iPhone 11: A Roundup of Reviews

Originally published at: https://tidbits.com/2019/09/20/iphone-11-a-roundup-of-reviews/

The early reviews are in for the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max. Expect better cameras, improved battery life, and a gaggle of iOS 13 gremlins.

My phone company loyalty team rang and made me an offer that strangely I couldn’t refuse…

A 256Gb Pro en route to me next week.

A week of my ancient SE crashing and needing recharging by 11 in the morning put me over the edge.

That and those cameras.

The 11 Pro models come with the 18W USB-C charger.

So could you use that to power a MBP? I realize it’s not enough to charge while using or to power without discharging, but could you at least use it to get some charge (let’s say over night while the MBP is sleeping) or will outright refuse to charge at all?

Typo alert:

if you need (or want) the advanced features of the iPhone 11 Pro, like the additional ultra-wide camera

The extra camera on the Pro is the telephoto, not the ultra-wide. I wish the typo was right, though. I usually find myself wishing subjects were larger in the frame, not smaller. But I’m sure I’ll love my new iPhone 11 anyway. It’s going to be a big change from the 6 it’s replacing.

Fixed, thanks.

“…lithium batteries degrade over time…”
I just used the latest CoconutBattery app (coconut-flavour.com) to check the condition of my iPhone (2016 SE), iPad (2014 Air 2) and Macbook (2015). The iPhone is down to 89% of original capacity and iPad at 86%. The worry is the Macbook which is now at 76%. I guess the Macbook battery is not replaceable (in fact the Macbook is no longer replaceable!) so I will just have to keep in mind that I will need to recharge it more often.
Back to the theme of this article, I don’t plan to replace my iPhone SE until Apple bring out a smaller phone than the current generation (but am not holding my breath). I have the iPad for when I need a large screen.

I’m in the same boat. I’m happy my 128GB SE for now. If Apple would release something compact with roughly the internals of the 11 and a single camera, I’d be more than happy to upgrade. In fact, I’d shell out quite a bit for something like that. Alas, I don’t see them going any smaller in case size than the 8 they’re selling right now. I went from a 6 to an SE because the 6 was too big IMHO (one-handed use) so that would be no good. Glad I got a new SE not long ago. :)

I bought an iPhone XR last winter and use it along with my iPhone SE, which is 3.5 years old. I like the XR, and don’t regret buying it because its larger screen is a big improvement to my aging eyes; but in almost every other respect, the XR’s performance is pretty much the same as the SE’s. Even the battery life, which was touted as much improved, seems to be about the same. Besides the larger screen, only the XR’s camera is obviously better. After using both iPhones side-by-side for the last nine months, it seems to me that Apple is clearly exaggerating the superiority of each new iPhone model compared to the one that came before. It’s not that the new iPhone 11 isn’t nice. I’m sure that it is. But so is my old iPhone SE. Very nice indeed. Personally, I’d like to see Apple put more effort into making truly meaningful improvements to the next new iPhone, and less effort into making minor improvements seem more significant than they really are.