We probably know everything thing about the new iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max, and the teardowns of the new iPhones seem to have revealed the other unknowns such as the amount of RAM and capacity of the battery.
iPhone 11 Pro Max Tidbits and First Impressions
But here are some other interesting tidbits about the iPhone 11 Pro Max I thought was worth mentioning after spending a day with it.
1. The textured matte glass on the iPhone 11 Pro Max looks really cool. It is difficult to figure out that the back is made of glass. But the matte glass back seems a little more slippery than the iPhone XS Max in my opinion.
2. As rumored, Apple has removed the ‘iPhone’ branding from the back casing, which has allowed it to center align the Apple logo. I still remember the days when iPhones used to come with unnecessary things like the model number, a serial number etched on the back casing.
3. iPhone 11 Pro Max is also noticeably heavier than the iPhone XS Max. iPhone XS Max weighs 208 gms, iPhone 11 Pro weighs 226 gms, so the new iPhone 11 Pro Max is 18 gms heavier. It is also thicker. iPhone XS Max is 7.7mm thick, iPhone 11 Pro Max is 8.1 mm, so 4 mm thicker. I am assuming it is because of the bigger battery which has enabled Apple to offer significantly improved battery life, so I am not complaining. I am really glad that Apple has got rid of his obsession with making devices thinner, and is focussing on functionality.
4. I haven’t seen this mentioned anywhere but the notch on the iPhone 11 Pro Max seems marginally narrower. The earpiece grill seems smaller which seems to have helped in making it smaller or narrower.
5. Face ID is marginally faster. You will notice it only when you compare it to an iPhone XS Max side by side.
6. Apple has improved the display of the iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max, but it was difficult to figure it out. However, I noticed that the iPhone 11 Pro Max display was warmer (more yellowish) compared to the iPhone XS Max display, which is usually easier on the eyes.
7. I am not a big fan of Apple’s triple-camera layout. Apple has done its best to make it look really good, with a shiny plate, but it doesn’t look pretty. I would have preferred a horizontal layout like the Samsung Galaxy Note 10. It is interesting that the triple-camera lens area seems indented rather than protruding because of the mirror finish.
8. I noticed that the camera with the iPhone 11 Pro Camera system is bigger than the iPhone XS Max, so I hope it improves the quality of the calls and the audio recording.
9. The camera is really great. The quality of the photos seemed much better than the iPhone XS Max in my initial tests. I am not an expert when it comes to the camera, so I will leave it to Steve to cover the iPhone 11 Pro Max camera in greater detail but the ability to take wide-angle and ultra-wide-angle photos are pretty cool. I also found the UI to switch between the three cameras very intuitive. You can tap on .5 to switch to the new Ultra-wide camera, 1x for the regular wide camera, and 2x to switch to the telephoto/Portrait camera.
10. Interestingly, the new Night mode turns on automatically. You don’t have the option to manually turn it on or switch to like the Portrait mode. I think it would be great to have control over enabling or disabling Night mode. But Apple doesn’t offer it at the moment. Night mode is also available only with the regular wide camera, and the telephoto/Portrait camera. It is not available with the Ultra-wide camera.
11. The Geekbench 5 benchmark (App Store link) confirms the iPhone 11 Pro Max comes with a 2.66 GHz A13 chip with 4 GB RAM, compared to iPhone XS Max’s 2.5GHz A12 chip with 4GB RAM. iPhone 11 Pro Max got a single-core score of 1331 compared to iPhone XS Max’s 1106, and a multi-core score of 3143 compared to iPhone XS Max’s 2663, which is very impressive. However, I have not observed any noticeable change in performance.
12. The new iPhones don’t come with 3D Touch which was first introduced in iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus. Apple has replaced it with Haptic Touch. But I haven’t missed 3D Touch. I think the tap and hold is a lot more intuitive, especially since it works universally across all iOS devices.
13. The iPhone 11 Pro Max comes with 18W USB-Type C adapter, which is a welcome change after years of complaining about the bundling the iPhones with 5W adapter.
14. iOS and pre-installed apps use approximately 11GB to 14GB of space. However, you can delete the pre-installed apps, which you don’t want to use which should free up to 4GB of space.
15. While this has nothing to do with the iPhone 11 Pro, I wanted to mention that Apple’s transparent case for the iPhone 11 Pro Max is very good. It has a big enough lip, which is one of the most important things I look for while buying an iPhone case. I also discovered that the lack of a covering at the bottom of the iPhone is a good thing as it gives you access to the curved glass which makes it a lot nicer to swipe when you’re swiping up from the bottom, compared to the rough edge of a case, which I was using with my iPhone XS Max.
Let me know if find anything interesting about your shiny new iPhone in the comments below, and will update the post. Also, don’t forget to check out our iPhone 11 Pro Max unboxing photos and video.
