirPods to pair with your new iPhone

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iPhone 12 @ Sky Mobile

Watch a lot of Sky Go or Sky Sports on your phone? There’s no need to spend a small fortune on oodles of mobile data each month as streaming anything from a Sky-made app doesn’t count towards your monthly allowance!

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iPhone 12 @ Virgin Mobile

Virgin is one of the only mobile networks to not reintroduce EU roaming charges. The carrier also allows you to continue to send WhatsApp messages and text on Facebook Messenger …even if you’ve run out of data for the month!

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iPhone 12 @ Vodafone

Vodafone has some incredible iPhone 12 deals, bundling subscription services like Spotify Premium, Amazon Prime, and YouTube Premium with your pay monthly plan.

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