Get them using it as young as possible, eh Apple?
Let’s give you the low-down on what Apple have just announced.
The iPhone 11 range is here. There’s a standard iPhone 11 and a new iPhone 11 Pro plus a 11 Pro Max. The latter models have “Pro cameras, Pro display and Pro Performance” and a “WOAH” price-tag. The base model is £1,049 unless you’ve got an iPhone X 64GB to trade in. If you do have one of those “old” iPhone X handsets then it brings the price down to £759.
The iPhone 11
Models
An iPhone 11 64GB is £729. It has a 6.1″ screen. This will be the one most people will get and is available in green, white, black, yellow, red and purple. There’s a 128GB model for £779 and a 256GB model for £879.
Continue to try and ignore the massive indent in the screen
An iPhone 11 Pro 64GB will cost £1,049. It has a 5.8″ screen. The 256GB model is £1,199. The 512GB model is £1,399.
An iPhone 11 Pro Max G4GB costs £1,149 and has a bigger 6.5″ screen. The 256GB model is £1,299 and – sweet Jesus – the 512GB version is £1,499.
You can pre-order from 1PM on September 13th. Deliveries starting September 20th.
For the Pro versions, choose between space grey, silver, midnight green or gold.
Pro cameras
The Pro models get triple-lens smartphone. This isn’t a first because Huawei did it on the P20 Pro a year and a half ago. The positioning and look of the iPhone 11 cameras leaves something to be desired in my opinion but I’ll leave my thoughts for later in this article.
There’s a 2x optical zoom and ultrawide lenses with the same normal and telephoto lenses found in the iPhone XS and XS Max. If you have the normal iPhone 11 then you just get the two standard iPhone XS / XS Max cameras.
A new “Night Mode” should help brighten shots and again, is something we’ve seen on Android smartphones for over 3 years now.
Pro performance
A new A13 Bionic chip is now here and – according to Apple – is more powerful than any Android phone. Whether the average user is going to notice a real difference in the performance / speed of an iPhone 11 compared to a Samsung Galaxy S10 or Huawei P30 Pro is another matter though.
The new CPU also uses less power, which is something we’ve seen in other chips.
Where to get these phones
As usual, we’ve been bombarded by all the major UK networks and you’ll have absolutely no problems grabbing these phones. Go to your favourite network and you’ll have them shoving these phones at you quite easily.
Specs
The iPhone 11, which you can get details on here, comes with that A13 CPU and a 6.1″ LCD 1792×828 pixel screen which runs at just 326 ppi. A lot of budget phones, including the Huawei P30 Lite, have higher resolution LCD screens with better PPI and cost far, far less (the P30 Lite is much LESS THAN HALF the price).
It’s 8.3mm thick with fingerprint recognition, water, dust and splaash resistant and it has those two 12 megapixel rear cameras at the back with another 12 megapixel shooter up front. There’s Face ID, Apple Pay, 4G, WiFi, Facetime, NFC, GPS and Siri.
The iPhone 11 Pro models are a bit thinner – 8.1mm – and have better screens with higher resolution. Expect a 2436×1125-pixel resolution at 458 ppi on the iPhone 11 Pro (5.8″) and a 2688×1242-pixel resolution at 458 ppi on the 6.5″ iPhone 11 Pro Max.
A lot of the other specs are the same but you get that extra telephoto camera here which zooms both in and out.
What else?
A new Apple Series 5 Watch will tweak the screen refresh rate to lengthen the battery life, plus there’s an always-on screen now too. The Series 3 Watch will remain on sale and is currently available for £199 here in the UK.
The Series 5 is £399.
A new subscription service called “Apple Arcade” delivers video games without the in-app cost. This will set you back £4.99 per month.
A new iPad, with a 10.2″ screen will be available later this month for £349.
Comment
I sit back and marvel at what Apple have created at times. They have a gloriously connected ecosystem. It’s something that Samsung, Huawei and others would love to have. However, the pricing is now nearing simply ridiculous levels as Apple increase margins due to slowing sales.
Ask yourself. Are you prepared to pay nearly £1,050 for a phone which only has 64GB of storage? That’s simply insane, I don’t care how you look at it.
To pay nearly £1,500 and not even have 5G? Bonkers. It’s simply bonkers.
There’s no ability to wirelessly charge other devices and Apple are stubbornly sticking to their Lightning ports. Add to that the fact that we’ve still got a really wide indent at the top of the screens – couldn’t Apple have at least given customers a notch?!
All of this tech, this clever battery technology, this triple camera tech, this “new Night Mode”, this performance – it’s been seen elsewhere many months (sometimes years) before. It’s not new. It’s not amazing. But the brand, the ecosystem, the simply massive support and accessory market – it hooks people in. There’s a trust, there’s a confidence in the product and the various accessories, devices and services that link into the system that makes people fork out simply insane amounts of money for a phone.