iPhone 11
On September 20th 2019, the iPhone 1 was released by Apple. Starting at a price point of $699 for the 64gb model (Apple has always been slow to increase storage options for it’s base models), this is the cheapest new iPhone in years.
Announced as the lowest priced new iPhone, the iPhone 11 probably represents the best value of all the models. You get a super fast device, big bright screen, excellent camera and a brilliant battery life.
Build
The iPhone 11 is slightly larger than the XR that precedes it and doesn’t feel too big in the hand by today’s standards. The same notch is present on the front of the 6.1” display and the bezels look unfortunately large by 2019 standards (especially when put beside for example a new Samsung flagship)
The camera hump is new and …divisive. It is not the most attractive back to a phone on the market, but Apple has a way of making their devices feel premium and eventually look iconic better than anyone else. The new colors look great too, with the green a standout highlight. Most YouTubers seem to be enamoured with this color judging by the amount of videos online already!
The rest of the phone is standard Apple fare – no headphone jack, lightning port and volume rocker are all in their familiar areas.The phone comes bundled with the older charging adaptor. Yes, the super slow one that looks ancient compared to the new charging standards. Looking on the bright side, the iPhone 11’s battery life is excellent, and will easily last most users a full day on 100% charge.
Software
iOS 13 is not a groundbreaking update, but it is full of some useful additions. The most eagerly anticipated is probably the addition of a ‘dark mode’ to iOS. This has been available on Android for a while – though not as long as people may think. Plus, due to the fragmented nature of Android updates and the fact that a very small percentage of users are on the latest versions – not that many users have access to dark mode on Android.
iOS 13 also brings improvements to the speed of the UI, keyboard swiping and more.
Photo editing is getting a long needed update, giving users control over contrast, shadows and more.
Facetime gets attention with the field of view becoming wider meaning faster and better unlocks when needed.
Siri improvements, portrait mode, reminders also get some attention with this quite large update. All in all, iOS13 is a very useful update for all compatible handsets.
Camera
The all new cameras on the iPhone 11 and it’s bigger siblings are the most defining features of the new phones. Their performance has been well documented at this point and for good reason. The camera on iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro has raised it to the level of the best phone cameras around.
In physical terms, the new camera module is very noticable. It feels raised and regressed at the same time, with a very slippy finish to it. The renders have been out for months; however Apple always has a way of making the actual device look great in person and the iPhone 11 is no different.
The 2 sensors now on iPhone 11 (big bro iPhone 11 Pro has 3) are both 48 megapixels and one is a wide angle lens. Both have great color accuracy and range and switching between the 2 is done easily and smoothly when taking a photo. The iPhone’s screen actually ‘greys’ out the view from the wide angle lens, a super handy feature. On most other devices using wide angle lens – on Android of course- there is a noticeable color difference in the photos. Many wide angle lens have a blue or green tint to them. iPhone does not suffer this fate thankfully, with color similarity between the 2 being very very close.
Low light photography has received a huge boost with the new sensors on iPhone 11. Night time shots look great and rival the night time king – Pixel 3. iPhone can now pull in light from the darkest of scenes (main sensor only) Dynamic range looks great for the most part and Apple now has some of the best looking evening and night time shots around.
Deep Fusion is coming to iPhone with the latest update too – not available on release. Deep fusion means that as soon as the iphone is pointed at a subject, 9 photos are taken before the camera button is even pressed. Once the photo is taken, the software stitches together the best parts of each shot to create a great image. The powerful chipset on the iPhone means all this happens in milliseconds; one will not even notice this happening.
Portrait mode is another much improved feature.
Video recording
Slowfies are slow motion videos from the front facing camera. As you can imagine, this has very limited appeal, but a nice added feature I suppose.
Getting down to the real act of recording video from the rear camera, and things take a sharp journey north. Video recording is excellent on the iPhone 11. In fact when it comes to mobile phone video recording, the iPhone 11 range is the best, no competition. Recording 4k video at 60fps just looks amazing, and that’s not to mention the stability of the video – it really is unparalleled. What the Apple engineers have achieved with the video recording on the iPhone 11 is a magical feat, one cannot help but be impressed.
User Experience
Just a quick note as it deserves a comment of its own, but user experience on the iPhone is as good as always. Apple’s custom chips work hard to power the software and everything just zips along. Apps open and close quickly, multitasking is great and most apps offer better experiences than their Android counterparts. Yes the os is more than a little stale at this stage – but it is familiar and reliable. That counts for a lot.
Verdict
Of course, this year’s iPhones are the best iPhones. Are they worth the upgrade from last year, if you have any of the iPhone X range? Well, if battery life and cameras are your priority, then yes actually. They bring huge upgrades on last year’s models and really are best in class. The iPhone 11 is not just the best iPhone, it is one of the best mobile phones around, period. It does (almost) everything so well and will be a reliable companion in your pocket, whether for work or just leisure. At www.iphone6tutorial.com we can recommend the iphone 11 without hesitation.