iPhone 11 Pro review: the BEST camera on a phone

iPhone 11 Pro review: the BEST camera on a phone

Alright, its iPhone time.Apple released three new iPhones all at once this year.The iPhone 11, the iPhone 11 Pro, and the iPhone 11 Pro Max.Now, I honestly think the iPhone 11 is the phonemost people in the iOS ecosystem should getif theyre upgrading.So weve got a whole other review of that phone thatyou should check out, too.But this, this is the Pro review.The dark mode, cash money review for professionalswho use their phones to do pro stuff.Like taking telephoto photos.Actually, I have no idea why Apple called these phones Pro.Theyre basically just nice updates to the iPhone XS,but I also think its a waste of time to argue about names.iPhone 11 Pro Max is a bad name.But you know what, its a great phone.And I think Apple might have done it.This is the best camera Ive ever seen on a phone.Lets get into it.

The iPhone 11 Pro looks almost exactly like the iPhone XSfrom the front.Its a little heavier and thicker,but unless youre comparing them directly,you probably wont notice.I certainly didnt.You do get a much bigger battery in exchangefor that extra size, which Apple says leads toa four-hour battery life increase on the regular Proand a five-hour jump for the Pro Max.But its surprisingly hard to check that number.Ill get into why in a minute.The big difference from the XS comes on the backwhere Apple says the rear glass is now strongerand it comes in this frosted matte finish.It also integrates a glossy camera bump with three cameras.The whole back and the bump is a single piece of glassthats milled out.The iPhone 11 is the reverse.

It has a glossy back and the camera bump is matte.Now you know.I got a lot of questions about this matte finishand I think its really nice,especially in this new midnight green color.It didnt really pick up any fingerprints,but it does seem a tiny bit more slipperythan the gloss back of the previous phonesand the iPhone 11.But I also think most peopleare just going to stick this thing in a case,so it doesnt seem like a huge issue.A lot of people also asked me if this matte finishwill scratch easily, similar to the back of the Pixel 3,and so far the answer seems to be no.But were going to have to keep an eye on it over time.Apples finally relented and includedan 18W USB-C fast charger with the Pro phones.So you get a USB-C to Lightning cable as well.Now Apples USB-C charger is not the smallestor prettiest charger out there.But anything is better than the slow 5W brickits been including for years, so Ill take it.So lets get into these cameras.

Apple has a lot at stake here.Google and Samsungs cameras have been outperformingthe iPhone for a couple of years now.And Chinese phone makers, in particular,have been racing each other to add an endless arrayof photography features.If youre in the US, youre probably locked into iMessageand no camera is good enough to make you switch.But Apple doesnt have that advantage in big marketslike Europe and China.Everyone uses WhatsApp and WeChat,and switching from iOS to Android is much easier.So Apples added a bunch of featuresthat first appeared on Android phones.There are three cameras on the iPhone 11 Pro.The telephoto camera has the same basic sensor,but a faster f/2.O lens.The main camera has the same f/1.8 lensand a slightly better sensor.

And theres the new super fun ultra-wide camera,which is basically twice as wide as the main lens and f/2.4.And the f/2.2 front camerais now 12 megapixels, up from seven,and has a wider 24mm focal lengthso it can pull out to a slightly wider anglein landscape for selfies.Apples also updated its smart HDR processing system,which I was not very impressed withwhen I reviewed the iPhone XS and XR.The iPhone 11 cameras are an enormous improvement over the XS,and beat the Pixel and Galaxy Note 10 in most of our tests.This shot of Verge video producer, Mariya Abdulkaf,outside in bright sunlightshouldnt be too hard for any camera to do a good job with. The iPhone 11 is way sharper, with way more detail.I also think the iPhone 11 does a way better jobthan the Note 10 and its a little better to my eyethan the Pixel 3.

This improvement is due tosomething Apples calling semantic rendering.Basically, Smart HDR recognizes whats in the imageand renders it appropriately.I asked Apple to break down how it works for meand it basically goes like this:First, the iPhone starts taking photos to a bufferthe instant you open the camera app.So by the time you actually press the button,its captured four underexposed framesand the photo you want.Then it grabs one overexposed frame.This is all basically the same as the iPhone XSand the Pixel 3,except the Pixel doesnt grab that overexposed frame.Second, Smart HDR and semantic renderingthen start looking for things in the photos it understands.Faces, hair, the sky, things like that.Then it uses additional detailfrom the under and overexposed framesto selectively process the areas of the imageits recognized.

Hair gets sharpened, but the sky doesnt.It just gets de-noised.Faces get relighted to make them look more evenand the iPhone knows to sharpen up your facial hair.Smart HDR is also less aggressive in flattening the photos.Highlights and faces arent correctedas aggressively as beforebecause those highlights make photos look more natural.But other highlights and shadows are correctedto regain detail.Finally, the whole image is saved and youve got a photo.This all happens instantly every time you take a photo,which is a testament to how powerfulApples A13 processor really is.Heres that final image we just took.You can see how the iPhone 11 preserves more detailthan the Pixel and Note in the shadows and highlights,and just blows the iPhone XS away in sharpness.The improvements to Smart HDR are applicable across cameras.

Heres a quick comparison of the ultra-widesin the 11 Pro and the Note 10.The Note 10 did a better job exposing the sky,but the 11 is just a much sharper photo with more detail.You can see the same thing with selfies.The XS Max has pulled up shadows so muchthat it looks a little hazy,while the iPhone 11 evenly pulls up shadows in Mariyas face,but preserves the contrast with the background.The Note 10 did all kinds of goofy skin smoothingand the Pixel 3 looks great,but it has less detail than the iPhone.Just look at her eyelashes.Now there are places where the iPhone 11didnt win in our tests.The XS historically struggled with backlit subjects.And while the 11 is a definite improvement,this photo is really blue.

And theres basically no detail in Mariyas face.I think the Note actually did the best overall job here.And I think the Pixel does the best job in low light,but the iPhone isnt bad.Its a lot better than the XS was last year.Apples promised a new mode for these situationscalled Deep Fusion,which is supposed to ship later this year,but I wasnt able to test it.If it improves photos taken in this kind of light,then the iPhone will basically pull aheadin every situation.Apple also added a Night mode this yearand its really impressive.It preserves a ton more detail than the Pixel.It comes on automatically in the darkand suggests an exposure time, which you can tweakor turn off if you want.The Pixel photo here looks more dramatic,but look a little closer.

The iPhone has preserved all of the detailin the brick and graffiti, which is basically gonein the Pixel shot.Both of these Night mode photos look pretty similar,but look at all the extra detail in the bushesin the iPhone shot.Same with this shot.Youd never know that fence was even there in the Pixel photo.I think the Pixel produces more dramatic-looking shotsout of the camera, but I would rather have the extra detailfrom the iPhone.All in all, I think the iPhone 11 camera does betterin bright light than the Pixel 3 and Note 10,and the Night mode beats the Pixel 3more often than not.

Apples also made video on the iPhone 11 betterwith improved stabilization exposureand the ability to record 4K60 videofrom any of the three cameras.- But is it really that good?Lets put it to the test.Alright, so were going to head out in New York Cityand were going to test against the Note 10,the Pixel 3, and the XS to see who does video best.We started out at the waterand immediately you can see the color differencesbetween the cameras.The Pixel leaned into the warm tones,while Samsung muddied the mid tones.And the iPhone XS leaned into the blues of the sky,while the 11 Probalanced the warm and cool tones out the most.With the subject closer to the lensthe Note 10 kept the flowers the sharpest,while the iPhone XS blurred the background the most.Okay, weve got to test the audio on all these phones.Ill let you guys be the judge.

Do I sound like the beautiful angel voicethat I have, angelic voice?Of course, the answer is yes.But on these phones, whos to say?In low light, Apple isnt afraidof underexposing the blacks,whereas Samsung and Google will bring them up.Now the 11 Pro does do a lot more smoothingto compensate for all of the noise this typically creates.The front-facing camera on the iPhone 11 Prodid a great job of balancing my skin toneand just the exposure in general.Even against this large neon light source.But it wasnt as sharp as the Note 10.Now all these comparisons are great,but chances are you wont be recording on all of these phonesside by side at the same exact time.So lets just talk about the iPhone 11 Pro.

The front-facing camera now records in 4Kand the "slofie" is exactly how youd imagine it.Youll use it once and probably never touch it again.The video from the rear cameras, though, is really good.Like, in perfect light, its honestly just impressive.Switching between lenses is pretty seamlessin terms of color accuracy and exposure.And you can use the dial methodor just tap the lenses on the screen to switch.Now you cant switch between lenses when you shoot in 4K60.So make sure you set 4K30 or lowerif youre going to be doing that.The ultra-wide angle lens looks super cooleven with the crazy distortion.But there is no image stabilization,which shouldnt be a problem because naturally,the wider the lens, the less need for that.Both the telephoto and wide lens keep your shot stableand pretty sharp for a sensor their size.

The color is punchy and pretty saturatedand in perfect lighting, you, too, can have that "shoton iPhone" look.But in low light, even the iPhone 11 Pro,when viewed on a screen larger than its own,succumbs to noisy blacks and haloed highlights.My big issue, though,why do I have to leave the camera appto change the frame rates?Its not intuitive and its just time-consuming.Apple, just put it in the app.iPhones have always had great video,but the video on the 11 Prois the best Ive seen on a smartphone to date.And the gap is only getting bigger.Enough of me, back to Nilay.- The screen on the iPhone 11 Pro is a new OLEDthat Apple is calling the Super Retina XDR display.

Theres still a notch andApple is still doing fancy, rounded cornersand uniform bezels,which no one else in the industry has really managed to match.Those bezels are still pretty big, though,especially compared to something like the Galaxy Note 10.This is the third year of the basic iPhone X designand Apples competitors havent been sitting stillin trying to beat it. Now in typical situations,Apple says the iPhone 11 Pro displaycan go up to 800 nits of brightnessand that when youre watching HDR content,the highlights will peak at 1,200 nits.In normal situations, I dont think youre going to notice it.Ive never had a problemlooking at my iPhone XS display outside.But its a huge and obvious improvementwhen youre watching HDR movies.I never really bought the ideathat previous iPhone displays were Dolby Vision,but the iPhone 11 Pro display kind of pulls it off.

The Note 10 display definitely looks as bright,but the iPhones color processinglooks way more natural to me,especially with Apples True Tone system turned on.Of course, Apple and Google are still in a fightover video codecs, so you cant watch any 4K or HDR contenton the iPhone 11 Pro from YouTube.So this video is not in 4K if youre watching on an iPhone.Sorry about that.Apple has also updated the audio on the iPhone 11and iPhone 11 Pro, with something theyre calling spatial audio.Its basically a surround decoder.

If youre watching a Netflix movie with Adobe 5.1 soundor game encoded in 7.1, youll get virtual surroundfrom the stereo speakers.The iPhone 11s also support Dolby Atmos,which is a little silly for stereo speakers, but its there.Theres also standard wide stereo supportlike last year for everything else.All in all, the iPhone speakers sound really loudand generally better than ever.Theres no more 3D Touch on the iPhone 11 Pro,its been replaced by what Apple calls Haptic Touch,which is basically just long pressing on thingswith haptic feedback.

In most places, you wont really notice its goneand some things are actually a little easier to figure out.Opening the camera from the lock screenfeels the same to me.Rearranging icons on the home screenis a little simpler to figure outsince theres a context menu that pops up now.Peeking at links in Safariis a little different in iOS 13,but its also a little simpler.The only place I truly missed 3D Touch was the keyboard.You could press down anywhere on the keyboardto move the cursor around on the XS,but with Haptic Touch on the iPhone 11 Pro,you can only press and hold on the space bar.Now, I never really realized how many times a dayI used that one specific 3D Touch feature and I missed it.But if the trade-off is thattheres more room inside the case for a bigger battery,Im fine with it.Apple claims the iPhone 11 Pro lasts four hours longerthan the iPhone XS, and that the iPhone 11 Pro Maxlasts five hours longer than the XS Max.

As I mentioned earlier,its really hard to test those claims.Apple doesnt run a strict battery testthat we can just repeat.Instead, its getting that numberby taking its huge data set of iPhone usageand applying it to a model of the new phone.So youll notice that the only hard numbers Apple publishesare like hours of video playback.Simple tests of a single task,which isnt how anyone uses a phone.All that said, the battery life on the iPhone 11 Prohas been impressive.Ive been using an 11 Pro Max as my primary phonefor the past week,and it has consistently run for 12 to 14 hourson a single charge.And about 10 hours of screen-on time, off the charger,is reported in battery settings.That is a huge improvement over my XS Max,which generally runs for eight to nine hourson a single charge.The smaller 11 Pro has been just as impressive.

Thats the phone Becca used for her testingand it still had 50 percent of its battery leftthe morning after she shot her part of the review.It turns out a slightly thicker phonewith a bigger battery was the right move after all.Inside the new iPhone 11 Pro,theres the new A13 Bionic processorwhich, as usual, benchmarks far above the competition.Theres a lot of headroom here for things like AR, games,and high-end photo and video apps,but its not like the A12 Bionic in the iPhone XS is slow.

Most of this extra power will be usefultowards the end of this phones life, not the beginning.Face ID is a little bit faster and works at more angles,but its not particularly dramatic,it just works a little bit better.I think this is the best kind of iterative update.It made a thing that was already pretty gooda little bit better,and anything that makes securing your phonea little bit better is great.And most intriguingly,theres a new chip inside the iPhone 11, its called the U1,which does precise positioningusing an ultra wideband radio.Apple says the forthcoming iOS 13.1 updatewill allow you to just point the phoneat another U1 deviceto put it at the top of your AirDrop list.But none of that works yet, so well just have to see.(calming music)Obviously, the iPhone 11 Pro.

I saw all kinds of glitches and crashesduring my week of testing, and iOS 13.1 is already in betaand scheduled for wide release by the end of this month.So it really seems like Apple just squeakedthis thing out the door and is racing to fix bugs.I asked Apple about some of these glitchesand they told me theyre always fixing bugsand iPhone owners generally auto update.But if youre on the fence about upgrading,you might want to wait until some of these bug fix updatesactually ship.Assuming all the bugs get fixed,the biggest new feature in iOS 13 is Dark Mode,which is very nice.But otherwise, this is a lot of tiny little updates.Theres a swiping keyboard now.Reminders is a much better app.There are better photo editing toolsand you can edit videos as well.Apple Maps keeps getting a tiny bit better every year.Siris voice is slightly smoother.Its a lot of little things that add up into a big update,but if you handed this phone to someone using iOS 12,they might not even notice unless Dark Mode was on.

The iPhone 11 Pro starts at $999 with 64GB of storage,which doesnt seem like quite enough for that price.And the 11 Pro Max starts at $1,099.You can spec the Pro Max all the way up to $1,449with 512GB of storage,which means that you can pay an awful lot of moneyfor this phone if you want to.If youre in the iOS ecosystem and its time to upgrade,its a pretty tough choice this year.The standard iPhone 11 offers almost everythingyou get from the Pro for $699.And I think most people should get the iPhone 11.Youll still get the improved main camera,the fun new ultra-wide lens, the A13 processor, and iOS 13,and all the rest.The extra money for the Probasically buys you a far superior display,a telephoto camera, and improved LTE performance.And if you want a smaller phone,the iPhone 11 Pro is a little bit smallerthan the iPhone 11,which seems a tiny bit unfairto people who want a smaller phone.

The entire lineup is still pretty big, though.So if youre hoping for something to replacethat aging iPhone SE,youre not going to love any of these options.Im very picky about displays and cameras,so Im going to get an iPhone 11 Pro.In fact, the cameras on the iPhone 11 and 11 Proare so improved that I think theyre worththe year-over-year upgrade from last years modelsfor the first time in a long time.Add in the improved battery life and the iPhone 11 Prostands out as a major step forward from the XSand one of the best flagship phones of the year.Or it will be, when Apple fixes iOS 13.Hey everybody, this was obviously the iPhone 11 Pro review.We also reviewed the iPhone 11,that was a fun collab we did with Dieter Bohn.Watch both videos, theyre both on the channel,and then let me know which of these phonesyou think youre going to buyor if youre waiting for the Pixel 4.