Apple unveils iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max
Apple's top-of-the-line iPhones for 2019 are finally here.
The new 5.8-inch iPhone 11 Pro and 6.5-inch iPhone 11 Pro Max succeed the iPhone XS and XS Max, respectively.
New features include a triple-camera that includes an ultra-wide angle lens for capturing more in a shot, and significantly improved low-light performance for shooting in the dark.
The front-facing camera takes higher-quality pictures as well. It now has a resolution of 12 megapixels, up from the iPhone XS' 7 megapixels.
The iPhone 11 Pros also come with new video recording features including improved stabilization and 4K recording at 60 fps on all cameras.
There's a new Night mode for better low-light shots and a Deep Fusion feature coming in a future software update uses the A13 Bionic chip's Neural Engine to fuse together nine photos for maximum sharpness and image quality.
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Powering all of these new features is a custom Apple A13 Bionic chip — the same chip in the iPhone 11 — and iOS 13.
Visually, the iPhone 11 Pros look almost identical to their predecessors. The OLED Super Retina HDR display still runs from edge to edge and the sizable notch to house the front-facing TrueDepth camera system for Face ID remains.
However, the new display is brighter (can reach 1,200 nits of brightness) and has a 2,000,000:1 contrast ratio.
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As for battery life, the iPhone 11 Pro lasts 4 hours longer than the iPhone XS, while the iPhone 11 Pro Max lasts 5 hours longer than the iPhone XS Max. The phones also come with a faster 18-watt charger and USB-C-to-Lightning cable included in the box.
The bodies are again made of stainless steel and glass. The iPhone 11 Pros come in four colors: midnight green, space gray, white, and gold.
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The rounded square camera bump on the rear is twice the size of the pill-shaped cutout on the iPhone XS. It's ... not the prettiest triple-camera array on a smartphone — Samsung, OnePlus, and Huawei arguably have better looking set-ups — but in a phone case, the bump probably won't matter much.
Internally, 3D Touch has been removed from the iPhone Pros as expected. In its place is Haptic Touch — a long press with vibration instead of a hard press — which first debuted on the iPhone XR.
The new iPhone 11 Pros start at the same prices as the XS phones: $999 for the iPhone 11 Pro and $1,099 for the iPhone 11 Pro Max, each with 64GB of storage. Higher storage models include 256GB and 512GB.
Pre-orders for the iPhone 11 Pros start on Friday, Sept. 13 at 5 a.m. PDT with a release on Sept. 20.
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The new iPhone 11 Pros launch at an interesting time for Apple. As observed over the last few years, iPhone sales have cooled down since the iPhone 6 created the "super cycle" that catapulted unit sales to an all-time high.
Flatlining iPhone sales can be blamed on a number of factors, but there are three that stand out: people are hanging onto their devices longer because their devices still work, new iPhones are expensive, and lower priced (but still premium quality) phones like the OnePlus 7 Pro are eating into Apple's marketshare.
As Apple pivots itself to sell services (Apple TV+, News+, Arcade, etc.) and more wearables (Apple Watch and AirPods), it won't need to rely on the iPhone to make up the bulk of its revenue.
It's possible the new iPhone 11 Pros will resuscitate sales, but with a design that's derivative of the iPhone X released in 2017, that seems unlikely.
Of course, sales numbers don't change the fact that the iPhone 11 Pros will almost certainly be the best iPhones you can buy come launch day. And there are still enough new features on these devices to excite Apple fans and casual consumers.
Raymond Wong is Mashable's Senior Tech Correspondent. He reviews gadgets and tech toys and analyzes the tech industry. Raymond's also a bit of a camera geek, gamer, and fine chocolate lover. Before arriving at Mashable, he was the Deputy Editor of NBC Universal's tech publication DVICE. His writing has appeared on G4TV, BGR, Yahoo and Ubergizmo, to name a few. You can follow Raymond on Twitter @raywongy or Instagram @sourlemons.
