Apple iPhone 11 Pro review: It's all about those cameras

The biggest design change is the addition of a third camera on the rear of the device, which takes the camera from being more integrated to a now major "look at me" part of the design language. This is a phone that wants you to know it has three cameras. Those cameras protrude from the case and, rather than being hidden in a single block, each has its own lens frame. It's certainly a polarising design, with some of the people we've asked either loving the bold lines or hating them.

While the iPhone 11 gets six colours to choose from, the iPhone 11 Pro has four colour options. The first three – Space Grey, Silver, Gold – are the same as the iPhone XS range, while the fourth – the new Midnight Green – we think is the best of the bunch, coming across as a dark forest-like hue.

The design has a familiar-yet-new feel about it. For users of the iPhone X or iPhone XS the shape and design is the same we've seen for the last two years. The iPhone wording has now been lost from the rear, and the logo, for those who pay attention to these things, has been moved to the centre away from the camera enclosure. There's still a Lightning port, so it's not gone too "pro" like the iPad Pro and adopted USB-C. The speaker grilles are found either side and the volume and power buttons are still ever present, so no worries about buttonless designs like the Vivo NEX 3 and, to some degree, Huawei Mate 30 offer.

Upgraded screen

• 5.8-inch OLED display
• Now called Super Retina XDR

While the iPhone 11 Pro features the same size display as the XS, at 5.8-inches, it's not the same display and comes with some considerable upgrades (also of note: it's a marginally smaller screen than you'll find in the iPhone 11). There's still True Tone support and a wide colour gamut, but it now offers up to 1,200 nits peak brightness, more than enough for high dynamic range (HDR) video playback, and an up to 2,000,000:1 contrast ratio, which is twice that of the iPhone XS.

That's why Apple is running with the new 'Super Retina XDR' name. You can really see the difference between this model and the previous OLED iPhone models, and everything really pops, be it luscious game graphics, dark scenes, or vibrant explosions. So whether watching movies, catching up on Netflix, or playing games, this screen really sings.

This move to the new display – although it's worth noting Apple hasn't chased the lead established by others to create a bezel-less experience, sometimes coined as a Waterfall Display – delivers two further outcomes: a better battery life because it's a much more efficient (in combination with a new processor), and the loss of 3D Touch.

Due to a lack of support from developers, Apple had already removed 3D Touch from the iPhone XR, so all iPhone 11 models haved moved to Haptic Touch instead. That, in the short term, will mean you can finally do things like long-press on the settings icon and pick a Wi-Fi network or a Bluetooth device quickly and easily. In use this has already been a game changer – especially when it comes to selecting which Bluetooth headphones to connect to (we have different headphones for running, obviously).

A huge audio boost

• Dolby Atmos support
• Spatial surround sound

One of the surprising new additions to the iPhone 11 Pro is the introduction of spatial audio. We were incredibly sceptical about the new technology at the launch event – but listening to it at home and on the go, we're really impressed. It's so good that we can't differentiate between it and the newly added support for Dolby Atmos when it's present like on a movie from the Apple iTunes store.

 

The new feature, which is system wide, works by tricking your ears into believing the sound stage created by the speakers is much bigger than it actually is, and by using the top speaker normally used to hear people on a call to amplify the sound further you get a much more immersive sound experience. It's really is clever.

As an entertainment device, whether it's watching a new trailer on YouTube, a funny clip on Twitter, or enjoying a game on Apple Arcade, the iPhone 11 has now become industry leading. Few others have spent time on speaker technology – if anything it's got worse since the heyday of HTC Boomsound due to smaller phone bodies and less space to position speakers.

Verdict

The iPhone 11 Pro leans on its cameras to really impress, the addition of that ultra-wide lens making for a superb and versatile triple camera system. The screen is better than the previous XS model, too, and we find the size of this Pro much more sensible than the ultra-massive Pro Max.

However, there's an argument that the whole 'pro' sell won't be for all; the additional camera adds bulk and not all will like the design of it, while the 'standard' iPhone 11 will be more than enough to suit most people's needs.

Ultimately, if you want to have the best that Apple makes, then you go for the iPhone 11 Pro. It's stylish (especially in the Midnight Green finish), feature packed, the battery life is great, and the screen is superb.

Think of it as the business class of phones: once you've tried out those extras, going back to premium just won't feel as special. That's why we're going with the Pro as our iPhone top pick – and why it'll be the one living in our pocket for the next year.