Visually Reviewed rate the Apple iPhone 11 Pro an 8.5/10
Quick Summary
The Apple iPhone 11 Pro brings many upgrades over the standard Apple iPhone 11. The biggest upgrades with the Apple iPhone 11 Pro includes the telephoto camera, included 18-watt charger, and the upgraded display. With that being said, the Apple iPhone 11 Pro is quite expensive and still features the sizeable notch and bezel, and still lacks a USB-C port.
Pros
- Incredible cameras
- Great display, despite notch and bezel
- Great performance
Cons
- Quite expensive
- Display notch and bezel
- No USB-C port
Apple iPhone 11 Pro review
Apple is one of the biggest names when it comes to the technology industry. Although Apple is most commonly associated with the Apple iPhone, Apple also sells other electronics, software, and online services. Each year, Apple release a new range of Apple iPhones, bringing the latest and greatest technology into three or four Apple iPhone models each year. This Apple iPhone 11 Pro review will go in-depth about the pros and cons of the middle-tier iPhone from the Apple iPhone 11 series.
For all Apple iPhone 11 reviews, please see below:
Apple iPhone 11 Pro specifications
| Release Date: | 20 September 2019 |
|---|---|
| Price (at release): | £1,049 / $999 |
| Colours: | Gold, Space Grey, Silver, and Midnight Green |
| Storage: | 64GB, 256GB or 512GB |
| Display: | 5.8-inch OLED Super Retina XDR (458 PPI) |
| Processor: | Apple A13 Bionic |
| Memory/RAM: | 4GB |
| 5G Technology: | No |
| Cameras: | Triple 12MP rear cameras, 12MP front camera |
| Battery: | 3,046mAh |
| Operating System: | iOS 13 (Upgradable to iOS 14) |
| Weight: | 188 grams |
Apple iPhone 11 Pro review: Design
The Apple iPhone 11 Pro comes in four different colours: gold, space grey, silver, and midnight green. Despite these colours looking pretty dull and boring, these colours are a safe bet for Apple as they still look great. The standard Apple iPhone 11 has a better range of colours, available in black, green, yellow, purple, Product (Red), and white.
When compared to last year’s Apple iPhone XR, the Apple iPhone 11 Pro looks near identical with pretty much the only difference being the new cameras. The Apple iPhone 11 Pro includes a triple 12MP wide, ultrawide, and telephoto cameras, and a 12MP front camera. This is a huge improvement over the previous year’s Apple iPhone XR which only had a single 12MP wide camera and 7MP front camera.
On the back of the Apple iPhone 11 Pro, there have been a few notable changes. With the addition of the new triple 12MP cameras, the camera housing design has added a slightly raised, rounded glass square. As well as this, the Apple iPhone logo has been moved downwards a little, giving it a more central look. Not only that but the word ‘iPhone’ has been removed.
In addition to this, at Apple’s September event, it was said that the Apple iPhone 11 model’s glass is the “toughest ever in a smartphone, on the front and back.” This is great news if you’re prone to dropping things. As well as this, the Apple iPhone 11 Pro is rated IP68 meaning it is splash, water and dust resistant (maximum depth of 4 metres up to 30 minutes).
At the bottom of the Apple iPhone 11 Pro, you’ll find that the Lightning connector remains, this is a little disappointing. Inside the box of the Apple iPhone 11 Pro, you’ll find it comes with an 18-watt charger. This 18-watt charger is capable of 0% to 100% charge in around 90 minutes. This is a huge reason why we recommend users to buy the Apple iPhone 11 Pro instead of the standard Apple iPhone 11. The Apple iPhone 11 comes with an incredibly slow 5-watt charger, and if you would like a faster charger, you’ll need to buy the Apple 20-watt plug and the USB-C to Lightning cable, sold separately. Thankfully, the 18-watt charger is already included in the box of the Apple iPhone 11 Pro.
Apple iPhone 11 Pro review: Display
The standard Apple iPhone 11 model shares the same display as the previous year’s Apple iPhone XR. However, this isn’t the case for the Apple iPhone 11 Pro. The Apple iPhone 11 Pro features a 5.8-inch OLED Super Retina XDR display and a 2436 x 1125 pixel resolution at 458 PPI. This is a huge improvement over the LCD Liquid Retina display found in the standard Apple iPhone 11 model.
Although the display has seen a great improvement, the Apple iPhone 11 Pro still includes a sizeable notch and quite a big bezel around the screen. This is pretty disappointing as most modern phones now come with edge-to-edge displays at the very least. For comparison, the standard Apple iPhone 11 has a screen-to-body ratio of 79%, the Apple iPhone 11 Pro has a screen-to-body ratio of 82.1%, which is a little better, but still falls short of the Samsung Galaxy S10, which was released six months prior to the Apple iPhone 11 range, and boasts a screen-to-body ratio of 88.3%.
Is the Apple iPhone 11 Pro display good?
The Apple iPhone 11 Pro has a great display, much better than the standard Apple iPhone 11 display. Does it have the best display on the market? No, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad. If you’re looking for the best display in a smartphone, we recommend you take a look at the Samsung Galaxy S10 or the Samsung Galaxy S20.
Apple iPhone 11 Pro review: Cameras
The cameras on the Apple iPhone 11 range have clearly been the main focus for this year’s Apple iPhone. The Apple iPhone 11 Pro features a triple 12MP wide, ultrawide and telephoto cameras, along with a 12MP front camera. This is a much-needed step up from last year’s Apple iPhone XR which only had a single 12MP wide camera and 7MP front camera.
The triple 12MP rear cameras are housed in a slightly raised, rounded glass square. This design may take some getting used to and is much more noticeable if you tend to use your phone on a flat surface, especially when typing.
The ultrawide lens brings a 120-degree field of view, making it great for landscape shots, capturing tall or wide objects, and essentially allows you to zoom out without having to move. This is great for tight environments such as the indoors where you may not have any room behind you.
With the addition of the ultrawide camera, it opens up the possibility for so much more. When you’re using the standard wide camera, under the user interface you can actually see what you could capture if you were using the ultrawide camera. This small, yet very useful feature helps you know when you should be making use of the ultrawide camera.
As well as this, there’s also a great option that allows your ultrawide camera to take a picture at the same time as the standard wide camera. This acts as a backup in case the standard wide photo doesn’t capture everything that you was hoping to capture, these backup images last 30 days if not used.
Alongside the ultrawide lens, the Apple iPhone 11 Pro also features a telephoto lens that offers a 2x optical zoom. This telephoto lens is similar to the telephoto lens found in the Apple iPhone XS, with the main difference being that the telephoto lens has a larger aperture. This larger aperture allows for 40% more light, making it much better in environments that don’t include bright sunlight.
One of the new features the Apple iPhone 11 range brings is night mode. The long-awaited night mode greatly improves low-light performance and allows for incredible night shots. For this to work, Apple iPhone 11 Pro will ask you to hold the phone as steady as possible for a few seconds so that the shutter can take multiple pictures, all at different sharpness and exposure levels, for it to then merge the data together, which results in an incredible low-light photo. It’s worth noting that night mode only works on the standard wide lens.
The front TrueDepth 12MP camera is a great upgrade from the 7MP TrueDepth front camera on the previous year’s Apple iPhone XR. As well as this came an improvement to the Smart HDR, with Apple referring to it as “Next-generation Smart HDR,” resulting in more balanced images. The front camera also allows for additional features such as Animoji and Memoji, not to mention the new feature Apple is calling ‘slofies’ – slow-motion selfies.
Another huge step for Apple has been Deep Fusion. Deep Fusion is Apple’s new image processing system which works in certain environments. Apple describes it as “an advanced image processing system that uses the A13 Bionic Neural Engine to capture images with dramatically better texture, details, and reduced noise in lower light.” This new feature is completely automatic and has no indication to show when it’s being used. There are a few scenarios where Deep Fusion won’t be used. Deep Fusion won’t be used when you’re using the ultrawide lens, shooting burst photos, or when you have the feature “Photos Capture Outside the Frame” turned on.
The Apple iPhone 11 Pro also has very impressive video recording capabilities. The rear cameras on the Apple iPhone 11 Pro are capable of 4K video recording at 24fps, 30fps or 60fps (frames per second). Not only this but if you’re recording in 4K at anything below 60fps, you can change between the standard wide and ultrawide camera without experiencing any exposure changes or colour shifts. As well as this, you can also record in 1080p at 30fps, 60fps, 120fps, and 240fps.
The front camera also has impressive video recording capabilities. The front camera on the Apple iPhone 11 Pro is capable of recording in 4K at 24fps, 30fps, and 60fps. As well as this, it’s also capable of recording in 1080p at 30fps, 60fps, and 120fps.
What are the camera specs of the Apple iPhone 11 Pro?
- The wide lens is 12MP, f/1.8, 26mm, 1/2.55″, 1.4µm, dual pixel PDAF, OIS.
- The telephoto lens is 12MP, f/2.0, 52mm, 1/3.4″, 1.0µm, PDAF, OIS, 2x optical zoom.
- The ultrawide lens is 12MP, f/2.4, 13mm, 1/3.6″.
- The front camera is 12MP, f/2.2, 23mm, 1/3.6″.
Apple iPhone 11 Pro review: Battery
The Apple iPhone 11 Pro has a 3,046mAh battery, this is pretty disappointing when compared to other similar smartphones, such as the Samsung Galaxy S10 and the Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max. The Samsung Galaxy S10 has a battery size of 3,400mAh, and the Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max has a battery size of 3,969mAh. For the Apple iPhone 11 Pro, we would’ve liked to see the battery size around the 3,500mAh area, but unfortunately, that’s not the case.
According to Apple, the Apple iPhone 11 Pro lasts up to 4 hours longer than the Apple iPhone XS. It’s also reported that the Apple iPhone 11 Pro can last up to 18 hours of video playback, up to 11 hours of streamed video playback, and up to 65 hours of audio playback.
Unlike the standard Apple iPhone 11 model, the Apple iPhone 11 Pro comes with an 18-watt charger included in the box. This 18-watt charger is capable of 0% to 100% charge in around 90 minutes. This is a huge reason why we recommend users to buy the Apple iPhone 11 Pro instead of the standard Apple iPhone 11. The standard Apple iPhone 11 comes with an incredibly slow 5-watt charger, and if you would like a faster charger, you’ll need to buy the Apple 20-watt plug and the USB-C to Lightning cable, sold separately. Thankfully, the 18-watt charger is already included in the box of the Apple iPhone 11 Pro.
Apple iPhone 11 Pro review: Performance
The system-on-chip found in the Apple iPhone 11 Pro is the new A13 Bionic. It features a very powerful CPU (Central Processing Unit) and GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) and allows for features such as Deep Fusion, Apple’s new image processing system. The A13 Bionic chip is the fastest Apple has ever made.
The Apple iPhone 11 Pro comes with iOS 13, Apple’s “most personal and secure mobile operating system yet.” There are quite a few new additions with iOS 13, but the main addition is dark mode. Dark mode kind of speaks for itself, it changes the colour scheme to darker colours, perfect for at night or low-light environments. When enabled, this won’t strain your eyes as much and might help you fall asleep faster, not to mention it doesn’t drain your battery as fast.
Update:
On September 16, Apple released iOS 14. The Apple iPhone 11 Pro can be upgraded to iOS 14. Check out everything new with iOS 14.
The Apple iPhone 11 Pro comes with three internal storage options: 64GB, 256GB, and 512GB. Although Apple iPhone competitors are starting to offer storage up to 1TB, 64GB is usually enough for the average user. The Apple iPhone 11 Pro also has 4GB of RAM (Random Access Memory), which in most cases is more than enough for day-to-day activities.
Apple iPhone 11 Pro review: Pricing
The Apple iPhone 11 Pro was released in 20 September 2019. At release, prices started from £1,049 in the UK, and $999 in the US. Since the release of the Apple iPhone 11 Pro, the price has dropped and below are some of the best deals from Amazon.
Quick Answers
How much does the Apple iPhone 11 Pro cost?
The Apple iPhone 11 Pro was released on 20 September 2019. At release, the Apple iPhone 11 Pro started from £1,049 in the UK, and $999 in the US.
What are the differences between the Apple iPhone 11 and the Apple iPhone 11 Pro?
The Apple iPhone 11 Pro has a smaller but much better OLED display, has a bigger display resolution, comes with a telephoto lens, has a slightly smaller battery size, and is available in grey, silver, gold, and Midnight Green.
Is the Apple iPhone 11 Pro worth buying?
If you're not a fan of the standard Apple iPhone 11, then we think you'll love the Apple iPhone 11 Pro. The Apple iPhone 11 Pro brings many great improvements over the Apple iPhone 11, and we believe it's worth the price increase. If you're looking for a bigger display and battery size, take a look at the Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max.
Apple iPhone 11 Pro review: Conclusion
It’s evident that the main focus with the Apple iPhone 11 range has been the cameras. Compared to the previous year’s Apple iPhone X, the cameras have seen many great improvements, making the Apple iPhone 11 Pro one of the best smartphones for high-quality photography. The biggest improvements over the standard Apple iPhone 11 is the telephoto camera, included 18-watt charger, and the upgraded display, even despite the notch and sizeable bezel.
For all Apple iPhone 11 reviews, please see below:
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