iPhone 11 what's new

Battery life: Dropping 3D Touch on the Pro models has afforded the phones more space for bigger batteries, and coupled with the efficiency improvements on the A13 Bionic chip, we saw staggeringly good battery life on the iPhone 11 Pro Max, with the phone lasting nearly two days of our typical testing usage-some Apple Arcade games, emails and lots of photos-and likely more in everyday use.

Apple is also finally including Type-C-to-Lightning 18W fast chargers in the box, which aren’t as fast as some of the flagship Androids out there, but can still juice up the phone to 80% in an hour. 

Design and spec bumps: The electric razor camera arrangement is divisive and borderline trypophobia-inducing to some, but we quite took to the new textured matte glass finish, and the new Midnight Green color is quite fetching. Apple claims the metal frame and glass is the toughest ever, so we’ve been putting those claims to the test with no scratches or dings to report in the two weeks of “bare” caseless use. What you will certainly notice is the added weight, even if you’re moving from an iPhone XS Max, but the weight feels a lot more balanced in the hand than say a top-heavy OnePlus 7 Pro.

While the display and notch look largely unchanged from last year’s XS models, the iPhone 11 Pro models now have a Super Retina XDR display, which is Apple-speak for a brighter 800 nits brightness display (with peak levels hitting 1200 while viewing HDR content) with 2,000,000:1 contrast ratio.

Watching HDR content on the iPhone 11 Pro Max is a visual treat, particularly if you watch a lot of movies with dark-mixed lighting scenes, and the Dolby Atmos and spatial audio improvements on the built-in speakers round up what is an extremely competent entertainment device.

And of course, the A13 Bionic chip arrives with more processing and graphics firepower than the year before, but with Android phones just about hitting the benchmark scores seen on last year’s A12 Bionic, it’s safe to say there’s plenty of headroom to make the phone last. A handy addition you’ll also appreciate over the coming months is the support for Wi-Fi 6, the new generation wireless standard.

iPhone 11 Pro Max: What needs work

Nothing stands out: Granted, Apple doesn’t need an array of new tricks to sell its latest phones, but the iPhones 11 Pro variants are missing the du jour 2019 talking points — no reverse wireless charging, no in-display fingerprint scanners, and not nearly enough multi-tasking features (a la the iPad) to take advantage of the big screen. 

Portrait mode: While we liked the expanded field of view on the selfie camera and the fact that Portrait Mode now works with pets and objects, it’s clear from our shots that it still needs work on its edge detection algorithms with objects.

iPhone 11 Pro Max: For the “Pros”?

The “Pro” name is a bit of a stretch, especially considering you can get most of the camera experience with similar processing firepower in the significantly cheaper iPhone 11. What we can say is that if you can stomach the significant outlay Apple demands for the Pro variants, you’re getting a seriously good smartphone with unparalleled hardware and performance and finally, a camera that is up there with the best of the lot.