I can't believe this doesn't have more answers/attention. I have huge UI inconsistency issues between mini simulator and mini device, even on Mini 13/iOS 15/Xcode 13, it's completely unreliable. Basically, if you want truly make sure your app looks fine on the mini you have to buy one, which is crazy.
I just encountered this same issue - user is on a real 12 Mini and has a different layout than what I am seeing in the simulator. Would really appreciate it if someone from Apple can comment on this and how you recommend developers to address this issue. Thank you!
Same issue, re: iPhone mini 12; I get screen dimensions of 375x812 (x3) reported in the Simulator. Whereas the actual device dimensions are 360x780 (x3). This basically renders it impossible for me to account for iPhone mini 12 as you've said without having a physical device.
What’s the issue? The simulator is accurate. But note the phone has two “Display Zoom” options: Standard and Zoomed. Mismatch between these modes may be what the OP is reporting above.
As for the mismatch where the device’s physical pixel resolution isn’t equal to the (Standard mode) point resolution multiplied by the scale (3.0), that’s correct. Some iPhone models slightly downscale the “logical” point coordinate system into the “native” pixel coordinate system. But you should be able to ignore this. Just test your app using both Standard and Zoomed modes on simulator models that support it.
I wrote a simple app to confirm the device's model and screen resolution and had my friend, who owns an iPhone 12 Mini, install and run it.
According to this, the screen resolution on a physical iPhone 12 Mini (left side, at scale) is 320 x 693 (at a 3x scale).
Running the same application in the iPhone 12/13 Mini Simulator (middle, at scale) shows a screen resolution of 375 x 812 (at a 3x scale).
Layering one on top of the other (right side, at scale) illustrates the difference in resolution is not negligible.
So far as I can tell from comparing the resolution of available devices in the simulator, no simulator renders applications at a resolution of 320 x 693, meaning there is no way to confirm what the layout of my app would be on an iPhone 12/13 Mini without having a physical device.
@Scott Thanks for your reply and for providing some additional information about this. I'm aware of the downscaling on the iPhone. However, I'm not sure I'm familiar with the "Standard" and "Zoomed" options you're referring to and searching through the menu options on the simulator, I couldn't find anything that looked similar. Under the "Window" menu, there are options to change how large the window is. Still, so far as I understand, this only changes how large the window is displayed and doesn't impact anything related to the resolution of the simulated device itself.
Given this, I'm still stuck as I cannot confirm my app's layout as it would appear on a physical iPhone 12/13 Mini, and if I understand the OP correctly, I believe this is also their concern.
not sure I'm familiar with the "Standard" and "Zoomed" options you're referring to
It’s an end-user feature so you access it within iOS itself:
Thanks for your quick reply @Scott! I could confirm this now in the simulator itself and on a device. 👍🏻
Your point about testing applications with Standard and Zoomed options is, of course, valid as users could have either one selected. After setting the simulator to "Zoomed", the screen resolution appears to have changed to match the physical device screenshot I had received. Thanks for clarifying this!
For others who might come by this, for reference here are the two settings side-by-side to illustrate the differences: