On a whim I picked up the regular 12 with 128gb today. Needed something to distract myself from everything. It's blue, which is kind of cool, but it lives in a case. I got gouged for $50 for a phone case from Apple, but because I'm on the fence about keeping this thing, I wanted to put a case on it ASAP. Add in tax and it came to $980 or so. I'm not a phone contract guy, so no deals for me. I'm switching from a Pixel 3 XL. From the perspective of a guy who has been with Android since the OG Moto Droid with physical keys, here's a quick breakdown:
It's fast. The camera seems really good. The video is *substantially* better than what I can do with the Pixel. I have 5G turned off. I don't see any coverage in my area of CT, and I'm trying to figure out how long the battery can last. I don't care about the magnet charging, didn't buy one of those. My understanding is that wireless charging is inefficient and not especially good for the environment. Just like everyone says, the chat is great compared to Android, and the notifications are kind of a mess compared to Android. Apps are apps no matter what phone you're using. Getting used to iOS is going to take some time.
My primary takeaway: it's small. I suspect that if you're coming from any mainstream Android phone, you would also find it to be small. For a while I've thought that I wanted a smaller phone, but now I am not sure if that is actually true. I will figure this out during the 14-day return period. Unfortunately there's really no way for me to recreate "normal" usage right now because I'm holed up and don't see that changing anytime soon. I could see myself potentially returning this and getting the Pro Max whenever that is available. I thought that phone would be too big, then I realized that dimensionally, it is the slightly smaller than my Pixel. A lot of that decision will depend upon what the reviews say about the battery on that one and whether or not the camera upgrade is worth it.
I find myself whelmed. This is a glass and metal slab (yes, I did understand this going in). Better than my current slab, but is it $1k better when I don't absolutely need a new phone? I dunno. I bet if you are a current iPhone user with a model that is 3-4 generations old, this thing will be a phenomenal upgrade. Ditto if you get some sort of great trade-in/carrier discount offer.