The most famous gadget on the planet has just been given its yearly update.
Apple has revealed three new iPhone models at a special event held in the Steve Jobs Theatre at its headquarters in Cupertino, California.
As insiders had predicted, the company launched the iPhone 11 as well as the iPhone 11 Pro and the iPhone 11 Pro Max.
They all iterate on last year’s three models: the iPhone XR, iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max. Screen sizes have been kept identical – the iPhone 11 Pro is 5.8 inches, the iPhone 11 Pro Max is 6.5 inches and the standard iPhone 11 sits in the middle at 6.1-inches.
All three new phones keep the eyebrow-raising prices Apple is known for. The 11 Pro starts at £1,049 (the Max is £1,149) while the iPhone 11 is a fair bit less at £729. The Pro range comes in a choice of green, space grey, silver and gold while the 11 is available in a choice of six colours: purple, green, yellow, black, white and red.
From the outside, there’s not a whole lot that’s changed with these phones. Well, apart from the massive camera bump on the back caused as a result of shoehorning some extra tech in there. Plenty of analysts and leakers were proved right as Apple revealed the new three-lens iPhone camera on the back of the Pro models and a dual-lens one on the back of the 11.
‘iPhone 11 Pro has the first triple-camera system in iPhone and is far and away the best camera we’ve ever made, it provides our customers with great range of creative control and advanced photo and video editing features in iOS 13,’ said Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.
The new lens on the back of the Pro models is a 12-megapixel ultra-wide lens that gives the iPhone a 120-degree field of view. This is in addition to the standard wide-angle lens and telephoto lens carried over from the iPhone XS. The latter has also been given a larger f/2.0 aperture which, Apple says, lets in 40% more light than the iPhone XS.
As well as upgrading the hardware, Apple is also improving the photography software in a bid to pull level with Google’s excellent Pixel phones. There’s a new Night mode that’s been specifically developed to improve low-light photography.
Apple was also keen to point out that the battery life has been improved as well this year. According to Phil Schiller, the 11 Pro will last four hours longer than the XS while the 11 Pro Max will go five hours more than 2018’s XS Max.
Part of that is down to iOS 13, which will come pre-installed on the new iPhones as per usual. The new software will be faster and more power-conscious when it comes to using the phone’s resources. There are also a few new features thrown in, including the introduction of Dark Mode, which will allow for more comfortable screen use in low-light conditions. It can be scheduled to turn on automatically at sunset, or at a time specified by the user.
The software will also include a major new privacy feature called Sign in with Apple. As an alternative to current sign-in methods that require using a social account or filling in a form to log into a service, a new “Sign in with Apple” button can be clicked with will allow users to log-in using their Apple ID.
Naturally, the actual innards of the phone have been given the most work. The iPhone 11 range now sports the new A13 Bionic processor which was lauded on stage as not just being the most powerful smartphone CPU in the world, but also the most powerful smartphone GPU too. If you want good-looking games, then this thing appears up to the task.
As usual, Apple won’t say how much RAM is included in the phones but there’s still a choice when it comes to storage space. You can have your choice of 64GB, 256GB or 512GB.
‘The Super Retina XDR is the brightest and most advanced display in iPhone and the A13 Bionic chip sets a new bar for smartphone performance and power efficiency,’ Mr. Schiller said.
As ever with Apple, there’s not much waiting around until you can actually get your hands on one – if you even want to at all – because the launch date is right around the corner.
Apple will let you pre-order the new phones on September 13 and they will all go on general sale on September 20.
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