The iPhone 11 is getting up there in age, especially with the 16 just around the corner, but boy does it have a beautiful design, and you can pick one up for very cheap these days. It comes in a wonderful variety of colors, and you're going to want to keep it going strong. 

Whether you prefer a clear case to show off your phone's true color,  love leather luxury, or need a heavy-duty case to protect it in the field, these are some of the best iPhone 11 cases you can buy, divided into categories to help you make the best purchase.

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Q & A

I have a friend who prides herself on not using a case, despite my advice to use one. This will come as no big surprise: she dropped it and shattered the screen and corners of her iPhone. When I worked at the Apple Store, I saw more cracked/damaged/dropped phones than I could count, and I was a product specialist (salesperson), not a technician (repair person).

But since you're here to hear my advice, it's this: Use a case for your iPhone 11. There are so many great options out there, there's really no excuse to say that you don't like cases. Even the thinnest, nearly invisible cases are better protection than none at all. I do still recommend getting AppleCare+ because some drops are going to do damage even with a case. But you'll still need to pay a deductible and take hours out of your day to get a repair done. So, a simple case could save you a lot of time and money.

Absolutely not. I have various cases in a regular rotation since I like to match my case to my outfit. The prices of my favorite cases range from about $10 to $100. An inexpensive TPU case can protect as well as the most elegant top-grain leather, sometimes even better. It's the shape and construction of the case that matters more than price or materials. There are plenty of effective and yet cheap cases.

A bulky, rugged, heavy-duty case is certainly going to be more protective than a thinner case. Whether you go heavy-duty or not, always look for case edges that come up higher than screen level, so if you set your iPhone face down on a table, the screen would not contact the table. You also want the back of the phone case to be thicker than the camera bump, or at least to have a raised lip to give your camera lenses some protection. It's nice to have some kind of textured grip on the edges of the case to help prevent drops in the first place. Some cases have open bottoms, but you'll want to bumper to extend all the way around the case if you want to prevent micro-scratches on the bezel. Reinforced corners are always a good idea since that area is so vulnerable to damage.

Barely-there is better than nothing at all, and there are some pretty effective thin cases. An ultra-thin case will definitely protect your iPhone from getting scratched. Maybe you'll get protection from very light/gentle drops. I dropped my iPhone in a barely-there case onto the pavement from waist height, and it did sustain enough damage that I had to get it repaired. If I'd been indoors and dropped onto the carpet, it might have been fine. But I can't recommend a barely-there case for drop protection.

I absolutely recommend a good screen protector for your iPhone 11. If you don't have one on your iPhone, your screen will develop micro-scratches over time, even if you're quite careful and never crack your screen. A screen protector can also help keep your iPhone screen from cracking in a fall. When I worked at Apple, I saw several people coming in for a new screen protector because theirs had cracked in a drop... but the iPhone screen was still pristine underneath.

That's an entirely personal decision. A great heavy-duty case is obviously your best protection against gravity's will, but if you're like me, you really don't like a bulky case. I tend to choose a slim-to-medium case, but you do you. I'm not too picky about materials, I'm fine with TPU if the case is cute, but I also love luxurious leather.

Otherwise, it's all about the feature set you need. Do you plan to use wireless charging? Then don't choose a case with a ring, wallet, or PopSocket on the back. If you don't need to charge wirelessly, those features on the back can come in handy. Portfolio-style wallet cases are a convenient all-in-one solution if you don't want to carry a separate wallet. However, they are bulky, so a folio is not worthwhile if you don't need that feature.

You can't go wrong with an iPhone case designed by Apple to pair with your device to perfection. The Apple Silicone Case is slim and fits the iPhone like a glove. The outside is smooth without being slippery; the inside is soft microfiber to prevent scratches. Plus it has that chic Apple logo on the back.

On the other hand, I do love the Otter + Pop Symmetry Series cases. You get a nice, protective case that isn't overly bulky. Wireless charging won't work consistently due to the PopSocket on the back, but that PopSocket makes an awfully convenient phone grip for selfies and kickstand for video-watching. The PopSocket is easy to swap out if you want to express different moods without changing up the case itself. OtterBox also makes some of our favorite heavy-duty cases for iPhone 11, and it's a brand we trust.

Don't wait until after your new phone arrives to buy a case. There are tons of options ready to go, available to ship right away for your iPhone 11. We've rounded up some of the best choices so you can have a case in hand before you get your new iPhone. Grab one now so you'll be protected from Day One.

Which one should you choose?

The Temdan iPhone Case is the best of all worlds. It's protective without being overly bulky, and reasonably priced. Perhaps best of all, it has a clear back so everyone can see that you have the latest iPhone (if they couldn't tell from the larger camera area) and the hot colour you chose.

On the other hand, I'd love a new GVIEWIN iPhone Case. I'm one of those different-case-for-each-outfit kind of gals. So, the GVIEWIN was in major rotation for me with my iPhone XS. It's super thin, so it's not the most protective, but it looks amazing, and it's held up extremely well.

Buying a new smartphone outright can leave quite a dent in your bank account balance, but many of the best iPhone deals at carriers can score you a new device for just a few dollars per month! Verizon is known for having some of the best deals on new phones out there, and with its latest offer on the iPhone 11, now's an excellent time to make the purchase.

While supplies last, Verizon is offering the iPhone 11 for free when you add a new line on an eligible Unlimited plan. Today's deal includes the 64GB device in every colorway including Black, White, Green, Red, and more. Alternatively, you can choose a 128GB or 256GB device for just $2.08 per month or $6.25 per month respectively. Verizon even offers a $150 discount on the Apple Watch when purchased alongside this device.

Of course, today's iPhone 11 deal is just one of many excellent offers Verizon has available right now. For instance, you can save up to $800 on select smartphones when trading in another device. Plus, those who are switching to Verizon from another carrier can earn up to $500 more in the process. Then again, those who bring a device they already own to use on Verizon's network can score $350 back with select Unlimited plans.

In our iPhone 11 review, the device scored a nearly perfect rating and even though it's since been outshined by the iPhone 12, there's still a lot to love about this phone as well. Take a look at our iPhone 11 vs iPhone 12 guide for an in-depth look at the differences between the two models.

When Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone back in 2007, he called it a "pocket camera, computer, and communicator," all in one device. It's no doubt Apple's most successful product of all time, as Apple has sold over a billion iPhone devices since the original.

Current iPhone models that Apple sells include the iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, iPhone 12 Pro Max, iPhone SE, iPhone 11, and iPhone XR. Yeah, that's a lot of iPhones, and each one has its own unique set of features, and the price points are all different. It can definitely be tough to sort everything out.

Thankfully, we're here to help you out with our complete iPhone guide!

iPhone reviews

Every year, Apple releases a new iPhone — this is pretty much guaranteed at this point. And that means that every year we review said iPhone, so you can make an informed decision about which iPhone would best suit your needs.

If you're eyeing the new iPhone 12 lineup, we have you covered with our iPhone 12 mini review, iPhone 12 review, iPhone 12 Pro review, and iPhone 12 Pro Max reviews. These are the four latest and greatest iPhone offerings that Apple has on sale right now.

For those who want to save a little money, you'll want to check our iPhone SE (2020) review, iPhone 11 review, and iPhone XR review. The iPhone SE is a great value iPhone, while the iPhone 11 and XR are a little older but still work great.

However, we strongly believe that the iPhone 12 is the best iPhone for most people. It has most of the flagship features that Apple offers in the Pro version, but you can save a little dough with the lower price point.

Buying your iPhone

Before you consider buying a new iPhone, you'll want to make sure that you have enough cash to do so first. A great way to do this is by selling or trading in your old iPhone or another device for some cash to put towards your new iPhone, but make sure you wipe and erase all of your data first.

When considering your next iPhone, you'll want to make sure that you choose the right storage configuration, as well as color. After all, you're going to have this device for at least a year or more. If you want the most storage, the iPhone 12 Pro storage size goes up to 512GB, which is great for those who are going to take a lot of photos and video. Those who go for the iPhone 12 mini or iPhone 12 can get up to 256GB of storage, which should be enough for most people and all of those photos and apps.

If you're considering an iPhone and on a budget, you can't go wrong with the iPhone SE (2020). With the iPhone SE you can get up to 256GB of storage, which again, is plenty for most people. For those who are looking at older models, the iPhone 11 comes with up to 256GB of storage, but the iPhone XR only goes up to 128GB. Depending on what you plan to use your iPhone for, there is plenty of space regardless, especially because you may already be using a cloud storage service and streaming services.

Now, the other thing to consider when purchasing your iPhone is which color you want. The iPhone 12 comes in five gorgeous colors, while the iPhone 12 Pro comes in four, but they're more sleek and professional color options. Whether you go iPhone 12 or iPhone 12 Pro, the blues are a fantastic new addition to the lineup that Apple offers.

You can definitely save some dough by going with the iPhone SE (2020) or even the older models that Apple still sells. The iPhone SE comes in three simple colors, but the iPhone 11 has six hues, and even the iPhone XR has six (but different from the 11). No matter which phone you go with, there is sure to be a color that you'll absolutely love!

Then there is also the purchasing method that you want to consider — should you buy it outright or sign up for something like Apple's iPhone Upgrade Program? And don't forget to add AppleCare+ or some insurance for your iPhone for extra peace of mind!

Using your iPhone

Now that you have a new iPhone in your hands, you'll need to begin the process of transferring data from your old phone to your new iPhone. But maybe you are switching from an Android device to an iPhone? Even if you are coming from Android to iOS, it's a pretty straightforward process, and once you're done moving your data over, you'll be glad you did!

While you use your phone, you should be getting enough battery life to power you through the entire day. If that's not the case, then there are a few ways to fix any iPhone battery life problems you are experiencing. And if you encounter any other issues, then make sure to check out our full iPhone troubleshooting guide to fix common iPhone problems.

Currently, the only iPhone that Apple sells that still has Touch ID is the iPhone SE (2020). Touch ID is a fingerprint sensor in the Home button that is used for security and biometrics. It's super easy to set up Touch ID, and the benefit of it over Face ID is the fact that you can register up to five fingerprints, so it's easier than ever to unlock your iPhone.

But if you get an iPhone XR, iPhone 11, iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, or iPhone 12 Pro Max, you'll forego the Touch ID in favor of the newer Face ID technology. Setting up Face ID can be done when setting up your new iPhone, or you can even do it later. And while Face ID doesn't let you store up to five different faces to get to your iPhone, you can at least set up one alternate appearance to make it easier to recognize you with glasses or a hat on, or even your significant other for emergencies.

All of the iPhones that Apple currently sells will work with iOS 14. Make sure to check our iOS 14 review for all the details about how to make the most out of the new software.

Best apps and games for iPhone

Once you have your iPhone set up, it's pretty much ready to go. But you can totally enhance your iPhone experience by loading it up with some apps and games from the App Store.

If this is your first iPhone, boy, you're in for a treat! We have rounded up a huge list of the best apps for first-time iPhone owners. From social networking to cloud storage to password managers and other apps for boosting your productivity, we've rounded up the best of the best in that list! Even if you're a returning iPhone user, there are sure to be some apps on the list that you'll want to give a try.

For those looking for some ways to keep busy, we also have a list of the best iPhone games that you can find on the App Store. And if you want even more amazing titles to play, make sure to check out everything available on Apple Arcade, which is Apple's gaming subscription service with over 180 games, including some timeless classics from the golden days of the App Store.

Best accessories for iPhone

Now that you have everything set up on your iPhone software side, it's time to protect it with the best accessories out there.

For those with an iPhone 12, you won't want to miss out on what we think are the best iPhone 12 mini cases, iPhone 12 cases, iPhone 12 Pro cases, and iPhone 12 Pro Max cases. With a great case, you'll be able to keep your iPhone 12 device in pristine condition with no scratches or scuffs on the chassis.

But what about the screen? While a case is great for protecting the device's sides and back, the front screen can be vulnerable. We also have some great recommendations for the best iPhone 12 mini screen protectors, iPhone 12 screen protectors, iPhone 12 Pro screen protectors, and iPhone 12 Pro Max screen protectors — check them out if you want to keep that gorgeous display scratch and crack-free.

Since Apple also stopped including a charger with the iPhone 12 devices, you'll want to make sure you pick up one of the best iPhone 12 chargers on the market. These can also work with older devices, but the latest iPhones will benefit the most with the fast charging capabilities. And grab one of the best portable battery packs for iPhone for on-the-go charging!

Another thing that is new with the iPhone 12 lineup is MagSafe. With MagSafe, your iPhone 12 has a ring of magnets in the back that make it instantly snap into place with the best MagSafe accessories like chargers and wallets.

There are also a slew of MagSafe-compatible iPhone 12 mini cases, MagSafe-compatible iPhone 12 cases, MagSafe-compatible iPhone 12 Pro cases, MagSafe-compatible iPhone 12 Pro Max cases on the market. These are great if you want all-over protection without losing MagSafe capabilities.

Don't worry, we also have the best iPhone SE (2020) cases and screen protectors, if you went with the best value iPhone.

And while the other two iPhones are older, there are still plenty of great iPhone 11 cases and iPhone XR cases to choose from, as well as iPhone 11 screen protectors and iPhone XR screen protectors.

Questions about this iPhone guide?

This iPhone guide should help you choose your next iPhone, get it set up, load it up with some great apps, and keep it protected with the best accessories. Enjoy your new iPhone!

More navigation links:

• iPhone reviews
• Buying your iPhone
• Using your iPhone
• Best apps and games for iPhone
• Best accessories for iPhone

What you need to know

• Apple is introducing battery recalibration in iOS 14.5.
• Apple hopes that it will "address inaccurate estimates of battery health reporting for some users."
• The feature will only be available for the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max.

Some iPhone users will soon have the ability to recalibrate their battery when it is not performing correctly.

As reported by 9to5Mac, the iOS 14.5 beta 6 that was released to developers today contains the new feature. Apple says that it will help "address inaccurate estimates of battery health reporting for some users." According to the report, the feature is currently only available for the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max.

Apple says that recalibration will happen during "regular recharge cycles" and, once it is complete, "maximum capacity percentage and peak performance capability data will be updated in the Settings app." Code in the iOS 14.5 beta says that a user will be recommended to service their iPhone if the recalibration does not work.

iOS 14.5, despite appearing as a minor update, will actually contain a number of exciting new features for iPhone users.

What you need to know

• Someone has retrieved a working iPhone 11 from a lake in British Columbia.
• Despite six months at the bottom of a lake, the iPhone still worked.

Dropping your iPhone into a lake should be the end of the story. If it was my iPhone, the only after-credit clip would be me walking into an Apple Store to buy a new one. But not Fatemeh Ghodsi. After dropping an iPhone 11 into Harrison Lake in British Columbia, Ghodsi went about life for a full six months before receiving a text message saying someone had their iPhone.

And sure enough, they did. Because they'd fished it out of the lake. Oh, and the iPhone worked according to CBC and Apple Insider reports.

Clayton Helkenberg and his wife Heather reportedly discovered the lost iPhone when they were having a poke around the lake one day. Because that's a thing people do, apparently. What's more, Helkenberg says the iPhone worked right away.

"I took it home, cleaned the dirt off of it and it just turned right on, so it was pretty amazing," they said. After pulling the SIM card out and putting it into another phone, Helkenberg was able to get in touch with the phone's owner and reunite the pair.

While Apple does say iPhone 11 has is water-resistant to a point, at no point does it say it is waterproof. What's more, even if it was, all bets would be off after six months underwater. Most people won't be this lucky and I'd definitely suggest getting a waterproof bag for your iPhone if you're going near a body of water.

If you're wanting to upgrade to one of Apple's latest iPhone models but you don't want to spend a fortune to get one, looking at refurbished devices is often the way to go. These save you spending top-dollar on a phone outright from Apple or getting locked into a lengthy contract with a carrier.

Woot is running a one-day sale on Apple's iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro models right now that offers the premium devices from just $510. This sale is slated to end tonight, though specific configurations will sell out much sooner than that. If the phone you want is in stock, you definitely want to get your order in while you still can.

$899.99 $1299.00 Save $399 1623157769

Having now been replaced by the 24-inch M1 iMac, Apple's 21.5-inch iMac has been discontinued. That means big savings at third-party retailers including at Amazon where it's discounted by $399.

Prices Vary 1622214797

This sale includes iPhone models, the Apple Watch, iMac and iPad devices, Beats headphones, Apple services, and more. The deals vary by product, so be sure to check them all out now.

$103.99 $129.99 Save $26 1621604395

Change how you use your iPad with the Apple Pencil. This stylus lets you use your iPad as a notepad, a canvas, or a drawing board for all of your ideas. Today's deal saves you 20% instantly at Verizon.

$599.99 $699.00 Save $99 1621519150

Updated in late 2020, the Mac Mini has Apple's M1 chip that combines CPU, GPU, and machine learning for faster performance, better graphics, and an all around streamlined device. This version has 8GB RAM and a 256GB solid state drive.

From $329 1621244196

Apple Watch Series 6 models are available for some of their best prices ever right now. The lowest price is on the red 40mm version which is $70 off with 44mm and cellular models seeing discounts of up to $91.

Though they have since been replaced by the iPhone 12 line, Apple's iPhone 11 models were only released in fall of 2019. The iPhone 11 was pitched as the phone for everyone with the 11 Pro adding some extra features on top that hardcore phone users would appreciate.

Both, for example, have the same A13 Bionic chip with third-generation Neural Engine. Each model also has a front 12MP TrueDepth camera, and 12MP Ultra Wide and Wide camera lenses on the back of each device.

Premium features on the iPhone 11 Pro line include a telephoto lens on the back, a Super Retina XDR display, which is OLED and provides for better resolution and HDR video playback. The Pro model also includes an optical camera zoom up to 10x versus the 5x for the iPhone 11, and a slightly better battery. Plus, there's a 512GB option on the Pro model, but not the iPhone 11. The iPhone 11 Pro also features a textured matte glass and stainless steel design. By comparison, the iPhone 11 uses glass and aluminum.

Despite these useful differences, the iPhone 11 might still be a better choice for most people given its lower price and solid specs. Also, the iPhone 11 is the only one that's available in six colors versus four. The iPhone 11 offers an LCD and not an OLED, though, and the iPhone 11 Pro Max on sale today features a 6.5-inch screen which is the largest of the three models on sale.

The devices are each on sale with as much as $300 off their original prices in Woot's sale today. The iPhone 11 is down as low as $509.99 which is about $90 less than it goes for new at Apple these days, though the 256GB version is $100 off. The iPhone 11 Pro is no longer sold by Apple but Woot's refurb prices are $390 less than they went for brand new prior to the iPhone 12 Pro's release.

Shipping at Woot generally costs $6 per order, though you can score free shipping there by logging in with an Amazon Prime account before checking out. If you've never been a member before, you can start a free 30-day trial to score free shipping at Woot and Amazon, along with access to perks such as the Prime Video streaming service, exclusive members-only discounts, and more.

What you need to know

• Apple has launched a replacement program for the iPhone 11 display module.
• The program covers iPhone 11's manufactured between November 2019 and May 2020.

Apple has announced that it is launching a display module replacement program for iPhone 11 owners who have experienced touch issues with their display. The company says that a small number of phones manufactured between November 2019 and May 2020 are potentially affected.

Apple says that eligible devices will be able to receive repair through Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider for free. If you happen to have already paid to repair you iPhone for this issue, the company is providing refunds for those repairs. They have provided a way to check and see if your device is eligble for the program and offers the following options to get your iPhone 11 serviced:

• Find an Apple Authorized Service Provider.
• Make an appointment at an Apple Retail Store.
• Contact Apple Support to arrange mail-in service via the Apple Repair Center.

Apple does have some notes for those looking to get this repair done:

• If your iPhone 11 has any damage which impairs the ability to complete the repair, such as a cracked screen, that issue will need to be resolved prior to the service. In some cases, there may be a cost associated with the additional repair.
• Apple may restrict or limit repair to the original country or region of purchase.
• This worldwide Apple program doesn't extend the standard warranty coverage of the iPhone 11.

Check the iPhone 11 Display Module Replacement Program for Touch Issues support page to see if your device is eligible for the program.

Buying your new iPhone outright isn't the only way to get your hands on the new iPhone anymore — you can use the iPhone Payment Plan and make monthly payments on your new iPhone instead of paying the entire cost upfront. You can even get pre-approved for the iPhone Payment Plan right from the Apple Store app on your iPhone with a quick credit check; here's how to do it.

Differences between iPhone Upgrade Program and the iPhone Payment Plan

The iPhone Upgrade Program allows you to make monthly payments on your iPhone and gives you the option to return your iPhone every 12 months to get the newest model. The iPhone Payment Plan is a 24-month payment plan that allows you to split up the cost of your new iPhone across two years. Once you've made all 24 payments, the iPhone is entirely yours, but you'll have no option to upgrade.

There is a variant of the iPhone Payment Plan specific to the Apple Card that works similarly. It's a 24-month plan that also gets you 3% cash back on each monthly payment. You'll also be able to view your payment status by looking at your Apple Card in the Wallet app on your iPhone.

Also important to note that the iPhone Payment Plan omits AppleCare+.

How to get pre-approved for the Apple iPhone Payment Plan

Important to remember that to get pre-approved, Apple will run a credit check.

1. Launch the Apple Store app.
2. Tap Get ready for iPhone pre-order now under the Featured section.
3. Tap Select under the type of iPhone you want to get, a standard/mini, or a Pro/Pro Max.

4. Tap on the iPhone you'll want to pre-order.
5. Tap on the color you want for your iPhone.
6. Tap on Activate my iPhone to activate your new iPhone on your current cellular account or Buy a new iPhone to be able to choose a different carrier or get a SIM-free phone.

7. Tap a carrier or the SIM-free option.
8. Tap a storage size.
9. Tap No or Yes to whether you have a smartphone to trade in.

10. Choose a payment option, either One-time payment, Apple iPhone Payments or Apple Card Monthly Installments.
11. Select an AppleCare+ option if you want coverage.
12. Tap Get Ready for Pre-order

13. Tap Continue.
14. Tap Done.

At this point, you'll be asked to confirm your account with your carrier. You'll need the PIN for your account. You'll also go through the credit approval process using Citizen's One banking.

Once your carrier account is confirmed and your credit is approved, you should see a screen that declares you approved (could take a few seconds to pop up), and now you'll be ready to order your brand new iPhone 12 mini or iPhone 12 Pro Max when the pre-order goes live on November 6, 2020, at 5:00 AM PT / 8:00 AM ET.

When you go to pre-order your iPhone, all you'll have to do is tap "order," and the process will begin.

If you're wanting to upgrade to one of Apple's latest iPhone models but you don't want to spend a fortune to get one, looking at refurbished devices is often the way to go. These save you spending top-dollar on a phone outright from Apple or getting locked into a lengthy contract with a carrier.

Woot is running a one-day sale on Apple's iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro models right now that offers the premium devices from just $550. This sale is slated to end tonight, though specific configurations will sell out much sooner than that. If the phone you want is in stock, you definitely want to get your order in while you still can.

$899.99 $1299.00 Save $399 1623157769

Having now been replaced by the 24-inch M1 iMac, Apple's 21.5-inch iMac has been discontinued. That means big savings at third-party retailers including at Amazon where it's discounted by $399.

Prices Vary 1622214797

This sale includes iPhone models, the Apple Watch, iMac and iPad devices, Beats headphones, Apple services, and more. The deals vary by product, so be sure to check them all out now.

$103.99 $129.99 Save $26 1621604395

Change how you use your iPad with the Apple Pencil. This stylus lets you use your iPad as a notepad, a canvas, or a drawing board for all of your ideas. Today's deal saves you 20% instantly at Verizon.

$599.99 $699.00 Save $99 1621519150

Updated in late 2020, the Mac Mini has Apple's M1 chip that combines CPU, GPU, and machine learning for faster performance, better graphics, and an all around streamlined device. This version has 8GB RAM and a 256GB solid state drive.

From $329 1621244196

Apple Watch Series 6 models are available for some of their best prices ever right now. The lowest price is on the red 40mm version which is $70 off with 44mm and cellular models seeing discounts of up to $91.

Though they have just been replaced by the iPhone 12 line, Apple's iPhone 11 models were released just last year. The iPhone 11 was pitched as the phone for everyone with the 11 Pro adding some extra features on top that hardcore phone users would appreciate.

Both, for example, have the same A13 Bionic chip with third-generation Neural Engine. Each model also has a front 12MP TrueDepth camera, and 12MP Ultra Wide and Wide camera lenses on the back of each device.

Premium features on the iPhone 11 Pro line include a telephoto lens on the back, a Super Retina XDR display, which is OLED and provides for better resolution and HDR video playback. The Pro model also includes an optical camera zoom up to 10x versus the 5x for the iPhone 11, and a slightly better battery. Plus, there's a 512GB option on the Pro model, but not the iPhone 11. The iPhone 11 Pro also features a textured matte glass and stainless steel design. By comparison, the iPhone 11 uses glass and aluminum.

Despite these useful differences, the iPhone 11 might still be a better choice for most people given its lower price and solid specs. Also, the iPhone 11 is the only one that's available in six colors versus four. The iPhone 11 offers an LCD and not an OLED, though, and the iPhone 11 Pro Max on sale today features a 6.5-inch screen which is the largest of the three models on sale.

The devices are each on sale with as much as $300 off their original prices in Woot's sale today. The iPhone 11 is down as low as $549.99 which is about $50 less than it goes for new at Apple these days, though the 256GB version is $100 off. The iPhone 11 Pro is no longer sold by Apple but Woot's refurb prices are $300 less than they went for brand new before the iPhone 12 Pro came out from $699.99.

Shipping at Woot generally costs $6 per order, though you can score free shipping there by logging in with an Amazon Prime account before checking out. If you've never been a member before, you can start a free 30-day trial to score free shipping at Woot and Amazon, along with access to perks such as the Prime Video streaming service, exclusive members-only discounts, and more.

If you're looking to get an iPhone directly from Apple, and don't want to pay the entire up front cost, there are now three ways to finance an iPhone through Apple. First, there's the iPhone Upgrade Program, for which the iPhone 12) lineup are the only eligible models. The second way, available to all of the iPhones currently sold by Apple, is using your Apple Card to make monthly payments (a zero-percent interest loan), which is exclusive to those that have an Apple Card. The third is the iPhone Payments plan, which is a zero-percent interest loan from Apple that makes it possible for you to buy a new iPhone without having to pay the full price upfront. Apple iPhone Payments are also open to all of Apple's currently-sold iPhones.

The iPhone Payments plan is different from the iPhone Upgrade program in two major ways: you're not trading in your iPhone to upgrade next year, and AppleCare+ isn't included. Here's everything you need to know!

How is Apple iPhone Payments different from the iPhone Upgrade Program?

On the surface, it may seem like the iPhone Upgrade Program and the iPhone Payments plan are the same, but they're not. They are entirely different finance programs with different features and restrictions.

The iPhone Upgrade program allows you to begin a sort-of leasing program with Apple, wherein you can trade in your current iPhone and upgrade to a new one in as early as six months with fees, or one year without additional fees. If, after two years, you want to upgrade, you can, but you don't have to trade in the iPhone you've been using on the iUP, it's yours to keep. Also of note: so far, the iPhone Upgrade Program has only been open to Apple's very latest iPhone models, which currently means the iPhone 12.

With the iPhone Payments plan, you're simply taking out a two-year loan on an iPhone with a carrier plan, and the loan is done through Apple's financial collaborator, Citizens One, the same institution that finances the iPhone Upgrade Program. You won't be able to trade it in for an upgrade after one year. You have to pay the full loan (though you could pay the loan off early if you wanted to).

On the iPhone Upgrade Program, AppleCare+ is folded into the cost, so your monthly payments are slightly higher, though you're not paying any fees. It's just the cost of an iPhone with AppleCare+ divided by 24 months.

On the iPhone Payments plan, you don't have to buy AppleCare+. In fact, if you want it, you have to purchase it separately, which you can do on installments now.

If you just want an iPhone, and don't need AppleCare+ and don't plan to upgrade every year, or even have a plan for future iPhone upgrading, the iPhone Payments plan will work for you.

One final note: the iPhone SE (2020), iPhone 11, and iPhone XR are not eligible for the iPhone Upgrade Program, so if that's the phone you're buying, the iPhone Payments Plan is what you want.

So I can't upgrade every year on the iPhone Payments plan?

Correct. The iPhone Payments plan is a loan financing program that lets you make monthly payments across 24 months on an iPhone. Even if you get rid of the iPhone a year or the day after you've made your final payment, you must pay the full amount (though you can pay the loan off early).

Do I have to get AppleCare+ with it?

Nope! One complaint I heard from some people interested in the iPhone Upgrade Program is that they're forced to have AppleCare+, but with the iPhone Payments plan, you don't have to.

In fact, if you want it, you have to purchase it separately from your loan. You can, however, make monthly payments for AppleCare+ now.

What is the interest rate?

Zero percent financing, my friend. That's right. You won't pay more than the actual cost of the iPhone plus taxes (through Apple), as if you were paying for it with cash upfront.

Can I use my Apple Card as a payment option?

You sure can. Once you're approved for the loan, you can use your Apple Card as your monthly payment option, which gives you that sweet 3% cashback reward every time you make a payment.

Will there be a hard credit pull?

Apple' states that "a credit check is required," but doesn't give a lot of detail as to whether it's a soft or hard pull on your credit report. If it's anything like the iPhone Upgrade Program, however, it'll be a soft pull until Citizens One determines it needs a deeper credit check.

If you've put a credit freeze on your credit report, there are a few things you should know about applying for your iPhone Payments loan.

A credit freeze is a way for you to restrict access to your credit report to protect you from identity theft. If you've put a freeze on your credit report, it doesn't affect your credit score or keep you from being able to apply for loans. There are some caveats though.

When applying for a loan through the iPhone Payments plan for the first time, you can allow Citizens One run a credit check, but you'll want to first temporarily lift the freeze specifically for the credit report agency Citizen One will request your report from (either Equifax, Experian, or TransUnion).

You can request a credit freeze lift for a specific amount of time or for a specific agency, in this case, Citizens One Bank.

To find out which agency Citizens One will request your report from, call them at 1-888-201-6306. If you are unable to get this information, you can temporarily lift the freeze for all three agencies.

Here are the numbers for the U.S. credit report agencies:

• Equifax — 1-800-349-9960
• Experian — 1‑888‑397‑3742
• TransUnion — 1-888-909-8872

You'll need to provide your name, address, date of birth, Social Security number and some other personal information.

Who is eligible?

Currently, the iPhone Payments loan program is only available to U.S. residents over the age of 18.

You'll also need a valid U.S.-issued credit or debit card in order to enroll.

Can I buy an iPhone for someone else on the iPhone Payments plan?

You can buy the iPhone for anyone you want, but you're the one responsible for payments. If you want to get your kid or spouse the new iPhone, go for it! Just remember that you're the one Citizens One will contact if the payments are late. It's just like any loan.

What do I need to apply for the iPhone Payments program

As mentioned above, you must be a U.S. resident over the age of 18 and you must have a valid U.S.-issued credit or debit card. Pre-paid cards are not accepted.

You'll also need to make sure to temporarily unfreeze your credit report if you've frozen it.

When you apply, you'll need to choose a carrier. If you already have a carrier account and want to add your new iPhone to the plan, you'll need your carrier account information, including your account PIN if you're with Verizon, so that Apple can confirm your eligibility.

If you don't have it memorized, you should also have your social security number on hand for the credit approval process. You'll be asked to provide some information about yourself, such as your address, phone number, and annual income.

Do I have to pay anything upfront?

Your first installment will include the first payment for the phone, plus all applicable taxes and fees. Your first installment will be processed on the day you buy your new iPhone.

Can I pay off my loan early?

Though payments are automatically charged on a monthly basis, just like any loan, you can pay multiple payments in a single month or pay the entire amount off early. You'll need to contact Citizens Bank directly to find out how to pay multiple payments or pay off your loan entirely.

Can I get a SIM-free iPhone?

Unfortunately not. The iPhone Payments plan is Apple's financing option for buying an iPhone with a carrier plan. You'll be buying an unlocked iPhone (the only locked iPhone that you can purchase through Apple right now is on the AT&T Installment plan), but you will be required to select a carrier plan to use for the next two years.

Is the cost of the carrier plan included in the loan installment?

No. The iPhone Payments plan only covers the cost of the iPhone. You'll pay for the carrier service separately and directly through your carrier.

What if I want to cancel or switch my carrier service plan?

If you decide, within the 24 months, that you want to switch carriers, you can't take your iPhone Payments loan with you. You'll have to pay the full balance of the loan in order to get out of your carrier plan.

So choose wisely, my young Padawan.

Can I trade in an old iPhone?

You sure can! You can trade in a phone as old as the iPhone SE for up to $30 off, all the way up to the iPhone 11 Pro Max for up to $500 off

Trade-in values for your old iPhone

• iPhone SE (First generation): Up to $30
• iPhone SE (Second generation): Up to $210
• iPhone 6: Up to $30
• iPhone 6 Plus: Up to $50
• iPhone 6s: Up to $60
• iPhone 6s Plus: Up to $80
• iPhone 7: Up to $100
• iPhone 7 Plus: Up to $140
• iPhone 8: Up to $140
• iPhone 8 Plus: Up to $210
• iPhone X: Up to $250
• iPhone XR: Up to $250
• iPhone XS: Up to $300
• iPhone XS Max: Up to $370
• iPhone 11: Up to $350
• iPhone 11 Pro: Up to $450
• iPhone 11 Pro Max: Up to $500

Can I have more than one loan on the iPhone Payments plan at the same time?

Only with different phone numbers. You can't apply, for example, for two iPhone Payments loans with your single Verizon account using the same phone number. You can apply for two different loans using two different numbers on the same carrier plan, though. If, for example, you're on a family plan.

What if I'm already on the iPhone Upgrade Program?

You can't transfer the payment of the iPhone on your iPhone Upgrade Program plan to the iPhone Payments plan. If you're in the middle of your 24-month contract on the iPhone Upgrade Program, I recommend you finish off the program unless you're willing to either pay off what you owe for the iPhone on the iPhone Upgrade Program in its entirety or carry two different installment plans at the same time (one for the iPhone Upgrade Program and one for the iPhone Payments plan). The latter would mean you'd have two phones.

What if my loan isn't approved?

Citizens One Bank may decline your loan request for any reason. If that happens, the Bank may send you a letter detailing the reasons why. You can also call Citizens One at 1-888-201-6306 for questions about your loan or decline of one.

Any more questions?

Please let us know what questions you have about the iPhone Payments plan and we'll find the answer and drop it into this FAQ as soon as possible.

What you need to know

• A new video has surfaced that shows off Apple's new iPhone packaging.
• YouTuber Rjey got his hands on an iPhone 11 that uses the new box.
• The new box removes the power adapter, EarPods, and one Apple sticker.

Reported by AppleTrack, we are getting some of our first real-world experiences with Apple's new iPhone packaging. A new video from tech YouTuber Rjey shows off an iPhone 11 and, more importantly, the new box that it now comes in.

When Apple announced its new iPhone 12, iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 12 Pro, and iPhone 12 Pro Max phones, it also revealed that it would be removing the power adapter and EarPods from the box. Now, the box of a new iPhone includes the phone itself, a Lightning to USB-C cable, and the usual documentation and sticker.

It was also reported that Apple would be changing the packaging for its entire iPhone lineup, including previous generations like the iPhone 11, iPhone XR, and iPhone SE. Rjey purchased an iPhone 11 in (PRODUCT)RED and, sure enough, he received it in Apple's new, more minimal packaging.

In addition to removing the charger and EarPods headphones, it appears that Apple has also reduced the number of stickers that come with an iPhone from two to one.

Rjey compared the size of the new iPhone 11 box to that of the iPhone 8 and iPhone 5S, and you can definitely notice that the removal of the accessories has resulted in a box that takes up much less space. Apple says that the move will result in the environmental equivalent of removing 450,000 cars from the road every year.

Check out the full video, that shows off Apple's new iPhone packaging and what comes inside, below:

What you need to know

• Apple is removing chargers and headphones from its iPhone boxes.
• That includes older models like iPhone 11.
• New images of the thinner iPhone 11 packaging have surfaced.

With the launch of iPhone 12 Apple took the decision to remove chargers and headphones from its iPhone lineup.

Not only is this change coming to iPhone 12, but also Apple's previous models like iPhone 11. Images of the new, thinner packaging for the iPhone 11 have now surfaced.

Shared by DuanRui on Twitter

As you can see, the iPhone 11's box is getting the same treatment as iPhone 12. Apple made a big show about the environmental impact this would have on its carbon footprint. From the announcement:

In analysis of Apple's 2030 Carbon Neutral commitment earlier this year, we noted that of the 25.1 million metric tons of CO2 released by Apple every year, 76% of it comes from product manufacturing. You can read the full article here.

If you're wanting to upgrade to one of Apple's latest iPhone models but you don't want to spend a fortune to get one, looking at refurbished devices is often the way to go. These save you spending top-dollar on a phone outright from Apple or getting locked into a lengthy contract with a carrier.

Woot is running a one-day sale on Apple's iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro models right now that offers the top-of-the-line devices from just $620. This sale is slated to end tonight, though a few specific configurations have already sold out so we can't see it lasting longer than a few hours. If the phone you want is in stock, you definitely want to get your order in while you still can.

$899.99 $1299.00 Save $399 1623157769

Having now been replaced by the 24-inch M1 iMac, Apple's 21.5-inch iMac has been discontinued. That means big savings at third-party retailers including at Amazon where it's discounted by $399.

Prices Vary 1622214797

This sale includes iPhone models, the Apple Watch, iMac and iPad devices, Beats headphones, Apple services, and more. The deals vary by product, so be sure to check them all out now.

$103.99 $129.99 Save $26 1621604395

Change how you use your iPad with the Apple Pencil. This stylus lets you use your iPad as a notepad, a canvas, or a drawing board for all of your ideas. Today's deal saves you 20% instantly at Verizon.

$599.99 $699.00 Save $99 1621519150

Updated in late 2020, the Mac Mini has Apple's M1 chip that combines CPU, GPU, and machine learning for faster performance, better graphics, and an all around streamlined device. This version has 8GB RAM and a 256GB solid state drive.

From $329 1621244196

Apple Watch Series 6 models are available for some of their best prices ever right now. The lowest price is on the red 40mm version which is $70 off with 44mm and cellular models seeing discounts of up to $91.

Apple's iPhone 11 models were announced at the same time late last year with the 11 being pitched as the phone for everyone, and the Pro adding some extra features on top that hardcore phone users would appreciate. The devices are each on sale with as much as $120 off in Woot's sale today.

Both, for example, have the same A13 Bionic chip with third-generation Neural Engine. Each model also has a front 12MP TrueDepth camera, and 12MP Ultra Wide and Wide camera lenses on the back of each device.

Premium features on the iPhone 11 Pro line include a telephoto lens on the back, a Super Retina XDR display, which is OLED and provides for better resolution and HDR video playback. The Pro model also includes an optical camera zoom up to 10x versus the 5x for the iPhone 11, and a slightly better battery. Also, there's a 512GB option on the Pro model, but not the iPhone 11. The iPhone 11 Pro also includes a textured matte glass and stainless steel design. By comparison, the iPhone 11 uses glass and aluminum.

Despite these useful differences, the iPhone 11 might still be a better choice for most people given its lower price and solid specs. Also, the iPhone 11 is the only one that's available in six colors versus four. The iPhone 11 offers an LCD and not an OLED, though, and the iPhone 11 Pro Max on sale today features a 6.5-inch screen which is the largest Apple offers.

Shipping at Woot generally costs $6 per order, though you can score free shipping there by logging in with an Amazon Prime account before checking out. If you've never been a member before, you can start a free 30-day trial to score free shipping at Woot and Amazon, along with access to perks such as the Prime Video streaming service, exclusive members-only discounts, and more.

What you need to know

• Apple's iPhone 11 was the most popular smartphone in the first half of this year.
• That's according to new research from Omdia.
• Apple reportedly shipped 37.7M units, 26M more than the next nearest competitor.

New research from Omdia suggests that Apple's iPhone 11 was the most popular smartphone by far in the first half of 2020.

New research shows that the iPhone 11 shipped 37.7M units in the first half of the year, 26M units more than its closest competitor, the Galaxy A51, and nearly 10M units more than the iPhone XR last year, which was also the most popular phone.

The report notes:

The research says Apple's iPhone SE, released in April, shipped some 8.7M units in the second quarter of 2020, which saw it land fifth on the list.

As you can see from the table, Apple's iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max also made the list, ranking higher in terms of popularity than the iPhone Xs and Xs Max despite lower shipment volumes.

Apple reportedly shipped 13% more iPhones than the same period last year. With the iPhone 12 release date nearly upon us, Apple's iPhone 11 range has nearly come to the end of its current lifespan.

Before the iPhone 11 series, while the iPhone didn't take terrible photos overall, it was incredibly difficult to get decent images in low-light scenarios and pretty much impossible in darkness without flash. But now we have the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max with the incredible Night mode feature. With Night mode, our low-light images come out looking bright, clear, but you can definitely still tell that it's night, or fairly dark.

While the iPhone's Night mode feature kicks in automatically when it detects that there isn't enough light, sometimes you may want to enable it manually, or even tweak the exposure time. Here are some tips on getting great Night mode photos!

• How to use Night mode on iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro

Keep your hand steady

In order for Night mode to achieve its amazing magic, it needs to keep the shutter open for a longer amount of time in order to pull in extra light from the scene and take several consecutive shots. The exposure time can range from one second to 10 seconds (the max). All of the images that are captured during that time frame are blended into a single, high-quality photo.

Since the shutter needs to be open longer, you want to keep your hand as steady as possible during this process. If your hand is not steady and moves, then the resulting image will be blurry. If there was slight movement, then the camera software can still try to correct it through computational photography by aligning the images properly (blurred shots are discarded, so the blended image only uses the sharpest parts of each picture).

Apple occasionally offers updates to iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, tvOS, and macOS as closed developer previews or public betas. While the betas contain new features, they also contain pre-release bugs that can prevent the normal use of your iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Apple TV, or Mac, and are not intended for everyday use on a primary device. That's why we strongly recommend staying away from developer previews unless you need them for software development, and using the public betas with caution. If you depend on your devices, wait for the final release.

In iOS 14, Apple uses the built-in gyroscope on your iPhone 11 device to help keep your hand steady during a Night mode shot. It basically detects any shaking and will have a message on the screen letting you know to keep your hand steady. This also means that you can interrupt a Night mode photo, so make sure that hand is still!

Try to keep the subject still if possible

The same rule of thumb of as little movement as possible also applies to the subject you're photographing, if any. If the subject moves while the shutter is open, then you'll end up with blur on the parts that moved during the shot.

However, if you're photographing a low-light scene with people in the background, those people aren't your main focus, so the rest of the photo should be fine. But if you want a perfect photo, then you may need to take the same photo multiple times, depending on how busy it is (think Disneyland), in order to get the right one.

Use a tripod for best results

Night mode on the iPhone was designed to make it possible for everyone to take a gorgeous low-light photo using just their hands. However, sometimes it can be difficult to keep your hand perfectly still for more than a few seconds, so that's when a tripod comes in handy.

Using a tripod is not only great for keeping the phone completely still, but it means it's also easier to use the longer exposure time. Since Night mode can go up to 10 seconds, having a tripod lets you capture more light and detail than just using your hands for the same amount of time.

The iPhone can also detect when it's on a tripod (no shaking), and can automatically adjust the exposure time to be the longest possible.

When you use a tripod, your Night mode photos will be the sharpest possible, despite the conditions you're shooting in. So while it's not mandatory for Night mode, it's still a good idea if you can get your hands on one.

Always have some kind of light source

As amazing as Night mode is, it isn't complete magic. So no, you can't just point your iPhone 11 into complete and total darkness to take a photo of something even you can't see. In order for Night mode to work, there needs to be at least some light source.

And when I say "some" light source, it's a very broad and general term. Any light source, as long as it emits some kind of light, will work and help you get a great photo. This includes lamps, candles, street lights, illuminated windows and doors, decorative lights for the holidays, or even just moonlight.

You can change Night mode's exposure length

Night mode is intelligent enough to automatically kick in when it detects that there isn't enough light. When the amount of light falls below a certain threshold, you'll see the Night mode icon appear at the top of the screen. Just tap it until the Night mode icon turns yellow to turn it on. If you're shooting in a darker scene, it turns on automatically.

Usually, the darker the scene is that you're trying to photograph, the longer the exposure time will be so that the shutter can capture more light. The iPhone does a pretty good job of determining how long the exposure should be for what you're shooting, but you can also change it manually.

To adjust the exposure time yourself, make sure that Night mode is on first, and then swipe up from the mode selection (where you choose Photo, Video, etc.) Then tap on Night mode (crescent moon icon), and drag the Exposure Time slider to the right to increase the time. The maximum amount of time that you can set it is determined by your current lighting conditions and how steady the camera is.

A good rule of thumb is a shorter exposure time has less chance of coming out blurry. While a longer time could produce an even better result, there's more risk of some parts coming out blurry. But if you use a tripod, you'll have nothing to worry about.

Only shoot Night mode with Wide or Telephoto

Unfortunately, Night mode only works with the rear-facing cameras, and only with the Wide and Telephoto lenses. This means you won't be able to take Night mode photos with the Ultra Wide lens since it lacks optical image stabilization and focus pixels.

There also isn't a Night mode with the front-facing selfie camera either, so your selfies still need to use that screen flash feature to get proper lighting in the dark.

• When to use each camera lens on iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro

Take the best photos anywhere, anytime

With the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro Night mode, you can now take amazing photos anywhere, at any time, regardless of lighting. I love taking photos with Night mode, and I hope that these tips help you get the best shots possible.

Updated August 2020: Updated with information on iOS 14 (in beta).

Visible's latest iPhone offer could score you a free pair of Bose wireless headphones! For a limited time, you can grab the Bose SoundLink II wireless headphones for free when joining Visible and purchasing select models of the Apple iPhone, including the latest iPhone 11 devices. To redeem this offer, simply buy the eligible device of your choice and port-in your previous number.

If you've never considered switching to Visible's phone service before, you're in for a treat. Visible offers one of the most competitively-priced phone plans around currently. You can get service for just $40 per month that includes all the taxes and fees baked into that cost. You'll receive unlimited data, messages, and minutes, along with mobile hotspot access all running on Verizon's 4G LTE network.

Once you've purchased your new device, Visible will send you a SIM card in the mail with next-day shipping to insert into your new phone. You'll then be able to activate service on the device, after which point an email will be sent to the email address you used during sign up with all the details on how to redeem your free pair of Bose headphones. These around-ear headphones regularly sell for $230 on Amazon.

There are a few devices which are eligible for this offer at Visible, including the iPhone 11, the iPhone 11 Pro, and the iPhone 11 Pro Max. Remember to port-in your previous number to your new device or you won't be eligible for this deal.

If you're adding more than a single line to your plan, the price drops even further with options as low as $25 per line each month. For a limited time, Visible is even offering a discount for new subscribers which drops the price of your first month of service for a single line down to just $25.

What you need to know

• Some iPhone 11 models are now made in India.
• The news comes as Apple continues to diversify its supply chain.
• Indian-made models have already reached stores, and Apple may even be planning to consider exporting it beyond India.

A report suggests that Apple now manufacturers some iPhone 11 models in India, a further sign of Apple's attempts to diversify its supply chain.

The Economic Times reports:

The report says that Apple plans to step up production of the iPhone 11 in phases in the country, but that down the line, Apple may even consider exporting the India-made iPhone 11 to other countries.

Apple has pushed its manufacturing in the country very strongly in 2020 for a couple of reasons. COVID-19 highlighted just how reliant Apple's supply chain was on China and East Asia for its products, revealing a strong need to diversify. Furthermore, goods not made in India are subject to very heavy import taxes. By making the iPhones it sells in India in that country, Apple saves around 22% on import duties. Not only that, the Indian government is offering enticing incentives to phone makers and manufacturers to onshore their business in India, paying companies as much as 6% in bonuses.

The iPhone 11 is reportedly being made at a Foxconn plant in Chennai, and marks the first time a "flagship" iPhone has been made in the country. Until now, Foxconn has only manufactured Apple's iPhone XR in the country, and the iPhone 7 at a Wistron factory.

As the report notes, Apple may also be planning to make the iPhone SE at a Wistron plant near Bengaluru, a plant that previously made the original iPhone SE.

Woot has several refurbished iPhone models on sale today with prices starting at just $99.99. These phones may have some signs of cosmetic wear, but have been tested to ensure they are in full working condition and come with a 90-day Woot warranty.

Most of the phones on sale are fully unlocked to work with any carrier, though a few specific models are set to work only with AT&T or T-Mobile and subsidiary carriers, so be sure to check carefully before placing your order.

$899.99 $1299.00 Save $399 1623157769

Having now been replaced by the 24-inch M1 iMac, Apple's 21.5-inch iMac has been discontinued. That means big savings at third-party retailers including at Amazon where it's discounted by $399.

Prices Vary 1622214797

This sale includes iPhone models, the Apple Watch, iMac and iPad devices, Beats headphones, Apple services, and more. The deals vary by product, so be sure to check them all out now.

$103.99 $129.99 Save $26 1621604395

Change how you use your iPad with the Apple Pencil. This stylus lets you use your iPad as a notepad, a canvas, or a drawing board for all of your ideas. Today's deal saves you 20% instantly at Verizon.

$599.99 $699.00 Save $99 1621519150

Updated in late 2020, the Mac Mini has Apple's M1 chip that combines CPU, GPU, and machine learning for faster performance, better graphics, and an all around streamlined device. This version has 8GB RAM and a 256GB solid state drive.

From $329 1621244196

Apple Watch Series 6 models are available for some of their best prices ever right now. The lowest price is on the red 40mm version which is $70 off with 44mm and cellular models seeing discounts of up to $91.

The most affordable option on the sale is the iPhone 6s at $99.99, though you might be better served by the newer iPhone 7 at $139.99. While it might not be the most current generation iPhone, but it has solid specs for day-to-day use and supports Apple's current iOS 13 software. It has a 4.7-inch Retina display with Touch ID fingerprint sensor and can be used to make contactless payments with Apple Pay.

There are more up-to-date models in the mix including iPhone 8, iPhone XR, and iPhone XS that would be wiser investments if you want to hang on to the phone for the longer-term as they are more likely to get future software updates.

If you want the most recent phones in the sale, opt for the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, or iPhone 11 Pro Max from $719.99. Introduced just last fall, the iPhone 11 lineup all feature the latest A13 Bionic chip and gorgeous edge-to-edge displays with Face ID. All have wide and ultra-wide cameras on the back with the Pro line adding a third telephoto camera, too. Check out our guide to everything you need to know about the iPhone 11 devices for more.

The deals are good for today only or while supplies last, so be sure to act fast to avoid missing out on the phone you want. It won't be long before specific models begin to sell out, so don't let that happen to the handset you want. Remember to put your Amazon Prime membership to good use and avoid Woot's $6 shipping fee.

What you need to know

• A strange green tint is haunting the screens of iPhone 11 users.
• Complaints are popping up on Reddit and in forums.
• Users are seeing around 3 seconds of green tint when they unlock their phones.

A very strange green tint is plaguing the screens of some iPhone 11 users, according to posts on Reddit and in forums.

As reported by MacRumors:

It seems that the green tint is visible for a few moments after the screen is unlocked. In certain scenarios, it is affecting users with Dark Mode and Night Shift available, whilst others have said that low brightness is also at play. According to one user:

The report seems to suggest that the issue has been occurring since iOS 13.4.1, making this a likely software issue. Devices affected mainly seem to be the iPhone 11, 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max, however, some iPhone X users have also reported issues.

The strange software issue will likely get patched in an upcoming version of iOS. The only possible fix floated was restarting the iPhone, which for some has stopped the problem, but not everyone.

Ready to get a brand new iPhone 11 64GB for free? All you have to do is let go of that older smartphone and give it to Sprint. It can be in any condition, too. The trade-in is good for $29.17 off your monthly bill for the duration of your lease.

This deal requires approved credit, and you will need to sign up on a new line of service with Sprint's Flex Lease. The Flex Lease is an 18-month commitment. After that time is up, you can return the phone and upgrade to a new model or buy the rest of the price of the phone. If you choose to buy out the phone instead of upgrading to whatever new phone is out at the time, you can either pay off the rest in one lump sum or choose a six-month payment plan.

While the $29.17 monthly credit means you can get the iPhone 11 for free, you don't have to stick with just the iPhone 11 if you don't want to. You can upgrade to the iPhone 11 Pro or the iPhone 11 Pro Max if you want. You'll still only get $29.17 off your bill, but that lowers the cost of each phone to $12.50 and $16.67 a month respectively. That's a bargain for one of Apple's latest and greatest.

That's a lot of info to digest, but the key takeaway is that this is another excellent phone generation from Apple. We gave the iPhone 11 4.5 stars and a The Best badge. Rene Ritchie said "...with the added ultra-wide camera and Night Mode, improved selfies, industry-leading A13 Bionic chipset, Gigabit LTE and Wi-Fi 6, and iOS 13 operating system... iPhone 11 is the most compelling iPhone Apple has ever made." Here's everything you need to know about Apple's newest smartphones.

Upgrading to a new iPhone can be an expensive endeavor, especially if you want one of the latest and greatest models. While the iPhone SE offers an affordable option, it doesn't have all of the features of its edge-to-edge counterparts.

Instead, why not can spend way less by going for a pre-owned device? Right now, Glyde is offering some big savings on iPhone XS and iPhone 11 devices so you can get one of the newest iPhones without breaking the bank.

Buying a used device might seem a little worrisone at first, but Glyde puts its 'Premium Pre-Owned' products through their paces before selling them to consumers. Its devices only get that Premium Pre-Owned label after going through over 30 functional tests and a comprehensive cosmetic inspection. Glyde is so confident you'll be satisfied with your device that they offer a 14-day money-back guarantee and a 2-month warranty in case any issues arise.

Some standout options inlude the iPhone XS Max which is avialable for as little as $539.99 — over half off its origianl retail price. A variety of colors and capacities are currently available so you can take your pick. Introduced in 2018, the iPhone XS Max features a 6.5-inch Super Retina edge-to-edge OLED display with Face ID, stainless steel and glass construction, and A12 Bionic processor. It has a dual rear camera set up for Portrait Mode photography and TrueDepth front-facing camera and sensor array for Portrait selfies and Animoji, too

For the most recent options, check out discounts on iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro models with 64GB unlocked devices down as low as $619.99. All the iPhone 11 devices have the same A13 Bionic chip with third-generation Neural Engine. Each model also has a front 12MP TrueDepth camera, and 12MP Ultra Wide and Wide camera lenses on the back of each device.

Premium features on the iPhone 11 Pro include a telephoto lens on the back, a Super Retina XDR display, which is OLED and provides for better resolution and HDR video playback. The Pro model also includes an optical camera zoom up to 10x versus the 5x for the iPhone 11, and a slightly better battery.

Some specific configurations have already sold out and supples of the others are limited so you'll want to place an order before the handset you want sells out. Shipping is free. Looking for other deals? We have all the best iPhone deals rounded up in one place!

What you need to know

• The iPhone 11 is now the most popular smartphone in the world.
• Apple shipped 19.5 million units of the device in Q1 of 2020.
• The dual-lens and lower price point are suspected to be the reason for its success.

The iPhone 11 has now crowned itself as the "world's most popular smartphone" after being on the market for about nine months.

Reported by 9to5Mac, the iPhone 11 has now overtaken the iPhone XR as the highest-selling smartphone in the world. A new report from research firm Omdia indicates that Apple shipped 19.5 million units of the iPhone 11 in Q1 of 2020, whereas the iPhone XR only shipped 4.7 million units.

The Galaxy A51 from Samsung came in second with 6.8 million units and the Redmi Note 8 from Xiaomi came in third with 6.6 million units shipped.

The success of the iPhone 11, according to Omdia, is attributed to its dual-lens and lower price point when compared to the iPhone XR when it was first launched.

The report notes that three of Apple's newer models (iPhone XR, iPhone 11, and iPhone 11 Pro) have all taken place in the top ten of smartphone sales for Q1 of 2020. This is reportedly a first for the company.

Jusy Hong, director of smartphone research at Omdia, says that Apple's focus on a few products, rather than other companies that release many models, has driven its success in the smartphone market.

If you're wanting to upgrade to one of Apple's latest iPhone 11 models but you don't want to spend a fortune to get one, looking at refurbished devices is often the way to go. These save you spending top-dollar on a phone outright from Apple or getting locked into a lengthy contract with a carrier.

Back Market is running a limited-time sale on Apple's iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro models right now that offers the top-of-the-line devices from just $564 with code FLASH. This sale is slated to end on May 25, though specific configurations could sell out well before that. If the phone you want is in stock, you definitely want to get your order in while you still can.

Apple's iPhone 11 models were announced at the same time late last year with the 11 being pitched as the phone for everyone, and the Pro adding some extra features on top that hardcore phone users would appreciate.

Both, for example, have the same A13 Bionic chip with third-generation Neural Engine. Each model also has a front 12MP TrueDepth camera, and 12MP Ultra Wide and Wide camera lenses on the back of each device. The iPhone 11 devices are on sale from $599 if you don't mind it being locked to a particular carrier, with others being unlocked from $635. Either way, the coupon code FLASH with take an extra $35 off at checkout.

Premium features on the iPhone 11 Pro include a telephoto lens on the back, a Super Retina XDR display, which is OLED and provides for better resolution and HDR video playback. The Pro model also includes an optical camera zoom up to 10x versus the 5x for the iPhone 11, and a slightly better battery. Also, there's a 512GB option on the Pro model, but not the iPhone 11. The iPhone 11 Pro also includes a textured matte glass and stainless steel design. By comparison, the iPhone 11 uses glass and aluminum.

Despite these useful differences, the iPhone 11 might still be a better choice for most people given its lower price and solid specs. Also, the iPhone 11 is the only one that's available in six versus four colors. Plus, though it offers an LCD and not an OLED, the iPhone 11 has a bigger screen than the iPhone 11 Pro. That being said, the iPhone 11 Pro Max is also on sale at Back Market and has the largest display of them all at 6.5 inches. The Pro models start as low as $800 with that coupon code.

Shipping at Back Market is free and, regardless of which phone you go for and whatever condition it is in, you'll get a 12-month warranty on it in case of any issues.

Apple's lineup of iPhone 11 devices is easily its best yet, and with a base price of $699.99, the devices are a more affordable pick-up than the last iteration as well. Now, thanks to a limited time sale at Google Shopping, you can save up to $430 on the refurbished iPhone 11 of your choice when you enter the appropriate promo code during checkout. These devices are sold via the trusted retailer BuySpry and come with free expedited shipping.

Each of the phones in today's sale is unlocked and has been refurbished directly by Apple — tested and cleaned to ensure that each one is in proper working condition. You'll even receive a one-year warranty with the purchase.

The most affordable model on sale today is the standard iPhone 11 with 64GB storage. At just $549 when you use promo code OSMUBX, you'll be saving $150 off its regular price. This deal is valid on various colors of the device, including Black, Green, Purple, Red, and White while supplies last.

Meanwhile, 128GB models of the iPhone 11 are discounted by over $130, down to $619, with code FACDIG while 256GB versions are now $649 with code OVEVUM

You can score even bigger discounts on iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max devices. The iPhone 11 Pro is now on sale for as low as $749 when you enter code VTBAXO during checkout; The 256GB model drops to $869 with code LVKVJM and the 512GB to $919 with code JCTJLS. The 512GB iPhone 11 Pro Max offers the best discount in the entire sale at $430 off its original price of $1,349.

If you're looking for the best of the best, the iPhone 11 Pro Max is what you want. Choose between the device with 64GB for $859 with code UDIXOM, 256GB for $979 with code CROHJG, or the 512GB version for $1,029 with code MYVJGT.

• 64GB: $549 using code OSMUBX
• 128GB: $619 with code FACDIG
• 256GB: $649 with code OVEVUM

• 64GB: $749 with code VTBAXO
• 256GB: $869 with code LVKVJM
• 512GB: $919 with code JCTJLS

• 64GB: $859 with code UDIXOM
• 256GB: $979 with code CROHJG
• 512GB: $1,029 with code MYVJGT

Memorial Day is only a week away! It's time to start taking note of all the sales and deals that will be going live in a few days, and luckily for you we've compiled the best Memorial Day deals to help speed your research up a bit. Some offers are even live right now.

What you need to know

• DXOMARK has released its full review of the iPhone 11 front-facing camera.
• The outlet has given the camera a score of 91.
• The outlet's issue with the selfie camera is with focus from longer distances.

Eight months after the iPhone 11 was released, DXOMark has published its full review of the front "selfie" camera of the phone.

The iPhone 11 front-facing camera has earned a score of 91 (92 for photo, 92 for video) from DXOMARK, with the outlet saying that the lens delivers "decent performance but does not quite make it onto our current top ten list of smartphone front cameras". Keep in mind that DXOMARK's grading system does not end with 100. As the quality of smartphone cameras continues to increase, they will begin to pass that mark.

The largest issue that DXOMARK found with the camera was the fixed-focus lens of the iPhone 11. Subjects shooting at longer distances, like with a selfie stick, would become more out of focus when compared to some of the other selfie cameras that they tested.

DXOMark does say that the iPhone 11's selfie camera performs well when it comes to color and exposure. However, the fixed-focus lens does make it a less capable performer when trying to take group selfies. For those who really want the highest quality possible for those scenarios, they'll have to upgrade to the iPhone 11 Pro Max.

You can check out DXOMARK's full review of the iPhone 11 front-facing camera on its website.

If you're wanting to upgrade to one of Apple's latest iPhone models but you don't want to spend a fortune to get one, looking at refurbished devices is often the way to go. These save you spending top-dollar on a phone outright from Apple or getting locked into a lengthy contract with a carrier.

Woot is running a one-day sale on Apple's iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro models right now that offers the top-of-the-line devices from just $600. This sale is slated to end tonight, though a couple of specific configurations have already sold out so we can't see it lasting longer than a few hours. If the phone you want is in stock, you definitely want to get your order in while you still can.

$899.99 $1299.00 Save $399 1623157769

Having now been replaced by the 24-inch M1 iMac, Apple's 21.5-inch iMac has been discontinued. That means big savings at third-party retailers including at Amazon where it's discounted by $399.

Prices Vary 1622214797

This sale includes iPhone models, the Apple Watch, iMac and iPad devices, Beats headphones, Apple services, and more. The deals vary by product, so be sure to check them all out now.

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Change how you use your iPad with the Apple Pencil. This stylus lets you use your iPad as a notepad, a canvas, or a drawing board for all of your ideas. Today's deal saves you 20% instantly at Verizon.

$599.99 $699.00 Save $99 1621519150

Updated in late 2020, the Mac Mini has Apple's M1 chip that combines CPU, GPU, and machine learning for faster performance, better graphics, and an all around streamlined device. This version has 8GB RAM and a 256GB solid state drive.

From $329 1621244196

Apple Watch Series 6 models are available for some of their best prices ever right now. The lowest price is on the red 40mm version which is $70 off with 44mm and cellular models seeing discounts of up to $91.

Apple's iPhone 11 models were announced at the same time late last year with the 11 being pitched as the phone for everyone, and the Pro adding some extra features on top that hardcore phone users would appreciate. The devices are each on sale with around $100 off in Woot's sale today.

Both, for example, have the same A13 Bionic chip with third-generation Neural Engine. Each model also has a front 12MP TrueDepth camera, and 12MP Ultra Wide and Wide camera lenses on the back of each device.

Premium features on the iPhone 11 Pro include a telephoto lens on the back, a Super Retina XDR display, which is OLED and provides for better resolution and HDR video playback. The Pro model also includes an optical camera zoom up to 10x versus the 5x for the iPhone 11, and a slightly better battery. Also, there's a 512GB option on the Pro model, but not the iPhone 11. The iPhone 11 Pro also includes a textured matte glass and stainless steel design. By comparison, the iPhone 11 uses glass and aluminum.

Despite these useful differences, the iPhone 11 might still be a better choice for most people given its lower price and solid specs. Also, the iPhone 11 is the only one that's available in six versus four colors. Plus, though it offers an LCD and not an OLED, the iPhone 11 has a bigger screen than the iPhone 11 Pro. That being said, the iPhone 11 Pro Max is also on sale at Woot and has the largest display of them all at 6.5 inches.

Shipping at Woot generally costs $6 per order, though you can score free shipping there by logging in with an Amazon Prime account before checking out. If you've never been a member before, you can start a free 30-day trial to score free shipping at Woot and Amazon, along with access to perks such as the Prime Video streaming service, exclusive members-only discounts, and more.

What you need to know

• CIRP data for the first quarter of 2020 is now available.
• It shows iPhone 11 was the most popular iPhone of the quarter.
• It replaced the popular iPhone XR in top spot.

Apple's iPhone 11 was the most popular iPhone during the first quarter of 2020, according to new data provided by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP).

The numbers show that the cheaper iPhone 11 was more popular than the more costly iPhone 11 Pro. Apple's iPhone XR was the previous champ, with it now being ousted by iPhone 11.

The report also notes that buyers are now keeping their phones for longer and longer. Three years wasn't out of the question, with more than a quarter of people keeping handsets for that long. That's a big jump on the 12% who said the same thing this time last year.

Previously the idea of customers keeping iPhones around for longer was something that would cause Apple concern. But with its continued focus on services, it simply needs more and more people to have access to them. Luckily for Apple, users don't need the latest iPhone to do that.

Anyone working with an iPhone 7 or 8 is probably noticing some performance issues by now. After a few years, your battery life might drain faster, the phone may not run as fast, and the storage capacity may not seem to hold as much as it once did. Not to mention the outdated camera, processor, and so on. So if you've got an older phone, an iPhone 11 will be an enormous improvement across the board - well worth the upgrade.

On the other hand, if you've just finished paying off a newer iPhone X or XS, the answer is not as clear-cut. Your decision to upgrade will depend on how you use your phone and which features are a priority for you. Take a look at some of the features and benefits below before you decide.

While the color and look of the phone may not seem as important to some people, this is a device you use all day, every day, so you want to love how it looks. The iPhone X and XS both came in a limited color selection based on blacks, golds, and grays. If you were disappointed in the lack of color selection when you bought it, then you may be downright sick of the bland color by now. If you love a bright, colorful phone right off the shelf, then the iPhone 11 is a pretty attractive choice with its lineup of five gorgeous colors.

The display is another thing to consider here. The iPhone 11 display is a bit larger than iPhone X models, and it has a faster processor to produce slightly better graphics. The difference is not huge, but if you're a visual person, this could be enough to justify an upgrade. Also, when compared to the iPhone 7 and 8 models, the graphics, speed, and screen size of the iPhone 11 is a huge improvement.

No matter if you're rocking an iPhone 8 or an iPhone XS, the camera on the iPhone 11 is going to be a significant upgrade. The dual-lens camera on the 11 model provides extra-wide photos, slo-mo videos, and excellent night mode for low-light situations. None of these benefits are available on any previous model. The night-mode is such an improvement over the iPhone X, this feature alone might make the iPhone 11 worth the buy. If you're a photographer, or if you just love taking top-quality photos, then an upgrade is probably the right choice.

Once again, when it comes to storage and battery, a lot will depend on what you're currently working with. If you purchased an iPhone X with only 64GB of storage, you might have decided by now that this isn't enough to support your music or photography habits. In this case, upgrading to a larger 256GB iPhone 11 would be a great upgrade.

The same goes for battery life. While the iPhone X and iPhone 11 have somewhat similar battery life (10 hours vs. 10.5 hours), an older iPhone 7 or 8 may not be giving you even half of that. So if your current model is barely getting you through lunch before it dies, the long-lasting iPhone 11 could make a significant difference in your daily routine.

Of course, budget is always the most critical factor when considering an upgrade. Those of you with older models that are three or more years old have likely had more time to save up the cash for a new phone, and you have a lot to gain with the upgrade. It's a lot easier to justify the cost if you're getting a massive upgrade in a much more advanced phone.

For those who've just dropped almost a grand on a new iPhone XS a year or two ago, it might be harder to justify the expense. Keep in mind, if your iPhone X is in perfect condition, you can trade it in for a significant discount. You can check this easily on the Apple website.

In short, for those of you who are still rocking an iPhone 7 or 8, the upgrade to iPhone 11 will be a significant jump forward in technology and well worth the price. The 11 model will be faster with better graphics and a much longer battery life, not to mention a camera that's worlds ahead. This is a pretty easy decision to make - a definite yes.

Upgrading from an iPhone X or XS, however, may not be such a clear choice. If you're unhappy with the look and color of your current model, or if you made the mistake of purchasing a phone with too little storage, you could probably use an upgrade. Photographers and videographers also have a lot to gain from an upgrade since the iPhone 11 camera is a big step up in every way. If you don't really feel like any of these reasons are compelling enough to justify the expense of a new phone, then you should probably hold off for now.

According to some reports, it seems that several e-commerce sites in China have begun to slash the prices for the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max. These discounts start at 550 yuan (US$50) off the normal price, so it is now 4,999 yuan (US$708) for the iPhone 11, the iPhone 11 Pro is 1,200 yuan (US$170) off, and the iPhone 11 Pro Max is 1,600 (US$227) off. In times of economic uncertainty such as this, cutting the price of the current iPhone models may be a better move than Apple releasing a new, "low-cost" iPhone 9 or iPhone SE 2, or whatever it's going to be called.

Honestly, I think Apple should consider cutting the cost of the current models, instead of releasing a new iPhone that is designed to be for the low-end market. Think about it — the current iPhone 11 line is already half a year old, and given the current situation around the world, people don't want to go drop over $700 for a new phone right now. Plus, carriers are having deals on new phones with new lines all the time, so the concept isn't exactly new here in the U.S.

Plus, with all of the rumors circulating that there is going to be a new low-cost iPhone SE (or 9 or whatever) releasing this month, I just don't think it's wise. I've never really been a big fan of releasing a new iPhone halfway through the usual product cycle, and this new iPhone SE would be doing just that.

I also believe that having yet another addition to the iPhone line would just add more confusion for consumers who aren't into tech (especially older folks), with questions like, "What's the difference between these phones? They look the same," or "Why doesn't this iPhone have the X feature of that one?", and the like. Believe it or not, there is a complete world out there of people who aren't into tech like you and me (le gasp!)

Another reason why I think it would be beneficial for Apple to slash the prices, even just a little, is because it would help boost their sales. We're in an economic lull right now, and people perhaps don't have the funds to drop on a phone that is in the upper hundreds to a thousand dollars. If even the base iPhone 11 price drops, it may be more appealing for those who need a new phone at the moment. Consumer demand is low right now, so maybe some lower prices (assuming people have the funds to spare) could help.

Whatever the case may be, a lower price for an iPhone could benefit everyone right now. I know Apple isn't the company to make their products more affordable for most people, but we've never been in a modern day pandemic before either.

What you need to know

• Several e-commerce sites in China have slashed their iPhone prices.
• The iPhone 11 can now be bought for just US$708.
• The most expensive iPhone, the 11 Pro Max, has been reduced by 1,600 yuan (US$227).

Several e-commerce sites in China have slashed their iPhone 11 prices in order to boost demand and sales.

As reported by South China Morning Post:

The report notes that JD.com, as well as Suning and Guomei, are all offering the same price cuts. Apple, however, is not reflecting any of these price changes. Apple largely stays away from any and all promotional offers on its products, particularly regarding price reductions. The only notable exceptions are its student discount and Back to School offers, and Black Friday gift card deals.

The report notes that the coronavirus pandemic has not only impacted smartphone supply chains and manufacturing but also demand from consumers.

As SCMP notes, a recent Strategy Analytics report this week claims that one-in-three consumers in China have delayed or canceled their plans to buy a smartphone because of COVID-19. Specifically, 37% of consumers said they would delay buying a new smartphone, and 32% of those planning to adopt 5G had now delayed that move also.

Apple's retail stores in China are now all open as life in China very slowly begins to return to normal. Whilst some restrictions on the populace are being lifted, it may be some time before economic recovery follows suit.

The iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro were really well-received when they first came out, with many reviewers praising the cameras, battery life, and the lower price on the base model 11.

There were also some criticisms though. Namely, the lack of faster-charging options and accessories, USB-C still MIA, and just how buggy iOS 13 was at launch.

But, times change. Hardware gets worn. Software gets updated. New competition comes out. Expectations change. And so do circumstances, especially right now when many of us are rightfully stuck at home and depending on our phones in very different ways than we'd planned to. It makes the whole question of what to buy and when to buy it just alternate reality different than it was at launch.

So, how are the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro doing... 6 months later?

iPhone 11 6-Months Later: Durability

Apple's overall build quality is still among the best in the industry. It's why you see so many old iPhones still in service, 3, 4, 5 or more years on. They're built like little metal and glass bricks.

This year, I like that Apple has used that top-of-the-line glass front and back on the iPhone 11 as well as the iPhone 11 Pro because last time the iPhone XR didn't get quite as good as the iPhone XS on the back.

Honestly, though, the glass has been a mixed bag for me. I've said this before, but I don't baby review units. I want to see how resilient they are. So, I throw them in my pocket with keys, wallets, or when I'm doing a lot of testing, with other phones with big gnarly camera bumps on the back. Literally the worst things.

And… I've gotten a lot of scuffs and scratches. I can't see them at all when the display is lit up. Which is great, because it means it doesn't affect my usage at all. If it did, I'd probably start babying them immediately. When when the display is dark and the light hits them just right, it's like an attack. And that will affect resale value. So, if you typically sell your old phone to buy your new one, you'll want to look into a screen protector.

I've heard anecdotally that the characteristics of ion-exchange glass chemistry can be biased more towards scratch resistance or shatter resistance. In other words, different formulations perform better in one way than the other, never both.

If that's accurate, this generation definitely feels biased more towards shatter resistance, at least to me. And I say that as someone who's dropped both the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro a bunch of times — never on purpose — and both are totally fine. Not a crack on them.

So, now that Apple's done so well with the shatter, I'd love to see them figure out the scratch. Even if it means a sapphire option on the higher end, like the Watch has.

Because people like me, we need it.

Especially since the iPhones are still so damn slippery. We've had glossy finishes, we've had frosted finishes, but they've all been, well, not zero-friction like the Galaxy Flip, but close. A good number of the drops I've had have been because of slips. So, the more Apple can iterate on the finishes to fix that, the better.

I've said I'd be willing to take a camera bump on a MacBook if it meant getting a really good camera there, so I'm not going to begrudge the massive units on the iPhones 11. Especially now that Google went with something similar and Samsung basically said hold my case of beers.

iPhone 11 6-Months Later: Display

Both the LCD display on the iPhone 11 and OLED display on the iPhone 11 Pro remain terrific. I personally prefer the OLED because I'm a sucker for HDR video, and Apple's display team has just done such a terrific job on extending the dynamic range while still mitigating color shift and burn-in. Problems that have plagued a lot of other OLED phones over the years.

It's something I've come to really appreciate much more lately because, stuck at home as many of are right now, it lets me watch all the glorious high bit-rate HDR content Disney+, Apple TV+, and even Netflix have been pumping out over the last 6 months pretty much anywhere around the house, even out on the balcony.

But I'm a nerd who appreciates that stuff. Apple's truly excellent color calibration and color management make the LCD displays look eerily close to identical, so close it's hard to tell them apart unless you're comparing them side-by-side which, given then differences in the technologies involved, is remarkable.

You don't get the deep blacks or peak brightness of the OLEDs, but you also don't get the color shifts and pulse-width modulations, which some people still claim really bothers them. The iPhone 11 LCD is lower resolution than the 11 Pro OLED, but the subpixels are RGB stripe, not RGGB pentile, which means it's more like an apple's … D&D dice comparison anyway.

I, long ago, debunked a lot of the dumb hot takes around 'OMG not even 1080p', but it's true some people claim they can see the aliasing and don't like watching upscaled 720p or downscaled 1080p video on their phone. Of course, other people claimed they could see the flicker and didn't like @3x UI downscaling on their 1080p iPhones Plus either. Ultimately it's about balancing costs and power efficiencies again the limits and quirks of human vision.

And, right now, with everything that's going on, most streaming services are reducing bit-rates and YouTube is defaulting to 480p anyway,

They're also still 60 Hz, not 120 Hz ProMotion like the iPads Pro have been since 2017 and an increasing amount of Android phones have been going over the last year.

I've been using a Pixel 4 at 90 Hz for the last 6 months, as well, and I really like it, though the implementation is a little uncanny compared to the iPad Pro. The Pixel also futzes in and out depending on ambient brightness, unless you manually force it on, and Samsung degrades resolution when you enable high frame rate, probably for power efficiency reasons. Which makes it easy to see why Apple didn't do it with the iPhones 11.

So, for me, HFR is like HDR. Nerds like me are just never going to want to go back but most other people won't care if they even notice.

iPhone 11 6-Months Later: Haptics

I still miss good, proper 3D Touch. I get that removing it saved some cost and some space, and let Apple not only fill up on battery but provide consistency between long-press and force press, and across devices like the iPhone and iPad.

And… Haptic Touch has gotten more capable. But, it's still cognitively slower than 3D Touch, because you're left waiting for the long instead of busy creating the force, and it's still missing things like an easy way to toggle between cursor placement and text insertion on the iPhone keyboard.

Maybe Apple could do something like what Google's just done on Android: Use machine learning to try and guess force based on deformation during touch events. In other words, speed up Haptic Touch response by how fast and how much your fingertip flattens out against the glass.

Basically anything to make Haptic Touch as quick and physically gratifying as 3D Touch was.

iPhone 11 6-Months Later: Cameras

Both the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro have Apple's latest, top-of-the-line 12MP wide-angle as the main camera. And … pretty much everyone agrees it's one of the best still cameras on a phone and arguably still the best video camera period.

Google's latest Pixel 4, which I've also been shooting with for the last 5 months or so, can capture better stills in some circumstances, has better segmentation masking for portrait mode, and just creams the iPhone at digital zoom — something I really hope Apple addresses with iOS 14 if not the next iPhone later this year.

But all the Pixel photos look like Pixel photos. Cool. Contrasty. Like the machine learning baselines everything to that specific look so it can make them so consistent and so optimal in that look. And … it's often a little cool and monotonous for my tastes. Though, obviously others disagree.

The iPhone 11 is still using better camera hardware, better optics, and combining them with the machine stuff like Smart HDR in bright conditions, Deep Fusion indoors and in the mid-range, and Night Mode when it's dark, but in all cases it's letting the photo be the photo. Sometimes, that's worse. Other times, that's quirkier. Yet others, it's freaking brilliant, as you'd expect from a real camera.

Every once in awhile there can be some weird artifacts, though, and recent software updates haven't really mitigated that for me.

Samsung and Huawei, meanwhile, are using far more massive camera systems now, with exponentially more megapixels, and binning them down to try and get an average that's better than the sum of the parts. They're also using periscopes so width can be used instead of depth to shove much better telephotos into phones.

But, their color science and machine learning just aren't there yet. I know some of that is personal or regional taste and preference, but I also think it highlights that cameras aren't just big glass anymore. They're increasingly big compute.

Personally, I'd love to see what Apple could do with more megapixels and pixel binning options at their disposal. For a long time, 12MP was just the best balance of quantity and quality. The best trade-off. Now, bigger, with these new sensor advances, bigger finally has the potential to also be better.

And, yeah, I'd love to see what Apple could do with a better telephoto as well. In normal times, not these times, you want to be able to take photos of your pets running around the park or your kids on the field of a game and have them look like your pets and your kids. Nothing goofy and unusable like 100x, but just really solid 10-30x. It's one of those basics of real-world camera work left for Apple to conquer.

Night Mode, new to the iPhones 11, has turned out better than I expected. Coming from nowhere, Apple caught up with Google, who was best in the industry just the year before. It doesn't just amp up the exposure and then noise reduce everything. It keeps night looking like dark, moody night. It just lights up the subjects.

I still think Google tends to nail people better, except for some times when it's still too cool, and it isn't as troubled by reflection through windows. Especially on planes. Remember those? But Apple often nails scenes and landscapes better, except for some times when Google's coolness pays off.

I like that it's automatic but I do wish you could force it on and that it was faster to force off, just to sometimes get those edge-case photos I really want.

The iPhone 11 literally one-ups the iPhone XR with a second camera. Not the telephoto like the old iPhones Plus, but a 120º ultra-wide angle.

Optically, it's nowhere nearly as good as the wide-angle. F/2.4 instead of f/1.8, so it can't drink in as much light and is therefore prone to more noise, 4 element lens instead of 5, so it's not quite as molecular tac sharp, no Focus Pixels instead of 100% Focus Pixels so, I think, it's relying on the main camera for phase detection, and because it's so wide, it elongates objects closer to the edges. Not to the point of fish-eye, but maybe like amphibian-eye?

That's just physics being a jerk when it comes to phone cameras still being relatively flat. Outside — remember outside? — with decent light, none of that really matters. Inside, though, you do hit the limitations.

Not all of them though. On other phones, the ultra-wide would often look completely different than the standard wide. Not just physically, but the exposure, the color, all of it.

Apps like DoubleTake, which shoot with multiple angles at the same time and lets you combine or switch between them without them looking all janky, really show off how well the camera fusion works at keeping things consistent. It's also, I think, what makes them useful for mainstream media production, whether it's just a few shots in a film or the whole film. Similar to how so many pro photographers seem to swear by the iPhone — quality, consistency, and just a killer app ecosystem because of the quality and consistency.

I also really like Apple's 1x, 2x, and new 0.5x buttons, which in most cases let you instantly zoom in or out much more elegantly than trying to manually spin a dial interface. Though you can do that on the iPhones 11 as well. When I'm shooting, I often just want zoom in or zoom out, and not the cognitive load of something more granular but also fussier.

Which, yeah, makes it super weird and frustrating that the 0.5x button seems to stop working once you hit record at 4K60 and gives you the dial instead. I've been hoping that would get fixed via a software update but so far, so no joy.

Ultimately, I still think the ultra-wide-angle was a better choice than the telephoto for the iPhone 11 though. Most of the time, I can sneaker zoom to get closer. Sometimes, especially in lower light, the camera actually uses the main wide-angle for telephoto anyway, because it's still pulling in that same data. You can't always go back far enough to capture an ultra-wide angle, especially indoors, where many of us are stuck these days.

If you're just taking photos in or of your house, you can show the whole room. If you're making TikTok videos, you can show way more of the background or even fit in more of your family. Or, you know, in better times, your friends.

It's just a far more fun and flexible camera choice. Not something most people will use every day — here are the results of my incredibly scientifically inaccurate Twitter poll on it — but an option you just can't get any other way.

I also like that the selfie cameras are better and slightly wider now. Especially since I'm doing more video calls than basically ever. I wish the Mac cameras were anywhere nearly this good, or there was a mode that just let you use your iPhone camera for Mac calls. As it is, I'm using my iPhone more than ever and the quality is terrific.

Slowfies, I mean, I'm glad slow motion is there. It should be everywhere. But I don't have the long hair to really show it off. If anything, I have shelter-in-place hair. I'm willing to bet a bunch of people on Insta or TikTok have found far more creative uses for it.

Overall, Apple's using a lot of computational technology, from semantic rendering to optimize different subjects and parts of subjects in a scene, to multi-scale tone-mapping so not all exposure is treated the same, and it's fixed a lot of the odd texture and tone issues of the previous Smart HDR system.

Some people might argue that most of this doesn't matter. That many of us are shooting for social media these days, which destroys the quality of our images and video, and makes $200 cameras with crushed blacks and boosted sat look as appealing, if not more appealing, than $1000 color-accurate cameras on Twitter and Instagram.

There's some real truth to that. But those services are, slowly, so agonizingly slowly, beginning to introduce higher quality image support, and more importantly, for many of us, these are the only cameras we're using and, a few years or a decade from now, when we look back at the photos and videos we've taken of our families, our children, our pets, our travels, ourselves, we're going to want those to be the best possible photos and videos they can be.

iPhone 11 6-Months Later: Battery Life

The A13 Bionic system-on-a-chip that Apple packaged into both iPhones 11 is still just massively over-powered. The A12Z in the latest iPad Pro makes many a PC and Mac cry itself to sleep mode and this is still next-level to that.

I've yet to really peg it this side of massive AR scenes and it even handles complex photo filters and simpler AR scenes with ease. And those are things that could peg the As 11 and 12.

And that's fine. Apple's on record saying they're not building chipsets for current performance. They're building them to maintain performance two or three or even four or more years out, and the versions of iOS and apps that will require it.

It's also great Apple is putting that chip in not just the iPhone 11 Pro but the regular iPhone 11 as well. With PCs, it's almost expected that cheaper builds will have worse processors. A lot of phone companies put older or lower performance chips into less expensive phones. Apple also uses very different chips in its Pro Macs vs. its standard line.

It makes me think that iPhone Premium, while a far worse marketing name, would be a far more accurate name for how Apple is segmenting the lineup. Or maybe even Edition like on the Watches.

Because in almost every way that really matters, from main camera to processor, you're getting a first-class experience with both the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro.

I do wish there was either more RAM, like the most recent iPads, or better app hibernation. Actually, both.

Most times, everything is fine. But if you're switching between really heavy apps, like Pokemon Go and Safari and Camera, other apps will just jettison from memory left or right, then have to relaunch or reload completely when you come back. Like pre-iOS 4 days.

I get server-side and graphically intense stuff is complicated, but at least preserve the previous state and give me the impression it's still running, let my character run around or let me read the already rendered web page, and then reload and update in the background.

I don't need the ability to pin apps in memory. That feels very much like having a mechanic ride around in the car with you. I just need something that better handles the much higher demands apps are putting on the system these days.

Mostly, because I don't want to adversely affect the much-improved battery life.

The iPhone XR was already a beast compared to the XS. Now the entire iPhone 11 lineup just straight up out-performs.

I've run all of them, 11, Pro, and Max, right down during Pokémon GO events. And yeah, that remains my favorite way to releave stress and load test battery life on phones. And they've all lasted just hours and hours, even with constant display at full brightness, GPS, data, graphics rendering, everything.

Battery health on the 11 and 11 Pro Max is still at 100%. The 11 Pro, which I use roughly twice as much as the other two, is at 98%. And that's after daily abuse.

Some of the new battery life comes from the increased processor and display efficiency, some just comes from battery. And I hope it keeps coming. Staying at home all day, you'd think plugs and pads would be plentiful, and I'd always be topping up, but I just really never want to have to worry or think about that. So, the more longer it lasts between any charges, the better.

When I do charge, the new USB-C cord and adapter are aces. So much so, I really wish Apple would include it with the iPhone 11 as well, not just the 11 Pro-as-in-premium.

iPhone 11 6-Months Later: iOS 13

Apple has also pushed out a ton of software updates for the iPhone. We're at iOS 13.4 already when some years don't go much past .2. And, frankly, it was necessary.

Where iOS 12 was one of the most stable releases I can remember in a long time, from beta to final bug fix, iOS 13 was a hot mess in beta and not much better at launch.

It's better now, though. There are still some bugs, old and new, but for the most part, it's finally smooth and solid. And, in the meantime, Apple's delivered new features like deep fusion for more detailed photos in indoor lighting and, new emoji and Memoji, because those are the features a lot of people actually care about, and cursor support for the iPad.

Which… I kinda wish we had on the iPhone too. Especially because the iPhone is so overpowered but so screen constrained. A cursor and a mouse, especially with AirPlay, could unlock a lot of utility for people, even and especially at home.

Same with multi-windowing and picture-in-picture. I know Apple wants to keep things simple on the small display, but I so often wish I could take notes while surfing the web, type messages while watching a video, all that stuff.

I know Android does this. The operating systems started off on opposite ends of the spectrum but are converging on a similar feature and interface set, they just have very different points of view that are very differently problematic.

And this one I think Apple could do well.

iPhone 11 6-Months Later: Conclusion

I asked all of you on Twitter what you thought about the iPhone 11, 6 months later, and a ton of you responded with pretty much exactly what I went over here: Great camera. Great battery. And for the baseline model, great price.

https://twitter.com/reneritchie/status/1245538458678046722

Hell, in an age where Samsung has blown well past the $1000 mark for their latest flagships, never mind the foldables, which are fun, but as resilient as paper doilies, even the iPhone 11 Pro doesn't look quite so stratospherically expensive anymore.

I've been saying for a long time now it isn't about price, it's about value, and with the iPhone 11 models, Apple's just delivering a ton of value. Especially when you factor in all the free software — really free, not just free as in our privacy and data — that comes with them.

Normally, 6 months later, I'd throw in some caution as well: that new models would be arriving like clockwork in just another 6 months. And, while we might get a new, lower-cost Home button iPhone update soon, there's just no way to tell when or how anything else will play out this year, even with Apple's typically rock-solid release schedule.

So, I'll just remind you again, that while the tech universe is obsessed with year-over-year upgrades, unless you're on an annual plan, most people just don't think that way. Most people keep a phone for two, increasingly three or four years, and typically only upgrade when they have to.

But, having new iPhones every year means any year you choose to upgrade guarantees you'll get the best iPhone possible for that year. One that can see you through another two, three, four years.

And that's exactly the case here. If you have an iPhone 6 or 6s, an iPhone 7, even 8, then the iPhone 11 remains an absolutely terrific update. And, since iPhones keep their value better than pretty much any other phone in the industry, whether you're trading in, handing down, or selling so you can trade up, you can likely save some cash not only on your next iPhone, but by rinse and repeating the same process with every iPhone you get.

Especially if you want or need that new iPhone now because of work from home or just being stuck at home.

The cameras are great for getting creative indoors even when you can't go out, the battery life lasts all day, even at your kitchen counter or on the sofa, and the price, especially for the iPhone 11 proper, is just all shades of right.

If a random stranger came up to you offering to sell you a brand new iPhone 11, would you consider buying it from them? If you said no, then congratulations to you, win! What's your prize? Not being scammed by a con artist.

I know it seems rather straightforward, by two —yes, two — people have been duped into buying lemonade for hundreds of dollars (pounds, technically) in the UK by someone offering to sell them Apple products.

To be fair, the latest victim, Dylan Obeegadoo, was shown real Apple products before he handed over the cash; here's his version of the events:

Yikes! Look, part of this story is a little funny and offers a bit of that delicious schadenfreude, but you have to remember that scammers and con artists a good at what they do. We've all heard horror stories of a friend or relative who has been swindled by a tax scam, or a lottery scam, or some other con, and the catching scammers can be pretty tricky for the police or other authorities to deal with. It's a real problem, and real people are getting taken advantage of, and that's not funny.

What can you do?

The answer is pretty simple, make sure you're buying your Apple products from reputable retailers and not people off the street — especially if they are new.

If you are going to buy a used iPhone or other Apple products, make sure you do everything you can to protect yourself. Inspect the product thoroughly before purchasing, ask for receipts, check the boxes before you hand over the cash, and most importantly if a deal seems too good to be true, there's a reason, so trust your instincts.

5 Important Considerations When Buying a Used iPhone

Don't get caught in an unfortunate situation and be stuck with bottles of lemonade you paid hundreds of dollars for, no deal is worth getting scammed.

What you need to know

• NYC stores are running out of iPhones.
• iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro are in short supply.
• Coronavirus and its impact on production are to blame.

If you're a New Yorker who planned on picking up a new iPhone 11 or iPhone 11 Pro this past weekend, you probably came up short. Stocks of Apple's hottest iPhones are reportedly very low across New York City, according to a New York Post report.

That report says that carriers like AT&T and Verizon across NYC have either run out of the new iPhones or have very limited supply. Employees told the news outlet that they simply aren't seeing iPhones arrive in deliveries. But Samsung phones are arriving as normal.

While an employee told the New York Post that stocks were being held in warehouses to create artificial demand, it's more likely that iPhones simply aren't around at all. With Foxconn having had to close factories in China due to the coronavirus outbreak it's been suspected that stocks might run dry. In New York, that seems to have already started to happen.

Foxconn is yet to get back up to full manufacturing capacity, but things are moving in the right direction. Hopefully, that trend will continue and the current stock shortage proves to be a short-lived thing.

What you need to know

• Apple has the top five selling smartphones in America last year.
• That's according to new data from Counterpoint.
• The iPhone XR was Apple's clear winner.

New data from Counterpoint research suggests that Apple holds the top five spots in the US smartphone market.

According to the research:

Specifically in the US, the top five selling smartphones and their market share were as follows:

• iPhone XR - 12%
• iPhone 11 - 6%
• iPhone 8 - 5%
• iPhone 11 Pro Max - 4%
• iPhone XS Max 3%

Asides from Apple's clean sweep, the iPhone 8 figures are also surprising, given that a device more than three years old remains more popular than both of Apple's most recent 'Max' iPhones.

Apple's success wasn't repeated elsewhere. In Europe for example, the number one smartphone was the Samsung Galaxy A50, closely followed by the iPhone XR and 11. In China, South America, and the Middle East & Africa, Apple did not manage to break into the top five.

Interestingly, 5G models only accounted for 1% of global smartphone sales, however, Counterpoint expects this to change in 2020 as more networks roll out 5G and Apple enters the market.

What you need to know

• An Ireland-based company has filed patent complaints against several major tech companies including Apple.
• It claims that these companies are infringing on four separate patents related to keyboard functionality and sensitivity.
• Neodrom claims the patented improvements took years of research and millions of dollars in investment.

An Ireland based-company has filed patent infringement complaints against several major tech companies including Apple over patents related to keyboard functionality and sensitivity.

According to WIPR:

The improvements covered range from "fundamental ones, which make basic touch technology work, to optional improvements, which typically represent one technological option that improves aspects of the user experience and functionality of a touchscreen". The patented improvement reportedly took "years of research" and millions of dollars in investment. The suit claims that Apple's iPhone 11 and iPad Pro (third-generation) directly infringe all four listed patents.

Neodrom is requesting a ruling confirming the companies listed have infringed these patents, as well as damages, costs, and expenses. As the report notes, it is also seeking to block the importation of these devices.

What you need to know

• The coronavirus continues to impact iPhone production.
• Sources believe suppliers won't be back to normal output until April.
• The exact impact on the new, cheaper iPhone is unknown.

While rumors continue to swirl around a March event as well as an iPhone SE 2 (or iPhone 9) and iPad Pro launch, Apple is struggling to get production back to full capacity. According to the Nikkei Asian Review, production of the new iPhone could result in a pushed launch date and existing models may continue to experience shortages until at least April.

One of the sources said that suppliers are trying to get the new, cheaper iPhone through the production cycle in four weeks, adding that more delays of the low-cost iPhone will affect Apple's strategy throughout the rest of the year.

Another source claims that iPhone suppliers are currently operating at only 30% to 50% capacity because of labor and logistics issues. These problems are resulting in a shortage of iPhone supply that will most likely not be resolved until April.

Apple reportedly ordered up to 80 million new iPhones, with 15 million being earmarked for the low-cost model, to go through production in the first half of 2020. Those production numbers now appear to be far from reach, and Apple has lowered its Q2 guidance for investors as a result.

The exact impact on the new iPhone is still unknown. The launch date could be pushed further out or Apple could stick to the launch date with fewer units available. Those are the options unless suppliers figure out a way to get production back to normal levels in time.

What you need to know

• Apple has released a new Shot on iPhone video.
• The video showcases videos and photos shot with Night Mode.
• Apple's "Night Mode Challenge" competition winners will be announced on March 4th.

The iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro both received the new Night Mode capability which helps iPhone owners take better pictures in low light environments. To showcase the images that some photographers have been able to achieve with the new iPhones, Apple has released a new video to its YouTube channel.

Titled "Night mode", the video kicks off with an iPhone 11 Pro capturing a match being lit in the dark at both normal speed and slow motion. The video then shows off a handful of side by side comparisons in which one photo is shot without Night Mode and the other is. It wraps up by running through a bunch of photos that have been shot using Night Mode. The entire video is backed by "We Only Come Out At Night" by the Smashing Pumpkins.

In the description, Apple says encourages iPhone owners to "take more natural-looking photos in low-light with Night mode on iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro." Night Mode launched with the new iPhones in September of 2019 and has made capturing higher quality photos and videos in low light much more accessible. The mode automatically turns on when the camera determines it to be beneficial but can be manually enabled by the user if desired.

The video comes after the closing of Apple's latest Shot On iPhone competition which focused on Night Mode. Called the "Night Mode Challenge", the competition was available to those with an iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, or iPhone 11 Pro Max and asked users to send Apple their best photo captured with the new feature. The competition ended on January 29th and the winners are set to be announced on March 4th.

Check out the Night Mode video below.

With the added ultra-wide camera and Night Mode, improved selfies, industry-leading A13 Bionic chipset, Gigabit LTE and Wi-Fi 6, and iOS 13 operating system, all starting at $699, iPhone 11 is the most compelling iPhone Apple has ever made.

It's so close in capabilities to the iPhone 11 Pro that only display, camera, and radio nerds may really notice any day-to-day differences. And, for exactly those nerds, I'll also be posting a much deeper, more detailed review of the iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max, so be sure to check that out.

For this review, I want to focus on what makes the iPhone 11 the new iPhone for everyone. Everyone who has an iPhone 6 or earlier and is looking for a new phone to keep getting the latest updates. Who has an iPhone 6s or iPhone 7, and is thinking it's time to trade in and move up.

Who might even have an iPhone 8 and is finally ready to give up the Home button, or an iPhone X, and wants a dual-camera system that's just a little brighter and wider, or maybe even a return to LCD.

Ultimately, it's about figuring out what's right for you, or for you and your family. And that's what this review is here to help answer.

UPDATE: A week later, fully two weeks after I first started using the iPhone 11, I've gone through and added additional information and experiences.

iPhone 11 Review: In Brief…

• Edge-to-edge design with gesture navigation.
• Dual-camera system with wide and ultra-wide angles
• Depth-aware front-facing camera.
• Face ID biometrics.
• A 6.1-inch display.
• Industry-leading performance
• Colors!

• Classic iPhone design with Home button.
• Triple-camera system with telephoto angle.
• No notch.
• Fingerprint identity biometrics.
• An OLED display.
• Android

At a glance, the iPhone 11 looks almost identical to last year's iPhone XR in size and shape. It's got a bigger, better camera — two of them again — and a bigger, matte camera bump to go with them.

The Home button, forehead, and chin, are still gone, as is the headphone jack. But, these days that's the norm, not the exception.

It's still Lightning, not USB-C, and still includes a 5 watt USB-A charger, not the beefier 18 watt USB-PD charger now included with the Pro. Though, if you pick one up separately, you can fast-charge to 50% in just 30 minutes.

You can also still charge inductively with a Qi pad at the same 7.5 watts as last year.

The speakers are new and offer spatial audio, which will precisely place 5.1 surround or Dolby Atmos sound to precisely match any video that supports it.

The notch is still here, but now it houses an even faster, more reliable Face ID and a wider, 12MP selfie cam that goes to up to 4K and, yeah, shoots slow-mo selfie video.

Glossy, glassy black and white are still options, but there's also a paler yellow this year, and a slightly different Product Red. Sky blue and coral orange are gone, though, replaced with a lavender purple and mint green.

That glass is also tougher, so hopefully harder to scratch or shatter. Water resistance is still 30 minutes but up from IP67 and one meter to IP68 and two meters. Just take it easy dropping it in the deep end.

Apple says the battery will last an hour longer than the iPhone XR, which — ugh, math — makes it 2.5 hours longer than the iPhone 8 Plus. Roughly 17 hours of local video, 10 hours of streaming video, and 65 hours of wireless audio. Thanks to the huge leaps forward in the Pro models, the 6.1-inch iPhone is no longer the battery life leader, but it packs plenty of power.

There's still a dual SIM, one nanoSIM card, one eSIM. I know some people want dual cards. I can't wait for dual e, but it's upgraded to Gigabit LTE, up to 38% faster Wi-Fi 6, and up to 45% longer-range beam-forming Bluetooth.

It's also packing Apple's top-of-the-line, industry leading chipset, the A13 Bionic. A13's efficiency, performance, graphics, and neural cores aren't just 20% faster each, they use 40, 25, 30, and 15% less power respectively. It also has 4GB of memory instead of 3GB like on the XR, and brings with it a machine-learned ton of new photographic and other features we'll get to in just a few minutes.

Storage options remain the same at 64, 128, and 256 GB, but the price is now $50 cheaper for all of them. So, go for at least 128. You'll thank me later.

I've been using a purple iPhone 11 review unit running iOS 13.0 for almost a week, both while traveling in California and here at home in Montreal, Canada.

And there's a lot here to credit here, but also a good amount still to critique.

Let me explain.

iPhone 11 Review: Design

The iPhone 11 is basically more iPhone XR for less. In case you missed it, or got somehow bamboozled by the repeatedly confused biz pub coverage, the iPhone XR was the most popular iPhone of the last year and, reportedly, the most popular single smartphone phone sold, period. So, taking a bestseller and making it even better also happens to make exactly the kind of sense that does.

The iPhone 11 is the same height, width, depth, and even weight as the iPhone XR. And I straight up love this size. I was a die-hard iPhone Plus-er from the 6 to the 8, but then I found the X's edge-to-edge display was big enough for me that when the Max rolled around, I stayed with the min. But, then, I got my hands on the XR and it was Goldilocks just right in the middle.

I also love that it has Display Zoom, which basically takes the next smaller interface size, in this case the one from the 5.8-inch iPhone Pro, and scales it up to fit its own 6.1-inch screen. That makes everything, every image, every word, just that much bigger, easier to see, and easier to read.

I don't need it quite yet but I have a lot of friends who do, and while it's available on the Max as well, it's not on the regular Pro because there's no even smaller interface than that to scale up. At least not yet.

The iPhone 11 has the same 6.1-inch 1792-by-828-pixel resolution LCD display as the iPhone XR and the same 326 ppi density as the original Retina display, the iPhone 4. Last year, some people gave Apple grief over those numbers, forgetting that unless you're strapping your phone to your face for VR, pixel quantity just isn't as important as pixel quality.

And Apple's quality is still some of the best in the business. Combine the higher RGB sub-pixel count to similarly-sized PenTile OLED displays, add everything from individually color calibrated and managed, wide gamut, True Tone ambient temperature matching, and what Apple calls Liquid Retina still looks terrific.

I do miss the inky blacks, high dynamic range, and peak brightness of the OLED iPhone 11 Pro, but I'm a display nerd. Anyone who thinks pulse width modulation on OLED phones gives them eye strain will really appreciate that LCD is still an option. At least for now.

But… I do think a bump here to honest-to-Plus-sized iPhone 1080p would have been better. It would have added that final bit of crispness for closer-than-Retina viewing. Especially if it could have also expanded the display just enough to delete what little's left of the bezel, which is still thicker on the LCD iPhones than the OLED Pros, which makes it look even more dated compared to the more recent, more expansive devices from the likes of Samsung.

I'd love to see the display just blasted all the way out into the antenna bands. That would be pure, screen-to-bezel ratio fire.

I also preferred last year's colors to this year's. Apple has tweaked the black and white, but not so much as I can really notice the difference. The new PRODUCT RED seems, I don't know, a little rosier if anything. It's fine. The yellow is paler, and while I don't like the shade as much, I like that the bands match way better than they did last year.

The purple and the green… I'm just not a fan. Again, personal opinion, but I've waited a long, long time for a purple iPhone and what I got was more like lavender creme than grape explosion. Likewise the green, which is more mild mint than zesty lime. They're just… Miami Vice, but, you know, not even the Archer version.

If pastels are the trend and one of these will once again be Pantone color of the year, like coral was last, so be it. I'll be out back yelling at the swatch clouds. But, to me, they just lack a little punch, a little spice. Things Samsung and Huawei have been doing really, really well lately.

And, at the bottom, is the good old, increasingly old at this point, Lightning port. I'll talk about USB-C in the iPhone 11 Pro review but, for the very much mainstream iPhone 11, I think the very much mainstream Lightning port is still fine. Maybe not ideal, as more and more USB-C becomes available. But fine, same as it is on the mainstream iPads.

There are just so many people with so many existing cables and accessories that even Apple, famous for ditching floppies and jacks, before anyone is really comfortable with the idea, is wisely waiting just a little bit longer. Who knows, maybe even for something just a lot better?

Water resistance is blessedly better. The rating, which really only mean what the manufacturers attest they mean, have gone from the XR's IP67 to the 11's new IP68, and from 30 minutes at up to one meter to 30 minutes at up to two meters. That's the same as last year's iPhone XS if not quite as good as this years' iPhone 11 Pro.

In other words, getting your iPhone 11 wet from either sudden rain or spilled coffee, or, sure, the occasional base dive into the toilet bowl is even less of a problem now than it was before. But, water resistance can and will degrade, so it's still no replacement for a proper underwater case if you want to take your iPhone 11 swimming, diving, or bowl hopping on a regular basis.

The camera bump, which is milled out of the rear glass but matted up to contrast with the shiny finish of the phone, now encompasses not just both cameras like every iPhone has since the 7 Plus did, but the flash and rear mic as well. And it's… hidee-aciously ugly. Weirdly uglier to my eyes than the triple camera version on the back of the iPhone 11 Pro.

Real world cameras, especially real world multi camera systems are just as ugly, they've just always looked that way. The iPhone has it and I'm not used to it at all. I keep thinking it's the owl Animoji, staring at me, head all twisted to the side, just staring...

And yes, I know Apple gets knocked all the time for being too much form over function but the truth is, whenever Apple does function over form, they get KTFO'd way harder for it.

The two stage bump does better hide how far the cameras actually project out from the back, but I just liked the X-style better. At least for the double camera system. Your bump mileage might vary.

Both the contrast and the size do make it look like Apple is intent on owning the look. Leaning into it even. And hard. But, they kinda have to. Apple still wants good optics and good optics still want good z-index.

At least until computational finally kicks the crap out of physics.

Overall though, I love the iPhone 11 design. I know some people are exhaustingly bored and just want Apple to make a triangle or donut shaped phone or whatever, but as I've said before, this is Apple's current platonic ideal for form iPhone. And I don't see them changing it until they find something that isn't just different, but is objectively much better.

So, the iPhone looks like an iPhone, the way a Porsche looks like a Porsche, an Omega looks like an Omega, and a Leica looks like a Leica. Companies don't kill this kind of brand identity. They kill for it.

iPhone 11 Review: Speakers

The speakers have gotten significantly better with iPhone 11. They're not just stereo now. If your media offers 5.1 surround, Apple will project spatial audio using their own, custom virtualizer. It even supports Dolby Atmos, which means when you're watching a movie, it doesn't sound like the audio is coming from just one side or the other. It sounds like its coming from a stage projecting right out of the iPhone. Kinda spooky, but all tones of cool at the same time.

I imagine that giant, state-of-the-art audio lab Apple built for everything from AirPods to HomePods is really just taking all their mic and speaker technology to the next level.

I wear AirPods when I'm with other people or out and about. I don't hold the speaker up to my ear like some kind of loud, noise-splattering animal. But, when I'm alone, I do use the speaker a lot, and spatial audio has changed it from something I just do, to something I actually really enjoy doing.

iPhone 11 Review: Ultra Wide Angle Camera

Last year, one of the most severe compromises Apple made with the iPhone XR and its lower price point was to ditch the iPhone X's second camera — the effective 53mm telephoto.

This year, with the iPhone 11, Apple is bringing the second camera back. But — plot twist — not as a telephoto — as an effective 13mm 120º ultra-wide-angle.

And I think that's clever. You can always zoom in and enhance the regular wide-angle data to fake telephoto well enough in most cases. But you can't simulate a wider angle. There's just no data for it at all.

So, this combo ultimately provides more flexibility and capability than the alternative.

The ultra wide doesn't fisheye either, if anyone has any concerns about that. It does stretch out as it gets close to the edges. You know, like an Unbox Therapy video when he holds his arms out towards the camera.

Apple leaned into that in their demo, showing how you could use it to create an elongated effect. But, it's something to be aware of if you have faces or other elements that'd look more… comedically distorted near the edges. Unless that's what you're going for.

The camera app interface has been jazzed up to support ultra-wide as well. From the moment you launch it you'll see the familiar wide-angle preview but, also, transparently at both sides now, a hint at what the ultra-wide angle camera is seeing as well. Not a simulation either, but an actual, real-time fusion from the real camera, because the iPhone 11's silicon system is cool — and ridiculously powerful — like that.

Switching between wide angle and ultra wide angle is the same as switching between wide angle and telephoto on previous iPhones. You just tap the little button, only now it toggles between 0.5 and 1 on the iPhone 11 instead of 1 and 2.

Yeah, it's a 0.5x optical zoom… out.

And I love all of this. It's just so classically Apple, but you only really appreciate it once you've seen how some other companies have implemented their interfaces, with buttons where you can't easily reach them or worse, ultra wide-angle cameras that don't come anywhere close to matching the color or quality of the primary.

People in tech love throwing around the word innovation but it's almost always totally misused. Innovation isn't just bolting on an extra camera to add a checkmark to a spec sheet. It's not about yelling FIRST!! into the equivalent of a comment box. That's what's more properly called a gimmick, a stunt.

Innovation is making that extra camera truly useful — part of a consistent, cohesive experience. It's the difference between a throw away and a tool. Apple didn't make the first MP3 player, they made the iPod. Not the first smartphone but the iPhone. Not the first tablet or smart watch or wireless earbuds, and on and on. Apple's innovation today remains the same as it's always been: In packaging technologies in a way that provides the best experience possible for mainstream customers. And that's what they're doing here with wide-angle.

End rant.

There's a new, next-generation Smart HDR pipeline that seems to fix at least some of the overly warm, overly smooth results last year's version was producing on skin tones. I'll have to shoot a lot more with it to know for sure, but properly cast, properly swirled fingers crossed, Apple's camera team has hard corrected back to their previous, more naturalistic photo philosophy.

Because the iPhone 11 doesn't have a telephoto camera like the X, XS, or Pro, it still takes Portrait Mode photos using the wide angle. That means they're still not as up close and personal, which some people like worse and others like better.

I like having the option for both, but we'll talk about that in the Pro review.

Because the iPhone 11 does have an ultra-wide angle camera, though, it can now pull real depth data, and not just have to rely on the Focus Pixels and segmentation masks the way the iPhone XR and Pixels 2 and 3 did.

That means you can capture better portrait shots and of many more things, including and especially Pet-trait Modes of your cats and dogs.

Yeah, if Apple can say slofie, I can say Pet-trait. Go ahead, @me.

Another benefit of the ultra-wide angle camera comes if you turn on "Photos Capture Outside of the Frame" in Settings. It's a mouthful, but it works like this: When you take regular, wide angle shots, it'll fire the ultra wide angle as well. Then, if you cut out any faces or mess up any horizon lines, it'll give you a little auto magic frame button in the photos app that lets you auto magically re-frame it by pulling in that extra, ultra-wide data with a tap.

You've got 30 days to use it, or it'll drop the extra data so it doesn't clog up your storage. Otherwise, it's like a magic wand for your compositional screw ups. Sublime.

iPhone 11 Review: Night Mode

Yeah, Apple's a little late the computational light amplification game, but, surprise surprise, I really like the way they're doing it.

UPDATE: I had the opportunity to take the iPhone 11 out at night in New York City and compare its Night Mode to the Google Pixel 3, Huawei P30 Pro, and Samsung Galaxy Note 20. Hit play on the video to see the results.

First, the new cameras have better optical light sensitivity to begin with. Second, when Night Mode does engage, it's automatic, like the flash. So much so, it's almost unfortunate Apple's calling it Night Mode because it's really not a separate mode at all. As light gets lower, Night Mode just starts to come on.

You'll see its little icon just to the right of the flash turn yellow and then, depending on how dark it gets, it'll show a number from 1 to 3, signifying how many seconds you have to hold the photo in order to capture the image.

If it gets too dark, it'll fall back on the flash, and if you hate the very idea of Night Mode, you optical zealot you, you can tap the icon and turn it off, just like you've always been able to do with the flash.

Like Portrait Mode on the iPhone, the live preview shows the Night Mode result you're going to get before you even take the photo.

To me, that remains the single biggest advantage the iPhone camera maintains over most if not all of its competition. The performance of Apple's silicon and cleverness and quality of their imaging pipeline just lets the iPhone camera acts and feel more like a real camera.

It's such a different experience than something like the Pixel, which confounded me from the moment I got it by doing pretty much everything computational as a post process.

I like seeing what I'm going to get before I hit the shutter. That way, if there's anything I don't like about the composition or the previewed results, I can adjust before taking the shot. Not after the post-process takes several long seconds to resolve. Sometimes multiple times.

Same with Night Mode. If the number is at 1, it's almost instant. If it's at 3, it does take a second or so to save, like Portrait Mode did back on the iPhone 7. But that's it. What you saw is pretty much what you got.

I know some people don't care about stuff like that. But I also know a lot of photographers that do. Myself included.

I also like the artistic choices Apple is making with Night Mode.

Instead of turning night into simulated day, they're lighting up the subject, specifically people, but letting that light drop off fast, leaving a lot of the dark, moody atmosphere around them. So Night Mode still looks like night, just lit up.

If you have a tripod or you can prop your iPhone 11 up dead still, Night Mode will even let you take long exposures of up to 28 seconds, which can bring out almost every detail of star and skyline.

Combining everything we've talked about so far, the iPhone 11 is able to capture some pretty damn remarkable low light images now. External light sources can still mess with the color, but overall they do a great job preventing blowout and preserving color and detail in faces, textures, grains, and everything else that fills up the world around us, even at night.

Again, it's Apple's long, steady, step-by-step investment in everything from silicon to computer vision and machine learning to optics to imaging pipelines to individual color calibration and system-wide color management that makes it so that when they do drop in new features, they're not just bolted on. They're like Voltron adding another Lion.

And, while I know the first thing every tech head is going to want to do is put it head-to-head with a bunch of Android phones — and full disclosure, I intend to grab some friends and do just that as well — the important thing here is what it all lets you do.

That's still the same goal it's always been: To take your phone out of your pocket or bag or off the table and, with absolutely not a second wasted, snap a photo of whatever it is you want to remember, wherever you are, whenever you want.

Now, that includes walks at night, concerts, dimly lit dinners at home or out and about, bars, camping under the stars — wherever you go, of whoever you go with.

UPDATE: There appears to be some ghosting or light artifacts in some Night Mode images. I've heard through the grapevine that Apple is aware of them and will be fixing them in a future update.

iPhone 11 Review: Video

Apple's had the best video camera on the market for a while now, you just don't hear about it much because most people focus more on the stills. But, from YouTube to Insta to Tiktok, to all these new streaming services launching so always, video isn't getting any less popular.

Last year the iPhone could capture 4K video at 60fps or 4K video at 30fps but with interleaved extended dynamic range. This year, the iPhone 11 can capture 4K video at 60fps with extended dynamic range. To quote Captain Raymond Holt: Hot. Damn.

And it can do it with improved cinematic stabilization as well. Apple's not trying to emulate a steadycam or gimbal here, though. They'll remove the shakes from a fairly stable shot as best as they can, but if you're walking, they still want it to look like you're walking. Still natural, just smoother and less jarring or janky.

They also want to emphasize consistency. So shadow and light and color match as much as possible for as long as possible.

There's a new QuickTake video mode, which lets you hold down the camera button to automatically take a video, and even track the subject of that video to, again, try to keep them looking as good as possible.

And yeah, if you hate portrait video, get ready to sharpen them pitchforks and flint up them torches. Or, you know, welcome to 2019.

From there, you can drag right to lock it into video mode, or drag left to get good old fashioned bursts.

While the basics will be instantly familiar to anyone who uses The Chat or the The Gram, I do think it imposes a heavier cognitive load and requires more eye-hand coordination to pull off. I got used to it, but it took a while

You can switch between wide and ultra wide angle while you're shooting, and as the camera changes the mics go from narrow and directed to wide and ambient, respectively. I know Samsung is doing something like this too, but for me, none of it will replace discreet mics any time soon.

iPhone 11 Review: Selfies

Our long, international, low-res, narrow-angle, normal speed selfie nightmare is over. The TrueDepth system on the iPhone 11 now includes a new, wider angle, 12mp RGB camera. With it, you can still take your regular old 70º field-of-view selfies or, with the tap of a button, switch to the wider angle, 85º field-of-view, and get in a groupie.

If you rotate to landscape, the camera will automatically switch to wide angle as well, though you can tap back to selfie and exclude your friends if you really feel that way about them.

And yes, it's true, you can now go all the way up to 4K 60fps selfie video, or out to 1080p, 120fps for what Apple's calling slo-mo selfies, or slofies.

iPhone 11 Review: Battery life

I'm going to talk more about Apple's new A13 system-on-a-chip in the Pro review, but the third-generation Bionic packs roughly 20% more speed across its performance, efficiency, graphics, and neural engine cores than last year, all while saving significantly on power consumption as well — 40, 25, 30, and 15% respectively.

It also has 4GB of memory now, same as the Pros, instead of 3GB like on the XR.

Apple leapfrogged to the front of mobile silicon when they went 64-bit back with the A7. Competitors like Samsung, Huawei, and especially Qualcomm are upping their collective games, but what Apple's able to achieve, at the power they're able to achieve it, still seems lightyears ahead.

And yes, it's ridiculously OP, or over powered, for what most of us are doing with our phones today. But that kind of headroom means the iPhone 11 should be able to easily handle whatever you throw at it tomorrow, next year, and three to five years from now as well.

It's part of this weird thing Apple's doing, from silicon to software to services, to try to make iPhones last as absolutely long as possible, either for you or for whomever you hand, sell, or trade them on it.

Luckily, Wall Street seems too distracted by all the new subscription stuff to really notice. At least for now. But, seriously, shhhhh. Don't tell them.

The other chips inside offer up to 38% faster Wi-Fi 6, Gigabit LTE, and up to 45% longer range, beam-forming Bluetooth built in to boot.

A slight increase in size and efficiency has Apple claiming an extra hour of battery life for the iPhone 11, even over last year's reigning champion, the iPhone XR. That the iPhone 11 Pros have gained so much battery life this year that the regular 11 is no longer in the lead does nothing to diminish just how well it still does.

Roughly 17 hours of local video, 10 hours of streaming video, and up to 65 hours of wireless audio.

There's still only the classic 5 watt USB-A charger in the box, which some people prefer because low and slow best maintains battery health and small best fits into pockets and fanny packs, but the iPhone 11 Pro is finally getting a 18-watt USB-C PD cable and brick and it would have been great for the regular 11 to have gotten it as well.

You can buy it separately, though, and with it you can fast charge up to 50% in just 30 minutes. It's not the fastest of fast chargers, but again, you're trading speed for heat and reducing the effective life of your battery, so Apple isn't striking a bad balance here.

Inductive charging is also still 7.5 watts, same as last year, which also isn't as fast as the stuff Samsung is shipping these days, and a better place to argue with Apple about easing up on the heat and efficiency concerns, at least a little.

To test out battery life, I did what I usually do. The most grueling stress I can imagine — Pokemon Go Community Day. That's screen, GPS, cellular data, and the processor, all running and radiating continuously for hours.

And… they crushed it. Sure, it's just one slice of life, so I'll be using and abusing the iPhone 11 in a far wider range of real world situations over the next few weeks and I'll let you know how it holds up.

And no, if you're curious, Apple hasn't said anything about a smart battery case for the iPhone 11 yet. They don't always make them but when they do, like last year, they typically only come out later in the year.

But I'm hopeful. I love those cases, especially while location gaming and traveling.

iPhone 11 Review: Pricing and availability

The iPhone 11 starts at $699 for 64GB. Which, while I know is a lot for corporate buyers who just want a thin client for all their web apps, is starting to feel a little tight for regular customers. Even in the age of streaming, 4K and slow-mo selfies will chew through those GBs faster than ever. I'm at 69 GB already and counting.

Apple takes the edge off that with the next step up, though. You can go to 128 GB for just $50 more, or $749, which is half the usual jump between storage tiers, and to 256GB for $849. The regular sized jump.

On the monthly plan, the difference between 64 and 128 works out to just a few bucks and, either way, that's what I'd recommend — and what I personally ordered — unless you know you'll need more.

You can get AppleCare+ to extend your warranty for $149 or with theft and loss protection for $249, if you want to. You can also go to an Apple Retail Store, if you have one nearby, not just for set up and tech support but for an increasingly wide range free Today at Apple classes that cover everything from photography to videography, design to development.

It's part of the value of the iPhone and I still don't think Apple does enough to really highlight everything you get for your money.

Some have said Apple is leaving millions if not billions of dollars on the table by dropping all the iPhone 11 prices by $50 compared to last year's iPhone XR. And, maybe.

But if the price drop results in more sales, then Apple could easily make up the difference. Maybe more than make it up.

That is, after all, why you make a best seller even better.

We'll only know for sure when the iPhone 11 launches this Friday, September 20th.

iPhone 11 Review: Bottom Line

Here's a bit of advice that took me way too long to figure out: Never let anyone, certainly not the internet, shame you about your technology choices:

If you still have an iPhone 6 or 6s and you're looking to update, or still not, or you're on an iPhone XR and just want that second camera, whether you go for the iPhone 11 because it's $300 cheaper or because it has everything you need, price be damned, or if you decide you want the most expensive iPhone 11 Pro money can buy because, turns out, you want every bell to whistle, you're still every bit as nerdy and savvy as anyone. Anyone.

No one else knows your budget or your business, or gets to judge you for your choices.

You do you.

And, if what you're doing is the iPhone 11, I think that's an excellent choice. The best choice for most people.

Like I said at the beginning, with the added ultra wide camera and Night Mode, improved selfies, industry-leading A13 Bionic chipset, Gigabit LTE and Wi-Fi 6, and iOS 13 operating system, all starting at $699 — less if you have a trade-in or choose installments — iPhone 11 is the most compelling iPhone Apple has ever made.

The iPhone 11 is simply the new iPhone for everyone.

Originally published September 2019.

What you need to know

• Apple held its annual earnings call yesterday.
• CEO Tim Cook confirmed "exceptional demand" for new iPhones.
• iPhone 11 was the biggest seller of the quarter.

Apple held its quarterly earnings call yesterday and there were some very interesting numbers. Not least the fact that the company was able to post record figures. But in the middle of all that was another fact that caught my eye – iPhone 11 was the most popular iPhone each and every week during the quarter.

During the call CEO Tim Cook spoke about the huge impact iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max had on the quarterly results, as tends to be the norm when new iPhones arrive every September. And just iPhone XR sales last year, the most inexpensive new model won out.

With iPhone 11 proving popular it's clear buyers want to be able to get 95% of the latest technology while saving some money along the way. That's exactly where iPhone 11 excels, offering most of what iPhone 11 Pro does, but at a cheaper price.

With that in mind, it will be super interesting to see how iPhone 9 finds its feet, if and when it arrives in the market.

For the first time since the 2012 season and seventh time overall, the San Francisco 49ers are heading to the Super Bowl. Ahead of Super Bowl LIV in Miami Gardens, Florida against the AFC Champion Kansas City Chiefs, 49er fans should consider buying one of these remarkable iPhone cases which celebrate the West Coast team. These vary in price and come in various styles for your enjoyment.

Celebrate your favorite team

It isn't every year that your favorite NFL team gets to the Super Bowl. Since this year is unique, as a San Francisco 49ers fan, you deserve to celebrate in style by buying one of these cases. We're really loving the Skinit Folio Case, which offers a great design and useful pockets inside. If folios aren't for you, consider the classic Hard Plastic Case that's both practical and inexpensive.

Are you a long-time 49ers fan? Then you deserve the Vintage Program Case, which includes a unique design highlighting yesteryear. Whatever case you decide upon, you can't go wrong with any of the choices above. Have a happy Super Bowl and good luck!

What you need to know

• Apple has reportedly increased chip orders from Taiwanese manufacturer TSMC.
• The move has been made to satisfy increased iPhone demand.
• In particular, the LCD-based iPhone 11 is driving up orders.

Apple has reportedly increased its chip orders from Taiwanese manufacturer TSMC in the face of "higher-than-anticipated" iPhone demand.

According to a report from Bloomberg:

According to the report, demand is particularly strong for the iPhone 11.

Demand for the iPhone 11 appears to be holding strong and perhaps even increasing. Recently, it was reported that iPhone shipments in China had increased by almost 19%, in part thanks to the iPhone 11, which sold a reported 3.18 million units in the country in December.

The report comes fresh off the back of news that Apple's rumored Spring iPhone, the SE2/iPhone 9 is reportedly going into mass production next month. The phone will reportedly debut at $399 and could be announced by Apple as soon as March, echoing previous reports that the device would launch in Q1 of 2020.

Whilst this latest report shows that demand for Apple's cheaper iPhone 11 with an LCD display is very strong, most of the rumors surrounding the iPhone SE 2 (or whatever it might be called) suggest it is targeted at budget-savvy users as an entry-level device.

What you need to know

• Apple has shared two YouTube videos reminding everyone slofies exist.
• But we'd really rather forget it ever happened.
• Really though, who uses this stuff?

Apple seems super keen to make sure we all know about slowfies and it's shared two new YouTube videos to drive the point home. Whether we want it to, or not.

The word "slowfie" entered our lives when Apple announced iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro. And while many of us hoped to never hear the word uttered again, that's just not happening and Apple has shared new videos in which a snowboarder shows us what the feature can do.

It can make slo-motion videos from iPhone's front camera, in case you were wondering. It's slo-motion. And a selfie. It's a slowfie. Geddit?

Both "Whitehout" and "Backflip" are embedded for your viewing pleasure and yes, we've got you covered if you want to know how to take a slowfie of your very own. You'll just need to take 14 showers and renounce all of your sins once you've done it.

Right, now that's done. I'm off to take a slowfie of myself while sticking my tongue out like a dog. Because why not?

What you need to know

• The FBI reportedly extracted data from an iPhone 11 Pro Max in 2019.
• A Forbes report states that FBI investigators in Ohio used a GrayKey to extract data from the device.
• The lawyer of the accused in question confirmed the device was locked, as did the search warrant obtained by Forbes.

A Forbes report claims that the FBI was able to extract data from an iPhone 11 Pro Max using a hacking tool called GrayKey.

According to the report:

Forbes has reportedly confirmed with Koch's lawyer, that the device in question was locked, and that he was "unaware of any way the investigators could've acquired the passcode."

GrayKey is a tool created by Grayshift that can reportedly be used to break iPhone encryption and passwords. It's a small gray box that can be connected to two iPhones at a time, it can be used to brute force passwords, but it can also download an iPhone's entire file system to be viewed through a web-based interface.

It was reported in 2018 that Apple had patched the Gray Key exploit, such that it could only be used for "partial extraction", drawing out unencrypted files and some metadata. It is unclear from the report whether GrayKey and maker Grayshift has reworked its capabilities, or whether they were only able to complete a "partial extraction."

If the FBI was indeed able to extract data or unlock an iPhone 11 Pro Max using the tool, it casts serious doubt over calls from the Bureau and the US government to create a backdoor to encryption. It may well be that both are trying to drum up political support in order to push through legislation that could undermine mobile security permanently, a deeply troubling prospect.

Everyone is making an iPhone case these days. If you type "iPhone case" into Amazon's search, you'll currently get over 70,000 results. Not only is there every kind of case you could want, from cases that hold credit cards to keep your phone safe if it's underwater, but cases from almost any brand you can imagine.

adidas is also in the iPhone case game, and they have recently dropped their new line of cases for the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max. While maybe not one of the first brands you would think about, they've brought some interesting materials to their cases that will not only appeal to those loyal to the brand itself but those looking for something different than the average case found on an iPhone today.

I lived with three different cases for my iPhone 11, each of them for a week, and I have some thoughts.

The 3-Stripes Snap Case

The first case I tried out with the 3-Stripes Snap Case, a call back to the iconic Adidas white with black stripe shoes. The case is made out of a leather-like, but not actual leather, back with the black 3-stripe running through the middle of the case. Adidas even modeled a stitching look to the stripes to pay further tribute to the shoes that the case is modeled after.

"A legacy item in Adidas Originals history, this case goes back to the roots of streetwise style. It comes in a leather-like front with TPU edges to recreate the look and feel of the original. Finished with a contrast trefoil logo.

Below the 3-Stripes is the Adidas trefoil logo with the Adidas name in black, a solid contrast to the rest of the white that covers the rest of the case.

The bumper of the case is made out of TPU or Thermoplastic polyurethane, a popular material in phone cases. The plastic wraps around the top, sides, and bottom of the iPhone 11 and has just enough of a lip to it to protect your screen from scratches if you set your phone face-down.

The bottom of the case has two openings: one for your lightning connector to charge your iPhone, and holes poked in the bottom that line up with the speaker grills to allow your audio to come through clear.

After using the case for a week, I can say that it holds up great. The faux-leather did not stain or show signs of wear, and it did a great job of protecting my phone from basic dings and scratches. The leather on the back is more slippery than I was anticipating, so this case might not be for those who are looking for something more grippy, but otherwise, it is a stylish, well-performing case for my iPhone.

The 3-Stripes Ultrasuede Snap Case

The second case I tried out was the 3-Stripes Ultrasuede Snap Case, by far the most interesting case that I reviewed. The unique factor here is that the back of the case is made out of suede.

"A legacy item in Adidas Originals history, this case goes back to the roots of streetwise style. It comes in an Ultrasuede front with stitched on Stripes to recreate the look and feel of the original. Finished with a contrast trefoil logo.

I was both excited and skeptical of the Ultrasuede material that Adidas put on the back of this case. On one hand, it reminded me of the Alcantara fabric that is found on Microsoft's Surface line of tablets and laptops. Instead of a phone being cold to the touch, a fabric case could bring a sense of coziness and warmth, an unexpected but welcome experience for a phone case.

However, I have heard concerns about the longevity of Alcantara as far as cleanliness and aesthetics go, so I felt that same skepticism with the Ultrasuede on the Adidas case. While I have only used the case for a week, I can say that it has, surprisingly, held up fantastic. I have not seen any signs of wear or dirt on the fabric and it feels great. It's almost unsettling at first to hold your phone and feel warm fabric, but it was something I quickly got used to and started to really enjoy.

I'm not sure how long I can expect this kind of material to hold up, especially to long-term use, but the experience that I've had with it might be, dare I say, charming enough for me to forgo any concerns and pick one up anyway.

The case comes in one color, Collegiate Royal, a dark and blue that looks premium yet comfortable. The case, like the leather before it, has the 3-Stripe running through the middle in a darker shade that gives just enough contrast to notice yet not overtake the other color. At the bottom, a gold trefoil logo is displayed which mixes nicely with the blues across the rest of the case. It also has a TPU bumper with the same setup as the leather case.

The Trefoil Clear Case

I have to be honest - I did not try the last case that Adidas sent me. However, my wife did, and it did not last a week with her for one specific reason. Before we to get to that, however, let's go over the basics of this case.

"This Adidas Originals clear snap case helps protect your phone from impact and wear and tear. It's made of ultra-light TPU that's impact-resistant for optimal protection for your device. The case features an all-over iridescent Trefoil print for a stylish look.

The Trefoil Clear Case, instead of TPU being used as a bumper, finds itself here as the sole material across the entire case. This version TPU is more flexible which gives it better impact resistance to drops. It's completely clear except for the iridescent Trefoil logos that are printed across the case. Caught in the light, it is a pretty cool looking case as the logos reflect back a range of colors.

Where this case lost its aesthetics, however, is in just how flexible the back of the case is. When my wife would place her finger on the back of the case, it would form an air bubble with her iPhone and unfortunately left the back looking blotchy and strange. Because it is completely clear, it is incredibly noticeable and took away from the style of the case. Even the 20+ Trefoil logos couldn't save it from looking…worse.

As long as something like that does not bother you then it does a great job of protecting your phone and, like any clear case, let's you show off the actual color of your iPhone. However, this was enough for her to abandon it after a day or two.

Some wins, one loss

Overall, I am pleasantly surprised at the quality of cases that Adidas has rolled out for the iPhone 11. They pay tribute to the shoes that have become iconic over the years and, by doing so, bring some truly unique materials to a phone case that I wouldn't have expected but quickly grew to appreciate. If you are a fan of the Adidas brand or just want a stylish, unique case for your iPhone, Adidas Originals are worth the look.

What you need to know

• Anker is breaking into iPhone photography and videography.
• The iPhone LED Flash is the first MFi certified camera flash for the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro.
• The accessory is four times brighter than the built-in flash.

Anker has long been known for its stellar accessories made for the iPhone. From cables to portable charging, the brand has grown to be a staple in the Apple accessory business. Today, Anker has announced that it is moving into a new accessory category for the iPhone: lighting.

Anker has announced the iPhone LED Flash, the first MFi certified camera flash for the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max. The accessory is meant to take your iPhone photography and videography to new levels of creativity.

One charge of the accessory will apparently last for up to 10,000 photos. It also comes with a diffuser if you are working with a closer subject and need a softer light. Having a light like this also helps balance out lighting conditions if you are working with a subject that is also backlit. It also includes multiple modes of lighting like dual flash and flashlight mode, giving you even more ways to get creative with your lighting.

The iPhone LED Flash has a built-in lightning cable to connect it to your iPhone 11 or iPhone 11 Pro, so you don't have to worry about carrying around an extra cable. It also thankfully charges using lightning, so you can charge it using the cable from your iPhone. With a built-in standard tripod mount, the flash is easy to mount to any rig you might be using to bring your mobile photos or video to life. And, with an LED light that is "four times brighter and with twice the range of the native iPhone camera flash", you're going to be able to handle a lot more conditions than what is built into the iPhone.

Preorders are available now on Amazon for $49.99 and an estimated ship date of January 25, 2020. For now, the iPhone LED Flash will only be available in the United States and only work for the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max.

What you need to know

• Anker is set to be released an LED flash for iPhone 11.
• It will be certified under Apple's Made-for-iPhone (MFi) program.
• It costs $50 and will connect to your iPhone via the Lightning connector.

Popular iPhone accessory maker Anker is set to release an external LED flash for iPhone 11 in January, according to reports.

According to The Verge, the new LED flash for iPhone 11 will be released in January as part of Apple's Made-for-iPhone (MFi) program.

The report notes:

This isn't the first such flashes on the market, but it is the first certified MFi by Apple. The LED flash connects to your iPhone via the Lightning connector, and thanks to MFi, it should work with Apple's built-in flash and the stock camera app, as well as third-party offerings.

The device can apparently achieve double the range of the iPhone 11's built-in flash and is four times brighter. It also has a detachable diffuser. Once charged, the flash is good for around 10,000 shots before you'll need to plug it in again.

Anker's offering will bring improved lightning performance for iPhone photographers at relatively low cost. As the report notes, earlier in December Apple shared specs with manufacturers for new strobe and flash accessories that can be connected to your iPhone via the Lightning connector. Previous external flashes have either used Bluetooth for connectivity or haven't been MFi certified.

What you need to know

• Apple has released a new video series to highlight "Slofies".
• The series shows not only the end product but what happens behind the scenes to make it happen.
• Apple seems to acknowledge how goofy creating a "Slofie" is.

One of the most interesting and bizarre features that Apple announced for the iPhone 11 at its September event was a new way to take a selfie. Dubbed "Slofies", iPhone 11 owners could now take a slow-motion video with the front camera, enabling a new wave of creative and socially polarizing photography.

To highlight the new feature, Apple has released a new video series to its YouTube channel to show off not only the finished product of a "Slofie", but the sacrifice involved to achieve it.

The first video is the one we are already familiar with, as it is the one that Apple used to announce "Slofies" at its September event. The video shows a girl posing for a slow-motion glamour shot that only gets ruined by her little brother.

The second video shows how even making a funny face, while goofy when witnessed from the outside, can look more epic in slow motion.

The third video shows a group of friends who at first appear to be partying in a club, but when the video zooms out it reveals they are dancing inside an ice room at a convenience store.

The last video highlights the iPhone 11's waterproofing as a guy who uses it to take a "Slofie" in the rain. However, it's not the rain - it's actually a sprinkler in his front yard.

The whole series is hilarious and shows that even Apple is embracing the absurdity that the "Slofie" is. It almost serves as a warning to anyone who wants to achieve the "Slofie" that you will most likely look like a goofball in order to make it happen.

What you need to know

• DxOMark tested iPhone 11's audio prowess.
• It was tested against three Android phones.
• But this is DxOMark, so pinch of salt required.

DxOMark has been testing smartphone cameras for a while, creating its arbitrary scoring as it goes. Now it's testing for audio quality, with iPhone 11 pitted against the Samsung Galaxy S10+, The Honor 20 Pro, and OnePlus 7 Pro.

The test itself was conducted during a jazz show in Paris, France. All four phones were used to record audio with a video produced to help us better visualize what we're listening to. Each phone's recording can be heard twice. Take a listen and see what you think. You'd probably be best using headphones, too.

There's further explanation of the test and how it was done on the DxOMark website (via Cult of Mac), for those interested.

Ultimately, it's difficult to know what to make of this test and its results. DxOMark has long been suspected of odd practices in its camera tests. Whether that's the case in its audio tests isn't clear at this point, but I'll let you make your own minds up. Let me know how you feel about this test in the comments below.

https://twitter.com/reneritchie/status/1087837704937750533

I've been using the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max day in, day out, since just after Apple introduced them roughly three months ago this week.

In that time, I've shot the hell out of them, including a ton of b-roll for this channel. I've crushed the batteries through multiple international trips and Pokemon Go events. I've dropped them in my pockets with keys and other phones and just plain dropped them. Including into the river.

And here's how they've held up.

iPhone 11 long-term review: Durability

Apple announced the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro as having the toughest glass ever on a smartphone. And… I've kind of proven that both true and false at the same time.

I think, for the last three years, Apple has been working on toughness as in resistance to breaking. Because I've dropped each and every one of them since then and only broken and iPhone 8 Plus when I slipped on the ice and landed on, People's elbow style, it when it was in my pocket.

Other than that, they've held up brilliantly well. Except for the scratching.

Now, I need to concede up front that I don't use phones like normal people. Especially when I'm reviewing them. Even more especially when I'm reviewing multiple of them at the same time.

I'm not Jerry Rig Anything-ing them. But I am stacking them on concrete and rocks for product shots. I'd quickly dumping them in my pockets with keys and other phones at I move between shots and tests — and nothing, in my experience, scratches a phone's screen like another phone's camera housing.

But, even still, it just feels like iPhones are scratching just a little bit faster and more frequently than they used to, for me at least.

My friends who bought iPhones 11s and 11 Pros at launch and use them far more normally than I do don't have any scratches. So, factor that in as you will and maybe get a screen protector if you're not super gentle either and worry about it.

Also, while the scratches annoy the hell out of me in theory, when the screen is lit up, I don't even notice them.

Still, I hope Apple is working on the chemistry and/or materials to make them as scratch resistant and they've been drop resistant.

iPhone 11 long-term review: Cameras

Originally, I found the iPhone 11 camera bump to be all shades of fugly. Same with the Pixel 4s. Like people were running around slapping emoji surprise faces on all the phones.

The iPhone 11 Pro I liked slightly more just because it looked like an old timy wimy three lens camera. Especially in Leica safari green. I mean, new midnight green. Now, I'm kinda just ok with all of them.

Apple gets blasted so always for putting form over function but whenever they put function over form, like with these giant camera bumps or the Smart Battery hump, they get blasted even more.

Credit it to them, though. They leaned into these camera bumps. Hard. Like, damn near horizontal — With the bump and the lenses front and center in ads and on billboards. And, I can see why. The cameras work fantastically well. So, more like this please.

I did an entire, deep-dive camera review a couple months ago.

And a full comparison to the Pixel 4.

What I'd love to see next is usable depth effect on video next. Samsung's already playing around with it, but it's kinda goofy. Here's hoping Apple… or Google… can figure out how to nail it.

I'd also love it if Apple would fix whatever it is that's making it take so long for photos to show up in the Photos app. Thumbnails, like Quick Actions, are instant. So they're there. They just don't appear in the gallery without an extended wait or force quit.

Also, iCloud seems to have forgotten that near line storage means recent and frequently accessed photos should stay local as in never leave the device but, I can take a shot and go to view and share it, and even though I literally just took it I suddenly have to wait for it to download. Which is beyond baffling and just gums up what's otherwise still the fastest end-to-end photo-taking process in the business.

I know some people want manual control over Smart HDR, which is the bright light mode, Deep Fusion, which is the mid-light mode, and Night Mode, which handles low-light, but I actually like that they're abstracted away. Discreet modes feels like a stop-gap and maybe some marketing and in a year or two, I think they'll go away and the camera will just use all those computational techniques as part of a continuum to deliver the best photo possible in any given situation.

So, especially because the live preview is so damn good, I'd rather just use it as a camera and have it do all the heavy lifting for me.

I do wish I could take longer astrophotography exposures though. Both the iPhone 11 and the Pixel 4 have introduced the feature and I'd love to be able to compare them at longer than 30-second shots.

Otherwise, with everything from the new ultra-wide-angle to QuickVideo, shooting with an iPhone 11 is just plain fun.

iPhone 11 long-term review: Design

I still prefer last year's more saturated iPhone XR colors to this year's iPhone 11 pastels. That's obviously subjective personal taste, and maybe me just being out of touch with what baby Yoda's are wearing these days.

The iPhone 11 Pro colors and matte, almost metallic texture remains aces for me though, especially the new midnight green and gold. But, yeah, I'd still love a product RED Pro.

The LCD on the iPhone 11 is so well-calibrated, even though it's lower resolution, in everyday apps it can still be hard to tell it apart from the OLED iPhone 11 Pro, which is just about the best compliment I can give Apple's display team.

HDR video still sets the iPhone 11 Pro apart though, especially now that Disney+ and Apple TV+ are serving it up on a high-bit-rate platter.

I prefer watching it on my Apple TV, of course, but when I'm away from my LG OLED, I'm amazed at how well the iPhone 11 Pro puts that exact same experience, including the new spatial audio and Dolby Atmos, right in my hands. And ears. And eyeballs.

The new peak and sustained brightness levels, especially after putting up with the lack of brightness on the Pixel 4, has also been phenomenal. Not just for HDR but for just being out and about on sunny days.

I do miss the 90hz on the Pixel 4, even though the Pixel 4 dumps you in and out of it so always. Like everyone else on the internet, I'd love to see Apple bring ProMotion to the iPhone, but only if they can do it as well and as consistently as they do it on the iPad.

I also miss the Pixel 4's ability to do facial recognition even in Landscape mode, like when I'm watching videos or shooting photos and I accidentally lock the screen, because someone in ID thought it would be funny to keep the power button opposite the volume slash shutter button. And then I have to re-unlock, but first rotate the iPhone back to portrait mode to do it, like an animal.

Same with the old landscape mode home screen from the old Plus-sized iPhones. Just give it to me everywhere. Let landscape be landscape.

Also, the Pixel 4 setting that lets you blast through the Lock screen, right into the phone. It has its downsides in terms of missing Lock screen notifications and unintentional unlocks, but I still loved having the option and I'd love it if the iPhone had it as well.

I've gotten used to Haptic Touch, which is the same as the iPhone XR but replaces 3D Touch on the iPhone 11 Pro. I like how it finally makes iPhone and iPad experience consistent. I do miss the ability to switch between cursor movement and text selection that 3D Touch offered on the virtual trackpad but Haptic Touch still does not.

That, combined with how buggy and just plain bizarre iOS 13 text selection can be at times has just made it more frustrating than it was. I hope Apple zero's out those regressions and soon.

I still really dig the overall design. Sure, it's been the same since the 2017 iPhone X and largely similar since the 2014 iPhone 6. But I don't need different just for the sake of different. That's always a dice roll away from worse. I just need better. Always better.

And, from materials to size to battery capacity to comfort, the iPhones 11 are the better best yet.

iPhone 11 long-term review: Performance

The A13 Bionic system-on-a-chip, or SoC, is so fast that I don't think I've been able to really peg it, even three months later. In years past, with chipsets past, I've done that relatively quickly and easily with computational photography or augmented reality — AR. But deep fusion's half-a-second to resolve is about the closest I've come with the iPhones 11.

Battery life has also been phenomenal. I can still kill it in 6 or so hours of constant Pokemon Go, or constant use while traveling and roaming. But that's quite a bit longer than any previous phone has lasted me.

They had Pokemon Go Safari Zone in Montreal this year, which isn't just constant screen-on at full brightness, GPS, data, and processor firing, but in highly congested, super hot and humid conditions where those radios and chips are just screaming.

From 100% to 20%, the 11, 11 Pro, and XS Max lasted almost 4 hours and the 11 Pro Max just over 4 hours. The XR lasted just over 3:30 and the XS, barely 3:30.

More recently, just doing a regular community day event, the iPhone 11 and 11 Pro lasted 5:30, and the Max still had battery to spare. The Pixel 4, by contrast, didn't even make it to 4 hours.

On far less strenuous days, I go to bed and, never mind not being in the red, I'm barely under 50%. Many days I can go almost two days between charges, especially on the 11 Pro Max.

For years now, in these reviews, I've been asking Apple to address the more power-hungry things people now do regularly if not constantly with their phones. Social media, emphasis on posting and watching so much media, streaming video, location-based gaming, photo filters, all of it.

With the XR, Apple made huge progress. But it was an outlier. Now, with the 11, they're fully there. With every model.

As much as Apple believes lightness is tied to user experience because no one wants to game or read or watch or whatever for hours on end with a brick they can't keep holding up, there has to be a balance. And the iPhones 11 are it.

Now, we've got 5G and even more AR coming over the next couple of years. So please, at the very least, hold this new line.

iPhone 11 long-term review: Conclusion

iOS 13 has been all shades of buggy, as evidenced by how many updates Apple has had to push out for it. And, I don't know what Siri has been drinking lately but if anything it's been considerably loopier for me just when it desperately needs to get much more consistent and considerate.

But, when it comes to the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro hardware, there's just not that much left for me to complain about. Aside from still wanting higher throughput USB-C on the Pro versions.

Even that may be a theoretical want at this point, given how fast and solid the new U1 ultra-wide-band enabled AirDrop has been. Still, having the best possible hardline as well would be even better. And, since the iPhone still doesn't surface PCI express, it still can't do Thunderbolt 3 anyway.

Reverse inductive charging would be great, but skipping early, still virtually non-existent millimeter-wave 5G and the early modems for it was still absolutely the right call. You can tell by the lack of similarly breathless complaints about it not being on the Pixel 4 this year either.

But, real talk. As everyone who's been watching the channel for a while knows, months ago, before the iPhone 11 was even announced, when so many people in tech were looking at spoilers and saying the iPhone 11 was going to a boring and iterative and a must-skip, right here, right in these videos, I was talking about how everything from the new camera system to the U1 chip was really solid and really cool, and was going to make the iPhone 11 really can't miss.

And, while I certainly don't hate or hesitate to say I told you so, I think almost all the other reviews by all the other reviewers since, and just everyone who has one using it for the last few months, really bears that out.

Especially now that Apple has cleaned up the branding and set the iPhone 11 as the new baseline, starting at $699, and giving almost everyone almost everything they need for that price, and even more with a jump to 128 GB for an extra $50 bucks. Less if you have a trade in, or you sell your old phone yourself first.

They're terrific phones, terrific cameras, and their silicon is so far ahead you'll have years of headroom for updates and apps. And, given the more recent spoilers, if you like this design or need an LCD display or want a smaller phone with three cameras, the iPhone 11 may well be the upgrade to get.

Either way, my overall advice remains unchanged: Always wait until you really need a new phone, then buy the best phone you can afford, and enjoy the hell out of it, because there'll always be something new and many things next.

And if, three months later, that's the iPhone 11 or Pro, then you'll really enjoy.