iPhone 11 review: Mediocre? No problem, it will still be a hot seller!

In the pursuit of mediocrity, Apple's iPhone is becoming more and more proficient and its steps are becoming more and more determined.

Different from the intuitive naming of iPhone X when it was released last year, which clearly divided it into three levels of "low, medium, and high", allowing consumers to choose what they need and spend according to their ability, Apple is different this year. Through the code-name decentralization, the three iPhone 11 models have the magical feeling of Starbucks coffee "medium, large, and extra large cups". Of course, although the names have changed, if you look at them one by one, you can find that Apple is still taking the "low, medium, and high" route. In fact, nothing has changed.

So, as the successor to the iPhone XR, the "medium-cup" product that reversed the iPhone sales slump last year, can the iPhone 11 continue to shoulder the "volume" sales mission assigned to it by Cook, and is it as worth buying as the iPhone XR?

This question will be answered through a review of the iPhone 11.

The appearance upgrade only brings a "bathroom heater lens"

In terms of appearance, the iPhone 11 is almost a pixel-level "tribute" to the iPhone XR. If the iPhone 11 and iPhone XR are placed together and the rear "bathroom heater lens" is blocked, I believe even the owner will find it difficult to tell which phone he has.

Of course, this does not mean that there is no change in the iPhone 11 compared to the iPhone XR. On the back of the body, the iPhone 11 has a vertical dual camera placed inside a "bathroom heater" rectangle. The reason for deliberately adding a rectangular design under the camera is presumably to maintain a certain continuity with the iPhone 11 Pro series.

However, at first glance, the iPhone 11's camera still feels a bit designed for design's sake - after all, the iPhone X and iPhone XS series have proved that Apple has the ability to make the vertical dual camera look better.

In addition, the iPhone 11 also moved the Apple logo from the bottom of the back to the center of the back. According to the teardown on the Internet, Apple moved the logo to the center of the back mainly for reverse Qi wireless charging. However, Apple has currently blocked this feature at the software level, and it is unclear whether Apple will open this feature in the future.

In other aspects, the iPhone 11 perfectly inherits the iPhone XR's 8.3mm thick body and the "eye-catching" black borders around the screen, and there are no other designs worth mentioning.

By the way, in order to make the new iPhone more recognizable, Apple also added two new colors for it - green and purple. From the recent severe shortage of iPhone 11 green and purple, we can see that Apple's strategy of "technology based on changing shells" is quite successful.

We can see that on the iPhone 11, Apple gave up the iterative rhythm of major changes every two years, and only made some patchwork work on the details. In order to be consistent with the design of high-end products, Apple placed the rear camera in a rectangular frame, which seems to be putting the cart before the horse.

What’s interesting is that when we look at the news of Apple’s chief design officer Jonathan Ive’s resignation in June 2019, it seems to have an additional meaning of not wanting to take the blame.

Apple's real strength: software ecosystem

This time the iPhone 11 is equipped with the iOS 13 system. Since the iOS system has been iterating for many years, iOS 13 has almost no shortcomings in terms of basic functions.

There are two important upgrades in iOS 13 worth mentioning, one is night mode and the other is "3D Touch".

Thanks to Apple's high-quality software ecosystem, iOS 13's night mode is different from Android manufacturers' forced color inversion or unfounded optimization by third-party software.

iOS 13 adds a night mode switch at the system level, and then gives users a standard. When the software adapts to iOS 13's night mode, the iOS 13 system can automatically adjust the software's display mode according to sunrise and sunset. In this way, it ensures that each software can enjoy the same night mode state, while also improving consumers' operating efficiency.

Perhaps it is for battery life, or perhaps it is to reduce costs. In short, Apple has cancelled the controversial "3D Touch" on all three new iPhones and instead brought Haptic Touch optimization through software.

In actual experience, with the support of Apple's silky linear motor, the Haptic Touch control experience of iPhone 11 is not much different from the traditional 3D Touch.

Of course, canceling 3D Touch still has some impacts, that is, uninstalling software in desktop state will become extremely cumbersome, and long press preview is no longer supported in some scenarios, and the operation will have a certain sense of fragmentation.

iPhone, unfortunately, has withdrawn from the top photo-taking position

Perhaps for better photography performance, the iPhone 11 has such an abrupt design of dual rear cameras. The iPhone 11 is equipped with a wide-angle lens with an equivalent focal length of 26mm and 12 million pixels, and an ultra-wide-angle lens with an equivalent focal length of 13mm and 12 million pixels.

Because it is equipped with wide-angle and ultra-wide-angle lenses, the iPhone 11 can achieve seamless switching from ultra-wide-angle to 5x digital zoom, although Android manufacturers have already been able to complete this function.

The first is to cooperate with the Taptic Engine vibration to simulate the feeling of turning the camera lens. In addition, when taking pictures, Apple also seamlessly splices the ultra-wide-angle lens image to the four corners of the screen. When zooming, the two lenses can switch seamlessly without the common frustration of Android phones.

Normal focal length photo

Ultra wide-angle photos

From the comparison photos, we can find that although the ultra-wide-angle photos of the iPhone 11 can ensure the accuracy of white balance and color reproduction, there is obvious distortion at the edges of the picture, which should not happen for Apple, which pursues perfection.

In the daytime sample photos, the iPhone 11 has good color reproduction, accurately reproducing the bright red color of the apple, while also taking into account the details in the dark part of the picture.

In low-light environments, the iPhone 11 has some problems with its tolerance. Looking closely at the dark part of the picture, the iPhone 11 hardly takes into account any details. However, it is worth praising that the iPhone 11 ensures the look of the main body of the picture, which is neither good nor bad.

Apple's imbalance: Monster-level performance, volcanic-level heat

There is no doubt that the A13 Bionic chip equipped with the iPhone 11 is still the leader in the mobile phone industry. It adopts a 7nm process, an architecture of two large cores + four small cores, integrates 8.5 billion transistors, and has 4GB of RAM.

In order to intuitively demonstrate the performance of the iPhone 11, we let the iPhone 11 run AnTuTu, and the final measured score was 431261. It can be said that this score is definitely the top level in the mobile phone camp.

Of course, as the positive side of the coin, powerful performance means that the temperature of the phone will be affected to a certain extent. Unfortunately, this time the iPhone 11 stumbled in temperature control. After AnTuTu running points, the camera area on the back of the iPhone 11 body was so hot that it was hot to the touch.

In daily use, such as turning on navigation, playing games and other scenarios, the body will more or less heat up. It is speculated that this is because the iPhone 11 uses a double-layer motherboard design.

Although it has powerful performance, in terms of heat dissipation, the iPhone 11 is obviously lagging behind Android manufacturers who use liquid cooling and hand cooling.

  According to the battery level, it can be found that the power of iPhone 11 decreases very slowly.

In terms of battery life, Apple claims that thanks to the increase in battery capacity, the iPhone 11's battery life is one hour longer than the iPhone XR. Based on my personal use, the iPhone 11's battery is indeed enough to allow me to "go out without worrying about it."

Unfortunately, although it supports fast charging, the iPhone 11 still comes standard with a "5W 1A" charging head. If you want to get the best charging experience, you are advised to buy a 22W fast charging head on your own.

Summarize

The lackluster appearance, poor heat dissipation and outdated camera performance all indicate that Apple is under internal pressure. But at this stage, with its ever-decreasing price, the iPhone 11 will still be the darling of the market despite its mediocre performance.

It can be said that as a product 12 years after the birth of the iPhone, the iPhone 11 has gradually drifted away from innovation and gradually headed towards the increasingly mediocre price war quagmire. Coupled with the fact that Android manufacturers are desperately working on 5G networks, the mediocrity of the iPhone 11 can be further appreciated.

Apple is indeed a bit slow. The Apple that once cut down Nokia seems to be becoming "Nokia".

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.