It’s that time of the year again. Apple has released the new iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro & 11 Pro Max, Apple Watch Series 5, iPad 7th Gen, along with Apple TV+ & Arcade services. Apple TV+ will be available starting from 1st November and Apple Arcade will be available from 19th September. Let’s get right into it!
All image credits in this news story go to Apple.
iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro & iPhone 11 Pro Max
Price & Release Date
The iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro & Pro Max will all be released and start shipping from September 20 in the US (Pre-orders start September 13th). In India, they will available from September 27. Here are the final prices of these new iPhones at launch –
- iPhone 11 64GB – $699 USD / 64,900 INR
- iPhone 11 128GB – $749 USD / 69,900 INR
- iPhone 11 256GB– $849 USD / 79,900 INR
- iPhone 11 Pro 64GB – $999 USD / 99,00 INR
- iPhone 11 Pro 256GB – $1149 USD / 113,900 INR
- iPhone 11 Pro 512GB – $1349 USD / 131,900 INR
- iPhone 11 Pro Max 64GB – $1099 USD / 109,900 INR
- iPhone 11 Pro Max 256GB – $1249 USD / 123,900 INR
- iPhone 11 Pro Max 512GB -$1449 USD / 141,900 INR
12MP Triple Wide, Telephoto and Ultrawide Cameras on the iPhone 11 Pro models, Dual Telephoto & Wide Cameras on the iPhone 11
The iPhone 11 Pro models comes with significantly overhauled camera tech. There are three cameras on the back, all being 12MP, capable of 4K Video Recording with ‘extended’ dynamic range and ‘cinematic’ video stabilisation. Those quoted words basically means that the dynamic range is much better and the video stabilisation is improved too.
There are three cameras on the back of the iPhone 11 Pro models – a standard wide lens with a f/1.8 aperture, a telephoto lens with f/2.0 aperture, and a ultrawide lens with a f/4 aperture. There’s support for optical image stabilisation in the wide & telephoto lens but not the ultrawide one.
For the iPhone 11, there’s two cameras on the back so it’s just missing the telephoto lens. Some camera features that make use of the telephoto lens won’t be present, but everything else remains the same.
Oh, and there’s night mode. Thank you Apple, it took long enough but it’s here and the results look good. Night mode on these new iPhones is activated automatically when there’s a low light scenario. Many of these new camera features (and its performance improvements) are powered from the A13 Bionic with its third gen neural engine.
There’s also a Deep Fusion mode coming later that’s going to use machine learning with the neural engine of the A13 Bionic to take incredibly detailed photos. The flash is also improved by 30%, and there’s a ‘next-generation’ Smart HDR so it should take better pictures in highly varying light situations. Some new software features are also there, like QuickTake for recording videos in the photo mode and a swipe to the right to continue taking tit.
The cameras stole the show in my opinion, and I don’t think enough people give Apple credit for their cameras. Yes, LG did it first with an ultrawide lens on its LG G5. And Huawei’s P20 smartphone were the first ones with a triple camera system. But there’s a drastic difference in what Apple has brought to the table with their triple camera system in the iPhone 11 Pro – while the fundamental aspects of a triple camera system were present on those previous phones, they did NOT feature the level of quality, optimisation and video recording capabities that the iPhone 11 Pro has.
I’m not saying the other comapnies didn’t innovate, in fact many people absolutely loved the LG G5 for having the ultrawide camera, and the Huawei P Series are well known for their innovative cameras with unbelievable zoom capabilities. I appreciate it too, I really do. All I’m saying is Apple isn’t neccesarily ‘late to the game’, it’s just that they love putting new tech in phones only when it’s perfectly ready and meets their standards of quality. After all Apple is a luxury brand for tech – and if you don’t like that, many companies do put the newest tech as soon as it’s available too! The Galaxy Fold and Huawei Mate X are great examples.
These cameras take amazing photos and capture great videos too. Apple said the iPhone 11 Pro best phone for taking videos – I’ll wait for comparisions to believe that, but with the new camera capabilities, stereo recording and improved Smart HDR present in the iPhone 11 Pro it’s quite believable. I’m eagerly waiting for camera comparisions between the 2019 flagship phones, we’ve seen impressive stuff from all companies although Huawei Mate 30 Pro is yet to launch.
Upgraded OLED Display with Higher Brightness & Contrast Levels for the iPhone 11 Pro models
The iPhone 11 Pro’s display has also been upgraded from the previous iPhone XS Max, with greatly improved contrast levels and better brightness too. Apple says they’ve packed in similar tech present in the Pro Display XDR in the iPhone 11 Pro, and they’ve called it a Super Retina XDR Display. This is a super impressive display.
The iPhone 11 Pro has a 5.8-inch display size while its bigger brother, the iPhone 11 Pro, has a 6.5-inch display. Both are OLED and have 458 PPI, with the iPhone 11 Pro having a 2436×1125 Resolution and the iPhone 11 Pro Max having a 2688×1242 Resolution. Both have haptic touch instead of 3D Touch too, which might be dissapointing to some but the software imitation with Haptic Touch is good too & works similarly hence Apple removed it. The displays support HDR content too.
The peak brightness is up to 1200 nits for HDR Content, with 800 nits of typical brightness. I’ll compare it with the Galaxy Note 10 Models soon, but both phones have top-tier displays. The contrast ratio is 2,000,000:1, double of what we had on the iPhone XS Max. The display as per usual supports P3 Wide Colour Gamut and has True Tone as well.
The usual IPS Display for the iPhone 11
The iPhone 11 has a 6.1-inch IPS Display. There’s not much to say here and as per the specs sheet it does seem to be on par with last year’s iPhone XR. Apple calls this a Liquid Retina Display and it has a resolution of 1792×828 at 326 PPI, with a contrast ratio of 1400:1 and support for the P3 Wide Color Gamut and True Tone. The brightness goes up to 625 nits. Also it supports haptic touch just like the Pro models.
The display on the iPhone 11 is a let down in my opinion. It’s a good IPS Display and that the PPI is enough to look decently sharp. But there’s options like the OnePlus 7 Pro available in the same price range which by the way, has a 1440p 90Hz OLED Display. And that makes the iPhone 11’s display look bad.
The iPhone 11 does have wireless charging, better cameras, iOS (a subjective advantage or disadvantage depending on the person), and better performance, but I still hoped for a better display in this phone. It’s an above decent display nonetheless and most people will be happy with it.
Overhauled Design & Durablity for all models
The design. Oh well. It’s the most subjective thing about this year’s iPhones.
The iPhone 11 has a glass and aluminium design with improvements to its durability, and now supports IP68 Water Resistance with a maximum depth of 2 metres and 30 minutes. The iPhone 11 Pro models has a textured matte glass with stainless steel sides, unlike the previous iPhones which had a glossy finish. The pro models have IP68 Water Resistance too, but with a higher maximum depth of 4 metres and 30 minutes.
The camera design. It’s a square camera bump and everything is made up of a single piece of glass, which is supposed to improve durability. Honestly, it does look weird, but in my opinion, it’s just that we’re not used to it. Memes about this new camera design are in abundance.
There’s one thing for sure though, it looks much better than what it did in leaks & renders. There’s new finishes across the iPhone 11 & 11 Pro models, and the logo is now centered too. These new iPhones are supposedly more durable than before and in the promotional videos you can see Apple showing off the iPhone 11 falling around in places too. Here are the new finishes along with what they look like.
iPhone 11 Pro & 11 Pro Max – Midnight Green, Silver, Space Gray and Gold
iPhone 11 – Purple, Yellow, Green, Black, White, and Red
Big performance improvements with the new A13 Bionic with suprisingly better battery life too
The A13 Bionic is just simply the fastest chip in any smartphone. It’s not that other phones are slow by any means – the OnePlus 7 Pro, S10 Plus, Note 10 are all really fast phones but its true, the A13 Bionic present in the iPhone 11 & 11 Pro are just comparitively faster. Compared to the A12 Bionic, the CPU & GPU performance is better by up to 20% and the third gen neural engine is also faster.
All these performance improvements are maintained and somehow the battery life is significantly overhauled too. The iPhone 11 has an hour longer battery life compared to the iPhone XR, the iPhone 11 Pro has four more hours of battery life compared to the iPhone XS, and the iPhone 11 Pro Max has five more hours compared to the iPhone XS Max.
It’s important to note that for the most part, these improvements aren’t actually from a bigger sized battery, but from the A13 Bionic being so much more power efficient.
Apple’s silicone is just amazing, no doubt there. These new improvements should result in a really good gaming experience too – and with Apple Arcade launching next month (for $4.99 USD/99 INR) we should see new mobile games taking advantage of these improvements.
The iPhone 11 Pro should’ve had more pro-centric features & upgrades
The iPhone 11 is a really good phone, and has a reduced price at $699 while being a sucessor to last year’s iPhone XR. It’s going to be most people’s default iPhone and except its display I have nothing to complain about. But the iPhone 11 Pro – I’m not sure how deserving it is for its ‘pro’ name.
There are significant camera improvements, the usual performance overhaul, and suprisingly better battery performance too. All that is good, but I really, really wished for more in this year’s iPhones.
Firstly, there’s no USB-C. The iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro & Pro Max all come with a Lighting port. This has been a long time coming and honestly Apple should have just done it in 2016 with the iPhone 7, as they also switched the MacBook Pro to USB-C in the same year.
USB-C is a standard that’s present on the MacBook Pro, flagship laptops by Dell, HP, Razer and other companies. The iPad Pro has it too now. Sony’s WH-1000XM3 Headphones and Bose’s NC700 Headphones also use USB-C. The Galaxy S10, Note 10, OnePlus 7 Pro, Huawei P30 Pro, and even mid-range phones from Xiaomi and other brands come with a USB-C Port.
So it’s evident that USB-C is obviously an industry standard, and many of Apple’s own products come with USB-C Ports. Why Apple hasn’t switched to USB-C on the 2019 iPhones is a mystery, but it’s definitely selfish of them to keep the Lightning port on the iPhone 11 models (all of them, not just the Pro ones)
No bilateral wireless charging either. Bilateral wireless charigng first came out on the Huawei Mate 20 Pro, and then Samsung put it on their flagship S10 Series smartphones too. Many leaks pointed towards the inclusion of bilateral wireless charging in the iPhone 11 models (Some said it would be exclusive to the Pro models) but it’s not there. I guess many people still consider it a arbitary feature, but it’s definitely something that would be appreciated by everyone and not just ‘pro’ users. It would’ve been incredibly convenient to charge wearables like AirPods & Apple Watch on the iPhone itself on the go.
USB-C was really important and a missed opportunity by Apple, it would’ve definitely made sense for them to put it now. Also, there’s only 18W of fast charging on the iPhone 11 Pro – and the standard 5W Adapter on the iPhone 11 (supports 18W Charging but adapter is sold sperately. With companies like OnePlus pushing 30W Charging and Huawei with its 40W Charging, Apple should’ve really put faster charging speeds on their new iPhones. It’s still a welcome upgrade though.
So those were the new upgrades in the new iPhone 11 Pro? Yes. But shouldn’t they have put more pro centric features, and switched to USB-C already? A big yes.
Here’s everything else that was announced
Apple Watch Series 5
The Apple Watch Series 5 is updated with a new always-on retina display, powered by a LTPO display. It has an all day 18-hour battery life too, has new performance improvements, and features new designs in titanium & ceramic models along with the usual stainless steel, HERMES, and Nike models.
It starts at $399 / 40,900 INR for the GPS Model and $499 / 49,900 for the GPS & Cellular model.
iPad 7th Gen
The iPad 7th Gen features a new 10.2-inch Retina display, supports Apple Pencil and Smart Keyboard. It’s also been updated with the A10 Fusion Chip. With iPadOS the new iPad refresh is quite capable and a serious competitor to the PCs in the same price range.
It starts at $329 USD / 29,900 INR for the Wi-Fi model and $459 / 40,900 INR for the WiFi + Cellular model.
So would you buy the new iPhone 11 or iPhone 11 Pro? What are your thoughts on Apple’s new products? Let us know down in the comments.
