Hands-On With the New iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro Max

[BvizioN]

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.

Yeah, I get you on this one and I can imagine how it would be frustrating. Hopefully on the next iPhone.

 

[OlliFlamme]

I have a slight red/green color blindness. I see red, I see green. Just not certain shades of them. The midnight green looks a little darker than space gray, but still just gray. I have been trying to "will" my eyes into seeing the green for days. I just can't make it happen.

As per the ifixit teardown of the 11 and 11 Pro youtube clip posted here, the green is much greener irl then on marketing material. Just saying

 

[Wokis]

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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Yes, I did not say that the 11 had an OLED ;P

 

[OlliFlamme]

The irony of trolling for attention on the internet by accusing iPhone buyers of being attention seekers is cataclysmic. Enough to create a black hole.

Nah! Idiocy never will create a black hole. Otherwise we’d been spitting out of one already, for years and years...
It’s better to ignore them, otherwise you give them more resonance than they really deserve.

 

[hagar]

Very impressed with my 11 pro. Upgrading from an 6S it’s a completely new experience.

iOS 13 is great too. So many refinements and bug fixes. I had poor call quality with my 6S and lots of CarPlay reliability issues, but they all seem fixed with iOS 13.

Guess I didn’t need to upgrade after all. But at least now my midnight green phone matches my car 😂

 

[OlliFlamme]

Doesn't the 11 still function on a LCD? Afaik the bump in the battery life is because of the A13 processor.

As per the teardown of ifixit, the battery seems to be thicker than before. not sure tho if that was compared to XS...

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.

Or wait for a rumoured SE to come out in some months time...

 

[iapplelove]

The negative commenters, Freud would have had a field day. Projection, self loathing, feelings of inadequacy.

Indeed, if you don’t like the new iPhones, no problem, just don’t pay attention to them and don’t read Macrumors!

Freud was a nut job. I don’t care for the new iPhone either.

 

[The Game 161]

Loving the camera on this phone and wow night mode is something i have hoped for ages. Worth it for the camera alone.

 

[xodh]

Very impressed with my 11 pro. Upgrading from an 6S it’s a completely new experience.

iOS 13 is great too. So many refinements and bug fixes. I had poor call quality with my 6S and lots of CarPlay reliability issues, but they all seem fixed with iOS 13.

Guess I didn’t need to upgrade after all. But at least now my midnight green phone matches my car 😂

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Nice. What colour is the car?

 

[Mydel]

Anybody upgrade from a 7Plus? Been considering it but the 7Plus seems to still work ok and has 2-cameras, which is why I got it in the first place.

I had 7plus that broke few weeks ago (I also have XS) and got 11 in Red. I have to say I like it and feel it was worthy upgrade. Also I take 11 over XS. The battery life on my XS is not all that good.

 

[Mydel]

I overall think these are very good phones. The only thing that really really piss....xx me off is including the 5W USBA with iPhone 11. I mean either go with same as pro or just skip the charger and drop the price 20USD. No one is gonna use it anyway. Its really cheap move by Apple

 

[gixxerfool]

I hope after all the years of whining on these forums about Apple not making a thicker and/or heavier phone for the benefit of more battery life, people don’t start whining about the phone being too thick or heavy. It can’t be both ways.

 

[kegan forbes]

Please be honest and let us know if those who bought one feel it is true value for the money spent.

so far after the roughly first 24 hours with one not really. the phone itself is nice but the lack of 3d touch has been annoying and this is the first time since i stated using iPhones back with the 3gs that it feel rushed. the os is buggy and has issues that feel like its the beta from back at the bingeing of july and a lot of the thing i thought were fixed in the beta period seem to not be fixed in the version on the phone out of the box. i don't remember ever getting a new iPhone on launch day and things seeming this bad on the software side. I'm tempted to return mine for the first time ever in iPhone ownership. just another thing to add to the list that shows steve isn't around anymore.

 

[Expos of 1969]

so far after the roughly first 24 hours with one not really. the phone itself is nice but the lack of 3d touch has been annoying and this is the first time since i stated using iPhones back with the 3gs that it feel rushed. the os is buggy and has issues that feel like its the beta from back at the bingeing of july and a lot of the thing i thought were fixed in the beta period seem to not be fixed in the version on the phone out of the box. i don't remember ever getting a new iPhone on launch day and things seeming this bad on the software side. I'm tempted to return mine for the first time ever in iPhone ownership. just another thing to add to the list that shows steve isn't around anymore.

Have you taken many photos? In another thread there are quite a few people complaining about the noise and lack of sharpness.

 

[StoneJack]

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..

CPU and GPU.
And this is best hardware.

 

[arch1t3cton]

Thanks for the hands on review. This gen is a hard pass for me. I’m curious to see what iPhone 12 /pro will have to offer compared to this.

 

[az431]

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.

so you didn’t read the article.

 

[casavage]

Can you continue testing and reply back? I have a qualcomm iPhone X and i refuse to give it up if the 11 is plagued by the same issues that the XS and XS max had.

I sure will. Have a couple known spots where others would get cell signal and my XSMax would drop to no signal or 1x

 

[gnomeisland]

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..

Deep fusion maybe, but portrait mode and Animoji's require (at least in Apple's implementation which seems better from what I've seen then Google's earlier software-only version) a depth camera which the 8 lacks. However the X & XS do have one.

I do agree that several of these features seem reserved solely for differentiation. Deep fusion, smart HDR, and Night Mode chief among them. Sure the A13 is faster but I'm skeptical a 20% increase (best case scenario) makes or breaks software/ML features like these. It should just mean the result is spit out faster. Hence Google's night vision mode made it to a number of older phones. It worked best of their top phones but it was still an option for the others.

While this isn't the first time they've done something like this, Apple is usually better at supporting older hardware. I think it speaks to how weak this year's upgrades are. I'm not say the iPhone 11 is a bad phone, just not as big of a jump as some past years.

 

[Mactendo]

I was happily surprised to learn today the new pros are actually 4x optical zoom!

4x if you count the ultra wide lense. From regular wide to telephoto it’s still 2x.

 

[gdeusthewhizkid]

I just got mine. it delivered in mail from pre order. From my early playing with it. I don't feel like its a major upgrade from iPhone 8. Being a photographer I thought the triple camera system was worthy of the upgrade not sure because I haven't been in love with the footage I got from it already......

 

[shpankey]

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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A13, bigger battery, OLED screen, iOS 13 and Dark Mode can and do all contribute to longer battery life.

 

[VPRunner]

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.

Exactly! I dread the thought of having to upgrade from my 7 to the 11 Pro to keep the smaller size.

 

[shpankey]

I'm still on the fence... only because I know iOS and love the extra privacy/security. If not for that it would be a no brainer for other phones. But those are huge and important! The main thing I wanted was a Qualcomm modem, thinner bezels (they are gawdy now for 2019), 5g (not for now but so it will still be relevant 2 years from now, as I don't upgrade yearly), USB-C (this is hard to believe it doesn't have now), Touch Id (hate face id) or at the very least face id to work at any angle and at distance. I would also love a titanium back instead of glass (not a deal breaker) and just overall more durability on drop test (this may be the case, we'll see).

Ps. Some ingenious new feature I didn't even know I wanted until they showed me. The no hands gesture thing could be amazing if done well with a wide implementation. Stuff like that and night mode were definitely striking improvements. System sellers as the console world calls them.

 

[cmaier]

Back matte surface is definitely more slippery than the iPhone X/xs.

forgot what a pain it is to upgrade phones, even though I do it every year. I had to download two profiles for two different email providers, enter a bunch of passwords that don’t come along, reboot a couple of times when the phone-to-phone transfer got stuck,phone wouldn’t activate, and iTunes account wouldn’t activate, etc.

Anyway, now that it’s set up, I am enjoying the pro max. Camera is fantastic. Not missing 3D Touch, and I thought I would.

worth the upgrade over XS? Probably not for most people. Maybe once there is something to do with the UWB chip.