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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Quantumz0d - Wednesday, October 16, 2019 - link
Lol. Very funny. Just 2.5% of the screen, why not take a pencil and poke in your laptop/monitor display and say just a 0.3% like Samsung HOLED or this dead pixel zone. And put an RGB strip around/inside it to make it similar to S10 Hole notification led.A phone's primary component is Display which allows for man-machine interface, and if that itself is ruined no matter how much value the device has, it is a complete waste. Even Google realized this after their horrible Watertub 3XL disaster notch.
Notch, Hole are worse than an Asymmetric bezel on Pixel 4 and Symmetric bezels are much better to look at - V30, ROG II, Note 8, S8 while S9 and Note9, OP7 Pro, Zenfone 6, Nex have asymmetric design but they are fine over the dreaded Notch abomination or holes anyday anytime.
Apple did this crazy thing in 21 century. If engineers from CRT era were there they'd be laughing like no tomorrow. Kudos to Apple for creating something utter miserable and complete bullshit.
Why didn't the CMOS sensors / Panavision or any Film cameras or any Display shape have a notch/hole or any. Or our eyes or any animal eyes, even the insects like spiders with many eyes have full uninterrupted vision without no hole or notch in their eyes, hell even mirrors ? Until this POS hit the market the perception of a display was perfectly uniform with no interruption, it all changed thanks to Apple. They should be ashamed of creating the worst abomination while claiming the best industrial design.
"Sir" Jony Ive should be ashamed of his Knighthood lmao. Wonder he left because of Apple that he couldn't stand this Notchabomination as a black mark on his life forever (Also not note, since Chief Design Officer role doesn't exist anymore and the design teams report to Operations COO, It's interesting as if Andrei says this is the last Notch BS from Apple or whether we will see a smaller notch in 2020 lol)
uhuznaa - Thursday, October 17, 2019 - link
You have a literal blind spot in your eye where the optical nerve passes through the retina. Really. You just don't see it because it's always there. Same as with the notch by the way...Quantumz0d - Thursday, October 17, 2019 - link
No man stop convincing yourself, Retina blind spot is not notch lol. 210 Degree FoV and a blind spot how can you relate these ? Insane.uhuznaa - Thursday, October 17, 2019 - link
OK, so then just put a piece of black tape on the parts of the screen left and right of the notch and you have a bezel instead if you like this better.Seriously, what's so bad about having a bezel on top that still displays a clock and a few status symbols in the left and right corners? Exactly this is what the notch is. It just means using parts of the bezel in a limited but still useful way. I really don't understand what you notch-haters want instead of a notch. A full-width notch (aka "bezel")? Why would this be better? It would just push the status bar down, leaving less room for actual content for apps.
WinterCharm - Thursday, October 17, 2019 - link
The notch is the only weak excuse some Android fanboys have to convince themselves about why they can't move to iPhone.willis936 - Friday, October 18, 2019 - link
The space is virtually useless and makes for a more difficult user experience. Nothing is gained by forcing information into a tiny nook or to have the user need to stretch to hit a small target. Just keep the display a rectangle. It just works.Quantumz0d - Sunday, October 20, 2019 - link
Exactly, but look at the Apple apologists they will buy excuse for whatever they seem fit to make the company look great. Any wrong pointing bam personal attacks, eh. New low for AT commenters to be honest. "Insecure Android phone" these noobs do not know how an Israeli company deals with breaking smartphones. Idiots. Only god can help them.Anand2019 - Monday, October 21, 2019 - link
"Only god can help them". What does a fantasy figure have to do with this? Maybe santa can help them too?Xyler94 - Thursday, October 17, 2019 - link
Every time I look at my mother's iPhone X, the first thing that pops into my mind is "why do people fuss so much about the notch?"It's barely noticeable when you use it. It's just like your nose. your brain will ignore your nose when you're looking, but the moment you realize your nose is in your view, you'll see it again. Same as the notch, don't even think about it, and it becomes a non-factor.
Total Meltdowner - Thursday, October 17, 2019 - link
ahahahahahahahahaahAHAhahaha!