Apple announces ‘world’s most advanced smartphones’

Apple today introduced the iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max, devices which with customary modesty and a great deal of truth it calls the ‘world’s most advanced smartphones’.

• A13 Bionic chip
• Three camera system
• Long battery life
• 4 colors including midnight green, space gray, silver and gold.
• Available for pre-order beginning Friday, September 13
• In stores beginning Friday, September 20.
• Cost from $999.

All about the new high-end iPhones

The highlight of a two-hour event, the iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max are the latest high-end smartphones from Apple that will define conversation in the industry for at least the next 12-months.

These devices are packed with attractive sounding features that drive home the advanced nature of Apple’s smartphone vision.

The crown jewels in these new smartphones must be the hugely advanced A13 Bionic processor, though the amazing three lens cameras, display and operating systems are also unique to Apple.

https://youtu.be/cVEemOmHw9Y

Take the display, which Apple (in a quest for overly complex marketing names) calls the Super Retina XDR display, which Apple promises is the “brightest display ever: in an iPhone.

The new triple-camera system provides a pro-level camera experience with an Ultra Wide, Wide and Telephoto camera. In use, this should make for better images in low-light photography and much higher quality video, to the extent that the iPhone is now great for shooting action videos.

Apple’s great big boiler plate statement…

“iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max are the most powerful and advanced smartphones we have ever made,” said Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.

“They are packed with sophisticated technology that pros can count on to get their work done, and for anyone who wants the very best device made, even if they are not a pro.

“iPhone 11 Pro has the first triple-camera system in iPhone and is far and away the best camera we’ve ever made…”

Let’s look at the outside first

Apple’s newly introduced iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max have a textured matte glass back and polished stainless steel band.

They feature the toughest glass ever in a smartphone and are rated IP68 for water resistance up to 4 meters for up to 30 minutes.

They are available in midnight green, space gray, silver and gold.

What about the display?

The new OLED Super Retina XDR display offers an immersive HDR viewing experience for movies and other high-definition video with up to 1,200 nits brightness.

You also get wide colour support with system-wide colour management and True Tone to offer a more natural viewing experience.

The devices furnish a 2 million-to-one contrast ratio with true blacks for a more vivid viewing experience for HDR videos and photos.

User interface

As predicted, Haptic Touch replaces 3D Touch in these devices, so you’ll use this to do things like take a selfie or preview a message.

Performance and battery life

The new processors are built for machine learning with a faster Neural Engine for real-time photo and video analysis.

You’ll also find new Machine Learning Accelerators that allow the CPU to deliver more than 1 trillion operations per second.

“Together, A13 Bionic and iOS 13 make up the best machine learning platform in a smartphone,” Apple says.

Apple also says these A13 Bionic chips are the faster ever in a smartphone. This comes down to being 20 percent faster for CPU and GPU performance than the A12 chip you’ll be using now.

The iPhone 11 Pro provides up to four more hours of battery life in a day than iPhone Xs, while the iPhone 11 Pro Max promises up to five hours more than iPhone Xs Max.

Amazing camera improvements

Apple always focuses on improving the camera, and this release is no exception.

While people who’d never seen or used the new cameras have been complaining about the three-lens bump Apple maybe leaked in order to prepare people for the “shock” a few months ago, you have to admit the swap of a tiny bump for a sophisticated camera seems worth it.

This transformative triple-camera system offers all-new Ultra Wide, Wide and Telephoto cameras. All three are deeply integrated into iOS to create a pro-level camera ‘experience’.

What does that mean? Apple says it makes for the highest quality video ever in a smartphone. Each camera in the triple-camera system records brilliant 4K video with extended dynamic range and cinematic video stabilisation. The Ultra Wide camera is great for shooting action videos. Users can easily zoom between each of the three cameras, while Audio Zoom matches the audio to the video framing for more dynamic sound.

I’ll let Apple explain this bit:

“iOS 13 provides powerful video editing tools are accessible to everyone with the ability to rotate, crop, increase exposure and apply filters to videos instantly. These adjustments are easy to apply and review at a glance, so even a novice can create professional quality video projects.

“The all-new Ultra Wide camera fundamentally changes the camera experience by capturing four times more scene, great for taking landscape or architecture photos, tight shots and more. The new Wide sensor with 100 percent Focus Pixels and advanced software enables Night mode, and delivers huge improvements to photos shot in indoor and outdoor low-light environments, resulting in brighter images with natural colours and reduced noise.

“The triple-camera system takes Portrait mode to a new level with the ability to choose Wide and Telephoto framing, enabling Portrait mode with a wider field of view, great for taking portraits of multiple people. The Telephoto camera features a larger ƒ/2.0 aperture to capture 40 percent more light compared to iPhone Xs for better photos and videos.

https://youtu.be/nyp_PczrqFE

“Next-generation Smart HDR uses advanced machine learning to recognise subjects in the frame and intelligently relight them for more natural-looking images with greater detail. A new True Tone flash is over 30 percent brighter. Deep Fusion, coming later this fall, is a new image processing system enabled by the Neural Engine of A13 Bionic. Deep Fusion uses advanced machine learning to do pixel-by-pixel processing of photos, optimising for texture, details and noise in every part of the photo.”

“A redesigned camera interface provides a more immersive experience that works together with the triple-camera system and all-screen display to let users see and capture the area outside of the frame. For the first time, users can easily record video without switching out of Photo mode with QuickTake by simply holding the shutter button to start recording.

“The new TrueDepth camera introduces a new 12MP camera with a wider field of view to capture selfies, and next-generation Smart HDR enables more natural-looking photos. Expressive selfie videos take on a whole new look with the TrueDepth camera that now records 4K video at up to 60 fps and 120 fps slo-mo.

Additional Features

The new Apple-designed U1 chip uses Ultra Wideband technology for spatial awareness. With iOS 13.1 coming on September 30, AirDrop gets even better with directionally aware suggestions.

Face ID, the most secure facial authentication in a smartphone, gets up to 30 percent faster and easier to use with improved performance at varying distances and support for more angles.

Spatial audio provides an immersive surround sound experience and Dolby Atmos delivers powerful, moving audio to iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max.

Gigabit-class LTE up to 1.6Gbps and Wi-Fi 6 allow for even faster download speeds2 and Dual SIM with eSIM.

Pricing and Availability

iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max will be available in 64GB, 256GB and 512GB models in midnight green, space gray, silver and gold starting at $999 and $1,099, respectively.

Customers can also get iPhone 11 Pro for $24.95 a month⁵ or $599 with trade-in⁶ and iPhone 11 Pro Max for $29.12 a month or $699 with trade-in from apple.com, in the Apple Store app and Apple Stores. iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max are also available through Apple Authorized Resellers and select carriers (prices may vary).

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