iPhone 11 Pro Max: It's The Bigger And Better

iPhone 11 Pro Max: It's The Bigger And Better

OUR VERDICT

The iPhone 11 Pro Max is that the best that Apple can cram into a smartphone - the high-end screen, powerful speakers, upgraded processor all support the large upgrades to the camera. However, this phone is basically for the Apple fan or someone that basically needs that extra lens or slightly more battery life - the iPhone 11 seems like it offers better value.

FOR

• Night mode really shines
• Lovely back
• Reams of power

AGAINST

• Design isn't updated
• Lack of clear innovation beyond the camera
• Most expensive iPhone out

Two-Minute Review

Update: Apple has confirmed that iOS 14 - the company's next big software update - are going to be coming to the iPhone 11 Pro Max later in 2020.

The iPhone 11 Pro Max is that the largest and most powerful phone Apple’s ever created, taking the absolute best of its technology and mixing it with an upgraded design that has a replacement matte back, three cameras designed to rival the simplest from Samsung, Google and Huawei, and an enhanced battery for greater endurance.

However, it’s also one among the foremost expensive phones on the market because the far more powerful member of the iPhone 11 series.

Digging deeper into the camera, we’re impressed most with the Night mode: the iPhone 11 Pro Max is capable of turning night almost into day, but doing so while preserving many detail.

We found the newly-added ultra-wide camera to be handy once you want to squeeze in additional of a scene (although we didn’t find we would have liked it that often) and for improving the background defocus effects… although it still wasn’t perfect in our testing.

The design of the iPhone 11 Pro Max are going to be familiar to most, with an equivalent design language because the previous two models (the iPhone X and iPhone XS), although the matte back feels nice within the hand. The 'Max' size won’t appeal to all or any, but it does facilitate the massive and impressive 6.5-inch OLED display, which offers an excellent cinematic experience, both visually and thru the upgraded stereo speakers.

The camera bump on the rear of the phone feels a touch sharp and takes up tons of space, although if you’re right-handed it stays out of the way when you are going about your daily tasks.

Apple promises that the iPhone 11 Pro Max’s battery will last five hours longer than the XS Max from last year, which claim is borne call at our tests - it particularly excelled when playing back HDR video on the phone, and therefore the 20-hour battery life for multimedia seems accurate.

In day-to-day use we found that this is often almost a 24-hour smartphone (assuming you sleep for some of that time), and therefore the fast charger that (finally) comes within the box gives you around 20% in quarter-hour , and a full charge in only an hour and a half.

With iOS 13 on board, the professional Max feels more refined than previous models, and tweaks to the accuracy and range of Face ID make it simpler to use a day, with things like opening a notification when the phone is placed flat on a desk made much easier.

The raw performance of the iPhone 11 Pro Max also impressed, although we did encounter some slowdown within the camera app; however, if you are looking to edit video on the go (and don’t forget this phone can shoot 4K at 60 frames per second, and roll in the hay well) then you’ll enjoy the additional grunt on offer.

Overall, the iPhone 11 Pro Max may be a real breakthrough, and therefore the most advanced iPhone yet. However, when brooding about what’s truly new here, we weren’t ready to single out much beyond the improved camera (especially Night mode) and therefore the slightly upgraded cinematic experience.

If you would like to save lots of some money, we’d suggest finding out the iPhone 11 - while we constantly found little nuggets of impressive performance throughout our testing of the 11 Pro Max, we couldn't shake the sensation that this is often really only a phone for the Apple fan who wants the simplest of everything, with no compromises.

Want to understand more? Read on to ascertain our in-depth testing of Apple’s top-end smartphone.

• iPhone 11 Pro Max release date and price
• iPhone 11 Pro Max was announced on September 10, 2019
• It came out 10 days later
• iPhone 11 Pro Max price starts at $1,099 / £1,149 / AU$1,899

The iPhone 11 Pro Max was announced on September 10, 2019 and it came out on September 20 within the US, UK, Australia and a spread of other markets round the globe.

It's easy to urge - but, the worth could be a detail as it’s the foremost expensive iPhone out there.

Yes, it rivals the value of some MacBooks in certain territories, but that’s not really a good comparison - these are different products with different specifications, designed to try to very various things. However, it does illustrate how expensive the iPhone 11 Pro Max is that if you would like the very top phone from Apple.

The iPhone 11 Pro Max price starts at $1,099 / £1,149 / AU$1,899 for the 64GB model. Storage capacity then jumps to 256GB, with a selling price of $1,249 / £1,299 / AU$2,149.

It then goes all the high to $1,449 / £1,499 / AU$2,499 for the foremost expensive 512GB model - so if you are not rich enough to swim regularly during a pool of cash, it's probably time to urge saving.

You’ll have noticed the difference in cost between the United Kingdom and US - where previously Apple has been matching the dollars and pounds tag for its iPhones, this point it is a little different.

In the us , the worth of the iPhone 11 Pro Max is that the same as that of the phone it succeeds, the iPhone XS Max, but it's risen within the UK , which is certainly getting to irk some buyers there.

• These are the simplest iPhone 11 Pro Max deals within the US
• And these are the simplest iPhone 11 Pro Max deals within the UK

Camera

We don’t usually get into assessing the camera so quickly in our reviews, but the most change in 2019’s iPhone range is to the imaging quality on offer.

In terms of hardware, the key difference is that the addition of the ultra-wide camera, making it three cameras on the rear of the phone.

These sit proud from the rear of the iPhone 11 Pro Max, with the glass square surrounding them matching the colour of the phone itself, which helps to attenuate the visual impact of three prominent black holes on the rear.

What you’ve came are a ‘normal’ fisheye lens, a zoom lens, and a replacement ultra-wide one. The telephoto option zooms you 2x closer to your subject, and therefore the ultra-wide-angle lens enables you to cram twice the maximum amount of the scene ahead of you into the frame.

This is great if you’re trying to urge an attempt of a gaggle of friends or an animal, but can’t move further back or closer - the iPhone 11 Pro Max will allow you to crop in or pull back without having to maneuver.

All three cameras pack 12MP sensors, which is pretty standard for many smartphones lately, allowing an honest balance between pixel size (to capture more light) and determination (for capturing many detail).

Video recording has also been improved, with the professional Max now ready to capture 4K at 60 frames per second (fps). This suggests you’re getting smoother footage because of more information being captured, but it’s worth remembering that this may refill the storage on your iPhone that much quicker.

There's a lot which will be said about the iPhone's - or any modern smartphone's - camera lately, as they pack in numerous features, and on the entire you'll struggle to require a poor-quality snap with any of them.

That means any brand trying to form a market-leading cameraphone must fill it with features, and that is what Apple has tried to try to here.

Night mode

The first is Night mode - previous models from Apple have did not capture truly impressive photos within the gloom, and other brands have stolen a march here, with Samsung, Huawei, and particularly Google leading the way, offering phone cameras which will almost turn night into day through advanced post-processing of images.

Apple's new Night mode certainly brings it into the conversation - in our eyes, it is the single biggest reason to shop for a replacement iPhone. You will need to carry the phone steady, or brace it or mount it on a tripod, but if you are doing you're rewarded with the power to require pictures with detail that even your eyes can't see.

Depending on the sunshine levels (and whether you're employing a tripod or not) the iPhone will ask you to carry still for between 2-5 seconds normally – however, you'll manually extend this up to 30 seconds (if the iPhone is during a tripod or leant against a wall) to urge ‘fully bright’ scenes.

The results were sometimes staggering - the amount of sharpness and brightness the iPhone are able to do using Night mode need to be seen to be believed.

We say the results were sometimes staggering, because if you introduce any motion the entire picture is ruined. this suggests that if you're trying to snap some friends dancing, it isn't getting to work on all, and you will got to close up Night mode to urge any quite sharpness (although the photographs are still fairly bright).

Better portrait mode

The other upgrade to the static camera is to Portrait mode: not only is it better at deciding the outlines of the person, animal or other subject that you simply want to stay sharp, it is also now ready to work on a 'normal' distance, also as zoomed in as on previous models, because of the additional sensor having the ability to select up more information about depth.

The results are pretty good, especially when you're snapping people in well-lit, contrasting scenes - actually, get such shots right and therefore the images are often stunning. You’ll play with the various lighting modes on offer to cover blemishes, or use the new High Key Mono choice to create a more ethereal, stylized picture.

However, when taking some images, hair recognition was still a drag, and therefore the iPhone 11 Pro Max struggled to urge the top of a cat fully sharp. Taking pictures of objects should work better, but we found that generally these were a touch fuzzy round the edges too.

However, the general quality of photos, especially compared to the iPhone XS Max of last year, is brighter and sharper as you'd expect. The ultra-wide camera is good to use if you remember it's there, but the results were slightly distorted in areas, despite Apple's best efforts to unravel this with image processing.

Snapping between the camera modes wasn't always smooth, especially with the ultra-wide-sensor juddering a touch, and sometimes we'd activate the camera and be met with a blank preview that just some mode-switching could fix.

We've actually skipped a number of the 'normal' camera mode results of the iPhone because they're even as good as last year - images are generally bright, focused and filled with detail and color. Apple's snaps are less saturated than those from the cameras of some rival brands, and magnify well, displaying lovely levels of clarity.

In the video mode too, things are improved - our sense is that the 4K, 60fps mode is more of a headline feature than a very useful one, but if you are a serious photographer or videographer looking to shop for this phone (as the name of the iPhone 11 Pro Max would suggest) then you'll be wanting such features; the detail is richer and - crucially - the exposure is more balanced, meaning you'll create better-looking movies.

This feature is basically only something which will appeal to the social media elite, those eager to take truly head-turning footage with an iPhone, and with the onboard editing suite allowing you to change the colour and filters of the whole video directly on your device, there is a lot to enjoy here.

One thing we didn't enjoy was the utilization of the word 'Slofies' in Apple's marketing - these are just slow-motion videos which will now be captured with the front-facing camera, and you shoot them on all three of the new iPhones.

The results are fine - most users will likely find them entertaining and share-worthy - but it's that name that grates.

Design

Apple won't have changed the planning of the iPhone 11 Pro Max on the front (compared to last year’s XS Max) but on the rear things are much improved: there’s a replacement matte glass back that feels noticeably different within the hand - it’s much less susceptible to smudges and fingerprints, and seems like an upgrade.

The rest of the planning is extremely almost like what we’ve seen from Apple in recent years: the notch remains, the edges are curving chrome steel and therefore the bottom of the phone houses a Lightning connector and two speaker grilles (for symmetry - just one actually fires sound outwards).

It’s large within the hand, sure, but not overly so - if you’ve used the Plus or Max phones of recent years from Apple you’ll find the 11 Pro Max quite manageable day to day.

The main new design element is one we’ve already talked about: the camera bump on the rear of the phone. It’s sharp on the sides, as it’s made by milling the glass down and rolling it into the rear of the phone. Be warned: don’t put this phone in your pocket with another device, because the bump can easily scratch another screen.

Ultimately, the planning of the iPhone 11 Pro Max is just about just like that of the iPhone XS Max - to the purpose where we managed to factory-reset the incorrect phone during the testing process (much to our loud annoyance).

The iPhone 11 Pro Max colors are attractive: midnight green, space gray, silver and gold. The dark green is definitely the foremost attractive in our mind, and therefore the most blatant statement you'll make to announce ‘People of the town, I even have BOUGHT a replacement iPHONE!’

Although you’ll probably then want to place it in an iPhone 11 Pro Max case to guard it, because it’s really expensive and you don’t want to be explaining to your spouse that you’ve ruined it during a week’s time.

Display

Aside from the camera, the iPhone 11 Pro Max screen (we can’t recover from how infuriating that name is to write) is one among the most selling points for this high-end, expensive phone.

What you’re getting is 6.5 inches of screen land, with an OLED panel that’s once more been refined by Apple. It features True Tone technology to raised match the ambient lighting conditions (altering the white balance counting on the lighting situation you’re in) also as a fluid screen – although almost as fluid because the higher refresh rates we’ve seen on the iPad Pro, as an example.

The new OLED screen seems to possess more of a yellow tinge when you’re viewing white scenes or watching photographs – these tints aren’t present when images are viewed on a display screen, as an example, so it appears to be an issue with the calibration of the device.

This tint is additionally noticeable when the 11 Pro Max is held next to the iPhone XS Max from 2018 – but it’s slight, and pictures don’t look bad when viewed in isolation.

One of the key upgrades here is that the ability to play Dolby Vision content - it'd not sound like much of a intensify from HDR10 (the normal version of high dynamic range playback most phones use to punch up the dark and lightweight parts of the scene and make everything more visually appealing), but it does make a difference.

Watching films feels more immersive - you'll see more detail, and overall the video playback is way more cinematic. That’s because the iPhone can usually only display 800 nits of brightness (the metric for a way bright the screen can get), which remains pretty good - but when playing a Dolby Vision film things get even more impressive (up to 1200 nits, consistent with Apple).

If you’ve not got anyone around you, that cinematic feel are often improved by playing sound out of the speakers - Apple has created a virtual surround sound setup, and while it’s not nearly as good as hearing an equivalent thing through an honest pair of headphones, the sound does desire it’s traveling your ears.

Again, it’s not a replacement thing for the smartphone industry, but it does show that Apple remains working to supply the best-possible media experience of these years after the discharge of the iPod.

Battery

Apple made an enormous claim about the improvements to the iPhone 11 Pro Max battery life, pointing to the very fact that it might be ready to last for five hours longer than the iPhone XS Max.

The reason for this is often curious - that’s an enormous boost in terms of the dimensions of the facility unit, without affecting the thickness of the device. Could it's that Apple was meaning to unveil the reverse wireless charging feature that was rumored within the build-up to the iPhone 11 launch, but wasn’t ready to catch on working to the required degree?

Well, whether that conspiracy theory is true or not, the battery life on the iPhone 11 Pro Max is robust indeed, and here’s how we fared on the third day of testing...

Taking the iPhone off charge at 7pm, we watched a Dolby Vision-enabled movie for nearly two hours on auto brightness, before using the phone to navigate us home for around 50 minutes (streaming music over Bluetooth at an equivalent time); we also did some messaging and tried to pair a Garmin watch before getting to bed just before midnight, at which point the phone was right down to around 62%.

Overnight, things were quiet and therefore the standby mode only lost 5-6% battery over seven hours, meaning we started the day with over 50% battery left.

A hard day of testing, including playing games, watching streamed video, testing the camera and running benchmarks (the latter option there being particularly hard on the battery life) saw the iPhone 11 eventually expire just before 6pm (we didn't activate battery-saving mode).

That’s a reasonably impressive performance, and not an achievement we’d have expected supported the performance of the iPhone XS Max last year - so it seems that Apple’s claims of a more powerful battery are indeed true.

When it involves powering up this phone, you’ve got two options: there’s wireless charging (which we urge you to take a position in: get a wireless charger for the house and office, if you've got one, and you’ll never have A battery worry again), or the fast charger within the box.

We tested the iPhone 11 Pro’s charging capability from absolutely flat, and it had been rapid indeed: after just quarter-hour it had been nearly at 25%, quite enough to urge you somewhere during a pinch. the complete charge took just 90 minutes, so getting the fast charger within the box certainly makes the high cost of the 11 Pro Max a touch more bearable.

iOS 13 and performance

The iPhone Pro 11 Max is running iOS 13, meaning it’s packing the foremost advanced software Apple has got to offer.

There are some nice animated tweaks with the new platform, with things just like the volume and call-silencing notifications now more rounded and - finally - interactive too.

Face ID has been improved too: not its accuracy intrinsically, but in terms of the sector of view the camera can absorb. While the iPhone 11 Pro Max’s front-facing camera isn’t any better at learning faces than the model from last year, it’s easier to unlock it when sitting at your desk - we didn’t have to devour the phone to read a message the maximum amount as we did with 2018’s iPhone XS Max.

If you’re someone who finds yourself often flipping between Wi-Fi networks or Bluetooth connections, an extended press within the relevant toggles on top of things Center (those options you get once you bear down from the top-right of the iPhone 11 Pro Max screen) will allow you to settle on the network you would like.

You’ll notice we said ‘long press’ not ‘hard press’ there - where previous high-end iPhones have used 3D Touch, enabling users to prod the screen harder to open up other menus or stir up the camera, for instance, that technology isn’t utilized in the new iPhone 11 range.

Instead you’ve got an upgraded haptic engine, where the rumbles under the finger feel even more sort of a mechanical button when activated, and a long-press system whereby holding your finger on an option will enable other menus.

This feels intuitive very quickly once you start using the iPhone 11 Pro Max, although it does get confusing when you're trying to rearrange icons on the homepage - you’ll got to select from a menu or wiggle your finger to start out moving things around.

In terms of raw performance, the iPhone 11 Pro Max is that the most powerful iPhone on the market - and one among the foremost powerful smartphones too.

If you're taking things right down to the raw stats, a fast flick through Geekbench 5 shows a score of 3420 - that creates the 11 Pro Max around 10% more powerful than the iPhone 11, and quite 20% better than the iPhone XS Max from last year.

We believe the professional handsets have the foremost RAM of any iPhone, so it is sensible that the general benchmarking scores are higher.

But these are just numbers - what about the particular performance of the iPhone 11 Pro Max in day-to-day use? Well, you’ll struggle to urge to some extent where apps start to hamper when you're opening and shutting them - ready to " you'll stir up any number and be able to instantly start using them. The 11 Pro Max is slick under the finger, to mention the very least.

The camera is that the only area where we’ve seen slight issues with speed: it takes a second to load the app (and as we’ve mentioned, it can sometimes freeze), and when you are taking pictures the ultra-wide camera preview, which shows the zoomed-out shot outside the quality frame, doesn't appear instantly when the shutter button is pressed.

Loading a photograph to edit takes a second or two also , as does saving a number of the image manipulations - while we appreciate that there’s an enormous amount of processing happening here, we might have expected things to be a touch snappier, instead of having to observe a spinning progress wheel appearing from time to time.

There were also occasions where scrolling through a downloaded film to urge to a specific scene froze the footage, which was annoying once we were trying to seek out a brighter scene to check the standard of the display.

Buy it if…

• You want the absolute best iPhone out there
• There's no better iPhone on the market in terms of performance or spec - the battery life, the cinematic quality of flicks, and the general punch of the processor... this is often the highest dog from Apple.

Don’t pip out if…

• You’re watching the pennies
• A phone that starts at $1,099 / £1,149 / AU$1,899 isn't getting to be everyone's idea of a must have device - if you're on a budget, consider the iPhone 11 or maybe models from 2018.