Andrei Frumusanu for AnandTech:
Last year the A12 had some extremely impressive GPU improvements and it was the first time that Apple had been able to very clearly jump ahead of Qualcomm in terms of performance and efficiency. I didn’t have as large expectations for the A13 this year as a follow-up, but Apple was very much able to impress and improve by greater margins than their marketing materials led me to believe.
First of all, the peak performance of the of the A13 is indeed improved by roughly ~20%. However this is not the metric that people should be paying most attention to. Apple’s sustained performance score improvements are a lot more significant and reach 50 to 60% when compared to last year’s iPhones. As things would seem, Apple’s claims to have improved thermal dissipation for the SoC have worked out extremely well.
At the end of the day, are the iPhone 11s worth it? For me, it depends on the model.
I wasn’t too impressed by the regular iPhone 11. It does bring the same performance upgrades of the rest of the line-up, and it does have the new cameras minus the telephoto module, but it lacks the other large generational improvements that the Pro models received such as the new display or the vastly improved battery life. And personally, I’m still put off by the prospect of buying a device with such a low resolution screen at the end of 2019.
The Pro models, on the other hand, I feel are proper and worthwhile generational upgrades. Users coming from an iPhone 8 (Plus) or earlier models can now upgrade to the new Pro models without having to worry about taking a hit to battery life. Meanwhile performance is self-explanatory, and the camera upgrades are very solid, albeit the wide-angle has some definite weaknesses. Still, the phones feel like very strong devices which notably improve upon the fundamentals, showing that even 12 years after the first iPhone, Apple is still capable of delivering meaningful upgrades to their high-end smartphones.
MacDailyNews Take: Tons more, as usual, in the full review – highly recommended – so, eke out some time and give this comprehensive review a read!
If you own an iPhone 11 Pro Max, you own the very best smartphone ever created.
My iPhone 11 Pro Max came today after getting an initial Oct. 28th – Nov.4th delivery date and then an Oct.17th date the other day and then today delivery on Oct. 16th. The “under promise and over deliver” tactic may be obvious but it sure is effective.
I don’t understand this comment: ” And personally, I’m still put off by the prospect of buying a device with such a low resolution screen at the end of 2019.” Who can see so many pixels given that these are retina-plus (>300 pixels per inch) resolution screens (1792×828 on a 6.1 inch screen)? Perhaps it is just my old eyes.