APPLE iPhone 11 Review

The headline feature of the iPhone 11 Pro Max is the new camera system. From night shooting mode to ultra-wide lenses, Apple's latest iPhones have a bunch of new camera tricks. It seems like Apple made an incredibly obvious move this year: it made the phone a little thicker and put a bigger battery inside.

The iPhone 11 Pro Max is the phone most people who are upgrading to a new iPhone this year should get. It’s an excellent phone, with one of the best cameras we have ever seen on a smartphone and insane battery life.

The iPhone 11 is basically an S update to last year’s very popular iPhone XR. From the front, it looks exactly the same. It has the same design, the same 6.1-inch 720p LCD with fancy rounded corners, the same giant bezels, and the same aluminium body.

But that design has been made slightly better: the water resistance is a little better, and Apple says the glass on front and back is a little stronger. The camera bump on the back is now milled right into the glass, which is kind of neat, but it’s still a camera bump. The whole design remains a little surfboard-y, and it’s definitely not small. If you’re looking to upgrade from an iPhone SE, this thing is going to feel huge.

If you’ve been holding off upgrades and aren’t familiar with the iPhone XR, here’s a quick catch-up: the iPhone XR was the lower-cost model in Apple’s 2018 line of iPhones, swapping in an LCD screen for the OLED in the iPhone XS. It also had one fewer camera, but, critically, Apple didn’t skimp anywhere else — plus the battery life was stellar. Despite not having the best specs, it was the best iPhone for most people, and it quickly became Apple’s best-selling model. That’s probably why this year’s XR upgrade is just called the “iPhone 11.”

The only major differences between the iPhone XR and the iPhone 11 are the cameras, the better battery life, and the processor.

So, is it worth upgrading to the iPhone 11? If you’ve got an iPhone older than the XR and you’re looking to upgrade, I think the answer is yes. The camera is substantially improved, and you will get vastly better battery life than anything aside from a XR. That’s what most people care about, and Apple has really delivered here.

The Camera

Apple added an ultra-wide f/2.4 camera to the back of the phone, improved the sensor for the main f/1.8 camera, and updated the front camera to a 12-megapixel sensor with a slightly wider field of view in landscape and the ability to take 4K60 video. Apple’s Smart HDR system has also been improved, and there’s a new Night mode. These are all the same cameras and features as the iPhone 11 Pro, minus a telephoto, and the results are just as good.

Apple’s Smart HDR system is a lot smarter this year. It’s more willing to blow out highlights, it keeps shadows dark, and it can recognize faces and hair and apply different processing to them — a feature Apple calls “semantic rendering.”

Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max: the battery life is real

The iPhone 11 Pro Max is 0.4mm thicker and 11 grams heavier than the iPhone XS. But unless you’re comparing them directly, you won’t notice (and even then, it’s extremely subtle). The difference is a little more noticeable if you’re upgrading from something like an iPhone 7, however, as the 11 Pro is a full 50 grams heavier.

Between the larger size and the removal of the 3D Touch system, there’s more room inside the case for a bigger battery, which seems like a big part of Apple’s claimed four-hour battery life increase from the iPhone XS and five-hour increase for the Pro Max from the XS Max.

Apple has historically been good about meeting its battery life claims, and the iPhone 11 Pro Max has consistently run for 12 to 14 hours on a single charge, with over 10 hours of screen-on time reported in the battery settings per 24-hour period.

That’s compared to 8 to 10 hours of battery life at most for my iPhone XS Max, which is a marked improvement. It’s not enough to make me stop charging at my desk throughout the day, and I’ll definitely still carry a battery pack on trips. But it’s a big bump, and it’s better than most Android phones we’ve tested.

The smaller iPhone 11 also performed well. We used it all day for video, sent it out for several hours of shooting photo tests and 4K video in the evening, left it off the charger overnight, and it still had 50 percent of its battery left the next morning.

Apple’s also finally relented and included an 18-watt USB-C fast charger with the Pro phones, so you get a USB-C to Lightning cable as well. Apple’s USB-C charger is not the smallest or prettiest charger out there, but anything’s better than that slow 5W brick it’s been including for years.

All in all, the iPhone 11 Pro Max battery life has been impressive, especially compared to any prior iPhone, save for last year’s iPhone XR. Turns out, making the phone thicker and putting a bigger battery inside is a good idea.

Of course, the big external change to the iPhone 11 Pro is the camera system. There’s now an ultra-wide camera in addition to the standard and telephoto cameras on the back. The iPhone 11 Pro Max has three cameras, all with different focal lengths: there’s a new ultra-wide camera with an f/2.4 13mm lens, the f/1.8 26mm main camera with a slightly improved sensor, and the telephoto camera with the same sensor as last year but a faster 52mm f/2.0 lens. (All focal lengths are in 35mm equivalent.) The f/2.2 front camera is now 12 megapixels, up from 7, and it has a wider 24mm focal length so it can pull out to a slightly wider angle in landscape for selfies, which is incredibly fun.

So, is it worth upgrading to the iPhone 11? If you’ve got an iPhone older than the XR and you’re looking to upgrade, the answer is yes. The camera is substantially improved, and you will get vastly better battery life than anything aside from a XR. That’s what most people care about, and Apple has really delivered here.

Cellucity
Head Office - Suite 203, Granger Bay Court, Beach Rd, V & A Waterfront

Frankie
webseo@cellucity.co.za
0214011300

Established in 1994, Cellucity is a specialist mobile phone retailer and Vodacom's leading independent, award-winning, dealer. We pride ourselves on offering the best service, innovation, quality brands and innovative products.

For real 24 hour convenience, browse our extensive range of cell phones, accessories and gadgets online or apply for pre-approval on your next contract, upgrade or fibre internet.

This release was published on openPR.