Thoughts on the iPhone 12 pro max from an accessibility perspective?

By KE8UPE, 2 January, 2021

Forum
Apple Hardware and Compatible Accessories

Hi,
I currently have an iPhone 11, 64GB.
The other day, I was looking at something on my carrier's website, and was told that I'm eligible for an upgrade.

Having heard a few demos of Lidar, the fact that I'd also like a bigger screen, & more storage, I'm highly considering getting a 12 pro max.
Does anyone here have one, and could shed some light on its accessibility?
Are there any issues specific to this device, that I should know about?

Thanks for any & all feedback!

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Comments

By Unregistered User (not verified) on Tuesday, January 26, 2021 - 04:03

Not a whole lot of surprises. You'll have the lidar sensor which can tell you how tall a person is, so there's that.

By KE8UPE on Tuesday, January 26, 2021 - 04:03

Is it true that you can gauge distances, too? How accurate is it at measuring someone’s height, or the distance between you and someone else?

By Amir on Tuesday, January 26, 2021 - 04:03

Greetings. Having worked with iPhone 12 Pro Max over the last two days or so, I can tell that I've seen no accessibility issues. As someone else just said, it's an iPhone, after all, but I should add that it offers the best battery life this year -- even compared with 12 Pro. Moreover, if you upgrade from any iPhone 11 generation -- including 11 Pro Max, you'll immediately experience noticeably better stereo speakers. The front speaker, in particular, sounds fuller and louder even when outputting VoiceOver speech and sounds, and the stereo field upon music playback sounds wider. Moreover, my own tests indicates that VoiceOver updates its descriptions in the Camera View of the Camera app much more accurately compared with 11 Pro Max. I don't know if it's related to the better CPU or more RAM, (6GB as opposed to 4GB), but with my 11 Pro Max VoiceOver didn't update its image descriptions as instantly as what I'm experiencing with 12 Pro Max as I move the phone left or right. Others might chime in with their findings, though.
As for your question posed in a comment, it can gauge distances, and it seems to me that it's quite accurate. At least I haven't seen it offering an oddly wrong estimate so far.
In the end, I think if the cost of the upgrade is manageable especially if you are not using 11 Pro Max, I suggest getting 12 Pro Max. Of course, this is not a definitive assessment or a determinative assessment. Rather, this is from someone who was himself pessimistic about the upgrade given the removal of the charger from the package.

By KE8UPE on Tuesday, January 26, 2021 - 04:03

Hi,
Thanks so much for your response.
I'm switching from a regular iPhone 11.

I have some residual vision, so wonder how noticeable, if at all, going from a 6.1 inch screen, to a 6.7 inch screen is?
Do you have a tempered glass screen protector on the device? if so, do you find that voiceover misinterprets your gestures, since they have to go through 2 layers of glass, rather than just 1?

Also, where is lidar? Is it part of the camera, or is it a separate app?

By Poodle Pamperer on Tuesday, January 26, 2021 - 04:03

I have a new 12 Pro Max and am loving it as a low vision user, it has a feature that is fantastic. It has back tapping!!! It allows me to invert colors quickly and easily by tapping the back of my phone twice. It's a HUGE improvement over triple tapping the home button like I had to do on the iPhone 7+. I have it also set for when i triple tap the back of the phone, it engages Siri without having to say "Hey Siri".
It's alos worth noting that Siri works much better with the 12 Pro Max.
Also, the OLED screen is much brighter, I can actually see the screen a bit when I'm outside. :^)