Computer Shopper - UK (2020-03)

ISSUE385|COMPUTERSHOPPER|MARCH2020 47

DITCHING THE PREVIOUSgeneration’s XR
model, the iPhone 11 sees Apple bringing its
cheapest smartphone back intothe fold.
The look and feel of the phone,though still
distinct, is definitely alot closer to the iPhone
11 Pro (Shopper383) and iPhone 11 Pro Max
than the XR was to the XS and the XS Max.
Case in point, it has the same rear camera
plinth as its more expensive siblings, and
once again the entire rear is made from one
piece of glass, so there’s no ugly trim
surrounding that square.However,it’s also
not quiteaspretty: the only part that’s matt
glass is the camera bump,and instead of a
polished stainless steel frame like the Pro
and Pro Max, the iPhone 11 has anodised
aluminium running around its perimeter.

LIQUID COURAGE

Waterproofing is also inferior,albeit not to
the extent it would affect everydayuse.The
iPhone 11 can survive depths up to two metres
for30minutes, whereas the iPhone 11 Pro
manages four metres forthe same time.The
more impactful points of divergence are the
lack of atelephotocamera, and the display.
There’s no OLED panel here: the iPhone 11
has amorebasic IPS screen, at asub-Full HD
1,792x828 resolution. It performs well in of
itself –wemeasured apeak brightness of
625cd/m^2 ,sRGB coverage of 95.8% and
contrast of 1,563:1–but next to the iPhone 11
Pro,vibrancy and detail are visibly lower,
particularly when you’re watching HDR
video content.
Happily,the iPhone 11 is just as powerful as
the rest of the range,thankstoithaving the
same Bionic A13 processor.Its Geekbench 5
results of 1,334inthe single-core test and
3,417 in the multicore test place it well above
the Samsung Galaxy S10 (Shopper379), and it
maxed out its 60Hz refresh ratewith60fps in
the GFXBench Manhattan onscreen test.

APPLE iPhone11

★★★★★

£729•Fromwww.apple.com/uk

VERDICT

WhilenotquiteasfabulousastheiPhone11
Pro,thestandardmodelisstillsuperb

iOS13SMARTPHONE

Battery lifeis

reasonably good, too.

Surprisingly,thisphone

has alarger battery

than the iPhone 11 Pro

(3,110mAh against

3,046mAh), and thus

lasted over an hour

longer in our video

playback test, only

running dry after

18h 36m. That’s abig

improvement on the

iPhone XR, too.

TWO’S COMPANY

The lack of atelephoto

lens doesn’t hurt much

either,asthe iPhone 11

has abrilliant camera

regardless. The main lens and the ultra-wide-

angle lends –both of which are 12 megapixels

–can capture fully stabilised 4K video at

60fps, and the A13 chip has the grunt to

enable apseudo-HDR effect by having the

sensor record at 120fps, capturing each

alternateframe at different exposure levels

and combining them. It’s very clever indeed.

The iPhone 11 is outstanding forstills as

well, especially with the new night mode,and

when it comes to unzoomed images there’s

no difference in quality whatsoever between

the iPhone 11 and the 11 Pro.

It’s asimilar story forvideo,although you

need to take some of Apple’s marketing

wheezes with aheftypinch of salt. While

zooming in, video is smoother than on any

other smartphone we’ve used, but it’s been

that wayoniPhones forawhile now.The

difference between the iPhone 11 and the 11

Pro is that you can enable in-zoom lens

switching in 4K 60fps video.Onthe XR and

XS, you could only enable this up to 4K 30fps.

Once you do this, however,you’ll see a

small jump when

transitioning from

one camera to the

next –from 0.9x

to 1x zoom and

back again –and

you’ll also see a

noticeable

difference in

quality between

the two cameras.

Again, this isn’t a

problem forApple

per se,particularly

in comparison to other smartphones whose

video zooms are significantly more steppy

than the one on the iPhone 11 models.

IINTHE SKY

You’ve probably worked out by nowthat the

Apple iPhone 11 is apretty good phone,even

if there are distinct differences between it and

the iPhone 11 Pro.Specifically: the displayisn’t

anywhere near as good, it doesn’t look quite

as nice,itisn’t as waterproofand it lacks the

telephotocamera.

And yet, £729 forthis isn’t half bad foran

Apple phone,and there’s certainly farlessof

the ‘ouch’factor of the £1,000-plus Pro

models. While you certainly can buy an

Android phone that can do most of what this

can with better battery lifeand more camera

lenses forthe same or less, the iPhone 11 still

holds its own when it comes to outright

performance and camera quality.

It’s also miles better than the iPhone XR

and not hugely more expensive,even after

Apple reduced the price of the XR to £629.

JonathanBray

Batterylife

0% -50 Reference + 50 + 100

Seepage98for performancedetails

PROCESSORHexa-core2.65GHz AppleA13 Bionic•SCREEN

SIZE6.1in•SCREENRESOLUTION1,792x828•REAR

CAMERAS12 megapixels, 12 megapixels•STORAGE64GB•

WIRELESSDATA4G•NFCYes•DIMENSIONS

151x76x8.3mm•WEIGHT194g•OPERATINGSYSTEMiOS13

• WARRANTYOneyearRTB•DETAILSwww.apple.com/uk


• PARTCODEiPhone 11

SPECIFICATIONS

18h36m