- My name's Michael Fisher and every one of my videos
comes to your courtesy of an Apple MacBook
that I have repeatedly called the worst
laptop I've ever used.
I've been to the Apple store three separate times
to repair the widespread defect in this thing
but despite the common nature of that defect,
I can't help but feel that I'm just kind of unlucky
when it comes to Apple products.
So I wasn't really surprised when on the evening before
a media trip I tried to sync the newest iPhone
the old-fashioned way,
with a cable through iTunes.
And ended up accidentally breaking it instead.
Because of course, I did.
Thus begins my iPhone XI Pro Max review.
A journey that starts at a half-unpacked apartment
in New York City continues across the country
to an impromptu beach-side Genius bar,
here in San Diego and stops,
spoiler alert, with me keeping this thing in my pocket
until the iPhone 12 comes out.
Because yeah, it really is that good.
(upbeat music)
I wanna make plain that I'm not giving Apple a pass
for its problems.
iTunes has been an interface nightmare since I first
started using it in 2004.
And the only reason why I tried that cable sync
was because I was ripping some clutch CDs
from the early 2000s.
Shout-out to Vroom.
And I wanted to listen to them on the plane from my iPhone.
And when halfway through a software update,
iTunes threw an enigmatic error code and the phone froze.
It hadn't fixed itself by the time I went to bed
or by morning, or by the time I got to the airport.
So on my flight to California I booked an appointment
at the nearest Genius bar to my hotel.
What I didn't realize was that I'd run into my own personal
Genius bar at the media tech summit.
This is David Cogen, of TheUnlockr and he became my hero
right there on the beach in Coronado.
With the cable and laptop and a little bit of know-how,
I was iPhoning once again.
(people mumbling)
(laughs)
- [Michael] Now you might ask why it was so important
to me to fix this thing quickly.
I mean I've got other Android phones to fall back on.
In fact, for reasons I'll explain later,
I'll still prefer Android phones.
So why did I need my iPhone back?
Well, because it's become a tool
I rely on to get work done every day.
As some folks say, we reviewers have too niche a job
to speak for most people.
I mean, I get it.
I just flew across the country to learn about microchips
and now I'm making a YouTube video before an oceanline
and I understand.
But the reasons behind why the iPhone is better
for people like me?
Traverse that barrier.
Make it better for people like you as well.
Let's take an app I use about 30 times a day, Instagram.
On Android, the same multitude of screen sizes
that I adore is what makes Instagram such a mess.
On the iPhone, it works better than on any other phone.
And you don't have to use Instagram specifically.
A surprising number of iPhone apps are more fully
featured or more reliable or they have fewer ads,
or they get updated faster.
Some of the iPhones' core features too are more mature.
Hopping on the Pacific Surfliner to the Motorola event
in Los Angeles,
I shared a train with GadgetMatch's Michael Josh,
who reminded me how seamless the Apple Wallet
makes the travel experience by bundling tickets
and hotel passes into one app.
One app that also works on a wearable.
If you saw my Apple Watch series five review,
I don't need to remind you why Apple's doing wearables
better than Google either.
And well, Android still organizes its notifications
much more smartly, the iPhone will deliver
those notifications more consistently and quickly.
So how does all this relate to the iPhone XI Pro Max,
my review device?
Well, it takes everything Apple's achieved with the iPhone
and amplifies it.
Now this is the bigger one.
So it's an utter brick even without the dbrand grip case.
It's goofy, pillowy, chunky and clunky.
But, in exchange for the size and weight penalty,
you get real two-day battery life.
Apple still makes you use its proprietary lightning cable
if you don't want to wirelessly charge,
which is a pain.
So when I'm traveling, I often can't be bothered
to take that in my bag.
But it doesn't matter.
I can leave the phone on my bedside table,
wake up the next day,
and get a whole other day's use.
No mysterious overnight battery drain.
No coddling the phone to protect the power.
You just use it.
For me, that also means using the camera heavily
and the iPhone XI Pro series represents a massive leap
in both versatility and quality.
Now I (mumbles) the phone's been out almost two months
so rather than tell you more things you already know
about features like 4k60 video recording,
or the ultra-wide camera,
or the new night mode,
I'm just gonna show you.
(cheerful music)
As you can see, it's not just about the highlights,
those shots of scenes so beautiful even a budget phone
wouldn't be able to screw 'em up.
It's product photography and challenging
high contrast set ups.
It's scenes you only get one chance to capture
because the sun's going down.
And for the first time,
the iPhone can actually go head to head with the pixel
for low light shooting,
bringing out the details while keeping
the noise much lower as well.
About the only place Google's Pixel still wins
all the time is with selfies.
I continue to find the iPhone's
front-facing cameras pretty weak.
Before we get away from that video,
the key reason I was so critically in need of a fixed
iPhone for this trip is because I needed it to shoot
(mumbles) like this.
You know, as much as I love my Fuji and my Sony,
it's much easier to carry and capture with a phone
than a camera, and when it comes to video,
the iPhone is the only smartphone I trust to do a great job.
And when I need to transfer that footage,
Apple's ecosystem comes into play.
AirDrop lets me do it directly,
wirelessly to my MacBook
where I can get to work editing right away.
(upbeat music)
So why wouldn't you want an iPhone XI Pro Max?
Well, if you don't care much about your camera
and you don't mind charging every night,
a 1000 bucks for the Pro and 1100 for the Pro Max
is a big ask.
Particularly when you can snap up an iPhone XI for 700
or an iPhone Xr for 600,
or a bunch Android phones for still less.
And then there's Apple's historic frustrations.
Siri is so inferior to the Google Assistant found
on Android, it's not even close.
When was the Queen Mary built?
(beeps)
- [Siri] Okay, I found this on the web for,
"When was the Queen Mary built?".
Check it out.
(beeps)
- [Michael] When was the Queen Mary built?
- [Google Assistant] The RMS Queen Mary launched
on the 26th of September, 1934.
- [Michael] The iPhone's home screen is as boring
as it's ever been and Apple's unwillingness
to let you customize it is a product of its annoying,
presumptuous we know best philosophy.
If I wanna download a file to my Android phone,
it's the simplest thing in the world to do.
The iPhone obfuscates its file system behind layers
of annoying abstractions that change with every app.
It does this because the user shouldn't be burdened
with that kind of thing,
but in trying to make things easier,
Apple actually makes them harder.
Same with not being able to manually activate night mode
in the camera.
(mumbles) pixel, I can get exactly the shot I want,
no matter what lighting it is.
On an iPhone, I have to wait for Apple
to give me permission to use the feature I want.
And on the server side,
iCloud is frustrating, cumbersome, compared to Google's
services, which is why I was trying to do what I thought
would be a simple and quick cable sync when I ran
into trouble on CD burning party night 2019.
Despite those objections though,
remember that every piece of tech is a compromise.
And the iPhone XI Pro Max strikes the best balance
I've seen in a long time.
If you're an Apple user, this is the best phone you can buy.
And if you've been on the fence
about becoming an Apple user,
well, this is the year to make the jump.
(upbeat music)
if you do snap up an iPhone XI Pro or Pro Max,
make sure to give it some protection from the outside
world with a grip from my sponsored dbrand.
It's made using an advanced shock-absorbing polymer suit,
throw it on the deck of the Queen Mary and pick it up
and it's fine.
It's also got crescent art design to keep the edges
accessible and if you don't like the look of my concrete
one here, well you're wrong,
but you can change it up anyway because customization
is what dbrand is all about.
Hit the like in my description.
This review made possible by an iPhone XI Pro Max retail
unit purchased by (mumbles).
A special thanks to Micahel Josh Villaneuva of GadetMatch
for a lot of production assistance
putting this one together.
And be sure to check out his review at GadgetMatch
and also a shoutout to Rene Ritchie of Vector.
As always, Apple did not receive copy approval
rights on this video.
That means they're seeing it for the first time
right alongside you.
Please subscribe to theMrMobile on YouTube
if that's the kind of review you'd like to see more of.
Until next time.
Thanks for watching and stay mobile, my friends.