The iPhone 11 Pro Max: An Android User's Take On Apple's Latest

Seeing the leaks & rumors building up to the 2019 iPhone, it was definitely getting joked on in regards to its design. And then a few weeks ago, it was officially unveiled and it didn’t look that bad. And now that I got one, it looks better in person. Now its been a while since I’ve owned an iPhone was about 6 years ago w/ the 5S.

So I’ve been in Android land ever since and was interested in coming back to into the fold. When the pre-orders went live, I grabbed a 64GB unlocked iPhone 11 Pro Max in that new Midnight Green color. So instead of having 2 Android phones, I’m back to 1 Android and 1 iPhone. So our review will be done in the perspective of an Android user’s thoughts on the new iPhone 11 Pro Max. So let’s get started.

This is a heavy phone and a hefty iPhone. Coming from the Pixel 3XL, the 11 Pro Max makes my Pixel feels like a dummy phone in a retailer. This is due to Apple swapping out the aluminum frame to go for the more stainless steel route. The outer shell is comprised of a single sheet of glass w/ a matte finish on the rear. Not a fingerprint magnet but feels good to grip in hand. Apple says its the strongest glass on a phone – but its still glass so I would case up.

Apple’s marketing calls it an Super Retina XDR display on an OLED panel. And the large 6.5inch HDR display is pretty good that’s ideal for the new Dark Mode. Thanks to Apple adding True Tone feature to this panel to better handle color tones + white balance. The brightness on this thing gets this up to 1,200 nits w/ a 2 million to 1 aspect ratio. Making this ideal if you watch a lot of YouTube, Netflix, or other media on your iPhone. Coming from a QHD display to an almost QHD panel is fine. Not much of an adjustment save for not being able to watch YouTube videos above 1080p resolution.

I love the dual stereo speakers on the 11 Pro Max. I didn’t expect them to be this good. They’re as good as smartphone speakers could be. Not bass or treble heavy but definitely rich quality. They offer something called spatial audio that does a good job of replicating that 3D surround sound effect. It supports Dolby 5.1 and 7.1 surround sound as well as Dolby Vision + Dolby Atmos. Coming from a Pixel, I’m glad Apple got on the wave of dual stereo speakers and did a good job as well.

6.5inch OLED Super Retina XDR display w/ 2688 x 1242 resolution
Apple A13 Bionic CPU
4GB of RAM + 64GB of storage
A triple camera setup on the rear w/ an f/1.8 12MP 26mm main sensor, f/2.0 12MP 52mm telephoto sensor capable of 2x optical zoom, and an f/2.4 12MP 13mm ultra-wide sensor.
f/2.2 12MP 24mm TrueDepth front-facing sensor
IP68 dust + water-resistant body
iOS 13.1.2
Face ID
3969 mAh battery w/ fast wired charging + wireless charging

Coming from a Qualcomm chip to a proprietary Apple chip, the performance on my iPhone 11 Pro Max. Apple equipped this w/ their A13 Bionic CPU coupled along w/ 4GB of RAM + I opted for the 64GB base storage model. While I’m used to seeing a more powerful internals in an Android flagship, Apple don’t need the big numbers as they’re iPhones perform super-fast. It hits high on the benchmarks but is made to keep performing fast over the course of the phone’s life.

Almost 2 days of battery life on an iPhone.

You got a big phone and big battery inside w/ the 11 Pro Max. Sitting in at close to 4000 mAh w/ an L-shaped battery inside, this might be the biggest battery on an iPhone. Using it on the heavy side, I got around a day and a half (no BS) of juice. While on the light-to-moderate usage, I got about a day and a half of juice. I am definitely happy that Apple added the 18W fast charger this go round. A 30-minute charge w/ this will get you 50% off juice while wireless charging remains at 10W.

Apple has never been a slouch on the camera side of things but this year, they made sure to beef up the areas they were lacking in as well. The 11 Pro Max has a triple rear-facing camera system consisting of an f/1.8 12MP main sensor, f/2.0 12MP telephoto sensor, and an f/2.4 12MP ultra-wide sensor. And on the other side, you got an f/2.2 12MP selfie sensor. All cameras on-board utilizes Apple’s improved Smart HDR processing and capable of up to 4K video @60fps.

Apple is the Canon of smartphone cameras in regards to their amazing color science and color accuracy.

You get sharp images w/ great amount of detail when using the main shooter. From food to flowers to people and so on and so forth; you’re good to just point and shoot. Switching between the 3 lenses are simple and swap out rather quickly. The same applies to the ultra-wide as well give or take a bit of noise. When using the telephoto lens, you will lose details and sharpness – especially based on the environment’s lighting. Throughout my time w/ it, I used the main & ultra-wide-angle lens about 99% of the time. Low-light photos have improved but not quite up to Pixel levels. But what has caught up is on the night side of things. Apple’s Night Mode is pretty good. It’s actually gets pretty close to Google’s NightSight. It brightens up the overall image for details to be better seen. You will get a little bit of noise present in some shots. But for the most part definitely a welcome addition to their shooters.

Click on photo for full resolution

The stabilization is close to gimbal level while still offering a crisp quality. I’m following my son as he’s running or jumping around this bridge (don’t worry, he was safe). I’m walking behind him and its crazy smooth. I would say this is the impromptu vlogging camera. This also carries over to the front side of things w/ the selfie camera. You still got 4K@60fps but adds 1080p slow-motion up to 120fps. You got the new 3 camera setup on the rear now. You can shoot w/ all 3 of the rear shooters and switch between lenses but you will drop down a bit to 4K@30fps but still great. Apple has always been amazing on the video side of things and this time around, they got the crown until someone else comes along.

Apple adds some much-needed features to their iPhone software. Enter iOS 13: the 2019 vision for iOS. Of course at the time of writing this, they’ve updated it twice already as its now up to iOS 13.1.2 to handle a bunch of bug fixes.

You got the joy of Dark Mode, system-wide, which looks great on this massive OLED panel. Face ID is still here and works well. Its supposed to be faster than last year’s model but I don;t have an XS to compare it to. The Reminders app has been redesigned to be even more useful. The Photos app is redesigned and well-done as well. Along w/ that, you got a new built-in editor for both photos & videos w/o having to go to iMovie or Photoshop

You also got more Memojis to use, QuickType to swipe type on the keyboard, easier ways to edit text (cut/copy/paste/etc.), new Sign-In w/ Apple, a 3D Street View in Apple Maps, more things to do w/ Siri, voice control, overall faster performance, new security features, and brings a lot more to the table for iPhones. And despite ditching 3D Touch, all of these are all welcoming additions to the iOS.

Looks like I picked a good year to come back to the iPhone. Hopefully I don't regret it next year.

I’m glad to see Apple has finally caught up to Android in numbers of cameras and abilities (mostly) and all-day battery life. The latest version of iOS has vastly improved since I last used it. However, the Notification Center is still a bit of a mess in comparison to how Android handles notifications.

I don’t think the exact names of devices are super important. I say that as the iPhone 11 Pro Max is a terrible name but a great smartphone. I’m happy to be back.