iPhone 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max: The ultimate camera
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The Good
Matte, fingerprint-resistant glass
Big battery improvements
Consistent and color-accurate triple-camera system
Night mode (finally!)
Includes fast charger and USB-C-to-Lightning cable
The Bad
Base 64GB storage is too low for "pro" iPhones
3D Touch was removed
Still expensive
Apple's iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max are serious threats to mirrorless and DSLR cameras.
Unlike the iphone 11, which costs $50 less than the i phone XR did when it launched, the iPhone 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max aren't cheaper.
They have the same premium prices introduced with the iPhone X.
The iPhone 11 Pro starts at $999 and the 11 Pro Max at $1,099 for 64GB of storage; $1,149 and $1,249 for 256GB of storage; and $1,349 and $1,449 for 512GB of storage.
I'm less bothered by these prices — monthly installment plans help split up the cost — and more by the fact the base storage is still 64GB. A $1,000+ "pro" iPhone shouldn't have the same amount of base storage as a $700 iPhone 11.
Samsung's Galaxy Note 10, which starts at $949, comes with four times the storage as an entry-level iPhone 11 Pro. This isn't cool, Apple.
If you're getting an iPhone 11 Pro or 11 Pro Max, I recommend ignoring the 64GB and getting at least 256GB. You can thank me later when you're not frantically deleting apps and photos because you're running low on storage.
PRETTIER IN PERSON
Ignore the noise you hear online. The iPhone 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max are way better looking in person, after you’ve held one in your hands, and used its weirdly aligned triple cameras (there is a reason why they’re like that, which I’ll get into soon).
Just as everyone immediately pounced on Apple for the iPhone X's notch and then learned to accept it, I guarantee the same will happen with the iPhone 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max’s triple cameras.
I’m confident about this because people have been complaining about camera bumps — a “pragmatic optimization” according to outgoing Apple Chief Design Officer Jony Ive — since the iPhone 6’s tiny lens protrusion.
I, myself, have chronicled the evolution of the iPhone’s growing camera bumps over the years, and guess what? I always got over the knee-jerk criticism because I value photography. If you’re a parent, I'm positive you’ll care more about how the iPhone 11 Pro’s camera captures photos and videos of your kids than how the bump looks.
Other than the three lens rings, the rest of the iPhone 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max are mostly iterative of the iPhone X. That's what Apple does — make products that don't look outdated years out.
The thing you’ll notice most is the textured glass back. It’s so much nicer than the glossy glass introduced on the iPhone X and 8, and the matte finish makes the iPhone 11 Pros more grippy. Putting these iPhones in a case would be a complete disservice to the team that designed them.
Compared to shiny glass, the matte glass almost never picks up fingerprints unless your fingers are really greased up or slathered over the Apple logo, which if you’re paying close attention, has moved to the middle of the backside.
The “iPhone” text has also been removed on the iPhone 11 Pros and iPhone 11 because, come on, everyone knows what an iPhone is.
There were rumors that the Apple logo was supposed to double as a marker for wirelessly charging AirPods or an Apple Watch, but Apple never announced any “reverse” or “bilateral” wireless charging feature.
There are skeptics who believe Apple intended to ship the feature, but disabled reverse wireless charging due to heat issues, and may activate it in a future software update.
A person familiar with the matter told me it’s not something the company included and the inevitable teardowns of the phones won’t reveal any special coil for it.
This highly positioned person at Apple also reminded me not to take all rumors as truth. So take that for what you will.
Another small, but perceivable change: the iPhone 11 Pros are a hair thicker in all directions and heavier. Somewhere, Jony Ive is in tears. The iPhone 11 Pros are definitely weightier — the iPhone 11 Pro is 0.39 ounces heavier than the iPhone XS and the iPhone 11 Pro Max is 0.63 ounces heavier than the iPhone XS Max — but in a good way, especially without a case on.
While I truly miss the days of the seemingly feather-light iPhone 6, the iPhone 11 Pros feel solid and dense the same way a premium mechanical watch like my Omega Speedmaster Professional does. Tons of phones now sport the same metal-and-glass sandwich design, but not all of them feel, for lack of a better word, engineered.
There’s no hollow “thwack” sound when you tap the back of an iPhone 11 Pro like there is on metal-and-glass phones.
The ring/silent aka mute switch, volume buttons, and side/power buttons have all curiously moved a few millimeters down. Nothing major, but they're just a little more reachable, which is a good thing.
On the bottom, there’s a Lightning port, stereo speaker (the other speaker is the earpiece), and microphones.
A USB-C port instead of Lightning like on the iPad Pro would’ve really made the iPhone 11 Pro even more pro-like, but that kind of change should probably be saved for a top-to-bottom design refresh.
Apple also increased the iPhone's water resistance again. The phones are still IP68 rated, but they can be submerged in up to 13 feet of water for up to 30 minutes compared to 6 feet of water for the iPhone XS and 6.5 feet for the iPhone 11.
Greater durability is always a plus, but I can’t say I needed more water resistance. I suppose if there’s a high chance you’ll drop your phone in a pool, or lake, or sea, you’re gonna be all like “Hells yeah,” but otherwise, when are those extra feet really going to matter?
At first glance, you might think the iPhone 11 Pros have the same displays as the iPhone XS and XS Max.
Yes, the OLED display sizes and resolutions are the same (5.8 inches on the iPhone 11 Pro at 2,436 x 1,125 resolution and 6.5 inches with 2,688 x 1,242 resolution on the iPhone 11 Pro Max, both at 458 pixels per inch), and the notch hasn't shrunk. But underlying improvements technically make them better (on paper, at least).
First, the iPhone 11 Pro’s Super Retina XDR display (a ridiculous name that’s so jargon-filled it almost has no meaning) is brighter than the regular Super Retina display on the iPhone XS.
Apple says the iPhone 11 Pro's' screen can reach up to 800 nits of peak brightness outdoors compared to the iPhone XS's 660 nits, and can hit 1,200 nits of brightness when viewing HDR10 and Dolby Vision videos or HDR photos.
In practice, I don't think the increased brightness adds any meaningful value to what were already incredible displays. Holding my iPhone XS and iPhone 11 Pro, side by side, the latter’s screen was a little more readable in direct sunlight, but not dramatically so.
I’m not complaining about a brighter screen, but since I (and most people I know) usually have the brightness set to between 50-75 percent most of the time, I can’t say I’ve ever stopped and said, “I sure wish the screen could get brighter!”
Ditto for the increased contrast ratio. On the iPhone 11 Pro, the Super Retina XDR display has a 2,000,000:1 contrast ratio compared to 1,000,000:1 on the iPhone XS.
It's another nice technical spec for Apple to brag about, but I don't think most people who get the iPhone 11 Pro will notice and appreciate it.
I played an episode of Planet Earth II, an HDR10 series, on Netflix on my iPhone XS and iPhone 11 Pro (both set to full display brightness) and asked a few friends and colleagues if they could tell the difference.
Only one person out of five said the iPhone 11 Pro looked better with more dynamic range and better contrast. The other four said the video looked about the same, and after I told them which phone was which, their collective impression boiled down to “Oh, that’s nice.
The iPhone 11 Pros also come with a sound upgrade with support for Dolby Atmos. Phones like the Galaxy Note 10 and OnePlus 7 Pro had Dolby Atmos first and now the iPhone 11 Pros (and iPhone 11) have the improved sound, too.
For content that supports Dolby Atmos, you should be able to hear more range between the highs and lows for a more immersive spatial sound experience.
In reality, through the speakers or AirPods, I’m not convinced many people will be able to hear the greater separation. I barely noticed an improvement until I paired Sony’s WF-1000XM3 true wireless earbuds and turned on noise cancelation, and cranked the volume up in a quiet room at the office.
Personally, I miss 3D Touch. While I understand that most people won’t — the pressure-sensitive display tech never expanded beyond being a right-click — I loved and used 3D Touch all the time. In place of 3D Touch is Haptic Touch, a long press and vibration, that Apple introduced on the iPhone XR.
Haptic Touch replicates most of 3D Touch’s functions (minus needing to press harder into the screen), but using the iPhone 11 Pro made me miss small 3D Touch features like the ability to “pop” (expand to full screen) a photo on Instagram or preview of a website link.
Similarly, I had to retrain my brain to stop 3D Touching anywhere on the keyboard to bring up the cursor for text selection and instead remember that the function is now a long press on the space bar.
Apple told me it removed 3D Touch for a number of reasons: the display tech was expensive and they couldn’t bring it to other iOS devices such as iPads.
With iOS 13, many of the functions previously exclusive to 3D Touch-equipped iPhones such as “peek” and “Quick Actions” (the shortcut menus that appear when you 3D Touch on an app icon on the home screen) are available for all supported iPhones, iPads, and iPod touches as a simple long press without needing special screen hardware.
I miss 3D Touch dearly — some of you guys do too— but I’m all for iOS features working more consistently on all iOS devices, so I think it’s a win in the end.
Apple's deep software paired with the camera hardware is what sets the iPhone 11 Pro cameras apart and makes zooming between the three cameras feel so smooth; there's none of the stuttering you see on Android phones when you toggle from one camera to the other.
It's for this very reason that the three cameras on the back of the iPhone 11 Pros are aligned the way they are: for zooming straight out from the center.
On Android phones, where the three cameras are usually aligned in a row, you have to physically shift the phone to the left or to right to recompose a shot, and doing so feels less like zooming in and out and more like switching to separate cameras.
It's a small detail, but if you're serious about photography, it makes all the difference.
Below, you'll find examples of the kinds of shots you can get with the three cameras. With the ultra wide camera, photos that would have previously required the use of a wide lens attachment from companies like Moment or Olloclip are now possible. I could spill another hundred words, but I'll just let the photos speak for themselves.
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