Apple iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Introduction

It's September and the well-oiled Apple marketing machine is in full swing once again. The Apple iPhone event this fall brought us the iPhone 11 trio. And with that, we said goodbye to the iPhone XR that was replaced by the iPhone 11 and became the iPhone XS: enter the iPhone 11 Pro.

The iPhone XS series, like any other S generation, brought a new Bionic chip with a massive improvement in speed. Now, with the iPhone 11 Pro line, Apple goes after the camera and that is what the name Pro really represents.

Apple iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max

The iPhone 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max are sequels of the iPhone XS and the iPhone XS Max, in case of doubt. They are equally large, with similar designs and screens, but they come with improved performance, some updates from large cameras, larger batteries and a new Apple U1 broadband chip. In fact, there is much to explore, so don't let the familiar look fool you.

In fact, the design of the iPhone 11 Pro stays the same, or at least that's what the front suggests. However, there is a new triple camera configuration on the back, and the rear glass now has a frosted finish that we have loved since the OnePlus 6. Water protection has also improved, and now the eleventh iPhones can withstand immersion in waters up to 4 meters deep.

The new A13 Bionic chip is an improved version of last year's A12. Surely it includes even more strength, a new ISP and DSP, among other things, but it is mainly based on the A12 design.

 However, the new triple camera is completely new. Now, in addition to the wide and telephoto handles, there is an ultra-wide snapper. Night mode finally reaches iPhones, and 4K capture at 60 fps also gets the extended dynamic range. Probably the most amazing feature, showing the power of the Apple chip, is the option to shoot with all four cameras (including the selfie) at the same time. At 4K at 60 fps without limits. Imagine that!

And the front camera has finally received its update for a long time: it is now a 12MP trigger that can shoot at all resolutions and frame rates like the rear shutters. The slow-motion, called slofies, is also available for the front camera, but we still have to see if these slofies will become something or not.

Apple also integrated a new Apple U1 broadband chip, but its use has not yet been fully implemented in iOS.And finally, the iPhone 11 Pro now has a 20% larger battery than the XS, while the 11 Pro Max enjoys a 25% increase in capacity over the XS Max.

Apple iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Maz Specifications

• Body: stainless steel frame, front of Gorilla Glass with an oleophobic coating, back of Gorilla Glass with a frosted finish, IP68 certificate for water and dust resistance. Midnight green, space gray, gold, and silver options.
• Display (Pro): 5.8 "OLED display with a resolution of 1125 x 2436 px, 458ppi, 800 nits, 120Hz touch detection. HDR video support, wide color gamut. Truetone adjustment via an ambient light sensor six channels
• Display (Pro Max): 6.5 "OLED display with 1242 x 2688 px resolution, 458ppi, 800 nits, 120Hz touch detection. HDR video support, wide color gamut. Truetone adjustment through an ambient light sensor of six channels.
• SO: Apple iOS 13
• Chipset: Apple A13 Bionic chip (7nm +) - Hexa-core (2x2.66 GHz Lightning + 4x1.8 GHz Thunder) Apple CPU, quad-core Apple GPU, Apple 3-gen 8-core NPU
• Memory: 4 GB of RAM; 64/256 / 512GB of internal storage
• Camera: 12MP triple camera: 26mm main wide-angle, F / 1.8, OIS, Dual Pixel AF; 52mm telephoto, F / 2.0, OIS, 2x zoom; 13mm ultra-wide-angle, F / 2.4, 120-degree field of view; four-LED flash with slow sync
• Video recording: 2160p @ 60 / 30fps, 1080p @ 30/60/120 / 240fps video recording with wider dynamic range and spatial sound, OIS + EIS
• Selfie: dual camera: front camera 23mm 12MP F / 2.2 with HDR mode + 3D TOF camera; Video recording at 2160p @ 60 / 30fps, 1080p @ 30/60 / 120fps with wider dynamic range and spatial sound, EIS, depth detection for vertical mode
• Connectivity: dual SIM, 4G LTE (1 Gbps); Wi-Fi a / b / g / n / ac / ax; Bluetooth 5.0; Lightning port; GPS with A-GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, QZSS; NFC Apple U1 ultra-wideband chip
• Battery (Pro): 3,046 mAh battery, 18 W fast charging, Qi wireless charging
• Battery (Pro Max): 3,969 mAh battery, 18 W fast charger, Qi wireless charging
• Other information: Face ID through dedicated TrueDepth camera, stereo speakers, Taptic Engine

The iPhone 11 Pro phones ended Apple's 3D Touch era and the Taptic Engine has also assumed its role. Once full of potential, 3D Touch technology was failed by Apple itself and, for innovation, it had become a burden, so we cannot blame Apple for removing it. Also, it made room for something more meaningful: a larger battery, so we would say that everyone wins.

The iPhone 11 trio premieres on iOS 13, but at the time of writing this review, an iOS 13.1 update was installed and we have installed it on all three. Add some new options that use the U1 chip among other things.

iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max in the Box

The first iPhone was launched in 2007 in an elegant black box and its retail package included a 5W charger, a USB cable and a pair of Apple headphones. And although Apple changed the design of the Pods and the type of connector, the content had no significant updates in more than 11 years. This changes now.

For the first time, Apple includes an 18-watt quick charger in an iPhone retail box and obviously, the iPhone 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max are the first beneficiaries. The charger has a power of 18 W with outputs of 5 V / 3 A and 9 V / 2 A. It has a USB-C port on top, so the Pro models are also the first iPhones that ship with a USB-C to Lightning cable.

Finally, the latest in the iPhone 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max cases are the well-known EarPods that come with a Lightning connector.

The 3.5mm adapter has been excluded from the iPhone package from the iPhone XS line and is also missing here in the iPhone 11 frames.

Design

The iPhone 11 Pro duo is leading a change in Apple's design and we really like what we are seeing. But let's start with first impressions.

Taking the iPhone 11 Pro out of its box felt quite familiar at first. The phone has the same shape and feels as the XS feels, and it is almost impossible to feel the additional 10 g that the 11 Pro has since won.

The 11 Pro Max, on the other hand, although it is as large as the XS Max, is 20 g heavier and can be seen immediately. If you have spent a year with the first Max, you will know that you have a heavier phone from the beginning.

Both iPhones look very familiar, the front has not changed since the launch of the iPhone X in 2017. There is an OLED screen of 5.8 "or 6.5", without a bezel, with a gigantic notch on the top. There is no wasted space at the bottom, the screen controller is really below the screen instead of below. This is what Apple has set as without a bezel, although you can clearly see some very thin black strips, of equal size, around OLED screens.

The notch is inevitable for Apple, at least for now. It contains the headset that also functions as a speaker, a pair of sensors, the 3D TOF sensor and the new 12MP f / 2.2 selfie camera. Apple focused on selfies this year and the new snapper can make 4K clips at 60 fps and 4K at 30 fps with extended dynamic range, slow motion is available and EIS is working on all resolutions and frame rates, all the time.

The screens of both iPhone 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max are protected by "the toughest glass on the planet." It is made by Corning and is an improved part of the one used in the XS line. Given the amount of money Apple is injecting into Corning, it is not surprising that Apple uses its glass again. All iPhone from the first have been protected by a personalized Gorilla Glass, and last year Apple used a customized version of the Gorilla Glass 6.

According to the brave drop testers (thanks, guys!), The new protective glass on the iPhone 11 Pro is quite resistant, exceeds some expectations and could be said to be more resistant than that of the iPhone XS. However, it is still glass, so a difficult fall could be the end.

Apple also applies oleophobic coating on all iPhones and the 11 Pro series also enjoys it. This is your shield against fingerprints and stains, and although they finally adhere to the 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max screens, they are very easy to clean: a wipe with the side of the palm of the hand or part of the shirt is enough.

We are glad that Apple adheres to the stainless steel frame that is introduced in the iPhone X. It has not changed a bit, slightly curved and with bright polishing. Its color is dark green in the midnight green and dark gray in the Space Gray models, but it should be silver in the Silver models and gold in the Gold models. It is rare for a manufacturer to perfectly combine the painting of the frame with the panels, but Apple has done so for another year.

The frame is much more prone to collecting stains since it is super bright and sure that it does not help the grip. Even so, when it is clean, the great appearance is certainly among its key features.

And like many other iPhones before the 11 series, the new ones have the same buttons around the frame: a silent switch and volume keys on the left, the power / Siri key on the right. The SIM tray is also around that key.

Apple still keeps the Lightning port even though we all know it will go sooner rather than later. The new iPads already come with USB-C, and even the new iPhone chargers use a USB-C port, so we believe it will reach iPhones in a generation or two.

The mouthpiece and the second speaker are flanking said Lightning port, hidden behind small holes in the chassis.

The back panels of the iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max are a completely different story. They are made of the same glass reinforced with Corning ions, mostly flat if we do not count the 2D edges, but for the first time, the finish is not shiny, on the contrary. Apple calls this textured matte glass and, while we agree, there is a better word that describes it, and it is frozen. No matter what color of the iPhone 11 Pro or Pro Max you choose, they all come with a frosted finish on the back.

Unlike the OnePlus 6, which has a somewhat similar finish on the back, the iPhone 11 Pros are not slippery. The new texture provides some grip and feels safer in the hand compared to the XS generation.

The iPhone 11 Pro Max, being the largest in the package, still requires some attention when you drive it naked since the new back is not enough to not be slippery, but the smaller model of the iPhone 11 Pro feels remarkably safer when used in one hand or to take pictures or videos.

Stains and fingerprints are barely noticeable, thanks to the frosted finish. We have not yet put these iPhones in the sand to see if the fine dust will be easy to clean from the new back, but here is the hope.

And before moving on to the new camera settings, we noticed another change in the back. Not a big deal, but the iPhone registration is gone. It's not that people don't know you're using an iPhone: there is a giant there right bite apple in the middle, but still. Apple managed to get rid of the iPhone logo but not the regulatory icons, that's what is bothering us. Sony managed to place them in the SIM slot, so here's an idea for you, Apple.

The new triple camera occupies a special square in the upper left of the iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max. The glass hump is quite smaller and is definitely not what we expected from the official images: the entire protuberance, along with the lens rings, is half as thick as in the X and XS.

The glass in the bulge of the chamber is not frosted but bright, we assume an additional accent on the snappers. The triangular layout is new not only for Apple but also for the industry. The jury still does not know if this way looks better, but we assume that they were not the specific looks they were looking for when they chose this particular arrangement.

The wide + tele 12MP duo is here to stay, both snappers with OIS. The third 12MP camera is an ultra-wide shutter and, obviously, Apple is playing catch up here. It has no optical stabilization or autofocus, so it is not as premium as some might have thought. However, Apple has prepared some good camera software tricks, and we'll see them later in the camera section of this review.

Within the square configuration, there is also an improved dual-tone LED flash that is supposed to be brighter than before. And there is a very small mesh hole, which we believe could contain the microphones used for video recording.

The new configuration looks proportionately larger on the smaller iPhone 11 Pro, as expected, which probably contributes to a smaller aesthetic that many agree on. Then the iPhone 11 Pro Max is a bigger phone and we would say that this setting feels better in your corner.

The phones wobble a little when left on a desk, but it's not as much as the iPhone X and XS did.

The iPhone 11 Pro measures 144 x 71.4 x 8.1 mm: it is 0.4 mm taller, 0.5 mm wider and 0.4 mm thicker than the iPhone XS. This also means that those additional mustaches were added to the screen bezels. It weighs 188 g, 11 g heavier than the XS.

Then, the iPhone 11 Pro Max extends to 158 x 77.8 x 8.1 mm: 0.5 mm higher, 0.4 mm wider and 0.4 mm thicker than the iPhone XS Max. Its weight is 226 g, which means that it has gained 18 g from the XS Max.

The small increases in thickness, the extra space gained by removing the 3D Touch layer and the reduced size of the motherboard have allowed Apple to place larger batteries inside the new iPhones. The normal model has seen a 20% increase in battery capacity, while Max enjoys a 25% increase compared to the iPhone Xs.

And last but not least, Apple has secured iPhone 11 Pro smartphones even better against water. The duo is IP68 rated and both can survive water immersion to a depth of 4 m for 30 minutes. In contrast, the XS generation was certified for only 2m deep.

Managing the iPhone 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max is a new and familiar experience. The smaller model fits perfectly in the hand and one-handed operations are quite easy. The Max will make you stretch your fingers, but it never really went for one hand.

The new frosted back is a welcome addition not only for the extra grip but for the change in appearance. He was getting bored. And now you can physically feel that your new phone is different from the last one, which is good for once, right?

The iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max Super Retina XDR OLED - same but different

We won't blame you if you still can't understand what the problem is with these new XDR screens. After all, the iPhone 11 Pro has the same 5.8 "458ppi OLED as the XS and X, and the iPhone 11 Pro Max has the same 6.5" 458ppi OLED as the XS Max. But there is this XDR in the name, and it makes you wonder if it's another marketing ploy or something real.

The XDR stands for eXtreme Dynamic Range, which is what Apple calls its advances in HDR. Basically, the new screens are brighter at 800 nits and, when necessary, can illuminate up to 1200 nits. The XDR OLEDs also double the contrast of 1,000,000: 1 on the XS models up to 2,000,000: 1 on the iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max.

So, to sum up, the new XDR screens are much brighter and offer twice as much contrast as the OLEDs we saw on the iPhone XS and XS Max. They have a better dynamic range that goes beyond the established HDR standard, just like Samsung's latest Dynamic AMOLED.

Both screens offer excellent pixel density at 458ppi, and as before, the iPhone 11 Pro screen of 5.8 "has a resolution of 1125 x 2436 px, while the panel of the iPhone 11 Pro Max 6.5" offers 1242 x 2688 px Both OLEDs are compatible with the HDR10 and Dolby Vision standards.

The patented True Tone settings are here to stay. This is an automatic white balance correction using a six-channel ambient light sensor. The algorithm corrects the white balance according to the ambient light making white and gray reproduction more accurate.

Finally, the touch input remains with the same high refresh rate of 120Hz for a touch latency similar to zero and adds a feeling of fluidity. However, the screen refresh rate is still limited to 60Hz and we still have to see when and if Apple will take the step that OnePlus and Asus have already taken.

Apple promises a maximum brightness of 800 nits and a contrast ratio of 2,000,000: 1. This is even higher than promised, higher than the maximum Galaxy Note10 + you can do and only works in automatic mode for Samsung.

Apple says the screen can do more, much more in reality, and can be as bright as 1200 nits when necessary. That is double what the iPhone XS and XS Max could do and we assume that this confirms the promised double contrast. Apple is probably taking the local shine in HDR movies and we simply couldn't get this measure with our tools and applications.

Even so, with a maximum manual brightness of 811 nits, the iPhone 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max OLEDs are currently among the brightest smartphone screens on the market.

The iPhone 11 Pro Max screen has excellent color accuracy: we measure an average DeltaE of 2.4 and a maximum deviation of 5 against sRGB. The iPhone 11 Pro screen is even more accurate against sRGB since we measure average deltaE of 1.6 and a maximum deviation of 2.3. The iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max are fully compatible with DCI-P3 and automatically switch to this range when DCI-P3 content is sent to the screen.

And the surprising thing is that these screens manage to maintain that level of precision even while reducing the brightness to 1.9 nits.

iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max Battery life

The iPhone 11 Pro Max works with the largest battery that Apple has put on an iPhone to date, a 3,969 mAh lithium-ion cell, which is 25% larger than the one inside the XS Max. Both iPhone 11 Pro models ship with a fast 18W charger. If you charge your dead iPhone 11 Pro Max with that charger, it will refill 50% of its battery in 30 minutes. If you do the same with the normal iPhone 11 Pro, the charger will replace approximately 58%. A full charge on both phones lasts approximately 2 hours. If that is too long, you can disable new battery aging optimizations that limit the charge beyond 80%. By doing so, you will get faster recharge times, but your battery is supposed to age faster. The iPhone 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max support 10W wireless charging. It was rumored that these phones also supported reverse wireless charging, for charging AirPods, but recent reports suggest that Apple deactivated the technology shortly before launch due to overheating problems. Recent disassembly revealed that the battery has two connectors, and this is an important requirement for bilateral charging. But Apple's latest support documents reveal new hardware that monitors and controls battery performance, so maybe this is the answer and the rumors are false. Who knows? We concluded our battery test on the iPhone 11 Pro Max and it simply passed it. The Max can make approximately 21 hours of 3G calls, 15 hours of web browsing on a single charge, or can watch videos for approximately 19 and a half hours. Adding the frugal standby to the mix returned an outstanding battery resistance rating and the first to cross the 100 h mark in our test. The iPhone 11 Pro published some very good scores in all areas. He did very well in video and web playback tests, but somewhat average in calls and waiting.

iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max Speakers

Both the iPhone 11 Pro and the 11 Pro Max have stereo speakers, as do the iPhone XS, iPhone X and the iPhone 8 series. The first speaker is on the bottom of the phones, while the headset acts as the second. The output is very balanced and the only thing we noticed was that the headset lacks a little serious compared to the primary, but its volume seemed to be on par. Apple says that these speakers support spatial audio and subjectively the sound seems less directional and more, well, spatial compared to other phones. In fact, it turned out that Apple is using a full speaker for the headset and is quite loud. The Max model offers a bit more bass from its top tweeter and that makes it even more balanced than the normal Pro model. The sound is very rich, the bass is deep enough and, after playing several songs, videos and games, we consider that the Pro and Pro Max speakers are among the best you can have on a smartphone today. The three iPhone 11 obtained a very good brand in our speaker-test, only a couple of decibels less than the Excellent brand. But having this spatial audio makes the new iPhones sound (subjectively) louder than this test suggests.

iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max Audio quality

Apple no longer includes a 3.5mm Lightning audio adapter in its iPhones retail package, which means that the quality of the audio output you get will depend entirely on the adapter you get or the DAC built into your headphones if they are of the type of Lightning port. We perform the test using the official Apple adapter, so our findings will only be relevant if you choose that one. The clarity was excellent with an active external amplifier, although stereo separation is not ideal. However, there is virtually no degradation with the headphones, which means that you would get one of the most accurate outputs in that case. However, the loudness was only average and was a little behind the flagship standard these days. Still, that would make little difference for anyone, except for those with super high impedance headphones and a taste for deafening volume levels.