The iPhone 11 Pro: A new phone, with small changes

For the third year in the row, the iPhone lineup remains mostly unchanged.

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Samuel Axon

The new triple camera design on the iPhone 11 Pro phone.

If you’re a tech fan, like me, then September is an exciting month. It’s the month of the annual Apple event, where they reveal their new lineup of products. One of the most important products they revealed this year was the iPhone 11 Pro, released September 20, 2019.

The starting price of the phone is $999 with 64GB of storage, but the price increases as you add more storage. The phone has released now, and for the third year in the row, the iPhone remains mostly unchanged. The front design remains the same, with the notch on top. One change is a new 800 nits of brightness, which does help in some instances. Many fans of the iPhone were hoping to see the notch removed or shrunk at the least, but Apple didn’t change anything on the front.

The real changes with the phone start in the back. The iPhone 11 boasts three cameras in the back, and a new matte finish.

Toms Guide
The new matte finish and triple camera design on the back of the iPhone 11 Pro

It has an ultra-wide camera, a wide camera, and a telephoto camera. The ultra-wide camera takes very wide photos, with up to 4x optical zoom. The wide camera is the same as the regular, and the telephoto camera has 2x optical zoom.

One new camera feature is night mode. It works surprisingly well compared to the Google and Huawei low-light modes, but there are some instances when it does not. It’s still good to see Apple implementing a proper night mode on the new iPhones. Most of the time, the low-light mode feature works well against its competitors.

On the inside, the iPhone 11 is rocking an A13 Bionic chip, with four gigabytes of ram. The Samsung S10 has eight gigabytes, which may look disappointing on paper, but for iOS it is more than enough, due to the way Apple optimizes the software for multitasking. The A13 Bionic chip is a huge improvement over the last generation processors, with a test on GeekBench showing that this is the fastest phone you can buy. The battery life is a nice improvement, lasting around 10 hours and 30 minutes on a full charge. However, a disappointment with the iPhone 11 Pro is that it lacks 5G capability, but it has been rumored that next year’s lineup will include 5G.

The iPhone includes iOS 13 out of the box, which is a very good operating system. Face ID now unlocks up to 30% faster, which is extremely noticeable and a huge improvement. Dark Mode seems to be a fan favorite, it’s great to see Apple finally adding one. The new and improved volume slider is also extremely convenient.

Theo Thomas
The low light modes of the iPhone 11 Pro (right) and Google Pixel 3 (left).

Overall, the iPhone 11 Pro’s triple cameras do make for some amazing photos, but if you own an X, XS, or XR, you really don’t need to upgrade and can skip out on this year’s models. It’s a shame to see Apple not make any major design improvements, but if you’re a huge photography fan, this is the perfect phone for you.