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Okay, so it’s Pumpkin Spice season, so that means it’s also iPhone season and the reviews are starting to appear. This year, Apple seems to have forgotten all about its values of minimalist design, putting a huge square camera module on each phone.
Oh, and they forgot to put OLED in the iPhone 11, but maybe that’s okay because they dropped the price accordingly.
Apple also brought the Pro branding to the iPhone range, leaving aluminum behind for a new stainless steel frame and some muted colors more suited to the boardroom.
Let’s see what the tech world thought of the range:
Is this iPhone 11 Pro worth the price jump?
Image: Apple
Okay, so the lower-priced iPhone 11 has more in common with the low-priced iPhone XR from last year than the XS or XS Max. There’s the price, of course, starting at $699. Then there are the six colors: black, white, red, purple, green, and yellow; with a mix of glossy and weird pastel shades.
Oh, and the screen – as the iPhone 11 has LCD instead of OLED. That’s disappointing from any phone in 2019, let along one from Apple. Wired‘s Lauren Goode said the same about the screen, even though she did recommend the device overall.
Then there’s the Pro range, which starts at $999. Most reviewers were hard-pressed to recommend this duo of flagships over the iPhone 11 though, with Engadget noting that “the differences in actual day-to-day use can be so subtle that you’d be hard-pressed to really notice them.” Yikes, guess that extra camera is really only for the Pros…
Snap happy
Image: Apple
See, Apple’s camera tech has finally overcome the high bar that the Pixel set years ago. The Verge was super-impressed with the new Night Mode, which can even beat the algorithms of Google at times.
The iPhone 11 has the same Night Mode as the Pro range though, so, like CNET, we’re saying just get the Pro if you actually want to use your phone as a professional camera.
Innovative or just a refresh?
Screenshot: KnowTechie
It feels kinda like one step forward, two steps back to me. On one hand, the camera beating the Pixel is something to be proud of for Apple’s team of engineers.
I’m not so sure that the design team deserves any accolades this year though, that camera housing is ugly, the bright colors of the iPhone 11 make it look like the plastic iPhone 5C, and whoever thought LCD was acceptable on a $700 flagship is a fool.
My thoughts? Wait until the next iPhones next year, as Apple will have another 12 months of flagging sales to tell them they need to fix their designs.
What do you think? Interested in the new iPhone range? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.
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