iPhone 11: user guide
Apple's new $699 iPhone 11 hits a significantly lower price point than the $999 iPhone 11 Pro and $1,099 iPhone 11 Pro Max. But after a few days of steady use on all three devices, I found the 11 to be quite comparable to the Pro versions.
Apple leveled the playing field with this year's lineup by bringing premium features like dual cameras and a lightning-fast A13 Bionic chipset to a $699 iPhone.
You'd be hard pressed to find a better value in a smartphone.
It's all about the camera
The dual cameras in the top left corner are huge for a phone at this price point. By comparison, its predecessor, the still-available iPhone XR, has one lens, and is only $50 less. That's kind of wild.
With the 11, you get a 12-megapixel wide and a 12-megapixel ultra-wide lens paired with a sizeable LED flash. Yes, it still creates a slight camera bump on the back, so it doesn't lie completely flat. However, most cases, like Apple's iPhone 11 Clear Case, factor this in and compensate so you can lay the device flat.
The two cameras look similar, but are different on the inside. The 12-megapixel wide lens provides a standard field of view, but hitting the button to go ultra-wide, gives you an expansive 120-degree field of view. The updated camera interface enables you to see both views simultaneously, one from the primary camera view mainframe, and the other from a sub-frame along the margin. (See this in action above.) You can also hit the arrow at the top of the screen to access settings.
This camera swap functionality, along with the new camera app, goes above and beyond what Samsung offers in Note 10 or S10 apps. The updated user interface on the iPhone 11 is light in comparison to the hundreds of options you get in the base camera app on Android devices. Apple gives you options for flash, live photos, ratio, timer and even live filters.
These same controls also apply to video and all the other modes of capture.
The range of vibrancy and contrast is high across formats. From portrait to ultra-wide, you get an incredibly wide dynamic range that is on par with a DSLR.
In my tests with portrait mode, the second lens made a significant difference. The camera homes in on the hairline and blurs where it ends. The blur effect is fully adjustable, as is the type of portrait mode shot-- even better you can make these live before shooting or after you've taken the shot. Applying the new high-key Mono effect switches your subject from color to black and white and whites out the background, making the image look like a studio shot taken in front of a white seamless background.
The front-facing camera is equally impressive. The 11, like the 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max, has a True Depth Sensor and 12-megapixel camera. It performs great for selfies, but now when you turn the phone from vertical to horizontal, it automatically increases the shot width, enabling you to pack people into a group selfie.
The iPhone 11 can also shoot front-facing video in slow motion 4K, which will no doubt introduce the "Slofie" to our culture. Sure, it's a little gimmicky, but I had a blast with it and expect to see them everywhere in the coming months.