iPhone 11 Pro review: The best camera on the best phone

by Phonedesk Admin November 22, 2019

If you want the best in smartphone photography, look no further than the iPhone 11 Pro. In fact, there’s not another flagship phone I’d recommend for anything better right now.

Design? Sure, but the matte finish glass looks and feels great. Price? Well, the iPhone 11 is $300 less and doesn’t sacrifice much, but that’s just Apple competing with itself.

This is the most well-rounded iPhone I’ve ever used, with excellent battery life and a class-leading camera, which is something I haven’t been able to say for some time.

This feels different

The iPhone 11 Pro’s face is indistinguishable from last year’s iPhone XS, being built with the same notch at the top of the screen and thick bezels surrounding it. But as soon as you get it in your hands, you know it’s different.

The first noticeable change is the weight and thickness. It feels like a thicker, heavier iPhone, and that’s because it is. The iPhone 11 Pro weighs 11 grams more than the XS. It’s not an objectionable weight for a phone, and I got used to it after a few minutes. Plus, the purported four-hour battery gains are owed to this bigger beltline.

If you’re a fan of small phones, this is the one to get. The 5.8-inch screen size means the iPhone 11 Pro fits perfectly in the palm of my hand, and I don’t need to stretch my fingers to reach any part of the screen. It’s excellent.

What you’ll notice next is the frosted glass back that’s less fingerprint-prone, a smooth and centered Apple logo, and, oh yeah, that enormous camera mound. Apple really wants you to know there’s three cameras in the back, which is why each one is not only raised individually with metal bezels, but the mound that houses them is also raised, carved from the same single piece covering the entire back of the phone. It’s not particularly good-looking, but you quickly get used to the look.

There are curious omissions though, most irritating of which is the lack of a USB-C port. It would mean having to carry just one cable to charge all our devices. We’re all ready for it, Android phones have been using it for years, and Apple knows it’s inevitable — just look at its laptops. So, why not add it to this “Pro” device as it did with the most recent iPad Pro?

The next omission is 3D touch. I’ll admit, I thought I never used 3D touch, but after losing it I learned how often I really did. Force pressing the camera and flashlight shortcuts on the lock screen transported you directly into the app with one relatively forceful click.

I’m sorry I took you for granted, 3D touch. RIP.

Pressing and holding to open these shortcuts via Haptic Touch, first introduced in the iPhone XR, not only takes longer but feels like a step-down — an odd feeling to have on the first iPhone “Pro.” I’m sorry I took you for granted, 3D touch. RIP.

Apple said removing 3D touch made more room for increased battery capacity, and though I’ll lament the loss, I think more people will appreciate the battery gains.

A fantastic screen

With a name like “Super Retina XDR,” the display improvements over the iPhone XS better be substantial — and they are. The iPhone XS’ OLED screen was already impressively balanced and vibrant, but the iPhone 11 Pro doubles the contrast ratio, improves HDR, and ups the max brightness to a 1,200-nit peak.

You’ll usually only get up to 800 nits, as 1,200 nits is achieved when viewing HDR content. But all this adds up to a display you can easily view indoors and out, and dynamically adjusts to deliver the brightest highlights and inkiest blacks. Colors appear vivid but accurate, giving it a slight leg up on the impressive Galaxy Note 10, which in my eyes looks a bit over-saturated.

It’s truly wonderful to look at and a joy to watch videos on, thanks to the sharp 2,436 x 1,125 resolution. If you watch a ton of movies and videos on your phone, it’s worth considering the iPhone 11 Pro Max, which offers up a much bigger 6.5-inch screen, but I’m satisfied with the screen size here.

Killer performance, and a dark iOS

Apple said the new A13 Bionic chip has up to 20% faster CPU and GPU performance and the benchmarks corroborate this dominance. It’s the fastest phone we’ve ever tested, and playing games, working, or just flipping through music and social media will always be a fluid experience on the iPhone 11 Pro.

Here are a few benchmark results:

AnTuTu 3DBench: 455,778
Geekbench 5 CPU: 1,323 single-core; 3,503 multi-core

The AnTuTu score is the highest we have ever recorded on a smartphone, beating out phones like the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Plus by almost 100,000. The only other phone to come close is the iPhone 11 — see what I mean about Apple competing with itself?

iOS 13 brings us the long-awaited dark mode, as well as privacy-oriented features like Sign In with Apple, case-by-case permission of location access for apps, and a slew of other new features and improvements. Check out our iOS 13 in-depth impressions to get the full rundown, but as far as the iPhone 11 Pro goes, the operating system is as smooth as ever.

Triple threat reclaims the camera crown, for now

Almost a full year after the introduction of Google’s magical Night Sight night-time picture mode on the Pixel 3 (and a number of manufacturers releasing their own versions in the interim) we finally have Apple’s take on this drool-worthy feature, along with a new ultra-wide-angle lens — the other piece of Apple’s camera game that has lagged behind competitors.

Another new feature has been announced (but unfortunately is not yet live) called Deep Fusion. It’s meant for medium- to low-light photos specifically and machine learning algorithms will run a pixel-by-pixel analysis on pictures shot in this range, optimizing for detail, color, and sharpness. Sounds great, but unfortunately, we’ll have to wait to see how well and how quickly this works

Apple now has its bases covered to regain photographic dominance, and I can say confidently that this triple 12-megapixel dream team is the best camera system out right now. Is it perfect? No. In the realm of top-tier smartphone cameras, every camera has its moments where a competitor’s shot just comes out better or more to your tastes. With the iPhone 11 Pro, those instances are far less common.