Best Deals For Apple iPhone 12 July 2022

Considering one of Apple’s phones? We’ve taken a look at what deals are up for grabs, and we’ve also reviewed the Apple iPhone 12 – the latest-but-one handset in the iconic iPhone range.

Latest Apple iPhone 12 Deals

Apple iPhone 12 range

The Apple iPhone 12 smartphone isn’t one handset, but four. You can choose between the iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max – each with its own benefits and drawbacks.

The handsets were launched at a cost £699, £799, £999 and £1,099 respectively if you bought them outright, or therre is always the option to pay for them in instalments as part of a pay-monthly contract – more on that later.

Here’s a look at what each handset has to offer.

iPhone 12

Display

The standard-issue iPhone 12 has a 6.1” Super Retina XDR display. At a resolution of 1170 x 2532 pixels that gives you a pixel density of 460 pixels per inch (PPI).

It’s an HDR OLED panel with a contrast ratio of 2,000,000:1 that will give you 625 ‘nits’ of brightness during typical use and 1,200 nits during HDR use. It features Apple’s haptic feedback and has a grease-resistant coating to keep fingerprints to a minimum. The front and back of the phone use super-scratch-resistant Gorilla Glass.

Size, colour and memory

The iPhone 12 comes in black, white, red , green, blue or purple and is available with either 64GB, 128GB or 256GB of internal storage. The actual handset measures 5.78″ x 2.81″ x 0.29″ and weighs 164g.

Battery and charging

Apple says iPhone 12’s 2815mAh battery will give you the equivalent of 15 hours’ video playback, 10 hours’ video streaming and 50 hours’ audio playback. The battery can be recharged wirelessly using Apple’s MagSafe accessories at up to 15W charging.

Camera

In terms of photography, the iPhone 12 has four 12 Megapixel lenses, including wide and ultra-wide lenses. Its camera can shoot video in 4K resolution at up to 60 frames per second (FPS). While its resolution looks lower than much of the competition’s on paper, Apple’s camera software continues to produce superior image quality to many of its rivals.

Processor

The folks in Cupertino claim the A14 Bionic chip in the iPhone 12 handset is the fastest processor you can get in any smartphone. It’s a six-core set-up consisting of two 3.1 GHz Firestorm cores and four 1.8 GHz Icestorm cores.

Other

The iPhone 12 comes with Face ID for biometric security, an IP68 rating for water and dust resistance that will protect it in up to 1.5 metres of fresh water for as long as 30 minutes, and 5G connectivity.

iPhone 12 mini

The smallest and cheapest of the iPhone 12 range, the mini has a 5.4” Super Retina XDR display, comes in five colours and is available with either 64, 128 or 256GB of storage space.

The 5G-ready phone shoots video at 4K up to 60 frames per second (FPS) and features dual, 12 Megapixel (MP), wide and ultra-wide camera lenses on the rear. There’s a 12MP lens on the front too. The mini also has an IP68 rating for water resistance, wireless charging and biometric security.

iPhone 12 Pro

The iPhone 12 Pro has the same dimensions as the iPhone 12, including a 6.1” display, but adds a telephoto lens to its rear camera array, which doubles its optical zoom range to 4X. Pro users can also take advantage of a LiDAR scanner for better low-light photography and more advanced augmented reality (AR) experiences.

Those who choose to go Pro can take advantage of a 512GB model that isn’t available on the iPhone 12.

iPhone 12 Pro Max

The priciest iPhone 12 model ups the screen size to 6.7”. With its larger footprint comes greater battery capacity that allows for up to 20 hours of video playback, 12 hours of video streaming and 80 hours’ audio streaming, compared to the iPhone Pro’s 65.

Again, there’s the option for 512GB of internal storage.

Ways to pay for the iPhone 12

One of the most popular ways to pay for a new iPhone is through a pay monthly contract, where the cost of the handset, plus a set amount of data, texts and minutes are all wrapped up in one package for a fixed monthly price.

While a pay monthly deal can make the cost more manageable, buying an iPhone outright can actually work out cheaper in the long-run – providing it is done in the right way.

Using a 0% purchase credit card allows you to spread the cost of your payments over a period of up to 20 months. So long as you clear your balance before the 0% deal ends and interest kicks in, you won’t have to pay any interest or additional charges.

This means if, for example, you bought a phone costing £500, you’d only need to pay off £25 a month to have cleared your balance within the 20-month 0% window (£500 divided by 20).

Once you’ve bought your handset you can then take advantage of a SIM-only deal which will give you a monthly allowance of calls, texts and data for a fixed price. Many of these plans are competitively priced and also operate on a 30-day rolling basis, allowing you to easily cancel or change your plan if yours isn’t working out.

Giffgaff, for example, offers 15GB of data and unlimited minutes and texts for just £10 a month, so using the example above, this would take your overall monthly spend to £35. If you don’t need as much data as this (and many of us don’t in the current climate), you can get even cheaper SIM-only deals. 

Be aware, however that while paying for your handset with a 0% purchase credit card and using a SIM-only deal is often likely to work out cheaper than a pay monthly contract, this won’t always be the case, so it pays to compare your options carefully.

Protecting your iPhone 12

Once you’ve decided on the best way to pay for your new iPhone, it’s important to think about insuring it against loss or damage. There are several different ways to do this, as outlined below:

AppleCare +

When you buy an Apple product, you’ll automatically receive coverage from the Apple Limited Warranty. For iPhones, this provides cover for a year and telephone technical support for 90 days from the date of purchase.

AppleCare + is an optional insurance product that provides iPhone cover for up to two years from the date of purchase, including up to two incidents of accidental damage protection every 12 months. This is subject to an excess fee of £25 for screen damage or £79 for any other damage.

AppleCare + will cover your device, battery, earphones and other accessories, and you can also benefit from the ‘Express Replacement Service’ which will send out a replacement phone before you return your existing handset.

Taking out this type of cover can be expensive, but if your iPhone is particularly pricey, it may be an option worth considering.

Home contents insurance

Alternatively, many home contents insurance policies automatically cover mobile phones as standard but be warned that policies are often limited in terms of cover levels. 

For example, if your phone is stolen during a break-in, your contents insurance should cover you. But if you drop your phone and the screen cracks, you’ll usually only be covered if your insurance policy includes accidental damage cover.

As the name suggests, accidental damage cover pays out for damage caused by accidents around the home – such as spilling water on your phone. If your policy doesn’t include it as standard you can pay to add it on. 

Similarly, your iPhone won’t be covered when you take it outside the home, unless your contents insurance policy includes personal possessions cover – sometimes referred to as ‘all risks’ cover.

Also note that should you need to make a claim on your home insurance you will have to pay an excess (your contribution towards the cost of the claim) and your premiums may also increase at the next renewal. This means that even if protecting your phone through your home insurance seems relatively cheap, it can quickly become an expensive option. 

If you’ve spent several hundred pounds on your new iPhone, you may feel this is a price worth paying, but make sure you’ve researched your options fully before deciding.

Check your current account

Some so-called ‘packaged’ current accounts – those that offer added benefits in return for a monthly fee – come with mobile phone insurance included, so it’s worth checking whether yours does.

If you are covered, check the terms and conditions carefully so that you know exactly what you’re covered for. Cover may only stretch up to a certain amount, for example, or there may be a limit to the type or number of claims you can make each year.

If your current account doesn’t offer mobile phone insurance, don’t assume you should automatically switch to a current account that does as they don’t always represent good value for money, and you may be better off taking out a separate policy (see below).

Standalone policies

You can visit our dedicated iPhone insurance page for details of specific deals to cover your phone.

Gadget insurance providers such as Protect Your Bubble, Gadget Cover and CoverCloud all offer standalone insurance policies for mobile phones and other gadgets. Because this type of insurance is exclusively for gadgets, it is often more comprehensive and typically includes cover for:

• liquid damage
• mechanical breakdowns
• theft
• accidental damage such as cracked screen
• loss
• unauthorised calls (if your iPhone is stolen).

You’ll usually find that cover is worldwide too, so your handset will be protected if you’re abroad, and there will often be no limit to the number of claims you can make in a year – although some providers limit claims for loss and theft.

In terms of costs, insuring a 128GB iPhone 12 with CoverCloud, for example, would cost £7.34 a month with its Standard package or £8.21 per month with its Elite package (including cover for loss, theft and unauthorised calls). Paying annually rather than monthly will work out even cheaper.

Before deciding whether a standalone insurance policy is right for you, however, there are a few points to be aware of:

• if you make a claim, you will have to pay an excess – often this will be somewhere between £50 and £150 and the higher the excess, the less you’ll pay for your monthly premiums
• gadgets usually need to have been purchased as new in the UK from a manufacturer, network provider or high street or online store
• you may not be able to claim immediately – some insurers stipulate that you can only claim two weeks after first taking out your policy
• some providers will only cover gadgets if they are less than six months to a year old
• you may get a discount if you insure more than one gadget with the same provider
• you will be expected to take ‘reasonable precautions’ to keep your gadget safe from theft, loss or damage

Self-insurance

An alternative is to simply put the money you would have spent on mobile phone insurance in a savings account so that you have those funds to fall back on should you need to pay for repairs to your phone or get a replacement. 

Just be sure to put the funds in an account that offers easy access and, hopefully, a bit of interest.