Bring on the real phones: Meet Apple’s iPhone 11 Pro handsets

The mad dash toward the finish line of Apple’s September presentation (it wasn’t just us, right? They were in one heck of a hurry) hit some interesting stops along the way. But the best was saved for (almost) last — the iPhone 11 Pros. Yeah, both of them.

The iPhone 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max are made from surgical-grade stainless steel, while the rear panels are constructed from a single piece of glass. Glass that’s the toughest seen in a smartphone, Apple says. There are a lot of these lofty claims this year. New colour options are on the table, including Midnight Green, Silver, Gold, and Space Grey. Let’s take a closer look.

Two for one

There are two iPhone 11 Pro models, mostly set apart by display size. The iPhone 11 Pro will feature a 5.8in display while the clumsily-named iPhone 11 Pro Max has a 6.5in screen in place. Both make use of the same screen tech seen in the company’s Mac Pro display. There’s enough of a difference here for Apple to rename its screen tech for these handsets — meet the first Super Retina XDR smartphones. Both handsets pack Apple’s new OLED display. They should look gorgeous in practice — Netflix addicts should be well served. The notch is a little chunky but hey, you can’t have everything.

Brain-case

Apple’s A13 Bionic processor, the same seen in the stock iPhone 11, has pride of place here. Obviously, then, all the same performance upgrades apply. Only just a little less, cos there’s a bunch of higher-end hardware to power here. The stock iPhone 11 might just be a shade faster at times. Even so, the Pro phones are going to be the ones to beat. Apple had a whole lot of tech on show, which we will dive deeper into at a later stage. There’s a whole mess of new efficiency built into the company’s newest processor, aside from the machine learning tech. The low-power changes will be ‘borrowed’ and reverse-engineered in short order, we reckon.

There’s a battery performance upgrade, thanks to the low-power fiddling. The iPhone 11 Pro should squeeze out four extra hours, the iPhone 11 Pro Max should manage an extra five. Not bad. Apple’s including a new 18W adaptor in the box, for faster charging. Like you’re going to need it.

Enhance… enhance… enhance… 

New camera tech? Sure, there’s new camera tech. Apple’s gone for the triple with its newest oversize phones. Both the iPhone 11 Pro and the 11 Pro Max have a triple camera arrangement. There are three 12MP sensors — an f/1.8, a wider f/2,0 and the same f/2.4 ultrawide seen in the iPhone 11. There’s a new interface for users to look forward to, a whole lot of camera zoom trickery that Samsung flagship users will find just a little familiar, and a whole mess of pro-grade editing functions for really advanced users. Night Mode from the iPhone 11 is sticking around, as is the video performance and the assorted AI trickery. We really can’t explain how much we want to test Apple’s claims this year. Someone’s should be worried and it’s either Apple or… everyone else.

In case you’re interested…

Apple’s got a new range of cases headed to market for the redesigned handsets. All three will have many options at launch, including clear cases so everyone can see your impeccable colour-matching. In real news, the iPhone 11 Pro starts at $999 (R14,700) while the Pro Max will hit your wallet up for $1,099 (R16,125). We’re still not sure about storage options and South African pricing and availability are still a mystery for now. If you’re an American or similar, you can pre-order your shiny new iPhone from Friday, 13 September. Handsets will ship from 20 September. As usual, the moment we get local info, so will you.