iPhone 11: Complete Guide to Apple’s New Mid-Level iPhone

BY Rajesh Pandey

Published 2 Apr 2019

iPhone 11 Complete Guide

Apple unveiled iPhone 11, the thirteenth generation low-priced iPhone on September 10, 2019 along with the iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone Pro Max. It succeeded iPhone XR. The pre-orders started on September 13, 2019, with the official release date on September 20.

iPhone 11 Specifications

Here’s a quick look at the iPhone 11 specifications:

  • Features 6.1-inch screen size with all-screen LCD display (1792‑by‑828‑pixel resolution at 326 ppi)
  • Powered by A13 Bionic chip with 4GB RAM
  • Dual 12MP Ultra Wide (ƒ/2.4 aperture and 120° field of view) and Wide (ƒ/1.8 aperture) cameras with 0.5x optical zoom out; digital zoom up to 5x.
  • 4K video recording at 24 fps, 30 fps, or 60 fps
  • Gigabit-class LTE with 2×2 MIMO and LAA
  • Black, Green, Yellow, Purple, (PRODUCT)RED, White
  • 64GB, 128GB, 256GB

iPhone 11 Features

1. Six New Gorgeous Colors

iPhone 11 colors

The new iPhone 11 comes in six gorgeous new colors. They’re a bit more in the pastel-color range but they look quite good. The colors are Purple, White, Green, Yellow, Black, and (Product)Red.

2. Anodized Aluminum and 3D Glass Design

As you can tell by looking at the back, the iPhone 11 has a new design on the back. The iPhone 11 shell is made out of anodized aluminum and on both sides there’s glass panel. iPhone 11 features a 3D glass design that seamlessly merges with the aluminum band.

3. A13 Bionic Chip

Apple says that the 7nm+ based A13 Bionic chip has the fastest CPU in any smartphone. It is up to 20% faster than the CPU inside the A12 chip. The A13 chip has special improvements for machine learning accelerators that allow the CPU to deliver more than 1 trillion operations per second.

4. Fastest Smartphone GPU in the World

Apple also says that the iPhone 11 has the fastest GPU in any smartphone on the market. It’s up to 20% faster than the GPU in iPhone XR while also being more power-efficient.

5. New Primary Camera

The primary camera on the iPhone 11 has been updated. The 12MP sensor has 100% Focus Pixels for up to three times faster autofocus in low light.

6. New Ultra Wide Camera

The iPhone 11 gets a whole new camera. And it’s an ultra-wide sensor with a 120-degree wide field of view! The 12MP Ultra Wide sensor has a f/2.4 aperture. It basically allows you to zoom out by 0.5x from the regular shot. Using this camera you can take some amazing cinematic shots with a whole new perspective.

7. 4K Video on Ultra Wide Camera

The 4K recording works on the Ultra Wide camera as well and you can seamlessly switch between the cameras while shooting the video. You can tap on the zoom button to zoom out, or you can slide on the icon to slowly switch between the camera.

8. Audio Zoom

The Ultra Wide camera and the new zoom technology comes with a really cool addition in the software. As you zoom in and out of a video, the audio zooms too!

9. Night Mode in Camera App

iPhone 11 has a new low-light mode that turns on automatically and works without the flash. It takes multiple images while optical image stabilization steadies the lens. Then the software aligns the images to correct for movement and removes sections with too much blur. It then de-noises and enhances all the available details.

What you end up with is a final image using which you can actually use as it is much brighter.

10. QuickTake

QuickTake is a new feature coming later in the year that will let you shoot videos while you’re taking photos. What’s awesome is that it will keep the same frame and all the image settings, seamlessly switching to the video mode.

This is something that is not quick to do right now. Once the feature ships, all you need to do is tap and hold on the Shutter button to start capturing a video. You can then swipe left to lock the video if you wish to capture longer videos.

11. 12MP Front Facing Camera

There’s a new and improved camera sensor in the TrueDepth camera system. It’s now a 12MP sensor with an f/2.2 aperture.

12. Faster Face ID with Greater Angles

Face ID is now 30% faster and it works at greater angles. So even if the phone is not directly looking at you straight in the face, Face ID unlock will still work.

13. Slo-mo on Front Facing Camera

Apple is trying to make slofies a thing. You can now capture slow-motion video from the front-facing camera at up to 120 fps.

14. 4K Recording on Front Facing Camera

Plus you can record 4K video on the front-facing camera at 24, 30 or 60 fps.

15. Portrait Mode Works with Pets

Thanks to how the new wide and ultra wide cameras work together, the portrait mode on the iPhone 11 now works for pets too! This is something we’ve wanted ever since Apple launched the iPhone XR last year with Portrait mode but limited it only to humans.

16. Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos

The speakers in the iPhone 11 are equipped with 3D Spatial audio technology. It simulates surround sound for a more immersive experience. The new iPhone also comes with Dolby Atmos support.

17. Deep Fusion

Deep Fusion is a new image processing technology by Apple that will ship with a software update later in the Fall. It’s another form of image composition technology. Apple takes 4 primary and 4 secondary shots before you press the shutter button. When you press the shutter button it takes one extremely long exposure shots to get as much detail as possible.

It then works pixel-by-pixel to stitch the details together from all the shots in the best manner. What you get is an image with an amazing level of detail.

18. Longer Battery Life Than iPhone XR

iPhone XR already had amazing all-day battery life. iPhone 11 pushes the bar further by adding a whole hour to the battery life. That’s up to 17 hours of video playback and up to 10 hours of video streaming time.

19. New U1 Chip

iPhone 11 has a whole new chip called U1 that uses Ultra-Wideband technology for spacial awareness. This allows iPhone 11 to precisely locate other U1 devices. If you want to share a file using AirDrop, just point your iPhone at theirs and they’ll be the first in the list of the AirDrop sharing screen.

20. Toughest Glass Ever in a Smartphone

Apple has heard your complaints loud and clear. With a back design that is precision milled and sculpted from a single piece of glass, iPhone 11 features the toughest glass ever in a smartphone. This should help protect your iPhone in case you do drop it.

21. Improved Water-Resistance

iPhone 11 is IP68 certified. This means it can withstand up to 2 meters of water for 30 minutes. That’s a notch higher than what iPhone XR is capable of.

22. Extended Dynamic Range

The extended dynamic range feature on the iPhone 11 while recording videos is now available for 4k videos at up to 60fps. On the iPhone XR, this was limited to 30fps videos only.

23. Gigabit-class LTE

iPhone 11 features Gigabit-class LTE that will help you get the best speeds on your travels. This was a notable omission on the iPhone XR so its nice to see Apple finally getting around to adding it.

24. Wi-Fi 6

iPhone 11 is the first new iPhone to support the new Wi-Fi 6 standard for faster download speeds.

Other than this, the iPhone 11 has all the same features that you saw in iPhone XR. So it still supports wireless charging, fast charging with the optional 18-watt charger that needs to be bought separately, Dual SIM support with eSIM, and more.

iPhone 11 will ship with iOS 13, with support for editing 4K videos, dark mode, and lot more.

Comparison Table of Apple’s 2019-2020 iPhone models

Here’s a look at how iPhone 11 compares with the other iPhone models available currently such as iPhone 11 Pro, iPhone 11 Pro Max, and iPhone SE.

Note: If you’re on a mobile device, then you will need to view the table in landscape mode.

Apple 2019-2020 iPhone Specifications
iPhone 11 Pro iPhone 11 Pro Max iPhone 11 iPhone SE (2020)
SoC Apple A13 Bionic

2 × Lightning Performance @ 2.66GHz
8MB L2

4 × Thunder Efficiency @ 1.73GHz
4MB L2

GPU Apple, 4 Cores
DRAM 4GB LPDDR4X 3GB LPDDR4X
Display 5.8-inch OLED
2436×1125
DCI-P3/True Tone
800 cd/m² brightness
2M:1 contrast ratio
6.5-inch OLED
2688×1242
DCI-P3/True Tone
800 cd/m² brightness
2M:1 contrast ratio
6.1-inch LCD
1792×828
DCI-P3/True Tone
625 cd/m² brightness
1400:1 contrast ratio
4.7-inch LCD
1334×750
DCI-P3/True Tone
625 cd/m² brightness
1400:1 contrast ratio
Size Height 144.0 mm 158.0 mm 150.9 mm 138.4 mm
Width 71.4 m 77.8 mm 75.7 mm 67.3 mm
Depth 8.1 mm 8.1 mm 8.3 mm 7.3 mm
Weight 188 grams 226 grams 194 grams 148 grams
Battery Life 3046mAh

+14.5% capacity
“+4 hours vs XS”

3969mAh

+25% capacity
“+5 hours vs XS Max”

3110mAh

+5.7% capacity
“+1 hours vs XR”

1821mAh

 

same as iPhone 8

Wireless Charging Qi
Rear Cameras Main 12 MP 1.4µm Dual Pixel PD

f/1.8, OIS

Wide Color Gamut
Quad LED True Tone Flash

12 MP 1.4µm

f/1.8, OIS

Wide Color Gamut
Quad LED True Tone Flash

Tele-
Photo
12 MP f/2.0 Telephoto, OIS
2x Optical Zoom
Wide 12MP f/2.4
120° Ultra-wide Angle
Front Camera 12MP f/2.2 Wide Angle 7MP f/2.2
Storage 64 GB
256 GB
512 GB
64 GB
256 GB
512 GB
64 GB
128 GB
256 GB
64 GB
128 GB
256 GB
I/O Apple Lightning
Wireless (local) 802.11ax Wi-Fi with MIMO + Bluetooth 5.0 + NFC
Cellular Gigabit-class LTE-A
4×4 MIMO and LAA
Gigabit-class
LTE-A
2×2 MIMO and LAA
Gigabit-class
LTE-A
Splash, Water, Dust Resistance IP68
up to 2 meters (Pro models = 4 meters), up to 30 minutes
IP67
up to 1 meters, up to 30 minutes
Dual-SIM nano-SIM + eSIM
Launch Price 64 GB:
$999 / £1049 / 1149€256 GB:
$1149 / £1199 / 1319€512 GB:
$1349 / £1399 / 1549€
64 GB:
$1099 / £1149 / 1249€256 GB:
$1249 / £1299 / 1419€512 GB:
$1449 / £1499 / 1649€
64 GB:
$699 / £729 / 799€128 GB:
$749 / £779 / 849€256 GB:
$849 / £879 / 969€
64 GB:
$399 / £419 / €479128 GB:
$449 / £469 / €529256 GB:
$549 / £569 / €649

iPhone 11 Pricing

iPhone 11 starts at $699 in the United States, $979 in Canada, £729 in the United Kingdom, €799 in the Eurozone countries, and 5499 yuan in China. That’s a $50 price drop compared to iPhone XR’s starting price. And that’s great news for a lot of people. iPhone is now back to starting at under $700 for the 64GB model.

You can get the 128GB model at $749 and the 256GB model for $849.

Should You Buy iPhone 11?

You can check out our comparisons of the iPhone 11 with other iPhone models and Samsung Galaxy Note 10+, Galaxy S10 and OnePlus 7T to learn if you should buy iPhone 11.

Find out the difference between iPhone 11 and other iPhone models:

Find out the difference between iPhone 11 and competition

The Best iPhone 11 Accessories

iPhone 11 How-Tos

Check out the latest iPhone 11 news below.

This article was last updated on April 21, 2020.