> an iPhone 12 mini daily-driver who also owns a 15 Pro Max (which I use exclusively to shoot video), I have to disagree

Out of curiosity, where? I went from the 12 something to the 15 Pro and the speed in connecting to networks and rendering pages was memorable. Now I don't notice it anymore; the old phone is just slow.

In fairness I'm not a heavy iPhone user. Hence still having a 12 mini. It's rare (~never) that I'm 'browsing the web' on it. If I'm in Safari it's for some functional reason and I'm in and out.

Still, I can't say I've ever thought, jeez, this thing is slow to render a page.

> the speed in connecting to networks

I'm not even sure what you mean. Connecting to 4G? a) mine's practically instant and b) how often are you doing this?!

(Not being snarky there. Genuinely don't understand how this is a thing someone would notice. But you may have a different use-case to me.)

I have come to the same conclusion, users like you just don't percive it.

I see a lot of "this 200€ phone is as good as the 1000€ one"

Sister, i would kill someone to not have to use Google maps on a phone 10% slower.

In 2020 i returned my samsung A7 (decent phone for the era) because i just couldn't support how laggy it was. Thst phone was better than most phones around me but i felt the slowness. (ended up with a Huawei mate 20 pro)