Try to Hate the iPhone 11 Pro

The iPhone 11 Pro is a beautiful phone. There I said it! The matte glass back is elegant. The OLED display is slightly brighter than I expected, which is clever. The trypophobia-inducing camera bump is sleeker than it looks in photos, and the ability to zoom in and out is pretty cool. The iPhone 11 Pro is a little faster.

These are all gentle little upgrades from the iPhone XS, and they’re nice. They are, unfortunately for some, all you get. Still, I want this phone because it’s just a little bit nicer than the phone I’ve got.

It’s a tired argument to point out how iPhone innovation has stalled. Ten years ago, these little pocket computers were transforming our lives on an annual basis with new features and design upgrades. These days, we’re squinting at specs and doing math to figure out if upgrading to the latest device makes sense for the near future. The one big new thing for all smartphones, 5G, won’t even matter to most people for another year or two or more. And while some Android phone manufacturers are getting creative with new features, most people are now waiting longer to upgrade, giving the major players less motivation to reinvent their devices completely. That seems to be exactly how Apple decided to build the iPhone 11 Pro: surely better but not yet transformative.

My problem is that I don’t want to care. I like my iPhone XS just fine. The iPhone 11 Pro isn’t all that radically different, but it is better. It looks better. It feels better. When I use it, I feel good. I don’t care that it can’t support 5G. I don’t mind that Apple left off a bunch of rumored features. I find myself marveling over the little, better things. The matte glass back really does feel luxurious. The display is crisp. The new camera system rocks. I wonder what I could do with this slightly better A13 Bionic processor. I like the iPhone 11 Pro, and given the choice, I would buy it over the more pedestrian but still excellent iPhone 11. Then again, I am falling in line with Apple’s very smart marketing.

It would be convenient—and save me a bunch of money—if I could just say that I hate the iPhone 11 Pro. Not the case. I want the damn thing, not because it has a million new mind-boggling tricks but because the few new things are impressive and make the whole experience better. I’m part of the Apple Upgrade Program, so it’s relatively easy for me to trade in my XS for a Pro. I still wouldn’t recommend that folks with an X-series phone upgrade to the 11 Pro. But I dare you not to hate what Apple’s done with its latest masterpiece.

Now that my demons are on full display, let’s talk about what makes the iPhone 11 Pro special: the camera. And some other things but mostly the camera.

The iPhone 11 Pro is the first and only iPhone to sport three cameras on the back. The setup includes the Wide and Telephoto cameras seen on the iPhone XS as well as a new Ultra Wide camera. This gives the iPhone 11 Pro the ability to zoom in and out. The inclusion of the third camera is also a big differentiator between the Pro and the basic iPhone 11, which only has the Wide and Ultra Wide cameras. (This means the cheaper iPhone 11 does not have an optical zoom in.) It also feels like a bit of a trick. The optical zoom-in has made the second camera on an iPhone feel special since its first appearance in 2016. So if you’re deciding between the regular 11 and the 11 Pro, consider that you’re paying for the telephoto camera more than anything.

All the cameras are better, though. This was immediately obvious to me when I started taking photos with the iPhone 11 Pro and compared them to the same shots from the iPhone XS, Google Pixel 3, and Samsung Galaxy S10. The iPhone 11 Pro photos were sharper, more vibrant, and more accurate than those of the competitors. In fact, the difference between the XS and the Pro was so significant, I felt like a dumbass for buying the XS based on the belief that its camera was better than the one on the iPhone X. It was, but by contrast, the iPhone 11 Pro camera feels like a completely new and amazing thing.

The biggest deal, to me, is Night mode. It’s mind-blowing, and it’s only available on the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro. Basically, Night Mode allows you to take photos in near darkness. The option is triggered automatically in the camera app, so you don’t have to bother remembering to turn it on. A little moon icon in the corner of the camera app appears and tells you how long the exposure will last, and then, when you take the photo, you’re given a little countdown that reminds you to keep the camera still. Even if you do wiggle a little, the iPhone will pick a keyframe for sharpness and fill in the details with a composite of additional frames. Given the darkness, you’d expect the finished result to be grainy or blurred, but it’s clear and sharp if a little tinted.