iPhone 11 pro max review

HIGHLIGHTS

The iPhone 11 Pro Max isn't a perfect device, but it comes pretty close

The display, performance, and battery life are excellent

Night Mode is a useful addition to the iPhone 11 lineup

iPhone 11 Pro Max Review

iPhone 11 Pro Max price in India starts at an eye-watering Rs. 1,09,900



What is a ‘Pro' device? A joke popular in Apple circles goes that anything that's available in Space Grey and costs a small fortune qualifies. We've seen Apple use the Pro tag in a wide variety of devices, usually with a fair amount of justification.

The Mac Pro and iMac Pro use server-grade chips and ECC RAM (among other components) to differentiate themselves from the Mac Mini and iMac respectively. The MacBook Pro has traditionally used faster chips to offer performance levels that other MacBooks simply cannot achieve. The iPad Pros started off by differentiating themselves with Apple Pencil and Smart Keyboard support, though recent updates to the iPad lineup mean only their use of the Type-C port and fancier display panels make them stand out.

On its website, Apple is calling the new iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max the “first iPhone[s] powerful enough to be called Pro”. At first glance that seems like a weird claim to make, since the iPhone 11 (Review) uses the same chip — and benchmarks indicate it has the same amount of RAM — as its more expensive brethren.


Yes, the iPhone 11 and the iPhone 11 Pro duo differ in significant ways — most notably their displays and battery life, apart from the latter packing in an additional telephoto camera on the rear — but are the changes significant enough to justify the ‘Pro' tag? Before we answer that question, we encourage you to read our iPhone 11 review, since it's an essential starting point for many things we will be talking about.

iPhone 11 Pro Max design 

Let's address it right at the start: the camera bump on the rear — or the camera island, as we called it in our iPhone 11 review — is not very pleasant to look at. It's roughly — maybe exactly, we didn't have vernier callipers on hand — the same size as the island on the iPhone 11, except it houses three cameras, in addition to the True Tone flash and a microphone.


While it doesn't look as ugly in person as when we saw the first the leaked renders several months ago — or maybe we've just become accustomed to this sight — it's safe to say that this isn't Apple's best design work. We don't have a problem with the presence of the bump but we can't claim to be fans of the lens arrangement that Apple has gone with.

It's safe to say we are not fans of this design

It's quite possible that Apple engineers felt this arrangement was necessary to get the best possible performance out of three cameras — moving any of the lenses by even a millimetre would require adjusting the algorithms that combine data from multiple sensors, something all companies do as part of their development process — but we sure wish a more aesthetically pleasing solution could've been found. We've all complained in the past about Apple picking form over function, so maybe this is just Cupertino's payback for all that criticism.

If you look beyond the camera island, the iPhone 11 Pro Max is a lot like its predecessor, the iPhone XS Max (Review), except that the glass on the back now has a textured matte finish. This gives the phone a different — read nicer, in our books — look and in-hand feel compared to the iPhone 11 and previous-generation iPhone models.


While we weren't impressed with the new Midnight Green finish in the brief time that we spent with an iPhone 11 Pro Max at the hands-on area at the Steve Jobs Theatre following Apple's launch event, it's definitely grown on us in the few days that we've spent with our review unit. It's still hard to differentiate this colour from the Space Grey variant in certain light conditions, but the dark, understated green comes through when light shines off the iPhone's back.

The iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max are also available in Silver and Gold, each with a matching polished steel frame, or band as Apple likes to call it. Like the iPhone 11, the ‘iPhone' branding is missing from the back of the phones. The grille at the bottom of the iPhone 11 Pro duo is asymmetrical (just as it was on the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max), though we are perhaps one of three people in the world who even notice this.


At 158x77.8x8.1mm, the iPhone 11 Pro Max is 0.5 taller, 0.4mm wider, and 0.4mm thicker than the iPhone XS Max, but perhaps more importantly, at 226g, it's a full 18g heavier as well. That's quite something for a company that's traditionally been obsessed with making everything thinner and lighter with successive generations. The fact that the iPhone 11 Pro Max offers much better battery life than the iPhone XS Max — more on that later — is an indication that most of the weight has been put towards accommodating a bigger battery, which is another sign that at least in some cases Apple is no longer afraid to sacrifice design at the altar of functional gains.

The iPhone 11 Pro Max (right) is marginally thicker and heavier than the iPhone XS Max (left)

Switching from the iPhone XS Max as our daily driver, we got used to the additional weight pretty quickly, but it's safe to say that this phone might be a step too far for many people. If you feel this way, you would do well to opt for the iPhone 11 Pro, which offers the same package in a smaller body, with only slightly worse (claimed) battery life.

iPhone 11 Pro Max display, performance, and battery life

The iPhone 11 Pro Max packs a 6.5-inch 1242x2688 display, which is the same size and has the same number of pixels as the one on the iPhone XS Max, but there are a few improvements. For starters, the iPhone 11 Pro Max display has an increased peak brightness of 800 nits, compared to 625 nits on its predecessor. In fact, the display is capable of hitting even brighter levels — up to 1200 nits — when viewing HDR10 or Dolby Vision videos, or while looking at HDR photos.


This makes watching HDR content on iPhone 11 Pro Max a visual treat, especially in scenes with really bright areas alongside dark shadows. Throw in Dolby Atmos support on the iPhone 11 trio's built-in speakers and the iPhone 11 Pro Max is a portable entertainment powerhouse. Just like the iPhone 11, the iPhone 11 Pro Max also claims to offer improved Bluetooth audio streaming range thanks to Bluetooth beamforming. You also get Bluetooth 5, Wi-Fi 6, and Gigabit LTE, if your network supports it.

The iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max drop 3D Touch, marking the end of Apple's experiment with the technology. The iPhone XR was the first new phone (other than the iPhone SE (Review)) to ship without 3D Touch since the technology made its debut with the iPhone 6s (Review) and iPhone 6s Plus (Review).

Just like the iPhone XR, most of 3D Touch's functionality can still be accessed by long-pressing, or Haptic Touch, as Apple calls it. In that sense, the iPhone XR was an experiment to see if anyone misses 3D Touch, and the answer clearly seems to have been no.

The display on the iPhone 11 Pro Max is great


The iPhone 11 Pro Max is IP68 rated, but it can now apparently survive at a depth of 4 metres for up to 30 minutes, compared to 2 metres on its predecessor. Do remember that Apple's warranty, like those of most other OEMs, does not cover liquid damage. What's unchanged is the storage options: 64GB (Rs. 1,09,900), 256GB (Rs. 1,23,900), and 512GB (Rs. 1,41,900). Given their relatively high prices, we would've liked at least 128GB of storage with the base variant.

All three new iPhone models are powered by Apple's new A13 Bionic SoC and, as expected, they aced all our tests, ranking comfortably ahead of all other smartphones. In fact, the closest competitors that the iPhone 11 trio have in terms of raw power are last year's iPhone models, which tells you everything you need to know about Apple's lead in the SoC department.


Both in terms of benchmarks and real world performance, the iPhone 11 Pro Max was pretty similar to the iPhone 11, and we encourage our readers to check out our iPhone 11 review for more details. As before, Face ID is available to unlock your phone, and Apple's is possibly the fastest and most reliable face recognition implementation out there.

Apple is promising the “longest battery life in an iPhone” with the iPhone 11 Pro Max, and with good reason. The smartphone lasted two full days of medium to heavy usage, which for us involved a little bit of gaming, shooting some videos and photos, a bit of social media, and checking emails. We got 19 hours and 27 minutes of playback time in our HD video battery loop test, which is exceptionally good.


The iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max finally ship with fast chargers in the box. Apple has moved to a Type-C charger, which is good news for those who would like to use the bundled cable with their Type-C-only MacBooks.


The bundled charger can take the iPhone 11 Pro Max from empty to 46 percent in 30 minutes, and to 81 percent in 60 minutes, which isn't as quick as many of today's Android smartphones can manage, but a welcome addition to the iPhone lineup, and more than acceptable overall.

A full charge took nearly two and-a-half hours, and we suspected that's likely down to iOS 13's new ‘Optimised Battery Charging' setting — on by default — which looks to optimise for long-term battery life by slowing down charging once the battery level hits 80 percent. Indeed, when we tried charging the phone with Optimised Battery Charging turned off, we could charge it from empty to 100 percent in 1 hour and 52 minutes.

Wireless charging is supported with speeds similar to previous-generation iPhone models.

iPhone 11 Pro Max software and cameras

The iPhone 11 trio ship with iOS 13 out of the box, which brings a host of new features. First up is a system-wide Dark Mode, which — when on — flips the default view from black text and controls on white backgrounds to white text on black backgrounds. All system apps support Dark Mode, though some aspects take time getting used to.


Traaditionally, Safari has used a grey fill in the address bar as well as the menu bar and the toolbar at the bottom to indicate that you are in Private Mode. With Dark Mode in iOS 13, however, only the background of the address bar is changed to black, which isn't as easily discernible as before.


Safari in regular vs private mode in iOS 12 (left) and in dark mode on iOS 13 (right)

Dark Mode can quickly be toggled on or off via the Control Centre, and the changes reflect instantly. You can also schedule Dark Mode to kick in automatically during certain hours. Third-party developers can offer alternative colour schemes for their apps when Dark Mode is activated.


The Photos app has been revamped to help those with large libraries find and manage their photos better. The Photos tab within the app is now split into Years, Months, Days, and All Photos, making it easier to quickly jump to the vacation you took in June last year, for example. The app now also includes more powerful photo and video editing controls than before, which is something that pros will appreciated


Notably, while editing Portrait shots, you can now adjust the position and intensity of your studio lighting, which can be pretty useful if you know what you are doing. A new Portrait Lighting effect called High-Key Light Mono gives your subjects a monochromatic look on a white background.


Reminders is another app that has been completely revamped, offering you more features and more granular controls than before. The app new presents four Smart lists at the top: Today, Scheduled, Flagged, and All. You can add attachments to your reminders, or create new kinds of reminders that pop up when you are messaging a specific person, which can be pretty handy. There's support for subtasks and grouped lists as well.


It's value commenting that upon initial launching Reminders on any device running iOS thirteen, you may be prompted to upgrade your reminders and notes keep on iCloud. If you bear with the upgrade, they'll become inaccessible on iOS devices running something older than iOS thirteen, still as on Macs running something except macOS Catalina.


iOS thirteen ships with a revamped, a lot of powerful Reminders app

Messages gets some new options too, the foremost vital being greatly improved search. you'll be able to finally see over one instance of the search term in a very language, that fixes a significant pain purpose with Messages. The app conjointly allows you to management what name and image folks see with outgoing iMessages, and even UN agency gets to visualize this name and image.


Then there area unit a handful of much-needed system-wide enhancements. The inherent keyboard finally supports swipe writing, that allows you to merely swipe your finger over the keyboard to sort words. we have a tendency to area unit in person not fans on this input technique however we all know many that swear by it. This conjointly suggests that you do not have to be compelled to install any third-party apps or toggle keyboards to use this feature. In our restricted time testing the strategy — that Apple is asking QuickPath — the system did a decent job of police investigation the words that we have a tendency to were aspiring to sort.



iOS thirteen conjointly fixes another long-standing annoyance — the degree indicator. that is right, currently once you amendment the degree whereas looking a video, you may now not see an enormous graphical indicator within the middle of the screen that blocks the terribly video you're looking. Instead, you may see a way smaller management on the aspect of the video, that will the task simply fine. Third-party apps together with YouTube had extended their own solutions to figure around this drawback, however we're glad to own a system-wide fix once and for all.



The good-old system-wide Share Sheet contains a latest look that puts bringing and up to date Messages/ Mail recipients in a very horizontally-scrolling row at the highest, followed by the list of third-party apps kind of like what we have a tendency to had in iOS thirteen. further actions are brought out of their own row in iOS twelve and area unit currently gift as a vertically scrolling list, sorted by context. Overall, the Share Sheet feels tons a lot of littered however this might probably aid the invention of antecedently buried choices, therefore we've got mixed feelings regarding this modification at this stage.

Share Sheet in iOS twelve (left) and iOS thirteen (right). Note that the 2 phones have completely different sets of apps put in.


iOS thirteen conjointly brings a number of different options like the power to insert external drives to your iOS devices, massive enhancements to CarPlay, and a replacement feature referred to as register With Apple that is designed to allow you to use third-party apps and services whereas limiting the number of data you share with them. Do note that since the iPhone still uses the Lightning connection, you may want the USB adapter to use most external drives.

Apple is additionally forcing apps to be a lot of clear regarding however they use location information and if they use Bluetooth for love or money aside from streaming audio. this can manifest for users within the type of permission prompts once the app tries to use the feature for the terribly initial time.

You will have the prospect to convey apps one-time access to your location, that is handy if you wish to try and do this, say, throughout the signup method however need to safeguard your location information later. Apps can now not be ready to arouse background access to your location once they initial launch. However, if you have already granted associate app permission to use your location whereas it's getting used, it will prompt you to require this to ensuing level by requesting background location access once required.

iOS thirteen brings many privacy-focused options like increased controls for sharing location information with apps and granting them access to Bluetooth (right)


We appreciated the additional level of coarseness that the placement information prompts currently supply, although we have a tendency to believe tons of users might notice the Bluetooth-related prompts to be confusing and should find yourself granting — or denying — apps access while not complete data. although some third-party developers use Bluetooth for following, it is also getting used by others to change some convenient options.



There area unit even some India-centric options like keyboards for Assamese, Bodo, Dogri, Kashmiri (Arabic, Devanagari), Konkani (Devanagari), Manipuri (Bangla, Meetei Mayek), Maithili, Nepali, Sanskrit, Santali (Devanagari, Ol Chiki), and Sindhi (Devanagari, Arabic), still as next-word predictions once writing in Hindi. The new bilingual Hindi (Latin) and English keyboard conjointly supports writing predictions.



Four new system fonts — Gujarati, Gurmukhi, Kannada, and Odia — are value-added, and there area unit thirty new document fonts for Assamese, Bangla, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Nepali, Odia, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu.



Siri will currently speak English in associate Indian accent, although it is not able to begin conversing in any Indian languages simply nevertheless. except for associate accent which will sound a lot of acquainted to Republic of India ears, this suggests that Siri can use ‘lakhs' rather than ‘hundred thousands' once bearing on sizable amount. Not all kinks appear smoothened out nevertheless although as we have a tendency to detected Siri generally aforementioned the word “period” rather than truly pausing in between sentences (see screenshot below). a minimum of Apple Maps currently supports turn-by-turn navigation in Republic of India, therefore there is one less factor for US to complain regarding.


Give Siri associate Indian accent and it says "lakhs" rather than "hundred thousands" (left), although it struggled with the bit on the proper for a few reason

If you're actively victimisation 2 numbers on your iPhone, you will be happy to notice that iOS thirteen currently allows you to link each the numbers to your iMessage and FaceTime accounts, removing a limitation that we have a tendency to noted in your iPhone XR review wherever we have a tendency to dove in-depth into the software system expertise of employing a dual-SIM iPhone.

We did run into some bugs although. when taking a screenshot on the iPhone eleven professional GHB, we have a tendency to could not like a shot put it aside to Files or share it victimisation the Share Sheet. Instead, we have a tendency to had to travel back to the house screen, return into Photos, so invoke the Share Sheet. curiously, we have a tendency to did not face constant drawback on the iPhone eleven.

The camera setup on the iPhone eleven professional and iPhone eleven professional GHB is just like that of the iPhone eleven, except they feature an extra f/2.0 12-megapixel sensing element paired with zoom lens. this enables the iPhone eleven professional couple to supply 2x optical zoom, whereas conjointly utilising the zoom lens for Portrait Mode. that is right, with the iPhone eleven professional couple, Portrait Mode is out there on each telephotograph associated Wide cameras — you'll be able to switch between the 2 with an easy-to-miss on-screen button that shows up at the bottom-left.


iPhone eleven Pro's Wide (top), radical Wide (middle), and telephotograph (2x zoom, bottom) cameras in action - faucet to visualize full-sized pictures and consider our iPhone eleven review for a lot of camera samples

In low-light conditions, the performance of the telephotograph camera is slightly worse than that of the Wide camera, however it's appreciably higher than that of the radical Wide. all told different aspects, the performance of the iPhone eleven professional Max's cameras is just like that of the iPhone eleven and that we encourage you to browse our iPhone eleven review for a a lot of in-depth consider however well they work.


Portrait mode (left/ top) and iOS 13's new Portrait light-weighting impact High-Key Light Mono (right/ bottom) — faucet to visualize full-sized pictures

Tap to visualize full-sized iPhone eleven professional GHB camera sample


iPhone XS GHB (top) vs iPhone eleven professional GHB (bottom) — faucet to visualize full-sized pictures


iPhone XS GHB (top) vs iPhone eleven professional GHB with Night Mode (bottom) — faucet to visualize full-sized pictures.

To summarise, Night Mode is probably the largest new addition to the new iPhone models, and it greatly enhances the new iPhones' low-light photography credentials, creating them contenders for being the most effective smartphone cameras all told conditions. The radical Wide camera provides you a replacement perspective, and also the zoom lens on the iPhone eleven professional couple with its 2x optical zoom could be a handy tool to own once you need to urge nearer to the action.

The qualities of selfies is improved still due to a latest front-facing camera and video is improved with improved stabilisation and support for extended dynamic vary for 4K videos up to sixty FPS.

Verdict

A much higher author than this one once asked, “What's in a very name? That that we have a tendency to decision a professional by the other name would work as sweet.” With due apologies to poet, you hopefully get the purpose. whether or not the iPhone eleven professional GHB is warrant the ‘Pro' designation or not could be a discussion that may continue, however there isn't any questioning its credentials as a top-notch, excuse the pun, phone.



The somewhat conservative style aside, we have a tendency to struggled to search out any real shortcomings with the iPhone eleven professional GHB — the show is excellent; the performance and battery life area unit nearly as good as you'll be able to get; and also the cameras, currently with Night Mode, will offer the other smartphone a run its cash. Heck, Apple has even enclosed a quick charger with this one, therefore all is sweet with life, right? Well, almost.



As we have a tendency to mentioned, we have a tendency to would've liked to visualize a lot of storage on the bottom variant — this can be a ‘Pro' device in any case — and automaton phones out there supply quicker wireless charging and bundled chargers that area unit a lot of quicker than Apple's. The iPhone eleven professional GHB may even be an excessive amount of of one or two for several folks due to its size and weight, which might create the iPhone eleven professional an improved bet for several trying to find the most effective the Apple world needs to supply. Then there is the little matter of the value.



The iPhone eleven professional GHB starts at associate eye-watering Rs. 1,09,900, that could be a ton of cash to pay on a phone. for many folks, it'd be laborious to justify disbursement the premium over the iPhone eleven — or maybe leading automaton smartphones like the Galaxy S10 trio or the Galaxy Note ten couple — however if you would like the iPhone that gives absolutely the better of everything, the iPhone eleven professional GHB is that the one to urge. although we have not tested it, the iPhone eleven professional ought to supply virtually precisely the same expertise because the professional GHB all told departments aside from battery life, and it's on the market beginning at a rather lower cost