iPhone 11 Full Review

Design

The iPhone 11’s design is a mix of familiar and fresh. The front and sides are almost identical to the iPhone XR, with a notch at the top. an aluminum band and somewhat chunky bezels.
The new iPhone you have is an oversized dual camera, housed in a matte glass square. The lenses remind me of robot eyes. The rest of the glass has a glossy finish, so this camera patch provides an interesting bit of contrast. (The iPhone 11 Pro is all matte glass on the back.)

I love the iPhone 11’s colors, which have a much more subdued vibe than the Technicolor Rainbow that makes up the iPhone XR lineup. More muted hues include mint green, a pale yellow, and a light lavender purple. You can also choose from back, white and product red.

The biggest design change in the iPhone 11 is the one you can’t see. Apple claims this phone has the toughest glass. Front and back — of any smartphone thanks to a dual-ion exchange process. Some iPhone 11 owners have complained about an easily scratched display. Though we didn’t notice any scratches on our review unit. Still, you might want to invest in an iPhone 11 screen protector or iPhone 11 case.

The device also has IP68-rated water resistance. Which means it can withstand 2 meters of water for 30 minutes. Making it one of the best waterproof phones out there. The iPhone XR can only do 1 meter. The iPhone 11 Pro ups that to 4 meters, but that’s hardly a reason to spend the extra dough.

At 5.94 x 2.98 x 0.33 inches and 6.84 ounces, the iPhone 11 is similar in size and weight to the iPhone XR. That puts the phone between the 5.8-inch iPhone 11 Pro and the 6.5-inch iPhone 11 Pro Max. Which I find to be a happy medium when it comes to immersive viewing and being able to use the phone one-handed.

Display and audio

The iPhone 11’s Liquid Retina HD display is still 6.1 inches with the same 1792 x 828 resolution as the iPhone XR. And our opinion about this panel remains unchanged. It’s fantastic for an LCD, with vibrant colors and excellent brightness. but it’s not OLED-great.

When watching a scene from Stranger Things, both. the iPhone 11’s LCD and iPhone 11 Pro OLED screens delivered rich colors and fine detail. But viewing angles were narrower on the iPhone 11. The Pro’s OLED panel delivers more blacks, creating better contrast. . .

In our lab tests, the new iPhone turned in solid results. The display registered 652 nits of brightness, better than the iPhone XR’s 589 nits. This panel registered 113% of the sRGB color gamut. It pales in comparison to some phones with OLED displays; For example, Galaxy S10 got 208.2%. OnePlus 7 Pro 180% It’s important to note, though. That Apple deliberately tunes its displays to not offer oversaturated colors.

And it’s a proper screen too. The iPhone 11’s LCD turned in a Delta-E rating of 0.22 (0 is perfect). The Galaxy S10 was slightly worse with 0.38.

When it comes to sound, the iPhone 11’s new spatial audio provides a wider soundstage. Complete with Dolby Atmos support. And for a moment I thought I was in a movie theater when I saw the trailer for John Wick 3. I could clearly hear glass shattering to my left and right as the screen crashed. And each shot echoed in my brain (for better or for worse).

The new iPhone delivered stronger audio as I listened to Weezer’s “Take On Me” alongside the Galaxy Note 10. Samsung’s handset sounds even lower in comparison.

Cameras

Apple’s iPhone cameras have recently taken a backseat to the likes of the Google Pixel 3. Huawei P30 Pro and Galaxy S10. The iPhone XR literally couldn’t hold a candle to the Pixel 3 in low light in our camera face-off. What a difference the iPhone 11 makes.

Take a look at this image of flowers and vases shot indoors in near darkness. Last year’s iPhone XS image is a faint blob of petals, while you can make out individual petals. And colors in the new iPhone shot (though there’s noticeable noise).

Thanks to a new wide camera sensor with 100 percent focus pixels and smarter software. The iPhone 11 does a better job of taking pictures in little to no light. And Night Mode turns on automatically, so you don’t have to swipe. Or tap to activate it like you do with the Android competition. With iPhone 11, you can hold the phone still for up to 3 seconds while shooting.

This shot, taken inside a dim bar, didn’t must Night Mode on our iPhone 11 or Pixel 3. But it proved a good challenge for both phones. The iPhone 11 wins in this case, as it delivers a brighter overall image. Especially in overhead lights. You can also make out more detail in the woman’s hair in the iPhone 11 photo. And the Pixel 3 has more trouble with the light behind the bottles in the upper left corner.

The other big improvement comes from the iPhone 11’s new 12-MP ultra-wide camera. Which joins the standard 12-MP camera. This feature lets you fit four times as much into the scene without backing up. Thanks to the 120-degree field of view. In a clever move, the redesigned camera interface gives you a sneak preview. What you can squeeze into the frame when you use the ultra-wide lens.

In this photo taken in Bryant Park on a cloudy day with the iPhone 11 and Galaxy Note 10. The Note 10 delivers a brighter shot overall. The grass is definitely a more vibrant green. There are other aspects that make the iPhone 11’s ultra-wide shot look better. Including sharper details and less distortion toward the edges of the frame. But in this case I prefer the Note’s image.

Apple takes Smart HDR to the next level on the iPhone 11, as machine learning understands. What the subject is and puts what you want on the face while keeping the shadows.

In this portrait of my colleague Sean. His face looks warmer and you can make out the fine lines on his forehead more easily. The Note 10’s shot is washed out. But, a piece of Shawn’s head on the right side was accidentally cut off in the iPhone 11 photo.

My only gripe with the iPhone 11 and taking portraits is that. It puts you further away from your subject than the iPhone 11 Pro. And 11 Pro, as the regular iPhone 11 lacks a telephoto lens. So, you either have to move towards your subject or accept having more background in the frame.
The one photo that won me over with the new iPhone camera versus the Note 10 is this cookie. The iPhone 11’s photo captures virtually every nook and cranny and the M&Ms really pop. While the Galaxy Note 10’s photo looks a bit washed out and over-bright.

I’m not including Google’s Pixel 3 vs. many comparisons here because the Pixel 4 is on the way. But I thought this flower shot taken with both phones at 2x digital zoom was interesting. Shots on the iPhone 11 deliver more realistic colors due to lighting conditions. Still, some may prefer Pixel 3 photos because of the darker lavender petals and slightly sharper details.

With iOS 13, iPhone 11 offers a Deep Fusion feature for pixel-by-pixel photo processing to deliver. more detail and better texture with less noise. Again, you don’t need to enable separate modes; It will only enter when you are indoors and there is enough light.

Video recording

To test the phone’s video capabilities, I walked a gravel path on a park trail, and found. That the new iPhone and Galaxy Note 10 really have no competition. While Samsung’s cameras produced more vibrant greens, colors weren’t as realistic. And you’ll find more gradations of color and contrast in the iPhone 11’s footage. You can make out more detail in the surrounding grass and leaves in the iPhone 11’s video. The Note 10 also had a bit more difficulty with lens flare.

Shooting video To feel more integrated with taking photos. Apple redesigned the iOS 13 camera interface. So you can easily capture QuickTake videos. You just hold down the shutter button to start shooting video. Then you slide your finger to the right to continue shooting that clip. Don’t worry, if you press the shutter and then slide to the left, you can still capture the burst

Performance

Apple already had the fastest CPU in a phone when the iPhone 11 was released. And that phone’s A13 Bionic processor extended the company’s lead. (The A14 Bionic in the current iPhone 12 lineup is even faster.) Apple claims the A13 chip delivers 20 percent faster performance. Than its predecessor across the board, including CPU, graphics and machine learning.

The Grimvalor game played silky smooth on the new iPhone as I hacked. Slashed and double jumped my way through this side-scrolling platformer. Even with many enemies on screen I didn’t notice any hiccups. I also enjoyed playing Angry Birds AR; I could get really close to the pig before I threw my sling shot. And didn’t notice any stuttering while walking around the level.

In Geekbench 5, a benchmark that measures overall performance. The iPhone 11 scored a single-core mark of 1,333 and a multicore score of 3,251. Compared to 736 and 2,691 for the Galaxy Note 10 Plus, respectively. The OnePlus 7 Pro scored 744 and 2,802 in the same test.

In terms of graphics performance, the iPhone 11 falls behind the top Android phones in the 3DMark benchmark app. In the Slingshot Extreme Metal portion of the test. The iPhone 11 scored 5,785 on the Slingshot Extreme Unlimited test. In comparison, the Note 10 scored 6,295 and the OnePlus 7 scored 6,375.

We also ran GFX Bench, another graphics benchmark, and this time the iPhone 11 crushed it. In the Aztec Ruins High Tier offscreen test, the iPhone 11 hit 1,481 frames (23 fps). Compared to 1,058 frames (16 fps) for the Galaxy Note 10. In the normal level version of the same test, the iPhone 11 hit 4,366/67.9 fps versus the Galaxy Note 10’s 1,486/23 fps.

To test real-world performance, we used the Adobe Rush app to edit a 4K video and then transcode it to 1080p. The iPhone 11 took just 45 seconds, which is surprisingly just as fast as last year’s iPhone XR results. However, this time still smokes the Android competition, as the Note 10 Plus took 1:34.

Battery life

iPhone 11 offers very good durability. In the Tom’s Guide battery test, which involves continuous web surfing over 4G at 150 nits of screen brightness. The iPhone 11’s battery lasted an average of 11 hours and 16 minutes. You can see how the iPhone lineup performed overall in our iPhone 11 battery life guide.