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iPhone 11 Is the iPhone 11's Liquid Retina Display a dealbreaker for you?

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luked14

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 1, 2010
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I'm considering whether or not to upgrade my iPhone X this year, mainly because I need more than 64GB of storage and longer battery life would be nice. The 128GB iPhone 11 is a great value at $749 and I'd have to spend $400 more to get the 256GB 11 Pro. I've also considered looking for a used 256GB XS.

For those who went from a X to a XR, were you so used to the OLED display that it seemed like a significant downgrade or did you get used to it quickly? I've tried out the XR's display in stores, but you can't get a great feel for something like that by only spending 5 minutes with it under fluorescent lighting.

Is anyone going from a X or XS to an 11 this year?
 
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I have an XR. With everyday use like texting, internet use, and social media it’s fine. But if you do a lot of gaming and/or YouTube video watching, then it should be a dealbreaker IMO. Good luck.
 
luked14 said:
I'm considering whether or not to upgrade my iPhone X this year, mainly because I need more than 64GB of storage and longer battery life would be nice. The 128GB iPhone 11 is a great value at $749 and I'd have to spend $400 more to get the 256GB 11 Pro. I've also considered looking for a used 256GB XS.

For those who went from a X to a XR, were you so used to the OLED display that it seemed like a significant downgrade or did you get used to it quickly? I've tried out the XR's display in stores, but you can't get a great feel for something like that by only spending 5 minutes with it under fluorescent lighting.

Is anyone going from a X or XS to an 11 this year?
Click to expand...

If you made the transition from LCD to OLED, then you truly would appreciate what OLED has to offer with blacks, but going in reverse from OLED back to LCD, you definitely will be able to see the differences in terms of what they both offer with brightness/calibration/color temp/blacks, etc. Most consumers probably wouldn’t make this transition, but then again, it depends how closely someone pays attention to the ‘tech specs’ when it comes to displays.
 
OLED screens and the deeper/truer blacks are nice to look at in general. Sometimes shadow detail is lost on OLED screens that's seen on LCDs though. Annoying when I've intentionally retouch photos to be dark with detail.

That said, my OLED experience has been with Android phones. XS seemed to be a bit better in this scenario when I pulled up some photos in the display models. Looking forward to the 11 Pro.
 
For my usage, the LCD was perfectly fine for me in the short time I used it. The issue I had with the XR was the increased bezel size coming from the X. I gave it a little over a week and couldn't settle.
 
If not for the telephoto lens and OLED, I would be on the XR/11 track. The blacks on the OLED screen are wonderful, and I have been using the telephoto lense extensively since the 8+
 
For me personally, yes it is a deal breaker. At first I was planning on getting the 11 but when I compared OLED to LCD and though about what I use my phone for (a lot of video and with the advent of Apple Arcade even more games) I decided it was worth the price premium.
 
I was caught between the 11 and 11 pro. I went into my local Apple store and compared the XR to the XS and also against my 7 plus. In the end I went with the 11 as I thought the LCD screen looked great and saved myself over £500, as if I went pro I would have gone for the max 256gb.

I will soon have an 11 to use for the 12 months which is an upgrade over my 7 plus and next year I can always upgrade to the “new design” if there is one, or keep it for a couple years and then get the S version of the new design/next years phone.

Having said that you will be coming from an X so the only thing you can do is go and have a look at an XR and your X in an Apple store and compare them. Yes the OLED screen is better, no question but for me the additional cost just wasn’t worth the better screen and extra camera. I can use the money I’ve saved to upgrade in the future.
 
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This post will be of no help, but I don't even know what my current iPhone 6s has in terms of a screen, and I also don't know what any of the phones have in terms of screen technology. So the answer for me is, no. :)
 
For me, it's not at all a dealbreaker. Where I live, IF I'm lucky, we get one to two bars of reception - that's with my wife's current iPhone 8. (Her 11 is on order.)

IF I'm lucky, I get one bar with my XS...and usually I'm not lucky. Additionally, given the reception issues, it saps the battery far quicker.

So for me, personally, given I mainly make calls/play games/pay bills/some work admin stuff with the phone, I'll take improved battery life, reception, and such over deeper blacks on my phone.
 
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For me the deal breaker is simply that the XR and 11 have bigger bezels thus making the phone bigger. If they had the same size bezels as the 11 Pro, I don't really care about the PPI or the LED vs OLED.
 
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luked14 said:
I'm considering whether or not to upgrade my iPhone X this year, mainly because I need more than 64GB of storage and longer battery life would be nice. The 128GB iPhone 11 is a great value at $749 and I'd have to spend $400 more to get the 256GB 11 Pro. I've also considered looking for a used 256GB XS.

For those who went from a X to a XR, were you so used to the OLED display that it seemed like a significant downgrade or did you get used to it quickly? I've tried out the XR's display in stores, but you can't get a great feel for something like that by only spending 5 minutes with it under fluorescent lighting.

Is anyone going from a X or XS to an 11 this year?
Click to expand...
I have the XR and have no issues. In fact I love my phone. But I don't play games and getting up in age. For the money I saved I would buy the RX again. You might say I did buy it again since I have a new 11 coming Friday for my wife.
A poor man should always spend wisely..... I guess there are those that won't take my advise.
 
I have an iPhone X and I compared the regular iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro side by side. I'm already quite good at detecting visual differences, but for the life of me, I can barely see any difference between the two displays. The Pro did have a tint of yellow for some reason, and dark areas were ever slightly more detailed, but I had to strain to notice the differences. Is it me or am I missing something? I couldn't even notice the difference in resolution.
 
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The OLED is a slightly better display, but at a +$400 (If you want more than 64GB) premium for a slightly better display and a telephoto lens is laughable. The iPhone 11 is the best buy and it’s really not close. the LCD is very very good.
 
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I would really struggle to choose LCD over OLED if I were buying today, but the price differential is hard to ignore. Plus the vanilla 11 is available in 128GB rather than the all or nothing 64/256 shenanigans of the Pro. That annoys me almost enough to not buy.
 
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I had an Xs Max and just got the iPhone 11...couldn't be happier. Not a gamer, but do watch some video's on the phone and have no regrets on getting the 11.

Do not let anyone else's opinion sway you, check it out for yourself...and decide what is best for you.
 
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For me it's an honest "I dunno."

A bit more info:

Back in March I 'upgraded' from an iPhone 8 to a Galaxy S10e. I loved the reception and speed, but the phone just was not reliable - had multiple reboots/issues with it.

In May I traded it in for an XS 256Gb.....and while I love the phone, the reception is crap. (Having done some research, I know why) My wife's 8+ gets quite a bit better reception.

Her new 11 will be here Thursday; and I'll set it up, play with it some, do some signal strenth/display testing, etc. If it's merely 'as good' as her 8+ has been, and the screen doesn't drive me bonkers, then I'll likely trade my XS in on the 11. I mean yeah, I'd love a screen with 'deeper blacks' and the like, but in the end, it's a PHONE first and foremost, and if it excels at everything BUT its base purpose...then I might as well have a tablet or computer. I'd rather own something cheaper with a worse screen that will still get better reception.
 
I finally decided to go out and see these newfangled devices you've all been talking about since last Friday.

Holding my 6S in one hand and the 11 in the other, adjusting the brightness to match and turning off true-tone (on the 11), the display looked great on the new phone. A bit sharper and the fonts a bit larger. Plus one can get more on the screen.

I then compared the 11 to the Pro Max. Same as before, I set the settings to the same (the store ones all have max brightness set) and there wasn't a huge amount of difference. Colours looked a touch better, and the blacks a touch blacker/darker (as expected for OLED). Nothing that would bother me. Side by side, even the bezel differences didn't bother me. I don't like nor use dark-mode so that could be another reason why the LCD is fine for me.

For a simple comparison, I went into Safari and looked at the BBC news webpage.

Once I pick a colour, I'll be buying an 11 (non-pro).
 
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