The Apple iPhone 11, 11 Pro & 11 Pro Max Review: Performance, Battery, & Camera Elevated
by Andrei Frumusanu on October 16, 2019 8:30 AM ESTBattery Life - A Magnitude Shift
By now many will have heard positive things about the new iPhone 11s' battery life. As we have covered in the introduction, possibly the biggest changes to Apple’s line-up this year is the device’s vastly increased battery capacities. The Pro models in particular have seen significant increases: the 11 Pro gets a 3046mAh battery which represents a 14.5% increase compared to the XS, and the 11 Pro Max gets a 3969mAh battery which represents a very large 25% increase. The Pro Max is now the first Apple device which has a battery capacity comparable to Android phones out there, some of which have offered similar large capacities for a few years now.
iPhone XS Max vs. iPhone 11 Pro Max Batteries (Image Courtesy iFixit)
The regular iPhone 11 sees only a 5.7% bump to up to 3110mAh, which isn’t all that big upgrade compared to the XR. But it also doesn’t increase its weight nearly as much as the Pro models.
The battery results in our web test are outstanding. Apple in this generation has gone from being average in battery life to showcasing some of the best results we’ve seen in the market.
What is very interesting here is how our absolute test runtimes end up compared to Apple’s marketing claims. Apple has promised +1H, +4H and +5H of battery life for the 11, 11 Pro and the 11 Pro Max compared to their predecessors, and what we measured is 1.08H, 3.9H and 5.27H, which is pretty damn near Apple’s promoted figures, pointing out to some very similar testing conditions between our test and Apple’s internal metrics.
If we break this down a bit and theorize a bit, if we take the XS Max 10.31H result, multiply by 1.25x for the increased battery capacity (12.88H), multiply again naively by 1.15x for the more efficient screen (14.82H), we’re left with a ~5% margin which would account for the more efficient SoC. Give or take margin of error here or there, the results we’re seeing shouldn’t be all too surprising. The math would also check out for the iPhone 11 without a newer display: 5% increased battery capacity and an on average ~3% more efficient SoC.
There’s not much to say about the new iPhone 11 series' battery life other than it's exemplary. More importantly, Apple has managed to finally catch up and exceed the battery life of the LCD iPhone 8 and Plus models from 2 years ago.
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dudedud - Wednesday, October 16, 2019 - link
Nice as always Andrei.Are you expecting something similar for the A77 on the 865, as in a modest performant improvement at a higher consumption cost? Or do you think that the rumored 7nm EUV from Samsung is going to surpass current N7pro of TSMC?
Andrei Frumusanu - Saturday, October 19, 2019 - link
From what I heard, I don't expect 7LPP to be better performing than N7.0iron - Wednesday, October 16, 2019 - link
When first I saw 'camera elevated', I hope they have very good video stabilization like GoPro. Looks like we have to wait few more generations (or never) to have that kind of smooth when shooting a video.I believe with A13, it shouldn't lack any processing power that GoPro has. It just need to get it right on software side.
Hxx - Thursday, October 17, 2019 - link
The best out of all of them is the iPhone 11 that is if you want an iPhone. Still surprised they lowered the price. I wish I could justify the nicer screen but I can't and playing with all 3 of them at my local best buy couldn't convince me either. My X is still going strong but I may get the 11 as im due for an upgrade. Thanks for the review.Zou Tianyou - Thursday, October 17, 2019 - link
I wish you can make a kirin 990 and mate30 pro review!Andrei Frumusanu - Thursday, October 17, 2019 - link
I will.VG - Thursday, October 17, 2019 - link
> I don’t know it was me holding the phone any different between those two paths.EIS kicked in when autofocus caught an object (tree or building) and fixed on it.
What about storage speed test?
id4andrei - Thursday, October 17, 2019 - link
Great review Andrei, best in fact.All other sites listed audio as a clear improvement. It seems they lied. It's a regression in fact.
Also the camera is not that best in class as written by mainstream pundits. The wideangle is disappointing and the low light feature is something you cannot control and can overexpose.
cha0z_ - Thursday, October 17, 2019 - link
Great review! Andrei, can you comment on the scratch resistance of the screen? There is 50+ pages (for two weeks only) on the official apple forum that the screen scratches absurdly easy with a lot deep scratches, wide scratches, etc. If you didn't use a screen protector, can you tell us how the one in you hold?Andrei Frumusanu - Thursday, October 17, 2019 - link
I use my phones naked because I'm perverted in that way. Generally you're asking the wrong person here as I haven't scratched my daily drivers ever in many years - the only scratches I have ever gotten was on the backside when laying the phones on some rougher surface.