Apple iPhone 11: Features | Specifications | Pricing

Where to buy

There's plenty of competition in the mobile phone space, but Apple stands alone as the premium flagship brand, even though recent times have seen a bit of a dip in iPhone sales.

Australians love their iPhones above just about anybody but Samsung, and even there it's rather a Ford vs Holden type comparison. The Apple iPhone 11 is Apple's most "affordable" iPhone for 2019, but it's no slouch in many respects.

Design

• Wide range of colour choices
• 6.1-inch Liquid Retina display

• Read more about the Apple iPhone 11's design

  The Apple iPhone 11 effectively replaces 2018's Apple iPhone XR as the "affordable" iPhone model, but one feature that Apple affords that range is a much wider variety of colours.

  Apple will sell the iPhone 11 in purple, green, yellow, black, white and PRODUCT(RED) finishes, so there's a colour for just about anybody. We'd still advocate for a case for any smartphone and Apple will sell those too.

  In screen terms, the Apple iPhone 11 features a 6.1-inch 1,792‑by‑828‑pixel display that Apple calls "Liquid Retina", with 326 pixels per inch. It measures in at 150.9x75.7x8.3mm with a carrying weight of 194 grams. Despite rumours to the contrary, Apple has retained its proprietary Lightning port for charging and there's no onboard headphone jack.

Camera

• Dual-lens camera
• Portrait and Night Modes

• Read more about the Apple iPhone 11's camera

  Apple's iPhones remain the most popular in terms of usage patterns for uploaded photos across the web, but the reality for Apple is that its Android competitors have absolutely stolen the high ground when it comes to still photography prowess.

  That's especially true for phones such as the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G and Huawei P30 Pro, which have some of the best features and low-light sensing we've seen on any phones. Even Google's single-camera Google Pixel 3 can outshoot an iPhone XS head to head pretty easily.

  This puts an immense amount of pressure on Apple to step up its game, lest high-end phone shooters make the jump over to Android. The Apple iPhone 11 features just a dual-lens camera array, if you want more you'll need to step up to the iPhone 11 Pro or iPhone 11 Pro Max, but Apple's talking a big game when it comes to the quality of its output.

  At a technical level it features a dual 12MP lens with one wide and one ultra-wide lens, but it's the combination of those lenses with the new image signal processor in the Apple A13 Bionic chip that Apple says will give it an edge over its competition. This will include new portrait photo modes and an upgraded night shooting mode. That's a step Apple badly needed to take, with its 2018 iPhones lagging badly behind the competition in this key area.

Performance

• Apple A13 Bionic on board
• 64GB, 128GB or 256GB storage, but no expansion
• No 5G option

• Read more about the Apple iPhone 11's performance

  The heart of the iPhone 11 is Apple's new A13 Bionic chip, which Apple happily claims is the most powerful CPU in a smartphone to date. It may well be right, although its benchmark claims lacked a lot of detail for us to make a proper comparison, so we'll wait until we actually have one in for testing.

  The Apple iPhone 11 features the same processor as the higher-end Apple iPhone 11 Pro and Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max, but if history is any indication, it'll probably ship with less RAM, so have slightly worse performance than its pricier siblings. Apple doesn't talk at that level of technical detail, though, so we'll have to wait for a proper teardown before we can know for sure.

  Apple will combine the A13 Bionic with iOS 13, and it's here that it can gain an additional edge over its Android rivals. Where Android has to serve many different architectures, Apple keeps it simple with just a handful of tightly controlled lines, which means it can heavily optimise iOS to make the most out of the power it has.

  All of Apple's iPhones stretching back more than a decade have been fixed storage devices, and there's seemingly no pressure on Apple to change that for the iPhone 11. The iPhone 11 ships with 64GB, 128GB or 256GB of storage. Make sure you're happy with that, or happy to pay for additional iCloud storage, because there's no official way to upgrade the storage on an iPhone.

  One feature found in a number of 2019 flagships that you won't find on the iPhone 11 is any kind of 5G support. Apple's involvement in heavy litigation with Qualcomm and the slow pace of its preferred partner Intel in developing 5G chipsets has left it wanting in this regard. Expect 5G iPhones in 2020, if then.

Battery life

• Up to one hour battery life improvement over iPhone XR
• Wired and wireless charging

• Read more about the Apple iPhone 11's battery life

  Apple never talks up its precise battery figures for any iPhone, typically instead talking about usage time figures relative to previous iPhone generations. We'll have to wait for an Internet-based teardown to find out the full story behind iPhone 11 battery capacity, and then test in real-world situations to get a better picture of iPhone 11 battery stamina.

  All Apple has said so far is that iPhone 11 will manage "up to" one hour more battery life than the Apple iPhone XR. The iPhone XR's battery life was the best of Apple's 2018 iPhone family, but it still tracked way behind Android counterparts in our tests. As with any "up to" figure, that's also heavily qualified by your actual usage patterns.

  In charging terms, the Apple iPhone 11 will support fast direct wired charging via Lightning cable, or wireless charging with Qi compatible chargers.

Early outlook

• Apple's lowest-cost iPhone might be its best bet yet again

• Read our early Apple iPhone 11 verdict

  Apple commands a prime position in the hearts of Australian phone buyers, many of whom are happy and comfortable within the iOS world.

  While it doesn't have the full flagship features of the iPhone 11 Pro or iPhone 11 Max, it also doesn't have the price tag of those phones. We're seeing an increasing trend of folks stepping away from really high-priced smartphones, and that could leave the iPhone 11 as the model of choice this year.

Pricing and availability

• Price: RRP $1,199
• Where to buy: Amazon | Apple | eBay | JB Hi-Fi | Kogan | The Good Guys | Bing Lee

Compare iPhone 11 plans

You can also purchase the iPhone 11 on a handset repayment plan from Telstra, Optus, Vodafone or TeleChoice. This will split the cost of your new phone over 12, 24 or 36 months, and you'll get a mobile plan with it too.

Apple iPhone 11 specifications

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