Apple gave certain members of the press early access to the iPhone 11 and the iPhone 11 Pro and the first set of reviews came out yesterday. As compared to the 2018 iPhones, everyone is focusing on two things. First, the camera function is greatly improved. Reviewers noted that you can now take pictures that simply were not possible before, such as wide pictures with the new ultra-wide lens and pictures taken in very low light. The ultra-wide camera lens seems especially good for videos, which in the past were always more zoomed in, and you can seamlessly zoom in from the ultra-wide to the wide to the zoom lens while taking a video and the iPhone switches to the best lens without you even knowing it. And Apple has improved the HDR function to do a better job of correctly exposing the different elements in your photo. The reviews include photographs comparing the new iPhones to older iPhones and to Android phones, and the photos taken with the new iPhone 11 models are virtually always better.
Second, the additional battery life on all of the new iPhones, but especially the two iPhone 11 Pro models, is apparently quite impressive. I'm still amazed that Apple was able to add another four hours to the iPhone 11 Pro as compared to last year's iPhone XS. For example, Matthew Panzarino of TechCrunch took the new iPhones to Disneyland — a hot environment with congested networks and thus very challenging for any phone. Last year, an iPhone XS lasted 9.5 hours in those conditions; this year the iPhone 11 Pro lasted 12 hours. Attorney Nilay Patel of The Verge reported that the iPhone 11 Pro has been running 10-12 hours per day, as compared to the 8-10 hours for the iPhone XS Max.
Reviewers also noted that Face ID works a little better, and the iPhone 11 Pro screen is a little brighter and thus a little easier to see outside.
Click here for an article from Apple with links to many of the new reviews by the folks to whom Apple provided early access. Also worth reading are John Gruber's review on Daring Fireball, Joanna Stern's review (and video) for the Wall Street Journal, and reviews of the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro by Rene Ritchie for iMore.
