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So they removed features, continue to keep displays with PWM, iOS 13 is behind competitors in features and this has virtually the same design as phones from the past 2 years but this is supposed to be a “Pro” model? Wow.

+ they keep a very old low-res LCD on their basic model. It doesn't matter when you have fans "upgrading"
from a 5 year old model forced (happy?) to convince themselves that:

I upgraded from an iPhone 8+ to the iPhone 11...
- The drop in pixel density from the 8 isn't noticeable at the range I typically hold the phone at, and it's offset by improvements to contrast.
 
So they removed features, continue to keep displays with PWM, iOS 13 is behind competitors in features and this has virtually the same design as phones from the past 2 years but this is supposed to be a “Pro” model? Wow.
Explain how the cameras, silicon, GPU, and display quality are behind competitors.

Explain in detail how iOS is behind competitors and be sure to discuss privacy, security, updates, and smooth operation. If you start talking about customization of icons and other nonsense, you will be ignored.
 
Better to wait for iPhone 12 series that will potentially come with Qualcomm radio, have in-screen Touch ID, no or smaller notch, reverse wireless charging, better new color options than green, more DRAM and base storage, pencil support, etc.

Sorry but under Tim Cook’s leadership that will all take another 2-3 release cycles to come to fruition. Gotta reuse the same housing style and screen notches for as long as possible. All about the supply chain!
 
There was a line outside my local store. Not a very big one, but even at 10 min to close there were about 10-15 people still in line.

Store was crowded.

I managed to get a good look at the phones. Some observations, because I know everyone has been eagerly waiting to hear what I think.

- The matte finish on the back of the pro phones is very slippery.
- The sides on the 11 are slippery (not different from the XR).
- Midnight green is not my color, for sure. Space Gray looks best to me.
- The green 11 looks much better in person than the pictures, and would probably be my pick if I were to get one.
- The sides of the yellow 11 look a lot better than the XR.

In the end, if I had to buy a phone, I would get the 8. These new ones are all too heavy.
 
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I don’t know why I’m surprised to see Sonics negativity/trolling here, but it is disappointing. These phones have been getting great reviews — the best I recall in years — and they represent serious innovation for those who care about photography. That’s not to say any particular person should care — many of you won’t, and that’s fine. But understand that for some of us, this is exactly what we wanted.
 
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In the end, if I had to buy a phone, I would get the 8. These new ones are all too heavy.

I agree with this sentiment. Even after a year with my iPhone XS, it still feels too bulky and heavy for my tastes. It’s uncomfortable to hold in one hand or carry in shorts pockets. When I pick up my girlfriend’s 8, it feels like a breath of fresh air.
 
Have to say the “matte finish” or frosted glass has a feeling that resembles the iPhone 5 backing, for those wondering. Was never a fan of the material used for this series, especially coming from iPhone 4s at the time. Really felt a little jarring, after being so used to glossy. I still think glossy feels more premium and less slippery. Hoping 2020 will bring it back for the pro iPhones. Personally I want that shininess, if I am purchasing something this expensive.
 
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This was the WORST iPhone transition EVER, and I've had quite a few. Nothing I could do would cause the iPhone to activate. Looked online, which was of no help. None. And none of the top search hits came from Apple. Verizon's list wasn't even close to what I was prompted to do with the new phone. I finally just took out the SIM card from the old phone, put it in the new one, and it started working. I did a restore from a very new back up, but, as everyone knows, app's aren't restored... they all have to be downloaded.. WTF? What. A. Waste. Then a lot of the songs on my old iPhone were not copied to the new one, and it seemed songs purchased on iTunes were the worst offenders. I OWN these songs, and kept getting a message like "this song not authorized in this region" or some crap. Finally decided to re-sync the phone, and download all the songs to the new phone. Forget "It Just Works". NOTHING just works anymore. Why on earth would Apple think that "Restoring" and "Syncing" should be 2 different processes? When I think of RESTORE, I think of a complete and total replication of what was there before, not shells of apps, and songs that don't play. This is bad Apple, really, really bad.
 
It's quite confusing for people to choose which iPhone to buy. Suddenly, the iPhone 11 isn't that good by morphing into XR which cause a little bit of fragmentation plus the customer felt like a huge downgrade in comparison to an iPhone 10s despite with minor price cut. Apple sells a pro model only because of extra lenses that most people won't find it very useful.
 



It's iPhone launch day, which means the new iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max are now in the hands of customers.

We picked up a new iPhone 11 and an iPhone 11 Pro Max for an unboxing and quick first impressions overview to give MacRumors readers who are still considering a purchase or waiting on their new phone a look at the updated devices.


Our iPhone 11 Pro Max is in midnight green, the popular new color that sold out within just a few minutes after preorders went live. Midnight green is greener on camera than it looks in real life, and in some lighting, it's quite similar to space gray.

This is the first new color Apple has introduced for its high-end iPhone in years, and it's a rather safe choice because of its subtlety. There's also a new matte finish on the Pro models, which gives them a frosted look.

iphone11and11promax-800x450.jpg

Apple introduced two new iPhone 11 colors this year: purple and green. Our iPhone 11 is the purple color, which is a soft lavender shade that's quite pretty.

iphone11-800x450.jpg

Unboxing the new iPhones is standard procedure and there's nothing that jumps out as new, but the iPhone 11 Pro Max (and the 11 Pro) come with a new 18W USB-C charger and a USB-C to Lightning cable instead of the traditional 5W charger.

With that new 18W cable, the iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max support fast charging right out of the box. You can charge an iPhone 11 Pro or Pro Max to 50 percent in 30 minutes. The iPhone 11, of course, supports the same fast charging, but it still ships with a 5W charger and a standard USB-A to Lightning cable.

iphone11promax-800x450.jpg

The iPhone 11 Pro Max is heavier than the iPhone XS Max, and just a bit thicker. The extra weight isn't too noticeable, but it's worth noting that the Pro Max is Apple's heaviest iPhone to date. All that weight is attributable to a thicker, heavier battery and a major increase in battery life - the iPhone 11 Pro Max lasts 5 hours longer than the XS Max, and the 11 Pro lasts 4 hours longer than the XS.

iphone11proxsmax-800x450.jpg

Apple's iPhone 11 also has a longer battery life than the previous-generation iPhone XR, but it's just an hour longer because the XR already had pretty awesome battery life.

The iPhone 11 Pro Max looks similar to last year's iPhone XS Max from the front, but the back stands out because of the new triple-lens camera system and the relocated Apple logo, which is now in the center. There was some chatter that the logo was relocated for bilateral wireless charging, but that's ultimately not a feature that the iPhones launched with.

iphonexriphone11-800x450.jpg

There's also a new dual-lens camera in the iPhone 11, so it too looks different from last year's iPhone XR. The new camera in both iPhones is an ultra wide-angle camera lens that lets you get super wide shots for landscapes, taking photos of architecture, and, well, anything else. It's a neat new camera feature and we're going to delve into it more in a dedicated camera video.

iphone11cameras-800x450.jpg

Perhaps the most interesting new camera feature is the new Night mode, which is designed to take crisp, clear shots in low lighting conditions using machine learning and photo aggregation techniques. We'll be testing this out later too, but so far, it looks promising.

11promaxnightmode-800x900.jpg

When it comes to the display, the iPhone 11 features the same LCD display as the iPhone XR, but the Pro has a Super Retina XDR display capable of 1200 nits of peak brightness, which is going to be noticeable when it comes to HDR. It's not a big difference, though. The iPhone 11 display isn't as good as the iPhone 11 Pro's display, but it's definitely good enough for most people given the iPhone 11's much lower price point.

3D Touch is gone in all of the new iPhones this year, replaced with Haptic Touch. Haptic Touch does a lot of what 3D Touch does, but it's an adjustment because there's no pressure sensitivity.

Apple says Face ID is 30 percent faster in the new iPhones, and it does seem quicker. Face ID is also supposed to work from more angles, but it still doesn't seem to work from flat on a desk and it still needs to be pointed in the general direction of your face.

All of the new iPhone models use an updated 12-megapixel front-facing camera and there are some notable updates. You can turn the iPhone to landscape mode to capture a wider shot, which is great for group selfies, and there's a new slo-mo camera so you can capture what Apple calls "Slofies." On the iPhone 11, since there are now two cameras, Portrait mode works with all kinds of objects and not just people like it did in the XR.

Apple introduced a new A13 chip in the 2019 iPhones, but last year's iPhones were so quick that it's tough to notice a difference in performance in real-world everyday usage. When it comes to gaming, photography, and AR, though, you may see some faster speeds.

All in all, the iPhone 11, 11 Pro, and 11 Pro Max aren't wildly different from last year's devices in terms of design and internal components, but the camera has received some major updates that really set these new iPhones apart from last year's models. Those who are heavily into iPhone photography might want to update, but the camera-focused update may not appeal to the average user who already has an iPhone XS, XS Max, XR, or even an iPhone X or iPhone 8.

iPhone users who have an older iPhone like a 5, 6, or 7 model will see more satisfying changes, and for these models, the $699 iPhone 11 is the most logical and cost effective update.

Did you get one of Apple's new iPhones? Let us know what you think in the comments. Stay tuned to MacRumors next week because we'll have more video coverage of the new iPhones, including a deep dive into the cameras.

Article Link: Hands-On With the New iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro Max

Would love to see the scratch tests and drop tests posted again this year Macrumors. Can't find any just yet, just fake ones from sad YouTuber wannabes.

EDIT: I have now found one if anyone else is interested:

 
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Better to wait for iPhone 12 series that will potentially come with Qualcomm radio, have in-screen Touch ID, no or smaller notch, reverse wireless charging, better new color options than green, more DRAM and base storage, pencil support, etc.
I don’t think the in-screen TouchID (3rd Gen?) will be a feature on next year’s iPhone 12 Pro/12 Pro Max. It’s probably a safe bet, but not 100% guaranteed that the notch will become smaller or disappear completely to differentiate next year’s iPhone from this year’s iPhone. I wouldn’t be surprised if the regular iPhone 11 gets replaced by a similar looking 11s, perhaps adopting the three camera lens setup of the 11 Pro in addition to the A14 from the iPhone 12 Pro. Apple will want the spotlight more on the redesigned 12 Pro/12 Pro Max. All of next year’s iPhones will most likely get 5G, but the extra DRAM will probably be limited to the 12 Pro/12 Pro Max, probably necessitated by the addition of the time of flight camera. A ProMotion display will probably also be limited to the Pro models (makes sense doesn’t it). Reverse wireless charging could possibly be enabled on the current Pro models unless Apple discovered a potential safety hazard with the components they used at the last moment and decided to keep it a ghost feature.
 
Explain how the cameras, silicon, GPU, and display quality are behind competitors.

Explain in detail how iOS is behind competitors and be sure to discuss privacy, security, updates, and smooth operation. If you start talking about customization of icons and other nonsense, you will be ignored.

So I have to explain something to you within your constraints? Ok let’s say for arguments sake iOS 13 is on par with competitors. Which it’s not. The rest of what I said still stands.
 
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Please be honest and let us know if those who bought one feel it is true value for the money spent.
I would tell you but I can't activate the phone. It is an upgrade and comes with the number but it won't activate and I cannot find any help online. It is too late to call. If anyone can help Id be grateful.
 
So I have to explain something to you within your constraints? Ok let’s say for arguments sake iOS 13 is on par with competitors. Which it’s not. The rest of what I said still stands.
The constraints you seem to find so onerous are ones that iPhone users all use, and the first 2 are clearly ones where Apple is better than Android (and arguably the last one too but I don't feel like dying on that hill). So I guess Baymowe's point was there are things we prefer about iOS while not caring about the usual things Android users claim is so much better than iOS.

Obviously, there may be many really great features that would make Android vastly superior to iOS, and you could easily explain them but you seem to have passively aggressively chosen to duck the chance to make your case.

I don't see what was particularly interesting or innovative about the big Android phones that came out this year or even last year for that matter. There aren't any Android features I really wish I had on iPhone in the way I would love to have Face ID if Android had it (and which i did envy about Android phones until I found out they were too insecure to be usable). But once again, feel free to explain what's really interesting or innovative on the Android phones out there right now I am missing out on. The big things I can think of are in screen Touch ID which seems markedly inferior in every way to Face ID and reverse wireless charging which right now at least seems like a feature I will never use.
 
No kidding. I personally have no lost love for Samsung phones but nor do I waste my time going to any Samsung/Android forums bashing it.
I honestly have no idea why every Apple site seems filled with Android users who love bashing Apple. I am not saying they have to like Apple, but I just don't get why they care enough to waste their time on here. It wouldn't be so bad if they seemed to know what they're talking about, but for the most part they don't seem to really understand the products they're ranting about (it's so tedious reading comments about Face ID by people who've clearly never used it for example) and most of their comments sound the same.
 
Honestly for everyone, I have been upgrading my iPhone religiously on launch day every year. This year was not different. But apart of the introduction of the new iPhone which was probably the less spectacular I have seen, the new iPhone 11 (pro in this case) as really nothing fundamentally different from my old one. I am using it today and there is nothing new. It’s like Pepsi and Diet Coke. In a blind test, you wouldn’t see the difference. The same applies here. I don’t see a difference in the phone in my hand from this morning (iPhone 10xs max) to the phone I have this afternoon (11 pro max)
 
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They still can’t make Face ID in an iPhone perform as well as my iPad Pro gen 3. That device picks my face up from almost any angle lying flat on a table, and quickly.

On the iPad, it completely makes sense, since you unlock the iPad on any orientation, a matter of fact, I don't even notice where the camera is when I unlock my iPad Pro, and most of the times it indicates that I am covering with my fingers on the side. That is definitely not the case with iPhones and I personally find very very little use for that on iPhones. For starters, I always unlock my iPhone on a portrait mode, and I know where the camera is (hint-that notch) The only times when I need side unlocking is when I use it on my Mavic drone remote.
That all being said, I agree is nice to have a more capable Face ID and I am sure with the next-gen they will achieve that, but right now for me personally is not a big deal.
 
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iPhone users who have an older iPhone like a 5, 6, or 7 model will see more satisfying changes, and for these models, the $699 iPhone 11 is the most logical and cost effective update.
Unfortunately, if one wants to stay at the same size of device, the 11 Pro is the logical choice. I have a 7, i find it already almost too big. The 11 Pro is the smallest iPhone right now, and I’ll have to spend that much more than the 11 just for that privilege.
 
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Pretty awesome in-depth explanation there ;) From what I gather it’s because most progress come from improved OLED tech and bigger batteries, in which the 11 lacks the former and gains the least of the latter.
Doesn't the 11 still function on a LCD? Afaik the bump in the battery life is because of the A13 processor.
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Apple's decision to not continue to support older phones like my 6 isn't appreciated but it got the results they wanted in that I updated to be able to continue to get security updates and the other benefits of iOS13 and later. I am indeed a photographer and am looking forward to the new camera(s) but I do think it would be better for Apple to continue to support older hardware. 256gb 11 Pro Max is on the way. Wanted red. Got grey :).
I am glad they didn't support the 6. It is really slow on the 12 and let's be honest, it's a VERY old phone now. Tech gets outdated very fast.
 
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On the iPad, it completely makes sense, since you unlock the iPad on any orientation, a matter of fact, I don't even notice where the camera is when I unlock my iPad Pro, and most of the times it indicates that I am covering with my fingers on the side. That is definitely not the case with iPhones and I personally find very very little use for that on iPhones. For starters, I always unlock my iPhone on a portrait mode, and I know where the camera is (hint-that notch) The only times when I need side unlocking is when I use it on my Mavic drone remote.
That all being said, I agree is nice to have a more capable Face ID and I am sure with the next-gen they will achieve that, but right now for me personally is not a big deal.
I often use my XS MAX for navigation in lanscape mode using local app called Yanosik. When phone call comes, the screen goes to call display mode, and if the call is long, it gets dark and locked. After the call is finished the display remains dark and locked, so I have to go back to Yanosik manually. To unlock the phone I have to key in my code because FaceID does not work in landscape mode. It shouldn't be really difficult to have it working, but maybe I am one of very few that need it.
 
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Explain how the cameras, silicon, GPU, and display quality are behind competitors.

Explain in detail how iOS is behind competitors and be sure to discuss privacy, security, updates, and smooth operation. If you start talking about customization of icons and other nonsense, you will be ignored.

I didn't write that post but let me give you my take on it.

Hardware:
Price point to price point Apple hardware is not up to par with competitors, apart from CPU. When it comes to screens its just frustrating to have any phone above $500 (or tbh above 200) launch with a screen worse than 1080p. Especially because the only reason for it is that Apple needs to differentiate the XR /11 from the XS/11 Pro.

The CPU is the best every year, likely do to vertical integration and very efficient low level code. Apple uses this to give themselves a loooooot of headroom as iOS13 will run just fine on 3 year old hardware just fine. Despite that many of the newest features won't make it to older generations (Deep Fusion, Portrait modes, using iPad as secondary display, Animojis) only to create differentiation.

An iPhone 8 could likely do Deep Fusion, Portrait modes and Animojis, but Apple doesn't bother enabling it, so the iPhone 8's amazing hardware won't be used. I know the reaction to this is going to be how it is hardware limited, but just look at what Google and Snapchat can do with much worse hardware..
 
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