The Apple iPhone 11, 11 Pro & 11 Pro Max Review: Performance, Battery, & Camera Elevated
by Andrei Frumusanu on October 16, 2019 8:30 AM ESTVideo Recording
Video recording on the iPhone is known to be extraordinarily good in terms of quality. The iPhone 11 series is said to improve in this regard thanks to an improved HDR with more dynamic range (though Apple still stores video in SDR format). Naturally of course what’s also exciting is that we’re now able to capture video with a wide-angle lens, and seeing a lot more content of a given scene.
Apple has improved the EIS this generation, and it now results in a much smoother video capture experience than the past iterations. When you have with a lot of detail in a scene though, you can sometimes see the jitter caused by the OIS and EIS interacting with each other.
In the wide-angle recording, the EIS was a bit haphazard. In the first part of the video walking down the path it doesn’t look to be stabilizing much at all, when I turn left to the second path suddenly the EIS kicked in and things were a lot less shaky, and it then again loses the stabilization for few steps until it finally resumes again. This happened all three recordings with the wide-angle camera, and I don’t know it was me holding the phone any different between those two paths.
The quality and detail of the videos are all great. The one thing noticed though is that there’s the occasional exposure flicker in some areas. In effect Apple here is doing two exposures per frame and combining them together like Smart HDR – we can notice that in parts of the scene, and most visible the sky is flickering or pulsing in brightness.
The handling between the three camera sensors is very good, it’s particularly fast and seamless to switch between the main and wide-angle modules, while there’s a small delay to switch to the telephoto module. Switching between the three modules is only possible in 30fps recording modes; it’s still possible to record 60fps in any of the three modules but you have to start out the video with the camera that you want to use, and you’ll be limited to digital zooming only while recording.
Speaker Evaluation
In terms of audio for the iPhone 11 series, Apple’s big addition is the inclusion of Dolby Atmos. Naturally you have to watch multi-channel audio content to be able to take advantage of the feature. For regular stereo audio playback, we investigate if Apple has done any changes to the speaker setup and if it differs to that of the XS.
In terms of audio volume, the iPhone 11 Pro is ever so slightly quieter when being held in portrait mode. The bigger difference that’s definitely more audible is when holding the phone in landscape mode with both hands and the palms cupped – the usual way one would hold a phone in landscape. Here it’s 3dB quieter than the iPhone XS, which is a noticeable amount.
Investigating the phone’s stereo bias thanks to a binaural microphone setup, we see that that things have notably regressed for the iPhone 11 Pro when compared to the XS. It’s relatively normal for the main speaker (Right side) to appear louder, however it’s extremely weird that it’s now 1.6dB more biased than on the iPhone XS. Indeed when comparing the 11 Pro and XS side-by-side, and muting the main speaker by holding a finger on it, volume being equal and otherwise calibrated between the two phones, it’s immediately audible that the 11 Pro earpiece speaker is much quieter compared to what we experience on the XS.
This has a rather large knock-on effect on the spatial sound reproduction of the 11 Pro as it just isn’t able to fill up the surrounding area quite as well as on the XS.
Looking at the frequency response between the 11 Pro and the XS, we see that things are extremely similar up to the high mid-ranges, with a more noticeable peak at 95Hz for the 11 Pro. Towards the treble we see some more deviations, it’s here that the 11 Pro is a bit quieter and I think that’s due to the weaker earpiece speaker.
Overall, the sound signature of the iPhone 11 Pro hasn’t changed all too much, and it is actually more of a downgrade in audio playback due to the weaker earpiece speaker calibration. The Galaxy S10’s notably stronger lower mid-range and mid-range still make for a much superior audio playback and is in my experience the device to beat in terms of speaker quality.
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BradleyTwo - Monday, October 21, 2019 - link
My apologies if this has been disclosed already, but would it be possible to ask if Apple supplied these phones for testing?The reason I ask is that there is quite a long thread over at a popular Mac rumors forum where a number of us are concerned at the variable screen quality on the iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max.
Many of us, myself included, have received a suboptimal screen, in that it was a dim, murky yellow display (the less polite of us have called them p-stained), while others have received screens which are not uniformly lit.
We have generally exchanged them to receive marginally better units, a few of which have been perfect, but a disappointing majority of the exchanges are often still below the apparently impressive characteristics of the displays discussed in the review.
As this is not mentioned in the various iPhone 11 Pro reviews, a number of us have formed suspicions that Apple has cherry picked the best screens to supply to reviewers.
A clarification whether Apple did indeed supply the units, or if they were bought off the shelf, would be much appreciated.
techsorz - Monday, October 21, 2019 - link
Apple calibrates each device, this is what XDR essentially is. However this will create better uniformity across displays than make them as different as you say.Dim, murky yellow is probably caused by you not disabling true-tone and auto-brightness. Otherwhise you have a very faulty unit, as this display should be bright enough to nearly burn out your retina. (Exaggeration)
Not uniformly lit could be an error, just return it in this case. Clearly Apple wouldn't supply faulty hardware to anyone on purpose, not testers or consumers.
Andrei Frumusanu - Monday, October 21, 2019 - link
These are Apple review samples, but in our experience and testing they don't differ from commercial models.BradleyTwo - Monday, October 21, 2019 - link
Thank you for the clarification. It would of course be negligent for Apple PR not to ensure reviewers receive fully tested units.I can assure you, however, that when it comes to the screen, the number of less than optimal units being sold at retail is probably higher than you might think. While these are most likely all within manufacturing tolerances for QC purposes, some of them I highly doubt Apple would send to reviewers.
Oh well, at least the 14 day return period provides the opportunity to exchange. The "screen lottery" we call it.
Andrei Frumusanu - Tuesday, October 22, 2019 - link
Apple would have to be very misleading in providing fully sealed units. It's possible that some retail units perform worse but over the years we've never really encountered such a unit.s.yu - Tuesday, October 22, 2019 - link
"It would of course be negligent for Apple PR not to ensure reviewers receive fully tested units."lol! Samsung Fold.
joms_us - Tuesday, October 22, 2019 - link
It is pity though the so-called fastest SoC is not even close to these Android phones which are typically half the speed of fastest desktops. How do you expect people to believe A13 is faster than i-9900K or Ryzen 3950X? Where GeekBiased and jurassic SP2006? LOLhttps://youtu.be/ay9V5Ec8eiY?t=514
https://youtu.be/DtSgdrKztGk?t=423
https://youtu.be/PkVW5eSXKfw?t=115
I'd say cut the crap and show us real-world results not cherry-picked worthless numbers from benchmarking tools.
Quantumz0d - Tuesday, October 22, 2019 - link
The fanboys man they are so blinded by reality, Apple was able to set a perfect world utopian dream for them. Can't fix stupid.I used to run Sultanxda kernel on my OP3 with SD820 processor the SD821 had higher clock speed over 820 but guess what OP screwed it up or Qualcomm didn't provide fix there was Clockspeed crashing at high freq so he disabled it entirely on both big and small. Guess what ? Benches took a massive hit. But UX ? Nope. Infact it improved a lot how is that possible ? I guess Spec and GB only matters right.
Pixel 3 lagged badly due to the RAM issue no one mentions all say its beautiful wonderful amazing. Guess what ? 1080P 60FPS doesn't exist as an option and its auto as Google deems. 4XL no 4K60FPS because less storage. No press mentions.
Coming to this garbage phone. iOS 13 whatever. Same icons, same springboard since 1.1.4 (I used it and JBed it) no desktop no customization to OS. All iPhones on the planet look same just like the brainwash here of ridiculous comparision of a GB (bullshit bench) and Spec score. Masterpiece of corporate koolaid.
Why don't they mention how the Audio format which records is not in Lossless but in AAC crap unlike my V30 does with the 192KHz 24Bit option in FLAC with Limiter and Gain switch or the Video mode which had full manual Pro controls or even the camera having any Manual options. All ASUS, Samsung, LG, Sony, OnePlus, Huawei offer Pro camera forget Pro Video which only LG and Sony do. But No one cares, simpletons only care about A series marketing BS.
The worst of all no Filesystem. $1000 device which doesn't even have a Filsystem usable by end user or has an option to install the apps off the AppStore. Nor any SD expansion slot to be prepared for emergency. But people are riling up and getting worked over the ARM masterrace LMAO with BGA MacBook Pro with 1 USB C port. Bonus is, to develop iOS app you must pay $99 yearly fee AND own that BGA Soldered KB/Touchpad/Battery/SSD macbook because XCode !!
The abomination design. Display mutilation for 3 years while heralding best colors best display LOL. Very funny.
And no 3.5mm jack. Because Apple wanted to make $5bn off revenue from AirPods (Higher than AMDs entire profit) guess what ? Less than 320kbps data rate LMAO. My LG V30 absolutely destroys this phone to oblivion with its ESS9218P DAC processor only found in Top motherboards from ASUS/GB/MSI. Even Vivo Nex decimates this garbage audio iPhone.
Very very funny how even Qualcomm who spent billions of dollars in R&D for their Centriq ARM server processor by even relegating the teams which worked on post 810, full custom Kryo 820 series and dumping all it out because of the Broadcom M&A (Major beneficiary was Apple due to the Hock Tan connection with Apple, he would sell out all LTE patents) impact and no profit in the ARM server market, forget logistics, capex, ROI, x86 emulation AND 64Bit x86 Emulation legacy code with a massive scale of Linux community around.
But we want ARM A series BGA processor which has world class Spec and GB score and beats Mainstream and HEDT LGA processors.
Claps !
Anand2019 - Tuesday, October 22, 2019 - link
Why are you so angry?Quantumz0d - Tuesday, October 22, 2019 - link
Fed up of the unending talk of x86 vs ARM is one hell even AT forums cpu and oc subforum. Whole thread dedicated to worship this talk.Two Apple ruined smartphones by this policy of removing jack and features while raising the price to moon, Other companies also want greed by forcing people to buy BT earphones which sound garbage, horrid longevity (Need to charge everyday) pushing people to buy trash (Beats) thus making whole market saturated with Apple agenda. Look at Google Pixel 4 they also removed offering Dongle, Samsung, OnePlus. Same thing like Apple very greedy.
Three destroyed the laptops with thin and light obsession. And soldered junk with less and less I/O.
Finally 4th - this corporation is built on American values but is a stooge to cash from China thus enabling more totalitarianship while claiming Liberty on US land. Spineless positiin.