Friends+Design
- Beautiful, premium Apple design, that's similar to the iPhone XR from last year, with a glossy back, except for the new colors, and the new camera module (a frosted glass camera square) at the rear
- Ergonomically, it's generally a great size and it offers a lovely slim and solid design
- IP68 water resistance, and more durable glass, compared to last year's iPhones
- Face ID is now slightly faster, and supports more face angles too - which means you can lean over your iPhone resting on your coffee table, and it will unlock
- The large display notch is still there
Display
- Still packs one of the best IPS displays out there
- It's not OLED though, and it's not as high resolution, as the iPhone 11 Pro models (but you will be hard pressed to find much of a difference in everyday use)
Software
- Apple knows how to do software well, and iOS continues to be an intuitive, and smooth experience - plus of course, you get regular, and timely updates
- Siri has generally fallen behind Google Assistant now, in terms of usefulness and intelligence, so iPhones are not the best 'smart assistant' experiences now
Performance
- Break-neck speeds with the new A13 processor - it's a bit faster in single tasking, and a bigger leap in multitasking, compared to the A12, which already was the fastest mobile chipset around - in simple terms this is the fastest smartphone out there now (along with the iPhone 11 Pro models), and of course runs butter smooth
Camera
- iPhones have always been among the top camera phones each year (along with the Pixels, Galaxy Notes, Galaxy S, and Huawei flagships in recent times), and the iPhone 11 continues that traditions bringing in some serious camera improvements to bring at par with the best of the pack
- The 2 key camera upgrades are a new ultrawide-angle camera and a Night Mode for low-light photography - and both work quite well
- The ultrawide-angle camera can make for dramatic shots - you get an expanded-view viewfinder that now previews what's outside the shot, which can help you know when to use the ultrawide lens
- Apple's version of Night mode too is excellent - it works automatically, taking an extra 1 to 3 seconds to capture more light and assemble a picture that ends up almost surreal and richly colored (you will be wowed) - it's as good as the excellent Night modes on the Pixel 3 and the Huawei P30 Pro - the 2 phones that have so far been champions of night photography
- Later this year, the iPhone 11 will also offer a new Deep Fusion feature to perform pixel-by-pixel photo processing to deliver even more detail and better textures along with less noise - again, you won't need to activate a separate mode; it will just kick in when you're indoors and there's a decent amount of light
- iPhone video cameras have always been fantastic, arguably the best on any smartphone - in the iPhone 11 they have even better stabilization for smoother video, and look better in darker spaces (though the video camera doesn't use Night mode)
- Front camera is very good too, and is wider-angled this time - it can digitally zoom in or out to accommodate a wider view that includes more people and background
- The front camera also get a new "slow motion selfie video" feature ("Slofies") - it's a fun feature, to add some drama to selfies
- Overall, the excellent cameras on the iPhone 11 bring it in the top bracket, on par with the other 2 top camera phones - the Pixel 3 and the Huawei P30 Pro
- Only Pro models get the 2x telephoto lens, so there is no optical zoom to be had on the iPhone 11
- The ultrawide-angle camera doesn’t have Night Mode or OIS
Audio
- Excellent audio capabilities - Apple has introduced a feature called spatial audio to the iPhone 11 models, which creates a virtual sound stage to make you believe that the sound is coming out of the screen rather than just at the end of the phone and it's actually quite impressive in action - plus, you also get Dolby Atmos support - again, this is one of the best audio setups on any smartphone
Connectivity
- The new U1 positioning chip inside all of Apple's new iPhones will allow iPhone 11/Pro/Max owners to more easily AirDrop files to each other by pointing their phones at specific people - and many other interesting location based applications could follow soon
Battery
- Very good battery life - improved significantly over the iPhone XR which itself had good battery life - with moderate usage, you should get about 1.5 days of use
- While the phone supports fast charging, the included charger is just 5W - you will need to buy a compatible fast charger separately if you want the fast charging goodness
Verdict
- This year's iPhone 11 is a very well executed refinement over the iPhone XR - it's more durable, faster, has better cameras, better battery life, and on top of it, cheaper than what the iPhone XR cost when it launched - there might not be any stand-out wow upgrade here but it's a very meaningful upgrade in all key areas
- It's also much better value for money, for most users, compared to the Pro models - it's as good in all key areas - and the things that are skimped on - the telephoto lens, the OLED screen - you won't miss much
- Of course, if you are not wedded to the iOS ecosystem, there are a number of Android flagships from Samsung, OnePlus, Google, Huawei, Asus, and Xiaomi - that are worthy competitors
