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Camera
Before diving into our sample images, it is worth recapping that triple-camera setup on the iPhone 11 Pro. All three sensors are 12MP, but the primary shooter is f/1.8 26mm, the telephoto is f/2.0 52mm, and the new addition is that f/2.4 13mm ultrawide camera.
To best give you a feel for these different lenses, above we have five scenes – all shot from the same place, with the iPhone 11 Pro. We start with the 13mm ultrawide (labelled 0.5x in the camera app), work our way to the 26mm primary camera (1x), and then finish off with a look at the telephoto (2x).
There's a lot to say about the camera on the iPhone 11, but I will start with that range of focal length which is quite apparent from the images above. It simply gives you so many options when taking photos – the 13mm is incredibly wide and will capture a 120-degree field of view (FOV), so you can stand about as close as you like to a building or landmark and still get it in the shot.
The one thing I would say about the ultrawide is that it can look a touch on the soft side when lighting conditions aren't ideal – I don't think anyone was expecting it to be as tack-sharp as the primary camera, but it is a bit softer, especially in the foreground and around the edges. That said, the near lack of any barrel distortion is very impressive, and colour consistency from the ultrawide to primary lens is excellent. From an artistic perspective, having a lens this wide is a fantastic tool.
What has really got me is the primary camera, however. I switched from a Pixel 3, which I judged to be the best camera phone of the last year. Up until now, that is, as the iPhone has claimed victory in that department. I just love the natural, true-to-life presentation – Apple has absolutely nailed it with its image processing. Dynamic range is great, photos are incredibly sharp (without looking over done) and the overall look of the images is just very clean and very natural. Some of you may prefer a more ‘processed' look, with boosted shadows and contrast, but for me this is as good as it gets if you want a photo that captures the scene as you saw it.
Rounding things off is the telephoto, and again it's another top camera – I don't tend to zoom too much, which is why I actually value the ultrawide above the telephoto, but if you do want to use it the colours are carried over very faithfully from the primary camera, and the 56mm-equivalent focal length gives you a good amount of ‘punch in' without being too close.
Then there's night mode to consider. I didn't want this section of the review to turn into a straight iPhone vs Pixel comparison, but above we can see 4 images taken with the iPhone 11 Pro's night mode, and then Night Sight on the Pixel 3. It took Apple a while to catch up and implement a night mode in its phones, but I think they have come right in and claimed the top spot. Images just come out capturing significantly more detail than the Pixel, and I think the overall colour and lighting is more realistic on the iPhone.
The Pixel also has a tendency to blow-out the highlights which is less obvious on the iPhone, and the time it takes to capture said images is also less on the iPhone – the iPhone will take up to 3 seconds to capture a night shot, when on the Pixel it can be an extra second or two more.
The one area where I do still prefer the Pixel is portrait mode. Here, the Google phone does a better job at keeping the sky exposed, where the iPhone's highlights are blown out. That said, both capture depth very well and you can now use both primary and telephoto cameras for portrait mode on the iPhone.
Battery
Rounding out our review, we again finish on another big positive for the iPhone 11 Pro – its battery life. Teardowns have revealed the regular 11 Pro (not the Max) has a battery capacity of 3046 mAh, which may not sound like much but we have to remember two things – firstly, Apple has never used batteries as large as its competitors as it can optimise things better with iOS, and secondly the new A13 Bionic also comes into play with efficiency savings.
In a nutshell, battery life is just fantastic. I wouldn't say I am a massive power user, but I'd regularly need to re-charge my Pixel 3 once it got to around 5-6pm every day. With the iPhone 11 Pro, I got a full day's use out of a single charge, every time – with plenty left over.
In fact, from the week I've been using the phone, my heaviest day of use gave me a total of 5hr29 screen-on time – and I still got to bed-time with 27% battery remaining. I could see seriously heavy power users needing a top-up before charging at night, but for the vast majority of people, this phone will last a solid day on a single charge, if not more.
One last thing to mention here is the inclusion of the 18W fast-charger, meaning Apple is finally bundling a faster charger with the iPhone, replacing the old and slow 5W charger. In my testing, a 30min charge with the 18W unit saw battery capacity increase from 44%, up to 80%. This isn't as fast as I've seen on other Android phones, but it is still a decent bump if you do find yourself needing a top-up during the day.
