IPhone Review

2017 was the primary year in which Apple released three new iPhone models at an equivalent event. While the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus marked a natural progression within the iPhone lineup, the fresh iPhone X with Face ID — and no home button — provided users a glimpse at the future of the iPhone.

Last year, Apple tripled down thereon design by releasing three different models that each one seemed like the iPhone X.

The iPhone XR was, of course, supposed to be this model, though Apple's naming scheme didn't really seem to suggest that. The iPhone XR was instead seen by many as the iPhone to purchase if you couldn't afford the iphoneXS or iPhone XS Max , which was obviously unfair, as the device — though not without its share of compromises, most notably the low-resolution display — was a reasonably darn good phone in its title .

Free from the shackles of its 'S cycle' names, Apple had the prospect to rebrand the iPhone lineup this year to clarify these new realities, and it did just that at the iPhone launch event earlier this month. As we noted earlier, company executives spent a fair amount of time establishing the iPhone 11 — which is the successor to last year's iPhone XR, just in case anyone reading this didn't know that already — as the iPhone for most people.

Underlining that appeal is a lower starting price — both in the US and in India — than that of the iPhone XR, addressing another criticism of last year's iPhone lineup. Can the iPhone 11 repose on the newly found momentum of the iPhone XR to offer Apple a much-needed hit within the Indian market? Read on to find out.

IPhone 11 design and display

Save for the dual-camera setup at the back and new colour finishes, the iPhone 11 looks identical to the iPhone XR. The two have the exact same dimensions (150.9x75.7x8.3mm) and weight (194g), and one could easily be mistaken for the other when seen straight on. Like before, the bezels on all sides of the display are noticeable, but not large enough to be a distraction.

The iPhone 11 is formed out of aluminium and glass — once more , the “toughest glass a smartphone, front and back,” consistent with Apple. Not everything is the same though, as Apple has decided to mix it up when it comes to the colours. The iPhone 11 will be available in new purple and green colour finishes, in addition to the yellow, black, white, and (Product) red colours also seen on the iPhone XR.

Though the colours that have been carried forward have the same names as before, the iPhone 11 finishes are a couple of shades lighter and less shiny than their iPhone XR counterparts. That's not necessarily a bad thing, and whether you approve of this change — or even notice it — will come down to your own taste.

Like last year, the bezels on all colour variants are black, unlike the iPhone 8 (and many earlier models) where opting for the silver and gold colour variants meant living with white bezels. A hint of the colour comes through to the front from all four sides.

Ok, we've waited long enough, let's talk about the camera bump — or more accurately, the camera island. At the top-left corner of the back of this phone is a squarish area that houses two cameras, the True Tone flash, and a mic. This area has a textured matte finish — compared to the glossy finish of the rest of the back — and is slightly raised compared to the rest of the body, with the two lenses jutting out even further.

As is the case with all phones that have camera bumps, using the iPhone 11 while it's lying flat on a surface makes it wobble, but the large bump, in fact, makes it more stable than the iPhone XR. Interestingly, Apple has dropped the ‘iPhone' branding from the rear of the phones, with the Apple logo now featured at the centre.

The display is another area during which the iPhone 11 is just like the iPhone XR. This means you get a 6.1-inch LCD panel which, while best-in-class in terms of colour accuracy, brightness, and viewing angles, doesn't have anywhere near the resolution or pixel density of its costlier siblings, or for that matter many Android phones that cost about one-sixth of the iPhone 11's selling price .

The LCD panel, doesn't have the richer blacks of the OLED panels on the iPhone XS and iPhone 11 Pro models.It neither does it offer the dynamic range to allow you to view HDR content altogether its glory. However, it does support the P3 wide colour gamut and Apple's True Tone technology, which adapts the display's colour tone based on ambient light conditions.

The maximum brightness of the panel on the iPhone 11 is rated at 625 nits, less than that of the costlier iPhone 11 Pro duo. In side-by-side comparisons within the same ambient lighting conditions, the iPhone 11 typically looked brighter than the iPhone 11 Pro Max, but that's often the case when viewing an LCD panel alongside an OLED panel. The iPhone 11 Pro Max can, hit much higher brightness levels i.e 800 nits under typical conditions, and 1200 nits when watching HDR content.

iPhone 11 specifications, performance, and battery life

While the iPhone 11 shares its exterior with the iPhone XR, it packs a couple of improvements under the hood. For starters, it's powered by Apple's fresh A13 Bionic chip which, Apple says, features two performance cores that are up to twenty percent faster than their equivalents in the A12 Bionic powering the previous-generation iPhone models, and spend to 30 percent less power.

The four efficiency cores in the A13 Bionic use up to 40 percent less power than their A12 equivalents, while offering performance improvements of up to 20 percent. Apple is claiming similar numbers — 20 percent faster, 40 percent more power efficient relative to the A12 — with the GPU in the A13.

An increasing number of apps use machine learning to enable new functionalities, and with Apple's focus on privacy and on-device computing, the machine learning capabilities of the iPhone's hardware are arguably more important than those of any other device. With that in mind, Apple has equipped the A13 Bionic with a neural engine that's up to 20 percent faster, while using up to 15 percent less power.

Further boosting the machine learning capabilities of the A13 Bionic are two machine learning accelerators on the CPU designed to speed up specific tasks. Apple's newest chip also includes a new machine learning controller for scheduling machine learning tasks across these units.

So what does this mean in the real world? As expected, the iPhone 11 handled everything that we threw at it without any problems. Playing games like Asphalt 9: Legends was a breeze, with plenty of detail clearly visible throughout all areas, and an expectedly stutter-free experience in even the busiest of scenes.

Android flagships are only now starting to come close to the benchmark scores recorded by last year's iPhone models, and the A13 Bionic-powered 2019 iPhones are set to move the goalposts even further. The iPhone 11 scored 5,469 and 13,550 in Geekbench 4's single- and multi-core tests, which is around 20 percent above the fastest Android smartphones out there immediately .

In 3DMark Sling Shot Extreme Unlimited — which is employed to check raw CPU and GPU power — the iPhone 11 scored 97,510 points, which is quite 50 percent higher than what we have seen on any Android smartphone, which underlines Apple's lead in terms of silicon engineering.

The iPhone 11 comes in 64GB (Rs. 64,900), 128GB (Rs. 69,900), and 256GB (Rs. 79,900) storage options, a bit like the iPhone XR did at its launch. The phone is now rated IP68 for water and mud resistance — the XR was IP67 — and will be ready to survive at a depth of two metres for up to 30 minutes, though Apple's warranty still won't cover water damage.

There's support for Gigabit-class LTE — if you'll find the networks to travel with it — and therefore the iPhone 11 family supports Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5, which makes them reasonably future-proof in the wireless department. Apple says the iPhone 11 trio also support “Bluetooth beamforming”, which should enable up to 45 percent more range than the iPhone XR when streaming audio.

All three new iPhone models support Dolby Atmos, which elevates the media consumption experience, especially when you are viewing content that's encoded for this standard. Even while listening to music, podcasts, or watching typical YouTube videos, the stereo speakers get sufficiently loud.

The iPhone 11 trio accompany identical Face ID capabilities for unlocking themselves during a fast and secure manner. Like before, Face ID works flawlessly in all kinds of lightning conditions, even when it's pitch dark. Apple claims that with iOS 13, Face ID is up to 30 percent faster, offers greater range, and “support for more angles”.

We found it hard to verify these claims, especially since we had no Face ID-related complaints to begin with. One thing that's missing is the ability to unlock the phone in any orientation, like you can with the latest iPad Pro models, but that's understandable as we don't expect to pick up and start using a phone in landscape mode.

The iPhone 11 models ship with a fresh Apple U1 chip that's capable of taking advantage of spatial and directional awareness to, say, allow you to point your iPhone at another user and have them show up because the given name within the list of AirDrop recipients once you try to share a photograph during a room filled with Apple devices. Your intended recipient also will got to have a tool with the U1 chip. That's one use case that we all know of thus far , but there are potentially other scenarios like integration with Apple's rumoured Tile-like tagging device and other smart home devices that would emerge within the future.

Apart from Face ID-related improvements, iOS 13 also brings a number of changes like system-wide Dark Mode; revamped Photos and Reminders apps; enhancements to the Messages app; the power to offer Siri an Indian voice; and more. For a more in-depth check out iOS 13.

Though Apple doesn't officially reveal the battery sizes (or amounts of RAM) of iOS devices, the battery on the iPhone 11 is claimed to be marginally bigger than that of the iPhone XR. However, the facility efficiency of the A13 Bionic really shines through, because the iPhone 11 managed to last 15 hours and 20 minutes in our HD battery loop test, which is strictly two hours quite what the iPhone XR managed.

In terms of day-to-day usage, that ought to translate to the iPhone 11 easily lasting through each day of medium to heavy use, and still having an honest amount of juice left within the tank at the top of the day. If you're a light-weight user, you'll potentially get through two full days before reaching for the charger.

Though Apple has finally fixed one among our long-standing complaints by bundling faster chargers with the iPhone 11 Pro models, the iPhone 11 disappointingly still comes with only a 5W charger within the box. This makes the phone extremely slow to charge.

In half-hour , the bundled charger took the phone from empty to only 18 percent — and to only 33 percent in hour — which is painfully slow. A full charge from empty took over three-and-a-half hours. Initially we thought that a minimum of a number of this might right down to iOS 13's new ‘Optimised Battery Charging' setting — turned on out of the box — which will hamper charging past 80 percent to enhance the long-term health of your phone's battery. However, even with the setting turned off, the charging speeds were no better. there is no excuse for shipping a 5W charger with a phone in 2019, and that we wish Apple had stopped doing this two years ago. The iPhone 11 does support faster charging, so you'll pair it with another charger for a far better experience

The iPhone 11 trio also support wireless charging with speeds that are like last year's models.

iPhone 11 cameras

Arguably the most important improvements that the iPhone 11 brings are within the camera department. This has been achieved with a mixture of hardware and software enhancements. a replacement Ultra Wide camera with an f/2.4 lens and 12-megapixel sensor is paired with an improved 12-megapixel f/1.8 standard Wide camera. It's this new, improved Wide camera sensor that also enables Night Mode, one among the headline features of the iPhone 11 trio.

Until around five years ago, the iPhone was by all accounts the simplest camera smartphone around.The most recent iPhone models still hold their own in most scenarios in one area where Apple has fallen behind the competition has been low light photography.

Capturing images using digital devices like smartphones has always been about making a series of selections using mathematical equations, and your choices impact the resulting images. Image processing algorithms are wont to determine simple things, like “How green should this green be?,” and more basic stuffs just like the overall brightness levels of a whole images.

Looking at photos captured using successive iPhones, it seems from the surface that Apple's philosophy has been about reproducing colours and lighting conditions that accurately represent a scene, albeit the resulting images don't look as pleasing to the attention as those captured by the competition. While Google, Samsung, and Huawei — among others — are using their implementations of Night Mode to show nearly pitch-black frames into scenes as well-lit as a movie set, Apple has been reluctant to travel down that road.

The iPhone 11 trio bring Apple's own implementation of Night Mode, though the corporate insists it still wants to capture photographs that represent what it had been wish to be at that place at the time by capturing the “emotion” of a scene, retaining original colours, and without destroying any sense of your time and place.

Capturing videos with the iPhone 11 is great, as always. you'll record in 4K at 60fps with both the Wide and Ultra Wide cameras, but optical image stabilisation is out there only with the previous . Apple says the new iPhone models feature improve stabilisation by utilising data from a number of the pixels that are outside of the frame, aside from additional computational enhancements. Extended dynamic range is now supported at 4K 60 fps, an improvement over 4K 30fps within the previous generation.

A new feature called audio zoom — which is nothing like Samsung concentrate mic — is supposed to “match the audio to the framing of the video”, which sounds a touch like recording spatial audio, especially since we noticed in our videos that the left and right audio channels roughly corresponded to sounds coming from the left and right sides of the frame.

~~full-width~~

Iphone 11

IPhone Review

IPhone 11 design and display

iPhone 11 specifications, performance, and battery life

iPhone 11 cameras

Related Post