Re:The iPhone 11 Camera, Part 1: A Completely New Camera
by gnicholas on Wednesday October 30, 2019 @01:49AM
(#21394985)
I was on a 7+ since they came out, and it was the first iPhone I held onto for 3 years. I love my 11 Pro. I never wanted to get a phone as big as the Plus, but I wanted the bokeh since I take a lot of photos of my kids. I'm glad to have a non-plus-size phone. I didn't get the X or XS because I was holding out hope for a notchless phone. This year I moved up because it seemed like the total package justified the move.
The 11 Pro's camera is so much better. The edge detection in Portrait Mode is better on the 11 Pro (I think it's the hardware, not just iOS 13). Night Mode is unbelievable. Video has improved also (I think this was mostly due to XS upgrades, but there are other 11 Pro benefits that I mostly won't use, like simultaneously capturing video from multiple cameras). I haven't done the .2 update yet, but the deep fusion stuff is pretty cool from what I'm seeing others post online.
I think folks like Brian X. Chen (NYT), who say this is an optional upgrade if your iPhone is less than 5 years old have it wrong. I can definitely see skipping this if you're on an XS or X. But 8 or older? It's a very noticeable upgrade. And if you're not on a Plus (i.e., capable of Portrait Mode), it's a huge upgrade if you use your camera much. And that's before getting to all the other features like wireless charging and the UWB chip for enhanced tracking. Oh, and the battery is noticeably better than my 7+, which had great battery life (and was warranty-swapped by Apple a year or two ago, so the battery was not a full 3 years old when I upgraded to the 11 Pro). The 11 Pro is the first iPhone I've had that I do not need to charge overnight. I just charge it periodically during the day, once every 36-48 hrs.
The 11 Pro's camera is so much better. The edge detection in Portrait Mode is better on the 11 Pro (I think it's the hardware, not just iOS 13). Night Mode is unbelievable. Video has improved also (I think this was mostly due to XS upgrades, but there are other 11 Pro benefits that I mostly won't use, like simultaneously capturing video from multiple cameras). I haven't done the .2 update yet, but the deep fusion stuff is pretty cool from what I'm seeing others post online.
I think folks like Brian X. Chen (NYT), who say this is an optional upgrade if your iPhone is less than 5 years old have it wrong. I can definitely see skipping this if you're on an XS or X. But 8 or older? It's a very noticeable upgrade. And if you're not on a Plus (i.e., capable of Portrait Mode), it's a huge upgrade if you use your camera much. And that's before getting to all the other features like wireless charging and the UWB chip for enhanced tracking. Oh, and the battery is noticeably better than my 7+, which had great battery life (and was warranty-swapped by Apple a year or two ago, so the battery was not a full 3 years old when I upgraded to the 11 Pro). The 11 Pro is the first iPhone I've had that I do not need to charge overnight. I just charge it periodically during the day, once every 36-48 hrs.