EARLY VERDICT
A new iPhone for far cheaper than we were expecting – the iPhone 11 really steals the show this year.
FOR
- Strong, vibrant screen
- Upgraded camera
- New colors
AGAINST
- Similar design to last year
- Not as sleek as the Pro
As we speed towards the the iPhone 11 release date, the fervor around the new iPhone doesn’t seem to be diminishing.
The low price tag is pulling in a lot of interest, and while the iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max steal the show in terms of headline spec, the iPhone 11’s price is a killer – it’s lower than the iPhone XR (the surprise hit from last year) and yet improves the spec in a few key areas.
It’s got faster innards, a much better camera (with enhance low-light mode) and comes with iOS 13 as standard – and does so at a price that allows users to get a new iPhone for less than most top-end phones out there.
That said, it’s far from the most advanced iPhone out there, so has Apple got a hit on its hands, or is it something that doesn’t quite hit the spot? Here are our findings from our hands on time with the device in The Steve Jobs Theater in Cupertino.
- iPhone 11 release date and price
- iPhone 11 launch date: September 10
- iPhone 11 pre-order date: September 13
- iPhone 11 release date: September 20
- iPhone 11 price: starts at $699 (£729, AU$1,199)
The iPhone 11 release date is set for September 20, which is good news for anyone looking to get hold of Apple’s affordable new iPhone, as the XR hit stores later than the XS in 2018.
If you’re ready to make a commitment to the handset, iPhone 11 pre-orders opened last Friday and – don’t forget – it will come with a year’s subscription to Apple TV Plus in the US.
The iPhone 11 price is hugely impressive in the US, where it starts at $699 for the 64GB storage model – we can’t begin to call this phone ‘cheap’, but that’s a drop of $50 over the iPhone XR, and it’s an incredible thing for Apple to do here.
In other regions the iPhone 11 price is still lower than the XR, but the saving isn’t as great. The 64GB iPhone 11 will set you back £729 in the UK and AU$1,199 in Australia, which represents a saving of £20 and AU$30 respectively over XR.
There are, as usual, a range of storage options to go for – with the aforementioned 64GB model joined by 128GB ($749, £779, AU$1,279) and 256GB ($849, £879, AU$1,449) versions, if you’re looking to spend more money to get extra storage.
iPhone 11 camera
Like the iPhone 11 Pro, the new iPhone 11 packs a large camera bump on the rear, with the square design housing two sensors (the iPhone XR only had one).
The fact that it has this square design on the rear is interesting, as it doesn’t need this extra square space – it could just have the thin lozenge that adorned the rear of the iPhone XS. The sensors also appear larger with rounder, black porthole designs around the outside to draw in more light.
The camera bump adds a visual identity with the more expensive Pro range and, actually, removes another of the key features that would separate the two different devices – is Apple trying to encourage users to buy the cheaper phone and reboot its sales figures, perhaps?
But enough about how this bump looks – what does it actually do? Well, two sensors live in there, both 12MP. However, this time around it’s the standard lens plus an ultra-wide angle lens, enabling you to pull back to see more of a scene, with an instant visual suggestion to do so:
Now, what does the camera do? Well, firstly – and this is something we didn’t get a chance to test out – there’s Deep Fusion landing on this phone. This system takes eight photos before you even press the shutter, and a long-exposure option as well.
The Neural Engine of the high-power A13 Bionic chipset is then able to think through what it’s looking at and choose the best pixel from each shot – meaning you’ve got a camera that’s the equivalent of ‘mad science’, according to Apple.
The night mode alterations we impressive in our demo – when in a lower-brightness moment, users will be told to hold the phone steady for a 1-3 seconds, and the phone will take a night shot that seemed to really be bright in the demos we saw – we’re looking forward to seeing how that compares to the likes of the Google Pixel 3 and Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Plus in our review.
You can still capture background blur shots of course using portrait mode, with improved masking to produce ‘studio-quality’ portraits, including the new High-Key Mono mode.
The front-facing camera has been improved too – the sensor has been upgraded to 12MP to facilitate wider-angle pics when you rotate the phone to landscape, and you can shoot slow-motion selfies as well (which Apple is infuriatingly calling Slofies).
We didn’t test this out – for fear of people seeing, to be honest – but some of the demos on Twitter that we encountered were impressive (if you’re into that sort of thing, and want the new functionality).
The front-facing camera also has an ultra-wide mode where the camera range will extend when turned out to landscape format – it won’t require any action and will really appeal to those trying to get people into a group while extending their arm.
There’s also an improvement to video quality too, where the phone can now shoot in 4K and with the smooth 60fps – it lacks the raw power under the hood of the iPhone 11 Pro, but the quality we saw seemed to be slick and more colorful than before.
The camera was by far the most impressive part of the iPhone 11, and given the lower price could be something that really helps sell the phone.
iPhone 11 design and display
Apple hasn’t messed with the formula of the iPhone XR for the iPhone 11, with the same chunkier chassis, compared to the iPhone 11 Pro, coming with a chunkier border around the 6.1-inch LCD (Liquid Retina) screen.
If you hold the iPhone 11 Pro and the iPhone 11 side by side you’ll notice the real difference in design, with the latter feeling significantly thicker in the hand, although the Pro also has a nice matte finish.
(The iPhone 11 has a depth of 8.3mm, where the iPhone 11 Pro is 8.1mm – not a huge difference, but there is one and will be more noticeable when your hand is stretched further if you go for the Pro Max).
However, we tested both the iPhone XR and XS for more than a month each last year, and after a short time both phones felt similarly smooth and premium in the palm, so we wouldn’t say that either was too thick, and nobody will be switching between them.
The LCD display of the iPhone XR returns on the iPhone 11 to keep costs down compared to a pricier OLED option. It’s still bright and clear – and it seems to help when it comes to battery life, as the iPhone XR has the best battery life of any iPhone we’ve tried.
However, the resolution (1792 x 828) on the iPhone 11 is a little lower than on the iPhone 11 Pro, again thanks to the cost-saving efforts on show – and it’s worth it for the lower price point, even though it lacks the OLED screen that’s offering such powerful color reproduction and contrast ratio compared to the LCD screen here.
Of course, side-by-side you can tell that the iPhone 11 doesn’t have the same image reproduction quality as the new flagship, even though it is brighter.
There is one thing the iPhone XR had going for it over its better-specified brother last year: more colors. That’s the case again in 2019, with the iPhone 11 colors enlivening the demo area once more.
You can choose from black, white, yellow, lilac and mint green, as well as the standard Product (RED) for your new lower-cost iPhone, and the look of the range is certainly more dynamic and fashion-friendly than that of the more expensive models.
iPhone 11 battery life and iOS 13
Like the other new iPhones, the iPhone 11 is flaunting iOS 13, and the lower-cost device makes full use of the fancy new features the operating system brings with it.
Like the iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max, it’s also packing the A13 Bionic chipset inside, although we suspect with less RAM, as per last year – even though the person demonstrating the phone to us said the internal spec was precisely the same.
Rumors leading up to the launch event suggested a lower performance score for the iPhone 11, so we suspect that under heavy load the device won’t be quite as snappy as the higher-end version – but Apple is saying this is the fastest CPU of any phone out there, so we think those benchmarks were bogus in the build-up.
That’s not to say it’ll struggle with any tasks, as during our testing with the demo unit there was nothing to suggest a hint of slowdown – but then again, it’s not really possible to push a phone hard when you’re fending off hordes of other journalists trying to do the same thing.
Gaming was particularly impressive in our demo – the shadows and detail reproduction in Pascal’s Wager impressed a lot, as did the fluid gameplay. However, it’s about how it performs in real life, not using the game Apple has chosen for a few seconds to see how good at gaming it really is.
iPhone 11 battery life
When it comes to the iPhone 11 battery life, the new handset has a lot to live up to: the iPhone XR had the best battery life of any modern iPhone, and we want to see the same again here.
All the preconditions are there: a theoretically more efficient processor inside, the more power-friendly screen, and (presumably) efforts made to eke out a little more life this year.
Apple is claiming one hour more battery life than on the iPhone XR, which means that things inside have to have been made more efficient.
Sadly, there’s no fast 18W-charger in the box with the iPhone 11 as there is with the 11 Pro – again this fits with the cost-saving theme, but we were hoping it would come as standard so that battery concerns could be minimized somewhat.
That said, if you’ve got a phone that charges wirelessly, getting a pad for home and work should see you on full power for a lot of your day – so perhaps this isn’t much of a miss after all.
In terms of overall battery life, we’ll need to run some more stringent tests on the iPhone 11 for our full review, which will be coming soon.
Early verdict
The iPhone XR was the underground hit for Apple last year. It took high honors throughout our review process, and while it didn’t perform anywhere near as powerfully as the flagship XS, it stole the show for being a cheaper and highly capable entry into the iPhone universe.
Now the iPhone 11 is aiming to repeat that trick – and with a lower price and improved camera, we feel like this could be the phone that really resonates for Apple here.
Apart from the camera improvements, it’s mostly the power that’s been upped, so we’ll need to find out whether the iPhone 11 offers a material upgrade over last year’s model.
But let’s not move away from the headline here – the iPhone 11 is one of the cheapest new iPhones in years, and so many users will be drawn to the fact that you can now get a brand-new iPhone for far less than the $999 many might have expected.
While it’s not being marketed as being as powerful or ‘professional’ as the iPhone 11 Pro, the normal iPhone 11 seemed in these early demos to tick a lot of boxes – let’s see what happens when we can get our hands on one for a review.
Source: techradar.com
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