It's been just over a week since I switched to the iPhone 11 Pro Max after using the XS
Max for practically a year, and today I’m going to tell you every real-world I noticed,
some that apple advertised and I was expecting, and others that I wasn’t but really surprised
me, and even a few disappointments.
Let's jump right in and I’ll put it right out there, the biggest difference that actually
affects my daily life and solely makes the iPhone 11 Pro worth the upgrade from the XS
is the battery life.
Yes, Apple finally put a fast charger in the box, but at this point, that doesn’t even
matter, at all. There is not need for it. I have never had to top off my 11 Pro Max,
and after a week that is literally providing a sense of relief, or freedom, not having
to worry about what my battery is at or even checking it.
I’m a very heavy phone user, from tons of emails, notifications, youtube videos, and
music, podcasts, and multiple apps that track my location in the background for security
and home automation my iPhone’s battery really gets hammered. I start using my iPhone
at about 7am and I would always have to top off the XS battery by around 6 or 7pm or the
battery would die.
Let's just say that I was shocked the first night when I set it to charge at 10 PM and
the battery was at 26%. The next day it was at 30% just after 10 PM, and the following
day I plugged in at midnight and it was at 20%. I’ve never had a flagship smartphone
perform this good while being pushed so hard.
Next is the matte glass back. It looks fantastic, actually looking like gold this time, and
I love that its basically fingerprint-proof, but my issue with it is that its much more
slippery than a glossy glass back which is a bummer because I use my phones without cases
and I have to be more careful.
On the front, I love the display brightness. The readability is so much better in the bright
sun. It's more pleasant to use and makes a massive difference if you use your phone as
a display for a drone controller.
Next, let's talk about the speakers. The XS sounds really good but I did wish we had more
volume particularly in loud environments and Apple definitely stepped it up. Even a week
later, I am still being surprised by them when opening up a high-quality sounding video
or podcast.
What surprised me, even more, is when I watched a portion of 300 on iTunes. I was shocked
by how good the fake surround sound is. Both the separation of channels as well as individual
sound effects sound impossibly good for a phone. Not that this is important in daily
use, but it definitely jumped out at me and its something I can appreciate.
Another thing that stood out is the sound quality of the earpiece speaker. Most reviewers
don’t talk about call quality which we need to change, but the higher quality and louder
earpiece speaker makes a noticeable difference, but it doesn't stop there.
The first time I called my wife on my Pro with her using the 11 she immediately mentioned
how good the call quality was, and I definitely noticed it. It was an even bigger difference
than talking to other people since it seems that either the microphone and or voice processing
has been improved, either way calls are clearer and louder.
Now before I tell you how the camera updates stand out in the real world, and about a few
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Now the cameras. Everyone knows there is a big improvement but does it change how you
use the cameras and what you can capture in real life which might be more important than
an increase in sharpness. The answer is yes.
First, off the Ultrawide lens allowed me to capture certain shots I simply wouldn't have
been able to, and also made for some interesting perspectives. Second is the much-improved
telephoto camera. Previously I would straight up avoid using it in lower light situations
because the quality would be much worse than the standard camera.
For low light portraits, If I was with my wife,I would actually borrow her XR and then
airdrop the photo since that takes portraits with the much faster standard lens. Now not
only does the telephoto look dramatically better in low light and colors match, but
we also have the option to take portraits with the standard lens.
This makes the iPhone 11 much more like a real dedicated camera, where you can choose
your lens focal length based on what fits the scene best and not what you’re forced
to use.
With that comes the selfie camera, the quality has improved and Apples color processing is
more pleasing with more contrast added than before. I havent used 4K 60, but I did find
a useful time to do a selfie which isn’t as bad as it sounds. The wider angle is definitely
handy to fit more people in the shot or not have to hold your phone way out.
Now the camera app has also been frustrating me. It takes longer to open, sometimes just
a bit longer but other times 2 to 3 times longer and that's with the latest iOS. This
may not seem like a big difference but together with the slower haptic touch I’ve missed
multiple shots I would have got with my XS.
I never thought of myself as a huge fan of 3D Touch, but now having it be gone I really
miss it. I would use it often to quickly open the camera app, flashlight, deal with notifications,
and more.
Haptictouch can do the same thing, but I can’t open something instantly with a hard press.
Sometimes I press the camera too quickly and it open, and others I just hold it too long
ot make sure it works, but the camera app won’t open until you let go which I hope
they fix.
I highly doubt Apple will bring it back, but I this is the case of not knowing you love
something until its gone.
I’ve heard many people say they didn’t notice a difference in performance since the
a12 bionic processor is already so powerful, and while that is true I personally did notice
some differences. A part of this could be faster animations but it definitely launches
apps faster and I saw the biggest difference when I would be quickly changing through multiple
apps. It's just so fluid and quick.
The iPhone 11’s have new Wifi 6, and I didn’t notice any speed differences because I don’t
have a wifi 6 router and even then my internet is probably the limitation but what I did
notice is a smoother transition between LTE and wifi and vice versa.
With my iPhone 11 if I would be watching a video and switching data connections I would
often get between a few seconds of buffering to at times 15, and sometimes It would even
completely hang and I’d have to rewind to get it going again. Now, this is transition
is noticeably smoother and buffering is faster.
Unfortunately, reception didnt’ get better in the few parts of town I always have issues
with, but I have noticed faster buffering in Youtube.
One issue I faced is Bluetooth delays with my car and my smart lock, I would walk up
to my house and half the time have to wait for it to unlock where now it seems to connect
from further away. These are the kinds of things you won’t really get on a spec sheet,
but are definitely noticeable in real-life usage.
I’m very happy with the upgrade from the XS to the 11 Pro. Sure its not a massive re-design
but more of an iterative upgrade with different things that make the overall experience much
better. From the different cameras with wider angles and better quality to the massive jump
in battery life that will really help heavy phone users like myself, this year's upgrade
is better than what people thought after the launch event.
If you upgraded from an xs to an 11 pro let me know if you noticed anything else down
in the comments section below, and what your favorite upgrade is.
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If you want to see Vadim excellent iPhone 11 review click right over there, this has
been Max with Max tech and I’ll see you in the next video.