iPhone 11 offers outstanding photos, videos and extra €350 in your pocket
The iPhone 11 shares a lot of what makes the iPhone 11 Pros so good, including the incredibly powerful A13 Bionic processor, and all for a starting price that’s €350 less than the iPhone 11 Pro.
The iPhone 11 looks similar to last year’s iPhone XR albeit with some new finishing touches. Thankfully, Apple didn’t discontinue the XR because it’s still an excellent phone, but instead, it now sells for €100 less than the iPhone 11.
There’s a choice of six colours including white, black, green, yellow, purple and red. My review unit is green and it looks and feels premium with a polished glass black instead of the frosted finish found on the pro models. Also, the rounded section for the cameras is frosted instead of polished.
Unlike the pro models, the iPhone 11 has what Apple calls a 6.1-inch Liquid Retina LCD display with a less than full HD display of 1792 x 828 pixels. As LCD displays go, this is as good as it gets and features True Tone, a wide colour gamut and up to 625 nits of maximum brightness and a contrast ratio of 1400:1. This display is class-leading for an LCD and manages excellent colour accuracy. Obviously, when you compare this screen with the iPhone 11 Pro there’s a clear difference since the latter has an OLED panel, but in isolation, I don’t think too many will be concerned about the screen resolution.
The screen comes to life when you watch videos and more especially with the awesome spatial audio that comes out of the speakers that also supports Dolby Atmos.
The iPhone 11 comes with 64GB, 128GB or 256GB of storage. You’ll pay an extra €50 for the 128GB model, which I think is the sweet spot, especially if you like to shoot a lot of 4K videos.
Just like the pro models you have wireless charging and fast charging. Unfortunately, you don’t get the 18W fast charger in the box like the Pro’s come with. Instead, it comes with the standard 5W charger. This is a pity and puzzling as to why Apple would intentionally limit users to slower charging speeds. The 18W chargers are available separately for €35, plus you also need a USB-C to Lightning cable for €25.
The iPhone 11 also gets a bump up in its waterproof rating of IP68, meaning it should be fine if submerged in two metres of water for up to 30 minutes.
The iPhone 11 has the same two cameras found in the pro models but lacks the 2x optical lens. Instead, it has a 12MP wide and ultra-wide lenses. Some would have preferred a 2x lens, but I think most will be happier having a wide-angle lens instead. Like the other models, you now have much better low light performance over previous generations. You also get Night Mode, which works exceptionally, taking stunning photos that would not have been possible on older iPhones. I love that features like night mode are done automatically leaving the user to worry about subject matter and composition while letting the iPhone take care of the technical stuff. This makes for a far more enjoyable user experience that most users will prefer. Deep Fusion is also a new feature — AI evoked technology that works by taking multiple exposures in super-quick succession and then overlapping and merging them together to give you a photo that has less noise and more detail.
The iPhone 11 is one of the best smartphones for taking video. It offers 4K that includes 24, 30 and 60fps with image stabilisation that looks as good as if it were shot with a gimbal. Also new, thanks to some updates post-launch, is you can now change frame rates and resolution from within the camera app. Previously, you had to go into settings to change camera settings like this.
The front-facing camera is also 12MP and capable of 1080p resolution at 30 or 60fps and slow-motion video capture.
Battery life is excellent on the Pro Max, which I reviewed recently and although the 11 doesn’t match this, I was still able to manage a full day of moderately heavy use.
The iPhone 11 offers outstanding photos and videos, has great battery life, a solid screen and superb audio running on one of the fastest systems currently available on a smartphone. If you want the ultimate, get the 11 Pro Max, but if you want value for money without sacrificing too much, then the iPhone 11 is the one to go for.
